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.
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Security Halt!
Leadership, Innovation & Cultural Truths with Nick Umble
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In this episode of Security Halt!, Deny Caballero sits down with Green Beret Nick Umble to explore the intersection of military service, innovation, leadership, and global complexity. Their conversation spans empowering the next generation of service members, the critical role instructors play in shaping culture, and the realities of transitioning from the military into academia and civilian life. Nick also breaks down the complexities of drug trafficking, cartel operations, and why understanding culture and leadership is essential to solving global problems. This episode challenges conventional thinking and highlights why adaptive leadership and real-world experience matter more than ever.
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Measurement um tools. So any other blast gauge out there, they can partner with them and use it. Shout out to you, Daniel Pace. But you can track on your team the level of exposure on every guy running that app. So if you your breacher is red, your fucking junior Charlie, he's yellow. That level of control and monitoring. So you can say, hey, full stop. You, you're sitting out this one. You fucking, you gotta cool it. You just got back from a breaching course. You you're definitely cooling it down. That's the type of innovation that's out there. And and I am so fucking happy and so proud to be doing this. Um, giving these individuals on on all of my shows, if if it's within the realms of the genre, the platform to talk about this because you and I, we could have benefited from this shit. I will tell you right now, as an A Team Bravo, I don't have time to fucking look at the rags. I'm not gonna fucking worry. Oh, you're supposed to take two. And that was our young man's fucking folly. We need to have we need to empower them to be like, no, I was a fucking idiot. You need to own your job and own your skill set to be be proud of the fact that you stand up and say, hey, team sergeant, according to the regulation and by the doctrine and standards of these explosive ordnance and and then these weapon systems, we shouldn't be firing more than X amount. Hey, yo, tracking, great, great on you, A Team Bravo. That's the type of shit. We need to be able to make the fucking the guys professional and empower that. And and when Jordan G Watt was a different time frame. Now, as we're developing these guys, they should be the subject matter experts, be able to stand under two feet and say, hey, here's what we got. In order to mitigate risk assessment, dog, in order to mitigate this, we've got to be able to do X, Y, and Z. And I think the force is ready. I think the Force is ready to hear these things, man. Um, and that's why I'm so glad to give the the these people the platform to talk about it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I don't, I don't disagree with that. I know that we're all guilty of like MSD. The fuck is MSD? Like I was 18 starts. Yeah. MSD my ass. We're gonna do MSD. Oh, okay. Stand 12 foot back and see how long it takes you to get in that fucking house. Yeah. That that's not gonna pan out well for you. And then it just you just creeped. Like, man, I remember in like 04 going and doing internal breaching and like I don't know what the fuck happened. I think somebody stuck a charge on a lock and they were fucking around and they couldn't get it set. And I like thought he he like kind of started to peel back. I don't remember how it went. It's been so fucking like it's been 20 years. And I remember it's like walking up and it's dark as fuck, dude, and I just slapped the charge right below that fucker. And what I didn't realize is that I slapped that charge right on top of his.
SPEAKER_00:Oh shit.
SPEAKER_01:So when that fucking thing went off, I went into the next room like gasping for air, like it had taken everything out of my lungs, and I'm like, well, this is cooler, but I'm fucking dead if this is real life, because I can't shoot shit. Like, I'm fucking just trying to like my lungs. I bet my lungs were this big at that point. And I'm like, how in the fuck do I like you're just and and that's part of minimum safe distances and part of like, and you're gonna run into shit like that. And and I think Todd's doing it. Don't get me wrong, I think what Todd is doing is awesome with that overpressure. I I think he's completely right. We all know that overpressure is a motherfucker. We all eat it, we all have been around it. I mean, and it's not just everyone looks at it as explosives, it's not just explosives, but explosives, it's fucking guns, it's yeah, you know, I mean Carl G's, fucking mortar rounds. I mean, everything's produced in a shockwave. And then I I don't know how your guys' ranges were set up once you guys I know what brags look like, but I don't know what they look like once you guys moved to Florida. But in Oakie, there were like, I don't know, 50 feet, maybe 50. They weren't 50 meters, but they fucked they might have been 25 meters to 50. They may fuck they might have been 50, but there were these huge concrete barriers. They were like, I don't know, 18 inches thick and like fucking eight feet high. And when there's 12 or 15 guys in there shooting M4s, all that fucking percussions just being just bouncing off this concrete. And and it's not just your brain that's rattling, man, it's your liver, your kidneys, and then people, your your gut, yeah. They're just getting fucking and then you go home on the weekend and you're completely uh just your head hurts, and the only way in okay, I don't know what what it is like what you guys were at, but in first group, man, it was like, oh, our heads are hurt, let's go drink more alcohol. Because that's gonna stop the fuck up.
