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 and straight
Speaker 1: talk with the guys in the community. Welcome to Software Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm your host today. Steve bow Straight joining me is
Speaker 1: an old friend and a great guest, Stu Braydon. He's
Speaker 1: the head of Global Soft Foundation. Stew and I got
Speaker 1: to talk about a bunch of things that are affecting
Speaker 1: the force and moving forward. But before we get going,
Speaker 1: we're gonna welcome student the podcast too. Thanks for taking
Speaker 1: the time today. We really appreciate it. Thanks for having
Speaker 1: me up. Yea, you know, before we get started, and
Speaker 1: we'll talk a little bit about you know, I'm personal
Speaker 1: phill ins our listeners about your you know, basic military career,
Speaker 1: because I know you've got a pretty varied career and
Speaker 1: you served in a lot of different places. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: did everything they did not to do, Yea, So I'm
Speaker 1: an army bratt. I was born in nineteen sixty one.
Speaker 1: My father went to Korea for eighteen months five days
Speaker 1: after I was born, which is probably a good thing,
Speaker 1: you know, for all of us. But I grew up
Speaker 1: my father was on active duty when I came on
Speaker 1: active duty. I kind of started my military career of
Speaker 1: the cannet at the Citadel, and I was an enlisted
Speaker 1: man in the South Carolina National Guard and I have
Speaker 1: an honorable discharge from the South Carolina National Guard. But
Speaker 1: I was a nineteen Delta cab scout when I came
Speaker 1: in four on active duty. I was originally gonna be
Speaker 1: a lawyer, and about yeah, I know that, man. About
Speaker 1: four months prior to graduation, I walked in and said,
Speaker 1: I can't do it, man. I mean, every buddy I
Speaker 1: was meeting was a lawyer, was a bum though the
Speaker 1: cool law was prosecuting criminals, and I just said, I
Speaker 1: don't want to do that anymore. So came in the
Speaker 1: army's an armor officer. I wanted to go to the the
Speaker 1: Levit Armor Cab Regiment went to bad Hersfeld, Germany. In
Speaker 1: order to have a scalpeitoon there you had to go
Speaker 1: to ranger school. So I did ranger school and jump
Speaker 1: school and all the good stuff. At the end month mark,
Speaker 1: I applied to be an EXO on a Special Forces
Speaker 1: O d A had gotten the approval and everything gotten.
Speaker 1: Orders sent me to the Q course and as soon
Speaker 1: as I got my orders in my hand. A moratorium
Speaker 1: or directive came down from d O D saying you
Speaker 1: couldn't move under your three year window. So basically those
Speaker 1: orders to the Q course for revoked. Months later, I
Speaker 1: resubmitted all my stuff. Special Forces was standing up as
Speaker 1: a branch at that time. I was in the first
Speaker 1: recruited class as an officer in seven. Captain Mark Phelan
Speaker 1: was my recruiting officer that got through the Q course.
Speaker 1: I went to the Infantry Advanced Course, got through the
Speaker 1: Q course with the third of the seventh where you
Speaker 1: and I served together. I was in three seven for
Speaker 1: what twenty six twenty seven months, went back to a
Speaker 1: Fort Bragg. I was a foreign Area officer for Latin America.
Speaker 1: I went to graduate school out of San Diego language
Speaker 1: school for Portuguese. I served in Bolivia and the Embassy again.
Speaker 1: We served down there together in the Embassy. Good times
Speaker 1: working for my crazy boss, Chip Chlverton. Yeah, good times.
Speaker 1: And I left there and went to a special Michtian
Speaker 1: unit in Virginia. I thought I was gonna be doing
Speaker 1: stuff in Latin America and when they got there, they said, hey,
Speaker 1: did would you mind going to the Pacific and I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: I goo, man, put me in coach. I've never been
Speaker 1: to Hawaii, and they told me I would operate out
Speaker 1: of Hawaii and go to other places. And I just
Speaker 1: couldn't say yes fast enough. I was like, right on, man,
Speaker 1: I'm digging it. I left that unit because they had
Speaker 1: over assessed officers, you know, And so they said, look,
Speaker 1: everybody's not going to get a command, so you can't
Speaker 1: all stay here. Who wants to leave? And a s
Speaker 1: F brand says, We'll let you pick anywhere you want
Speaker 1: to go, and so I picked the first Battalion TED
Speaker 1: Special Forces Group. At that time, it was Bosby was
Speaker 1: kicking off. It seemed like there was going to be
Speaker 1: a gunfight of some nature in that area. Everything else
Speaker 1: was calm, so I figured, let's just go that direction
Speaker 1: seemed like a great place. I spoke Spanish, Portuguese and
Speaker 1: German last time I looked. Those languages all originated on
Speaker 1: the front of Europe. So I felt overqualified and had
Speaker 1: a great time. I was the Battalion three and first
Speaker 1: Battalion for twenty months. I commanded Charlie, one of ten
Speaker 1: for twelve thirteen months. I did everything in reverse. I
Speaker 1: went to work at sok here for about eight months
Speaker 1: because I was selected to go to School of America's
Speaker 1: Staff College, the only school I asked not to go to,
Speaker 1: and that's the one that said, I said, I got
Speaker 1: anyone in the world, just don't send me to that one.
Speaker 1: And that's where I landed. I came out of there
Speaker 1: and wasn't in str After at Fort Leavenworth, at the
Speaker 1: Staff College, I actually tried to get through. I did
Speaker 1: that for three years and then while I was there,
Speaker 1: I got promoted to lieutenant colonel in the in the
Speaker 1: tower spell and you're a lieutenant colonel. Um. I was
Speaker 1: not only commanders. I kept coming up, you know, on
Speaker 1: the alternate list. I was honorable mission, as I would say,
Speaker 1: and you know, you're trying to get a get into
Speaker 1: the fight and you know, at any capacity. And so
Speaker 1: I was selected is what they call a g watt
Speaker 1: auguman tee. Originally I was supposed to go to Pecan
Speaker 1: and then at the last minute they changed my owners
Speaker 1: to to a soccer so I went back there. That
Speaker 1: was the deputy J three is soccer for three years.
Speaker 1: You know, I work. I grind like a ranger captain.
Speaker 1: So I eighteen hours a day is not a big
Speaker 1: deal for me. I was at an advanced auto parts
Speaker 1: store on Dale Maybury Vote Guard right down here in Tampa, Florida,
Speaker 1: and I got a call from my boss, Mark rodand Guard,
Speaker 1: another Bostonian, and he goes, hey, dude, your six list.
Speaker 1: I'm going what he goes, you popped on the six list.
Speaker 1: I'm like, there's no way, he goes, I'm telling you
Speaker 1: you're on the list. So I was buying break hubs
Speaker 1: for an ncl A soccer, loaded them all up, flew
Speaker 1: back that evening. The next day I got back in,
Speaker 1: I went into the j Onees office and the dude
Speaker 1: looked at me and I said, show me my sequence number.
Speaker 1: And that's when I realized, holy shit, I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: a colonel. It's ready to get out. Everything I've been
Speaker 1: doing was preparing me to get out of the military,
Speaker 1: you know. I was like, wow, okay, this changes things
Speaker 1: a little bit. The retirement pay from a colonel the
Speaker 1: lieutenant colonels pretty good. I was working in soccer and
Speaker 1: they said, hey, these are three places you could go.
Speaker 1: Pick one. General Jones the Marine at sack Your did
Speaker 1: a by name request for me to come up there
Speaker 1: and stand up the h the NATO soft headquarters that
Speaker 1: you know, I thought you could negotiate with your personnel officers.
Speaker 1: So I call up the dude and I was like, hey, man,
Speaker 1: I'm you know, I like Belgium, but I wanted to
Speaker 1: replace Rosengard. Is that three? Here? Can I move from deputy?
Speaker 1: He goes, Now, man, listen, you gotta buy name request.
Speaker 1: General Jones has the highest date of rank of any
Speaker 1: fourth star in the Army, in the military to include
Speaker 1: the chairman. So unless the Secretary of Defense intervenes on
Speaker 1: your behalf and he goes, and that's probably not gonna happen,
Speaker 1: You're going to Belgium. I was like, all right, We're
Speaker 1: going to Belgium, right, And so I served there. I
Speaker 1: went through on a two year tour, came out five years,
Speaker 1: five years standing up the NATO South takecars. I didn't
Speaker 1: even go to the same college for four years. It's
Speaker 1: the longest I've ever lived anywhere in my life. We
Speaker 1: left there, and I've been working with Bill mcgradwam Bill mccraden.
