Speaker 1: Ah beaute force. If it doesn't work, you're just not
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Speaker 1: Sign up now. And on this show we have Jose Toblada,
Speaker 1: a thirteen year veteran of the U. S. Marine Corps
Speaker 1: and a Force Reconnaissance Marine. The guy's background is pretty insane,
Speaker 1: being a scout sniper, a whole lot of other stuff
Speaker 1: and I'm I'm excited to talk to him, but before
Speaker 1: we do, it's so funny. Man C. J. Ramone is
Speaker 1: like the number one fan of this show, and uh
Speaker 1: like when when we did the Q and A show,
Speaker 1: he said a bunch of questions, and then we had
Speaker 1: him on and then he's still sending questions. But I
Speaker 1: thought this was a good one because it seems like
Speaker 1: everybody is very interested in this Eddie Gallagher um case.
Speaker 1: Every time it's it's discussed on this show, we get
Speaker 1: a lot of feedback, sometimes negative, sometimes positive, but it
Speaker 1: definitely evokes a reaction from people. Um. So he actually
Speaker 1: messaged me this, He wrote, Ian, I can't direct message Jack,
Speaker 1: but I wanted to ask the both of you your
Speaker 1: opinions on the Eddie Gallagher case. I'm not arguing for
Speaker 1: his innocence. I haven't seen all the information on it,
Speaker 1: but what's expected of our Special Operations teams and the
Speaker 1: r o s they operate by. I believe it puts
Speaker 1: them under unreasonable darrests and creates an environment in which
Speaker 1: the rules of engagement and even human decency are guaranteed
Speaker 1: to be compromised. I understand that the law is the
Speaker 1: law and the rules are the rules, but they are
Speaker 1: extreme mitigating circumstances in cases like these. How much can
Speaker 1: we expect from a small group of people tasked with
Speaker 1: the safety of the free world. Being considered a professional
Speaker 1: does not exempt them from the same mental breakdowns that
Speaker 1: are common to all human beings exposed to UH and
Speaker 1: involved in situations of extreme violence. I don't believe operators
Speaker 1: can be judged in the same way the average citizen is.
Speaker 1: No one should be given a pass, but when judging
Speaker 1: the men and women who do the jobs, only the
Speaker 1: elite can do what they've seen and done before must
Speaker 1: be taken into consideration, also in fairness to them. So UM,
Speaker 1: there's a lot to unpack there. I actually disagree quite profoundly.
Speaker 1: I don't think that special operators should be judged in
Speaker 1: any different way. I don't think that just because you
Speaker 1: go through selection that like you have a license to kill,
Speaker 1: or you know, like I can go out and just
Speaker 1: like herb stomps some old lady and like, that's okay
Speaker 1: because I went through some selection course. It's not. Um.
Speaker 1: If anything, our standards should be higher. Uh. And you know,
Speaker 1: I've been asked about this, and I've weighed in on it,
Speaker 1: and I've tried to be um fair about it because
Speaker 1: I don't have the facts of the case and a
Speaker 1: lot of people are out there playing barracks lawyer right
Speaker 1: now thinking they know what they're talking about, making these
Speaker 1: like very um strong proclamations um, either of innocence or
Speaker 1: guilt um, neither of which you know, I don't think
Speaker 1: any of us unless you're somehow involved in the court
Speaker 1: case or a direct witness. I mean you you just
Speaker 1: don't have that information. Um. What that the allegation is
Speaker 1: is that Eddie Gallagher murdered a prisoner who has brought
Speaker 1: into their camp with a knife. Um. If I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: you said a teenager, right yeah. Um, so there is
Speaker 1: we that that is not part of our training to
Speaker 1: execute prisoners. Uh, that is clearly a war crime. Um, there,
Speaker 1: there is there. I don't know. I don't understand what
Speaker 1: the mitigating circumstance would be Like Is it okay because
Speaker 1: he's a seal? Is it okay because you know, oh
Speaker 1: the horrors are soldiers face? That then that makes it okay?
Speaker 1: I mean I I don't really understand, Um, some of
Speaker 1: the emotional appeals that get made in the circumstance. Now
Speaker 1: I understand things, Um, you know what we would say
Speaker 1: in combat, like shit happens, like you know, maybe a
Speaker 1: Navy seal kicks in the door goes into a room,
Speaker 1: you think there's a terrorist in there, and you open
Speaker 1: fire on somebody thinking they have a gun and it
Speaker 1: turns out it's a fucking kid. I mean, ship like
Speaker 1: that happens and it's horrible, but of course we understand
Speaker 1: how that could happen, and the law does account for that.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not like, Holy Ship, We're throwing you
Speaker 1: in the slammer for murder. I mean, that's not how
Speaker 1: it works. Um. So. I mean, I think there are
Speaker 1: nuances in in the military justice system ums as well
Speaker 1: as our civilian legal system. But I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: think that it's just like you know, you wear a
Speaker 1: Special Forces tab or you wear a tan beret, and
Speaker 1: that just means it's okay. Like we like, it's okay
Speaker 1: to just murder people, and we're okay with that as
Speaker 1: a society. You know. Um, I disagree with that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of different opinion on this, and
Speaker 1: I look forward to hearing more because, as you said,
Speaker 1: we don't we don't know all the facts yet. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I saw somebody commenting on one of the articles that
Speaker 1: um one of our writers wrote about the case, and
Speaker 1: he's like, you train lines to do lion ship. What
Speaker 1: do you expect? It's like, no, dude, Actually, we do
Speaker 1: not train our soldiers to execute prisoners. That does not happen.
Speaker 1: We trained them to kill and fight the enemy in combat. Uh,
Speaker 1: there is nowhere that you know we trained soldiers to
Speaker 1: execute people or or fucking cut people's throats with knives.
Speaker 1: And maybe and see, there's also two separate arguments happening,
Speaker 1: because there's there's um. The people are simultaneously claiming he's innocent,
Speaker 1: it never happened, but they're also claiming, yeah, it did happen,
Speaker 1: but it's okay. So it's like you will make up
Speaker 1: your mind, dear, which is it? Um? But I mean,
Speaker 1: we'll see what happens with the case. I mean, I
Speaker 1: hope all of the facts come out, you know, and
Speaker 1: maybe this maybe it did not happen. Maybe it didn't
Speaker 1: happen the way it's been alleged, and you know, that
Speaker 1: would actually be a big um, you know, relief for me, um,
Speaker 1: you know, and I'm obviously for his family, for Eddie
Speaker 1: Gallagher's family. But I don't want to believe that our
Speaker 1: soldiers do this kind of ship. I don't want them
Speaker 1: to do this kind of stuff. So I mean if
Speaker 1: if the allegations are false, I mean I'd be very
Speaker 1: very happy to hear that. Yeah, well, we have um
Speaker 1: jose To Bladha standing by before we get to him,
Speaker 1: of course, want to let you guys know about what
Speaker 1: we have going on here at Hurricane Group. As always,
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Speaker 1: archives of shows and as always, keep up with us
Speaker 1: at softwarep Radio. With that, let's get over to Marine
Speaker 1: recon veteran Jose to Ablada. So joining us for the
Speaker 1: first time on the podcast is Jose pep to Blata,
Speaker 1: thirteen year veteran of the U. S. Marine Corps as
Speaker 1: a force reconnaissance marine, serving as both a team leader
Speaker 1: and platoon sergeant. Retired from active duty service for medical
Speaker 1: reasons in two thousand five and is now the Assistant
Speaker 1: Chief of Staff for Operations and International Engagement with the
Speaker 1: Marine Corps Forces Pacific, as well as a board member
Speaker 1: with the Marine Reconnaissance Foundation. And then I mean that's
Speaker 1: really the tip of the iceberg, because looking through your bio,
Speaker 1: you've served as a marine scout sniper, You've done a
Speaker 1: whole lot of things, and we're excited to get into
Speaker 1: your background. And uh, thanks for coming on. Hey, good
Speaker 1: morning guys, and thank you very much for having me
Speaker 1: and giving me the opportunity to represent the Marine recon
Speaker 1: Foundation today. Yeah, thank you. Uh, you know, I know
Speaker 1: the Foundation does some really important work. Um, but you know,
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you first question kind of the
Speaker 1: thing I'd like to ask everybody when they come on.
Speaker 1: Here's why did in your case, why did you join
Speaker 1: the Marine Corps? How? How and why did you hear
Speaker 1: that call? Well, so, honestly, at a very young age.
Speaker 1: You know, my family had a level of service. My
Speaker 1: father was a United States Marine and he was kind
Speaker 1: of the what I would look at as the American dream.
Speaker 1: He didn't have a high school education. In fact, back
Speaker 1: in those days, you know, if you got into trouble,
Speaker 1: which you did, um, you know, you were either offered
Speaker 1: a stint in the lock up or joined the Marine Corps.
Speaker 1: And and my my father made a wise joyce joined
Speaker 1: the Marine Corps. Uh and came out of the Marine
Speaker 1: Corps after eight years of service. UH. And from there
Speaker 1: because of what he learned, UH, he gained from Marine
Speaker 1: Corps service and service to our country, an incredible story.
