Speaker 1: Ah beat Force. If it doesn't work, you're just not
Speaker 1: using enough. You're listening to Software a Gradio Special Operations,
Speaker 1: military news and straight talk with the guys and the
Speaker 1: community software Radio on time on Target. I mean in scotto,
Speaker 1: I'm here with Jack Murphy and we're gonna have Alex
Speaker 1: how long is coming on? But I guess like two
Speaker 1: pretty big at adstments today. I mean, the first of
Speaker 1: which we've been teasing for a while, is that your book,
Speaker 1: Burphy's Law has just hit shelves, Amazon everywhere else, audio book,
Speaker 1: actual hard copy and everything. It after months of waiting
Speaker 1: and you know, it feels like it's been a long journey.
Speaker 1: But um yeah, today is the publication date of the book,
Speaker 1: so I've been running around doing stuff for that. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be on well, it'll be in the past when
Speaker 1: people hear this, but um doing Andrew will caw show today,
Speaker 1: which you know, I do know you can listen to
Speaker 1: on demand. So if people are hearing it now, if
Speaker 1: if you're a serious sex M subscriber or um I
Speaker 1: want to do that trial membership, they have that as well.
Speaker 1: You can go on the app and and what'sten back
Speaker 1: to it? Yeah, man, UM, so I've been doing a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff to promote the book. I'm really proud
Speaker 1: of it, really excited about it. Um, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of information. It was funny. I was actually I was
Speaker 1: in Italy for four days, which I was I should
Speaker 1: ask about, and I'm just all say it now for
Speaker 1: the guys listening the ambient city noise in the background
Speaker 1: ambulance is driving by, it's because if I don't have
Speaker 1: the windows open, and now that's getting warm and it'll
Speaker 1: get super stuffy in here, So that's what you're hearing.
Speaker 1: But anyway, New York City Ambiance Italy. Oh as in Italy,
Speaker 1: and my uh my mother in law was I was
Speaker 1: actually commenting to me because she was reading the book,
Speaker 1: and she's like, Jack, like you have all these stories
Speaker 1: and all these things you did, and like I had
Speaker 1: no idea, Like you never talked about any of this stuff.
Speaker 1: And I've had other like friends and family members comment
Speaker 1: on that too, They're like, like I had no fucking idea,
Speaker 1: And I was like, well, yeah, I mean I'm just
Speaker 1: not the type of person. I don't like to go
Speaker 1: around like telling worst stories all the time. You know,
Speaker 1: I feel the same way, and and The irony of
Speaker 1: it is that, like we the only times, not the
Speaker 1: only times when I see you outside of doing this,
Speaker 1: but for the most part, when I see you, it's
Speaker 1: an hour or two of military times and I've never
Speaker 1: I've never heard you tell those stories. It is true
Speaker 1: and and some of them, and I want to ruin
Speaker 1: it for people who are going to read the book.
Speaker 1: I did hear rumors about and people are like, is
Speaker 1: this true? Is that true? And it's not something I
Speaker 1: would ask you off air, And now that I've read
Speaker 1: the book, it's like, Okay, you told your story as
Speaker 1: candid as you could. Oh no, you should have just
Speaker 1: asked me. But um, yeah, it was yesterday. It was
Speaker 1: kind of surreal because I was just on the on
Speaker 1: the interwebs, right, and I saw all these pictures of
Speaker 1: Pat Tillman, um, and you know Pat Tilman, of course,
Speaker 1: as an NFL star football player who gave up, you know,
Speaker 1: multimillion dollar contract to go and join the army and
Speaker 1: become a Army ranger. He joined the Ranger Regiment UH
Speaker 1: and went in the second Range of Battalion, and he
Speaker 1: was tragically killed in Afghanistan UH in a friendly fire incident.
Speaker 1: Although the government wide to him about Yeah, initially they
Speaker 1: made it out like you know, it was enemy contact.
Speaker 1: I mean they were they did get ambushed, but then
Speaker 1: Tilman was killed by a fifty cow gunner on one
Speaker 1: of the Humby's and uh, it was just surreal looking
Speaker 1: at all that because I'm like, you know, just the
Speaker 1: next day today my book comes out, which talks about
Speaker 1: some undisclosed information about the aftermath of the Tilman ambush.
Speaker 1: Because I was a sniper on a small wreckie team
Speaker 1: in Afghanistan and we were sent on the mission to
Speaker 1: go and recon the compound where the guy who planned
Speaker 1: the Tilman ambush, the terrorist who actually you know, launched
Speaker 1: that operation where he was at. So we went over
Speaker 1: there to um down to the Pakistan border to recon
Speaker 1: that target, and uh, unfortunately the result of that was
Speaker 1: another friendly fire incident. Uh. It just kind of boggles
Speaker 1: the mind. And I was right in the middle of it,
Speaker 1: and uh the book spends you know, a good you know,
Speaker 1: two chapters talking about it. You know, I talked to
Speaker 1: my former sniper partner, Uh, I talked to the assistant
Speaker 1: team leader on that reckie team, and I talked to
Speaker 1: my platoon sergeant at the time in Afghanistan. UM my
Speaker 1: actual sniper platoon sergeant UH Sergeant Van Alice was in
Speaker 1: Iraq at the time. UM. Later on, van Alice went
Speaker 1: over UM and became a Delta operator. UM and he
Speaker 1: himself was tragically killed in a friendly fire incident by
Speaker 1: another operator. It's just one of those things is really
Speaker 1: hard to wrap your mind around all this ship and
Speaker 1: how it happened. UM. And I that Van Alice was killed.
Speaker 1: I believe in two thousand ten, if I recall correctly,
Speaker 1: I was out of the army by that point. It's
Speaker 1: just UM. I mean, you'll read about it in the book.
Speaker 1: It's it's fucking surreal. Yeah, we'll pick up the book.
Speaker 1: I I don't want to give too much away, and
Speaker 1: I don't think you do either, because people are gonna
Speaker 1: want to read it. As you said, it gets into
Speaker 1: the action pretty quickly. A lot of books, the first
Speaker 1: third or show of the book is this is my childhood.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. It's like
Speaker 1: the cliche that every book about seals is like the
Speaker 1: first half is about buds. Sure, I didn't want to
Speaker 1: do that in my case. UM. In the book, there's
Speaker 1: probably like ten pages about um going through ranger indoctrination,
Speaker 1: Special Forces selection, ranger school, and the Q course. Like,
Speaker 1: that's like ten pages of stuff in the book. I
Speaker 1: didn't want to focus on that because so many other
Speaker 1: people had written about it, So I just tell some
Speaker 1: funny stories about stupid stuff I did and uh, and
Speaker 1: we move on. Most of the book, I really try
Speaker 1: to focus on the highlights of combat operations and going overseas,
Speaker 1: reporting overseas, just like really interesting zany adventures and misadventures. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think people are going to enjoy it, and it's
Speaker 1: going to separate itself from many of the other veteran
Speaker 1: books out there, which most of which you know, are great.
Speaker 1: I'm not bashing anyone, but I think you're going to
Speaker 1: be different. Yeah, it's gonna be very different, I think
Speaker 1: from most of the books that are out there. You know.
Speaker 1: I commented in the past that there are tropes that
Speaker 1: the military memoirs are a genre, and it becomes like
Speaker 1: one book becomes very popular, and then everyone else feels
Speaker 1: obligated to fit themselves into that genre because they know
Speaker 1: that has gotten traction with the public. And by the way,
Speaker 1: it's like that with everything everything the genre. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: the military memoir genre, unfortunately, a lot of it is um,
Speaker 1: just some guy, you know, bragging about all the brown
Speaker 1: people he killed in the Middle East, like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I killed the Muslim, and then I killed another Muslim,
Speaker 1: then I killed another. It's like Jesus Christ, really um.
Speaker 1: And then there's the sub genre, which is the opposite
Speaker 1: of that. It's the guy who became a whiny anti
Speaker 1: war activist after the war and now they're like, Imperial
Speaker 1: America exploited my youth and sent me to kill and
Speaker 1: blab bla. But my experience was neither of those things.
