Speaker 1: If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough. You're
Speaker 1: listening to Software Radio Special Operations, Military news on straight
Speaker 1: talk with the guys in the community and the long
Speaker 1: and everyone. Welcome back to softwarep Radio on time on
Speaker 1: target Software Radio. We're trying to bring you the very
Speaker 1: best in military and breaking news what's going on around
Speaker 1: the world. I'm your host today, Steve Balistreri, stepping in
Speaker 1: for Brandon Webu. Unfortunately at the last minute couldn't be here,
Speaker 1: but we have a great podcast lined up for you guys. Today.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be talking with Will Chesney. He was already
Speaker 1: on the line with us. Will was a Navy seal.
Speaker 1: He just the book and we're gonna be talking to
Speaker 1: him about that. But first we want to welcome him
Speaker 1: to the podcast. Will, thank you for taking the time
Speaker 1: to join us today. We really appreciate it. And Brandon
Speaker 1: really wanted to be here and do this, and something
Speaker 1: came up, and you know it had to be important
Speaker 1: because they asked the s F guy to step in, right, Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you having me on, no worries, We'll make
Speaker 1: it work. So you knew it had to be important
Speaker 1: for him to ask as Special Forces gain. So May
Speaker 1: is the National Military Appreciation Month, and you know, we'll
Speaker 1: be doing a bunch of stuff that recognizes an honors
Speaker 1: military servicemen and women. But today we're gonna be talking
Speaker 1: about a four legged member of the military when we
Speaker 1: get into this. So this is really going to be
Speaker 1: interesting and I'm looking forward to talking to you about that.
Speaker 1: But first let's get a little bit of your background.
Speaker 1: When did you join the Navy and how did you
Speaker 1: come about becoming a Navy Seal. Join the Navy right
Speaker 1: after high school as a kid, always wanted to serve
Speaker 1: my country, probably around middle school, and decided I wanted
Speaker 1: to be a seal. I love the water. My grandpa
Speaker 1: was in the Navy. I heard buds was pretty hard,
Speaker 1: you know, basically worthy, much like everybody don't here knows
Speaker 1: that everybody should know what that is. But so I
Speaker 1: wanted to test myself. I love the water, so the Navy.
Speaker 1: It was actually signed up when I was seventeen, so
Speaker 1: I had to do the delayed entry program and parents
Speaker 1: had to sign the waiver. My dad was all about it.
Speaker 1: My mom she took a second when she came along.
Speaker 1: They knew once I was once I was eighteen, it
Speaker 1: was gonna happen. So I know that feeling because I
Speaker 1: enlisted to being SF and my father knew what that was.
Speaker 1: My mother did not, And when she found out that,
Speaker 1: you know, what I was joining to do, she wasn't
Speaker 1: very happy with the number three sons. So yeah, because
Speaker 1: she didn't like the idea that you'll be jumping out
Speaker 1: of airplanes and doing kind of crazy stuff. So how
Speaker 1: long were you a Navy seal before you got into
Speaker 1: the dog handling program? Did a couple of deployments at
Speaker 1: stilled Team four, you know, three or four years when
Speaker 1: I got selected for Development Group. On my first deployment
Speaker 1: to Afghanistan with my squadron, I just saw how valuable
Speaker 1: the dogs were. One of the things in the book
Speaker 1: is I remember walking into the team room once and
Speaker 1: somebody going to raise your hands. Somebody, ever dog has
Speaker 1: ever saved your life? I thank everybody in the team
Speaker 1: room raised your hand, like that's one of the stories.
Speaker 1: You said everybody had at least one dog story. It's
Speaker 1: like they're not joking, like dogs actually saying their pass.