Speaker 1: And he came back here to Hawaii UH and he
Speaker 1: UH and my mother started a very large business that
Speaker 1: was instrumental in the construction of most of the large
Speaker 1: buildings in downtown Hallelulu. So again, this is a person
Speaker 1: that did not have a full education. His education was
Speaker 1: the Marine Corps. And I gave him the tools, you know,
Speaker 1: to become a very successful businessman here in the state
Speaker 1: of Hawaii. UM. Since that time. You know, my father
Speaker 1: had kind of told me when I was younger, you're
Speaker 1: gonna you're gonna join the Marine Corps, You're gonna go
Speaker 1: to college. Uh, and then maybe you'll come and work
Speaker 1: for the family business. So that was kind of baseline
Speaker 1: my dad with my mom. Uh. You know, I'm a
Speaker 1: first generation American. My mother is actually a Spanish citizen,
Speaker 1: and she came here on a green card, uh and
Speaker 1: married my father in the 's maybe the mid sixties,
Speaker 1: early seventies. And the takeaway I got from my mom
Speaker 1: really never actually becoming an American citizen. I was always
Speaker 1: struck at how patriotic she was. And she used to
Speaker 1: tell me and and our family. You know, I came
Speaker 1: from Spain during the Franco Civil War, basically escaped from
Speaker 1: that and came to the United States of America as
Speaker 1: a teenager. Uh you know. Um from that became a
Speaker 1: very successful businesswoman with my dad, as I described earlier.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know my mom, she she's she passed
Speaker 1: away three years ago. But she was always inspiration to
Speaker 1: me because you know, we would be like at a
Speaker 1: Blue Angel's airshow, that's just an example, and we're watching
Speaker 1: the jets. I would see my mom crying, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, as a young kid and understand why right,
Speaker 1: And you know, as I became older, I acutely realized
Speaker 1: how lucky that I and we are to be American
Speaker 1: citizens and live in the greatest nation on earth. So
Speaker 1: I think those two kind of things drew me initially
Speaker 1: into I want to serve, I want to do something. Um.
Speaker 1: I was an avid reader when I was a young teenager. UM,
Speaker 1: so I used to read about the Marine Corps and uh.
Speaker 1: And then for reconnaissance instrument enough kim upon an article
Speaker 1: in the local newspaper at that time, Alpha Company through
Speaker 1: Reconnaissance Betime was here on a walloon, Hawaii. And the
Speaker 1: article is about a local boy from here from Kailo,
Speaker 1: my hometown, UM, who was an eagle scout. I knew
Speaker 1: him and his brother who was a reconstance marine and
Speaker 1: kind of the things that they did. And now I
Speaker 1: was like, whoa wait a second, what is this? You know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be a marine, but what what is this
Speaker 1: all about? Uh? And there are some other formulive things. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Uh, there's a helicopter crash out here in
Speaker 1: Kailua off of Lonikai. H You know, with our marines
Speaker 1: perished and the both the reconnaissance Marines as well as
Speaker 1: the sealed attachment. We're out at the beach every day
Speaker 1: with their I think back there was probably IBS boats
Speaker 1: not for seventy azoliacs, and they would go out, you know,
Speaker 1: motor out there and put divers in the water to
Speaker 1: try to recover body. And I used to ride my
Speaker 1: bike down there every day and watch watch those guys
Speaker 1: go out and do that. There are other things since then,
Speaker 1: but those are kind of formative things that that led
Speaker 1: me to say, you know, probably when I was eleven
Speaker 1: years old, that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna join
Speaker 1: the Marine Corps and i want to become a reconnaissance marine.
Speaker 1: That's really cool to hear, you know, because it reminds me,
Speaker 1: if you know, my own childhood as well, and wanting
Speaker 1: to you know, go into the army in my case.
Speaker 1: But it's really cool to hear, you know, hear your
Speaker 1: story and you know, people who realize at a very
Speaker 1: young age what they want to be and then they
Speaker 1: go and do it. Yeah, follow through is an important
Speaker 1: component in that, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, especially you know,
Speaker 1: to be a reconnaissance marine or anything, you know, a
Speaker 1: ranger or a Green Beret or a seal or whatever.
Speaker 1: I mean, the commitment has to be there. It's just
Speaker 1: not going to happen. Um. So then you entered into
Speaker 1: the Marine Corps, and I take it you went into
Speaker 1: Marine Infantry before going recon Yeah. So I was kind
Speaker 1: of lucky when or maybe unlucky sinse I look at
Speaker 1: it is there was an ability at at the time
Speaker 1: that I came to the Marine Corps to kind of
Speaker 1: there wasn't a really a formalized pipeline, but there was
Speaker 1: a movement to kind of get young marines uh, you know,
Speaker 1: were quality. Uh, you know through the process that back
Speaker 1: then it would call rip in doc rip and then
Speaker 1: you would go through the reconstance course at at Coronado.
Speaker 1: At the time, the entirety of it was there, uh,
Speaker 1: and then you would go straight to your insert schools
Speaker 1: uh you know, jump dives here, and then from there
Speaker 1: you would you know, build off of that, you know, sniper, breacher, this,
Speaker 1: that the other. So I was pretty lucky in the
Speaker 1: sense that although I did go through training school, that
Speaker 1: I almost immediately got into the pipeline. And so, you know,
Speaker 1: back then it was kind of rarity. But as a
Speaker 1: lance corporal, I was what we refer to in the
Speaker 1: in the in the in the force recon community as
Speaker 1: as a as dual cool as as a lance corporal.
Speaker 1: So as an E three, I was I was already
Speaker 1: you know, kind of through the pipeline sots dual cool
Speaker 1: that airborne and dive qualified. Right, Yeah, that is correct, yes, yea.
Speaker 1: So back in the day, you know, some of our
Speaker 1: our elders, you know, I mean, they're they're legendary stories
Speaker 1: about guys would be like, hey, there's one quota and
Speaker 1: three of you, so go out and parking lot. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, do a little fisty custs and figure out
Speaker 1: it's going to one right, so uh you know, so
Speaker 1: I mean again, I was very very fortunate to go
Speaker 1: all the way to the pipeline. And that also included
Speaker 1: uh Military free Fall Halo school out at Bragg and
Speaker 1: New Marizona. So by I want to say, I had
Speaker 1: been through that entire pipeline again rarity as as a
Speaker 1: young three in the Marine Corps, and I was very fortunate.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of how I started. What was it
Speaker 1: like being in uh in a recon battalion at that
Speaker 1: time in the Marines. I mean there was some the
Speaker 1: Marine Corps was doing some stuff in the nineties. Some
Speaker 1: people think, you know, the military is doing nothing, but
Speaker 1: I mean there was some stuff popping off here and there. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So what I would say is back then, during this
Speaker 1: time in the in the mid nineties, uh, there were
Speaker 1: standalone enforced reconnaissance companies versus uh what today recoon battalion
Speaker 1: has a forced recon company inside of it. So, um,
Speaker 1: I would say first that you know, the Marines that
Speaker 1: I came in contact with through the pipeline to include
Speaker 1: the instructors as well as when I got to my platoon. Um,
Speaker 1: it was it was humbling because when I was a
Speaker 1: young youngster, you know, I boxed, I wrestled, that was
Speaker 1: in good shape. But you know, I thought I was
Speaker 1: pretty smart, you know, so I thought, yeah, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: I'm pretty I'm a pretty tough guy. And then you
Speaker 1: get around uh you know Marines and Reconnaissance corman. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know who've been there and done that, And there
Speaker 1: are a couple of things struck me immediately. One was,
Speaker 1: you know, you thought you were something pretty cool and
Speaker 1: then now your average if that when you're amongst these guys,
Speaker 1: and that was humbling, But that that really caused me to,
Speaker 1: you know, to want to excel every single day because
Speaker 1: you know, I wanted to be a valued member of
Speaker 1: the community, my platoon and my team. Um So I
Speaker 1: think that was that was kind of a humbling experience.
Speaker 1: But the other thing I learned very quickly was you know,
Speaker 1: as a youngster and then you understand you guys understand this.
Speaker 1: You know, before you had gone through your selection and assessment,
Speaker 1: before you had you know, you know, received the accolades
Speaker 1: of achieving what you did, whether it's Special Forces enabled,
Speaker 1: special warfare and Marine Force constance. Uh. You know, everyone
Speaker 1: thinks about, you know, the cool things. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to go to this school and I'm going to that school.
Speaker 1: And you know, when you get there, when everyone's already
Speaker 1: been there and done that, nobody cares about that cares
Speaker 1: what school you went to, how many jumps you got,
Speaker 1: you know, are you a sniper, are you this or that?
Speaker 1: Because you know, the majority guys have done all those things.
Speaker 1: So it really truly is about your individual reputation as
Speaker 1: a teammate. Uh, you know, what you bring to the table.
Speaker 1: I mean uh, and so again I think those two
Speaker 1: things are great factors. Um, you're right, we had marine
Speaker 1: doing things. Uh that a lot. Uh. You know, it's
Speaker 1: kind of sad that the reconstance community. Uh well, let
Speaker 1: me back up. The reconnaissance community is a very quiet community.
Speaker 1: So I even myself coming on this radio station is
Speaker 1: uh is a little I have a little trepidation because
Speaker 1: you know, our forefathers are very much uh. You know,
Speaker 1: we don't talk about, you know, the job we do.
