Security Halt!
Welcome to Security Halt! Podcast, the show dedicated to Veterans, Active Duty Service Members, and First Responders. Hosted by retired Green Beret Deny Caballero, this podcast dives deep into the stories of resilience, triumph, and the unique challenges faced by those who serve.
Through powerful interviews and candid discussions, Security Halt! Podcast highlights vital resources, celebrates success stories, and offers actionable tools to navigate mental health, career transitions, and personal growth.
Join us as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder, proving that even after the mission changes, the call to serve and thrive never ends.
Security Halt!
From Green Beret to Civilian Leader: JP Cervantes on Mindset, Mentorship & Mission Beyond Service
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In this powerful episode of the Security Halt! Podcast, host Deny Caballero sits down with former Green Beret JP Cervantes to explore the challenges of military transition, leadership evolution, and the mental health journey after service. JP shares hard-earned insights from Special Operations, reflecting on the post-9/11 era, the importance of mentorship, and the unique role of warrant officers in shaping mission success.
From tackling the identity crisis many veterans face after leaving the military to discussing the emotional impact of human trafficking and the power of gratitude, this conversation dives deep into personal growth, career navigation, and what it takes to live with purpose beyond the uniform. Whether you're a transitioning veteran, a military leader, or someone seeking resilient strategies for overcoming adversity, this episode offers practical wisdom and hope.
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Chapters
00:00 Transitioning from Military to Civilian Life
02:45 The Journey to Becoming a Green Beret
05:29 Experiences in the 82nd Airborne Division
08:27 Selection and the Mindset of a Green Beret
11:11 Mentorship and Team Dynamics in Special Operations
14:03 Navigating Combat Deployments Post 9/11
24:47 Understanding Combat Culture and Team Dynamics
28:21 Career Navigation in Special Operations
33:46 Leadership Challenges and Mentorship
38:28 The Evolving Role of Warrant Officers
49:07 Transitioning from Team Life to Career Growth
50:45 Facing the Reality of TBI
51:41 The Burden of Team Dynamics
52:59 Making Tough Decisions for Wellbeing
54:11 Navigating Career Transitions
55:33 The Importance of Healing
56:57 Finding Purpose After Service
59:24 Human Trafficking and Mental Health Advocacy
01:01:24 Creating a Nonprofit for Mental Health
01:02:48 Resilience Through Adversity
01:05:03 The Power of Positive Mindset
01:08:00 Gratitude in Daily Life
01:10:38 Advice for Veterans in Transition
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpcervantes/
Produced by Security Halt Media
Security Out Podcast. Let's go. The only podcast that's purpose-built from the ground up to support you Not just you, but the wider audience, everybody. Authentic, impactful and insightful conversations that serve a purpose to help you. And the quality has gone up. It's decent. It's hosted by me, danny Caballero. Jp. Welcome to Security Out Podcast. How's it going, brother? It's going good man. How are you doing? Doing good man.
Speaker 1:I love reaching out to our legacy Green Berets. Man, you've been out here, out in the wild, making things happen, and one of the things I love to highlight is how to succeed in transition, because every Green Beret has. Highlight is how to succeed in transition, because every Green Beret has everything they need to succeed. They just need to get over that fear, and what better way of overcoming that than through a PDSS? Every time we deployed, we did a PDSS, got our hands-on knowledge from that other team of how to succeed in the fight. And transition is no different. When we see guys out there succeeding, doing great things, leading nonprofits, starting businesses, all we have to do is reach out to them, connect and ask them hey brother, what was it like getting out, how'd you get from point A to point B and do that transition PDSS. So today, man, I not only want to dive into your history, the background, how you became a Green Beret, but everything on the backside, how you got to where you're at right now.
Speaker 2:Oh well, let me start by saying you're right, PDSS is important, right. And I think that the biggest thing for a lot of us is that once we get out, we're still stuck in who we I don't want to say who we used to be, because we're still that person but what we used to do Right. So we get stuck in that and we go like man, I'm an operator, I'm kicking down doors, and that are like, yeah, guess what? But downtown freaking Miami, you ain't going to be doing that, so, so find something different. Uh, of course, a lot of people go the route of, you know, shooting training. That's what I used to do and that's fine if that's what you like. But to me it's like, yeah, I do training right, because I run a company that do that. But the thing is I don't want to be in the range every single day.
Speaker 2:I already did that, you got to evolve.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I got an.
Speaker 2:A plus on that one, you know. But you know we get stuck in the past and I think that's one of our biggest fears is letting go of that adrenaline that we used to get all the time, letting go of the brotherhood, which you don't have to let go of the brotherhood, it's just it's different now and you got to start adjusting to that. That's, I think that's the biggest fear for a lot of people. Like I just talked to someone recently who said I'm scared, I got no idea what I'm going to do.
Speaker 1:Dude, that's all of us, Every last one of us. Yeah, man, but it's like diving into the world. I always tell guys the team room is bigger. On the outside it doesn't seem that way at first, but when you open up the aperture, when you dive into the ecosystems of LinkedIn, when you get on the Facebook threads, the gray beard Facebook group, and you realize all these guys maybe they were scary when they were your star major, but on the outside they might bust your balls a little bit, but they're going to give you insight.
Speaker 1:If they can't give you direct guidance into what to do because that's a deep personal journey they can at least give you a piece of their journey, a piece of their background, how they got their feet on the solid ground rather than sitting there treading water forever. And that's what I love about being able to reach out to guys like yourself, being able to give people like, hey, look, it's always going to be scary. Being able to give people like hey, look, it's always going to be scary. But once you find one thing that you enjoy and you want to try to get into, just keep pulling that thread. But before we dive into your transition story, how did you find your way into the military.
Speaker 2:Oh, man, To be honest, since I was a little kid, my mother had me like in first grade, First and second grade, I was in a military academy in Puerto Rico. Oh, wow, I kind of loved it, except for the fact that I talk a lot. So I always found myself in formation with soap in my mouth, a bar of soap in my mouth. So I wouldn't talk in formation. But other than that it was great, it was fun. I just couldn't keep my mouth shut Right, so I always had to make a comment. I was something, so anyway. So I started with that and then I always wasn't inclined towards the military and then, when I was 11 years old, I discovered the Civil Air Patrol and I joined the Civil Air Patrol and that just took over my life. That's everything I did, was all about the civil patrol Now in the States, and I've been in a lot of squadrons in the States and I went through a lot of competitions and I met a lot of people from the States.
Speaker 2:So here in the States, a little bit different, you know, civil patrol they they show up maybe two hours once a week and that's what they get. In Puerto Rico is different, different. The meetings in Puerto Rico are on Saturdays and you start at 8 am and sometimes at 6, you're still in the squadron. So it is an entire day that you're getting leadership, training, drill and ceremonies, PT, I mean, you name it, you're getting all of that. So when you spend an entire day over there, that becomes your family. And then on Sundays we go like well, let's practice for the drill team competition on Sunday. So now you're taking these kids which a lot of them were trouble kids and you take them out of the streets an entire weekend and to me that was awesome.
Speaker 2:I saw a lot of people that were in trouble all the time transitioning to being lieutenant colonels in the military now, Wow, Because of the structure that the Civil Patrol gave them. So to me that gave me the beginning of what I wanted to do. Now I knew I wanted to join the military. I like the leadership, I love all that. Of course, initially I was going to go to the Air Force because it was yeah, it makes sense it makes sense, right, and I always wanted to be a pilot.
Speaker 2:So I go like, yeah, I'm going to fly F-16s, I'm going to drop bombs, I'm going to be cool. I was wearing the. I was 16, wearing the cool freaking aviator glasses, right, looking cool.
Speaker 1:Watched Top Gun every weekend, didn't you?
Speaker 2:Well, I don't think Top Gun was a thing back then. This is like 87, 88, you know. But yeah, no, but I was wearing the aviator glasses, you know, looking cool wearing my pilot jacket, even though that I don't even know what an airplane looks like in the inside. But I thought it was cool, right. But so that really started it.
Speaker 2:And then when I went to college, I was still in the civil patrol. Uh, then I went to college and I joined the air force rotc. Uh, so the first two years I did air force rotc. Then I decided to transition to army rotc, which I never did. Uh, because when I was sitting over there with the army uhOTC guys and they were talking about all this training and ranger school and black hats and all this, I'm like man, I want to be an instructor, that's what I do, right, I like to teach, I like to be part of it. So if I'm an officer, I ain't going to do that. So literally I left that day. I left the ROTC complex, I went straight to Rio Piedras Recruiting Station and I walk in there I say like, hey, I'm joining the Army. They're like well, let me talk to you. No, I already know what I want Just give me the damn test, I'm joining. And they're like man, you're an easy recruiter. I'm like, yeah, I already know what I want.