Speaker 1: How a Navy seal and SF dude got partnered is
Speaker 1: I can't explain it to you. We've had some very
Speaker 1: interesting times. You know, we have, We've done things that
Speaker 1: you probably you know, you know I shouldn't share, but
Speaker 1: you know it's good. I mean, he's a normal dude.
Speaker 1: I mean he's a redneck. He'll get in a bar
Speaker 1: fight in a heartbeat. I mean, with the drop of
Speaker 1: a hat, he'll get into a fight. And so if
Speaker 1: you let him. And so when I got ready to
Speaker 1: leave belt and he says, hey, do you want to
Speaker 1: come back to Tampa? And my tent was I would
Speaker 1: tell everybody, I'm wanna get off the plane with in
Speaker 1: processing paperwork in one hand and retirement paperwork and the other,
Speaker 1: and don't ask me to do anything hard because I'll
Speaker 1: probably drop it. But I agreed to work for him
Speaker 1: for three years. It's so common, and I did, and
Speaker 1: I retired out of so common with thirty two years.
Speaker 1: And that's how you got into the Global Soft Because
Speaker 1: wasn't it Adamiral mcgraven that kind of convinced you to
Speaker 1: go that road. Well, we had a thing called the
Speaker 1: Global Soft Network we were building. The attempt was we
Speaker 1: wanted to institutionalize everything. We were doing a SOCM right,
Speaker 1: and there's a thing called dot MILPF right, So if
Speaker 1: you want to and you have to go through the
Speaker 1: Jason's process, and so you take your idea forward and
Speaker 1: all the services and everybody votes on it and they
Speaker 1: and once it's approved by the by the force, it's
Speaker 1: implemented to everyone's doctor, joint doctor and Army, Navy, Marine,
Speaker 1: or it becomes part of the common lexicon of the military.
Speaker 1: A lot of people are lazy and it's a hittie process. Man,
Speaker 1: it's hard to do. It's not you know, it can
Speaker 1: be done. We did it in like nine months. We
Speaker 1: actually had a great marine one star up at the
Speaker 1: Pentagon who who walked this thing through because he was
Speaker 1: a big believer in it. Uh and he had been
Speaker 1: me at one point struggling to do something like this.
Speaker 1: And so we got it through. And I had a
Speaker 1: team about ninety folks and we had different pieces in parts.
Speaker 1: One of them handled the Addual's engagement piece, right, So
Speaker 1: he would go up to d C and he would
Speaker 1: engage with all the think tank folks and what we
Speaker 1: do is we have a four hour close session in
Speaker 1: a room where he would talk. I mean people drop
Speaker 1: in the F bomb. It was full contact and people
Speaker 1: that you see on all of a sudden, he talk show,
Speaker 1: and the intendent was is for him to socialize his ideas,
Speaker 1: and I mean truly kick him around. I mean people
Speaker 1: did were you know not. He learned a lot, he
Speaker 1: changed a lot. You know what kind of helped us.
Speaker 1: You know, we formulate some of the things we were
Speaker 1: doing and also oldest when we were right and where
Speaker 1: we should go forward. A lot of times we were
Speaker 1: going as fast as people thought we should in certain areas,
Speaker 1: which was interesting. And but this had about team, about
Speaker 1: five or six people that managed that we do that
Speaker 1: every quarter and that was It also allowed him to
Speaker 1: build a network of human beings and dc that can
Speaker 1: help him spread his message. Right, if it's just one
Speaker 1: guy behind a podium and he's just lecturing people, you
Speaker 1: don't survive. So you know that's even Jesus had disciples, right,
Speaker 1: and so you you you get people out, you build
Speaker 1: a network, and you you get people to be your
Speaker 1: you know, your agents have change. And so that's what
Speaker 1: we did. But one of the things the group does
Speaker 1: is they do big events and they helped with the
Speaker 1: International Soft Week that's a part of sophok. One year
Speaker 1: he didn't have it and we had the GEO went
Speaker 1: down here and Adam mc cravin told me to help
Speaker 1: them form GEO at the guy by the name of
Speaker 1: Keith Musbach was the president of the U. S G
Speaker 1: Spatial Intelligence Foundation, looked at me one day of the
Speaker 1: eyes says, how come soft doesn't have a professional association
Speaker 1: and don't know metal were in fifteen days, six days
Speaker 1: a week. I'm not looking for a hobby. Honestly, God,
Speaker 1: I didn't even know what a five O, one C
Speaker 1: three was. I mean, I've seen it before. I'm like, okay, great, whatever.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what a nonprofit did. I mean, I
Speaker 1: thought you didn't get the money. I mean, I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I didn't know anything. I know nothing about And he
Speaker 1: kept telling me you should form one. So over eight
Speaker 1: months we're working with them to institutionalize this big event
Speaker 1: in Tampa and bring the soft community into it. And
Speaker 1: because I hope you form one for the soft community,
Speaker 1: because they need one desperately. And you know, when you
Speaker 1: and I came in in the mid eighties, men, you know,
Speaker 1: the whole community wasn't ten thousand people, seventy five thousand people.
Speaker 1: And when you add in the contractors, which you know,
Speaker 1: we probably it's another thirty thousand on top of that
Speaker 1: middle at least thirty thousand, probably more. And then when
Speaker 1: you added what I called all the direct supporter folks
Speaker 1: you know from other agencies like in g A and
Speaker 1: d I A and all these other places and stuff.
Speaker 1: You're talking anywhere from a hundred a hundred, twenty thousand
Speaker 1: people probably spread out across the entire enterprise. It's a
Speaker 1: big it's a big enterprise, man, it's not small. And
Speaker 1: they were everywhere. They're just literally all over the globe.
Speaker 1: And so, you know, it made sense to do it.
Speaker 1: I had no idea how to do it. I started
Speaker 1: reading the by laws, you know, that's like you're governing documents.
Speaker 1: And what I really liked about the U s G
Speaker 1: Spatial Intelligence that was run by members and partners. That
Speaker 1: didn't have like a bunch of retired generals and sergeant
Speaker 1: majors sitting up there in a benevolent manner acting like
Speaker 1: they were an active duty telling everybody what to do.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was truly collaborative and collegial. And I said,
Speaker 1: this is pretty cool, man, because the people that are
Speaker 1: in it actually get to decide what it does and
Speaker 1: doesn't do. So I was digging that, and so we
Speaker 1: formed ours to be in the same manner. We started
Speaker 1: two thousand and fourteen. Here we are. We started our
Speaker 1: seventh year. This year. We've got undred plus people from
Speaker 1: sixty two countries. About sixty percent of the people are
Speaker 1: active duty. It's free for active duty. I'll come back
Speaker 1: to that in a minute. And we've got corporate partners.
Speaker 1: We have I think it's ninety two or ninety four
Speaker 1: corporate partners. They raided everything from massive companies to small
Speaker 1: businesses that are you know, veterans, disabled, owned and stuff.
Speaker 1: And so we do events all over the place. And
Speaker 1: so you know, what we do is we kind know
Speaker 1: and it's hard to catch up with you. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're always travel in some place. Obviously right now, you know,
Speaker 1: with the COVID and coronavirus that's going on, you haven't
Speaker 1: been traveling on as much. But it's tough to keep
Speaker 1: up which country you're in. I usually talk to your
Speaker 1: wife more than I talked to you. Yeah, I would
Speaker 1: pay you the first year. The first three years were
Speaker 1: horrible because I would be in the Middle East, I
Speaker 1: would fly back through Europe, then I would come to Tampa.