SPEAKER_00:That is the classic, and it's not just soft, that is the the combat warrior mentality. I remember as a as a dude in 82nd, like, hey, you uh I I got a concussion, I got my bell rung. What are we doing? We're going to fucking secrets, we're gonna drink about it. Like that's the that was that was the culture then. And uh, I think it's changing. I I truly honestly believe that it's changing. Guys, I think are are listening to their their older team sergeants, the guys have had some exposure and are able to talk about it in a healthy way. And and now more than ever, there's shows that are like like this that talk about it and they're willing to say, hey, this was the way we did things because combat. Because the the reality was survivability, lethality. But now we have all those lessons learned. You can still be lethal, you can still be prepared for war and take care of your brain and take care of your body because it it's it's on the team started, it's on the senior leaders, and it's up to everybody that to share the truth of it. It's like you can still be the premier fighting force of of the world if you just train smart. And I think um I think a lot of lessons were learned the hard way in our time.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I don't think as many guys smoke or dip. I don't think as many guys drink. I don't think alcohol, I read a study probably about three or four months ago that said that Gen Z, and millennials it's lowered, but Gen Z drinks less alcohol than any other generation. And it's projected that the alcohol industry is going to lose its ass as Gen X stops drinking and the boomers, I hate to say it, but it's it's reality, die off.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. And smoking too. That was the other thing. And and here's a positive note uh they're finding their faith a lot sooner. Um, that was that's something that blew my mind because you know, I'm proud Catholic now. Um found my way back to my faith. That's something I talk about ad nauseum with with the right people. I share it on here openly. Yeah. But uh the one thing I realized is like, you know, there I go to church, I see younger and younger individuals. Like I was, you know, my wife and I like we were noticing like we have these roughneck cowboys that show up. These are young 20-something single dudes showing up to church, and I'm like, holy cow, like there's there's a change, there's a revolution. People want to live longer, be healthy, and be connected to something greater. And uh it's it's um it just goes to show you, man. We're it's not as hopeless as we think it is. Um, this is the longest I've done on on a show before I even introduce the guest. I'm fucking up, Nick. Welcome to the show, dude.
SPEAKER_02:I appreciate it, man.
SPEAKER_00:That's a that's a testament to being able to connect and talk to another another Green Beret, another person that has a passion. It's funny, man.