Speaker 1:Just went in. Yeah, I'm in, you know you don't have to convince me.
Speaker 2:Actually, if you talk too much I might leave because I get bored. So, uh, anyway. So I went over there. I, I took my test. Uh, of course in puerto rico you have to take a a quick 30, 30 or 40 question english test to make sure you know enough english. I don't know how I passed that one, but I did, and uh, and uh, and then they take you to take the asmab. So I did that, you know, went to MEPS. I told them exactly what I wanted. Of course they tried to bullshit me at first, like they always do, but I knew what I wanted. I've been around the military long enough. You know people in the Civil Air Patrol, senior members who were in the military before, and they told me to do some dots. So I got what I wanted. I got airborne school infantry, 11 Bravo, and I went straight to the 82nd, which is exactly what I wanted. So I'm like, all right. Then after that it's up to me of what I accomplished. Right, they got me started. Now it's up to you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, where in the 82nd did you land? I was in the second of the 325. Oh man, I was going to say I was hoping you'd say 2504.
Speaker 2:Oh, the world's older Dude so many great individuals come from the 82nd man.
Speaker 1:I think it's like the undergraduate's degree for being a professional soldier.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you when I was in group. So when I was in the 82nd, I was in Alpha Company first, but then I went to the Scout Platoon when I was in group. So when I was in the 82nd, I was in Alpha Company first, but then I went to the Scout Platoon. So I was in the Recon Platoon. Yeah, and I want to say almost everyone, but maybe three that were in my platoon ended up in group.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, tony Pastor, captain AIDS, I mean Mike Vitra, I mean most of the guys that were with me in that platoon ended up going to either third group or seventh group. It was amazing, because when I start running into it, I'm like what are you doing? They're like well, we decided with this skinny ass, mofo can do it, we can do it too all it takes that one guy.
Speaker 1:We had the same thing. All it takes that first guy. For us it was pete. As soon as pete made it, it gave everybody else that strength of like, and not from a place of like, oh, if he can make it, no, we're like fuck, yeah, we can do this if pete can make it. I know I can do it, we can all do it. And I mean by the time we got done with our second, uh, like you know that that original family that you know en enlisted and was in the same deployment cycle as I was, as soon as the first couple of guys went to selection, it was like three or four or five, six, seven and like it's like my PL went, platoon sergeant went.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's funny because I went to selection, I was already out of the 82nd. I went to Panama for the last year before Panama shut down.
Speaker 1:Oh, no shit.
Speaker 2:And I saw grown ass men crying when the flag was coming down and they're like I don't want to live one of them was sire major reyes. I don't know if you remember sire major reyes, but yeah, he cried like a baby.
Speaker 1:Uh, I remember and I'm gonna keep telling him that I think it's one of the biggest blunders we ever had. As a military, coming from a Panamanian myself, it would have been cool to have been stationed in Panama. I think it was such a strategic value to have that.
Speaker 2:You know what it was different? It gave you a lot of freedom, right, a lot of freedom to get in trouble too, right, but I think it gave you a lot of freedom, especially for, like, I had a lot of soldiers and I was an NCO at the time, so I had a lot of guys in my squad who that was the first time, the first duty station they're 19 years old the first time they've been out of their homes, and now they're thrown into Panama in a foreign language, right, and they're over there, coming, going, like she loves me. I'm like she don't even know how to say I love you in English. What are you talking about? Right? But it's just that experience alone is something that a lot of people don't get, and that was what I was trying to explain that it might be hard, but you're going to appreciate this experience later, because there's a lot of people in the military that wish they left the States, and they did 30 years and never left the States.
Speaker 1:That's crazy, too to think about that. That's something I mean. It's like a unicorn. When you meet somebody that's been in through the entirety of GWAT and they never left anywhere, it's like where have you been?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, I know it's like, yeah, so I went and put a tent in JRTC and that was pretty cool. And I know it's like, yeah, so I went and put a tent in JRTC and that was pretty cool. And don't get me wrong, it's not their fault. They just because there's a friend of mine, javi, and his son. He was, I think he was in the 10th mountain first and then, as he was leaving, his unit got tasked to deploy, and he's like son of a, and then he goes to Alaska. He's in Alaska, nothing happened. The two deployments that we're supposed to do for training to Europe got kank as soon as he leaves, unit deploys and he's like what is going on? And then he gets to the 82nd and then he gets orders to go to Italy a few years later, and then his unit- deploys.
Speaker 2:Sometimes the universe is working against you. Well, at least you got to go to italy. You know it's like all right, it's not a deployment, it's a pcs, but hey, you got something oh my gosh no but so that that's how my, uh, my thing started.
Speaker 2:And then when I was in panama that's when I went to selection um, there was a few of us that went together. I think I'm not pretty sure I think I was the only one that made it from that little group, but it was like three of us. But that inspired a lot of other guys to go and do it after that, which is great. Um, and everybody asked me so what did you do for training? I was like I did it. I really didn't. I was already in the infantry, so I was rocking all the time, I was running all the time. The only thing I really did and I think I did it twice is I practiced the water jug carrots, right, yeah, because my forearms are not that freaking great, right? I mean, I was 130 pounds, 125, 130 pounds, right. So that's the only thing I tried. A few times I'm like, okay, this is going to suck, there's nothing I can do to train for me, this is just going to suck, uh. So I just went out there and didn't quit, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know that's the same thing. I came back from a deployment and went straight into selection and nowadays there's so many fitness programs and so many like coaches and and subscription based models where you can get a play-by-play training guideline to go to selection. I'm like you just don't quit, you just don't quit. I think it's more of a mind game and if you have more ahead of you that you're hoping for, they have this positive focus and almost like a hyper-focus, almost just addictive behavior of like I need to get here, I need to make it out of here. That's going to be more beneficial than any program. I think guys get too wrapped around the perfect meal plan, the perfect workouts, dude pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, run and rock and mindset. The mindset will do more for you than paying $29.99 a month for a plan.
Speaker 2:A lot of people don't believe me when I tell them most of the big guys that showed up with big muscles and selections they were the first ones to quit.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They were the first ones to quit. And there I am. They call me the skinny tough guy. That's how they call me, and yeah, the skinny tough guy.
Speaker 2:I'm like dude because I'm not tough. I'm hurting, just like you. Yeah, I'm just not bitching about it because it's going to hurt anyway, right. So so I think that selection yet and don't get me wrong If you're, if you are out there and you're enrolling to one of these programs, you know, take advantage of that. That's something that we didn't have before. But at the end of the day is are you going there for the right reasons? Yeah, are you going there just because everybody's doing it? Are you going there because you want to be cool? Or are you going to selection because you really, really want to do that job? This is the lifestyle I'm looking for. That's going to make the difference. When you go there and your mindset, right, it's like this is not about just passing, this is about the rest of my life.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And that's the way I looked at it when I won. Two reasons One, this is what I want to do. This is what I want to do, period. And two, I'm not going back to Panama and face my squad and tell them I quit, right, because I was their NCO. Now I'll tell them I didn't get selected, okay, that's fine, but I will not tell him I quit. That will not happen. Uh, so as long as as you're there for the right reasons, uh, I think that you won't quit. That like quitting is not a choice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a. That's the one thing that people don't talk about much is, uh, like that mentality of I'll quit tomorrow or I'll quit in another hour. You just tell yourself, like all right, give yourself an hour. Like all right, tomorrow I'll quit. Like just those mind games that you play with yourself to keep yourself focused, I can.
Speaker 1:One thing that we always said, uh and it translated all the way through to selection was like I can do anything for five minutes. If I can do anything for five minutes, I can do anything for 10 minutes. It's like I can do anything for 10 minutes. It's like I just got to figure out like that increment of suffering and just reset the clock right Five more minutes, I can suffer for another five minutes. And if you need a smaller increment basically like what I'm trying to define for you is that mentality of understanding that your mind will get you through so much if you train it, because your body's not going to be the thing that gives up unless you have a horrible, catastrophic injury. It's going to be your mind. Your mind's going to be playing tricks on you. I can't do this and you have to temper that. You have to constantly push that. Whether it's through. Find your week, that's the one thing I will say. Find your weakest event and train the fuck out of it if it it's running. Hey, I hate running.
Speaker 2:Guess what that is part of my plan.
Speaker 1:That is part of my workout weekly plan. I run and I tell myself I can do anything for five more minutes. When that virtual coach for my running plan is telling me to keep going, I know that I can say I can keep going, I can keep the speed up, I can keep it going you know, don't yeah, I'm sorry, no, when I was in the 82nd, we had a platoon sergeant when I was in the scout platoon.
