Speaker 1: Oh, beat force. If it doesn't work, you're just not
Speaker 1: using enough. You're listening to Software Radio Special operations, military
Speaker 1: news and straight talk with the guys and the community.
Speaker 1: M Hey, everybody, welcome back to Software Radio. I'm back
Speaker 1: from vacation abroad and hosting in studio today and have
Speaker 1: a special guest Scott McEwen. Those of you that aren't
Speaker 1: familiar with Scott, he was the co author of American
Speaker 1: Sniper with Chris Kyle. Scott and I have known each
Speaker 1: other for many years, almost a decade. Both were friends
Speaker 1: with Chris and so looking forward to catch up with Scott.
Speaker 1: Scott's done was a lawyer turned writer, has had a
Speaker 1: pretty interesting writing career as getting into or has gotten
Speaker 1: into a lot of fiction. We're going to talk about
Speaker 1: his new book that he has coming out promoting and
Speaker 1: that is called City of Death. So we'll catch up
Speaker 1: with Scott a Scott's interesting us for us because he
Speaker 1: also is extremely tapped into the military special ops Navy
Speaker 1: seal community. So I'm sure we'll we'll catch up. Scott's
Speaker 1: one of the few people that anytime something weird pops
Speaker 1: up in the community, some crazy drama, you know, Scott
Speaker 1: and I are always exchanging notes, so I'm sure we'll
Speaker 1: have we'll have some interesting stuff to talk about then.
Speaker 1: But that's it without further ado. We'll give Scott a
Speaker 1: ring right now and get him on the show. I
Speaker 1: wanted to obviously talk about your new book, but also
Speaker 1: just kind of catch up on and see see where
Speaker 1: you're at. So I mean, we literally have a have
Speaker 1: a proper catch up and we can get into to
Speaker 1: the new book City of Death, which I love to
Speaker 1: hear about. You still living at the ranch and in
Speaker 1: East San Diego. Yeah, I got a ranch, I actual property,
Speaker 1: but you know, I'm still living out in San Diego,
Speaker 1: still got horses, Still live in the country life as
Speaker 1: much as possible next to a three million populous you know,
Speaker 1: if you will city. But everything's going good, man. I'm enjoying,
Speaker 1: you know, lfe out here. I spent a lot of
Speaker 1: time up in Julian and I probably up there in
Speaker 1: the mountains about six thousand feet and uh, California is
Speaker 1: is wearing on me. And it's really wearing on me
Speaker 1: at the moment. And just the all the all the
Speaker 1: all the junk going on out here, you know. But
Speaker 1: my oldest son has got three more years in high
Speaker 1: school here and then I'm probably gonna look for other pastures,
Speaker 1: if you will, maybe up for the North Good. So
Speaker 1: what else is naw? Are you? Are you still practicing law?
Speaker 1: Are you just focused on on writing these days? Like
Speaker 1: what's going on? I'm just writing? I Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I still got a license obviously, and I've still got
Speaker 1: a couple of cases that are being resolved just that
Speaker 1: I've handed off to other attorneys to be lead on.
Speaker 1: But you know, I'm just just writing now, man. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've got another book that I'm working on for hash
Speaker 1: shout at the moment called Hell Week. That's just kind
Speaker 1: of an amalgamation of stories, you know, that involved how guys,
Speaker 1: you know, not unlike yourself, deal with their experience as
Speaker 1: warriors and to use that experience to get through the
Speaker 1: toughest times in their life. You know, I'm kind of
Speaker 1: focusing right now as part of my own social and
Speaker 1: Nielson trying to highlight the fact that, you know, we've
Speaker 1: got guys that need help. We're showing growing pains as
Speaker 1: you've seen to see teams lately, mean with guys that
Speaker 1: are kind of hangovers from if you will, eighteen years
Speaker 1: of war and as a group, I don't know that word.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we're effectively dealing with those hangovers
Speaker 1: and those PTS issues definitely definitely not dealing with and
Speaker 1: when when you have the military leadership going, oh, I
Speaker 1: think we may have a culture problem. Like, guys, come on,
Speaker 1: give me a fucking break, right. Could you believe that
Speaker 1: I was shocked publicly the publicly announcing from the Seal
Speaker 1: team commands? Yeah, I think maybe I'm like you guys,
Speaker 1: and dude, I don't even know if I've if I've
Speaker 1: shared this with the audience ever, but you and I
Speaker 1: have had private conversations about this stuff. I'm I called
Speaker 1: m craven's number two guy it's so calm years ago,
Speaker 1: and said, you guys have a fucking problem and you
Speaker 1: need to address it. And all they wanted was who's
Speaker 1: talking to you? What's the names? And then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden it turns into Brandon's trying to tear down
Speaker 1: the fucking Seal community. When I was I was trying
Speaker 1: to do is help and then it just turned into
Speaker 1: a to a ship show and then even you know
Speaker 1: this whole n c i S debacle with this Gallagher case.