Speaker 1: It's like, okay. And then I got to see that
Speaker 1: first handle on that deployment and I love dogs. I
Speaker 1: always have as a kid. You know, I needed a
Speaker 1: job the community. You gotta have another collateral duty. I
Speaker 1: was like, that's if I handle a dog, which is
Speaker 1: a huge responsibilito, and you're like asking a dog to
Speaker 1: do what like babysitting a kid on target? But if
Speaker 1: you're able to be used and you can save one
Speaker 1: of your guys from getting injured or killed, plus you're
Speaker 1: more of an asset, it's gonna get you out there
Speaker 1: more like, Yeah, that's awesome. I've always wondered. You know,
Speaker 1: we didn't use I'm dating myself every little older than you.
Speaker 1: Dogs weren't used very much in my time. They came
Speaker 1: about right after I left and we saw more and
Speaker 1: more of those. And I was always intrigued by that
Speaker 1: because we know how how intelligent these working dogs can
Speaker 1: be and everything that they're capable of doing. So I
Speaker 1: was curious how you came about that. So you volunteered
Speaker 1: to be a dog handler? I did. There wasn't a
Speaker 1: whole lot of guys that I wanted to and everybody
Speaker 1: wants to U be a dog handler. I was one
Speaker 1: of those guys, and so as soon as I brought
Speaker 1: up interest to my You know, I made myself more
Speaker 1: available to the handler and I would spend more time
Speaker 1: with dogs and him, and eventually, you know, my team leaders.
Speaker 1: Something was just the decision was made pretty quick. As
Speaker 1: soon as I get back in my deployment, I'll be
Speaker 1: going handler school. I can't have a dog. How long
Speaker 1: is that course for the human handler? Around nine weeks
Speaker 1: is what we did. That was great. I was like, awesome,
Speaker 1: awesome course, man, I learned so much. I was a
Speaker 1: seal that wasn't the dog handler. I had no dogs
Speaker 1: growing up. I love dogs, but and no, what I
Speaker 1: was talking about, man, just using my voice inflection, was
Speaker 1: let me think about it. You're surrounded by a bunch
Speaker 1: of team guys. That's all we do is grab bass jokes.
Speaker 1: So for me to go all this craziness just to
Speaker 1: make a dog happy, like now I'm good, like good boy,
Speaker 1: who you know kind of thing. But after a while,
Speaker 1: I don't care anymore. Like once you see just like
Speaker 1: that's how you communicate with the dog. You see it,
Speaker 1: you see it in their eyes and they pick it
Speaker 1: up and they're doing a great job, like you're having
Speaker 1: a conversation. But you have to do it a certain way.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that was one of the hardest things for me.
Speaker 1: And how long is the training for the dog? We
Speaker 1: know we're picking up trained somewhat, and then we just
Speaker 1: add in our own training and we take out what
Speaker 1: we don't need and we put in what we need.
Speaker 1: Thinks a minute. We have great people, great trainers. They're
Speaker 1: to do that for us. Because not only do they
Speaker 1: do that for us get us ready for the deployment,
Speaker 1: they pair used together because you know, every person is
Speaker 1: different and every dog is different. You need to make
Speaker 1: that You got to make that right connection or be
Speaker 1: a good team. And those guys really knew they'd been
Speaker 1: around a minute and they all came together. I was
Speaker 1: actually supposed to get a dog named Falco from my
Speaker 1: first deployment. He sacrificed his life one night saving ours.
Speaker 1: When I got back, it was all new dogs and
Speaker 1: it was new handlers as well. We had in a
Speaker 1: mix of m a so mastered arms would be in
Speaker 1: there with us. Those guys definitely earned their keep and
Speaker 1: some seals, so we had both. The Amaze were more
Speaker 1: comfortable on the dogs side obviously, so they would teach
Speaker 1: us dog stuff and we would teach the Amaze seal
Speaker 1: stuff and h It was a great relationship, some of
Speaker 1: the best times I've had. But we all had new dogs,
Speaker 1: so it was really we had to make those trains
Speaker 1: because there was two dogs in the beginning that I
Speaker 1: really really stuck out in my mind when one was
Speaker 1: Cairo and one was Bronco. Just having those trainers to
Speaker 1: make that to watch you handle the dog and we
Speaker 1: all rotate it through. Every handler had handled every new dog,
Speaker 1: and they just watched us and then they made those
Speaker 1: the right fits. And you know, I didn't really know
Speaker 1: what I was talking about. I saw both dogs. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I like both these dogs. I liked all the dogs.