SPEAKER_01:Like, so two two or three weeks ago, we had scheduled this, and what I what my family emergency was is I had to put my youngest dog down, which out of the three was my dog.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And they couldn't do it another way. And I'm like, all right, man, like I don't want to make this dog wait any longer. And then you called me, you're like, hey man, I have a, you know, my daughter is sick. I gotta go pick her up. Well, funny story. I ran across Scott Kinder on um LinkedIn, and he just wrote that, just came out with that book, Brothers in Christ. And I was like, bro, come on the podcast, we'll talk. So I was supposed to have him on yesterday, and he sends me a text and he's like, bro, I got a sick kid. She's got you know huge temperature, and I'm like, boom. Exactly what we talked about. For the first time in our lives, we can put our family first and not the job. Like, go nurse that kid back to health, man. We could do a fucking podcast, whatever, bro. Yeah, like this shit can wait.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I'm excited to have you today, man. Explore your life. And uh, you know, I always tell people there's a dozen fucking shows out there like explore the combat, hard-hitting fucking journeys in Afghanistan, Hellman Province, like fucking Jocko's turning to tell me about what it was like taking the life of the enemy. That's great, man. That's that's great, but that's never gonna help anybody. When I look at your journey and everything that we started talking about before, like you did a full 20 years, and you had the audacity to dream and dare to do something few others would do. I wouldn't think about going to football. I wouldn't think about becoming a long snapper. And I'd be lying if I didn't think about what it would be like to be an athlete again, what it would be like to walk into the arena just for one more day, just to be part of a team. And you did that. So today, my man, I want to dive into that. I want to dive into what gave you that dream again. But before we dive into that part, like, what gave you that idea to serve in the fucking military? Bro, I wanted out, dude.
SPEAKER_01:I wanted the fuck out of Iowa, dude. I'm not gonna lie. Like, my grandfather is a farmer, my dad is a hog farmer, my uncles are both farmers. I'm like, I'm like that village in fucking Southeast Asia where people are like, there's gotta be a better life than watching grandma and grandpa at 45 years old bent over in a fucking field. And I had one of my best friends in school did it, did that OSET program where he went to basic training between his junior and senior year, and he came back and he was just like a different mentality. And I'm like, and I was like, not, I didn't have a great, I had a good work ethic. I did not have a good like lifting ethic. I I played football, I ran track, I really didn't give a fuck. It was just I I'm on it. It was one of those things, like I'm on a team, I'm not taking up fucking space, but I'm not starting, I'm not an outstanding athlete. I don't like going to the gym. I'm like, there's gotta be something fucking better. So I went to basic. I was like, I'm gonna join the army between my junior, like the beginning of my junior year, like, I'm fucking out of here, man. Where do I sign? I signed up a like the day I turned 17. I'm like, I'm fucking out of here, dude. I'm I'm gone. Get me out of this place. Um and I enjoyed it, man. And then I got to the unit, and I was like, what the fuck did I get myself into? Like, bro, now I'm like, I have a work ethic, like I want to work out all the time. Like I enjoyed running, I enjoyed doing X, Y, Z. I'm like, there's gotta be something better. And that's how I found soft was just randomly fucking in that people don't believe it, but I mean, I guess some guys would, but like the regular army man back pre-9-11 did not like guys coming out of the conventional army, like getting the selection was well, you want to take a PT test, you gotta do that shit on your own time. Like, you're taking that shit on a Saturday. We're not gonna give you time to do this, we're not gonna give you time to do that. I'm like, and the more they perpetuated that bullshit, the more it was like, what the fuck do these guys have? That why are you trying so hard for me not to do this? Like, there obviously has to be something here, and then it was almost like I fit in, like I enjoyed selection as much as it sucked, I enjoyed it. And and I was like, I feel like I got along with all those guys. Like I made I made two or three good friends in selection that I still talk to today, and that was fuck man, 1999. Wow. Um, one of them's a retired third group CW3. Josh and I still talk from time to time, and I didn't even know his name. We called him like fucking Brandon or some shit. And then we got to the Q course, and I was like, Brandon, his girlfriend's like, who the fuck is Brandon? He's like, uh, some guy called me that selection I just would I end with.
SPEAKER_00:Did funny story, we'll segue into this. I spent my entire 18 Bravo heavy weapons and mortar side going by Gabe because I I forget how fucking Doc Malone. Doc Malone, uh wherever you are, phenomenal fucking instructor. But for some reason, he thought my name was Gabe, and I was so fucking petrified of that man that I didn't correct him. And the the entire time, and you know, you're doing mortars, and he's like, All right, here's your direction deflection. Like fucking sitting there just going, come on, Gabe, you're on the clock. I'm like, fucking, just going and going. And as soon as I got my go, and as soon as I was done with that chorus, he's like, Good job, Gabe. I knew you'd pull it through. I'm like, my name's not Gabe. It's like it's not, it's Denny. Well shit, son.
