Speaker 1: H uh ut force. If it doesn't work, you're just
Speaker 1: not using enough. You're listening to software radio, special operations,
Speaker 1: military news and straight talk with that guys and the community.
Speaker 1: In this episode, to You and Star Wars sit down
Speaker 1: with Brandon a, a former Air Force a C one
Speaker 1: thirty spooky gunner and now detective in a law enforcement department.
Speaker 1: We talk about his time in the Air Force, what
Speaker 1: goes inside the spooky guncy deployments, then their close fire
Speaker 1: support missions in Afghanistan, and he's transition from the military
Speaker 1: to law enforcement. That's a little about your background. A
Speaker 1: little after high school, about a year or so, I
Speaker 1: joined the United States Air Force as an aerial gunner.
Speaker 1: Funny story behind that. I signed up as an actual
Speaker 1: security forces one of those cops that check your ideas
Speaker 1: at the gate, and I didn't get it. Nope, didn't
Speaker 1: get it. And the second job was aerial gunner. Stars
Speaker 1: in line for me on that one. I signed up
Speaker 1: to be a narrow gunner, thinking I was gonna be
Speaker 1: an MG three gunner because I wanted to be a
Speaker 1: helo gunner on the back of a you know, MGE
Speaker 1: fifty three with the fifty cow. So that was my idea. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and pretty much you know, went to I just went
Speaker 1: through the military, started my career in law enforcement, and
Speaker 1: so what's the process of getting selected for an A
Speaker 1: C one thirties bookie. So it wasn't like any other
Speaker 1: special operations. You don't have to do any hard qualifications
Speaker 1: or you know, anything like that. So I pretty much
Speaker 1: signed up to be I end up getting gunner. After
Speaker 1: basically training, which takes place in San Antonio excess, we
Speaker 1: went to its called Basic Aircrew School. Pretty much any
Speaker 1: type of air crew within the Air Force goes of
Speaker 1: this school. It's very it's very I guess analyzed, you know,
Speaker 1: among all different air crew. You learned the basic stuff
Speaker 1: pretty much, you know how to put on an oxygen mask.
Speaker 1: Once you go through that school, you get then sent
Speaker 1: to your specialized career within you know, aircrew, which mine
Speaker 1: was Aerial Gunner School. And then that's where I teach
Speaker 1: you pretty much a basic overview of all the planes
Speaker 1: and helicopters being a gunner. So I learned about the
Speaker 1: H A sixty their equipment and firearms, and I learned
Speaker 1: about the A C one thirty you and H model
Speaker 1: fire system. Pretty much after that we get a big sheet,
Speaker 1: just like every you know, branched as a dream sheet.
Speaker 1: And that's why I found out the MG fifty three
Speaker 1: was actually retired. So I crushed my dreams a little bit,
Speaker 1: and I got to do a bit of research on
Speaker 1: what the H A sixty mission was and what the
Speaker 1: A C one thirty mission was. The H A sixty
Speaker 1: mission was obviously defensive, you know, working with special operations
Speaker 1: like Pj's. When you shoot your gun, it's probably a
Speaker 1: bad day. As opposed to the A C one thirties,
Speaker 1: they're more of a Ford mission, you know, very offensive,
Speaker 1: you know. So I you know, I knew a little
Speaker 1: bit about the C one thirty, but not too much.
Speaker 1: And I also knew that the A C one thready
Speaker 1: had two locations at the time, which was Herbert Field,
Speaker 1: Florida and closed New Mexico. The closed New Mexico Bays
Speaker 1: had the H model and in the A C one
Speaker 1: thirty model was at herbert Field. So I bid for
Speaker 1: Herbert Field to stay in Florida because that's where I'm from,
Speaker 1: and end um getting it. I guess not a lot
Speaker 1: of guys wanted to be on the gunship. It was
Speaker 1: actually very competitive to get on the helos. Did you
Speaker 1: say that you were the Hurlbert in specters. Those were
Speaker 1: the U uniform models or the H. So the C
Speaker 1: one thirty H model old specters were at that base prior,
Speaker 1: probably a decade or so ago, but they were moved
Speaker 1: to close New Mexico. But the A C one thirty
Speaker 1: U model spooky gun ships, we're based out of Herbert Field,
Speaker 1: which that was the platform that I was on. So
Speaker 1: what's the difference between the spooking A specter is it
Speaker 1: does the nomencloutcher or is an difference? Yeah, there's there's
Speaker 1: definitely a difference. The spectrum came in line first before
Speaker 1: the U models. The U model is a little more upgraded.
Speaker 1: So if you see a gun ship that has two
Speaker 1: big guns hanging out of the side as opposed to three,
Speaker 1: then it's going to be an H model. The H
Speaker 1: model TV balls and MTV and our spectrum, you know
Speaker 1: those how they see in the spectrum there Actually that
Speaker 1: equipment is located in the front para troop door on
Speaker 1: the left side. So the doors opened so pretty much
Speaker 1: they didn't have any pressurization capabilities. It was always cold.
Speaker 1: The error was flowing through the there is always cold.
Speaker 1: They only had two weapons, which was the forty millimeter,
Speaker 1: and then after that was the one of five millimeter.