Speaker 1: All the dogs are awesome. I don't know what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about. I'm see this is the all need to be.
Speaker 1: I walked into the office. One of the guys is like, hey,
Speaker 1: you're getting Cairo. I'm like, cool, let's do this, all right?
Speaker 1: And it was great. Obviously it worked out well. Obviously, yes,
Speaker 1: And how long did it take YouTube guys to bond?
Speaker 1: It was pretty quick. Was Chill was obviously stand office
Speaker 1: at first. He was an attack dog. He's a working dog. Like,
Speaker 1: all right, you don't mean they're not a toy. They're
Speaker 1: working dog. We consider I'm a weapon all those things,
Speaker 1: you know, So at first it is what it is.
Speaker 1: It looks like a seventy pound wolf. I don't really know.
Speaker 1: But after a couple of weeks he was in bed
Speaker 1: with me, you know, he'd be I'd have to kick
Speaker 1: him out of bed. You know. We also wanted to
Speaker 1: make sure that wasn't gonna be an issue with him
Speaker 1: being too much, too much personal time, if you would,
Speaker 1: impete and his working ability, I guess, but he was
Speaker 1: always a really hard worker. I was able to towards
Speaker 1: the beginning. You know, it didn't take him long to
Speaker 1: warm up to me, and like, all right, I saw
Speaker 1: his personality. We messed really quick. I had him in
Speaker 1: bed with me and he would like, he would roll
Speaker 1: over and he would hit me in the face with
Speaker 1: his paws all the time. And I'm like, dude, it
Speaker 1: sounds like my English bulldog. Now. But she's not a
Speaker 1: working dog. She's just a big old lap dog. Again.
Speaker 1: She's actually upset with me right now because I have
Speaker 1: the door clothes. Otherwise she'd be a pain in the butt.
Speaker 1: But speaking of Cairo, I read somewhere where unlike a
Speaker 1: lot of working dogs. He could turn it off when
Speaker 1: you weren't working. He could be like just a regular
Speaker 1: role pet. It's just semi pet. I guess you could
Speaker 1: say when you guys weren't in a combat environment. Definitely.
Speaker 1: You know you always treat the dogs with respect. They
Speaker 1: are working animals. But some dogs have that switch. You know,
Speaker 1: you throw the vest time to go to work, and
Speaker 1: they turn it on when to get back it's time
Speaker 1: to hang around the boys. Sorry for they can turn
Speaker 1: off that switch. You know, what you're asking the animals
Speaker 1: is you're asking to go into dark rooms, get in
Speaker 1: a flight with somebody twice their size of bad guy
Speaker 1: twice their size. And not only do that, they got
Speaker 1: to be able to skydive fest everywhere that we go,
Speaker 1: they go. So just think of that. You know, those
Speaker 1: dogs are not easily selected. It's like, you know, the
Speaker 1: top five of one percent of the one per centers.
Speaker 1: And then you're asking and then not only can he
Speaker 1: do that tearing that switch off, not all the dogs
Speaker 1: are able to do that. You're asking a lot of
Speaker 1: that dog. A lot of those dogs just have work modive.
Speaker 1: You just know what they are. They're working animals. They're
Speaker 1: handlers can usually, you know, play with them a little bit,
Speaker 1: but nobody else because you never know what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: With Cairo. I could take him around the whole command.
Speaker 1: He would lean up against you and he'd cover your
Speaker 1: pants and hair like they take him into the offices.
Speaker 1: He love the women, all the ladies loving. He'd rub
Speaker 1: up against him and he'd cover their dresses and they're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're wearing black or whatever shows up. He had a
Speaker 1: pair of doll disease, so he had yuck mouth, like
Speaker 1: terrible yuck mouth. He just put his face, he leaned
Speaker 1: up against your covery with hair and he would just
Speaker 1: blow that hot trash breath. Everybody loved him, like, you know,
Speaker 1: even the guys I say they were, even the guys
Speaker 1: that were allergic to him, they like it was it
Speaker 1: was a good dog. So I don't know what what
Speaker 1: you can tell us about. I mean, we've all read
Speaker 1: the stories about the ub outraged and you were there
Speaker 1: obviously with the dog, and you know he was one
Speaker 1: of the first ones on the ground, was he not?