SPEAKER_03:Why'd you correct me? It's like, you fucking kidding me. Because you're fucking scary, bro.
SPEAKER_01:Whatever the fuck you say, I'll go with it. I thought guys were wizards when I got to group. So some guys are gonna know this name, first group guys. It may be some, I don't know. He started in seventh group, maybe years ago. Like years. So Bob Potter was an E7 instructor when I got to the when I went for when I rode from the Echo course to the Charlie course because I couldn't fucking do Morris code where the fuck. And Bob Potter was like, ah, the guy was a fucking asshole, dude. Like, I hated that fucking guy. So I show up to Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, First Grade.
SPEAKER_03:And I walk in, and um, the company star major at the time was I can't remember his name now.
SPEAKER_01:Anyway, he Ron Ruby. Ron goes, come in here, you fucking new guy. And I I'm all I'm a very I'm I'm a big dude. I'm like 6'4 at the time, I probably weighed like 225. Um, and so I walk in, he sit down, you know, and uh hey, I got two teams you can go to. Where do you want to go? Do you want to go to an ASO team or do you want to go to a fucking mountain team? And I'm like, what the fuck is ASO? And I didn't say it, but I'm thinking he goes, you're probably asking yourself now what ASO is. I'm like, how the fuck does this guy know what's going on in my mind? You know? I'm this young, dumb E5 that was a carpenter in the fucking army, man. I have no idea what I just got myself into. And he was like, Oh, you probably know the instructor, you probably know the team sergeant. Uh Bob Potter.
SPEAKER_03:I immediately was like, I'll go to the mountain team.
SPEAKER_01:So I saw him to the mountain team, they're gone, they come back Monday, they're doing an OPT, and they come back, and the team sergeant's like, we gotta order boots or getting ready to go to Nepal to do this deal. And he goes, these are the boots we want. And they team Bravo to get online to order them, and then he's asking the size. Well, I have a very large foot, it's a size 15. And they're like, they don't have 15s. I'm like, what do they have? They're like, whatever it correlated to is like 14 and a half. I'm like, buy it. So my team start looked fucking right at me and was like, if you can't wear them fucking boots, you gotta go to the ASO team. Bro, my feet fit in those fucking boots for three years.
SPEAKER_03:Wasn't going to 6'5, man. I fucking hated Bob Potter. I walked to fucking 19,000 feet in the pond of motherfuckers, bro. What the fuck's up with the new guy? He's crying and waddling. Good to go. I still have those boots downstairs in my house today.
SPEAKER_01:God damn it, they never fit. Bob Potter and I became very good friends throughout because you know the deal, like, guys at the Q courses instructors are very different than what it is in grouping. Absolutely. Yeah. But you don't understand that as a student, you're like, fuck this guy, man. I'm not, I want nothing to do with this cat.