Speaker 1: I would turn around and like two days later fly
Speaker 1: back to Europe. And then I would get back from
Speaker 1: Europe and I would fly to like Asia, you know,
Speaker 1: back to Japan or Korea somewhere, and it would just
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm fifty years old, and you feel that stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, when you're thirty and thirty five? You got it? Man,
Speaker 1: you have crap, you know. But let me tell you, man,
Speaker 1: when you hit like fifty eight, man, I mean, the
Speaker 1: recovery time ain't there. Man. You don't need someone to
Speaker 1: tell you you're old. That's just you know, reinforcement, know
Speaker 1: the whole thing. But it was tough. We were small,
Speaker 1: you know, we stayed really small. We only have seven
Speaker 1: full time employees counting myself. Our tech is never to
Speaker 1: be big. We're a networked organization. We're a network of networks,
Speaker 1: and so we leverage the people that are in the
Speaker 1: network and we can just ask them for free, like hey, man,
Speaker 1: when you do the following yes or no, the answers no,
Speaker 1: then we just move off, find somebody that says yes,
Speaker 1: get to yes quickly and so or get to know quickly.
Speaker 1: And so that's what we're trying to do. But you know,
Speaker 1: it's like being a case officer, I manage a network
Speaker 1: of networks. We support our industry partners. We're trying to
Speaker 1: bring you know, capability to our international partners. We've had
Speaker 1: huge success. I helped write the legislation to stand up
Speaker 1: the joint soft head orders in the Ukraine. I've advised
Speaker 1: the Japanese government on doing it the Jordani. I mean,
Speaker 1: we just we're all over the play. We we really
Speaker 1: focus on the joint headquarters, so we have one single
Speaker 1: point of entry for the country. But I spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time talking to parliamentary ands and stuff. And
Speaker 1: in the US it's on Congress. I think since COVID started,
Speaker 1: I do four or five calls or VTCs a week
Speaker 1: with some senator staffer, congressional staffer up there um supporting
Speaker 1: you know, special apps issues, good stuff. I mean, don't
Speaker 1: even do it. I'm punching way above my league. But
Speaker 1: you know, when you manage the network, it's not me, right,
Speaker 1: So I'll bring in fifteen or twenty other people that
Speaker 1: are far smarter and better looking than I am. For
Speaker 1: a guy who was an operator, this is a big
Speaker 1: change for you because I'm gonna share with our listeners
Speaker 1: the first time we met, which I'll always remember because
Speaker 1: I just got to three seven down in pantomer as
Speaker 1: a warrant. I just graduated the warrant Coast is like
Speaker 1: more than thirty years ago, like a late eighty nine.
Speaker 1: And Louis Aias, who was the commo guy on our team.
Speaker 1: I signed into the company. You were out in the
Speaker 1: interior in Panama and they said you're going to Captain
Speaker 1: Braden's team, and then all the guys in the company,
Speaker 1: oh jesus, you know, oh wait till you meet him.
Speaker 1: And then out there Louis was filling me in, and
Speaker 1: Louise like, Captain Bee's all about being an action dude.
Speaker 1: So if you want to make make your bones with him,
Speaker 1: just say, hey, you know I want to be an
Speaker 1: action guy. So I said, okay, So Major Higgens, Kevin
Speaker 1: Higgens a great officer. Kevin Higgins was our company commander,
Speaker 1: and he drove me out there. Me, Kevin, Louis Aias.
Speaker 1: We met you in a little Panamanian dunk restaurant. It
Speaker 1: was like really tiny you come walking in, No no, sure.
Speaker 1: All you had it was an Army T shirt. You
Speaker 1: had the ray bands with the green string shoulder brag
Speaker 1: and you're like, hey, we're gonna face shoot somebody or not.
Speaker 1: And I was like, I looked over at Louis. Louis
Speaker 1: had a big smile on his face, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I think I always hearkened back to that moment, like
Speaker 1: the country Bogart moment in Casablancan. I think this is
Speaker 1: the beginning of a beautiful friendship. And that was like
Speaker 1: thirty years ago. And here we are today, come out
Speaker 1: of crew with another team right as just cause was
Speaker 1: getting ready to go, and half my team was grew
Speaker 1: and we were supposed to be on you know, like
Speaker 1: block leave and couldn't leave country. But we were in
Speaker 1: country and stuff, and you know, half of them were
Speaker 1: liquored up at Blacks Beach and you know I had
Speaker 1: to go find them all they're spread out everywhere. You know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a it was a good different times. You know.
Speaker 1: I don't think yeah, just great leadership. I mean great
Speaker 1: Italian you know, I test the one of the greatest
Speaker 1: experiences of my life was beaten at Italian phenomenal senior
Speaker 1: in CEOs and office who's came out of that, you
Speaker 1: know three seven at that time. I mean you look back.
Speaker 1: Charlie Cleveland was the three Hector Pagan was the adjectant.
Speaker 1: I mean both both of those guys made general officer.
Speaker 1: I mean there was a you know, it was a
Speaker 1: really giving you know, seniors c os man. I mean, guys,
Speaker 1: just I can't tell you how many startivators came out
Speaker 1: of that, but dudes put down there, you know, because
Speaker 1: that's where you know, if you want to go to war,
Speaker 1: you went there. So it was it was good times.
Speaker 1: So moving around the global stoft going back there, I
Speaker 1: mean that, I mean, look, harkening back to those times,
Speaker 1: I mean the time that we spent together that it
Speaker 1: was about two years that you were on the team
Speaker 1: while I was there, and those were the most fun
Speaker 1: times I had in the military. I'll think back of that.
Speaker 1: We had a great team. We had a really awesome
Speaker 1: group of nzios. I used to look forward to going
Speaker 1: to work every day. Yeah. Different world now, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I'm older than you, so I know what you're
Speaker 1: talking about when you said you don't need somebody reminding
Speaker 1: you when you feel old. Yes, So it's global soft.
Speaker 1: I know that there's a couple of things that you're
Speaker 1: really fashionate about him. We talked offline about one of
Speaker 1: them the other day. Filling our readers to listeners, I
Speaker 1: should say not our readers, but a lot of our
Speaker 1: readers are listeners as well. Fill them in on what
Speaker 1: the force needs. And I know what number one need
Speaker 1: is going forward and beyond. When you were talking about
Speaker 1: the uh, I'm just secretary, let me back up a minute, right,
Speaker 1: so if this is show you how stupid I am. Right, So,
Speaker 1: I had never been to comman. You know, when I
Speaker 1: was a colonel, they let me go to Congress, right,
Speaker 1: which I didn't know that. You weren't supposed to do
Speaker 1: that as a colonel. You were like supposed to have
Speaker 1: handlers and you know, you can only move your mouth
Speaker 1: a certain way. You had to like read a script card,
Speaker 1: and I didn't. And so General Cratic and General Jones
Speaker 1: just let me roll in there and be neat. And
Speaker 1: that was not probably the smartest thing those Force cars
Speaker 1: ever did, but the afforts appreciated, right. He just cut
Speaker 1: to the bullshit. Tell me what I got. You know,
Speaker 1: They're like, hey, dude, I got a lot of work
Speaker 1: to do, so just tell me what the answer to
Speaker 1: the test is. That's all I want to know. And
Speaker 1: most people are afraid to tell them, hey, do just
Speaker 1: do this right here and call it a day. So
Speaker 1: I learned this and stuff. And so in ten we're
Speaker 1: up on Capitol Hill with Adam Smith and mac Thornberry
Speaker 1: and this in the House Services Committee, and one of
Speaker 1: them says, hey, dude, would you do a platform document
Speaker 1: for special ops needs for us R spobs? And my
Speaker 1: response was, nobody reads that ship anyway, you know, And
Speaker 1: he goes, oh, yeah, they do. He said, every Congressional
Speaker 1: rep and every Senator has a military legislative military legislative
Speaker 1: affairs person and they read the National Defense Opusation at
Speaker 1: which is like two New York phone books. That same staffer,
Speaker 1: who's twenty two to twenty six years old, also reads
Speaker 1: the Military Intelligence Program, which is, you know, two more
Speaker 1: phone books in the New York. So they're huge, and
Speaker 1: they've got to know what every line means, what you know,
Speaker 1: why it's important, and then how it fits certain things.
Speaker 1: So by producing this platform doctum, and we really simplify
Speaker 1: it down to no, ship, here's what the SPECIALIBS community
Speaker 1: means for US. I can't just sit here and make
Speaker 1: stuff up, you know, and say this is what students
Speaker 1: and so what we did is we said, hey, look,
Speaker 1: we have a network we have and we can't speak
Speaker 1: on behalf of us income, but we sure as heck
Speaker 1: can We can send out a survey to our partners
Speaker 1: and our members and stuff, and we can say, hey,
Speaker 1: here's what we're hearing, here's what's out there. And then
Speaker 1: the last thing on the survey is anything else you
Speaker 1: want us to go after, right, And and so we
Speaker 1: send the survey out. We usually have good results from it,
Speaker 1: you know, and since you know over half the people
Speaker 1: are active duty, we get a lot of good stuff.