Speaker 1: You've seen zero dark dirty right, same thing. I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding. Well, I don't know I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: we always assumed they when Hollywood makes an they take liberties.
Speaker 1: You know. Our job that night was too was on
Speaker 1: the ground with him. I was to put the dog
Speaker 1: in the position the best to utilize his nose. He
Speaker 1: was there to detect explosive odor man odor. We did
Speaker 1: a couple of sweeps of the parameter or he was
Speaker 1: looking for any kind of I D s or tunnel systems,
Speaker 1: anything excusing the nose. And once we felt comfortable around
Speaker 1: the perimeter, we moved to the inside where I did
Speaker 1: a sweep of the first floor and then second four.
Speaker 1: We were looking for explosives in there as well or
Speaker 1: any any hidden rooms. There's any booby traps, so you know,
Speaker 1: just using them, putting them in the positions where you
Speaker 1: need to be used. And then once we were done,
Speaker 1: we ex filled them. I remember landing when we got
Speaker 1: back walking into the hangar. We accomplished the mission, like
Speaker 1: everybody was alive. Okay, the most rule one of my life,
Speaker 1: and I got to do it with my dog. It's cool,
Speaker 1: you know, like I'll never forget that moment. It was
Speaker 1: like everybody made it. Everybody's okay, we did it. Everybody's
Speaker 1: cool and I can do with my dog. How long
Speaker 1: do the the handlers and the dog stay in service.
Speaker 1: I mean, like you mentioned a couple of times already,
Speaker 1: you're putting a lot on an animal that's working with us.
Speaker 1: How long a career did those dogs at It just depends,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe the dog gets injured, which Cairo had
Speaker 1: been injured, but he got shot in the previous But
Speaker 1: it's all the situation will depending, just like any person
Speaker 1: is different. The trainers always kept an eye on them,
Speaker 1: the people that were in charge of doing that. Just
Speaker 1: when he was showing signs of his age, they made
Speaker 1: the call to retirement. And he was such a good
Speaker 1: working dog that I know he keeps saying it, but
Speaker 1: he really was. He was a plug and play kind
Speaker 1: of dog. He was a spare dog and dog it hurt,
Speaker 1: that got hurt, He's okay, go grab Cairo. He was
Speaker 1: a really good worker. It just made sense to keep him.
Speaker 1: They kept him for a long time. Then you know,
Speaker 1: eventually he showed signs of his old age and Paul
Speaker 1: was made. It ended up being perfect timing because I
Speaker 1: was coming to the end of my career t V.
Speaker 1: I that kind of kind of covers in the book
Speaker 1: kind of my story. But it was really good timing
Speaker 1: because he would have gotten retired and I was still working.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have been able to take him. I was
Speaker 1: a steal. I was a single seal. Like he would
Speaker 1: have went to another home they didn't have. I had
Speaker 1: to put in paperwork and they evaluate where he's going.
Speaker 1: These are working animals. You're not just like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: take him so right. I had my issues. So since
Speaker 1: I was able to be there for him and I
Speaker 1: was just going to a lot of medical appointments, put
Speaker 1: in the paper work. They saw that the timing was okay.
Speaker 1: I was there for him to take care of him,
Speaker 1: and he was. He had a pretty rough time towards
Speaker 1: the end, in a really rough time, and he kind
Speaker 1: of took care of me too. It was great having
Speaker 1: him home. I saw a picture of you two guys
Speaker 1: on your motorcycle. Dude, I thought that people love it.