Speaker 1: And I think for most soldiers, their experience is neither
Speaker 1: of those things. It is not a glorified um sort
Speaker 1: of flag waving um. But it's also not a an
Speaker 1: anti American kind of thing either. You know, our experience
Speaker 1: was something else, and I tried to show that in
Speaker 1: the book. As uh. One reader commented to me, another veteran,
Speaker 1: he said, you know, we were promised a lot of
Speaker 1: things were going to happen in this war, you know,
Speaker 1: things like victory, for instance, and none of that happened.
Speaker 1: And the book really pointed that out for him. And
Speaker 1: I was glad that to see people take that away
Speaker 1: from the book, because I think it's Uh, the book
Speaker 1: is pro military, but it's also deeply skeptical about the
Speaker 1: war on terrorism and where we've gone over the last
Speaker 1: seventeen years. Alright. So then the other announcement that I
Speaker 1: wanted to make, and no out of you have seen it.
Speaker 1: It's kind of blown up on my page and the
Speaker 1: feedback has been very positive. Um, you know, I just
Speaker 1: wanted to let everybody know on social media first that
Speaker 1: I've made the decision. Uh, this is basically going to
Speaker 1: be my last month of shows here. And as I
Speaker 1: said to my post, you know, I don't need to
Speaker 1: reiterate everything, but I genuinely mean it when it's like
Speaker 1: these past seven years meeting everybody, Uh, from the writers
Speaker 1: of the site, that the operators who worked at this
Speaker 1: at what was soft rep dot com which became the
Speaker 1: news rep dot com and we've appeared on the podcast.
Speaker 1: There's so many guys and then just the listeners. This
Speaker 1: is the doing this show. Is the first time anybody
Speaker 1: ever came up to me out of the blue wood
Speaker 1: places would say you're in from Software Radio. And I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that happens every day but it has happened
Speaker 1: on occasion and it reminds me like, holy sh it,
Speaker 1: this show is making an impact. And there's people who
Speaker 1: commented that said, hey, I started listening, you know before
Speaker 1: I was in high school downmand college, and it blows
Speaker 1: my mind, like we've I've been doing this for seven years,
Speaker 1: nearly since the beginning, and I've loved what I've done.
Speaker 1: I just kind of want to move on to some
Speaker 1: different things in my life. Um, this is no surprise
Speaker 1: to anybody, Like the site has taken a little bit
Speaker 1: of a different direction in the company, and I'm just
Speaker 1: looking to do something else, probably in the adio field,
Speaker 1: but other things that I want to do as well. UM.
Speaker 1: I was telling some people like this might seem out
Speaker 1: of left field, but like earlyen, I do have passion
Speaker 1: for fitnesses I talked about in the last podcast with
Speaker 1: Doug and c J. I was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: just as a small thing on the side, would love
Speaker 1: to be a n s N a s M certified
Speaker 1: personal trainers. So I started doing the self study on
Speaker 1: the side and realized, like, holy sh it, this is
Speaker 1: way harder than I expected because of like memorizing vocabulary
Speaker 1: all that stuff, and I didn't have the motivation to
Speaker 1: do it because I was doing this. I was doing
Speaker 1: some voiceover on the side, and now I will actually
Speaker 1: have some time to do that, So that's something I
Speaker 1: want to do. I'm gonna continue to do voiceover stuff,
Speaker 1: and I definitely don't rule out Jack and I doing
Speaker 1: another podcast at some point, possibly because we we love
Speaker 1: to do this, but I'm just looking to do some
Speaker 1: other things right now. Yeah, no, I completely understand. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm immensely proud of this podcast and I
Speaker 1: think you made it into what it is exacularly. You know.
Speaker 1: I just kind of showed up and and you know,
Speaker 1: ask questions of people although you've been here before I was,
Speaker 1: and and you were doing the podcast you know before
Speaker 1: I was. Yeah, man, but you know, you made this
Speaker 1: thing what it is. And um, just hundreds and hundreds
Speaker 1: of episodes and interviews and it's been really incredible, and
Speaker 1: I'm really proud of it, of the work we've done here,
Speaker 1: I think, just to be real, Um, as far as
Speaker 1: the website, like you mentioned, going from soft Rep to
Speaker 1: news Rep to and now we're at a point where
Speaker 1: I don't even know what we do anymore. Um, just
Speaker 1: to be real about it. You know, I thought I
Speaker 1: knew for a long time. Now I'm at the point
Speaker 1: where I have no idea what we're doing with the website,
Speaker 1: and the company has taken new directions. So I mean,
Speaker 1: you have to make decisions about where we're going, where
Speaker 1: you're going collectively, and where you're going individually. And I
Speaker 1: also do want to mention that, um, I'm on good
Speaker 1: terms with everybody, and and I really do thank Brandon
Speaker 1: Webb for bringing me on board here, and I've had
Speaker 1: so many great times with him and and him meeting
Speaker 1: me change the direction of my life. And as I
Speaker 1: said to him, like I am in a better position
Speaker 1: now thanks to him. And I just randomly met him
Speaker 1: at Serious and it was just a thing that we
Speaker 1: hit it off and we got along. And I'll always
Speaker 1: be thankful that he brought me on board to do
Speaker 1: this full time, and I've loved doing it. There were
Speaker 1: before I did this podcast, I probably knew a handful
Speaker 1: of military guys and veterans. I was not someone who
Speaker 1: read every single military You know, way more of us
Speaker 1: than you ever wanted to. Yeah, I mean now it's
Speaker 1: like the people that commented on that I wrote this
Speaker 1: and the people that have texted me, like I consider
Speaker 1: guys like Dale Comstock and quent Emerson and Chris Parronto
Speaker 1: and all those guys like friends of mine that I
Speaker 1: don't see them every day, but I they're guys that
Speaker 1: I could text talk to Rob O'Neil as well. Like
Speaker 1: it's pretty crazy when I'm able to say, like the
Speaker 1: guy who was there in the room when you know
Speaker 1: Ben Waden was killed, there's a guy that I regularly
Speaker 1: talked to and is an extremely nice guy. So like
Speaker 1: it's been non or knowing everyone here. And I think
Speaker 1: also the that relationship happens because I don't put anyone
Speaker 1: I've met people in music industry and the film industry
Speaker 1: and now doing this, I don't put anybody on such
Speaker 1: a pedestal that they're, you know, like the greatest person
Speaker 1: of all. Uh. We're all just regular people, absolutely, And
Speaker 1: I think when you treat people on that human level
Speaker 1: and are um authentic, you end up just making relationships
Speaker 1: along the way. And I I really hope that's something
Speaker 1: that people have taken away from from this podcast actually
Speaker 1: is that you know, we we've talked about and interviewed
Speaker 1: all sorts of people. Um, and you've from listening to
Speaker 1: this podcast, people here the good, the bad, and the
Speaker 1: ugly of this world, of the special operations world, the
Speaker 1: intelligence community, the military as a whole. UM. But I
Speaker 1: hope that's something they take away from it that these
Speaker 1: guys are not Superman, they're not superheroes. There are regular people. UM.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they do things that are downright heroic. Um. Some
Speaker 1: of them, you know, unfortunately, are absolute scumbags. UM. You know,
Speaker 1: we've covered military sexual assault to some murder and all
Speaker 1: sorts of horrible things. But they're all human beings, and
Speaker 1: they are human beings that are taxpayer funded, and we
Speaker 1: recruit and train and deploy these guys in our names
Speaker 1: as America. UM, and people should be aware of that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I think you've done a great job at just
Speaker 1: covering things from a standpoint of being as objective as possible. UM.
Speaker 1: A lot of the military sites out there, when they
Speaker 1: report on the Eddie Gallagher thing, for example, it's a
Speaker 1: lot of like, let's get behind this guy. You got
Speaker 1: to donate. And I think you've done a good job
Speaker 1: of saying like, I don't know this guy, but not
Speaker 1: so fast, Like these are stories of other seals saying
Speaker 1: reporting what what they saw and it might not be
Speaker 1: such a clear cut thing, like let's wait until this
Speaker 1: trial happens. And for some reason, saying that means you know,
Speaker 1: you hate the troops even though it's you not taking
Speaker 1: the side of the troops accusing him and not taking
Speaker 1: the side of him necessarily and wait until evidence comes out.