Speaker 1: I mean, n C I S or my and my
Speaker 1: experience are a bunch of buffoons. I mean they when
Speaker 1: when I was having these conversations with them, this was
Speaker 1: like the redacted notes was blank editor of soft reap
Speaker 1: dot com spoke with on this day and day like
Speaker 1: that's not a fucking redaction, right, it's just I know,
Speaker 1: you know, the whole n CS thing a bunch of jack.
Speaker 1: I think the Gallagher case really highlighted exactly how that step,
Speaker 1: that whole, that whole situation, it is absolutely out of
Speaker 1: out of hand from the command level to the prosecution
Speaker 1: level to everything else at n C I S. And
Speaker 1: I think now that they change command at the u C,
Speaker 1: m J and everything else, they realize that they get
Speaker 1: this issue out there, then maybe they're going to start
Speaker 1: looking at things a little differently. But I think the
Speaker 1: Gallagher case kind of highlighted exactly the degree of message
Speaker 1: not only from the man level at the at the
Speaker 1: seal teams, but also the command level at the at
Speaker 1: the prosecution m c I S side. You know, we
Speaker 1: largely left that issue alone on the editorial site. I mean,
Speaker 1: Jack Jack did a piece on it, but you know,
Speaker 1: I told the guys and I largely like spend most
Speaker 1: of my time running the the other parts of the
Speaker 1: business and let the guys do what they want on
Speaker 1: the editorial side of the house across all the different sites.
Speaker 1: But I told him, as like, guys, you have to
Speaker 1: realize at our last editorial meeting, how we can be
Speaker 1: helpful with our content is is describing the issue that
Speaker 1: you you talked about at the beginning of the of
Speaker 1: our talk. Right, this isn't about the Eddie Gallaghers of
Speaker 1: the world. It's the fact that the military machine has
Speaker 1: They've relied too much and put these guys in a
Speaker 1: situation where in order to promote and get advanced they
Speaker 1: have to deploy over and over and over and over again.
Speaker 1: And eventually eighteen years goes by in Afghanistan and the
Speaker 1: Taliban is more powerful than it was in two thousand one,
Speaker 1: more powerful, more influenced, and eventually these guys are gonna
Speaker 1: wake up men and women and go, what the funk
Speaker 1: are we all were doing this for? Like? Why am
Speaker 1: I watching my friends get killed? And I come back
Speaker 1: home and I've destroyed my body, I have no relationship
Speaker 1: with my family, and what the funk is it all for?
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the problem, like the we have failed
Speaker 1: the military leadership has failed the war fighter and they
Speaker 1: get spit out and then put into the v A
Speaker 1: hospital system and that thing is a complete disaster. Like
Speaker 1: it just in my opinion, dealing with the v A
Speaker 1: now ten years it needs to just be scrapped. It's
Speaker 1: like putting lipstick on a pig trying to fix the
Speaker 1: v A. Or you know, it's also like you've got
Speaker 1: to scrap the house and build new or just put
Speaker 1: these people into private healthcare because you know, we lost
Speaker 1: a guy and I used to work with us. I
Speaker 1: think just over four weeks ago. They just got hooked
Speaker 1: on opiates and a bunch of drugs and alcohol and
Speaker 1: finally put himself in a cardiac arrest in his mid thirties.