SPEAKER_00:Dude, same, dude. One of the one of the most like the best but most fearsome instructor, Damian Storm. And I mean, you just didn't want to get on his wrong side. You didn't want to, you didn't even want to fucking be seen by him. And it stuck with you. I remember the first time, like, you're just having a great day getting ready for a range, and I just happened to see him, and I went instantly. I went back to a new guy. I've already been at group for like two years. Oh fuck, that's Sergeant Storm. I'm like, wait, I'm on the same rank. Like, what what the fuck? So, so he's like, dude, relax. It's it's Damien. I'll never fucking forget that because they're so different, but they have to be. They're forging the next teammate, they're forging the next guys they're gonna be in the in on an ODA with. And you want the best. And I absolutely respect and admire and honor those guys. And I understand, like, for a lot of people, that's not like it's not a dream profession. A lot of guys, the one thing you want to do is stay on a team. Looking back and reflecting, I am so grateful for those guys that really took their job seriously and were willing to be an instructor, man. Like, you they don't get enough respect, they don't get enough admiration and support, man. Um, you guys are the unsung heroes. It takes a lot and it's very demanding. The guys are S U T. The guys are uh MOS instructors. Like, that's a fucking hard fucking job.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:You don't get a lot of recognition, but uh here's your fucking your pat on the back from a fucking D-list podcaster. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01:I show I was a whatever as you got in the army, I got in the army as a carpenter. I was a 51 Bravo carpentry masonry specialist. Oh wow. So I show up the selection, and my last name's Umble. So I'm clear invite the fucking the one of the huts closest to the fucking what is now not even there. I heard the million dollar shitter, it's gone.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:For those of you that don't know, we used to call a building, it was called the million dollar shitter because it cost them, they put it in, it was all fucked up. They had to redo it like eight times, and it cost them a million dollars a building. And it had all these outside sinks, and then on the inside it had, I don't know, 60 toilets and like rooms looked like some fucking gas chambers from the fucking World War II era that just had spigots coming out of the wall, and like 10 guys would shower at a time in these. And then there was probably, I don't know, 30 urinals in there, and used to wash your clothes outside. And I remember being in Hawaii, this guy said, I want you to go to selection in January. And I'm like, fuck you, I'm in Hawaii, bro. I'm going to selection to. Like March, April, dude. Like, I'm not smart, but I'm not dumb either. So I get this selection and I'm setting in like one of the first classes, and it's about land nav. At this point in my life, I'm 20 years old. I've been in the army two, maybe two years, and I just just about two and a half. And I've never done land nav in life. And this E7, Sergeant Penhalligan, I'll never forget that motherfucker. He's like, all right, we're about to learn today, boys, who can do land nav and who can't. And if you've never done land nav, you're in the wrong fucking course. So to my some of the guys are gonna know these guys' name. To my right is Josh Rose. He's the retired CW3 from seventh group or third group. And to my right is fucking Colonel Retired Glenn Thomas. And I looked at both of them dudes and I'm like, oh shit. And both of them guys simultaneously looked at me and they're like, it doesn't matter, man. There's only two kinds of people in this world. You're either gonna get it or you're not. I was like, well, that's fucking not reassuring, right? So people are talking about terrain. Like, this is a saddle and this is a spur. And I'm like, what the fuck? Bro, clueless, dude. Fucking clueless. And so he gives me a map, and I knew how to read a map, and I knew how to plot points. So I would plot point A and the next point, and I would run from point A to point B. There was no terrain orienteering. There was no fucking like, let's avoid a draw. Motherfucker, it was a compass, and I ran from point A to point B. Terminator style for every point at SFAS. Every fucking point, dude. For three weeks, I ran from point A. And that was when you did um you did a four, a 12, and a 25 mile at the end. You did a bunch of day man day and nightland nav, and then you did team week, and then the 25 miler at the end. And I think you did a two, a four, and a six-mile run. And then you didn't do the star until you got to the cue course. Oh. So I didn't do a star until you got there. I'd had one night where I stopped to look at my map and I set my rubber duck against a fucking tree, and I took off and I got hit with a branch in the head. And my my initial instinct was like, why the fuck do I have two hands? Free, right? Like, yeah. And so long story short, for like 20, I'm like, I'm not leaving, I'm not going back without this fucking thing. But you know, in North Carolina, you can cross a road and 20 meters later look back, and there might be six of them because of the way all the pine needles fucking lay. Brizzing that motherfucker with a white light, like searching for like two hours for this fucking thing. And I snatch it up, I find it, thank God, and I run to my point. And that was, I think, my second point. And the guy's like, Well, you only have an hour, you probably won't make these. But so I sprinted to my next point. And I got to the third one. A guy's like, hey, you only have 15 minutes left. Like, I'm not gonna allow you. So I missed one point that night. And when I in my exit interview, he asked me, he's like, You got every point except for one night. And he's like, Don't fucking lie to me. And I told him that story, and he just started laughing his ass off. I mean, those guys were really forgiving. He's like, At least you knew what to do. You didn't just go fuck it. Yeah, you know, I mean, there are guys that just showed up, like, look, I lost my rubber duck, like, not a big deal. No, dude. That's so Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I found myself praying to God one night. I did the same thing. It's always you're you're doing a map check, you place uh the rifle on a tree and you keep moving. And I remember I did the same thing, did my map check, got everything going, packed up, and I started walking. I was like 200 meters away before I realized, and I was like, oh fuck. And I was like, okay, okay, easy enough. Easy, don't freak out, don't freak out. We're just gonna, we're just gonna turn around. You've been on azimuth the entire day. We're just gonna turn around, we're gonna walk back 200 meters, and we're gonna find it. And I'm just like, God, I'm not gonna panic. I'm not gonna fucking panic. You got me, you got me this far. No shit. Walked right up to the tree, grabbed it, and I'm like, tying this bitch off to me. 550. We're not gonna forget this again. But it was just like, it was the one thing I'm like, it's cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.