Speaker 1: Do you model has a door? The MTV balls and
Speaker 1: the i R balls run the below it on the
Speaker 1: below the aircraft, so the door was actually a door,
Speaker 1: so we had that closed. And then just after the
Speaker 1: door was the twenty five millimeter, which was completely automatic,
Speaker 1: and then after that was the forty and then after
Speaker 1: that was the one of five and besides that. There's
Speaker 1: a lot more differences, but those are pretty much the
Speaker 1: the physical you can see just on the outside of differences. Curious, George,
Speaker 1: have you ever been on the receiving end? I guess
Speaker 1: not on the receiving ent, But have you ever received
Speaker 1: fire support from Spooky Man? Yeah? I can't say it
Speaker 1: was spooky every time we had fire supports the Specters
Speaker 1: is what they said it was, But that could have been.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was making the mistake of mixing up
Speaker 1: Spooky with Specter my self until a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: ago when brand is the man in the post right
Speaker 1: forum that straightened me out on the differences. And I
Speaker 1: did not want to come off like that either. I
Speaker 1: just I just had to say something, you know, being
Speaker 1: included in the community. I did not want it. I
Speaker 1: did not want to correct you though. That's okay though,
Speaker 1: because it makes a difference in the end, like it's
Speaker 1: making a difference right now. I don't even know if
Speaker 1: we had Spooky or Specter, but I had him in
Speaker 1: routinely stateside, you know, just for just to be working
Speaker 1: with the A C thirty and abroad. We had them
Speaker 1: in Somalia, Mogadishu, Somalia. That was a thrill and they
Speaker 1: flew well, they were twenty four hours, you know. I
Speaker 1: mean they had aircraft in orbit over the city twenty
Speaker 1: four hours a day for the most part coming out
Speaker 1: of I think too Booty India, coming out over the
Speaker 1: Indian Ocean, and it's in a few cases they landed
Speaker 1: at the airport in Mogadishu for a time, but that
Speaker 1: was a routine. That's not like they were basing out
Speaker 1: of there because they couldn't. It was too dangerous there.
Speaker 1: I mean, they were dropping rounds all the time, and
Speaker 1: aircraft were just like touching down, kicking loads out and
Speaker 1: not even riving down their engines. That just getting the
Speaker 1: hell out of there. It's kind of like a case
Speaker 1: on I guess, yeah, so most likely those were the
Speaker 1: eight models, because I know we lost we lost an
Speaker 1: eighth model out there during a training flight training sorting
Speaker 1: which was code named Jockey one four MARCHO we lost
Speaker 1: going over there. So it's most likely the h models
Speaker 1: that that there's were the Specters, So you were correct.
Speaker 1: I think they lost seven crewmen in that that crash
Speaker 1: in the Indian Ocean. Yeah, they definitely lost more than
Speaker 1: they were covered unfortunately. Yeah, that was that was really
Speaker 1: sad man that news when I got it, because well,
Speaker 1: if you look at it, I mean just a few
Speaker 1: months earlier, we were in country with them, you know,
Speaker 1: having them as fire support, and then a few months
Speaker 1: later we hear that one of them went down to
Speaker 1: the ocean, and it was pretty sad man. Broke some hearts, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the circumstances around why it went down was definitely
Speaker 1: hammered in US. You know, during training, they definitely did
Speaker 1: a complete different features in training and they did back then,
Speaker 1: so it definitely affected. You know, all s ops are
Speaker 1: written in blood, so right, that's well said. And then
Speaker 1: that is actually one of the questions I jimmed up
Speaker 1: is I wanted to hear. I mean, I read a
Speaker 1: State story recently from another guy's perspective, but I wanted
Speaker 1: to hear if you had comments or perspective on that
Speaker 1: incident yourself. I'd like to hear new words. I pretty
Speaker 1: much to know the basics as a witch crew members
Speaker 1: were recovering and wishing, you know, weren't I don't really know, yeah,
Speaker 1: but but basically what I believe what happened is what
Speaker 1: I was told. I don't want to know one quote me,
Speaker 1: but um, the specters over there, when we were doing
Speaker 1: their training, they would jettison flares out of the aircraft
Speaker 1: into the water and then they used the flares as
Speaker 1: target acquisition to either side in the guns or just
Speaker 1: you know, get practiced with the guns. And the way
Speaker 1: I believe they were jettisoned during that storty was they
Speaker 1: would jettison one of the flares outside of the through
Speaker 1: the barrel of the one oh five millimeter that's right,
Speaker 1: So they would loader the breech, send the flare out,
Speaker 1: and then the flare would initially drop out of the
Speaker 1: barrel and then fall into the ocean. Then they would
Speaker 1: shoot it. Obviously, during this incident, my guests would be
Speaker 1: the airflow kept the flare into the barrel. You know,
Speaker 1: the aerodynamics of the barrel are the air just kept
Speaker 1: the flare into the tip of the barrel and then,
Speaker 1: not knowing that it came out or not, they loaded
Speaker 1: around and fired the first shot, which which obviously was
Speaker 1: unfortunate event well with that have done it, which was
Speaker 1: pretty much blown up the tire barrel, the entire gun
Speaker 1: messed with the inst out of the aircraft like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: burned for a while before it went down. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think the pilots roaded to the sea, some of
Speaker 1: their aircrew bailed out, others roaded in with the pilots. Uh,
Speaker 1: kind of like a Saved Yourself or every Man from
Speaker 1: Self scenario. The explosion would definitely do catastrophic damage to
Speaker 1: the side of the aircraft, but it was enough to
Speaker 1: where they were still flying. It didn't completely explode. Some
Speaker 1: crew members made it out air shooting, but others you know,
Speaker 1: wrote it out and ended up ditching with the aircraft.