Speaker 1: We get a lot of things that Congress can't legislate,
Speaker 1: Like they can't fix your leadership. Congress can't give the
Speaker 1: army good leadership. I can't. No law in the world
Speaker 1: will make that happen. But there's a lot of things
Speaker 1: that Congress can fix. And so we focus on them
Speaker 1: and we refined it, and up to this point, you know,
Speaker 1: we had this beautiful brochure. We would go to this
Speaker 1: tribution time, and my personal network and the network of
Speaker 1: the foundation pretty much ended there. We weren't lobbyists, we
Speaker 1: didn't have a Capitol Hill background, we didn't do any
Speaker 1: so we partnered with Phil Anderson and the Navigator's Global team.
Speaker 1: They've gotten the general retired Tom Trash, the former Vice
Speaker 1: Commander so Calmed, Lieutenant General retired John Mulholla. They've got
Speaker 1: Colonel retired Mark Mitchell, former Fifth Group Commander DSc Winner,
Speaker 1: former acting as the soul Lick, and they formed a
Speaker 1: national security team. So I was like, Okay, these dudes
Speaker 1: know the community, they have their stuff together. You know,
Speaker 1: they could help us. This this company and this partner
Speaker 1: can help us. So this year we had we created
Speaker 1: what we call the Soft Imperatives Document, right, and its
Speaker 1: results are from the survey and it goes out to
Speaker 1: Capitol Hill. This year are two big things are we
Speaker 1: are trying to elevate the Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Speaker 1: Special Operations and lower city conflict to an undersecretary. And
Speaker 1: everybody goes, oh, that's it's a bunch of policy craft. Look,
Speaker 1: special Ops can't do its job because it never gets
Speaker 1: authority to do ship been that way forever. We swim
Speaker 1: up stream like salmon and the Grizzlies are just mall
Speaker 1: on the all the way up the stream. And the
Speaker 1: only way that's ever gonna change is someone from the
Speaker 1: special ops community. Is that a high enough position to
Speaker 1: be in the room when the decisions are made. Now,
Speaker 1: when the Cohen Men Amendment came out, they formed so
Speaker 1: common and reformed, so there weren't that many assistant Secretaries
Speaker 1: of Defense. So that guy was a powerful dude. They
Speaker 1: had a lot of influence. But over time there's like
Speaker 1: seventeen or nineteen days these now when you've got like
Speaker 1: Apor Tuna and you can defend the Hill of Korea
Speaker 1: against a Chinese assault with all of it, there's too many,
Speaker 1: and so they're not invited into the room for the
Speaker 1: for the senior decision. So what's happening is the soft
Speaker 1: response or a soft course of action is never considered.
Speaker 1: It's a missile strike, send to carry of task force,
Speaker 1: or do nothing. And so in order to change the narrative,
Speaker 1: we've got to put someone in the room that's at
Speaker 1: a high enough level that they can ensure that we
Speaker 1: get the authorities we need to do our jobs. That's
Speaker 1: that's simple. Everybody goes, oh, that's all political bullshit, Yet
Speaker 1: it sure is. Man, you want somebody who's it that
Speaker 1: it's got enough juice to be in the room when
Speaker 1: the president makes the decisions. They boss, that's the wrong
Speaker 1: thing to do, and the under secretary is the right level.
Speaker 1: I'm surprised they didn't do that. You know, SOCOM has
Speaker 1: service light, you know SOLI as service like responsibility. So
Speaker 1: at two thousand and seventeen in the National Defense Authorization,
Speaker 1: that Congress changed everything and they subordinated us SO calm
Speaker 1: to the Assistant Secretary Defense for special operations and Lotisity
Speaker 1: Conference as d slick for all things non operational, So
Speaker 1: for manpower, funding, procurement, all that stuff, they report two solo.
Speaker 1: A lot of people don't like that. That's the law.
Speaker 1: That's been the law since the Department of Defense didn't
Speaker 1: do anything. They sat on, they didn't do anything. So
Speaker 1: in Defense Authorization, that Congress set a thing today, get
Speaker 1: off your butt, start moving. We want to report nothing.
Speaker 1: Same thing, same thing. So we've sent three warnings already,
Speaker 1: and so since we have been advocating that just elevate
Speaker 1: the person to an under secretary position, take them out
Speaker 1: from under USD policy, they did all this in so
Speaker 1: it now that works directly for Assistant Secretary Defense. He
Speaker 1: doesn't work for an under secretary, so he should therefore
Speaker 1: be designated as an undersecretary anyway, for us in the
Speaker 1: soft community, if you're a dude on a team, let
Speaker 1: me tell you what this means to you. This means
Speaker 1: that the special ops course of action that you sit
Speaker 1: around going, I don't understand why these jackasses don't let
Speaker 1: us do our jobs. That could change overnight. The other
Speaker 1: thing is I engage a lot of people on Capitol Hill,
Speaker 1: and you know, they all like to throw out the buzzwords, right,
Speaker 1: they go, hey, you know, great power competition, and but
Speaker 1: you know, and so the first question I asked is
Speaker 1: that you guys are read Chinese and Russian? Doctor, it's
Speaker 1: not very long as like that's it. Have you ever read?
Speaker 1: And the answers noe. And I said, well, let me
Speaker 1: help you out. I'm gonna I'm gonna give you the
Speaker 1: reader's digest version. Both of those countries, and you would
Speaker 1: say I ran as well have built their doctrine on
Speaker 1: avoiding a conventional fight. They want to fight this in
Speaker 1: the shadows. They want to use special opps, they use intelligence,
Speaker 1: they want to use espionage, they want to use cyber
Speaker 1: information opps. But they want to win the fight before
Speaker 1: the conventional force can deploy and mask. So zoo maybe,
Speaker 1: but this is what and they actually followed their doctrine,
Speaker 1: unlike the United States. Yeah, we kind of like it's
Speaker 1: out there, it's good paper, but we don't really do it.
Speaker 1: And so that's what they're marching too. And we're continuing
Speaker 1: to crank out aircraft carriers and joint strike fighters. This
Speaker 1: is the first year, Steve, and over twenty four years
Speaker 1: that I can go back that the soft budget is
Speaker 1: being cut and you don't hear boom and this is
Speaker 1: pre Corona, right, This has got nothing to do with Corona.
Speaker 1: So next year when they go to do the bitch
Speaker 1: budget build and the bills for Corona start coming in,
Speaker 1: you think the cuts this year hurt. It's gonna cut deep.
Speaker 1: And there is nobody but the Global Soft Foundation up
Speaker 1: there advocating. Our big deal is you have spent a
Speaker 1: phenomenal amount of time, blood and energy to build a
Speaker 1: capable force. Do not tear it down, do not let
Speaker 1: it go backwards. If you truly believe China and Russia
Speaker 1: are the threats in the Great power competition, and I ran,
Speaker 1: then the one force that you're gonna need the most
Speaker 1: of the special ops sports, You're gonna need them more
Speaker 1: than you ever had. Now here's a force that doesn't
Speaker 1: even have a two to one Bob Dwell, it's over deployed.
Speaker 1: It is coming apart at the scenes and the tool
Speaker 1: they need is that tool. And you can't produce more
Speaker 1: than could have happened. And this is why we focus
Speaker 1: on our international part We have got to get them
Speaker 1: up to speed quickly. We've got to make them near
Speaker 1: peer or peers as quickly as we can because we
Speaker 1: don't have the gene pool or the where we're all
Speaker 1: to produce the people. We've got to get them in
Speaker 1: the game. So well, under we want to Under Secretary
Speaker 1: of Elevator. Yeah, and uh, speaking of our global partners,
Speaker 1: how is that going with the global soft network in
Speaker 1: terms of you know, how are our allies are the
Speaker 1: people that we work with, how those countries progressing good?