Speaker 1: That's called being a journalist reporting on things accurately. And
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that's the great thing about our
Speaker 1: criminal justice system is that it's a court of law
Speaker 1: and not a court of passions. And you're can have
Speaker 1: a passionate opinion that's okay, but that's not a fact um.
Speaker 1: And I didn't since you brought up that specific case.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know the facts. I can tell
Speaker 1: you know what I read, and I can read the
Speaker 1: statements from the prosecutors and from the defense, and it's
Speaker 1: not going to be a clear cut case. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a hard fought case. Um. Next month. Yeah,
Speaker 1: May is when it when the trial begins. But if
Speaker 1: it wasn't for what you and other guys that news
Speaker 1: rep have reported the other sites out there, at least
Speaker 1: that I've seen, it's all like Navy seal railroaded. You know,
Speaker 1: this is injustice, and they do that's clickbait. I mean
Speaker 1: they do it because it speaks well to their audience. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like going on Fox News and saying
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is the best, or going on MSNBC, or
Speaker 1: you said possibly going on and saying that Donald Trump
Speaker 1: endorses your book. Yeah, yeah, I was thinking of saying that.
Speaker 1: You know, if you don't buy my book, you hate
Speaker 1: the troops, but are going on MSNBC and saying Donald
Speaker 1: Trump is a Nazi. It's like you're just pandering to
Speaker 1: your audience at that point. You're not even trying to
Speaker 1: tell them the truth or even trying to be objective. Well, um,
Speaker 1: Donald Trump really does love my book though, I just
Speaker 1: want to point that out. He's He's tweeted about Tony
Speaker 1: Tata's book who's been on here in general A J.
Speaker 1: Tata that that he endorses it. So he does tend
Speaker 1: to endorse things that go on Foxing Friends. Actually, when
Speaker 1: we all do know he watches Foxing Friends and you
Speaker 1: will hopefully see you on there. Should I look right
Speaker 1: into the camera and be like, Donald Trump, you will
Speaker 1: love this book. President Trump's one time he maybe listening
Speaker 1: to you, President Trump. Well, you know he watches every morning,
Speaker 1: he tweets about it, so he probably should, President Trump.
Speaker 1: This is the best book in America ever. Do it, UM.
Speaker 1: But we will be here for you know, the rest
Speaker 1: of I'll be here at least, you know, you'll continue
Speaker 1: to be here the rest of the episodes this U
Speaker 1: coming month, and we have some great guests books, so
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think this is like a final
Speaker 1: show or anything. Bob Bart next episode, which I'm really
Speaker 1: excited to be interesting, Yeah to me in our world
Speaker 1: at least that's his a level as it gets, and
Speaker 1: he loves to talk about different things. And UH told
Speaker 1: me that he'd really like to talk about guys in
Speaker 1: the intelligence world and contractors working for governments that are
Speaker 1: hostile towards US, which I know he's very disgusted by
Speaker 1: it, and and what gears take on it. Yeah. Well, I
Speaker 1: mean we've covered some of these things, you know, UH
Speaker 1: in various times on the podcast, UM about former soft
Speaker 1: guys primarily going and you know, working freelance work and
Speaker 1: countries like the U a e. Or Yemen or wherever.
Speaker 1: And I'm really interested to hear what Bob's take on
Speaker 1: it is yeah, and I think he may have more
Speaker 1: to say as well about guys in his field and
Speaker 1: and and he's right, there's there's quite a few, yeah,
Speaker 1: as well. As we've talked about it on show before
Speaker 1: to Eric Prince, and he I mentioned Derek Prince to
Speaker 1: him on the call when I asked if we wanted
Speaker 1: to come on, and I can tell you to watch
Speaker 1: to say about that as well about what Arik Prince
Speaker 1: is doing in China. It's gonna be interesting looking forward
Speaker 1: to that. Um. But anyway, before we get to Alex,
Speaker 1: I I forgot to actually say this at the top
Speaker 1: of the show, I did want to mention this. This
Speaker 1: show is brought to you by Airdrop and that's our
Speaker 1: new section on Create Club where you can find a
Speaker 1: Central Gear and Killer apparel that you can buy separately
Speaker 1: for more monthly and quarterly club subscriptions. That's some great
Speaker 1: stuff on there that's heavily discounted. But a lot of
Speaker 1: these items sell out quick, so you really got to
Speaker 1: act now. Um, you know what I wrote down what
Speaker 1: we still have at the site, but some of the
Speaker 1: stuff is sold out now. So like those NFW watches,
Speaker 1: the cry precision ballistic soft armor inserts, the Create Club
Speaker 1: fishing sphere. Some of that might still be up, some
Speaker 1: of it might be sold out, so just go to
Speaker 1: store dot create club dot us to check it all out.
Speaker 1: That store dot create club dot us. And with that
Speaker 1: bad don The show actually for a first time in
Speaker 1: h in a while is Alex Hollings, as you guys know,
Speaker 1: writer at the News Rep, writer also at the load
Speaker 1: out room, former marine. Although I know the only person
Speaker 1: who broke my balls about this recently was when I
Speaker 1: said former Navy seal with the Christian back and Christian
Speaker 1: backs like retired Navy seal. And I was like, I think,
Speaker 1: as long as you don't say X, you're fine, right,
Speaker 1: But bro I I don't even I don't even know
Speaker 1: that that's like the that former X thing that's kind
Speaker 1: of like the gender pronouns of special operations or so
Speaker 1: then you can tell why. I'll tell you what. The
Speaker 1: fastest way to get a marine to try to fight
Speaker 1: you at a bar is call him a former or
Speaker 1: an ex marine. And I feel like it, I really,
Speaker 1: because well there's you know, there's that old saying there's
Speaker 1: no former marines, right. The problem is is that you know,
Speaker 1: I've been out for four we're going on five years.
Speaker 1: I've got a big old beard. I certainly don't look
Speaker 1: like an active duty marine. So there there is the
Speaker 1: need for a qualifier that shows that I'm not an
Speaker 1: active duty marine. When I introduced myself, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: be hey, man, I'm a marine because I'm clearly fat
Speaker 1: and harry. But but you would say, you would say
Speaker 1: retired marine, right, Well, I I technically I am a
Speaker 1: retired marine. But because I was medically retired after only
Speaker 1: about seven years, I don't say retired either, because I
Speaker 1: didn't earn a retirement the way these guys who do
Speaker 1: twenty plus years earn a retirement. I just blew my
Speaker 1: knees out and got sent home, you know. So, so
Speaker 1: I I usually just say I was a marine. I mean,
Speaker 1: the easiest one. I don't know what you think about
Speaker 1: this out, but I always found it a little weird.
Speaker 1: Like I've been invited to events and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, yeah, you need to wear your uniform,
Speaker 1: and so I have been and that's not gonna happen.
Speaker 1: And it's like, dude, I'm not in the army any like,
Speaker 1: is that even legal, like you don't like skip barber
Speaker 1: Racing for a long time. And if somebody was like, hey,
Speaker 1: I want you to come to this event and I
Speaker 1: need you to wear the polo shirt that says skip
Speaker 1: barber Racing and the slacks from when you worked there,
Speaker 1: I would say, no, I don't work there anymore. It's
Speaker 1: the same. I'm not an active duty Marine. I don't
Speaker 1: represent the Marine Corps. I'm not going to wear a uniform. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I always found that weird, Like you get invite it
Speaker 1: to these events? Are you got to wear your classes
Speaker 1: and like like what Like, I, first of all, there's
Speaker 1: no way at hell I'm gonna fit back into my dress.
Speaker 1: I could. I could fit into my old uniform probably,
Speaker 1: but it's just like, dude, I'm not in the army anymore.