Speaker 1: And I believe a lot of the damage was you know,
Speaker 1: the one of five was still there. So when they
Speaker 1: ditched over water, which is one of the most dangerous
Speaker 1: things that the aircrew could do. I think the water
Speaker 1: just pretty much took the one of five and ripped
Speaker 1: apart through the whole aircraft as it was landing on
Speaker 1: the water, and then you know, more damage. So that
Speaker 1: definitely was a big portion of it. But asked for
Speaker 1: that after you know certain way you know crew members
Speaker 1: who died. Unfortunately you know the services running by certain
Speaker 1: ones like I couldn't pin them down for you. Do
Speaker 1: you guys go through Alburn school because you mentioned parachuting
Speaker 1: so or is it an an Air Force in house school.
Speaker 1: I wish to do to do you know, free fall
Speaker 1: static static line. It would have been awesome to do that.
Speaker 1: But what we got the extent of was sear training.
Speaker 1: We went to Sirat in Washington state first revival school,
Speaker 1: and we also got a portion of water survival and
Speaker 1: Pensacola during the water survival schools where we did our
Speaker 1: quote unquote parachute training and pretty much we parasailed higher
Speaker 1: than you normally would commercially and then um, when you
Speaker 1: got to a certain height, you would actually detach the
Speaker 1: wire to the boat and then you would essentially just
Speaker 1: flow down to wherever that height was into the water
Speaker 1: and then pretty much you have equipment that's been used,
Speaker 1: so it's not saltwater activated unfortunately, so you have to
Speaker 1: blow up your own stuff. So you pretty much just
Speaker 1: this fell into the water after a pararachute from a
Speaker 1: certain height and then got into a buck boat and
Speaker 1: then blew it up and stay out there for a
Speaker 1: couple of hours. That was That was pretty much the
Speaker 1: parachute we got. They did go into a lot of
Speaker 1: the parachuting like Norman Claytor, like a checklist. You know
Speaker 1: what you do if you have you know, a certain line,
Speaker 1: cutt into the parachute, if you don't have a good shoot,
Speaker 1: you know, if you get the steer. They did go
Speaker 1: into a lot of that. You know, how to land,
Speaker 1: how to roll. But as for actually you know, jumping
Speaker 1: out of aircraft or doing static line like that, we
Speaker 1: did not get any of that. So essintially you have
Speaker 1: to learn on the fly in case something goes down. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they definitely harp into you, you know, certain techniques to use.
Speaker 1: But as for like you know, you can't paris to
Speaker 1: over land, so we didn't detached and on land on land,
Speaker 1: but we did that on water, which is which is cool.
Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong. They made sure that they driven
Speaker 1: into you. What you do, You could probably do it
Speaker 1: if it happened. And if you are jumping out of
Speaker 1: an aircraft and you're good gunner on a c A
Speaker 1: dirty and you're getting out the aircraft, it's definitely a
Speaker 1: bad day. So I think that's a good simulation of
Speaker 1: what they do with the parasailing. That's pretty decent. You know,
Speaker 1: it gives you a chance to punch down to the
Speaker 1: water to go through your checklist. What did they tell
Speaker 1: you about the open getting shock and about body position
Speaker 1: when you exit the aircraft. I gotta think back. It's
Speaker 1: been a few years. I know in our on our
Speaker 1: right parachute door, we are able to get out that
Speaker 1: way or the ramp would be preferable because of the
Speaker 1: aerodynamics of the aircraft. But we do have a deflector
Speaker 1: door on the right parachute door that you you would
Speaker 1: obviously want to engage before jumping out or else you'll
Speaker 1: be you'll be tumbling to the side of the aircraft.
Speaker 1: But it was it was a standard, if I'm correct,
Speaker 1: the standard you know, tuck your head and kind of
Speaker 1: in your lay. It's kind of like an L shape,
Speaker 1: So it was it was a standard static line. I
Speaker 1: think position now, that's cool. What about your specific position
Speaker 1: in the aircraft or is that a rotational thing where
Speaker 1: you could occupy different gun of positions or load positions, etcetera.
Speaker 1: It's definitely rotational. So each flight has four gunners. This
Speaker 1: is obviously changed now the U model has it been retired?
Speaker 1: Really they have less gunners on their new model, which
Speaker 1: is the Whiskey, and there's a J model. But as
Speaker 1: for the U model, when I was in we had
Speaker 1: four gunners to a flight. Obviously standard flight if there's training,
Speaker 1: there's more. Typically one gunner would sit in the right
Speaker 1: scanner window, which is pretty much a seat next to
Speaker 1: a huge window, and their job was primary to look
Speaker 1: for any visible I R or radar threats from the
Speaker 1: ground pretty much looking for plumes, stuff like that, to
Speaker 1: activate the countermeasures that we did have on the plane.