Speaker 1: I thought that that was awesome. I didn't love the
Speaker 1: pictures thing. I didn't nervous people taking pictures. I thought like,
Speaker 1: you don't run into me, or I didn't love tak
Speaker 1: getting you know, but it was so much fun. I
Speaker 1: think he loved it too. Put the doggles on him
Speaker 1: and we'll just go ride around the beach. And who
Speaker 1: had a boat. He liked going on the boat. I
Speaker 1: don't think you love the water, you know sometimes, but
Speaker 1: I don't think he loved the water, But he loved
Speaker 1: being on the boat, just riding. He loved the side
Speaker 1: car too. We had some really good times. Well he
Speaker 1: turned He was really the only guy that turned into
Speaker 1: a celebrity. I mean, everybody knew who Cairo was after
Speaker 1: the mission because that was it was pretty quick, and
Speaker 1: you know, that's kind of one of the reasons they're
Speaker 1: doing the book Piece of History. Cairo's name was in
Speaker 1: the media, and then after that happened, there was some
Speaker 1: articles out there that weren't completely factual. And I even
Speaker 1: saw people claiming to have him, Like, wow, that's not true.
Speaker 1: I read books growing up before go into this seal program.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you read books before joining the military. This
Speaker 1: can I not only make people want to join the
Speaker 1: Navy or the military or be a dog handler or
Speaker 1: a seal. I think it's just it's a piece of history.
Speaker 1: Gets to tell his story. It gets a brain attention,
Speaker 1: Like how many we know a lot of guys just
Speaker 1: aren't in the talk, there's a lot more people that
Speaker 1: did a lot more stuff than I ever did. Let's
Speaker 1: just go ahead and throw that out there. I was
Speaker 1: very lucky to be you get to do what I did.
Speaker 1: I get to tell Cairo story, bring attention to just
Speaker 1: the amazing things these dogs can do. All service dogs
Speaker 1: is to tell that story. And then it also brings
Speaker 1: attention to kind of my personal issues as well, and
Speaker 1: a lot of people are have in trouble right now.
Speaker 1: My whole transition was rough. I'm still still dealing with
Speaker 1: a bunch of issues. But one of my main messag
Speaker 1: just like if you're having problems is to reach out
Speaker 1: to people. We'll reach out to your buddies, like if
Speaker 1: you know somebody that might be have an issue. I
Speaker 1: didn't reach out. It took my best friend kind of
Speaker 1: kicking me in the ass. He was going to a
Speaker 1: brain treatment place. I wasn't going anywhere. I was kind
Speaker 1: of just self secluding, drinking myself to death, which I'm
Speaker 1: sure a lot of people can relate, and I just
Speaker 1: thought it was doing fine. I don't know what I
Speaker 1: was thinking. My mind was kind of messed up, so
Speaker 1: it's hard to put your finger on it. When it's
Speaker 1: your own brain kind of thing, I guess. And the
Speaker 1: self medicating with alcohol definitely wasn't helping anything. Not trying
Speaker 1: to blame at all on the TV eyes or whatever.
Speaker 1: It was a lot of my own faults. There's great
Speaker 1: people out there, and I've met so many people that
Speaker 1: want to help, have been through multiple treatment facilities on
Speaker 1: brain health, and there's hormone health, there's breathing, there's meditating,
Speaker 1: float tanks, there's yo, there's just community community, there's all
Speaker 1: kinds of these different I mean, I can literally probably
Speaker 1: stay here for ten minutes off the top of my head,
Speaker 1: and I say, just reach out, reach out to a friend,
Speaker 1: try these different modality because there's a lot of them,
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of good people that are willing
Speaker 1: to help you try them out. And just because one
Speaker 1: doesn't work doesn't mean you know, give it a good
Speaker 1: shot and try a couple of different ones. I heard
Speaker 1: about intermittent fasting from one of my best friends, Like
Speaker 1: I can remember the conversation of him looking me in
Speaker 1: the face, and he wasn't exactly he didn't call it that,
Speaker 1: but he was said basically what intermitute fasting was. And
Speaker 1: I love that guy and I didn't listen to him.