Speaker 1: We don't talk about the things we do. And I
Speaker 1: and I truly respect that. But you know, if you
Speaker 1: understand reconnaissance history and you know what the reconnaissance, the
Speaker 1: force reconstance community has done through history, it's it is
Speaker 1: fascinating and it is incredible. I mean, what a deep history.
Speaker 1: I mean, just as an example, you know, we had
Speaker 1: marines in Somalia prior to you know, the famous black
Speaker 1: Hawk Down battle from Second Force Recount Company doing things
Speaker 1: and I'll just leave it there. Um, you know that
Speaker 1: real world in line of the same type of missions
Speaker 1: that um, you know, that's a single example of you know,
Speaker 1: in the nineties, that kind of things that were happening.
Speaker 1: Now we had marines down South with our Army Special
Speaker 1: Forces brothers doing things in southcom again which I want
Speaker 1: to expand here. So there were absolutely things going on, um,
Speaker 1: And I would say, today's your reconsistance marines. UM. I
Speaker 1: think we all should do a better job of passing
Speaker 1: that lineage of history on because it is amazing. But
Speaker 1: I will tell you that a lot of people do
Speaker 1: not know that fascinating, you know, piece of American Marine
Speaker 1: Corps and reconnaissance history. I absolutely agree, UM. And you know,
Speaker 1: I constantly learned so much. I consider myself I'd like
Speaker 1: to think of myself fairly well read. And you know
Speaker 1: this is gonna be episode like we're close to like
Speaker 1: episode four D and fifty. But I'm constantly learning things
Speaker 1: from when we have, um, you know, guys from the
Speaker 1: Special Operations community come on here, and even things that
Speaker 1: happened in my own unit. If I like, what that
Speaker 1: really happened? UM. So yeah, passing those lessons onto the
Speaker 1: next generation are really important and I totally respect UM.
Speaker 1: You know the trepidation you have about you know, I
Speaker 1: know there's a it's a closed um culture, the recon culture,
Speaker 1: and you guys have to decide, you know, what parts
Speaker 1: of it do you share with the public in which
Speaker 1: parts are just for you guys, which is understandable. Um,
Speaker 1: But at the same time, UM, you know, I really
Speaker 1: believe that some of these stories need to be shared
Speaker 1: and uh, and we do need to pass some of
Speaker 1: these things on. Um. You know, I'm looking here another
Speaker 1: book that just landed in our office, A Life of
Speaker 1: Blood and Danger by Daniel Hill. And uh, this guy
Speaker 1: had way back. It looks like in the fifties and
Speaker 1: sixties he had quite a career. Um, and this book
Speaker 1: is like probably five pages. So, UM, I do thank
Speaker 1: you for you know, coming on here and and um
Speaker 1: educating us a little bit. And I guess that would
Speaker 1: be my next question then is could you tell us
Speaker 1: a little bit about what are recon marine does and
Speaker 1: getting also to the differences between recon and force recon
Speaker 1: because I think some of our listeners will be really
Speaker 1: interested in that. Yeah, okay, Well, first if I could
Speaker 1: go back to the the coming on the radio station,
Speaker 1: so I want to be clear that you know, the
Speaker 1: purpose today for for being coming on again, thank you guys,
Speaker 1: is really in the end of this is to talk
Speaker 1: about the Marine Reconnaissance Foundation and what we're doing for
Speaker 1: our community, whether it's traumatically injured, whether it is our
Speaker 1: gold Star families, or whether it's the active duty recovering
Speaker 1: or SARK the Special Actoristry classes Corman and their family today.
Speaker 1: So you know, we have to make a decision of
Speaker 1: the Foundation that if if we're going to garner any support,
Speaker 1: we have to tell some of the story we have.
Speaker 1: There's no way without exposure are we gonna be able
Speaker 1: to do things. And I know it gets this a
Speaker 1: little later, but as an example, you know, I think
Speaker 1: you guys are aware that we're we are flying us
Speaker 1: six gold Star families out to Hawaii for an all
Speaker 1: expense paid trip in uh, you know, in less than
Speaker 1: a month. I mean, you know, to make that all inclusive,
Speaker 1: all expense paid, you know, on a thirty million dollar
Speaker 1: state with their own private chef and own private helicopters
Speaker 1: and and all the great things we want to do.
Speaker 1: That does not happen unless we're talking about it and
Speaker 1: we're we're seeking support. So I'll stop there. I know
Speaker 1: we're gonna kind of get to that. So, uh, back
Speaker 1: to your your question about reconstance marines. So, so first
Speaker 1: it's important to understand that that the core or the
Speaker 1: United States Marine Corps is the Marine Corps Infantry and
Speaker 1: the Marine Air Ground Task Force that built around UH.
Speaker 1: You know that battalion Landing Team UH and on up
Speaker 1: is really support you know, whether we're talking about F
Speaker 1: three five generation UH aircraft, whether we're talking about Cobra
Speaker 1: attack helicopters, mcconos, marines UH. You know, we at the
Speaker 1: fundamental core of our doctor in the marine and around
Speaker 1: task for supports the marine instruments. So that's that's an
Speaker 1: important note here, So riconstance. Marines in the what was
Speaker 1: formally referred to as division recond their role largely with
Speaker 1: the to support the Marine division against the marine division
Speaker 1: is infantry and there are for marine divisions UH, and
Speaker 1: their job to basically conduct ground and amphibious reconnaissance in
Speaker 1: support that marine division. You know, is it a landing,
Speaker 1: is it an air assault? UH? Is it a route clearing, etcetera. UH.
Speaker 1: Back in the older days, the Force Reconnaissance Company were
Speaker 1: kind of the the the more senior folks. I mean
Speaker 1: back in the nineties. If you were a recond battalion
Speaker 1: Marine and you wanted to go to say first forced
Speaker 1: recond of company, although you're basically trained recarsus marine. You
Speaker 1: could be jump a dive rangers sere this that the
Speaker 1: other you would still have to take the forced Reconnaissance INDOC,
Speaker 1: so you would take another selection to move up to
Speaker 1: force reconnissance. The grade shaping at that time was more senior,
Speaker 1: so you would look at the vision recon as the
Speaker 1: you know lance corporal, corporal sergeants and maybe a platoon
Speaker 1: sergeant and a a staff sergeant, a platoon commander, probably as
Speaker 1: a first lieutenant, where Forced recon company you know, took
Speaker 1: the more mature, experienced marines who had the excellent baseline.
Speaker 1: By the way, I got to add that marines that
Speaker 1: came from recombattalion are some of the best. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: special operators that have gone to national mission force had
Speaker 1: done all over the place. But in the recon community,
Speaker 1: that's kind of the way things work, you know, you
Speaker 1: would INDOC, you go to force recut company. Uh. And
Speaker 1: at in my time, platoons were pretty senior. I mean
Speaker 1: when we were in Iraq, we had platoons that had uh,
Speaker 1: you know, a senior captain or a junior major as
Speaker 1: a platoon commander. Uh. We had platoon sergeants that were
Speaker 1: very senior seven gunnery serrants or even the master sergeants,
Speaker 1: and most of the team leaders were either senior staff
Speaker 1: saunts or guns. So when you look at that context,
Speaker 1: you realize, you know, simply front experience and years on
Speaker 1: the job, that you have a lot of seniority. And
Speaker 1: it was fascinating. And I'll use Iraq as an example.
Speaker 1: Is when uh, you know, force reconnaissance would go. And
Speaker 1: although we are technically not part of Special Operations Command,
Speaker 1: I will tell you that during you know, most of
Speaker 1: five time in Iraq, we were with Fifth Group, Seal Team,
Speaker 1: three other government agencies doing basically that you know, the
Speaker 1: same mission in different you know, different battle space. So um,
Speaker 1: and I realized as a team leader, as a staff ares, wow, man,
Speaker 1: we we we bring a pretty senior group here. That
Speaker 1: other guys that I noticed that we're senior in rank
Speaker 1: would be that the Army Special Forces guys. Obviously those
Speaker 1: guys are you know, I have tremendous respect for the
Speaker 1: knowledge based those guys have. But now they're all the
Speaker 1: six and higher. Um, where there were other units that
Speaker 1: were you know, pretty junior in rank. Now not that
Speaker 1: rank is all things, but I'm trying to demonstrate that
Speaker 1: years of service and years of doing that type of
Speaker 1: work matters, especially when it's going to be something very sensitive,
Speaker 1: uh you know, or something that's gonna take a lot
Speaker 1: of maturity to go and do. Um. So because of that,
Speaker 1: we were a positioned to do some pretty neat things,
Speaker 1: uh you know with other units and other government agencies,
Speaker 1: and those experiences you know, carried me to where I
Speaker 1: am today. And I also just wanted to take a
Speaker 1: second to point out, I mean, the the difference between
Speaker 1: Recon and Force Recon is Forced Recon had the direct
Speaker 1: action mission correct. That is correct. How However, there were
Speaker 1: times in Reconstance history when either Force Recon had been
Speaker 1: disbanded in the eighties where the recombattalion how was what
Speaker 1: was referred to as a DRPEP Reconstance platoon, So those
Speaker 1: guys as a platoon, not a company, kind of acted
Speaker 1: at Force Recon element and in those kind of transitional
Speaker 1: years when a lot of when the commandant was General
Speaker 1: Al Gray, when we kind of started the ren Expeditionary
Speaker 1: Units bestal operations capable of the new stock program, there
Speaker 1: was kind of a lot of overlap where there were
Speaker 1: senior Recon Marine that were in recompetition maybe DRP and
Speaker 1: the day took on. Uh. You know what we were
Speaker 1: sort of back then at the Black Side techn Mission
Speaker 1: in extreme as hostage resting, limited scale direct action. And
Speaker 1: during those formative years, you know, our our units got
Speaker 1: to do again a little recon history. I mean, they
Speaker 1: trained with l APD SWAT, which is probably the premier
Speaker 1: law enforcement squat team out there. They trained with the
Speaker 1: National FBI h r T, They trained with some elements
Speaker 1: of the National Mission Force um so in in in
Speaker 1: in specific j t F, which I won't go to.