Speaker 2:Uh, uh, big daddy epps, that's how we call him. Big daddy epps, sergeant epps, pure urban steel, that's how we call himself. Uh, and he, hey, he was a machine, I'll tell, tell you that. But he took us every Monday on what he called a quick three-mile run. I know it. It always ended up being five to eight miles.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And he loved just running the fuck out of us, right, and he's like, oh, that beer from the weekend, we're going to get rid of it today. And I remember because the first three miles he always us like just dashed, like keep up with me, and he was a good runner. And after he smoked you in the first three miles and you feel like you can go no more, he always turned back around and he goes like you guys are pretty much done and I was like, yeah, he's like, well, guess what? That's your mind telling you that your body can go another five miles. Let's go, boys. But he was right. I mean, he was trying to teach you something. It's like you're quitting up here but your body can still do so much more, probably two or three times what you think you can do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had the same thing. Our platoon sergeant was the same way. Shout out to you, sergeant Mack. And it was just understanding. I think that's what ultimately helps a lot of us that started out in the regular Army. We have the NCOs that can build that endurance and build that no-quit mentality and you can do it on your own that's. I mean, 18 X3s have been succeeding for eons now. But it definitely helps having that senior guy in the platoon that will run the absolute dog shit out of you and show you that you can keep going Like it's going to suck, but you get done. And what happens as soon as you're back in the company area, everybody's back to normal, nobody's hobbling company area, everybody's back to normal, nobody's hobbling. Nobody's like oh shit, like we could, we can do this. We just did it and he'll that like.
Speaker 2:More likely that guy will walk away, go to the smoke pit and smoke fucking marble red it's funny because when I, when I first got to the scout platoon, I mean I was a good rocker, but running not my best one, right, and he, he used to get on me.
Speaker 2:Uh, sergeant Epps goes like listen, big guy, is like you either keep up with me in the runs or you're going to have to go back to the line. And I go like I'm like oh snap. And so my, my, my, uh, a squad leader told me uh, he's giving you two months and you better keep up with the runs and you better max your run too, because it was not just keeping up with the runs in the pt test, you have to max the run if you want to stay in the scout platoon. Yeah, like holy snaps, max the run. I gotta shave like 40 seconds. That's a lot, right, I'm like whoa, so I'm like okay. So you know what. It was the actual platoon guys that took turns and they go like every afternoon a different guy from the platoon took me out on a run.
Speaker 2:No shit, and they're like we don't going to run fast, we're just going to build, build your, your cardio. And they took me out every single afternoon. They took their own time to do that. And next thing, you know, we do a PT test. I maxed the run for the first time in my career, and not only that when I came back into you know, we got done with the PT test and all that. And then we go to the CP and talk about what we're going to do throughout the day. The first thing that Sergeant Epps did he stood up, woke up to me, shook my hand, gave me a hug. He said I knew you could do it, big guy. And I was like, oh see, he was messing with me this whole time. Uh, you know, kick me out of the scout platoon and all that. But he knew I could do better and he wanted to push me to do better. And and that's the difference between that mentality and the mentality of these days is like, oh, they're messing with me.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God, I'm crying, I'm like you know they're trying to build character man.
Speaker 1:It works. Yeah, and that's arguably that helps you find that confidence too that go to selection, get selected, and we don't talk about it enough. Mentorship doesn't just happen in the regular army, it happens in special operations. You're still an NCO when you made it to group go through the Q course. What was it like getting there and what was mentorship like in the ODA for you?
Speaker 2:Well, so it was surreal, to be honest. I got there and I walk into the team room and I see all these guys that know each other. I'm just a new guy, right, because when I got to my team, all the guys that graduated the Q course with me were still in language school, so I didn't have to go to language school, so so so I went to my team room so I was alone and so I walked in there and I and I met. I met amazing guys, right, and, to be honest, mentorship started right away. Uh, so, of course, you know you always got the one guy that want to mess with you because you're the new guy and all that. Great, I had that, I had that.
Speaker 2:But I walked in and the first thing it was Chuck Jackson was a senior A-team, bravo in the team. So I walked in and, you know, I introduced myself to Team Sargent to start and talk to me. He goes like, hey, that's chuck jackson, that's the 18th, bravo, he's gonna, you know, he's gonna talk you through everything you need. So I walk over there and like, hey, chuck, yeah, I'm your junior, bravo. He's like no, you're the senior, bravo, I'm. Like no, I'm your junior, bravo. He's like no, I am gonna show you everything you need to know, because I'm out of here oh shit I was like what?
Speaker 2:So, you know, he's like, yeah, I'm going to battalion, sorry. And so he literally gave me like a whole spiel for like two days and showed me all the inventories. I took over everything and he was gone, man, and I was like, okay, this sucks, yeah, you know. So one of the best things. Well, you know, he stayed in the team for a little bit because he ended up being the Fox, but I was a senior Bravo, so of course I could use him for mentorship and things like that.
Speaker 2:But then one of the things I did and I went to an ex-ODA next door and I go like, hey, guys, I need help, how you doing, I want requests. And so the Bravo's there immediately goes like, hey, hold on, didn't you get back here from the Q course? I'm like, yeah, and didn't you do two months as an assistant instructor over there at the Bravo course? I'm like I did right before I came here. He's like, great, we're going to teach you everything you need to know about ammo, forecast, ammo, this, and that we got mortar training coming up. Can you give us the training, because we haven't done it in a while? Like perfect. So it ended up being great, right, and the mentorship didn't come just from my team, it came from other detachments as well. So I do have to appreciate that. You know other A-Team Bravo just helping me out because they don't want you to fail.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely to fail.
Speaker 2:yes, you know of course you know, in the teams you got the team rivalries and that that's always going to happen because everybody want to get that colombia deployment everybody want to get. So you got to fight for it, right, yeah, but at the end of the day, when we went to combat, we all went together right. So at that point, if you didn't mentor your people right, those are the people that either your QRF, those are the people that are either kicking the door in with you.
Speaker 1:So if you didn't do your job right, that's on you, yeah, and you were in before everything kicked off with 9-11, with the deployments. What was that like? Navigating that from a detachment perspective? Like you have the experience that you were deployed, you were in panama. What was it like? Shifting the mindset of like, oh fuck, we're going to combat now that's something that we don't really talk about. Like the early years of green berets there's so much knowledge and so much culture that shifted overnight with our green berets no, you're, you're right, you know.
Speaker 2:So everybody's talking about J-sets and Colombia and Peru and this, and that Everybody's having a great time. Everybody mad because Venezuela got canceled because of Chavez. You know, that's still the talk, even though it happened here. All right, so so it's funny because immediately after 9-11 happened, we knew, we knew it was going to happen, like, we knew we were going to combat and, uh, and the shift, honestly, was kind of seamless Uh, because the team sergeant turned around and he literally told us.
Speaker 2:He said, guys, everything that we've been doing until now is training for this. We're we're not doing anything different. The skills that we've been doing until now is training for this. We're not doing anything different. The skills that we've been training on, the skills that we continue to sharpen, is exactly what we're going to need to go there. The difference is culture. So we need to start understanding the culture and the environment that we're going to be going into. But, other than that, you already have everything you need to succeed in combat. You just got to trust your skills and trust your teammates. And uh, and when, when the team sign said that, I was like, oh snap, okay, it kind of like gave you a boost of confidence, right. And then of course, we we there's still guys around that we're doing this a storm, and even I mean we even had guys from el salvador no shit yeah, and they're like, and they're like okay, this, this what you can expect.
Speaker 1:It's like and they're gonna tell you it's like el salvador was different in afghanistan, but I can tell you what to expect when bullets come your way something people don't even talk about anymore is it's like we had combat, we had guys in combat, we lost guys in El Salvador and people like, just like, it just has been lost to history. They don't understand that before we were, we were getting ready to go to Afghanistan and Iraq. Seventh group still had relative combat experience from what the guys had been doing on the ground in El Salvador, which is crazy.
Speaker 2:But if you think about it, how many ODAs have been in Colombia doing a Jason? And they get shot at by the fart.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I know I did Right, right, and how many other teams that happened maybe not in an intense firefight or anything like that, but hey, they're getting shot at. It's not like they're over there in a five-star hotel Well, not all the time in a five-star hotel, not all the time, not all the time in a five-star hotel.
Speaker 1:You.
Speaker 2:Bogota boys yeah, but if you're in Tolomita, if you're in La Randia, right, yes, you are in the middle of nowhere and you're surrounded by farts.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So everywhere you go you got the chance of getting shot at because people don't like you over there. So so yeah, it's, it's one of those that, because right before we went to Afghanistan we were in Columbia and we got shot up by the fire right during one of our training, training sessions outside. Of course they kind of messed up because they didn't realize we're practicing ambush and it was a live fire ambush. And then of course all our Colombians go like, like everybody lie, go get him oh it was fun times, it was a great experience for me, right, uh.