Speaker 1: Like get over it? You know that would that would
Speaker 1: feel weird, But I remember. So if you listen to
Speaker 1: back that episode with Christen Beck said was I think
Speaker 1: Christian said there are no X Navy Seals and then
Speaker 1: Christian was like, actually, if someone like takes your try
Speaker 1: it in a way for something that you did, which
Speaker 1: I've seen happen, then you're an X or So I
Speaker 1: get when I was on active duty. I used to
Speaker 1: always tell my marines that the Eagle globe and anchor,
Speaker 1: which is, you know, a point of pride for us
Speaker 1: as marines. You have to earn it every day like
Speaker 1: you were. You were giving it at the end of
Speaker 1: boot camp. But you need to carry yourself as a
Speaker 1: marine every day in order to be a marine. In
Speaker 1: my eyes, now that I'm no longer on active duty,
Speaker 1: I really I don't. I don't uh once again earn
Speaker 1: my Eagle Gloman anchor every day. You know, I'm doing
Speaker 1: a completely different line of work. I'm not living the
Speaker 1: ideals of the Marine Corps. I'm trying to live by
Speaker 1: a different set of ideals now, So I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's fair for me to say that I
Speaker 1: represent the Marine Corps. Yeah, you know entirely now so
Speaker 1: retired marine and author Alex Hollings. But the first thing
Speaker 1: that I know you wanted to touch on, and I
Speaker 1: know oftentimes Jack, you feel like the media talks way
Speaker 1: too much about this one congress woman, which I understand,
Speaker 1: But since this is in our wheelhouse, Alexandria Stasio Cortez
Speaker 1: calling the saying about the v A if it ain't broke,
Speaker 1: don't fix it, and basically endorsing the treatment there. That's
Speaker 1: the weirdest fucking statement I've ever heard in my life.
Speaker 1: At a loss, Alex didn't like. In the last month,
Speaker 1: we had like three guys down in Austin, Texas killed
Speaker 1: themselves in the v A. They're like, just shot in Georgia.
Speaker 1: One of them was at the v A that I
Speaker 1: was at just a few days prior. One of them
Speaker 1: was in Austin, Texas. The guy actually shot himself in
Speaker 1: the v A waiting room. World class healthcare. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: two that did it in Georgia were both in the parking.
Speaker 1: Why what the fuck about this is ever? This is
Speaker 1: this month? Yeah, Yeah, you guys did it over the
Speaker 1: span of five days, like two weeks ago. Do do
Speaker 1: you guys think it's possible she's unaware of it, because
Speaker 1: in fact, I think she's unaware of a lot of things.
Speaker 1: She's someone's very focused on on, like climate change and
Speaker 1: those type of issues. Maybe veterans issues are just not
Speaker 1: on for her. In her mind. It's like big government
Speaker 1: is the answer. It's a good thing. Like she thinks
Speaker 1: we need to be more like East Germany or something
Speaker 1: like that so in her mind, and nationalized healthcare system
Speaker 1: like VA is like the greatest thing never fucking happened.
Speaker 1: But those of us, you know, who have actually been
Speaker 1: to v A hospitals, and I've had mostly good experiences,
Speaker 1: but I can tell you having used commercial healthcare on
Speaker 1: commercial health insurance like it is also like night and day. Well,
Speaker 1: I can tell you this my experience going to that
Speaker 1: same v A. It's right outside of Atlanta. I think
Speaker 1: it's indicator the Atlanta VA hospital that one of these
Speaker 1: suicides just took place at. I was there about a
Speaker 1: week prior, a little less than because you guys know
Speaker 1: we've talked about it before. I've got this problem with
Speaker 1: my eyes or occasionally I just kind of go blind,
Speaker 1: you know, and uh, it's an ongoing thing. I've been
Speaker 1: getting treatment for a long time, so uh previously it
Speaker 1: had always just been in my right eye, and like
Speaker 1: a month ago or so, I woke up one morning
Speaker 1: with it in both eyes and I couldn't see hardly anything.
Speaker 1: So I freaked out, you know, because going blind is terrifying.
Speaker 1: It's much more upsetting. I think that I could really
Speaker 1: convey because you don't realize how much you're connected to
Speaker 1: the world around you by vision. You know, it would
Speaker 1: be like losing a leg would be something like you
Speaker 1: could kind of like deal with, but going behind. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I've used that analogy before because you know, I've had
Speaker 1: a lot of injuries. So I had a lot of
Speaker 1: surgeries on you know, both knees, one of my ankles.
Speaker 1: So I've spent time in a wheelchair. I spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time on crutches. Obviously I would be I
Speaker 1: would sooner lose a limb or even two than my vision,
Speaker 1: which I realized is an insensitive thing to say to
Speaker 1: someone who's lost a limb, But man, I'm I'm terrified
Speaker 1: of going blind, genuinely. And so I got on the
Speaker 1: phone to call the v A to like try to
Speaker 1: get in to see a doctor there at the at
Speaker 1: the eye clinic. I was on hold for probably two
Speaker 1: hours before I was able to reach someone. But in
Speaker 1: their defense, I was like, I woke up blind and
Speaker 1: I'm terrified, And they said, all right, we have an
Speaker 1: opening today at I need you to get here right away,
Speaker 1: you know. So I took the rest of the day
Speaker 1: off from work, drove to the v A, which is
Speaker 1: about an hour and a half from my house. Well,
Speaker 1: you drove your wife, drove my wife. Okay, I'm just checking.
Speaker 1: Just check. My wife drove with my poor daughter in
Speaker 1: the car. And I will not bring my wife and
Speaker 1: daughter into a v A hospital. I won't do it. Uh,
Speaker 1: they're they're jam packed with people with strong emotions that
Speaker 1: are going through real big problems. Uh, there's not a chance.
Speaker 1: So I needed them to just drop me off and
Speaker 1: then just stand by until I get seen. You know.
Speaker 1: So I got into the waiting room and for the
Speaker 1: first hour that I waited, there wasn't even an open
Speaker 1: chair in the waiting room. I waited standing without a
Speaker 1: number of us. We're standing for the first hour. Then
Speaker 1: it started to clear out a little bit, so I
Speaker 1: was able to get into a chair, but then, you know,
Speaker 1: an older veteran was standing, so I gave my chair up.
Speaker 1: I ended up waiting for a little over three hours.
Speaker 1: I had a chair for maybe an hour of it.
Speaker 1: To see a doctor for ten minutes. Excuse me. First
Speaker 1: I saw a tech that dilated my eyes and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. Then I waited in another forty five minutes.
Speaker 1: Then I saw a doctor for about ten minutes who said, well,
Speaker 1: there's nothing we can really do for you today. I
Speaker 1: want you to come back in six weeks and tell
Speaker 1: me if it's worse, and sent me on my way
Speaker 1: all told, I was at the VA Hospital for about
Speaker 1: six hours for me to spend ten minutes with a
Speaker 1: doctor who said they couldn't help me and send me home.
Speaker 1: It's just a very stark comparison when when you've experienced both,
Speaker 1: because I mean going to v A, just trying to
Speaker 1: make an appointment at v A, you gotta call a number,
Speaker 1: then you gotta funk around on the on the Touchtowne
Speaker 1: phone figure out which department you need to get to.
Speaker 1: I spent like an hour one time on that automated
Speaker 1: phone system, and when I finally got where it was
Speaker 1: supposed to go, they said they couldn't make appointments because
Speaker 1: the system was down. And I'm telling the v A
Speaker 1: system the phone system is just like if you've ever
Speaker 1: called an embassy. They worked the same way, like they
Speaker 1: work in circles to try to keep you from reaching
Speaker 1: a person. Now, so it's like press this button to
Speaker 1: get this recording that'll tell you to press a different
Speaker 1: in five By comparison, if you have health insurance, you
Speaker 1: can't go online, and there are all these websites and
Speaker 1: like they searched for doctors in your area and they
Speaker 1: have like ratings, you know if that matters to you,
Speaker 1: you know, like you know stars, and uh, you find
Speaker 1: one you like, you book an appointment. It literally takes
Speaker 1: like five minutes. Yeah, you're done, And I mean it's
Speaker 1: it's important to know. Yeah, our health care system is
Speaker 1: all kinds of jack though. I can tell you because
Speaker 1: this is with this job, I don't have health care
Speaker 1: as opposed to when I did, and the amount I'm
Speaker 1: paying to just pay for healthcare outside of your career,
Speaker 1: it's it's a lot. I actually recently canceled my health
Speaker 1: insurance because I was paying a lot of money and
Speaker 1: gave me ship coverage. Um, and I didn't even have
Speaker 1: dental when I went, I'm like, what the fuck? Dentals
Speaker 1: a lot. Yeah, I don't have dental either, which is
Speaker 1: I need to get it now because my wife's got
Speaker 1: a problem she needs addressed. And that's how I decided
Speaker 1: that I need insurances. I'm gonna go try to hunt
Speaker 1: down some dental insurance to sign up for because now
Speaker 1: I need it. Yeah, I could, I could tell you
Speaker 1: my former employer, when I was able to just go
Speaker 1: to the dentist and they're like, cool, it's you know,
Speaker 1: it ended up being like, I don't know, twenty dollars
Speaker 1: for certain things. I was like, this is amazing. And
Speaker 1: now not having a health insurance through my employer, it's
Speaker 1: a whole another world. You need something totally mundane one
Speaker 1: and they're like, yeah, that's a five cope, Like an
Speaker 1: x ray cost just six hundred bucks. I learned because
Speaker 1: my wife needed an X ray just recently on her
Speaker 1: job was six dollars. And I'll tell you, I mean
Speaker 1: thankfully my uh my daughter had health insurance through my
Speaker 1: ex wife. This this happened years ago. She my daughter
Speaker 1: got an infection and was in the hospital. I remember
Speaker 1: this for like six days, I think five or six days.