Speaker 1: So it's interesting how things kind of evolved, um in
Speaker 1: the eighties early nineties through that progression and then now
Speaker 1: today what we have really uh when uh, when Marine
Speaker 1: Special Operations Command now referred to as the Three Raider
Speaker 1: Battalions were established, you know that the beginnings of our
Speaker 1: direct uh connection to so CALM, other than individual billets
Speaker 1: and individual Marines serving you know, National Mission Force and
Speaker 1: other things, was really our what was referred to as
Speaker 1: uh mcs O com Detachment one DEBT one, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: under Colonel Bob Coates. So that organization was kind of
Speaker 1: our first step directed by h Secretary Rumsfeld to to
Speaker 1: quote unquote get the Marine Corps in the SOCM. There's
Speaker 1: a delivered the decision. Earlier on I talked about General
Speaker 1: Al Grey R. Comment doant that he decided at that
Speaker 1: time there was consideration of putting forced recon on the
Speaker 1: so common and he decided to get it in order
Speaker 1: to retain the capabilities of forcer connaistance in support of
Speaker 1: the Marine Air Ground Cask Force. So, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: Ash DEBT one went out the door. The way the
Speaker 1: unit was organized fascinated. Um. Really some insightful process into
Speaker 1: developing the unit. A lot of those Marines are are
Speaker 1: my teammates, by peers, my close friends still today. Uh.
Speaker 1: And you know, basically Colonel Coach and the team approached
Speaker 1: the as a MAGCAP right, a Marine ever Ground Task Force. Now,
Speaker 1: the thing that never got off the ground, that never
Speaker 1: finalized was the A and the MAGCATH. There was no
Speaker 1: dedicated aviation combat element for DEBT one, which is a shame, um.
Speaker 1: But you know, larger needs of the Marine Corps came
Speaker 1: into play about hey we can't just give you guys,
Speaker 1: you know, a detachment of fixed ruing. But what DEBT
Speaker 1: one did do was really look at you know the
Speaker 1: core of Debt one. You know that the shooters and
Speaker 1: the UH and the R and S element were force
Speaker 1: reconvers There's there's a lot of talk about, oh, they
Speaker 1: were the most senior guys and they were hand selected
Speaker 1: and this and that. Um, there's a little bit of
Speaker 1: truth to that, but I will tell you that. You know,
Speaker 1: if you ask the Marines, they're they're like, hey, man,
Speaker 1: we were just force renk kind of guys. So they
Speaker 1: made up the core element. But what made Detachment one
Speaker 1: really the thought process in the going into not just
Speaker 1: you know the shooters and and UH and the constance element,
Speaker 1: but the enablers, you know, the fires uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the intel, the the ability to have you know, military
Speaker 1: working dogs, your own armorers, you know, on and on
Speaker 1: and on, and those support Marines enablers were expected to
Speaker 1: go through a selection of sorts uh, not only initially
Speaker 1: but throughout the work up for their deployment. I mean
Speaker 1: there's some stories about Colonel Coates and and the team,
Speaker 1: you know, putting them on you know short I don't
Speaker 1: know whatever, fifty sixty rut march at you know, ten
Speaker 1: thousand feet and that's just the weekly you know kind
Speaker 1: of man up type of event, you know, so um
Speaker 1: and those support element guys were expected to do those things.
Speaker 1: They were expected to be able to come onto a
Speaker 1: target as part of the security element. So it was
Speaker 1: it was really fascinating the way that uh, you know,
Speaker 1: DEBT one was brought together. Now, I will tell you
Speaker 1: there was nascinations in the beginning about the command relationships
Speaker 1: with the uh DEBT one go special forces where they
Speaker 1: go with nable special warfare. Uh. And so the ultimate
Speaker 1: decision was they did go with the Seals. Now that's
Speaker 1: where in my understanding, and I was not a member
Speaker 1: of DEBT one, where things kind of went bad because
Speaker 1: this organation, this organization had very very rapid come together,
Speaker 1: trained up, and certified in a very compressed amount of time.
Speaker 1: And you know, the intent was to deploy them as
Speaker 1: a detachment in totality where when they ended up going
Speaker 1: down range, really they were kind of picked apart a
Speaker 1: little bit elements when here leadership went there. But besides that,
Speaker 1: if you've ever read the unclassified or the classified after actions,
Speaker 1: which I have, UM, uh, the Navy CEO five, his
Speaker 1: last name is Devined. I remember his first name kind
Speaker 1: of like yeah, market divine, Yes, he was kind of
Speaker 1: like the evaluator. I'm sorry, go ahead, and I was
Speaker 1: just saying he's been on the show before. I could
Speaker 1: probably uh find that in the archive. But yeah, he
Speaker 1: he runs that whole seal fit thing. I believe, Oh
Speaker 1: is that is that what he does? Now? I don't
Speaker 1: know the man personally, but reading the after actions that
Speaker 1: he has the I guess the senior seal evaluator. I
Speaker 1: mean it's it's it's awesome, and it's really telling of
Speaker 1: the quality of the United States Marine Corps, of the
Speaker 1: individual marine Uh. And within that the elements that made
Speaker 1: up you know, our enablers hugely powerful. Uh. And then
Speaker 1: of course my teammates, the force Condissance, the radio recon guys.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, the bottom line is the is
Speaker 1: the comments within all those after actions were you know,
Speaker 1: this was the force of was These guys brought things
Speaker 1: that none of the other soft elements weren't organized. Uh,
Speaker 1: We're organized in a unique way that allowed them to
Speaker 1: do things. And and I will tell you, although I
Speaker 1: was not in the detachment, I am very proud of
Speaker 1: that because a lot of those marines, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: some of the most professional, competent people that you will
Speaker 1: ever know, they went there and just did their job,
Speaker 1: no no, no pomp and circumstance. And then following that
Speaker 1: when when they came back after doing a fantastic job,
Speaker 1: I mean again incredible. You know, the thought was, okay,
Speaker 1: debt one would kind of in that sort of mancalf
Speaker 1: minus the ACE organization at some point become what Marsak
Speaker 1: is today and and and largely that did not happen. Understand. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they basically we're in limbo for a while after after deployment,
Speaker 1: and all of this is available in the unclassified I
Speaker 1: think there's a marine called vacational you can can fact check.
Speaker 1: But um, they basically were kind of been a limbo
Speaker 1: like waiting to go. And then again my recollection it's
Speaker 1: been a while is that, uh, you know, they were
Speaker 1: basically disbanded and an organization was stood up by you know,
Speaker 1: really standing down first and second forced reconnaistance companies, you know,
Speaker 1: furl the flag and then bring out a new flag.