Speaker 2:But uh, we're like at one point we had to hold them back, go like stop guys, stops guys, because the guy kept running and we're like they're trying to lure you into an ambush. Yeah, exactly what you're practicing over there they're trying to do to you over there. So slow down, you know that's fart land over there. So a lot of people don't realize that. They don't realize that special operations are in a constant hostile environment. They don't need to be in Afghanistan. They don't need to be in. Iraq to be in harm's way.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I mean, look at our guys in Niger, like it's all. Wherever you, wherever Green Berets are in the world, there is a real threat.
Speaker 2:And it's a reason we're there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's a, it's a great lesson for guys listening. If you're still in and you have this idea that like oh man, you missed out on Afghanistan. Like no, no, you're training and you're working towards your next big Friday night football game, you don't know when it's coming and I hope that when the time comes you have a team sergeant that's willing to say exactly what yours did to you, said, hey, we're ready for this, we've trained for this. It's just a different AOR. It might be a very different AOR. We don't know where it's coming. Maybe Taiwan, who knows?
Speaker 2:Maybe it's like a football team. Every year they're training for the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1:And it's no different. They don't always go there. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But when they do what now? Oh snap, I made it. What now? Well, you train for this for the last 15 years. It's time to step up.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. You know, in that environment, in that time period of the early GWAT deployments, did you still always know like, okay, I'm doing this, I'm doing this, I'm going to be career? And then how did you plan and navigate your career from that perspective of like, okay, how do I stay on the team a little longer, what do I need to do?
Speaker 2:So I knew this is what I wanted to do. I mean, uh, especially after going to afghanistan with my uh first detachment, oda 741, uh, I knew that's that's what I wanted the getting to know the guys, the brotherhood you know, and all that is like this, is it? This is what I need to do, uh, and not only that. I started thinking I need to be better at what I do, because lives are at stake and if something happens to one of my teammates, I don't want it to be my fault. I want, if something happens I mean, you're a war right, like, and I know, a lot of times we get mad at the bad guys because they kill our friend, but we're trying to kill their friends too, right.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:So the thing is to me, as long as it was not a blank error on our part, that it just happened to be that straight bullet or whatever, I'm not saying that's something that you can live with, be happy about, but that's something that you're conscious no, you did everything possible. It just didn't work out Right. Uh, and, and then your friends will know, you did everything possible. So that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to be better, I wanted to get better. And then, uh, there was, there was our first casualty in Afghanistan Orlando Morales. When that happened, that gave me a lot of rage. We were good friends, but at the same time it kind of like shifted my mindset. I started looking at everything that happened and all the flaws and all the flaws, and then I realized at that point, as we were returning back home, I started realizing and I said, okay, there was a lot of flaws, there was a lot of leadership failure that happened in his detachment we're in the same base but there were two different detachments A lot of leadership failures that happened, but there's nothing I could have done. Right, I couldn't affect that. Uh, the calls that the leadership made, I couldn't do that.
Speaker 2:Uh, even you know, I always tell people as an E6, uh, or even as an E7, you can come up with this great idea and you said, man, I think we should do this. And people the team sergeant, the warrant, the captain, they might be like, oh man, that's a great idea. You come back as a W1, you said, hey, listen, I think we should do this, chief, that's a freaking great idea. I'm like, dude, it's the same guy just two minutes later with a different rank and the same idea. Right, it's like. But a lot of times, I think a lot of times, leadership don't appreciate what the youngest guy in the team got to bring to the table. Sometimes not all the time I don't want to say that happens all the time, but sometimes so, and I think that was the case. In that point, there was a lot of great advice from the younger guys that they didn't follow. And so when I'm coming home, I decided how do I change that? I'm just an E6. I can't change that. Right, I can't influence that.
Speaker 2:And I talked to a great friend still great friend, angel Gonzalez, chief Angel Gonzalez, and he told me well if you want to influence the decision making process, you got to become a leader and like you are already a leader. But the thing is you need to rank and I go like that makes no sense to me. He goes like I know it doesn't make sense, but it's the way it works, whether you like it or not. And I go like okay. So I came back and that's what I decided to drop a warm packet Now. So, and before people start talking, I did make the E7 list, all right. Right, I was not one of those I couldn't make. I was not one of those that couldn't make E7. I made seven, all right, but I still decided to keep my packet. A lot of people thought I was going to pull it out.
Speaker 2:I kept my packet in there. It's like this is what I want to do, and let me tell you my very first deployment as a warrant, I didn't even complete the entire basic course because during the ASOC portion they pulled me out straight to go to my team, to Iraq, to the first SIFLI with 741. So I left, left early, got my certificate, oh, I'm gone. I left early and and at that point I realized that I made the right choice uh, we have a captain that was an nco combat experience. Uh, captain thompson, uh, mike thompson el gato.
Speaker 2:If you guys don't know him, I think he's running out of lives. He got like 9, 15 lives. Now, I don't know him, I think he's running out of lives. He got like 9, 15 lives now, I don't know. But a lot of experience, right. But, believe it or not, he did listen. You know he's angry all the time, but once in a while when I sat down and I'm like, hey, sir, I totally agree with what you want to do. However, I just want to throw this out there, and if you still want to do that, I support you. But I just want you to look at this real quick. A lot of times it goes like all right, I hate to say, I hate to say with this brown new dot, mosquito dot, you know it's right, but you're right, but you know. And then I started realizing holy snap Angel was right. Right, because that would have been the same thing I would say less than a year ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right and at that point I realized that was the right decision. That was the right decision I go like now. I got to make sure that all the stuff that I complain about that was wrong with leadership. I don't make the same mistakes.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And that's exactly what I did, and I pissed off a lot of people. I did because I was politically incorrect. I'm like, oh, that's bullshit, I don't want to do that. My team is not going to do that. You want to fire me? Go ahead. Yeah, but it's not going to happen. Especially when I became a detachment commander for almost three years, I was like, no, it's not going to happen. And people didn't like it. It's like, oh, he's a leadership challenge. No, I just don't run around freaking, just saying yes, sir, like you captains do, I was the.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:That's the. That's a dream for a warrant officer. Having that, having no captain, being the detachment commander for your ODA.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you it was hard. It was hard. I'd rather be an assistant detachment commander. To be honest with you and that's an advice I give a lot of people, because I have known a lot of guys that they get to the team and immediately they want to be a detachment commander. I'm like, bro, that's not what you sign up for. If you wanted to be a detachment commander, you should go to OCS. You're an assistant detachment commander. You are the continuity in the team. There's a reason you're there. The captain is going to come and go, the team is going to come and go. You're still going to be in that team.
Speaker 1:It's literally, you're doing two jobs.
Speaker 2:So I need you to concentrate in one mentoring that captain right, not making him look bad. You need to make him look good. And also, believe it or not, you have to mentor team sergeants because, listen, let's be honest, team sergeants don't know it all. Even that in their minds they do, right, they don't know it all all. There's a lot of team sergeants that were what in in group for like four years and now they're a team sergeant because they came in late. They were senior e7s and now they're a team sergeant. I know more about the team that you do. You just happen to have the rank uh, so you know what I'm saying. It's like. So now, luckily for me, I have very seasoned team sergeants when I came through, so I didn't have that problem and they still thought they knew everything. But you have to mentor both ways. Just like the team sergeant has to mentor not one the captain, just like that captain has to mentor that, because it goes all around right, everybody gets something to bring to the table. So that's the first thing I tell them. I'm like now, if it just happened that by chance you end up taking command of a team, that's great, get that experience. But don't sit there trying to hold that position forever. That's not your job.
Speaker 2:To me, what happened was that I was in C-37. I was in the assault force. I was an assistant detachment commander, my job and I had a Humvee rollover accident. So at that point I couldn't be an assaulter anymore. And luckily, because I was in C-37, they had the RSTs, which later became the AFO detachment. So they had the RSTs and the RSTs are a specialized team that have no captain. He's run by a warrant officer. So the warrant there was leaving and they go like well, jp can't be an assaulter anymore. While he recovers, let's put him in a team. So that's how I took command of that team. It just happened to be the right place at the right time with the wrong injuries. But that's how it took command of the team and, yeah, it was a blessing. I learned a lot, but I will tell everyone that is not my primary job.
Speaker 1:It's a lot. It's a lot to fucking take on. Be happy with being a warrant officer and being able to do your job and have you know not have anybody come in your lane, Because if you take over the ownership of the detachment commander, that's another duty, that's another responsibility.