Speaker 1: But that's you know, the v A is just like
Speaker 1: not helping the situation when these guys transition. But to
Speaker 1: your point, it's the leadership. And then when I saw
Speaker 1: that that the Seal Command says, oh, maybe we we
Speaker 1: might have a cultural problem. Like have you just fucking
Speaker 1: google search the Navy Seals and see what comes up,
Speaker 1: And it is like over a decade of fucking issues
Speaker 1: and it just comes down to like a leadership issue. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's really tragic. I think as a society, Brandon,
Speaker 1: and as we you know, we must reassimilate those that
Speaker 1: we've asked to fight these battles. And the reassimilation process,
Speaker 1: like you say, in the culture process of getting it
Speaker 1: done now is you know, whether the v A has
Speaker 1: some responsibility or not. We've taken this the lipstick on
Speaker 1: the pig has been the opiates and the drugs that
Speaker 1: we prescribe these guys as opposed to truly trying to help,
Speaker 1: truly trying to have programs that really work to get
Speaker 1: these guys back out there, back into you know, normal
Speaker 1: work society. And you know, and it's hard, you know,
Speaker 1: with a guy you know, and I use this by
Speaker 1: way of example, certainly, not specifically, but it's hard with
Speaker 1: a guy like Eddie Gallagher that's deployed eight times back
Speaker 1: to back to back to reassimilate him back into his family.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's really what we got here, is we've
Speaker 1: got a situation where a guy that has been a
Speaker 1: war fighter for that long and has been asked to
Speaker 1: do these things and carry this banner, if you will,
Speaker 1: and then we say to him, Okay, one day, okay,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like, here, go back to normal society.
Speaker 1: And it's like, you know, one of Mike Ritlin's dogs.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it like that, but humans are animals.
Speaker 1: End of the day is like, you know, we've we've
Speaker 1: had you out there doing these jobs, jumping, running, fighting,
Speaker 1: you know, looking for bombs, you know, driving in the
Speaker 1: middle of the road because you know that if you're
Speaker 1: driving the edges, you're probably more likely get blown up. YadA, YadA, YadA.
Speaker 1: And then one day we say, okay, here go back
Speaker 1: out and play in the park with the rest of people.
Speaker 1: Very difficult, Yeah no, And it's not a you know,
Speaker 1: one week transition assistance program course and then you're out
Speaker 1: on your own. And that's the problem. Like, we owe
Speaker 1: it to these the war fighter to give them a
Speaker 1: proper transition, especially if they've if they've got any type
Speaker 1: of combat deployment experience. And look, I I took a
Speaker 1: ton of heat on the editorial coverage when Jack did
Speaker 1: the piece on the Gallagher, you know, because look, I
Speaker 1: get it people, no, no, I own the business. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I actually I'm glad
Speaker 1: the guy got off. He got a total like that
Speaker 1: n C I s. The stuff that they were doing
Speaker 1: is total bullshit. And at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: I don't see it. I see it as like, look,
Speaker 1: you've wanted these people to these guys to go do
Speaker 1: this type of work. What do you expect is going
Speaker 1: to happen. It's not their fault, it's the leadership fault.
Speaker 1: And ultimately America has his debt that unfortunately, unfortunately, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: there there are some good you and I know there's
Speaker 1: some good charitable organizations that are doing stuff, but it's
Speaker 1: not the v A, it's not the military, and and
Speaker 1: they're the ones that have to start getting their act
Speaker 1: together and dealing with it at the core kind of
Speaker 1: root cause of how do we address this at the
Speaker 1: unit level and make sure that we get back to
Speaker 1: the seal team that I was proud to be a
Speaker 1: part of and not currently what what's happening today? And
Speaker 1: you know, you know, you know, and I certainly you
Speaker 1: know support those guys that are still doing the job
Speaker 1: as you do, and I know you do a dent.