Speaker 1: And it's his first Marine Special Operations Battalion m SOB
Speaker 1: and second Marine Special Brings Battalion. So that's kind of
Speaker 1: and there actually was a third battalion that was made
Speaker 1: up of our UH. We tried to use what was
Speaker 1: referred to as fourth Marine Expisher Brigade and I Terrorism
Speaker 1: UH and then they became kind of the fit the
Speaker 1: Foreign Intern Defense. It was the Foreign Military Training Unit
Speaker 1: f m TU. So those are not necessarily reconnaistant forcer
Speaker 1: constance guys. They were guys who were trained to go
Speaker 1: train belts at units. So they used those organizations to
Speaker 1: basically stand up three Marine Special Operations battalions. So that's
Speaker 1: kind of the genesis of how that all happened. So
Speaker 1: I think an important note is first, um, I think
Speaker 1: the capabilities that the Marine Raiders have today and the
Speaker 1: job that they do and what they've accomplished is tremendous,
Speaker 1: I mean incredible bunch of marines. The current commander of
Speaker 1: MARSTOK is a friend and a teammates Force recon offson,
Speaker 1: Major General Dan You Um. But I think it's important
Speaker 1: note that that organization was stood up by by disbanding
Speaker 1: Force Reconnaissance. I mean that that's a point here, So
Speaker 1: there's there's a direct lineage there. Now today there is
Speaker 1: you know, there are three battalions of now Raider battalions
Speaker 1: what they're referred to, and there are reconnaissance battalions, two
Speaker 1: different Marines, UH military occupational specialty, two different organizations, two
Speaker 1: different changes of command, one working for the Marine Corps
Speaker 1: and one working for us SO Calm. And they did
Speaker 1: import to understand how that happened. They did restand up
Speaker 1: Forest recon as well, didn't I. Yes. So the organization
Speaker 1: today is UH basically Forced Reconnistance is a company within
Speaker 1: reconstant battag So the reason why that's different from the
Speaker 1: nineties early two thousand's is that back in that time
Speaker 1: when I was in forced constance, the Forced Recon Company
Speaker 1: was a stand alone organization. So although the term companies there,
Speaker 1: it really had the table of organization equipment much like
Speaker 1: a UH infantry bettend. What I mean by that is
Speaker 1: the company commander wasn't oh five was lieutenant colonel. His
Speaker 1: EXO was a major in OH four. The oppso was
Speaker 1: a major OH four. So the structure, the budget was
Speaker 1: was not that of a company, It was that of
Speaker 1: a battalion. But you know it's the name. The normal
Speaker 1: claysrew was Forced ReConference Company, So you know, different uh
Speaker 1: ul n, different budget, you know, all of that, UH
Speaker 1: for a force recond company. So distinctly different units force
Speaker 1: recon first Forced recond Company, first ReConference Battaion, second Force
Speaker 1: Recond Company, second Recombettaition. UH. Okaynawa was kind of interesting
Speaker 1: where they did have a standalone Force recond Company that
Speaker 1: they referred to as that was referred to as fifth
Speaker 1: Force Recond Company, and then there was third Recombettiition and
Speaker 1: then finally in the reserves there was fourth Force Constance
Speaker 1: Company and fourth Recompettiition. So again different units separated, where
Speaker 1: today the force recon companies and the active duty are
Speaker 1: inside of the reconnaissance battalion. Uh. Normally a company commander
Speaker 1: is probably a senior captain or a major UM. So
Speaker 1: again they maybe competition isn't the right word, but the
Speaker 1: company has to use the same assets, facilities, Uh you know, uh,
Speaker 1: school quotas, budget that reconbotnant happens. So that's kind of
Speaker 1: those are kind of the differences from the then again
Speaker 1: nineties through or you know, mid two thousand's And now
Speaker 1: does that answer your question? Yeah? Absolutely, uh And you know,
Speaker 1: following up on that, I wanted to ask what you
Speaker 1: make of, um, some of the recent scuttle but I
Speaker 1: guess our grumblings UM that are being talked about the
Speaker 1: Marine Corps actually wanted to do away with marsk Um,
Speaker 1: which seems quite shortsighted after the Marines spent a substantial
Speaker 1: amount of time building that capability. Well, I mean, I
Speaker 1: guess it depends on what advantage point you're looking at
Speaker 1: first and formal most you know that I'm familiar with
Speaker 1: the article or the information paper you're referring to. Uh,
Speaker 1: it doesn't have some insight? Are there some valid points? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Maybe the truth that matters that that, in my personal
Speaker 1: and professional opinion, that's not going to happen. The the
Speaker 1: Marine raiders of today. Uh, you know, if you think
Speaker 1: about the genesis of them and how rapidly they came
Speaker 1: together while our nation was at war, and what they've
Speaker 1: been able to accomplish, I mean, it's it's incredible. It's
Speaker 1: it's like building an airplane while in flight. I would
Speaker 1: like to put in plug that a lot of that
Speaker 1: was based on the the knowledge and skill sets of constant.
Speaker 1: Do I believe they're going to be disbanded? Absolutely, if
Speaker 1: you look at it from a big Marine Corps perspective, um,
Speaker 1: which you know, the United States Marine Corps isn't just
Speaker 1: mar Sock is just force recon right. UM. I can
Speaker 1: understand why some may think that, because the truth of
Speaker 1: the matter is is that uh, you know, uh mar
Speaker 1: Sock as well as it constantly draws uh you know
Speaker 1: some of the finest marines of the Marine Corps, Mar
Speaker 1: Sock is not directly in support of the marine ever
Speaker 1: around cast fors uh. You know, there may be command
Speaker 1: relationships down range where you know, you know, raider companies,
Speaker 1: raider m socks are doing something supporting marines, but there's
Speaker 1: no direct relationships. So I can see the big green
Speaker 1: Marine Corps considering, well, there's this huge investment in time
Speaker 1: and some money. You know, people go, oh, the money
Speaker 1: is off from so calm. That's not entirely true. Much
Speaker 1: of it is that is true, but you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of the initiative investment in those marine you know,
Speaker 1: the young Marine empty Officer, the young Marine uh entry
Speaker 1: Stephan Ceo, you know, came from the Marine Corps. I mean,
Speaker 1: we have to be clear about that. UM. So I
Speaker 1: don't think it'll happen. I think that the truth of the
Speaker 1: the matter is that our soft forces are you know,
Speaker 1: truly today force multipliers, the things that a young are
Speaker 1: a small team, you know, O D A M. SOT
Speaker 1: can go and do around the world in austere locations.
Speaker 1: Is just incredible. I mean, it's just it really truly, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, has evolved so much so um you know,
Speaker 1: from a tactical perspective, understanding what you know, what the
Speaker 1: soft forces in general, but really the Army, Special Forces
Speaker 1: soldier uh and the Marine raiders specifically in in the
Speaker 1: realm of interacting with potential partner nations and what and
Speaker 1: what what you guys do you know fit u w
Speaker 1: et cetera, um cappy matched. There's there's nowhere else in
Speaker 1: the military that does it the same way that of
Speaker 1: course the forefather of all that was the green beret
Speaker 1: of the Special Force soldier and now the Marine raider. UM.
Speaker 1: So the big Marine Corps, our service are, our commandant
Speaker 1: are are the service chiefs in general, they have a
Speaker 1: much much broader, you know, twenty foot strategic view of
Speaker 1: what they need to be doing. Right. So you know,
Speaker 1: if you if you've read the uh you know, the
Speaker 1: current National Defense strategy, you understand that the Department Defense
Speaker 1: and the whole of government realizes that today, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: our potential peer adversaries are different, and so we need
Speaker 1: to start to look at how we're going to address
Speaker 1: those concerns. Do we want to go to war? Of course,
Speaker 1: we don't want to go to war, that's ridiculous. Do
Speaker 1: we need to be prepared to go to war with
Speaker 1: with you know, other nations who have rapidly developing capabilities? Yes,
Speaker 1: we do. So you know, when you look at it
Speaker 1: from that perspective, you know what Marstock or Rican or
Speaker 1: anything else brings is relatively miniscule, you know. So that's
Speaker 1: why you're going to see two different sides of the camp.
Speaker 1: But if you ask me, if you ask blot Nors
Speaker 1: not going anywhere, you know, they've proven they're worth uh,
Speaker 1: you know, rapidly in an incredible fashion. H And I
Speaker 1: can't see that happen. Is it impossible? No? I guess not.
Speaker 1: But do I think it's gonna happen? No? I don't. Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: I sure hope that you're right about that. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know that Marines and Marsac in particular, they they've
Speaker 1: been quite aggressive in developing some of these special operations
Speaker 1: capabilities and it'll be interesting to see where they go
Speaker 1: in the future. Um, but you know, with all that said,
Speaker 1: unless you've had anything else you wanted to add, I
Speaker 1: did want to ask you about the Marine Reconnaissance Foundation. Okay, great, UM,
Speaker 1: so I just to go or you have specific questions, No,
Speaker 1: I mean go ahead, tell us about the foundation and
Speaker 1: what you guys do. Okay. So, UH, First, the Marine
Speaker 1: Riconcissance Foundation is an organization that UH has been around
Speaker 1: for I honestly about six years. UH. The current president,
Speaker 1: David Dunelle, retired E eight first sergeant, a reconcmmunicator that
Speaker 1: served with the first Reconnistant Battalion, UH first Force Recon Company,
Speaker 1: First Raider Battalion at then called m SAB and then
Speaker 1: at our schoolhouse the Recon Training Companies. He and a
Speaker 1: couple of white minded Marines UH decided, Hey, we there
Speaker 1: needed to be an organization that was focused on supporting
Speaker 1: our teammates. UH. You know, the man, the mission, and
Speaker 1: the families today. Okay. So there are other organizations that
Speaker 1: are out there, and they all do great work. But
Speaker 1: in this specific case, you know, understanding that, you know,
Speaker 1: we're a nation at war. That's what we wanted to
Speaker 1: focus on, was trying to get at that. Now. I
Speaker 1: was not a I'm not a planet folder of the
Speaker 1: m r F. I've only been on the board for
Speaker 1: a little over a year. Um, I was asked to join,
Speaker 1: I was voted in, and I was lucky enough to
Speaker 1: become a board member. So uh, really, for me, my
Speaker 1: personal experience to the m r F, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I wanted to know what it was about because I've
Speaker 1: been involved in some other organizations. Uh, and some of
Speaker 1: them are incredible, and some of them are more involved
Speaker 1: than just kind of getting the boys together and you know,
Speaker 1: kind of drinking beer. Uh, you know, hanging out and
Speaker 1: and for me, my aspiration was always, Hey, you know
Speaker 1: our younger teammates that are serving today because I'm retired,
Speaker 1: what can we do to help them? What couldn't do
Speaker 1: to help their families? You know, our marines are you know,
Speaker 1: we have dramatically injured marines. We have marines with severe PTSD,
Speaker 1: We have marines that have you know, emergency financial needs.
Speaker 1: You know. Of course, like every other community, we have debts.