Speaker 1: So you know, I mean every country said I honestly
Speaker 1: I thought would never have joke Soft special operations. Now
Speaker 1: have them. There's been good studies and you know, work
Speaker 1: and looking at them and stuff. And the key now
Speaker 1: is the capability. Right, So I will tell you tactical
Speaker 1: operator dude level, they're as good as we are. Almost
Speaker 1: every single energy was bullshit. You know, there's just set
Speaker 1: we do saying rocket science. Where they don't where they
Speaker 1: can't keep up with us is they don't have the
Speaker 1: cross training that we have. So we have a little
Speaker 1: bit more depth and cross training that's coming. Uh. And
Speaker 1: then the command and control and the i SR integration,
Speaker 1: you know, the the intel integration piece. Like you know,
Speaker 1: we have air most of these guys don't, so they
Speaker 1: have to go and partner with the their air force
Speaker 1: element or their army element who it's it's not a
Speaker 1: habitual relationship with and so they struggle, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. And so the big push now I would
Speaker 1: just say, especially in the native side of the house,
Speaker 1: is to get soft aviation built up because they show
Speaker 1: up at all these fights and they got no they
Speaker 1: got no aircraft, so they want to mooch on ours. Well,
Speaker 1: we don't have enough of our own people, and so
Speaker 1: you know, we spend a lot of time bringing in
Speaker 1: conventional air to fly you know, things they probably shouldn't
Speaker 1: be flying, and it just increases the risk factor. But
Speaker 1: it's going really really well. Some of them. The quadrupled
Speaker 1: in size over ten years. Luthuania has got a separate service,
Speaker 1: so they've got the air, the land, maritime, and special outs.
Speaker 1: Those are the fourth services. They've all been elevated up,
Speaker 1: their flattening their chains of command, you know, so they
Speaker 1: work for the Chief of Defense and the Minister of
Speaker 1: Defense just you know, in the same manner. So it
Speaker 1: allows them to be more aggressive. Some of them are
Speaker 1: you know, slower than others. It's all about money and
Speaker 1: programmatics and timing of stuff, and you have to convince
Speaker 1: politicians and parliamentarians that used to be socialist from communists
Speaker 1: that they've got to move away from that configuration. Most
Speaker 1: of your former Soviet Block or Eastern European folks are
Speaker 1: transitioning out of the Soviet capabilities. You know, we brought
Speaker 1: them into NATO and they all had a K forty
Speaker 1: seven's and you know, everything that was Soviet, Well none
Speaker 1: of that matches the NATO standard, you know, and NATO
Speaker 1: was gonna say, well, which is declared to be the
Speaker 1: standard to we can't have fifty standards and call it
Speaker 1: a standard. You know, was pick one. And so they're
Speaker 1: divesting themselves of all that Russian stuff that you know
Speaker 1: they had and stuff, and so they want to be
Speaker 1: aligned with the West. You know, and so that's a
Speaker 1: good thing. But it's money, you know. But they're doing it.
Speaker 1: You know, they're all building it out. They go to
Speaker 1: our schools. You know, you go down range and you
Speaker 1: look at these dudes like I mean, I was watching
Speaker 1: a bunch of Romanian special House dudes and they're listening
Speaker 1: to rap music and the dudes say F this and
Speaker 1: F that, and I'm thinking, oh, we have ruined these people. Men.
Speaker 1: They're screwed up as we are now, you know, they
Speaker 1: just you know, they look at night when you're on nods.
Speaker 1: You can't tell those dudes from our viewes man, just
Speaker 1: you know, just a whole mannerism and you know, the
Speaker 1: a screw them and you're just like, oh Jesus, man,
Speaker 1: we have completely ruined these people. So but it's good.
Speaker 1: You know, they're learning, they're accepted, and you know what's
Speaker 1: happening is because of the deployments a lot. I mean,
Speaker 1: everybody knows everybody. I mean we've known each other for
Speaker 1: twenty thirty years and so what I mean, and we
Speaker 1: know everybody's strength and weaknesses. Sometimes they have authorities that
Speaker 1: will never get and they can do stuff that we
Speaker 1: would never be authorized to do. And that works. Well,
Speaker 1: sometimes they aren't authorized to do it right, their government says, hey,
Speaker 1: I can't legally do that, but there are times when
Speaker 1: it works in our favorite you know, the US has
Speaker 1: a lot of restrictions as well, you know, and so
Speaker 1: so you just have to, you know, work with what
Speaker 1: you've got that's come along. They were the piece I
Speaker 1: want to talk about is in our stuff. Imperatives were
Speaker 1: pushing for armed over watch this year. So armed over
Speaker 1: watches something that goes back to you and I joined.
Speaker 1: They used to have the old twin engine jet dragonfly things,
Speaker 1: you know, is the closer support. You know, it could
Speaker 1: go to Austie places. When you were and I were
Speaker 1: in Bolivia, we had the PC twelves, I think a
Speaker 1: PC seven and those were the platts you know, signal
Speaker 1: engine things which are and they were phenomenal and when
Speaker 1: we crashed that one, do you remember when every on that?
Speaker 1: But but they're phenomenal, you know. After you and I left,
Speaker 1: they use them to shoot down drug planes with them
Speaker 1: all the time. I mean they were doing like sixty
Speaker 1: seventy a week and so is good, you know, and
Speaker 1: so that's that's some serious shooting down a sock has
Speaker 1: got a proposal, you know, that's that's going in right now.
Speaker 1: It's the so calm number one proposal to do what
Speaker 1: they call Armed Overwatch because they wanted to have sensors,
Speaker 1: they wanted to do a lot for them. It's designed
Speaker 1: to replace the forty eight that are currently in the system,
Speaker 1: you know, you twenty eight and Unique Birds got nine
Speaker 1: radios on it. It controls the stack for us, so
Speaker 1: when you're up there, it's not we don't deal with
Speaker 1: the a wax. The U twenty eight guys are having
Speaker 1: the stack, you know. So it's really cool, specialized, just
Speaker 1: what you want. You won't want of us to doing it.
Speaker 1: They have ownership, They land and live with you on
Speaker 1: the base, you know. So it's not like, you know,
Speaker 1: there's some dude who lives in a distant you know land,
Speaker 1: and I mean he sleeps at the same place you do.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. So they're gonna replace those
Speaker 1: platforms because they're on the fourth life cycle to replace them.
Speaker 1: So the hours on those planes are ridiculous. They eight,
Speaker 1: but they're gonna add new capability to it. And what
Speaker 1: are those dudes have? Sucks. Number one thing is focusing
Speaker 1: on being able to operate in an austere environment. So
Speaker 1: I believe to this day that we had these in
Speaker 1: these years, those kids would still be alive. I'm a
Speaker 1: hundred percent certain just the I S O R platforms
Speaker 1: alone would a learned the team's way ahead of the ambluish.
Speaker 1: You know, the bird could have could have connected on
Speaker 1: fires as well, but just the early warning. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think that team, if they had have known ahead
Speaker 1: of time, they could have put the boot to him,
Speaker 1: and would they would have been different? Much different. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying everybody would have survived, but I just don't
Speaker 1: think that the loss of life would have been anywhere
Speaker 1: close to what it was and the injuries and stuff.
Speaker 1: And so it's gonna give the Special Obbs community a
Speaker 1: capability to have a very small footprint where you have
Speaker 1: manned I s R and a kinetic strike capability in
Speaker 1: a very small package folds up fits in the back
Speaker 1: of sea. One third. Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that
Speaker 1: because when you're talking to H s R capability, I know,
Speaker 1: and especially with our partner forces, that's one of the
Speaker 1: problems the French you're having, and it's help They're they're
Speaker 1: asking for our help because I guess a lot of
Speaker 1: the I s R comes from our birds. They don't
Speaker 1: have enough of it. Is there gonna be enough for
Speaker 1: us to share? What's our partners? Great question? So when
Speaker 1: I was in Afghanistan, the French special forces had Rover five.
Speaker 1: You know, they buy L three, same thing our operators had,
Speaker 1: but they're they're birds their platforms there. They could not
Speaker 1: send a Rover five, so they had to use our
Speaker 1: birds to get received Any feeds from their I s
Speaker 1: R be personally the right right now, the Fridge have
Speaker 1: a task force of Special Forces task force in there.