Speaker 1: You know, I think you know, for example, if you
Speaker 1: do back to back deployments and maybe it's time for
Speaker 1: you to do a training detachment, you know, do trade
Speaker 1: it for a couple of times or something like that
Speaker 1: before you're you're you're put back out in the field,
Speaker 1: or if you are put back out in the field,
Speaker 1: because dude, I mean, it's it's it wears on. It's
Speaker 1: just too much. I mean, these guys have been known
Speaker 1: nothing but war, some of these guys for you know,
Speaker 1: for fifteen eighteen years, and it's it's it's insane to
Speaker 1: think about it because this is intense fighting. You know
Speaker 1: it as well as I do. This is not you know,
Speaker 1: walking around the street and you know, and and handing out,
Speaker 1: you know, food packets to kids. This is a situation
Speaker 1: where every single day these guys are under a huge
Speaker 1: amount of stress, and I don't know how humanly they
Speaker 1: can take the extended periods of time. I just think
Speaker 1: it's too much to ask of our people. I really do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And that's the point I'm getting at as And really
Speaker 1: the reason I left to know six was I saw
Speaker 1: that in order to continue to advance I was a
Speaker 1: new chief, that I would have to go to operational
Speaker 1: unit and it would be no end in sight of
Speaker 1: the deployment schedule. Because to advance, it was known in
Speaker 1: the community that you have to deploy over and over
Speaker 1: again two into combat environment. I just didn't want to
Speaker 1: sign up for that. I'd given enough at that point
Speaker 1: to the military, and I knew what that would produce.
Speaker 1: I was starting to see these guys that were signing
Speaker 1: up for twenty five years. I didn't want that life
Speaker 1: for for me or my kids. So that's what needs
Speaker 1: to change. Right then you need to say, look, if
Speaker 1: you want to advance and get paid more and go
Speaker 1: up a rank, you have to take three years off
Speaker 1: and go do a shore instructor tour, and you know,
Speaker 1: force these guys into a different incentive model because the
Speaker 1: incentives are all out of whack when you have to
Speaker 1: kind of give up your shore rotation, which for the
Speaker 1: people that don't understand out the Navy works, the shore
Speaker 1: rotation is basically you're on a five year active kind
Speaker 1: of operational mission or role and you can transfer to
Speaker 1: a three year kind of take a break, stay in
Speaker 1: one spot. But guys aren't doing that because they know
Speaker 1: to advance you've got to go to a high operational
Speaker 1: tempo role. And that's what needs to change, as well
Speaker 1: as keeping the right and left boundaries established on what's
Speaker 1: acceptable and what's not because the worst thing, like, look,
Speaker 1: you gotta go ask these guys to go into into
Speaker 1: terrible environments and do terrible things, but at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, there should be certain clear guidelines and
Speaker 1: rules around that stuff so we can honestly come home
Speaker 1: and take the moral high ground, which I think also
Speaker 1: translates to when guys get out, they know, like, look,
Speaker 1: I operated and as honorably as I could in a
Speaker 1: terrible situation, and I think that helps these guys transition
Speaker 1: psychologically as opposed to like, oh shit, I was. I
Speaker 1: was in the meat grinder eight ten fifteen combat deployments
Speaker 1: and really kind of let me and my unit may
Speaker 1: have like drifted into some areas that that if the
Speaker 1: proper leadership was in place, these guys wouldn't have gone into,
Speaker 1: because I think it takes a psychological toll afterwards. You know,
Speaker 1: one of the things I really learned, you know, in
Speaker 1: writing City of Death, and just to bring it up
Speaker 1: is give you the scenario Navy steal team, one guy,
Speaker 1: all the sniper comes, all the training, all the you know,
Speaker 1: all the all the different schools like you went to
Speaker 1: etcetera real you know, to deployments to Afghanistan. You know,
Speaker 1: basically had a situation where he had a you know,
Speaker 1: to pull down on a couple of girls six year
Speaker 1: olds wearing backpacks, and it spun him pretty hard, and
Speaker 1: he felt as if he was not doing the job
Speaker 1: he wanted to do, not like not unlike what you
Speaker 1: and I have discussed that there are things going on
Speaker 1: that he did not want. And after two deployments or
Speaker 1: should two ups, he got out joined a group called
Speaker 1: the Free Burmer Arrangers in to retake Mosle from ISIS.