Speaker 1: You know, we got you know, a few parachute us
Speaker 1: in the last few years as an example. UM, you know,
Speaker 1: those families. Although there's a support structure within the Department
Speaker 1: Defense and within the Marine Corps. UM, you know, those
Speaker 1: their needs are not always addressed. Or sometimes it's a
Speaker 1: recent separated veteran that no longer has those uh support
Speaker 1: elements because he's no longer attached to the d O
Speaker 1: D to the Marine Corps, you know, and as they're
Speaker 1: transitioning from military to civilian. Um. So when I started
Speaker 1: to understand what the foundation has done, um, you know,
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, I want to be a part
Speaker 1: of that. Now. I'll be honest with you, this is
Speaker 1: just Pep's opinion. Um. Again, going back to the tenant
Speaker 1: of sounded professional, I felt like, wait, why don't I
Speaker 1: know about all this great stuff that the mrs doing.
Speaker 1: I should know it. I mean, this is my community.
Speaker 1: I should know that. You know, a marine was killed
Speaker 1: in the parents and accident. We helped the family by
Speaker 1: doing this. That another uh you know, a traumatically wounded marine,
Speaker 1: we helped him with X Marines. House got flooded and
Speaker 1: I severely damaged, and you know, we worked with organizations
Speaker 1: to get people out there to physically cut the house.
Speaker 1: I mean, why didn't I know about it? So for me,
Speaker 1: one of the tenants that I put forth to the
Speaker 1: boarder was, Hey, we need to tell the story because
Speaker 1: young RecA marines need to know that there is an
Speaker 1: organization like the Marine Reconfiquence Foundation. Uh, that's there to
Speaker 1: support them in their families. So uh, you know, that's
Speaker 1: kind of in a nutshell what the organization does. It's
Speaker 1: all volunteers, it's a it's a few active duty Marines.
Speaker 1: It's mostly retired, senior enlisted, although we do have a
Speaker 1: few uh commission officers, some of them that are still
Speaker 1: on active duty again silent professionals. You know, this is
Speaker 1: this is an uncompensated job. I will tell you for
Speaker 1: me personally, I mean I'm I'm I'm at work twelve
Speaker 1: hours a day. I'm sometimes seven days a week. Uh.
Speaker 1: It depends on what's going on in the world for
Speaker 1: my civilian job. So being on the board is really
Speaker 1: a second job. I mean I could easily say in
Speaker 1: any day, I put in between two and five hours. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, help work in support the foundation. But you know,
Speaker 1: the key point here's all of us as volunteers, all
Speaker 1: of us as board members believe in the mission. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, we we believe in in the Riconstus community. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you if I get to interact some
Speaker 1: of the young Recondo's of today. Um, and they're awesome. Um,
Speaker 1: you know they are. I'm really impressive what our marines
Speaker 1: and and special on fishery constas cormat or during the day,
Speaker 1: and so that re energizes me, like, hey, dad, I
Speaker 1: need to stay in the fight. Guys at some point
Speaker 1: may need help, you know. So does that kind of
Speaker 1: answer your question? Yeah, I think so. Um, but could
Speaker 1: you also get into a little bit um specific as
Speaker 1: far as what the foundation does, because you had mentioned
Speaker 1: some things that they were doing for the families and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. I'm sure people would like to know,
Speaker 1: you know, how how the foundation gives back to you know,
Speaker 1: these young marines and their families. Sure. So, um, you
Speaker 1: know really again, it's it's everything from emergency support and
Speaker 1: that could be financial or that could be uh you know,
Speaker 1: in persons support. And I'll give you some examples. Uh.
Speaker 1: We had a a marine teammate that had severe PTSD.
Speaker 1: He had left service going through a rough time. Uh.
Speaker 1: Some great Americans, some police officers uh uh in his
Speaker 1: state had to respond to his house because of potential
Speaker 1: suicide attempt. So as the marine as the police officers
Speaker 1: got there, Uh, you know, one of the guys looking around.
Speaker 1: He's not even a marine, but he goes, whoa this
Speaker 1: guy look at this, you know, and he has his
Speaker 1: you know, our teammate has his you know, time and service,
Speaker 1: what he's done, recon this and that. And so the
Speaker 1: police officer reaches out to the foundation because hey man,
Speaker 1: I'm not a marine, I'm not a recounk guy. I
Speaker 1: know what you guys are. This guy needs help, and
Speaker 1: I'll tell you that. The Foundation, within probably six hours,
Speaker 1: coordinated you know, a team of guys, located guys are
Speaker 1: actually in his platoon and his team, and got them
Speaker 1: on site to get positive control of him. Uh. And
Speaker 1: since then we have helped in this specific case try
Speaker 1: to locate and lock on follow on patients. So that's
Speaker 1: an example. Um, we lost a young marine, Alice Romero jeez,
Speaker 1: maybe about fourteen months ago. Alex was out of a
Speaker 1: third recombattanition. We lost him in a parachute accident, double bags,
Speaker 1: static line accident. And we are rapidly able to appride
Speaker 1: funds and raise funds to support his wife as well
Speaker 1: as a support his family and some of his teammates
Speaker 1: to to you know, fly places, get the funeral. You
Speaker 1: know that sort of stuff. So that's where that's the
Speaker 1: kind of emergency category. Another recent example, we have a
Speaker 1: we have a teammate that's uh out in the northeast. Uh.
Speaker 1: He left the Marine Corps service because of a stroke. Right,
Speaker 1: So think of a you know, a young stud staff
Speaker 1: sergeant medical issues. He's medically separated, you know, really bad stroke,
Speaker 1: parsonally paralyzed. H. Lind is kind of in a very
Speaker 1: rural area, has a little toddler, has a baby literally
Speaker 1: on the way, probably going to be delivered rout soon
Speaker 1: in any day now if if the baby hasn't already
Speaker 1: been born, and uh, we kind of got swacked over
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks. There was a tornado, there was flooding,
Speaker 1: there's some snowing. His basement got flooded out. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: he reached out to us and said, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't like to ask, of course no one does.
Speaker 1: But if you can do anything so within twenty four hours.
Speaker 1: I mean, we work with numerous organizations, reserve Marine reserve
Speaker 1: units in the area, uh and a few other organizations
Speaker 1: that do really great stuff Team Rubicon UH, and they
Speaker 1: got out there to physically help him, you know, drain
Speaker 1: the spot, you know, pull the you know the moldy
Speaker 1: carpets out, you know, just that the other and then
Speaker 1: now we're trying to work up you know, financial package
Speaker 1: to help offset some of his costs. So that's kind
Speaker 1: of in the emergency fund, realm Um. We do other things. Uh,
Speaker 1: we do some outreach and mentorships. So and example that
Speaker 1: I would use is our gold Star Family retreat that
Speaker 1: we're doing here on a wall. Who may second through
Speaker 1: the eighth. You're in Hawaii, Jose, I am, yes, very cool. Yea, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know it really sucks a found the guy and
Speaker 1: it's eighty degrees and I'm about a mile from beach.
Speaker 1: So um. You know, this is a concept that my wife,
Speaker 1: Charity and I came up on behalf the foundation. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't think that a year ago, and it's just
Speaker 1: kind of a pipe dream, right. Uh. We all know
Speaker 1: we have fallen friends and teammates. Uh and uh some
Speaker 1: of us you know, deal in different ways, you know
Speaker 1: with that loss. You know, we know their families, we
Speaker 1: know their lives, we know their children. Uh. And so
Speaker 1: we had thought about, hey, why don't we try to
Speaker 1: see if we could put together something that would be
Speaker 1: kind of a you know, all inclusive uh, no a retreat.
Speaker 1: So this concept was kind of discussed. Uh and uh
Speaker 1: the foundation doesn't take no for an answer, and my
Speaker 1: wife and I certainly don't do not. So we took
Speaker 1: kind of a lead on this and we said, well,
Speaker 1: let us look into the art of the possible and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, for us and I think you probably have
Speaker 1: some of the same, you know, knowing these families, it's
Speaker 1: sad because the truth of the matter is, over the
Speaker 1: last fifteen years, we've lost many teammates and you know,
Speaker 1: some of these families right there, their son or dad,
Speaker 1: or husband or brother is gone. And although there may
Speaker 1: have been a big rush at that time to support
Speaker 1: the family, you know, at some point over a decade
Speaker 1: decade and a half, you know, I don't want to
Speaker 1: see they've forgotten, because they're not. I mean, we all
Speaker 1: are in touch, we talk all the time, but you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like, you know, those families have to
Speaker 1: deal with that every day. They literally wake up every morning. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, one of one of the family members of
Speaker 1: one of our teammates told me, and she says, you know,
Speaker 1: we're a strong Christian family, but sometimes my husband and
Speaker 1: I wake up every morning and we don't even know
Speaker 1: why we're still here. What's the point? You know? And
Speaker 1: so you know, when you when you put that context
Speaker 1: and realize that that nightmare of losing a family member
Speaker 1: happens every day every morning when you wake up. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, the Foundation thought the least we could do
Speaker 1: is reach out to some of the families. We all
Speaker 1: can do a certain number because our accommodations, but we're
Speaker 1: going to do this every year and say, hey, we
Speaker 1: haven't forgotten about your son, your dad, your brother, uh,
Speaker 1: your husband will never be forgotten and you will never
Speaker 1: be forgotten. So um, you know, it was kind of
Speaker 1: interesting that we kind of start to do some exploration
Speaker 1: why what what might be in the in the realm
Speaker 1: of the possible. And I will tell you that I
Speaker 1: am proud of my state. Um. I literally was crushed
Speaker 1: with yes. I could only think of one or two
Speaker 1: organizations that declined to support uh. And so it really
Speaker 1: started off the Paul Mitchell Estate. Um. You know, they
Speaker 1: have an incredible, uh probably thirty million dollar three acre
Speaker 1: state on Lana Kai Beach in Kailua. Lanakai Beach has
Speaker 1: historically been in the top five beaches over the world
Speaker 1: every year that they've been doing you know the beach
Speaker 1: rank and they have an incredible state. And they immediately said, yes, yep,
Speaker 1: when you want to do it, what do you want
Speaker 1: to do? So I'm like, okay, um, how about a
Speaker 1: one week every year? Yep? Tell us when so you
Speaker 1: know this this this property. I mean, you know, five
Speaker 1: star in every way, you know, every movie star you
Speaker 1: can think of, you know, former presidents UH stay at
Speaker 1: this estate when they're when they're in Hawaii and and UH.