Speaker 1: Next month of July, they're gonna put another man task
Speaker 1: force in there that's gonna focus mainly on mentoring. What
Speaker 1: is kennetic Like you saw they killed the head a
Speaker 1: Q guy. Yeah, now they're gonna focus just on training
Speaker 1: and mentrooing. Um, but we've lost Africa like the keen
Speaker 1: to five, so it's almost completely overruned. The government refused
Speaker 1: to allow anybody to help them. They finally opened their
Speaker 1: doors to support three weeks ago. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: when you've lost seventy five percent of your terrain, that's
Speaker 1: not easy to go and get back. And so this
Speaker 1: is not you know, all these tankers and it's a
Speaker 1: special ops environment. It's what that's who's gonna go. And
Speaker 1: it's pretty damn usteer out there. But we're struggling down
Speaker 1: and we're seeing Isis and and al Kada moved down
Speaker 1: through Central Africa and heading into the Southern Africa, and
Speaker 1: so it's creating a deliver. Then you mix in that
Speaker 1: the Russian mercenaries and the Wagner Group are there, and
Speaker 1: the Chinese are doing the support to the African Union forces.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's like Kelly's Heroes. You know, you've got
Speaker 1: to go smoking tankers, the a wall infantry dudes, You've
Speaker 1: got banned graves registration dudes. It's not a control. You
Speaker 1: got just crazy mix of and it's just and and
Speaker 1: there's and there's all. There's a UN mission, there's an
Speaker 1: African Union mission, there's there's national missions, there's a NATO mission.
Speaker 1: It's just and then five son mission yep, and and
Speaker 1: everybody's running around going what the hell is going on?
Speaker 1: So it's just it's just a it's a real mess.
Speaker 1: And frankly, nobody has stepped up and said, look, we're
Speaker 1: gonna sort this. I think from a US perspective, we
Speaker 1: ought to be in the support role and if given
Speaker 1: them I s R is all we can do, we
Speaker 1: should do it. We have the basis in Agadez, and
Speaker 1: you know we might as well. They're not going anywhere
Speaker 1: and we might as well fly it. You know, if
Speaker 1: the French want to kill them as beautiful, go do that.
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, absolutely, by time, tell us in on
Speaker 1: some of the other imperatives that you brought up this year,
Speaker 1: you know the other there's a bunch of them on there.
Speaker 1: Those are the you know, the armed over watching the
Speaker 1: other secretary too big. We're working with seventh Special Forces
Speaker 1: Group to get a child development center put on, put
Speaker 1: on a base down there. You know, Seventh Group was
Speaker 1: bracked out of Fort Bragg, right, you know, the d
Speaker 1: o D moves them down there, beautiful facilities everything. They
Speaker 1: decided to put the child development center on the middle
Speaker 1: of Egland. So for anybody it's never been to Egland.
Speaker 1: It's still one of the largest military installations in the US.
Speaker 1: It's Bassador instead of the group is up north and
Speaker 1: up your I ten and Cresty. To get down to
Speaker 1: big Eggland proper main can be an over an hour
Speaker 1: drive on two lane roads. So if you're a spouse
Speaker 1: and you're trying to work and you've got to drive
Speaker 1: an hour one way our plus sometimes one way to
Speaker 1: drop your kids off, so then to go to work
Speaker 1: and then pick them up. It's I mean, it's the
Speaker 1: amount of drama and stress it's putting on the wives
Speaker 1: and the spouses is ridiculous. We all know what happens
Speaker 1: when they're understress, right, I mean I was told they
Speaker 1: are people getting divorces because the family doesn't have enough
Speaker 1: money to survive. They're all junior enlisted, right, and so no,
Speaker 1: no disrespect to the Air Force, but you know they're
Speaker 1: they're pilots man, and so they all get flight pay.
Speaker 1: They get over eight hundred dollar flight page. So they're
Speaker 1: all living out on the beach right, closer to Eggland,
Speaker 1: closer to the amenities and everything. All the junior and
Speaker 1: listed are living up north right because he can't afford
Speaker 1: to living freak. And so the people that are the
Speaker 1: people that need childcare is not some guy whose first
Speaker 1: name is major or lieutenant colonel. It's some guy who's
Speaker 1: a sergeant, right, he needs the childcare so his wife
Speaker 1: can work, so they can freaking pay their bills and
Speaker 1: so we're busted. Asked they get fifteen million dollars for
Speaker 1: this thing. It's and of course you've got an army
Speaker 1: unit on an Air Force installation. So it's just, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a complete ship show of trying to get this done.
Speaker 1: I don't know how successful will be this year, but
Speaker 1: we've got the it's moving forward to corp of Engineers
Speaker 1: is funding the thing. You know, we don't get it
Speaker 1: this year. I feel pretty durn good we're gonna get
Speaker 1: it next year. They've got to do what's called a
Speaker 1: cherette and do the design and scope it out, and
Speaker 1: you know they'll they'll they'll do all the surveys of
Speaker 1: the land and then it's just really about funding it
Speaker 1: and then you know they'll contract that, the contractors will
Speaker 1: hit the ground and it's you know, however long it
Speaker 1: takes him to slap one of those bad boys together.
Speaker 1: You know. But there's a hundred and sixty eight families
Speaker 1: on a waiting list down it's full hundred and fully
Speaker 1: some kids. I mean, everybody's learning in COVID. Man, if
Speaker 1: you can't get your kids out of your house and
Speaker 1: get them, it's not good man, somebody's just start killing kids, man,
Speaker 1: because that's just too much children too often. You know,
Speaker 1: you can't be with your kids that much. You know.
Speaker 1: That's why we have teachers and stuff. You know, they're
Speaker 1: they know how to handle this, get educate them, you know.
Speaker 1: But if you're even with the parents are that long,
Speaker 1: it's not good, man. I mean, it's just they can't
Speaker 1: entertain them and work, you know. I mean, it's just
Speaker 1: not it's not fair to ask them to do that.
Speaker 1: So we're focusing on a bunch of those things. The
Speaker 1: big thing is right now is that there there's these
Speaker 1: deterrence issues, you know, Like so in Yukon they have
Speaker 1: everybody remembers Obama's speech, you know about the five billion
Speaker 1: dollars for you calm, and everybody loved the idea. They
Speaker 1: were piste at Obama because you just frew it out
Speaker 1: on the table, very trump like, just chucking on the wire.
Speaker 1: So there you go, boys and girls. Everybody freaked out
Speaker 1: he didn't consult with him. At the end of the day.
Speaker 1: Now it's five point nine nine billion dollars and stuff,
Speaker 1: and and so what we're doing is we're running around
Speaker 1: and we're asking hard questions like Soccer gets eighty five
Speaker 1: million out of that this year. That's one point four
Speaker 1: or four percent of the five point nine nine billion dollars. Really,
Speaker 1: that's it for irregular warfare. That's beautiful. One point four
Speaker 1: or four percent. That's that's their contribution. Other it's really
Speaker 1: going to all the big army, big navy, big Air Force,
Speaker 1: you know stuff. They're just you know, using that to
Speaker 1: train and do stuff with. And so we're trying to
Speaker 1: ask hard questions like, you know, why is irregular warfare
Speaker 1: and special operations not you know, getting more resources to
Speaker 1: do the things they need to do. They're doing the
Speaker 1: same thing. There's a forty three billion dollar bill going
Speaker 1: out from Paycom. Everybody sees Tom Cotton's the guy. There's
Speaker 1: Democrats are Republican's bipartisan, you know, and they want to
Speaker 1: they want to change some of the logistics footprint and Paycom.
Speaker 1: But you know what are the big you know, the
Speaker 1: biggest thing we're getting our ass beat with on the
Speaker 1: Chinese is the information operations. And there's nothing in this
Speaker 1: that fixes any of it. And so we're gonna spend
Speaker 1: a whole ton of money built boat dox camera on
Speaker 1: Bay you know, for ship, say you're gonna sit well
Speaker 1: before they ever get to you know, a coastal region,
Speaker 1: and we're we're going into Congress and we're educating on
Speaker 1: you know, allocating money to special operations so we can
Speaker 1: fund some of these missions, so we can get our
Speaker 1: teams and our folks out there, you know, doing the
Speaker 1: things they're supposed to be doing. Marco Rubio is doing
Speaker 1: one for five million for Latin America. It's good stuff.
Speaker 1: It allows the units to deploy on something other than
Speaker 1: traditional exercise related funding. You know, the authorities with exercises
Speaker 1: are horrible. You can basically show up and train, which
Speaker 1: is not totally worthless, but it's it's very limiting if
Speaker 1: you're trying to deal with an adversary, right, if you're
Speaker 1: using that to confront an adversary, it's just weak weakness.