Speaker 2:Don't get me wrong. I learned so much, but at the same time I was trying to do that and I was trying to do what a warrant would do because we didn't have one. So, luckily for me, we had great, great ncos in that team. You know, the team sergeant, uh, all the other ncos, and, uh, one of them ended up becoming a warrant, juan martillo uh, one more, yeah yeah, juanito, juanito, I ended up tasking him basically with the warrant stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah and he's like oh snap, this is the one stuff, yeah. And he's like, oh snap, this is the Warren stuff. I can do this, let me become a Warren.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the best way to mentor and continue breathing life into the Warren cohort is by identifying the guys that you know there are great NCOs but in the reality it's like man, like you'd be much better off and much more and you would really love your job if you'd be a warrant officer, if you just believed in it. And I think we finally, for the last few years, I would say for the last seven to eight years, guys, I finally understand it and we've killed that idea of like the lazy fat warrant, like it is hard charging, go getters all throughout group. The guys that I went through the warrant course were insane, insanely brilliant. Uh, isaiah, that's one of the smartest people I ever met and one of the fittest dudes like. And you're starting to breed out that idea, the idea of the culture of like just being the slob, the fat guy on the team, the guy that disappears.
Speaker 1:It's still funny to make fun of, but that's not the reality. I mean looking at guys that are in the position right now like they're just as capable, they're just as deadly, they are phenomenal. Athletes Like. That's the. Everybody should be the same across the board when it comes to leadership, even more so. It's incredibly harder the older you get too.
Speaker 2:I'm glad that you said that is because when I see those memes, a lot of people ask me about them. It's like you get offended by those memes and I go like no. And I'm going to tell you why. Those memes are basically based on regular Army warrant officers.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Right, a lot of people don't understand there's a big difference. Huge warrant officer yes, right, a lot of people don't understand there's a big difference. Huge I remember you could never find the maintenance warrant when I was in the 82nd when you saw chief in the motor pool. You never did Never. Or the supply chief yeah, you never saw him, right, but that's based on regular army warrants. And I tell people what you don't understand about a special operations or an SF warrant they got to work twice as hard One. They can't let the team beat them because then they make fun of them all the time. Right, if you go to the range and the team beats you, they're going to talk shit all day.
Speaker 1:All day, every day.
Speaker 2:So, but then a lot of people don't realize I was in the team room sometimes at 5 am. The team didn't even get in until about 7.30 because we had late PT. That way we beat the traffic At about 7.30 to do PT because I'm working on a mic on, I'm working on a training plan, I'm working on this D-180 for our next deployment, I'm working on all that stuff. And then the team gets there. I go do PT with the team. We come back while they go eat breakfast, I'm still working in the computer eating my snacks. And then they're like hey, chief, we're about to leave, everything is in the truck. And then I jump in the truck, we'll go, we do hits, we come back, everybody leaves and I'm still working there.
Speaker 2:A lot of people don't realize that it's like oh, chief, now of course it happens to everyone. Sometimes there's this big command meeting that everybody must attend and, yes, the captain, the team sergeant, the warrant got to keep out on training. That happens everywhere. There's nothing you can do about that, right, and sometimes we actually took turns. We're like, hey, you want to go and take that meeting while I stay here with the team.
Speaker 1:He's like yeah sure you know.
Speaker 2:But the thing is we work a lot. A lot of people don't realize that. I remember when I was in my team I said for one wire, but he was already on the way out, right. So I never saw him Like, if you wanted to and now he was very smart you wanted to know anything, you call him and he'll tell you, but he was at home fixing his. But other than that, all the ones that I had, they worked so hard. Those guys were in the team room all the time. I don't remember them just being lazy or being out. They were always, always working on either getting paperwork done so that the team can stay on track, or trying to find us our next mission Right.
Speaker 2:Because a lot of people don't realize that's one of the primary jobs of the warrant going over there to battalion with the other battalion warrant, like what's up, what's coming up, what you got my team is better, you know it's like that's what you do, right. So there's a lot of work involved and and I think it's it's based on conventional one and it's based based on old school sf1 officer mentality too, because I remember before I became a warrant there was this big. You know there's a lot of people becoming SF1s because they couldn't make it seven, remember. That's why.
Speaker 1:I made sure I made it seven.
Speaker 2:They couldn't make it seven. And yes, there's a lot of truth to that. And there was a lot of people that became warrants because no team wanted them. And they still became warrants. And now, guess what, somebody got to take them.
Speaker 2:So I still remember when jw uh came to the company after uh, myself, camilo carrio, we put all the one packets together because camilo was in my team as well and sent for one. We put all our warrants packets together and, uh, I remember when jw came over over Waddell and he said hey, commander, yeah, I see this one package over there, I'm about to approve it. But I want to ask you a question. And he goes like yeah, and it was Major Worrell at that time, he was the company commander. He goes like so what you're telling me is that these guys, because you endorse them, they're great. And he goes like yes, and you're telling me is that these guys, because you endorse them, they're great?
Speaker 2:And he goes like yes, and you're willing to work with them, you want them as your warrants. And he goes like yeah, he's like good, because I'm changing the policy. If you sign a warrant package, you're getting them back. And we're all just like well, perfect, because I want these guys back. I would love to have, and no shit. We came back to the same company, by the way, and I came back to the same team. No shit. A lot of other companies started pulling Warren Packers back.
Speaker 1:They're like oh, hold on, hold on, wait, wait, wait, wait. You're going to tell me I keep this.
Speaker 2:No, I got to keep it, get rid of it and started pulling back, but that was a great policy that only lasted for a little bit. Right, it lasted for a little bit, but it changed the mentality on when you sign warrant packs and I think once again that's the old mentality of the warrants are lazy, this and that. That's not the case, man. I actually went to the Institute not too long ago to see their training Holy snap.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The training that they go through now is 10 times harder of what I went through. It was not an easy. It's not a gentleman's course by any means. You have to study your ass off. And uh, griffa, I know he's no longer an instructor, but, man, I was so happy that somebody I forget who it was, I think it was chief bull uh, shout out to you Labak, who gave me the advice of ensuring that I took my college English class seriously for writing, because the only G2 he gave me was like make sure you can write proficiently and read the ugly American front to back.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, I still got that paper.
Speaker 1:I still got the paper I wrote for the ugly American, yeah, and I remember like I I need to connect with Griff. I want him on the show. People need that man deserves his victory lap and some claps because I did understand something, uh intimately by the time I left that course. People will judge you by the way you express yourself in your writing, in your memos and, at the end of the day, like you have to take pride in being able to communicate to other entities, and how do we do it? Through emails and official memorandums, and that's always been lost to the younger guys. But when you went to the Warren course, when you graduated, there are two things that you are going to be really fucking good at Understanding how to write effectively and understanding how to sell your detachment to make sure you get that mission.
Speaker 2:Exactly A hundred percent, and Griffo made sure you knew that.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you every time I wrote a paper for Griffo, he came back and he was like oh man, great, great paper. And then he gives it to me and it's full of red stuff, I like. But you said it's great paper. He was like no, the content is great, your grammar horrible, I like. I've got to think in spanish and then translate. And it's hilarious because but he taught me a lot. He goes like listen, this, this, why you don't write it this way, this. And then, when it came to writing awards, that man was an expert. Let me tell you when he told us when you write awards, especially when when the awards are going through CJ Sotiff's staff he's like use the self imperatives in almost every line that you can. He's like use the self-imperatives in almost every line that you can.
Speaker 2:He goes like, because a lot of these old people don't know the new missions, they don't know what you're doing down there. But one thing I do remember is the self-imperatives. If they read it in a line they'll be like, oh my God, it took me back Right. So no shit, we wrote awards in Iraq. It was one. I wrote all the awards and I used self-imperatism.
Speaker 1:Those awards, they were all approved damn, yeah, awards are are a big, huge pain in the ass and the verbiage, the way I mean fuck, that's one thing I am. I would never wish upon my my greatest enemy, I mean to sit down and write awards for an attachment, uh, and it's such a shitty. People under don't understand the process. I mean, you can have staff sergeants that go above and beyond their duties and just because they're a staff sergeant like now, they don't rate that. It's like, are you fucking kidding me? This guy is leading 30 fucking commandos by himself, yeah, fucking, taking the fight to the enemy, and you're telling me he doesn't deserve this award.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, no, that that that happened to us in Iraq and I fought for it and they got what they deserved. I think there was like two or three that got, uh, downgraded from a BSMV to an ARCOM V, uh, but but still, you know, uh, we fought for it because we told them it's like, listen, there's only so much I can put in that page, all right. But if you're telling me that this guy don't deserve this, that what you're telling me is that me as the assistant detachment commander the captain is the commander, that we're lying in the paper and we don't know what we're talking about. We were down here, we did the job. You're sitting in an office drinking coffee all day, it's like.