Speaker 1: And I'm Tony Brandon, I mean the thought process going
Speaker 1: through the thought process of affirmattos in this book, and
Speaker 1: what he is saying and what you're saying right now
Speaker 1: is exactly on exactly on point. He felt as if
Speaker 1: they were they lost their mission, they weren't doing what
Speaker 1: they were supposed to do. He felt as if he
Speaker 1: was contributing nothing at that stage, and he wanted to
Speaker 1: do something to give back. He felt as if you
Speaker 1: know that he wanted to do something to get back
Speaker 1: with the training that he had and took on this
Speaker 1: job to to retake Moso from Isis, to help the
Speaker 1: irackting military and telling it. It was just it's really
Speaker 1: an exploration in that vision that you're talking about that
Speaker 1: was lost, I mean, that was lost and then regained
Speaker 1: by this individual by doing something that he was actually
Speaker 1: contributing to not only the downfall of evil I e. Isis,
Speaker 1: but also to helping the people that they that a
Speaker 1: lot of guys in the military want to do a
Speaker 1: lot of guys in the military people don't realize they
Speaker 1: want to help those that they're they're fighting for, and
Speaker 1: they don't feel as if they're doing that. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's unfortunate, you know, in my situation because I you know,
Speaker 1: I've taken heavies from our community for being one of
Speaker 1: the first group of guys to write a book. I mean,
Speaker 1: Chris before he died and I talked about, you know
Speaker 1: what that was like to be in among the first
Speaker 1: wave of authors. But also the fact that I was
Speaker 1: trying to have these conversations was so calm about this
Speaker 1: cultural problem and they didn't care that. They were like,
Speaker 1: who's talking? We want to know, we want names. I'm like, guys,
Speaker 1: that's not the problem. The problem is these guys are
Speaker 1: coming to me and a few others saying, help us
Speaker 1: deal with these kind of cultural problems that aren't really
Speaker 1: aligned with the community values, and and instead I just
Speaker 1: turned up to be the guy that was trying to
Speaker 1: bring down the Seal community and it just started getting
Speaker 1: attacked publicly for stuff. But you know, even when I
Speaker 1: look back on that, I don't regret it. I would
Speaker 1: do it all over again because I know that I
Speaker 1: could look my kids in the eye at night and
Speaker 1: sleep soundly. No. That was doing the right thing, regardless
Speaker 1: of the backlash. And at least it's happening now. It
Speaker 1: seems like the community is finally kind of getting it.
Speaker 1: I agree, And I think, if you will, if we
Speaker 1: can look at the shining armor or the light, if
Speaker 1: you will, is that I think they're getting it. And
Speaker 1: I think they've finally come to realize that what you
Speaker 1: have been saying, and frankly, what I've been saying for
Speaker 1: some period of time, that we need to we need
Speaker 1: to change the climate, We need to help these guys reassimilate.
Speaker 1: We don't need to do back to back to back
Speaker 1: to back to back deployments until they're absolutely fried, you know, mentally, physically,
Speaker 1: and frankly, you know, morally is really come back too,
Speaker 1: to be the truth. And I think the America as
Speaker 1: a whole, not just the seal community or the military community,
Speaker 1: but America as a whole is beginning to realize the
Speaker 1: toll that coming on twenty years of war takes animation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then including a very schizophrenic foreign policy that spans
Speaker 1: small to pull presidencies. Right, It's just Afghanistan is a
Speaker 1: perfect example of what the fuck that we've been doing
Speaker 1: for eighteen years in Afghanistan? Right, Like, what really are
Speaker 1: we trying to accomplish? And nobody fucking knows not. I
Speaker 1: guarantee if you put the current president, the Joint Chief
Speaker 1: of Staff down to the lowest unit level guy and
Speaker 1: you asked them every like what that question, that simple question,
Speaker 1: You're going to get a different answer from each one
Speaker 1: of those people. And that's the problem that we have
Speaker 1: in this country right now. Have bad actors in the
Speaker 1: world and bad people that need to be dealt with,
Speaker 1: but we need to do it in a coherent, strategic way,
Speaker 1: not running around the world trying to nation build with
Speaker 1: no like clear strategy in place, because it takes a toll. Man,
Speaker 1: And I look at Afghanistan's like, that's my generation's Vietnam,
Speaker 1: only it has a better homecoming, right, better homecoming is
Speaker 1: that they definitely. So anyway, what's tell us about City
Speaker 1: of Death? Let's talk about something, not that we're switching