Speaker 1: The initial states that yes, we will support. And so
Speaker 1: when we were able to lock on the accommodations, okay,
Speaker 1: that's the biggest part. Where would we put sixteen to
Speaker 1: twenty people? Okay, well, now now this is becoming reality.
Speaker 1: So we started to reach out to vendors, to companies
Speaker 1: this and that, can you provide this and that. I'll
Speaker 1: give you some examples. Paradise helicopter. UH here in Hawaii.
Speaker 1: UH a lot of leadership are our marines retired and
Speaker 1: former UH came out and said, yep, we're going to
Speaker 1: give you guys private helicopters to fly fly these downtas. UH.
Speaker 1: You know, local businesses such as restaurant six o four
Speaker 1: which is down on Pearl Harbor. Again no military service.
Speaker 1: The owner, uh, Donovan Maples and his wife. You know, however,
Speaker 1: patriotic Americans are like, yeah, what can we do? Dave
Speaker 1: helped us. Helped us raise probably over the last year.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, maybe fifty or sixty dollars something like that.
Speaker 1: UM Tarot Brand, a food company, HFM Foods, Tito's Vodka,
Speaker 1: the chin In Marketing Group, UH, Landmark Transport Services. I
Speaker 1: mean I could go on and on and on. People
Speaker 1: just came in and said, hey, what can we do?
Speaker 1: How can we help? Uh So, since that time to
Speaker 1: raise money at you know, multiple UM fundraisers at some
Speaker 1: of the places I've talked about, like restaurants six or four,
Speaker 1: We've had a golf tournament put on by those people
Speaker 1: that I'm referring to. Uh And all of a sudden
Speaker 1: are like, Okay, well we have the money to do this.
Speaker 1: Uh So, now what has become reality and the families
Speaker 1: are going to be arriving on the second of me
Speaker 1: We're able to go and outright by a purchase airline
Speaker 1: tickets to fly them. So that's all loft on. So
Speaker 1: when they come out here. They should expect you know,
Speaker 1: a week uh at that private resort with a private
Speaker 1: chef uh and an open bar seven uh, you know,
Speaker 1: transportation ground and private helicopter uh. You know, yoga every
Speaker 1: morning donated by twenty four our fitness uh, scuba lessons,
Speaker 1: fishing lessons, I mean, you name it. Even the military
Speaker 1: community here, it's been awesome. They've leaned in the whole
Speaker 1: Pearl Harbor Pacific Fleet, which is before Star Navy Command
Speaker 1: uh leaned in. You know, here's the Admiral's barge. Go
Speaker 1: ahead and take the families on a private tour out
Speaker 1: of Pearl Harbor, the non standard you know v I
Speaker 1: P sort of thing, the U. S. S. Missouri the
Speaker 1: curator yet come up here. We're gonna give you guys
Speaker 1: a curator led private tour of the entire ship. Again,
Speaker 1: public doesn't normally get that. So that's the type of
Speaker 1: thing uh in this specific retreat. This is our first
Speaker 1: one that's going to take place, and we're really proud
Speaker 1: of that. UM. But what I'm really excited about is
Speaker 1: when I first, you know, had the honor of reaching
Speaker 1: out to each one of these families. You know, imagine
Speaker 1: a family who lost you know, a husband or a dad,
Speaker 1: you know, over a decade ago, and some guy calls
Speaker 1: you and says, I am I am calling you on
Speaker 1: behalf of this foundation. This is who I am. I
Speaker 1: did know your husband or dad or I didn't some
Speaker 1: of the some of our teammates families that are coming,
Speaker 1: I didn't know them, and I'm trying to explain to them, hey,
Speaker 1: this is what we would like to do for you.
Speaker 1: And I mean I had every response from go to hell,
Speaker 1: why are you harassing us? You know? Uh, you know
Speaker 1: because because the truth of the matter is is some
Speaker 1: of these families get harassed. There's there range people out
Speaker 1: there right or even just like the amount of robo calls,
Speaker 1: and some of them sound legit. I remember I was
Speaker 1: out eating barbecue with my friend actually about a year ago,
Speaker 1: and he got duped. He was like he went outside
Speaker 1: to take a call and like what was that about.
Speaker 1: It's like some free trip. I was probably like free
Speaker 1: trip to Y or something like that. They're definitely bullshit,
Speaker 1: hang up the vone. So I think people automatic reaction
Speaker 1: to something like that, even if even hearing from you,
Speaker 1: if they don't know you, is you know, this is
Speaker 1: some type of scam, sure, and you know, and then
Speaker 1: on the other end of the spectrum, it was outright emotion,
Speaker 1: like you know, I'm not gonna lie by, you know,
Speaker 1: on each one of those six families that I called,
Speaker 1: I got emotional. I cried with the families because you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's amazing, you know, we as Americans, right, these
Speaker 1: people are good salt of the Earth Americans, right. They
Speaker 1: live in the Midwest, the Southeast, they're from the East Coast,
Speaker 1: the West coast. They're just people trying to be good citizens, right.
Speaker 1: So you know, I had families that literally broke down
Speaker 1: into tears and like, you know, I'm on speaker phone
Speaker 1: talking to to mom and maybe it maybe a daughter
Speaker 1: or something, and it was really emotional, man, you know,
Speaker 1: And I'm trying to keep my professionalism and I'm trying
Speaker 1: to maintain uh, you know, my emotions, you know, to
Speaker 1: be able to walk them through this. But you know,
Speaker 1: since that introduction about that's probably eight months ago now,
Speaker 1: and I talked, I correspond with the families at least weekly,
Speaker 1: some of them daily, you know, to to keep them
Speaker 1: up to speed on behalf of the foundation. Here's here's
Speaker 1: what's going on here. Are things to consider. You know,
Speaker 1: here's what we've got planned for you. Um, so we're excited.
Speaker 1: This is this is an inaugural event for us. We're
Speaker 1: gonna be doing every year, and we would like to
Speaker 1: expand it a little bit. Uh, not so much in numbers,
Speaker 1: because you know, maintaining positive control of sixteen to twenty
Speaker 1: family members, you know, with a couple of you know,
Speaker 1: my wife, myself and a few teammates is enough. But
Speaker 1: we we want to at some point bring in our
Speaker 1: traumatically injured marines, and that includes marines that don't have
Speaker 1: the physical injuries. Right. What we all know intrinsically but
Speaker 1: most average citizens don't is you know, traumatic injury can
Speaker 1: be brain injury, can be effects of post traumatic stress disorder.
Speaker 1: So we want to start to bring in teammates and
Speaker 1: their families that are affected by those maladies as well.
Speaker 1: The truth is, we didn't really know how to approach
Speaker 1: it because some of the special needs for those folks,
Speaker 1: you know, we we didn't you know, this is the
Speaker 1: first time for us, we didn't really know what we
Speaker 1: might need to consider, whether it's an amputet or whether
Speaker 1: it's some of the severe PTSD. So we're kind of
Speaker 1: talking about, you know, our next generations, we want to
Speaker 1: include them, and how would we go about doing it?
Speaker 1: What would we need that's kind of special to be
Speaker 1: able to support their needs. So again that's an example
Speaker 1: of the kind of stuff that the Foundation UH is
Speaker 1: doing for our gold Star families and our falling teaving.
Speaker 1: How can I'm sorry, go ahead, I was just gonna ask,
Speaker 1: how can either you know, former marines out there or
Speaker 1: John Q public how can they get involved in the
Speaker 1: foundation and the work you guys are doing. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: that's a great question. What's really neat is I have
Speaker 1: been contacted personally, and I'm sure the Foundation and other
Speaker 1: board members have people say hey, what can I do?
Speaker 1: How how can I do it? UM? I would say
Speaker 1: right up front that UM, we have a online fundraising
Speaker 1: platform both within our you know, our social media Facebook
Speaker 1: page as well as UM on our our baseline foundation page.
Speaker 1: Someone can go there and you can click donate. When
Speaker 1: the donate page comes up, there's a drop down menu.