Speaker 1: Sure yeah, blew right past me. And during my some
Speaker 1: of my rough times, I had learned about intermi fasting,
Speaker 1: and somehow that story came across and I tried it
Speaker 1: and it was a huge That was one of the
Speaker 1: huge benefits. You know. I lost seventy pounds and I
Speaker 1: was just like, hey, I heard that a long time
Speaker 1: ago from one of my best friends. I didn't listen.
Speaker 1: I heard it again and I tried it and it
Speaker 1: was awesome. So, you know, me telling my story kind
Speaker 1: of helps people out and they can relate. I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, there's all these resources out there. If I
Speaker 1: can kind of point people in the right direction. Perfect
Speaker 1: If people want me to shut up, I'll shut up,
Speaker 1: you know. But at the end of the day, Cairo
Speaker 1: story is is told. We did a really great job.
Speaker 1: Joe Laden helped me tell his story. We did a
Speaker 1: really good job. I hope I did him right, and
Speaker 1: I hope you know we did we did a good job.
Speaker 1: I've got did nothing but good feedback so far. So
Speaker 1: it's really good to see that. That's great. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's gotta be a difficult cult proposition to
Speaker 1: sit down and think about writing a book about this,
Speaker 1: because you know you you delph into not only your
Speaker 1: time with the dog, but your own personal stuff. And
Speaker 1: putting your own personal issues out there for the whole
Speaker 1: world to see has to be difficult. It's terrible. This
Speaker 1: is a completely one a d out from what I'm
Speaker 1: used to doing. I mean, I did my Brutlins podcast
Speaker 1: was my first one, and I was like, it's still
Speaker 1: not easy for me to do. It's being more and
Speaker 1: more comfortable. You go looking back at that one and
Speaker 1: it's like, man, is it's completely not normal for you
Speaker 1: know the deal we just don't talk about If I
Speaker 1: get to talk about my dog, I'll talk about Cairo
Speaker 1: all day long. You know what I'm saying. I want
Speaker 1: to talk about me. I don't who cares what I
Speaker 1: did Like those guys, I did way more stuff I
Speaker 1: I earned. I worked my ass off to be there
Speaker 1: and it was great, it was. But I know I
Speaker 1: want to talk about me, like I'll talk about Cairo
Speaker 1: and awesome things those dogs do and people that still
Speaker 1: support the foundation that support those working dogs, and what
Speaker 1: support animals can do, and yeah, the whole personal story. Man,
Speaker 1: that gets hard. Too, but it is what it is.
Speaker 1: If it helps people, well fu Yeah, like I'll suck
Speaker 1: it up. Yeah, Hey, I mean I think it's great
Speaker 1: that you're doing that. I mean, I know a lot
Speaker 1: of guys from my era that are having issues, myself included,
Speaker 1: and it's tough. It's it's tough for me to talk
Speaker 1: to my therapists. So I know what you're going through, man,
Speaker 1: I mean, not to the extent you are, but you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. I know what you're saying. It's
Speaker 1: tough to talk about yourself that I'm I kind of
Speaker 1: feel the same way. You know, it's easy to talk
Speaker 1: about your friends, talk about your dog, but when it's
Speaker 1: time to talk about personal stuff, it's it's difficult. And
Speaker 1: I hats off to you, man, I think this is
Speaker 1: a great thing. Plus the fact people are I mean
Speaker 1: they're genuinely entuced about reading about the dog. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, like we said, he's kind of a celebrity,
Speaker 1: and uh, I think that's awesome. You know, was it
Speaker 1: was It definitely called for you to to actually go
Speaker 1: through the process of writing the book. Definitely. It's still
Speaker 1: hard for me to read it, you know, I've read
Speaker 1: it in multiple times, don't do it. And working with
Speaker 1: the with Joe Layden, who helped me write it is
Speaker 1: was just a really good We messed really well. So
Speaker 1: it wasn't easy telling it, but he made it a
Speaker 1: little easier and a great guy and you put helped
Speaker 1: me put together a great store. I think we did
Speaker 1: a good job, did a great job. It's like a
Speaker 1: Navy seal Marley and me. People who it is. People
Speaker 1: really like it. It's an honorable to tell a story.