Speaker 2:So if you think you deserve a higher award than him, go ahead, give it to yourself. Of course they will, yeah, yeah, don't challenge them with that. Of course they will. But I'm saying it's like I went over there and I just went off and there was this one, one master sergeant that was part of the reviewing process. It was like an acting sergeant, major, and I go like, listen, you might be part of the reviewing process, but I don't give a shit, you're not anywhere in the approving authority.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And he's like but I can recommend, you can recommend all you freaking want. He's like I'm going to still fight it all the way to the top because your opinion doesn't matter to me. I told him just like that I said you sort of, your opinion doesn't matter to me, your opinion doesn't matter to me. It's like, oh, the Octus Army. I'm like well, great, freaking, what? Staying in attention motherfucker, sorry, not sorry. I got to fight for my guys. That's the whole reason I became a warrant.
Speaker 1:That's it. That is exactly it that being of service to your detachment, understanding that you have a greater like. If you enjoy being an 18 charlie and 18 bravo, 18 delta, 18 echo, that's great. If you love the mission, that's awesome. But if you have that idea of like, how can I be better service to these guys? How can I have a greater like? How can it be of greater service, be more effective in helping and ensuring that these guys get not only the equipment and the missions they deserve, but the fucking protection, like, go be a warrant officer.
Speaker 1:And if you want extra time on a team. But that's also a double-edged sword, because I found out, like, the idea, the idea of having unlimited time, it feels like unlimited time. The rest of your team still moves on. You're still going to see the life cycle of the team and I mean it happens after deployment, within months. It's a cycle new echo, new bravo. When did you finally come to a realization of like, oh shit. Like, at some point I have to get off this ride. Like, at some point I have to walk away from this and move forward with my career.
Speaker 2:Well, I, honestly I was. There was other ones in my company that were very career focused. Uh, they were like they just took over this job and they're they already know the next job they want and the one after that. I mean, uh, I don't want to mention names, but there's one specific and he knows who he is. I love him to death. He's tall in puerto rican and I'm gonna say his name, but, uh, but, but, anyway, like but. But you know what good, he knew exactly what he wanted and he don't care what you're trying to offer me. I'm gonna tell you what I want yeah, uh for me.
Speaker 2:I enjoy what I was doing, right, but the reality came not because of I was growing out of being in a team, it became because of my injuries. So when I left the AFO detachment I went back to the Soulforce and at first I was doing great and then slowly my body started saying, dude, you didn't recover you, moron. And my body started saying, dude, you didn't recover you, moron. And uh. And my body started feeling it. I started forgetting stuff. And it was one of the 18 deltas ago. Like, hey, chief, did you do this? I'm like, uh, I think so. I think so. It's like, chief, you never, you never fail. You always got shit done, even before the time frame. It's like, and you're forgetting a lot.
Speaker 2:After the accident, did you get tested for TBI? I'm like what's that? And he goes like you need to go to Womack. So I went to Womack, got tested. No shit, tbi.
Speaker 2:And of course the team tried to and I hate to say this word, but it's truly what they were doing. They were trying to carry me along and they're like don't worry, we'll help you. Don't worry, we'll help you with PT. Don't worry, we'll help you with that. And I felt like shit, right, because I go like, no, the moment that I'm a burden to the team, the moment that I cannot carry my own weight or having to carry one of these guys on my shoulder, that's the moment I need to leave the detachment Right. And it was a hard call for me to make. Let me tell you, I think I cried that day when I realized that, and so at that point I called the group one. I go like, hey, do you got anything in battalion? It's like, as a matter of fact, the ASO manager is leaving. We need you to take over for a few months. I'm like I'll take it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you it was a hard call. I talked to the team. They understood it. They didn't want me to leave. They're like you don't need to leave. We got you. I'm like no man, but that's not the right call. I know you guys got me, but it's not the right call. I know you guys got me, but it's not the right answer. You guys need a warrant that can you know that don't have back injuries and going to 10 appointments a week or anything like that. That that's what you deserve. So, yeah, it was a hard call. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a. That is a hundred percent the call that everybody has to make for their wellbeing. It feels like you're doing it for somebody else but you got to make it for yourself, like there's more to life than being on a detachment. There's more to life than being SF. You got to look out for your family, you got to look out for your kids and you got to look out for. You got to value yourself.
Speaker 1:Oftentimes we need to frame it as the mission's more important, but the reality is, after you're done with your team time, after you're done with the military, you still got to have a life and that's like the most important thing. Guys need to understand Like, hey, everybody wants that 15 years on a detachment, but if you can't, if you can't do that, go still, be of service and of value to the team. Or put your physical fitness and your mental wellbeing, your-being, first and get help. Take that knee, you can still have a great career, you can still do great things. You just have to, and oftentimes we think we're healing when we're trying to do both. Oh, I can just make this appointment, I can do this. It's like no dude, take a knee, go to the battalion, be of service there. You can go to Thor 3, go to Exos, go to all those places that can make you better, and then figure out like all right, I'm finally back to 100%, we have an opening anywhere, I'm ready to take it.
Speaker 2:And the thing is, I took that job for a few months and then I went to SWEC Not by choice, by the way, apparently, I don't want to say his name, uh, the the group warren, was mad because he offered me to take safari committee. Oh and uh. And I said well, that defeats the purpose of why I came here. I need to heal in the summer. Oh, no, you're just gonna be managing. I'm like no, there's no way I'm gonna be in the safari committee and not go out there with the guys and train. It's not gonna happen, I'm gonna hurt myself more, you know. So, like, well, then, if you don't take that, I'm going to have to send you to SWEC, because it's either that or I go, like you know what send me to SWEC.
Speaker 2:I don't give a shit at this point, right. So I went to SWEC and ended up being great. I went to d for about a year or less than that, and then I went to proponency with TD Doyle. Working with TD Doyle, that was amazing time, and he was the one that convinced me to retire Nice. And he told me the same thing. He's like JP, you're going to leave group 10 years from now. Nobody's going to remember your name.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:He's like you know who will your son he's like your son will remember your name, your brother, your sister. So you can kill yourself right now and continue to sit here in a desk and hurt your back and wake up in the morning dizzy and still drive to work, which you shouldn't. But you have to vestibular issues JP.
Speaker 1:What are you doing?
Speaker 2:yeah, and he goes like or you can be home and heal yep and uh.
Speaker 2:So he actually started giving me time off. He's like don't, don't come in. I got two other ones running paperwork here and I'm like, no, I'm gonna come in. He's like, yeah, but if you feel bad that morning, I don't want you to come in. Of course I was gonna come, but but he was the one that convinced me. And then the way he did it, he said I told him it's like a like ATD. Yeah, you had cancer, you have all kinds of stuff. You were brought back from retirement after 9-11 and all that. You're still here. And he said you're right, if you retire, I will, I will, and he did.
Speaker 1:Nice. Sometimes we need that brother to help us come to that decision, man. I mean, we spent our entire military career understanding that one is none, two is one, leaning on each other for support and oftentimes, when we are at that edge, we just need somebody to be there with us and go into the unknown together, man, so being able to do that together. Somebody to be there with us and go go into the unknown together, man, so being able to do that together, that that that's awesome.
Speaker 2:That is fucking awesome. Let me tell you I'm glad I retired because it took me about a year to, uh, you know, wake up in the morning busy with a headache. But I didn't have to go to work, so I could just lay in bed, relax, and the next day I was fine, which didn't happen before because I kept pushing it. So that headache just lingered the next day and the next day and the next day. Then I started realizing, if I take a whole day to rest, I'm good for a few days, and then get the headaches again. Rest for a few for a day, I'm good again, so slowly started taking care of myself. Oh my God, that's what I needed. I was so much better after that, so it was the right call. I was so much better after that, so it was the right call.
Speaker 1:Thank you, td. And when you started planning for your transition, for that retirement, what did you initially go into and how did you figure out like, hey, I'm interested in doing this.
Speaker 2:So, to be honest, I was lost at first. So when I started that retirement process, we used to do I don't know, you know, tom Meade, jesse Browington, ed Petkovich we used to do what is called the Takeover the World Team Cider Meetings, even though that was a warrant, right, and we used to sit down for lunch and just talk about, hey, what do you want to do, what are you working on? And we did that once a month Takeover the World Team Cider Meetings. Well, I'm proud to announce that Ed Peckovich now owns a multimillion dollar company. Right, and I was like, yes, one of us made it. Right. But you know, to me, a friend's success is my success, right, it's like you gotta be happy for that.