Speaker 1: Those are some of the big ones I can think
Speaker 1: of off the time. Spend most of my time focusing
Speaker 1: on the big stuff. I think if you get the
Speaker 1: big stuff right, you know, the policy stuff right, everything
Speaker 1: else sorts itself out. And so that's we pushed that.
Speaker 1: You're the big thing I spend a lot of time
Speaker 1: on is transitioning. You know, I don't know if we
Speaker 1: run up what's called the Software Life Program. Well, before
Speaker 1: I go on, I'll just tell you this. We are
Speaker 1: looking for people to join as individual members. Right. It's
Speaker 1: twenty five bucks a year, fifty dollars for three years.
Speaker 1: You could be a lifetime member, and it's free for
Speaker 1: active duty. Now, when I was on in the army,
Speaker 1: you know, they always had the first start, would come
Speaker 1: out there with the you know, they beat up the
Speaker 1: n C O S about n C O A. And
Speaker 1: I mean I used to in A U S A.
Speaker 1: I got an O E R with help when I
Speaker 1: was in the calf because I didn't renew my A
Speaker 1: U N S A thing. Why did it on the
Speaker 1: border for like a hundred twenty days? You know, not
Speaker 1: a lot of post offices up there, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So the guy was actually holding back my
Speaker 1: O E R, which would have hurt me. You know,
Speaker 1: I might not have gotten promoted, right, And I'm like, dude,
Speaker 1: are you kidding me? So I vowed never. I didn't
Speaker 1: want I didn't want the Global Soft Foundation to be
Speaker 1: that kind of professional association. And so I said, hey man,
Speaker 1: active duty free man, you know, don't pay anything why,
Speaker 1: you know, if we don't make money off it. I
Speaker 1: have this very expensive system that you know, any of
Speaker 1: the money goes into that to run. But it's built
Speaker 1: for our professional associations. Unlike any other association. You get
Speaker 1: a password, you go in, you can set up your profile.
Speaker 1: We got a thing called Breezio coming out here about
Speaker 1: three or four months, so once you log in, it
Speaker 1: will be like its own internal linked in. You can
Speaker 1: set up communities of interest. You guys can everybody can communicate.
Speaker 1: You can type in a country and it will show
Speaker 1: you who's in the country you desert how much of
Speaker 1: your information you dispose? Right, it's all password protected. People
Speaker 1: ask me all the time. Is it safe. It's as
Speaker 1: safe as your bank account uses the same encryption protocols
Speaker 1: is your bank account. So if you're comfortable with your money,
Speaker 1: you should be comfortable with this. But but it's really
Speaker 1: important to get individual members to join, right, and then
Speaker 1: the main thing is when we sit out to surveys
Speaker 1: and then getting their input. You know, if you don't
Speaker 1: say ship, I tell people if you do nothing, nothing
Speaker 1: will happen, you know, And so if you if you
Speaker 1: take two surveys, you tell us what's going on. Do
Speaker 1: every anything we can to help and fix it, and
Speaker 1: so and again. And when I say we we use
Speaker 1: the collective network. But the other thing we do is
Speaker 1: we run what's called the Software Life Program. And the
Speaker 1: Software Life Program is three nonprofits. It's the Global Soft Foundation,
Speaker 1: the Honor Foundation, and ATHMA. We managed the program. We
Speaker 1: managed the databases of resumes. We push out resumes. The
Speaker 1: Honor Foundation runs a world class transition course that's like
Speaker 1: a hundred and twenty hours campus in San Diego, Little
Speaker 1: Creek and down at Stone Bay to the bar Sock.
Speaker 1: We have a virtual one as well. We're working hard
Speaker 1: to build one at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and all
Speaker 1: the other major commanders there are expective as hell to do.
Speaker 1: You know, I would say between six hundred thousand and
Speaker 1: two million dollars to put a campus out there. They're
Speaker 1: not cheap. Believe me. When you don't know all these
Speaker 1: numbers and you see them when you start doing it,
Speaker 1: you're just like, holy crap, this is not cheak. It
Speaker 1: cost about ten tho dollars a student to go through
Speaker 1: the course is what it runs. So we know there's
Speaker 1: a lot of fundraising that goes on to do it,
Speaker 1: but it sets them up for success getting up. ATHMA
Speaker 1: is the oldest nonprofit in the country and actually was
Speaker 1: formed during the Civil War because there was no there
Speaker 1: was no benevolent organization. There was no you know, if
Speaker 1: you got killed, they buried you where he fell. You know,
Speaker 1: your wife and family ain't get nothing then. And it
Speaker 1: really came to pass a little big horn when the
Speaker 1: Seventh Calf lost two entire squadrons just wiped off the map.
Speaker 1: You had all these families sitting on these forts spread
Speaker 1: out all over the Midwest that they had to be
Speaker 1: like recovered, you know, and what are they gonna do?
Speaker 1: And so the Army formed the Army Mutual ad Association
Speaker 1: that it became the Army Air Force and it became
Speaker 1: the Now it's the Armed Forces Mutual Aid Associate. Their
Speaker 1: headquarters on Fort Myers and they do a lot of
Speaker 1: financial advising. You know, they tell people, hey, this is
Speaker 1: what you gotta do. This what you can't do. These
Speaker 1: are your benefits, like you know, if you get injured
Speaker 1: or or hurt at any time, you know, they tell
Speaker 1: I mean, they're very smart and making sure that you
Speaker 1: get the benefits that that that the nation owes you.
Speaker 1: They're really really good at that. So and they answer
Speaker 1: questions that you know, they don't sell anything. They'll tell
Speaker 1: you these lo ones we recommend pick, you know, pick
Speaker 1: from the menu. We don't care. So we form that
Speaker 1: and and it's really focused because there's a lot of
Speaker 1: soft charities out there. There's hundreds of them with it
Speaker 1: asked multiple A lot of them do great stuff, a
Speaker 1: lot of our teeny tiny and but there's really there's
Speaker 1: not many out there that focus on transition. So if
Speaker 1: you're not dead or seriously injured, a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't apply to cent of the people that just serve
Speaker 1: you know, they're busted up, banged up, and they just
Speaker 1: get out. You know, people like us, right, And what
Speaker 1: most people in our community want to do is I
Speaker 1: mean they just want a job. They want to do,
Speaker 1: you know, go do something interesting, and they want a
Speaker 1: new mission in their life. They want to move on,
Speaker 1: and so they want to take care of their families. Man,
Speaker 1: you know, they don't they're not looking for handouts or
Speaker 1: you know, they don't anybody feel sorry for him these do.
Speaker 1: You just want to get on after it, right and
Speaker 1: do something different. And so you design what we call
Speaker 1: software life. We think this program helps, you know, our
Speaker 1: people do. And I say so, it's not just the
Speaker 1: operat I tell people all the time, if you're in
Speaker 1: the community, don't care your truck driver or bottle washing.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, the one you get SIDENTI fire
Speaker 1: and you've been in the community, your room, You're never
Speaker 1: gonna go back to the conventional force. You get fired,
Speaker 1: you get thrown out. And so we take care of
Speaker 1: all the folks in our formations and stuff, and it's
Speaker 1: pretty huge. I'm a big proponent of it. We run
Speaker 1: these one day seminars, We've done certain things to educate
Speaker 1: the force on it. They're doing really good at the
Speaker 1: average salaries almost a hundred forty thousand a year, and
Speaker 1: that's officer n c O. But they spent a lot
Speaker 1: of time up front in the course focused on the why,
Speaker 1: and they try to get people to figure out what
Speaker 1: the heck it is they want to do with their
Speaker 1: lives once they get out. You know a lot of
Speaker 1: people focus on money and resumes. That's on bullshit, man.
Speaker 1: Once you know what it is, you're passionate about what
Speaker 1: you're good at, what you really want to do. Then
Speaker 1: a tailor everything to getting you in that area. Know,
Speaker 1: those sorts of write and resume for some corporate headquarters
Speaker 1: that you have no desire to be because you won't
Speaker 1: last and stuff. So we spent a lot of our
Speaker 1: energy and efforts trying to to help people transition out,
Speaker 1: because whether you do forty years or four years, man,
Speaker 1: at some point time, everybody transition. That's it. I wish
Speaker 1: that was around when I got out. I'll tell you,
Speaker 1: I've been out to San Diego several times. I went
Speaker 1: out to Green I went to grad school out there,
Speaker 1: and it was I've been to Stone Bay and I've
Speaker 1: been to Virginia Beach, and I'm really excited about getting
Speaker 1: one at for Bragg. And the reason is because it's
Speaker 1: like five times the population of those other three campuses combined.