Speaker 1: to a positive topic, but the book sounds fascinating, man,
Speaker 1: So what's the story behind it? Well, you know the
Speaker 1: storyline that really separates this book, you know, and it's
Speaker 1: kind of like, you know, when I was, as you
Speaker 1: I both know him being a friend of ours, Chris
Speaker 1: was still suffering from a lot of pts, you know,
Speaker 1: even up to the time you know that he was
Speaker 1: unfortunately showing on everything else. I mean, Chris was still
Speaker 1: dealing with those issues. And I think that, uh, you
Speaker 1: know what seals with and what the interesting thing that
Speaker 1: I felt from from standpoint and from the people that
Speaker 1: we're dealing with this stuff standpoint, is that if you're
Speaker 1: not willing to, at the end of the day, give
Speaker 1: up the hate characters that you've been fighting, you know
Speaker 1: for whatever bad they are, and they are bad. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying they're not bad. I'm not saying they're not evil,
Speaker 1: but you know, because many of them are. But if
Speaker 1: you can't leave that battlefield and give up that hate,
Speaker 1: then you're never going to get better. You're never going
Speaker 1: to really leave that war and leave that conflict. And
Speaker 1: really this was an effort on Ephrem's part in City
Speaker 1: of Death deals with the fact that as bad as
Speaker 1: isis is, and as bad as these people really are,
Speaker 1: there's women and children coming out of there. There's people
Speaker 1: that need help, and people that need to reassimilate in
Speaker 1: their own way into the world. And if we can't
Speaker 1: give up that hate at some juncture, then you will
Speaker 1: never get better as a warrior, and you'll never move
Speaker 1: away from the war. And you know, and that's really
Speaker 1: the message of City of Death is as much as
Speaker 1: these guys brought that brought brought it and and and
Speaker 1: took out as many of these iss guys that were
Speaker 1: trying to kill women and children, they could not bring
Speaker 1: that hate from the battlefield with them because if they did,
Speaker 1: then they were never going to get better. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm glad, I mean, not mousle situation. I mean I'm
Speaker 1: just glad you're able to be a voice of many
Speaker 1: in the community to kind of get the these stories
Speaker 1: out there and into the mainstream. So definitely appreciate that.
Speaker 1: Are you working on any any movie project? I am,
Speaker 1: I am, you know, I'm actually dealing with uh. Well,
Speaker 1: now it isn't in l A to do the negotiations,
Speaker 1: but uh, several different people because of the message being,
Speaker 1: you know, having a lot of action, a lot of
Speaker 1: war involved, like for example, the City of Death, and
Speaker 1: then a lot of things are going on within that
Speaker 1: within the community, you know, but but good things, good
Speaker 1: positive things things saying, look, just because your Muslim doesn't
Speaker 1: make you bad, just because you're here doesn't make you less,
Speaker 1: doesn't you know this kind of thing, there's a there's
Speaker 1: a secondary message there that's very positive and uplifting in
Speaker 1: a certain way, even in a war zone that you know,
Speaker 1: I've got a huge amount of interest in l A,
Speaker 1: you know, to do to do it, and we've got
Speaker 1: a couple of offers, you know, to options. But I've
Speaker 1: learned my lessons man, and I'm telling you you know,
Speaker 1: unless you have an option that's that has certain trigger
Speaker 1: points and certain dates within which things must be done. Directors,
Speaker 1: writers hired, you know, scripts out, then you lose that
Speaker 1: option because as you know, I mean, every material that
Speaker 1: you go scale at some juncture you know. And so
Speaker 1: my advice to anyone who is no matter how hot
Speaker 1: your story is, unless you get you know, the right
Speaker 1: kind of deal done that that makes sure that the
Speaker 1: people that get it are not just gonna put it
Speaker 1: on a shelf and kind of work on it when
Speaker 1: they feel like get then get the kind of momentum
Speaker 1: you need to get the project done on the on
Speaker 1: the film level. And so I'm looking for that deal
Speaker 1: right now where it makes sense you know, both, you know,
Speaker 1: as far as structurally and they're gonna have the right
Speaker 1: message and the right people involved, but also that they
Speaker 1: have certain deadlines within which they must must get the
Speaker 1: material done. Yeah, I mean I have experienced the same myself.
Speaker 1: And John and I just finished our first novel. I've
Speaker 1: told you about this years ago, but taking me five
Speaker 1: years to finish this thing. But it's about the the
Speaker 1: serial killer on the US aircraft carrier. So I've already
Speaker 1: got some some interest on the on the film for that.