Speaker 2:Like a leader shooting training in Puerto Rico for law enforcement ended up turning into a company, right, cause they wanted more training but I couldn't do it. Also, I just sent guys to do it Uh, benny Rios and you know and stuff like that. I just go over there and do the training and it ended up turning into that. Then I started doing contract as a G chief for Marsock.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did that for five years. I was a G chief out there just telling the Americans that they are horrible Americans. You think we're not smart like you American. But so I did that for a few years and shortly after I stopped doing that I started focusing a lot and now I still run the company. Right, uh, new defion group, I do that. Uh, contract base I don't. I don't like to get into government contracts.
Speaker 1:You know it's like that it's too long I like my vacation time, but uh.
Speaker 2:But then I started focusing at that point on suicide prevention and we started losing so many friends to suicide and and of course I knew I couldn't stop suicide myself but I wanted to understand it better. So I just went out and started talking to people what do you think? Have you ever thought suicide, suicide? And slowly started talking about that. And at one point I just did it just to talk to people and help them out. And that's it one on one, and it kind of like slowed down a lot because you know it's just people feel uncomfortable talking about it.
Speaker 2:So I felt like I was making them feel uncomfortable so I stopped doing it. Then I got through the company. We got involved into human trafficking, recovery and operations that filled my heart as soon as we rescued the first little girl overseas. That to me, that was my calling. I need to do this. So far right now, we got what 83 rescue so far in a few years. So that is dear to my heart. It's very expensive. So if you're out there and you want me to rescue people, let me tell you it's expensive. Now, as a company we don't make a profit. Uh, these are people who got money and hire us directly, like I want you to find my daughter we think she's here or I want you to find so-and-so.
Speaker 2:We only have one occasion when, when this family goes, like I don't have anybody kidnapped, but here is this amount of money, find someone, rescue them, and we're like, okay, well, we're going to charge you only for expenses, that's it, and that's what we do, because it's expensive to run an operation like that. It can last a day, it can last weeks, it can last months, but anyway. So got into that and shortly after that I started focusing back into the mental health area, and that's when I decided to start a nonprofit. It's called let's Walk it Out, 222 Mile Rock March, and initially what I wanted to do was like, okay, I got to go 22 miles a day, you know, hence the 22,. Of course, now we know that's not a true number anymore. It's more like 43. Yeah, 44.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I go like I'm going to do 22 months a day camp on the side of the road, go the next day, do it again. And then I started getting people going like, hey, I'll do it with you, hold on, let me call my buddy. Hey, you want to do this? No, but I can sponsor it. So next thing you know, it turned into an event. So next thing you know, it turned into an event.
Speaker 2:Uh, so we did the first year. I couldn't do it. I ended up in the hospital right prior to that. A lot of people say I did that on purpose. I didn't, and I got about 18 holes on me to to prove it, not not 18 like nine bad surgery at walmart, don't go to walmart, but anyway. So. But then after that, when that event got done, a lot of people came to me and they said, jp, you know what the expectation now is. I'm like, no, you got to do this every year, nonprofit, because the first year we were sponsored under the special forces foundation. Uh, so we started our own nonprofit. We started that and we turned it into a program because let me tell you when when it worked for me and it worked for a lot of people who has been in in our program. When you're out there on the road for eight, nine hours a day, hot raining, you're rocking uh, it's therapy yeah you got a lot of time to think.
Speaker 2:And not only that, you got other people to your next and you like it's showing you. You got people that you can lean on, all the other guys telling you oh man, you're good man, we got our next rest. Stop coming up in half mile, man, we're good, we're good man. You know it starts showing you a lot. A lot of people forget you don't lost your resiliency. You just need to find that it's there. And if I can push you to find that resiliency, I'm going to push you to that now.
Speaker 2:Of course, the goal for everybody participating in this is they want to do the 200. Honestly, it's actually 22, 224 miles, 224 miles by the time you get done. But everybody want to complete the whole thing. But I always tell them it's not about finishing the whole thing, it's about, when you came here, how much you thought you could do and if you can live here doing more miles than that, you already proved to yourself that you can take more pain. Right, that you thought you could. That pain might not end right now. Right, for us it's going to end at the end of the day when we take the rest and we start the next day again. But mentally it's not going to end what you want, it's going to end when it needs to end. You just got to keep pushing through, taking the next step taking the next step.
Speaker 1:It's like what we talked about earlier the mindset Just kind of forge that mind to just keep pushing. Five more minutes, Five more minutes.
Speaker 2:So that's one of my main things right now either human trafficking, veteran advocacy, of course, and helping with mental health, Because I think a lot of people are confusing. A lot of people say that the United States got a mental health problem. I disagree with that and I'm gonna tell you why. I don't think we have a mental health problem.
Speaker 2:I think we got an entitlement problem I think we have a problem that when I don't get what I want, I scream and kick and start pulling my hair until somebody gives me what I want. You know why? Because it works.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's definitely a true statement. For our younger generation, we're not, and the studies are out there the generation of kids that are growing up with the iPads, with the iPhones, instant gratification of everything they want with the screen. That's an absolute truth. Speaking to those individuals where it's always been given, you've always had everything given, given, given, and the moment you go to crisis, the moment you have a hardship fuck. I don't want to deal with this. It's one of the things that I've struggled to explain to people that have had that idea of like the world's completely unfair. I'm like look, the world is going to fuck you over. More often than not, you got to be able to pick it back up and say, fuck it, I got to drive on it's like I tell people all the time.
Speaker 2:Life is great, humans are not. So don't blame life, blame the humans around you. Obviously, you're surrounded by the wrong humans, so you need to find a different circle. Yeah, blame the humans around you. Obviously, you're surrounded by the wrong humans, so you need to find a different circle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a circle that lifts you up Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, right, yeah, and that's what I do. I'm surrounded by you know, when I get surrounded by people with negativity, I walk away from them in a heartbeat.
Speaker 1:In a heartbeat. I tell them hey, yeah, when you start changing your mindset, you give me a call. Yeah, uh, because I ain't got time for your stuff. It's the truth, it's the absolute truth. And even and you don't have to I tell guys like, look, you can love somebody and they can be sort of a toxic person. You don't have to fucking cut them off, but set boundaries. If you know, every time you get around your one friend, it instantly turns into a pity party. Let them know, the moment they get into that mindset they start talking about that shit.
Speaker 2:Just change the subject there was a guy that used to go to Charlie Mike's all the time. Love the guy, but every time he walked in you're asking how are you doing? The very first thing that came out of his mind my ex-wife and this. And I'm getting serious. And suddenly one day I told him. I was like how are you doing? And you start with your ex-wife, I'm going to walk away. And he just looked at me and he said why? And I'm like, because you keep complaining about it. But what are you doing about it? Yeah, and he's like exactly when you start doing something about it, then you can complain that it's not working. But right now you're just sitting here just taking it and bitching about it. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it. You want to have a beer with me? Have a beer with me. Let's talk about football, dogs, cats. I don't want to hear about your ex-wife anymore.
Speaker 1:Anything. We can talk about literally anything, but just have a positive, have a positive. That that's you know. We we don't. I think we forget all the times we were actually focused on gratitude in a team room, but it's, you know the connotation, that gratitude and and writing out your, your positives and your wins for the day. It has this new age, you know, perspective on and people kind of shy away from it, like no, this is, this is green beret shit.
Speaker 1:You always got done with the mission. You were in the ready room getting your shit ready. You weren't moping, you weren't sad, no, you were excited, like man. We had a pretty good mission. Even if it was a horrible dog shit, fucking mission, even if it was a fucking grueling 20, 40 days, you still found something to be grateful for. But hey, man, let's grab some chow, let's fucking get on our necks, let's have a great night. We're going to have a great reset, man, like we're. It's going to be good. We made it back from midnight chow. You always found something happy, something to be positive about man, not always, but for the most part. If we want to really talk about things that work for mental health, there are tons of resources out there. But if you don't have resources or you're not willing to look at the resources yet, just start looking at the good that's in your life. I don't care if you're in a trailer, living in fucking backwoods, fort Bragg, north Carolina there is something good in your life today.
Speaker 2:Focus on it. The way I look at it is and a lot of people hate me because they said I'm always too happy and I'm always too positive. A lot of people think it's fake, it's not Right, because I tell people they're like how are you doing? I'm like I opened my eyes this morning. I'm freaking doing great Right, because I like to say this all the time.
Speaker 1:I died a few times, so I know it sucks. I didn't really die, but I almost did right, so I know it sucks, so I died a few times.