Speaker 1: You know, they think over four hundred and fifty specialized
Speaker 1: people transition out of Fort Bragg every year. That's an
Speaker 1: infantry battag every year. Yeah, and you know a lot
Speaker 1: of them wander out, and you know some of them
Speaker 1: are great self starters and stuff. You know, when I first,
Speaker 1: we do a survey and we get a software lest survey.
Speaker 1: So when I has got out, I've been out you know,
Speaker 1: almost seven years now, and you know, everybody say, sir,
Speaker 1: everyone talking about transition and getting out and everything. You know,
Speaker 1: every I love our people. Man, they're all selfishured khaki,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, this is what we select and success.
Speaker 1: You know, we want this right, We want that person
Speaker 1: that goes until the last drop of blood pumps through
Speaker 1: their heart. And they all got a planned. You know,
Speaker 1: I got this plan. I'm gonna do it. And I
Speaker 1: listened to him. And when I first started doing it,
Speaker 1: I listened to him and I was like, that's bullshit.
Speaker 1: I just cut him off. I was like, hey, dude,
Speaker 1: that's not how it works. And my wife kind of
Speaker 1: tightened me up on that. She says, hey, look man,
Speaker 1: you don't don't cut him off, you know, because you
Speaker 1: just like it's a crush them. You know, I could
Speaker 1: see their face when you just cut him off and
Speaker 1: say that's bullshit. So I learned now, I'm this is
Speaker 1: the new refined scoop right. And I let him pick
Speaker 1: out and I asked the first question to him, how
Speaker 1: long can you go unemployed? And usually dude can't answer you.
Speaker 1: He's got the stunning mullet look. His wife next to him,
Speaker 1: who is the CEO of the operation. They is all
Speaker 1: the bills, knows where everything is, all the stuff. She
Speaker 1: has shock and horror in her face because the tone
Speaker 1: and the way I asked the question, and she'll usually
Speaker 1: respond with we probably have three to six months we
Speaker 1: could go and and put My second question is is
Speaker 1: that savings and college fund or is that just a
Speaker 1: discretionary money you've got set aside for unemployment. No, that's everything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so our survey found that most people are unemployed or
Speaker 1: unemployed nine to fifteen months. That ain't good, man. We're
Speaker 1: gonna bring that down. We're gonna bring that way down.
Speaker 1: Our goal is to attack that and crush that. And
Speaker 1: the only way you do it. I mean, I tell
Speaker 1: the n c os this is on you. I tell him,
Speaker 1: as I was an n c O, I was an officer.
Speaker 1: I tell him. Both times I came in the army,
Speaker 1: I was greeted by the same person. First name was sergeant. Now,
Speaker 1: when you're a private, right, you know, they're not as
Speaker 1: nice to you as you but as a lieutenant, they're
Speaker 1: only marginally nicer. They'll throw it up. They'll do the
Speaker 1: ricky Bobby thing with all due respect, you know, but
Speaker 1: they still treat you like ship. Right. But when you
Speaker 1: come in you have sergeants. Man, they there, they get
Speaker 1: you in the force, they get you trained, they get
Speaker 1: your equipment, they get you in the fighting force. That's
Speaker 1: their job, unmatched to doing it. When you go to
Speaker 1: get out, sergeant ain't there. They give you a checklist
Speaker 1: and you thought you're just like you were leaving posts.
Speaker 1: But like your PCs and you go down the checklist,
Speaker 1: you go to your tab, you go see this dude,
Speaker 1: you go see that dude. But there's no sergeant that's
Speaker 1: assigned the mission to make sure that you are prepared
Speaker 1: to exit the force. None. And that's not the government's responsibility.
Speaker 1: The people that are incentivised to help you do that.
Speaker 1: It is the private sector because your money to them,
Speaker 1: you're You're what they're looking for. I mean, every day
Speaker 1: they wake up, they're looking for talent. Man, there's nobody
Speaker 1: in the world that's a CEO that doesn't focus seasy
Speaker 1: percent of his time on talent and chemistry. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just the way it is. You will not survive
Speaker 1: if you don't have talent. You've got the greatest idee
Speaker 1: in the world. But if you've got a shitty team,
Speaker 1: guess what you lose. And so people are really really
Speaker 1: cognizant of talent and stuff. And so what we have
Speaker 1: done is we're spending a lot of energy on helping
Speaker 1: our community be able to get out there and find good,
Speaker 1: meaningful work stuff that they want to do. And and
Speaker 1: that's it's a bigg thing, you know, But it's up
Speaker 1: to the n c O. I tell the n c
Speaker 1: L and I brief the Senior Enlisted Academy over here,
Speaker 1: you know, big deal all the time. This is gonna live.
Speaker 1: There are eighty five of the force. When they start saying, hey,
Speaker 1: gooes and girls there by paying attention, here's what we're
Speaker 1: gonna do, it's done. It's over. I keep telling all
Speaker 1: the officers are gonna say ship. They don't. They'll just
Speaker 1: say you have a good old your top, you know,
Speaker 1: pick a But it's up to them. And you know,
Speaker 1: there's just a lot of things that we've got to
Speaker 1: do up front to help these people. You know, when
Speaker 1: you start talking to soldiers about financial preparators, you can't
Speaker 1: do that when they're eight and to late to late stuff. Man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're just trying to help. I mean, you know, we're
Speaker 1: kind of getting into our stride. So this is the
Speaker 1: you know, it's taken longer. We were born in sequestration,
Speaker 1: so this is a lot to tell people. We came
Speaker 1: out of the egg swinging. People were getting cut. There
Speaker 1: was a horrible year for the Defense Department, and we
Speaker 1: grew tremendously. But we've got you know, phenomenal corporate partners.
Speaker 1: I mean, these are companies that want to be in
Speaker 1: the community. Most of them are former specialized people and
Speaker 1: they want to be in the community. They want to
Speaker 1: hire our people, they want they want to be a part.
Speaker 1: They have the same culture, ethics, and ethos as the
Speaker 1: soft community, and so they you know, they are us.
Speaker 1: They deployed with us. About thirty of everybody outs on
Speaker 1: the battlefield some sort of contract or support entity somehow,
Speaker 1: so one third of the forces them and they like
Speaker 1: higher enough. And they also provide great opportunities to our
Speaker 1: people outside of just some military contracting. We have a
Speaker 1: lot of our people by Navy c O. Darren Evenson
Speaker 1: from soccer here is the number three guy at Airbnb.
Speaker 1: He's worked a lot of money, but he's he's an
Speaker 1: Airbn be man. He's out there reading departments, whatever Airbnb does,
Speaker 1: how they're making a lot of money, I'll tell you
Speaker 1: that you're doing great. Man. I mean, but you know,
Speaker 1: he works his butt off and he's a one brilliant guy.
Speaker 1: It's too smart to be in the military, especially a seal,
Speaker 1: but he's a mean, he's still kidding and I'm sure
Speaker 1: he's just killing it, you know, I know he is.
Speaker 1: And we have a lot of really smart, gifted people.
Speaker 1: Once we find what they're good at and what they
Speaker 1: really want to do, they do exceptionally well. Well, all right,
Speaker 1: I want to thank you for all your time once again,
Speaker 1: thank you for your service, and thank you for your friendship.
Speaker 1: Than you've appreciate it. Yeah, it's been it's been a
Speaker 1: blast catching up and now that we're almost neighbors, were
Speaker 1: gonna have to do this in person. There you go.
Speaker 1: Thank you, all right, So for myself, Steve Valastoria here
Speaker 1: at soft At Radio, Stu Braydon, Global Soft Foundation. We
Speaker 1: want to thank you everyone for listening and we'll be
Speaker 1: back soon with another podcast. You've been listening to Self
Speaker 1: Rep Radio. New episodes up every Wednesday and Friday. Follow
Speaker 1: the show on Instagram and Twitter at self Rep Radio.