Speaker 1: One gunner would be in charge of the twenty five
Speaker 1: millimeter if forever go down. Like I said, it was
Speaker 1: fully automatic, which was I guess good and bad in
Speaker 1: a sense, and they were also the same gunner would
Speaker 1: work the forty millimeter, and the forty millimeter is five
Speaker 1: for my favorite weapon of the gunship. It was like
Speaker 1: the sniper rifle even better. It was actually it was
Speaker 1: actually utilized during War two shooting right. Yes, it was
Speaker 1: the boat first. Pretty much one gunner could do that,
Speaker 1: you know. It was a standard you know clip with
Speaker 1: four rounds. As the gun keeps shooting, you can go
Speaker 1: back to the rack rabbit clip. So it was it
Speaker 1: was a one man operation. The one of five was
Speaker 1: a two main operation. You had one guy working what
Speaker 1: we called the l w cps. It was pretty much
Speaker 1: the computers that were able to lower the weapon, you know,
Speaker 1: and then put the weapon back and battery for the
Speaker 1: fire control officer for them to do their shooting. Because
Speaker 1: we were just loaders, we were actually didn't pull any triggers.
Speaker 1: And then you had another gunner on the other side
Speaker 1: of the one oh five who would actually attract the brass.
Speaker 1: So four total. Okay, let's talk about deployments. How are
Speaker 1: deployments for a sporty crew. Oh, they were great. You know,
Speaker 1: being aircrew, we didn't have the year deployments like a
Speaker 1: lot of people did. Being aircrew, they don't want you
Speaker 1: to get complacent. Complecency is dangerous, you know, and you're
Speaker 1: you're in a million dollar aircraft you know, a couple
Speaker 1: hundred million dollars. Whoever price it is, I couldn't give
Speaker 1: you that price. But so they pretty much made rotations
Speaker 1: around three to five months, estimating per aircrew. So it
Speaker 1: was it was nice, the money was nice, the experience
Speaker 1: was nice. Obviously as a new gunner. You know, you
Speaker 1: got Hayes, which I agree with. You know, Hayley makes
Speaker 1: it better airmen. You know, that's the first time I
Speaker 1: got to drive stick and it was under a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure, so but I appreciated it. And of course,
Speaker 1: you know, you get to go to combat. I mean
Speaker 1: it's not combat like the guys on the ground, but
Speaker 1: it's it's aerial combat, which was which was nice to
Speaker 1: get into. You know, it's just like your other career
Speaker 1: fields and special forces. Everybody's chomping at the bit to
Speaker 1: do their job. They're trained to and make a difference,
Speaker 1: you know, save lives, and essentially it's what I got
Speaker 1: to do. So deployment was awesome and I got paid
Speaker 1: text free for it, so that's only a good incentive.
Speaker 1: Yes it is, Yes, it is. You were in the
Speaker 1: Iraqi theater and the Afghan Afghanistan theater as well. So
Speaker 1: my first deployment. They actually asked where I wanted to go.
Speaker 1: You know, I could volunteer to go to Iraq, or
Speaker 1: I can volunteer to go Afghanistan. Thinking now, I wish
Speaker 1: I would have gone to Iraq just to say I
Speaker 1: went to Iraq. But at the time I was gung
Speaker 1: ho I wanted to do something in Iraq. Was the
Speaker 1: the vacation. It was like the Qatar theater, you know,
Speaker 1: like so it was like the pool. You had a pool,
Speaker 1: you know, there was nothing going on. You fly, but
Speaker 1: like your chances are getting combat were pretty much zero.
Speaker 1: So I said, send me to Afghanistan. And when West
Speaker 1: my first deployment was around, I would say approximately February
Speaker 1: of two thousand eleven. Okay, I think that box out
Speaker 1: one of the questions I was going to ask. Clearly,
Speaker 1: you weren't involved in support during any of Greg Coker's operations,
Speaker 1: and that is Gecko Rhino operation on the D Day
Speaker 1: of Afghanistan. Because you're there much later. Greg is not
Speaker 1: finished telling all of his stories like the book now,
Speaker 1: as you know, and he's I think he's on like
Speaker 1: chapter sixteen knocks out like a couple of day and
Speaker 1: I'm ghost writing that for him. So if I think
Speaker 1: by the time he finishes all eight years of his
Speaker 1: time in that theater, there's gonna be more deployments there
Speaker 1: that I wonder if you weren't part of, you know,
Speaker 1: so we'll have to wait and see. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: that would mean that'd be pretty cool. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: definitely gotten there much later. But yeah, I still I
Speaker 1: still got to see combat each deployment, so I guess
Speaker 1: I can't play on that part. So speaking of deployments,
Speaker 1: can't you tell us your most memorable mission? I just
Speaker 1: want to just throw out there that I was deployed
Speaker 1: to Kandahar. So I was on Kennahar Airfield and we
Speaker 1: did we did most of our missions up north because
Speaker 1: that's where all the action was and there wasn't really
Speaker 1: too much action then then Knahart, I guess at the time.
Speaker 1: So one of my I guess most familial missions would
Speaker 1: be April. It was a huge engagement. I think it
Speaker 1: actually made Air Force times but pretty much it was
Speaker 1: a tick, which is a troops in contact. So we
Speaker 1: were pretty much lounging around, you know, our camp. So
Speaker 1: we got spun up real quick. You know, we're running
Speaker 1: out the door jumping the aircraft and flying up north
Speaker 1: and immediately on station there were some brown guys taking fire,
Speaker 1: and we were able to provide close air support, which
Speaker 1: I heard was really close, danger close, I believe. And
Speaker 1: and the unfortunate part about it was our capabilities to
Speaker 1: see the ground weren't there because it's so much vegetation.