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you what, I'm going into it eyes
Speaker 1: wide open, at least at least on let's go around,
Speaker 1: you know you have to do because you know the thing,
Speaker 1: everybody's got their own agenda. Everybody's get their own thing
Speaker 1: that they want, and I appreciate that the business, you know,
Speaker 1: is important, but I also appreciate the fact that if
Speaker 1: you're bringing the material in and you as a writer
Speaker 1: or be as a writer, that we bring the material
Speaker 1: in and really that's the arts and the rest of
Speaker 1: it just well. So no surprise on the climate of
Speaker 1: California wearing on you. I really don't miss it one bit.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm glad I have the Puerto Rico New York connection.
Speaker 1: I feel like Puerto Rico is kind of like substituted
Speaker 1: the climate of San Diego for me when there's not
Speaker 1: a hurricane barreling down? But what else is on the horizon? Man?
Speaker 1: Before we before we wrap up, is there anything else
Speaker 1: you want to talk about? Yeah, well, you know my
Speaker 1: my my young adult fiction series which did extremely well.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember that, that Camp Dollar series,
Speaker 1: but I just finished Camp Dollar two point oh. Trigger
Speaker 1: Mechanism is what it is, and it's a young adult
Speaker 1: you know, basically designed for young men and women twelve
Speaker 1: to Eighteen's got a real, real good message as far
Speaker 1: as patriotism and essentially adopts young kids to go into
Speaker 1: various like you know, agency positions at a young age
Speaker 1: and become you know, kind of superheroes, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of thing. And within this world that's created there and
Speaker 1: it's called Camp Valor, and essentially the camp is run
Speaker 1: by guys and it's kind of like a mini Seal
Speaker 1: team but if you will, and they go through all
Speaker 1: the same exercises, weapons, swimming, getting in shape, all these
Speaker 1: different things and then fight bad guys. You know. Within
Speaker 1: was Camp Out scenario and did extremely well. I mean,
Speaker 1: the first book popped up to number six out of
Speaker 1: what four million now at five million on on Amazon,
Speaker 1: so that was a real good hit right there, you know,
Speaker 1: it just it just went right up. And then now
Speaker 1: the second one we're going to it's just almost done
Speaker 1: and we're working with Residus over there, and you know,
Speaker 1: Mark is really excited about it all. So Marx gradd
Speaker 1: he understands the y A market as well, because I've
Speaker 1: done a couple of Yre books of them, and he
Speaker 1: just knows what he's doing. Not to mention he's one
Speaker 1: of the probably the best editors in the business and
Speaker 1: just a good dude. Like I just genuinely love Mark. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a great guy you know in in the Same Minds,
Speaker 1: and I really like those guys to work with them,
Speaker 1: you know, now I've had I don't I guess it
Speaker 1: worked with most of the major publishers. But I really
Speaker 1: find Same Minds to be a great place, and you know,
Speaker 1: they really found a home for Campbell and I'm really
Speaker 1: looking forward to spending this one out and once again,
Speaker 1: you know, we've got people in l A talking, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: this is gonna be the next you know, this and
Speaker 1: that and everything else that actually happens, it happens. All
Speaker 1: I can dictate is my writing. That's you know, I
Speaker 1: can't help that. Yeah, no, it sounds cool, man. It's
Speaker 1: very like X menish, which is pretty cool. All right. Brother, Hey,
Speaker 1: thanks for the last minute jump in. But I'd love
Speaker 1: to have you back, you know, before the end of
Speaker 1: the year, and appreciate the catch up and and the
Speaker 1: and the straight talk as always. Yeah, I'll be out
Speaker 1: there and you keep you going in a general role
Speaker 1: there in Gotholam City and you know I'll come up
Speaker 1: there a yeah. Yeah, I look forward to a brother. Alright, Scott,
Speaker 1: take care of man. All right. I hope you guys
Speaker 1: enjoyed the time with Scott. It was good to catch up.
Speaker 1: Sorry for the connection issue, but we dealt with it.