Speaker 1: You can donate to an individual case, you can donate
Speaker 1: to the emergency fund, you can donate to the gold
Speaker 1: Star families. So there are categories and you can write
Speaker 1: a little narrative saying, hey, my you know, my friend
Speaker 1: is so and so and he was recently injured in
Speaker 1: a training accident or you know, killed in action or whatever,
Speaker 1: and I want to donate to this to him, or
Speaker 1: it can go to the emergency fund. So right up front,
Speaker 1: I mean, the truth of the the matter is that we
Speaker 1: as a nonprofit work on donations. I mean, if people
Speaker 1: are non involved and and financial and uh product donations
Speaker 1: are key, we simply cannot do the things that I've
Speaker 1: described to you today. It's it's just that's just the truth.
Speaker 1: So if someone wants to help immediately, financial help is
Speaker 1: always well. Now, if someone wants to donate time, there
Speaker 1: are other things we do in the fundraising realm Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, a guy might run the Marine Corps Marathon
Speaker 1: on behalf of the foundation and raise money. You know,
Speaker 1: some Marines may go and summit you know, Mount Rainier
Speaker 1: for time and raise money. Uh. You know those sort
Speaker 1: of activities. Someone may throw a golf tournament and then
Speaker 1: within those, you know, people can volunteer to help execute.
Speaker 1: So for example, uh, this year, in November eight, will
Speaker 1: be the third UH annual a ha Koa golf tournament
Speaker 1: here on o Wahhao Huge golf tournament. I was involved
Speaker 1: last year for the first time on behalf of the foundation.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about you know, probably two dozen businesses, three golfers. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, just a huge venue food, drink, entertainment and
Speaker 1: then there's some golfing. It's a golf tournament, but it
Speaker 1: was more of the other than it was golfing. Uh,
Speaker 1: and all to raise money and uh you know, at
Speaker 1: the end of the night, uh, you know, the foundation
Speaker 1: was was awarded a very handsome check. Um. If people
Speaker 1: want to come out and support that, really it's just
Speaker 1: a fun day out there on the golf course, eating, drinking, entertainment,
Speaker 1: interacting with the young reconstance marines. Um. They can come
Speaker 1: out and say, hey, I would like to help donate
Speaker 1: my time, to organize, to pack, you know, to do
Speaker 1: this at the other So I think those are some
Speaker 1: ways that people can get involved in the foundation. And
Speaker 1: what I will tell you is, in the end, the
Speaker 1: beauty of this foundation specifically is that every dollar that
Speaker 1: comes in, every product that comes in is directly in
Speaker 1: support of the foundation. It isn't like some and I'm
Speaker 1: not going to mention them where you know, you get
Speaker 1: a dollar and five cents of that dollar goes to
Speaker 1: help the actual audience, the actual people you're supposed to support. No, no,
Speaker 1: none of us are getting paid. Not that there's no,
Speaker 1: there's no. Everything is about what we can do the
Speaker 1: further support in the recon community. So I can assure
Speaker 1: you personally, I'm saying it today on the air that
Speaker 1: in my experience with the foundation, that has been the case,
Speaker 1: and while I'm on the board, that will continue to
Speaker 1: be the case. That's awesome. Man. Well, the website is
Speaker 1: Recon foundation dot org. The gold Star treat It sounds amazing.
Speaker 1: I mean, it sounds like you're going to make these
Speaker 1: families feel like rock stars and well deserved. I guess
Speaker 1: the last question I have before we wrap this up,
Speaker 1: and this has been a fascinating discussion, uh, is where
Speaker 1: does the nickname Pep come from? I'm I'm off and
Speaker 1: asked that. So my first name, right, being a Spaniard,
Speaker 1: first generation American, is Jose. Right, So Jose is basically
Speaker 1: Joseph in Spanish. Uh So Peppe is sort of slang
Speaker 1: for Joe in Spanish. So when I grew up, literally nobody,
Speaker 1: not even my mother called me Jose. Uh. It was
Speaker 1: always Peppe, which turned into Pep. Now as I got
Speaker 1: older in my professional life. Um, you know, when you
Speaker 1: meet someone, I don't introduce myself as Pep off the bat,
Speaker 1: unless like you're a teammate, and people know me by
Speaker 1: that in the community, because I would go, Hi, my
Speaker 1: name is Pep, and they would say, what Pep? Pep?
Speaker 1: What Pp? Just never mind? Never mind Joe? How about
Speaker 1: Joe Joe works? Because that's kind of a common name.
Speaker 1: So it's a funny story. It's funny you asked you that.
Speaker 1: I was literally just asked that day before yesterday that
Speaker 1: that's the background. That's cool, man, I was just wondering.
Speaker 1: So once again, the website is our recon Foundation dot org.
Speaker 1: It's been great having someone of your background because, as
Speaker 1: you said, a lot of guys in your background don't
Speaker 1: really do a lot of speaking, not a lot of
Speaker 1: books put out by guys of your background, and it's
Speaker 1: been great having you on. Anything else to plug before
Speaker 1: we wrap this up, I would just say that I
Speaker 1: appreciate having the opportunity to represent the Marine Reconnaissance Foundation
Speaker 1: and the Reconsistance community, which is UH our reconnaissance Marines
Speaker 1: and our special on Fibish Reconstance Corman. Um, you're lucky
Speaker 1: to be an American as we all are, and uh,
Speaker 1: we believe in our mission. And if you're like minded
Speaker 1: and you'd like to be involved, please get involved because
Speaker 1: action speaks louder than words. Awesome. Thanks, yeah, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for spending some of your day with us today.
Speaker 1: This has been really informative and I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people are gonna want to get involved. Awesome. Thank
Speaker 1: you guys, very much. Great having jose Pep de Blada
Speaker 1: on the show today, Um, and next to Nick Kaufman
Speaker 1: for the connection, and especially for a guy who sounded
Speaker 1: like he didn't want to talk so much about himself,
Speaker 1: I'm very glad that he did get into his back
Speaker 1: now he said, he seems like a really cool guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And at first, you know, because he was just like, well,
Speaker 1: I just want to talk about the Recon Foundation. I
Speaker 1: didn't think I thought he was gonna be kind of
Speaker 1: tight whipped about his service. And I'm glad he got
Speaker 1: into it with us. Yeah. Well, I mean, you want
Speaker 1: the thing is, we live in a democratic country, right
Speaker 1: and we need the public support for our military. And
Speaker 1: if the public doesn't know what a reconnaissance marine is,
Speaker 1: they're not going to support him. Yeah, that's just the truth.
Speaker 1: I mean, if they don't know what a ranger is,
Speaker 1: they're not going to support him. Um, basically a Navy seal.
Speaker 1: I think the public understands what a Navy seal is
Speaker 1: at this point. Um. But you know, as as jose
Speaker 1: was talking about, I mean, it's important to talk about
Speaker 1: the reconnaissance marine because we want the public to support them.
Speaker 1: We want the public to support the Marine Corps. We
Speaker 1: want the public to support foundations like this that help
Speaker 1: out the families and and injured marines. So it is
Speaker 1: important to tell some of these stories. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: do appreciate him going into, you know, extensive detail about
Speaker 1: their mission and that everybody is a volunteer. You know.
Speaker 1: Oftentimes you do hear about organizations and it just seems
Speaker 1: like they're doing a lot of like networking and charity
Speaker 1: events and and and you wonder where the money is going.
Speaker 1: You know, he gave us all the details of where
Speaker 1: that money is going. So it sounds like an incredible organization. No,
Speaker 1: they sound like they're really hands on, which is great.
Speaker 1: Like I have a friend without naming names, but doing
Speaker 1: it was like one of these charitable galas um down
Speaker 1: in downtown Manhattan, and like these millionaires were coming up
Speaker 1: to him and they're like, yeah, I just donated one
Speaker 1: point five million to the Organized Nation. But then on
Speaker 1: the on the back side of it, he knows that
Speaker 1: organization isn't doing anything, so he's like, where the fund
Speaker 1: is the money going? What the hell is going on here? Um,
Speaker 1: So I've seen the same type of thing, man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I mean it sounds like the the Recon Foundation
Speaker 1: is small, it's staffed by volunteers, and it sounds like
Speaker 1: it's hands on, you know, So it's it's probably a
Speaker 1: much safer bet. And he's definitely passionate about it. And
Speaker 1: and I think being able to fly these gold Star
Speaker 1: families out to lie for you know, a few days,
Speaker 1: to both unwind and learn some new stuff, like, it's
Speaker 1: really like an awesome experience. And and also the reaction
Speaker 1: he got from those families. So yeah, visit Reconfoundation dot org,
Speaker 1: and uh, I think that's that's it for us. I mean,
Speaker 1: that was a great interview, and for a guy who
Speaker 1: doesn't do a lot of media, I thought he was
Speaker 1: excellent and I had a lot to say yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I don't love to have him back on sometime definitely.
Speaker 1: Um alright, so follow us as always at Soffer Radio.
Speaker 1: Check out the News rep dot com for all the
Speaker 1: way it's special operations news as well as everything else
Speaker 1: we're covering over there, and uh, we'll talk to you
Speaker 1: guys soon. You've been listening to self Rep Radio. New
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Speaker 1: Instagram and Twitter at self Rep Radio