Speaker 1: So oh yeah, So I remember the J Tech at
Speaker 1: the time, he was actually walking around then, so it
Speaker 1: was pretty hectic, you know, you get I get to
Speaker 1: hear the j tech talk. Obviously only one person in
Speaker 1: the gunship can talk to the j Tech, but we
Speaker 1: get to we can still hear what the ground party
Speaker 1: is actually, you know, saying and stuff like that. So
Speaker 1: it was pretty it was pretty chaotic, you know what
Speaker 1: was we were listening to. We end up it was
Speaker 1: I believe, between two gunships and fort Warthog eight tens.
Speaker 1: We end up finishing that op. And I remember we
Speaker 1: were the first gunship on station and we actually what's
Speaker 1: called Winchester are our forty and one oh five Winchester beans.
Speaker 1: You you shot all your rounds, so so we actually
Speaker 1: Winchesters pulled off station and then the next gun ship
Speaker 1: went on station. But after that we flew to, uh,
Speaker 1: we flew to bath Bagram are Field too, just refuel.
Speaker 1: But I mean, in a nutshell, that was probably the
Speaker 1: most probably the best mission I was on, mainly because
Speaker 1: we did a lot of shooting and a lot of
Speaker 1: guys came home after that mission too, so that was
Speaker 1: definitely a plus. But um, I don't want to discredit
Speaker 1: any other missions. We did a lot of cool missions
Speaker 1: with Brits Special Forces mar Sock, you know it was
Speaker 1: it's so it's hard to pick one mission. I'm guessing
Speaker 1: I'm picking that mission because of the shooting, because you know,
Speaker 1: what's the point of being a gunner if you can't shoot?
Speaker 1: You know, we had other missions that were like really
Speaker 1: good where we were actually involved in combat, uh, protecting
Speaker 1: some guys and and then you know, the brit Special
Speaker 1: Forces would come meet us on our compound and asked,
Speaker 1: you know, invite us to dinner, which they always had
Speaker 1: a nice set up, better than ours. So it's it's
Speaker 1: it's hard to select one. But if I had to
Speaker 1: pick one, to be that one, I can't get over this.
Speaker 1: This last this last story which weapon when when show
Speaker 1: branded it was actually both forty and one oh five millimeter.
Speaker 1: I don't believe we used and you don't want to
Speaker 1: use out one, especially if they're if you can't see
Speaker 1: the ground. But the forty and one oh five we
Speaker 1: did shoot. If I remember, it's two D two rounds
Speaker 1: of forty is what we carry. Actually, there might be
Speaker 1: even training mission. I don't know, that might be a
Speaker 1: full load up. It's been a couple of years so
Speaker 1: and we carry a hundred rounds of one oh five
Speaker 1: and to kind of kind of bringing back up that mission,
Speaker 1: we are one oh five. We have different fuses for
Speaker 1: different functions. Sure, you know one's point detonating, one's delay.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't want to get too much into it,
Speaker 1: but we did have a certain load out set for
Speaker 1: a certain function. So we shot all the rounds to
Speaker 1: the point where when we got to the to the
Speaker 1: undesired you know setting. I actually had a screwdriver in
Speaker 1: my molly vest and each round before sending it out,
Speaker 1: I had to adjust the fuse, yeah, to where we
Speaker 1: wanted it. So it was it was pretty pretty intense.
Speaker 1: So when you guys Winchester Turbin, are you seriously like
Speaker 1: zero rounds or do you keep a percent for like
Speaker 1: the but and I say that because Coker's I think
Speaker 1: he keeps he kept a percent of round even after
Speaker 1: Winchester just for protection for his flight back to the fog.
Speaker 1: I wonder if he sees did as well. What platform
Speaker 1: was that, do you know? Oh, Greg, I mean that
Speaker 1: was an image that was Age six attack helicopter. Yeah. See,
Speaker 1: I feel like that type of platform would definitely UM
Speaker 1: can utilize extra rounds if they were to keep the
Speaker 1: rounds on board. But as for us, now we if
Speaker 1: we use if we use all the rounds, we're off station.
Speaker 1: We're going back to re arm It's just curious. Have
Speaker 1: you ever had any ground force come to your compout
Speaker 1: or send their thanks after a mission? Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1: So that was probably one of the greatest parts of
Speaker 1: the mission. Especially we had a lot of guys come out,
Speaker 1: you know, to kind of like shadow I guess you
Speaker 1: would say. They would ride with us and their ground
Speaker 1: party would be on the ground and then we all
Speaker 1: meet up and we talked. That was fun, but it
Speaker 1: was it was I appreciated it more when we actually
Speaker 1: did a combat mission to where we had you know,
Speaker 1: we were overhead and you know, there are people moving
Speaker 1: tactically on the on the ground guy's position, and they
Speaker 1: gave us to go ahead, you know, to eliminate the threat,
Speaker 1: and then we escort them home and then when they
Speaker 1: come home, they come meet us, and it's just it
Speaker 1: was a great experience, so you so, yeah, that happened
Speaker 1: pretty often. We had an opportunity and uh, mogi do shoot.
Speaker 1: The word came out that a couple of guys could
Speaker 1: go up with specter, you know, make a shift with them,
Speaker 1: and uh being my but you know, we were totally
Speaker 1: on board with that. We were all excited about doing it.