Speaker 2:So if I open my eyes this morning, it's freaking great, because everything else after that you can work on, you can find solutions and you can fight through it. But you can't fight through that Once you're dead. That's it, it's over, it's over. So if you open your eyes this morning, you're blessed. If you have a roof over your head, even if it's a tarp, you're blessed. If you got to eat something today, you're blessed. There was a time that I had to eat ramen for months and months and months because I was going through a divorce and a hardship. And guess what? I had ramen. I was blessed. That's better than nothing.
Speaker 1:For you it was ramen, for me it was $5 footlong. Month, the subway on 7th Group saved my ass during my divorce, that's. You know, I tell people, man, I was living in the back of my F-150. I was too proud to ask for help. From the very beginning, I had an iPad and I had $5 footlongs. One half of that footlong was lunch, the other half was dinner.
Speaker 1:And, boy, when things finally turned around for me, it was the mindset being able to say you know what? And laugh, laugh about the situation. I'm in the back of my truck right now and all I have is this iPad and my subway. But at some point things are going to look up. For me, things are going to look better. And before you know it, I was a free fall school getting ready to go through that. And then, on the backside of that, I was going on a J set to Peru. And let me tell you the greatest adventure of my fucking life, and all I had to do was shift the perspective of like hey might be going through a divorce right now, but pretty soon I'll be in free fall school. And then, just like that, when you started looking at positives.
Speaker 2:And then I hopped pervian to eat a steak.
Speaker 1:In the best Peruvian steakhouse man, yes.
Speaker 2:You got to look at the positive bro. You know what. You got to look at the positive bro. You know what For me I found? I didn't even know what it was, but when I was going through the hardship I found what the dollar tree was. Yeah, and I made a $30 grocery shopping. A dollar per item ham, cheese, eggs, freaking ramen, you name it and that lasts me a month.
Speaker 1:Living like kings. I tell you.
Speaker 2:JP.
Speaker 1:I can't thank you enough for being here today, man, Before I let you go, if you could give any of our brothers, whether a Green Beret, infantryman, just any veteran out there struggling, what are some like? What is your like? One or even three top tips that you would give somebody as they're going through their transition?
Speaker 2:I would say if you're transitioning, I don't want you to focus on what you used to do right, focus on what you're going to do next. You still got so much to give. Right your service doesn't stop when you ETS or retire right your service is for life.
Speaker 2:You got to continue to serve. Find a different way of serving now, right, whether it's helping a nonprofit, helping a friend, helping a family business, it doesn't matter. Find that you know to give back. Well, let me tell you if you just joined the army, uh, and went through basic training, ait and all that, the army the army spent about $800,000 in training for you. If you went through special operations, there's millions of dollars invested in you. What are you doing with that investment? Use that investment. You got plenty of skills that people have to pay for. You got it for free. People, companies got to pay thousands of dollars to go to a leadership school. You got that for free, yeah, and you got the best leadership training that you could ever get in the military, right, so put it to work.
Speaker 2:Don't just sit and think what I'm going to do next. Go and find what you're going to do next, right, and you know what it's trial by error. Go out there, find something. You don't like. It Guess what, now that you're retired or ETS, you actually can say I don't need that, Let me try something else, right, go and try different things. Eventually, you're going to find what really fills your heart. I tell people and they laugh when I tell them. I know a lot of green birds that went contracting in Iraq, contracting in Afghanistan. They did shooting training and then they found their love making soap.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Some of them are making knitting hats, and that's how they find their zen, right. They're like I'm in my, I'm here, it's just me and this needle. That's it, and I find peace and I got a business with it too, right, I found that going to, uh, greg's pottery here downtown and just picking up a piece of pottery and just sit over there with my headphones and start painting, right, I paint it, I paint and it's just me, and I totally forget my surrounding. I don't even know who comes in and out, it's just me concentrating on do I put a stripe on this or I don't, right? And then I finish it and a lot of times I tell her hey, put it in the oven. And they just give it to a kid that likes it. I don't even want it. I just came here for therapy it's true, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, find, find what brings your joy and be willing to explore it.
Speaker 2:Man and always remember this. We can't leave this out. Don't be selfish, thinking just about you. Think about your family and your friends and if you're struggling, take care of yourself first, because if you don't take care of yourself, you won't be able to take care of your family.
Speaker 1:Seek for help.
Speaker 2:All right, it's not weakness. It takes a lot of strength to seek for help. So go and seek for help.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And if you're listening right now and you're a Green Beret either a legacy Green Beret or an active Green Beret and you need resources, head on over to the Special Forces Foundation the link's in the bio or you can go right here Proudly sponsored by Special Forces Foundation. I am glad and proud to be partnering up with them to help stop the suicide epidemic within not only our greater veteran community but our special forces operators as well, because we're not, all you know, contrary to popular belief, we're not invincible. We are human beings and we break, and we all need resources and we all need somebody to fight with us. So I'm telling you right now if you're struggling, reach out today, get plugged in with Special Forces Foundation. Tons of programs, tons of avenues that we can take to the fight and get you better. So please reach out today if you need help.
Speaker 1:Jp, it's been a pleasure having you in today, brother. It is absolutely awesome to see you out there in a just cause, not only helping end and stem this fight of human trafficking, but getting your hands dirty and helping stop this veteran suicide epidemic. Man, we need more of our guys and gals out there doing the same thing and I can't thank you enough, man. It's been an absolute blast Once again. Where can people go if they want to check out your nonprofit or see what JP's up to?
Speaker 2:You can go to letswalkitoutorg and if you want to check out what JP is doing, follow me on social media JP Cervantes, 180a, 180, alpha, so you can find me there on social media. You see my shenanigans all the time. I try to keep it fun. So, by the way, have fun at the retirement ceremony. I know who you're going to go and see and I was trying to go. I just can't go.
Speaker 2:So, tell him from me I'm sorry I can't be there giving a hug. I'm giving a kiss. He hates giving a kiss for me. Tell him, JP.
Speaker 1:Oh hell, yeah, Well, I'll get this process. A big shout out to Joffrey Saleri. Uh, an amazing NCO, amazing leader. Yep, when I I I almost didn't submit my packet to become a warrant because some early shenanigans and I was just like you know what I'm done with this career, I'm just going to go be a dog handler and I'll just be done with it. And that man looked at me. He's like no, don't come with me to Columbia, submit that warrant packet. You need to do this. And I stuck with him. We went, did a J set together, went to Columbia, I submitted my packet and you know what Joffrey did for me Joffrey, this is how smart that man is. He brought everybody from our chain of command down for a command visit and then it was like oh man, you know we should stay a little longer for a couple of nights. And since you're already here, here's my senior Bravo. He wants to go be a warrant officer. You can knock out your interview right here.
Speaker 1:There's been a lot of things that great leaders have done for me in my entire military career, but nobody has fought harder for their NCOs than Joffrey Soleri. I've witnessed it time and time again in my own lived experience. I've seen that dude clear out the entire AOB and then get on the phone with command and just fucking have it for like not 20 minutes, not 30 minutes, over an hour to back up his Green Berets and his guys and to see his career unfold. For the little bit of time that I've been able to know him, been able to witness what a great leader he has been to so many, it's remarkable. I mean, he got to be the top guy at third group. He led them for a long time and now he's finally taking his walk and he's transitioning. So damn right, I'm going to drive down there and be there.
Speaker 2:I tell you, I know for a fact because I'm the president of SFA chapter 100, which supports third group. So I had to work with, you know, with Sorelli and different things in third group, and I see how much they respect him, how much they appreciate him, and that's a lot, because respect is not about the rank, it's about the person, and they just don't love Sajumajor, they love Sorelli Absolutely and nobody has better hair. They love Sorelle.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And nobody has better hair. Nobody has better, damn hair. He gave me the confidence to grow mine out, cause man, that dude who always there's, you know there's that one thing, the primary, the rule number one of being a green beret is always look cool and damn it. That man has always, always abided by that number one rule.
Speaker 2:I met with him. The last time I saw him, I'm like what hair growing product are you using?
Speaker 1:Because there's no way you're not going bold yet, JP. It's been a pleasure Everybody listening. Thank you for tuning in. We'll see you all next time. Till then, take care.
Speaker 2:All right, brother. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Thanks for tuning in and don't forget to like, follow, share, subscribe and review us on your favorite podcast platform. If you want to support us, head on over to buymeacoffeecom forward slash SecHawk podcast and buy us a coffee. Connect with us on Instagram, x or TikTok and share your thoughts or questions about today's episode. You can also visit securityhawkcom for exclusive content, resources and updates. And remember we get through this together. If you're still listening the episode's over. Yeah, there's no more Tune in tomorrow or next week. Thank you.