Speaker 1: The bill comes in the mail, seventy dollars. Are you
Speaker 1: still paying that off? No? No, we used through health insurance,
Speaker 1: so they picked up most of the two. But that's
Speaker 1: an idea of the kind of price tag you're looking at.
Speaker 1: How screwed up our medical system currently. And both of
Speaker 1: my parents, you know, my father passed this past year,
Speaker 1: but prior to that, both of my parents worked their
Speaker 1: whole lives in the health care industry. And I want
Speaker 1: to be clear that I don't hold be A doctors
Speaker 1: and nurses accountable for how bad the v A is,
Speaker 1: you know, like they're hopelessly understaffed, that are incredibly overworked.
Speaker 1: The same thing with our overall health care industry. It's
Speaker 1: not these individual healthcare providers that are the problem. It's
Speaker 1: the system isn't working right. But that doesn't mean we
Speaker 1: need to throw the system away for this single payer plan.
Speaker 1: That one thing a lot of people don't think about
Speaker 1: is how it would collapse. You know, it's not a
Speaker 1: third of our economy that is currently healthcare based. A
Speaker 1: lot of people are employed by this broken machine. And
Speaker 1: if you replace that broken machine overnight with a new machine,
Speaker 1: broken or not, those people need work. So what was
Speaker 1: your take then, on Acasio Cortez's uh comments about v A. Well,
Speaker 1: it seems to me and I think Jack and I
Speaker 1: are on the same page about this. This she's an
Speaker 1: excellent example of someone who gets a great deal of attention,
Speaker 1: but it's more flash than substance, you know. She I'd
Speaker 1: be much more interested in seeing her actually accomplished something
Speaker 1: and then trying to grade her based on her performance
Speaker 1: rather than the headlines she's able to garner through Twitter.
Speaker 1: But it seems to me that this is a great
Speaker 1: example of her talking without knowing what the hell she's
Speaker 1: talking about, which I want to be clear, is not
Speaker 1: something I assigned only to her, you know, it's I
Speaker 1: genuinely believe that she's just the Democratic response to the
Speaker 1: Donald Trump approach to politics, which is it's more about
Speaker 1: what you can get the people to think than it
Speaker 1: is about what's actually happening. Right, Yeah, well said, I
Speaker 1: think it is true when you see it on both sides. Um.
Speaker 1: And then the other topic that we wanted to cover
Speaker 1: is an F thirty five mission off the coast of Japan,
Speaker 1: which you're about to write about. Yeah, well, so this
Speaker 1: up thirty five went down here earlier this month. It's
Speaker 1: the second time, and F thirty five has been a
Speaker 1: total loss in the history of the program. There may
Speaker 1: be problems with the thirty five, but them going down
Speaker 1: has not been one of them. They tend to be
Speaker 1: reliable aircraft. However, these F thirty fives in Japan were
Speaker 1: actually built by Mitsubishi, not by Lockheed Martin production facilities,
Speaker 1: and they have been riddled with problems. Uh that that's
Speaker 1: a part of the story that hasn't really been talked
Speaker 1: about much in the press. But there's only been I
Speaker 1: think thirteen of these F thirty fives built in the
Speaker 1: Mitsubishi plant, and they've had seven emergency landings in the
Speaker 1: past month, maybe six weeks now, of just those aircraft,
Speaker 1: you know, and one of them was this F thirty
Speaker 1: five that went down. This would actually be the third
Speaker 1: time it had some sort of an issue or a
Speaker 1: failure during flight operations of that same one airplane, you know,
Speaker 1: which I think is likely why the pilot didn't eject.
Speaker 1: I think that this was probably the third time that
Speaker 1: this same aircraft had this this or a him more issue,
Speaker 1: and he thought that he could get a handle on it.
Speaker 1: He had been able to limp it back to the
Speaker 1: airstrip uh in each of the two previous times, either
Speaker 1: him or a different pilot in the same aircraft. So
Speaker 1: I really think that because Japan only has thirteen of
Speaker 1: these airplanes, because they cost about a hundred million dollars apiece,
Speaker 1: because there's such an important part of their defense strategy
Speaker 1: against China, I think that he was willing to give
Speaker 1: his life effectively to try to get this airplane back
Speaker 1: to the airstrip to get it up and running again,
Speaker 1: which is tragic because he's still missing, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. But the more present concern I think for
Speaker 1: a lot of people was the idea that China Russia
Speaker 1: might be able to get their hands on large components
Speaker 1: of the wreckage. Uh, you don't think they already have
Speaker 1: like the entire design of that airplane and probably like
Speaker 1: physical pieces. Oh, they would d have the entire design.
Speaker 1: A man named Sue Bin was actually he's doing prison
Speaker 1: time right now for providing China with the technical schematics
Speaker 1: for both the F twenty two, the thirty five to
Speaker 1: C one third J and a number of other American
Speaker 1: military aircraft. That's what the J twenty effectively is is
Speaker 1: it's what they built using those specs. But there's a
Speaker 1: lot that you can't glean from a blueprint, right Uh.
Speaker 1: For instance, our stealth coding that we applied to the
Speaker 1: aircraft is supposed to be significantly advanced over China's and
Speaker 1: certainly over Rushes, so that that coding, if they were
Speaker 1: able to reverse engineer that, it could really bolster their
Speaker 1: stealth endeavors. Russia still hasn't quite figured out how to
Speaker 1: build a stealth airplane, even though they call the SU
Speaker 1: fifty seven a stealth airplane. If you look at it
Speaker 1: up close, you can see gaps in the body panels,
Speaker 1: just like you get in a cheap car. It's like
Speaker 1: a Honda Alantra. You know, those gaps will produce radar returns.
Speaker 1: You know, so China and China needs an engine, Russia
Speaker 1: needs to learn how to stealth. Both of them could
Speaker 1: feasibly benefit a great deal from getting their hands on
Speaker 1: elements of this aircraft. Uh. And it's not an unheard
Speaker 1: of thing. You know. The Soviet K one to nine
Speaker 1: submarine that went down I think in seven four the
Speaker 1: c I A spent you know, the equivalent of four
Speaker 1: billion dollars trying to recover that submarine covertly. Uh. They
Speaker 1: ended up, I think, pulling up like a third of it,
Speaker 1: but the other two thirds collapsed back down into the ocean.
Speaker 1: The J. G. Ballard expedition to find the Titanic was
Speaker 1: like part of the cover for that. Yeah, which is
Speaker 1: I love that story. It's incredible, but it just goes
Speaker 1: to show that when it comes to trying to develop
Speaker 1: I mean, the F thirty five is a solid example.
Speaker 1: I would liken it to like building car terms. The
Speaker 1: first time I ever tried to build a race car
Speaker 1: was a turbocharged Eagle Talent when I was like sixteen,
Speaker 1: and I probably spent three times as much as I
Speaker 1: needed to to get it to do what it ended
Speaker 1: up doing, because I didn't know what the hell I
Speaker 1: was doing. That's where China and Russia are right now
Speaker 1: when it comes to building fifth generation fighters. If they
Speaker 1: can get their hands on elements of this F thirty five,
Speaker 1: it could help them develop a more effective strategy and
Speaker 1: fielding their own fifth generation platforms. That said, I'm sure
Speaker 1: Japan and the United States are actively trying to prevent this.