Speaker 1: And when it came down to it, they could only
Speaker 1: take one of the time. So I left my but
Speaker 1: but will go ahead of me. And he was gone
Speaker 1: a long time, you know, and when when he when
Speaker 1: he came back, he was all upset and that was
Speaker 1: such bullshit. What's wrong? He said? Well, he had to
Speaker 1: sit in the seat with a seatbelt on for ten
Speaker 1: hours solid and not move wherever to get up. You know,
Speaker 1: that was all right? Said, well, what did you expect
Speaker 1: you think you're gonna be up there jam in the
Speaker 1: one oh five, you know, man? He goes, yeah, but
Speaker 1: I didn't expect, you know, to be you know, stucky
Speaker 1: to see with a seatbelt for ten solid hour. We
Speaker 1: get up and move around and see talk to guys
Speaker 1: and see what guys were doing, you know. I mean
Speaker 1: they didn't fire the entire mission. So he was, well, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: i'd be upset too. Yeah, I didn't want to do that,
Speaker 1: you know, ten hours like it's been doing something better anyway. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we we don't get a gunship. We were like the
Speaker 1: grease monkeys of the gunship. So we were the ones
Speaker 1: that were like the you know, enlisted men playing jokes
Speaker 1: on everybody else in there crew. So so they had
Speaker 1: they had like the booth is what we called it.
Speaker 1: And that's where you have your your ir operator, you know,
Speaker 1: all your people with the cross hairs, your you know,
Speaker 1: fire control officer, your navigator. That's where you had all
Speaker 1: the h the other guys. And then yeah, those guys
Speaker 1: are strapped to that seat for hours on end during
Speaker 1: missions and then the only time they get up because
Speaker 1: when they go to the bathroom, it's pretty much like
Speaker 1: a stand up stall. I'm sure you've been on the
Speaker 1: seat one thirties. It's that one in the back right
Speaker 1: just after the right parachute doors. So that's pretty much
Speaker 1: what we have. Yeah, I have a funny story about that.
Speaker 1: I probably shouldn't tell about that sword, but um, but
Speaker 1: I don't know back then that you know, that was
Speaker 1: the was that nineties, late eighties, early nineties and early
Speaker 1: nice already, So I don't know what they're like, s
Speaker 1: ops were, but we definitely didn't you know, let our
Speaker 1: right along sit in one place and you can move around,
Speaker 1: you know. Um, we had our own it's called gunner ice,
Speaker 1: So we had our own like I. So, so we
Speaker 1: had calms so we can just talk to the gunner
Speaker 1: and the load master, so we would be able to talk.
Speaker 1: We wouldn't be able to talk to the booth unless
Speaker 1: we went into the booth and plugged into their eyes.
Speaker 1: So so so we would let them you know, go where
Speaker 1: they want, you know, plug in, you know, just chill out.
Speaker 1: We always had like rat packed m R E unfortunately
Speaker 1: you know, like just you know, making conversation. It was
Speaker 1: always don't get me wrong, it was always fun. Probably
Speaker 1: more fun to be on the gun deck um than
Speaker 1: anywhere else in the aircraft. No offense to those guys,
Speaker 1: but is that saying, you know, it's always funner with
Speaker 1: the gunner. So yeah, and I mean that was our
Speaker 1: whole point to get on the ride, as we wanted
Speaker 1: to rub elbows with the crew, you know what, they
Speaker 1: had to stay and uh, I just didn't work out
Speaker 1: that way. And another thing they did that kind of
Speaker 1: caught me off. Guards wouldn't. The specter did lay down
Speaker 1: on the tarmac at one time on Graham, and they
Speaker 1: laid out on a row of one of five shelves
Speaker 1: of car Caseys rather right, and the casings were decorated
Speaker 1: to the little bit and they had you know, uh
Speaker 1: the spooky emblem monitor with the bantry with fire coming
Speaker 1: off his back of his head, and there were some
Speaker 1: of those things. That's so you be here at all.
Speaker 1: Not it's just deployed like they had. They had the
Speaker 1: shelves and had engraved on them. Yeah, they well they
Speaker 1: had engraved or overlaid something or painted decorated, you know,
Speaker 1: as a souvenir momentum of you know. They they were
Speaker 1: so okay, I see what you're saying. So it wasn't
Speaker 1: like laid out in the combat mission or anything like that.
Speaker 1: It has nothing to do with a combat mission. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so they do Colleck Brass. You know, I have a
Speaker 1: couple of I have a couple of buddies in there now.
Speaker 1: I believe at this point it's usually off and on.
Speaker 1: They you're able to collect it. You know, maybe you're
Speaker 1: not able to collect it. You know, it always changed,
Speaker 1: but right now you can't collect it. Those guys from
Speaker 1: the squadron that collected they have a scene c machine.
Speaker 1: They're able to do cool stuff. I have a one
Speaker 1: oh five stein, so it's like a bottom. It's like
Speaker 1: a bottom of a one oh five top of a
Speaker 1: one oh five. I even then, I got a twenty
Speaker 1: five millimeter handle on it. I mean, it's you can't
Speaker 1: use it. It's top heavy. It's nice. But yeah, they
Speaker 1: do certain stuff. You know, I got a lot of
Speaker 1: cool stuff out of there. But yeah, there's some guys
Speaker 1: who are doing their own machining and stuff like that
Speaker 1: on the side, and they can be part of that.