Speaker 1: I said, I said here talking about Cairo all day long,
Speaker 1: and it makes like I don't I don't have any
Speaker 1: issues with it, you know, talking somewhat to the extent
Speaker 1: to be still being respectful of what my teammates have done,
Speaker 1: of course, and talk about me like yeah, we'll talk
Speaker 1: about my brain health because it's not easy, like you said,
Speaker 1: but you know, if it helps, it helps, it helps.
Speaker 1: So there's all these modalities. Man, there's so much out
Speaker 1: there that a lot of people don't realize them. You know,
Speaker 1: if they hear my story and they just pay attention
Speaker 1: to a couple of them and it helps out well perfect.
Speaker 1: I think I'm glad, as you know, it's not easy,
Speaker 1: but glad it was able to help. Is there any
Speaker 1: certain stories like after your service and you and the
Speaker 1: and Cairo were out in the civilian world where people
Speaker 1: recognize him, something sticks out on your mind, some funny
Speaker 1: story or you know, how he interacted. I heard somewhere
Speaker 1: that he interacted well with children, which a lot of
Speaker 1: working dogs don't. A lot of working dogs don't say.
Speaker 1: He was real lucky to have him. He um. Nobody
Speaker 1: knew because I never really told anybody. We just didn't
Speaker 1: talk about, Like I said, this is a complete one
Speaker 1: any of what we're used to, you know the deal.
Speaker 1: Nobody knew who he was because I just never talked
Speaker 1: about it. You know, the certain people teammates knew obviously,
Speaker 1: but whody knew who he was. Even people by my
Speaker 1: girlfriend that I had at the time, she didn't know
Speaker 1: for I don't even know how. One of my other
Speaker 1: teammates was talking about it and she's like, you did
Speaker 1: what And I was like, yeah, it was I just
Speaker 1: do it. We'll talk about just because we changed his
Speaker 1: name to Carlos for a second, you know, a couple
Speaker 1: of names with thrown out there Kai and I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, well, let's just do Carlos, Like Carlos. It's
Speaker 1: not even close to kind of. He was great with kids.
Speaker 1: I got pictures of him only kids with my buddy
Speaker 1: or my only couch and my buddy's kids. He was back,
Speaker 1: you know, belly up in the airlane and both her
Speaker 1: lap and just stuffs get around women children. He got
Speaker 1: attacked by my girlfriend's bulldog at her house. He was
Speaker 1: he was going after a toy. I was in the
Speaker 1: shower when it happened, but I guess the bulldog got
Speaker 1: a little toy aggressive, got him in the arm and
Speaker 1: laid his arm just a little bit. He didn't even
Speaker 1: show any signs. He didn't fight back. He didn't show
Speaker 1: any signs that he was hurt. When when I got out,
Speaker 1: I was in the shower, I went outside and I
Speaker 1: heard I was like, what happened. They told me what
Speaker 1: happened and looking at him, checked him out and they
Speaker 1: just noticed a little cut in his arm. So he
Speaker 1: had to go get him a couple of stables. But
Speaker 1: he didn't do anything. He was ruled. Laid back till
Speaker 1: even on target during his working days. I remember once
Speaker 1: there was on target during the daytime for some reason,
Speaker 1: and it was a huge Afghan dog it's being weird
Speaker 1: covers in the book. I think that I think this
Speaker 1: is in the book in more details, being really weird.
Speaker 1: So keep my on and keep my own. Carro didn't care.
Speaker 1: He's working, working on, keep my on him being really weird.
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden I see him towards Cairo
Speaker 1: and I had just had to drop the dog. I
Speaker 1: hated it. It was terrible. I don't I don't want
Speaker 1: shoot dogs. But he didn't care. Like dog was coming
Speaker 1: right at Cairo Carolin's he was actually injuring another room.