Speaker 1: I'd imagine that there's a great deal of submarine activity
Speaker 1: in that vicinity right now, with U S flags on
Speaker 1: the shoulders the guys driving those subs. Uh, but I'm
Speaker 1: sure that there are Russian and Chinese subs in the area.
Speaker 1: You know, It's interesting how that works. How we develop
Speaker 1: these technologies to get a you know, a jump on
Speaker 1: the enemy, and uh, inevitably they fall into the enemy's hands,
Speaker 1: either because of espionage or like you said, in this case,
Speaker 1: you know, a jet goes down, a piece of equipment
Speaker 1: gets captured on the battlefield, and then they reverse engineer
Speaker 1: it and use it against US national security. Is like
Speaker 1: the Batman Joker axiom. It really is. Uh, Batman puts
Speaker 1: out a mask, so then the bad guys start putting
Speaker 1: god masks. Right, Batman gets a bat wing, so the
Speaker 1: bad guys start flying jet packs. Uh, it's a we
Speaker 1: can't stop it. It's a continuous process. But that's really
Speaker 1: how it works. It's all about not even really about
Speaker 1: what you can actually do when a fight. It's more
Speaker 1: about what you can say you would do during dip
Speaker 1: agmatic negotiations. It's all about being able to apply pressure. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So are you writing an article on this for the
Speaker 1: news Rap or any of the sites? Yep, yep, you'll
Speaker 1: see it on news Rap, I'd imagine probably other today
Speaker 1: or tomorrow. It's already submitted. I'm just waiting for the
Speaker 1: copy editors to translate my my into something. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so by the time this is up, people will probably
Speaker 1: be able to check it out. And if it's up
Speaker 1: by the time I added this sault together, I'll link
Speaker 1: to it, but you'll likely be able to find pieces
Speaker 1: I've written about both this up thirty five and AOC
Speaker 1: showing or ask regarding v a healthy by the time
Speaker 1: this goes up. Nice man, No, I love hearing your
Speaker 1: take on all this type of stuff, especially because you're,
Speaker 1: you know, an enthusiast of aviation, although you know you
Speaker 1: don't fly or anything, but but it's something that's always
Speaker 1: you know, something about being blind makes guys unwilling to
Speaker 1: let me find everybody. So I don't know, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you want to get in that F thirty
Speaker 1: five anyways. Yeah, right, I'll be honest with you. I
Speaker 1: think the thirty five is an awesome, awesome airplane, but
Speaker 1: I think I would actually be much more interested in
Speaker 1: flying in F twenty two given the opportunity. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: the F twenty two is fucking awesome, right, that's a
Speaker 1: cool airplane. Well, it's like I was telling, who's the
Speaker 1: dude we had that four team pilot we had on
Speaker 1: the other day. Yeah, it's a great guy. And I
Speaker 1: was like, man, like, you're gonna make a remake of
Speaker 1: the top Gun, Like you can't make that movie about
Speaker 1: an F thirty five, Like it just can't be done,
Speaker 1: you know, the effort I actually a little bit of
Speaker 1: insider baseball here. I'm currently writing a piece specifically about
Speaker 1: why the four team is such a badass airplane for
Speaker 1: Popular Mechanics, and uh I managed to make it like
Speaker 1: two thousand words in before I even mentioned top Gun,
Speaker 1: which I think is my greatest writing accomplishment to date.
Speaker 1: Well look, man, it's I know it's sacrilege. I know
Speaker 1: it's sacrilege, but the nineteen eleven is the best pistol
Speaker 1: ever made. I said it there, there, there it is.
Speaker 1: That's a sex that's a sexy gun. I've got glocks too,
Speaker 1: but I do love in nineteen eleven. And uh yeah,
Speaker 1: if you guys want to listen back to that episode,
Speaker 1: it's Poco Keia Ricci. He was just recently on great
Speaker 1: great interview. But yeah, I think that about coverage it
Speaker 1: because we got some emails we want to get to
Speaker 1: and some other stuff. So if I remember correctly, because
Speaker 1: it's off the top of my head at Twitter on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Alex Hong's fifty two, right, that's correct, sir,
Speaker 1: And at archetype fifty two on Instagram, and you can
Speaker 1: find me on Facebook at Alex Hollings writer. Nice and
Speaker 1: you have a website too, right, I do, Alex Hollings
Speaker 1: dot com. I put a whole lot of time into
Speaker 1: uh making it look clean and professional for the thirteen
Speaker 1: people a year that stop five, So feel free to
Speaker 1: feel free to check it out and let me know
Speaker 1: it's the same. It's the same with my website. I
Speaker 1: like put a blog post up on there last night
Speaker 1: for like the first time in six months or something.
Speaker 1: You know, it's so much easier to reach me on
Speaker 1: social media. That's the only time I ever get contacted
Speaker 1: via my website is almost always some older gentleman who's
Speaker 1: furious and wants to send me a strongly worded email.
Speaker 1: But I'm me to hear from anybody, whether you're angry
Speaker 1: at me or not. You know, it keeps me on
Speaker 1: my toes, So feel free to reach out anytime. And
Speaker 1: I should mention your book is still available if people
Speaker 1: want to pick it up on Amazon. Absolutely. I spent
Speaker 1: you know, a whopping two or three days on the
Speaker 1: Amazon bestsellers list, but I'm happy to get back there anytime,
Speaker 1: so check it out. My book is called The Perception
Speaker 1: Wars How Influence Shapes Conflict, and you can find it
Speaker 1: for the Kindle or in paperback on Amazon. But it's
Speaker 1: much more importantly than that is Jack Murphy's new book. Yes,
Speaker 1: that went on sale today, and you should all pick
Speaker 1: up a copy of If you love the Troops, you
Speaker 1: will get this book. Listen, my first name is dropped
Speaker 1: in that book. I've seen it already, so that's reason
Speaker 1: enough for everybody, just so that they can see Alex
Speaker 1: Howick his name. Well, it's my first name. Just you
Speaker 1: can put the write it in. I'm more important. I
Speaker 1: got I got my full name and thank you. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It's funny because it says like thanks to
Speaker 1: Alex Scott and and it just says Ian Scotto. It's
Speaker 1: like everybody's first name, but then my full name, and
Speaker 1: I feel like, wow, I'm an important we had on
Speaker 1: the first name doesn't even says Brandon, didn't say, but
Speaker 1: I'm Scotto. I can't remember why I wrote it like that,
Speaker 1: because I'm important. I think. I think it's just like
Speaker 1: I know all you guys personally, so I just like
Speaker 1: I wrote down your first names. I think you might
Speaker 1: my full name on the show, Scott. I really do
Speaker 1: want to say, genuinely, I really appreciate the shout out
Speaker 1: to me, and it really did mean a lot to me.
Speaker 1: Of course, it means a lot to me though we
Speaker 1: you know, we work together, um, you know, for a
Speaker 1: long period of time, and I, uh, you know, I've
Speaker 1: seen people come and go through our doors and um,
Speaker 1: you know some of I mean some of some people
Speaker 1: who don't work here anymore. I mean I still think
Speaker 1: are really good guys. And I thanked them for you know,
Speaker 1: all of their hard work and their contributors and um,
Speaker 1: and so I tried to throw all their names on there,
Speaker 1: as many of them as I could come up with. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, at the time, I'm sure I left somebody
Speaker 1: out somewhere. Sorry, yeah, sorry to whoever. But it's important
Speaker 1: is that it wasn't me, you know. Well as always, man,
Speaker 1: Thanks and uh, I will talk to you soon. Always
Speaker 1: great having you on here. Yeah, it's been a real
Speaker 1: pleasure man, Thanks a lot. Thanks out. Yeah, take care
Speaker 1: of man. Talk to you guys later. I always appreciate
Speaker 1: Alex coming on, especially because he kind of stepped in
Speaker 1: last minute. Um. But with that, I do want to
Speaker 1: get into some emails here because we've got a whole bunch. Um.
Speaker 1: What time actually do you have to get out of here.