Speaker 1: And the squadron. I was going to transition to your
Speaker 1: transition from the military and into law enforcement. So how
Speaker 1: is it was it? It was a kind of rough transition.
Speaker 1: So you know, usually when you get out of the
Speaker 1: military and you make a lot of good you know,
Speaker 1: friends and the commodities there, and you get out and
Speaker 1: you know time keeps going for you. It's like time
Speaker 1: to stop, but you know your squadron keeps going going,
Speaker 1: everybody keeps deploying, your friends, you know, keep going. It
Speaker 1: was a little hard to kind of like come face
Speaker 1: to face with that, and I don't really didn't find myself.
Speaker 1: So it was like I got out of the military
Speaker 1: so excited to get out just because you know, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of different things. I don't want to go
Speaker 1: into it. But when I got out, I started like, actually,
Speaker 1: we want a little bit. During the like the end
Speaker 1: of my military career, I started like brewing beer as
Speaker 1: a hobby. I started like selling myself to like different
Speaker 1: craft beer places, and the uh, I end up getting
Speaker 1: hired at a World of Beer. I'm not sure where
Speaker 1: you guys are at, but we have those here. I
Speaker 1: end up getting hired as a bartender and they had
Speaker 1: a brew class. I got to brew beer on the side.
Speaker 1: He's people how to brew beer. So I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, happy that I was going nowhere in life unfortunately,
Speaker 1: but you know, I was really good at what I
Speaker 1: was doing. So I became a bartender and then I
Speaker 1: end up getting assistant manager and product manager within a
Speaker 1: couple of years if that. So I got to go
Speaker 1: to all the events and stuff like that, and then
Speaker 1: you know, I kind of looked at myself life. You
Speaker 1: know what am I doing? Brew Beer is fun? Working
Speaker 1: with beer is definitely fun. But I was drinking a
Speaker 1: lot more less exercising, so I decided to get out
Speaker 1: of that. So I end up working at a gun
Speaker 1: shop selling tactical firearms. Damn. Yeah. So I got to
Speaker 1: work at jobs that I liked, like it was my
Speaker 1: hobby is like a hobby. I would like, Okay, let's
Speaker 1: what job can you know tie into this hobby? So
Speaker 1: I started selling tactical firearms, really going nowhere again. And
Speaker 1: then after that I started getting into like automotive stuff.
Speaker 1: You know, who doesn't like doing her own little change?
Speaker 1: So I started working at an automotive place. And then
Speaker 1: one of my family members friends who used to work
Speaker 1: at the jail with my mom, you know, why don't
Speaker 1: She's like, why don't you join law enforcement? And I
Speaker 1: always want to be military, and I guess I never
Speaker 1: really thought about it, you know, and I missed that,
Speaker 1: you know, paramilitary type of field. So I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, why not? So I put in for my
Speaker 1: local Sheriff's office at like the bare min A moment,
Speaker 1: they have a position called pSTS Public service technician, so
Speaker 1: you pretty much take calls for service that are like
Speaker 1: no bad guys are at So it was really boring,
Speaker 1: but definitely, um, definitely useful information for what I wanted
Speaker 1: to do. So I had like a pepper spray. I
Speaker 1: never had a firearm, you know, so it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: you take this guy out of the military and you
Speaker 1: can pepper spray. And I actually used my g I
Speaker 1: bill to go to the academy and I cut my
Speaker 1: hours down part time. Once I was done with the academy,
Speaker 1: wait a couple of lines, they end up picking me up.
Speaker 1: The same agency picked me up for his deputy and man,
Speaker 1: that was I mean, being a deputy is its great?
Speaker 1: I love my job. I started getting into so I started,
Speaker 1: you know, finding out what my niche was as a
Speaker 1: patrolled deputy, and it was definitely narcotics. So I was
Speaker 1: one of the more proactive deputies. You know. I didn't
Speaker 1: take any ship and I made people pretty much hand
Speaker 1: over their dope willingly, and that took him to jail.
Speaker 1: And then I end up getting recognition for a lot
Speaker 1: of that, and you know, a lot of that stuff
Speaker 1: was you know, I had helped. You know, I had
Speaker 1: a lot of buddies, a good good team. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of my best friends are on the same
Speaker 1: squad as me, so we worked as a team. Man.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean, I have like best friends from
Speaker 1: the military, but I definitely have a close bond with
Speaker 1: the guys I work with now. So then I end
Speaker 1: up getting picked up for a proactive unit, so pretty
Speaker 1: much you know, riding on mark vehicles, you know, watching
Speaker 1: drug houses, pulling people leaving drug houses, getting drugs. You know.
Speaker 1: So I gotta say that I missed the military, but
Speaker 1: the law enforcement career is definitely a nice definitely a
Speaker 1: nice niche for me right now. So that's pretretty much
Speaker 1: my transition. It was a little rough. You know. I
Speaker 1: went through beer, firearms and in cars and trucks, and
Speaker 1: but I got too funny where I uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I got. I'm set up for a good career. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thirty years retirement. It's a little longer than the twenty
Speaker 1: that I should have probably stayed in for the military.
Speaker 1: But no regrets, you know. Yeah, that's I'll tell you, man.
Speaker 1: I think the best way I could relate to on
Speaker 1: that being patrol deputy on in a proactive unit. We
Speaker 1: got to do some building climbing in New Orleans one year.