Speaker 1: Didn't even look over at him. He didn't carry what
Speaker 1: right the room and kept on working. He's just really cool,
Speaker 1: laid back. My bulldog is a rescue because it was
Speaker 1: in a place where they were training dogs to fight.
Speaker 1: When we got her, she was all tore up, and
Speaker 1: surprisingly she loves people, absolutely adores people, which keep will
Speaker 1: put her through that. But she doesn't like other dogs,
Speaker 1: so I have to be careful when I take her
Speaker 1: out around because when she sees another dog, she automatically
Speaker 1: thinks threat, and you knows, right she turns into a bulldog.
Speaker 1: But surprisingly around kids and people, you know, she's a sweetheart,
Speaker 1: So it's good that he was all chilled, even you know,
Speaker 1: as a working dog. But you know, I think it's great.
Speaker 1: You're you're bringing attention to the dogs that are so
Speaker 1: valuable to our military effort these days. And they're they're
Speaker 1: growing in uh in value every day, it seems. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of organizations that are doing great things.
Speaker 1: And Britlan's and John Devine and Jimmy Hatch still all
Speaker 1: I know because there's just three. There's so many out there,
Speaker 1: but they're all doing great things. If I can bring
Speaker 1: attention to that, just hear the cool stories. Go read
Speaker 1: that book, and I dare you like trying to get
Speaker 1: through the book without crying. It's a definitely a tough one.
Speaker 1: It's a good it's a good story to good Bond
Speaker 1: brings attention to those dogs. There's lots of good people
Speaker 1: out there. Man. Well, we we appreciate you not only
Speaker 1: writing the book and what you accomplished in your military career,
Speaker 1: but thanks for coming on with us today. We really
Speaker 1: appreciate that, folks. Steve Well straight here, Soft Rep. We're
Speaker 1: on the Will Chesney No Ordinary Dog, The Story of
Speaker 1: Will and Cairo, and we encourage everyone to check it out.
Speaker 1: This year, do it real soon. This is Military Appreciation
Speaker 1: Month and we're on here and we're doing the best
Speaker 1: we can with what we got, and uh, we'll try
Speaker 1: to make it through these days. That it's crazy here.
Speaker 1: I live up in the northeast. Everything's locked down. You
Speaker 1: live in Texas, and I right, I lived in Texas.
Speaker 1: I'm actually if you hear a live kind of on
Speaker 1: the water people in the background round enjoying the day,
Speaker 1: it's lockdown in Texas as it is up here, and
Speaker 1: I don't believe we're on that. I'm pretty good. I
Speaker 1: got it. I can't complain, man im. I got my
Speaker 1: puffs here and I'm back of access to the water,
Speaker 1: so I go, I run into town. It didn't seem
Speaker 1: he doesn't seem too much. He knows the one person
Speaker 1: at a time. A lot of people were masked. But
Speaker 1: I haven't been out too much. Just gonna do with
Speaker 1: my thing. Same here. I mean, we have pretty steep
Speaker 1: caseload around here. Are people who got that that virus.
Speaker 1: So our family would just kind of hunker down and
Speaker 1: only go out when we have to. It was waiting
Speaker 1: for all this to pass. Yeah, you'll stay safe too,
Speaker 1: I hope everybody joys the story. Appreciate the support. Thanks
Speaker 1: for having me on. It was a great talk. It
Speaker 1: was great. It was great talking to you, Will and
Speaker 1: all the best and and good luck with the book.
Speaker 1: I hope it sells real well. I think it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a best seller. I really do, and I'm definitely
Speaker 1: gonna check it out. So thanks again for joining us.
Speaker 1: Thank you, You'll have a great day. Steve Balstoria here
Speaker 1: for Software Radio. We were doing an interview Will trust
Speaker 1: Me about his new book, The Ordinary Dog. Thanks for listening, folks,
Speaker 1: will be back with another podcast here real soon. You've
Speaker 1: been listening to self Red Radio. New episodes up every
Speaker 1: Wednesday and Friday. Follow the show on Instagram and Twitter
Speaker 1: at soft rep Radio