Speaker 1: I need to be at serious at one. Oh, all right,
Speaker 1: so we should probably wrap up. Should we just do
Speaker 1: a quick one or do a couple? Yeah, do a
Speaker 1: couple of quick ones. Um, so I'll save some of
Speaker 1: these bigger ones for another time. Then it probably take
Speaker 1: me like fifteen twenty minutes to watch. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: and you want to get there early. So this is
Speaker 1: a quick one. That's actually correcting something I said from
Speaker 1: the last episode. And I'm always that's always fine if
Speaker 1: you correct me on something that I was wrong on. So, uh,
Speaker 1: this is from an anonymous source. Uh, you do, he
Speaker 1: says to to you in scotto, you do have to
Speaker 1: have a degree to be a patroleum engineer. The term
Speaker 1: petroleum engineer is a broad term. Generally, it refers to
Speaker 1: reservoir engineers and operations drilling engineers. Operations engineers tend to have.
Speaker 1: Did you say you don't need a degree engineer? I said,
Speaker 1: petroleum engineer, and it was you guys have to understand,
Speaker 1: I know Jack does. Like we're talking. It's kind of
Speaker 1: off the cuff, and I should have just said, you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of guys work in the oil industry without
Speaker 1: an engineer. Because my my not as an engineer, sorry,
Speaker 1: work in the oil industry without and stuff like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my point was there's a lot of high paying jobs
Speaker 1: out there that maybe risky, but you don't need to
Speaker 1: go to college, and a lot of those are in
Speaker 1: the oil industry. And I think, just because I'm not
Speaker 1: into that industry, I just think of the term patrollingum
Speaker 1: engineer and yeah, but yes, this guy's correcting me. So
Speaker 1: UM reservoir engineers tend to have a background and either
Speaker 1: specifically in patroleum engineering or in electrical engineering. One is
Speaker 1: more tangible and one is more mathematical or three or theoretical.
Speaker 1: Most of the top engineers in oil and gas originate
Speaker 1: from Texas A and M University of Texas and Colorado
Speaker 1: School of Lines. In today's age, there's no way to
Speaker 1: rise to those levels of white collar profession without some
Speaker 1: sort of an engineering degree. True, there are many well
Speaker 1: paying jobs in the oil and gas in oil and
Speaker 1: gas which do not require a degree. That's what I
Speaker 1: was really getting at. However, a full fledged engineer in
Speaker 1: oil and gas is not one of them. Even in geology,
Speaker 1: there are very few who can rise to a serious
Speaker 1: level without a master's degree, and certainly not any large
Speaker 1: company those days of long past. So yeah, my point
Speaker 1: being with the last episode with c J and Doug
Speaker 1: was just that we were kind of getting into college
Speaker 1: and debt, and not everybody is to go to college
Speaker 1: and go into debt to get a well paying job,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people going to college and going
Speaker 1: to debt um and get ship paying jobs if the jobs.
Speaker 1: So that was kind of my point. But I do
Speaker 1: appreciate you, UM making that correction. This Israel thing We're
Speaker 1: gonna get to another time because it's too long, UM.
Speaker 1: And I have an article attached that my friends sent
Speaker 1: to me that I want to get into, So we'll
Speaker 1: probably get into the next episode if we do, I mean,
Speaker 1: Bob better that will go along too. UM. These are
Speaker 1: two shorter ones though. All right, Hey guys, I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask y'all where I can go find some reliable
Speaker 1: sources on on the conflict in Syria. Murphy's Law out today,
Speaker 1: um bookshelves everywhere, especially content that covers the conflict beginning
Speaker 1: in twleven and the early years of the war before
Speaker 1: Isis became a big deal. I'm working on a project
Speaker 1: to analyze the Assad regime and the rebels in an objective,
Speaker 1: authentic way. And then he says, here, I'm not pro aside,
Speaker 1: but I'm not Charles jihad Whister there and he says,
Speaker 1: Jack will get the reference. I get the reference to. Uh.
Speaker 1: Thanks Sean Hastings from Atlanta. UM No, that's a good question. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't think there has been like a good authoritative
Speaker 1: book or account written about the Syrian Civil War yet. Um,
Speaker 1: it hasn't happened. And it's gonna be very very hard
Speaker 1: to write that book because, um, Syria was for so
Speaker 1: long just a black hole without reliable information out there,
Speaker 1: and there are these organizations out there claim to be
Speaker 1: doing open source intelligence, like Belling Cat, who think they
Speaker 1: have the whole war on lockdown and they're trying to
Speaker 1: own it. But there's just there's just a lot that
Speaker 1: isn't known, and a lot of people pretending that they
Speaker 1: know things to be factual when really they it's just presumption.
Speaker 1: But anyway, my point is that it's very hard to
Speaker 1: write that book. But there are some people out there
Speaker 1: who are legitimate experts on Syria who wrote some very
Speaker 1: good commentary on what was going on in Syria before
Speaker 1: the war and in the run up in the in
Speaker 1: the early years of the war in there's a guy
Speaker 1: named um. Oh jeez, I think his name is Lesh.
Speaker 1: I have his book on my on my bookshelf, and
Speaker 1: can you look it up real quick, Ian, I just
Speaker 1: want to give this guy the name of the book. Um,
Speaker 1: and I think it's called Syria and the Fall of
Speaker 1: the House of Assad. And clearly the Fall of the
Speaker 1: House of Acade didn't quite happen, right. This is an
Speaker 1: expert making very um, you know, intelligent commentary Syria. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know, we all got a lot of things
Speaker 1: wrong about this store right here. Syria the Fall of
Speaker 1: behalf of the Side That Bide David W. Lash Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was a very good book. Um. He is a
Speaker 1: real Syria expert, spent a lot of time over there. Um.
Speaker 1: And there are others. There are other um experts, people
Speaker 1: who know about Syria. Um. There's another guy who's on Twitter. UM.
Speaker 1: I can't remember his name, and it's not it's not
Speaker 1: it's not jihad list. This guy is an actual academic
Speaker 1: And actually he doesn't like a list either. I mean,
Speaker 1: nobody likes a listener because he's on the take. But um,
Speaker 1: that's one book you could look at that's a good
Speaker 1: starting point to learn about Syria before the war and
Speaker 1: the run up to the war and then and then
Speaker 1: my guess is in a book like that, if you
Speaker 1: look at the work site at the back, you could
Speaker 1: probably go down the rabbit. Absolutely. And this is a
Speaker 1: guy he interviewed um President aside many times as well. Um. So, which,
Speaker 1: if you want a humble brag, you did as well
Speaker 1: I did, but not nearly as in depth as this
Speaker 1: author did. Um. You know my book is interesting for
Speaker 1: some commentary. I don't think it's authoritative on the Syrian
Speaker 1: Civil War. You know, you can read about my experiences
Speaker 1: with the with the Kurds and and you know, going
Speaker 1: around Damascus. There's some info in there. But that article
Speaker 1: as far as like the rebel groups in the American
Speaker 1: involvement in them, I would recommend you um my article
Speaker 1: um on newsrap um and uh geez, what's the name
Speaker 1: of the article? Now? What's look? It's like special Forces
Speaker 1: sabotage White House policy gone disastrously wrong, um or something
Speaker 1: of that nature. There there we go. Yeah, you pretty
Speaker 1: much had it right on the on the money, US
Speaker 1: special Forces sabotage, White House policy gone disastrously wrong with
Speaker 1: covert opstion Syria. So it's a little to it. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be a little dated because it's sixteen, but it
Speaker 1: provides some really good commentary um and inside or info
Speaker 1: about the American involvement in Syria and with covert action
Speaker 1: pro grams specifically. So it's not going to tell you
Speaker 1: the whole story about what was going on in the
Speaker 1: Syrian Civil War, but it will give you some good
Speaker 1: insights into that particular topic. Nice all right, and then
Speaker 1: this last one, UH comments on our interview with Jose Toblada.
Speaker 1: Good morning. I was listening to episode four forty five
Speaker 1: talking about un United States Spreene Corps Recon in Forest
Speaker 1: Recon when Jack. When Jack asked what the difference between
Speaker 1: Recon b N and Forest Recon. I was glad he
Speaker 1: asked it. I have never served with Recon or Forest Recon.