Speaker 1: We've dealta and we had to two nights office what
Speaker 1: they gave it, and they offered us to be able
Speaker 1: to do it ride along with those PA cars pro
Speaker 1: active cars, you know that we're unmarked and and uh
Speaker 1: we rode around him the first night, and I think
Speaker 1: that that was about as much adventure as I was
Speaker 1: I have ever had in the military or otherwise, and
Speaker 1: so much so that we elected to take the second
Speaker 1: night and ride along with them again, just because it
Speaker 1: was that much, that much fun. We've so many rules,
Speaker 1: but he did this. Did the guy a will show
Speaker 1: you something? You know? Proactive that night? Dude, it was
Speaker 1: non stop. Man. It was like it was like a
Speaker 1: dance card. You know, you're done with this and go
Speaker 1: onto the next thing. There was like no lulls. That's awesome.
Speaker 1: We were just I mean, I can't even We were
Speaker 1: busting into you know, places, apartments and searching them, man,
Speaker 1: just chasing people's That's what they did is they just
Speaker 1: tool through neighborhood to anybody that looked at him wrong,
Speaker 1: they grabbed him, or if they started running, then the
Speaker 1: ship was on. It was fun, isn't it. Man? I
Speaker 1: love this job. Un freaking believable. Man. I love what
Speaker 1: I do. And then like, for selfish reasons, you know,
Speaker 1: I get that adrenaline. I get to do fun stuff,
Speaker 1: but the same, you know, at the same you know,
Speaker 1: token I get to serve my own community. I get
Speaker 1: to take these guys off the street, you know. So
Speaker 1: it's it's it's definitely an all around good situation that
Speaker 1: I'm in right now. Roger that man, I mean, you
Speaker 1: know Star Wars. You look at this, he has the
Speaker 1: most cool guy dude career of anybody. You know. He's
Speaker 1: got military, he's got here, got guns, got cars, got cops.
Speaker 1: Check it out. So it sounds it sounds like a
Speaker 1: movie plot. What's next though? Yeah, I was like, nobody
Speaker 1: could be all those things in one lifetime. Yeah, but Brandon,
Speaker 1: did I appreciate that? Man? Yeah? I mean I've I've
Speaker 1: had a great life, great family support, great friends support.
Speaker 1: I really couldn't for ask, you know, ask for anything more.
Speaker 1: Hopefully there's no next thing, you know from this. I
Speaker 1: love my job. I'm a detective now, I just love
Speaker 1: what I do, and I'm starting to branch off a
Speaker 1: little bit, and I'm seeing a lot of the you know,
Speaker 1: X special Forces do a lot of training, you know,
Speaker 1: their own training um brands and their own training type
Speaker 1: of you know, courses. So I'm already thinking about retirement,
Speaker 1: which is pretty far along the way twenty five years.
Speaker 1: I guess we're talking um that would probably be something
Speaker 1: that I could look at myself doing if I end
Speaker 1: up having the traits of an instructor, you know, because
Speaker 1: there's there's people out there who could do the job,
Speaker 1: and there's people out there who could tease the job.
Speaker 1: So I'm hoping, you know, once my stint's over and
Speaker 1: if I still want to work, which I'm sure I do,
Speaker 1: there's no MAKEE sit at home. Hopefully I have the
Speaker 1: skills to teach the job. So I can't imagine you're
Speaker 1: not being Yeah, I wasn't ft O, which is a
Speaker 1: field training officer in law enforcement. I do like teaching,
Speaker 1: but I also, you know, that's just me thinking and
Speaker 1: I want to kind of get feedback from everybody else.
Speaker 1: So it doesn't work out, It doesn't work out, but
Speaker 1: nice when Brandon, thank you very much for joining us
Speaker 1: for this episode of so for the podcast. That's my flush, man,
Speaker 1: it was it was great bad to sit down with
Speaker 1: with with a specter crew, but branded of all people
Speaker 1: and with that with that ground. Wow, that's pretty that's
Speaker 1: pretty solid. Yeah, I appreciate a guys, because yeah, this
Speaker 1: was definitely a great opportunity. You know, I just recently
Speaker 1: started subscribing to soft rep. At first, I was using
Speaker 1: your guys app reading articles, and the articles I wanted
Speaker 1: to read I couldn't because I had to buy them.
Speaker 1: And then next thing I know, I'm like, you know what,
Speaker 1: let's just try it. And I don't have any regrets.
Speaker 1: You guys, you guys, you guys push some good, good
Speaker 1: content through so that thanks. Man. It's nice to hear
Speaker 1: that people appreciate the content. Good out. I mean, the
Speaker 1: only problem I've had so far is that if I
Speaker 1: already read the most up to date article and like
Speaker 1: ten minutes, I want to read another one, and I
Speaker 1: go back to the app and I see the same article.
Speaker 1: It's a little it's a little upsetting, but you know,
Speaker 1: you guys are only human, So I'll wait, I'll wait
Speaker 1: for the next one. That's a that's a good delema
Speaker 1: to being Yeah, but I definitely appreciate you guys having me.
Speaker 1: Thanks Mann, you've been listening to Self Rep Radio. New
Speaker 1: episodes up every Wednesday and Friday. Follow the show on
Speaker 1: Instagram and Twitter at self Rep Radio m