Speaker 1: Scott's a great guy. Like I said, We've known each
Speaker 1: other almost ten years now. I end up meeting Scott
Speaker 1: through my friendship with Chris Kyle and those of you
Speaker 1: that that nowhere don't know, but Chris and I I
Speaker 1: released The Red Circle, I think a month prior to
Speaker 1: American Sniper coming out, so we both had books out
Speaker 1: in the market and we're both kind of having this
Speaker 1: conversation about many of the issues Scott and I were
Speaker 1: talking about on this show. And then I ended up
Speaker 1: meeting Scott McEwen through Chris, and then Scott and I
Speaker 1: just became became good friends. Um, every time I go
Speaker 1: out and fly yaks with my group of ex military
Speaker 1: fighter buddies, yes, Scott God always comes over the hangar
Speaker 1: and has a beer and a catch up. But it's
Speaker 1: been probably at least over a year since I had
Speaker 1: had a good proper catch up with Scott. But it
Speaker 1: sounds like he's up to some cool stuff. I look
Speaker 1: forward to keeping you guys posted on on my projects,
Speaker 1: Steel Fear, which is actually based on a true story,
Speaker 1: but it's about the Serial Killer on Aircraft Care. So
Speaker 1: as soon as we we get that book sold into market,
Speaker 1: hopefully our our friend Mark Resident, we'll we'll pick it
Speaker 1: up at St. Martin's Press. But all I'll make sure
Speaker 1: and give some some early looks at the manuscript to
Speaker 1: the audience like I always do, and then just update
Speaker 1: you guys. We are in the process of building our
Speaker 1: super site. So essentially, you know, over the seven past
Speaker 1: seven years, we've had all these different websites and podcast
Speaker 1: and you guys know, we started the Great Club a
Speaker 1: few years ago, but it has been all over the place.
Speaker 1: So what we decided to do is build a supersite
Speaker 1: to house all the content, all of our commerce in
Speaker 1: one place. So starting end of October beginning of November
Speaker 1: will la buch of the news site and we'll have
Speaker 1: the domain name for you guys, but all the content
Speaker 1: will be free. We'll have one member kind of paid
Speaker 1: member portal portal. It's called the Team Room, uh, and
Speaker 1: there's some cool stuff in there for you guys. But
Speaker 1: the the idea behind the team Room is it will
Speaker 1: have all of the kind of early looks, so you
Speaker 1: get looks at manuscripts before they become books, videos, before
Speaker 1: they hit the mainstream site, long form editorial some really
Speaker 1: cool chat forms in there for for our membership, so
Speaker 1: we're excited about that. I think it's a good business move.
Speaker 1: Plus what was happening before was even if you're a
Speaker 1: software listener, you may not have known all the the
Speaker 1: other activities on the content side of the business. So
Speaker 1: now it'll all live in one place. The site will
Speaker 1: have podcasts, all of our video, all the gear, all
Speaker 1: the news in one spot, plus the cret club and
Speaker 1: and and the store which will have lots of merchandise
Speaker 1: and some new software radio stuff and there if you
Speaker 1: guys to check out for the holidays. But anyway, that's
Speaker 1: kind of the state of the union. The guys on
Speaker 1: the content team continue to do a great job and
Speaker 1: why I talked to Nick who runs our our editorial team,
Speaker 1: Nick Kaufman. And hopefully you guys will hear on Software
Speaker 1: Radio a few more of the regular content contributors. We'll
Speaker 1: be jumping on to to kind of fill in and
Speaker 1: co host, so more stuff for you guys in the future.
Speaker 1: But I hope you enjoyed this show and the straight talk.
Speaker 1: You know, it's tough to deal with a lot of
Speaker 1: this stuff in the community, but I think on the
Speaker 1: on the positive side, finally, you know, ten years later,
Speaker 1: we're starting to see some some changes and doing stuff
Speaker 1: that I think is going in a positive direction for
Speaker 1: the seal community and really the broader community of SOCOM
Speaker 1: and in the special ops world. So it's good to see.
Speaker 1: Hasn't come without some scar tissue for me personally, but
Speaker 1: it is what it is. And I hope you guys
Speaker 1: enjoined this episode and we'll see you next week on
Speaker 1: software Radio out here, you've been listening to self rep Radio.
Speaker 1: New episodes up every Wednesday and Friday. Follow the show
Speaker 1: on Instagram and Twitter at self rep Radio m