Speaker 1: I was in a few scout sniper platoons and did
Speaker 1: the m e U R and S mission on one
Speaker 1: of our m e US. I was on as well
Speaker 1: at teaching RNs for a short time. What Jose said
Speaker 1: was correct, but I was hoping he explained it a
Speaker 1: little more. Yes, Recon battali ALBN, I should say his battalion.
Speaker 1: I'm getting screwed my abbreviations here, Yes, Recon battalion in
Speaker 1: the division commander's recon asset. I might have missed him
Speaker 1: saying it, but Forest Recon in the eighties and early
Speaker 1: nineties was the exponentiary force as well as who they
Speaker 1: work for. Force went out with fleet and so they
Speaker 1: were like the d A, the direct action element on
Speaker 1: the ship. Yeah, um and uh, and seals used to
Speaker 1: go out with a fleet too, but then they stopped
Speaker 1: doing that. He says. It's also tied to what the
Speaker 1: commander's needs were. Back then, the recon battalion worked in
Speaker 1: the area of influence and forced reek and forced recon
Speaker 1: was further to the area of interest. I learned all
Speaker 1: of this as part of my first Scout Sniper Platoons
Speaker 1: in House course before going to Scout Sniper School a
Speaker 1: year later. I am definitely not a writer and hope
Speaker 1: this makes sense. Just wanted to add some amplifying remarks
Speaker 1: to what Jose said to Jack's question. Uh, center fidelis
Speaker 1: Mike car cool cool. So that's you know, pretty self explanatory.
Speaker 1: And then I want to mention this one more time
Speaker 1: because I mentioned it on the last episode. But we've
Speaker 1: covered creat them on here with Peter Guidry, who's a
Speaker 1: great guy who also congratulated me on you know, my
Speaker 1: work here at the site and on the podcast. But
Speaker 1: this just goes This is like a perfect the example
Speaker 1: of fake news because I saw this from NBC. Actually
Speaker 1: a listener sent it to me. And the big headline
Speaker 1: is this herbal supplement creatum is tied to more US debts,
Speaker 1: and then right under it, US Health of Visuals say
Speaker 1: overdose deaths involving the herbal supplement creatum have caused seven states.
Speaker 1: So nine deaths. That's pretty alarming. Then you read on
Speaker 1: here though, and in the third paragraph most who died
Speaker 1: had also taken heroin, Fentinel or other trusts, but creatum
Speaker 1: was the Creatum was the only substance detected in seven
Speaker 1: of the deaths. So how the funk is that the
Speaker 1: headline that, you know, seven deaths is extremely miniscule. Seven
Speaker 1: deaths happen all the time from all types of things. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, so I mean to me, this might sound conspiratorial,
Speaker 1: but it just sounds like the medical industry trying to
Speaker 1: spend that creatum is killing people, and I you know,
Speaker 1: I'm totally objective on this subject because I've never done it.
Speaker 1: Someone like Peter Gudriel will say it very much helps
Speaker 1: PTSD and alleviate those issues. Others will say it's snake
Speaker 1: oil and it's not doing anything. I really don't know.
Speaker 1: I've never used it, but I don't believe it's killing people.
Speaker 1: And and this certainly doesn't offer any evidence that it's
Speaker 1: killing Yeah, the article is hysterical. It's like fucking if
Speaker 1: I'm shooting up heroin, but I drank a beer. Beer
Speaker 1: is killing people. Yeah, Well, and the thing is beer
Speaker 1: actually is killing people. I don't think there's anyone that
Speaker 1: could that they could say definitively died of a creatum
Speaker 1: over I don't even know these handful of people that
Speaker 1: they mentioned here definitively died. But like the problem is
Speaker 1: this cretum and all these things, these CABA bars, even
Speaker 1: CBD oil appeal to people who are getting off opioids.
Speaker 1: So a lot of these people who were recovering addicts,
Speaker 1: as we know, go back to the things that they
Speaker 1: were on, and they're probably trying to alleviate this stuff
Speaker 1: with creatum and other substances, they get back on heroin
Speaker 1: and unfortunately a lot of these people die. But I
Speaker 1: would say that it has nothing to do with creative Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's hilarious. Yeah. And and like I said, it's from
Speaker 1: this is from actually not only NBC News, it is
Speaker 1: originally by the Associated Press, although the Associated Press, I
Speaker 1: don't know if that's the headline from them, because the
Speaker 1: article states the reality. But whoever came up with the
Speaker 1: headline herbal suppim and creatim is tied to more US debts,
Speaker 1: and then US health officials say overdose debts involving the
Speaker 1: herbal SUPTINGM and creatim have caused twenty seven states. I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess it's what US health officials how they're spinning it.
Speaker 1: But I would still still say that it's not an
Speaker 1: accurate head And I don't know, but I suspect you're
Speaker 1: probably right Ian that probably the way that came about
Speaker 1: was that some PR firm hired by pharmaceutical companies probably
Speaker 1: blasts out emails to like all every media outlet known
Speaker 1: deman and see who will bite, you know, and they
Speaker 1: probably present themselves as like Medical Association of America or
Speaker 1: something like that, you know, doctors speak out against create them.
Speaker 1: And then some journalists finds, like you know, wakes up
Speaker 1: in the mornings like, funk, I gotta write a story.
Speaker 1: I got I gotta get something up on the website.
Speaker 1: They find they see the press release there we go, yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I mean that ties to pretty much everything when something
Speaker 1: gains popularity and the science isn't there to back up
Speaker 1: what people want to say. So the example I'm thinking
Speaker 1: of is with vaping. All Right, I don't know what
Speaker 1: the long term conflicts are going to be with vape
Speaker 1: and vaping I don't think any of us do, because
Speaker 1: it's a relatively new thing. It turns you into a
Speaker 1: due but um, there there are all that there's all
Speaker 1: that stuff out there saying that vaping is gonna lead
Speaker 1: to this thing called popcorn long and and I don't
Speaker 1: from what I've read, and I have read about it,
Speaker 1: there's no real evidence that leads that. From what I know, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, vaping is is basically water, vapor and nicotine,
Speaker 1: and nicotine is an addicting substance, but it's not a
Speaker 1: deadly substance and it's not what's causing lung cancer and
Speaker 1: all this stuff. Um, that's from tobacco, as we know.
Speaker 1: And dude, even if it's like fifty percent more healthy,
Speaker 1: are less dangerous than cigarettes, it's a very good thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would. I would say it's all us completely more
Speaker 1: and I don't want to call it healthy. But from
Speaker 1: what I know, being addicted to nicotine is almost like
Speaker 1: being addicted to caffeine. You can get addicted to caffeine,
Speaker 1: but it's not gonna kill you, you know, and and
Speaker 1: it's hard for people to get off. But tobacco, Yes,
Speaker 1: tobacco will kill you. You know. People like my grandpaoud
Speaker 1: emphysema from smoking cigarettes. It wasn't from his addiction to nicotine.
Speaker 1: It was all the tobacco that he smoked. From actually smoking.
Speaker 1: You're setting something on fire and breathing it in and
Speaker 1: inhaling it. Yeah. So I don't I don't think the
Speaker 1: science is there on on what the long term effects
Speaker 1: are vaping, But I do think there's a lot of
Speaker 1: hysteria out there, and probably a lot of it caused
Speaker 1: by the tobacco industry. Yeah, man, I mean, it's just
Speaker 1: it's hilarious to see some of these industries disrupted and
Speaker 1: people freaking out about it. Yeah, um. All right. With that,
Speaker 1: I am going to wrap things up here. Be sure
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Speaker 1: of you who sent me encouraging messages uh and posted
Speaker 1: on you know, my Facebook, Facebook dot com slash Ian
Speaker 1: Scott a radio or my Twitter at ian Scotto and
Speaker 1: saw the announcement. I really appreciate it. From the listeners
Speaker 1: from the guests that we've had on and that's it.
Speaker 1: Pick up Murphy's Law. We're gonna end the show with that. Uh.
Speaker 1: Murphy's Law is out today or yesterday for those listening now.
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Speaker 1: a serious subscriber or you want to, you know, get
Speaker 1: that trial membership, you could probably listen back to Jack's
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