SPEAKER_03:It's fun. I remember the tree. I remember going. All right, we're we're sleep deprived, we're really fucking tired.
SPEAKER_00:Let's just keep going. But that's the same thing. Like I was one of the it was one of those things where I would keep uh uh my my guardrails, my left and right. I'm like, I got a road here, and I would just like, I'm just gonna peek. I'm just gonna just meander a little bit, still on track. If that road was, if I've just if I had a right, if I was the right path and I had that guardrail, I'm like, okay, cool, cool. That that that road should be right there. And every once in a while, you know you fucking did it too. Like, I got fucking 45 minutes, I gotta get fucking two more points. Time to run on some fucking roads. I'm big enough to say it. I'll fucking admit it.
SPEAKER_01:Fuck yeah. Dude, I'll be honest. I was so petrified in that fucking school. I just, and I never, my points were never late. I just ran, dude. What I mean ran. Like an instructor stopped me on day three. He's like, where are you at and where are you going? I'm like, I'd you know, grab the pine needle. I'm here. I'm going here. He's like, How are you gonna get there? I'm like, I'm gonna fucking run.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That's exactly what I said. I'm gonna run, Sergeant.
SPEAKER_00:And he was like, This episode is brought to you by Pure Liberty Labs. Quality supplements designed to elevate your health and performance. Check out their full line of quality supplements, whether you're looking for whey protein, pre-workout, creatine, or super greens drink. Pure Liberty Labs has you covered. Use my code security hall10 at checkout today.
SPEAKER_01:What? Like, what are you gonna do? I'm like, I'm gonna point a compass and run. And he was like, What the fuck? He's like, All right, well, I hope that pans out well for you. And then off I went. But I was like 195 pounds and scared shitless and didn't know my fucking assumable hole in the ground. And I'm in like the middle of these draws, like trying to get through all those fucking vines and shit, just about to be in fucking tears because I'm pissed and I'm gonna lose. And like that school to me was nothing but fear. I was scared shitless the entire fucking time. Like, is somebody gonna catch me doing something wrong? Am I not gonna make it in time? Am I not gonna make that? It was just but it it I would, I don't know what it's like now, but it prepared me for a lot of future shit.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I agree with that. It goes back to the cadre, it goes back to individuals, um, guys like Mastron Thompson, man. Individuals where you're like, fuck this dude, square the fuck away. Like, how am I ever going to be a that fucking cool? And B, that fucking just all like it's like these motherfuckers had this like aura about them. Like you really like went there and you're like, fuck, these dudes are legendary. Who the fuck am I to try to want to be? And never miss an opportunity to be impactful and show you that, like, hey, you got this, you made it this far. Keep fucking going. Keep fucking going. Don't fucking do anything less than your 100% best when you'll fucking make it. Um, it's like it's one of the things where I didn't, I didn't understand the impact that you could have as an instructor until because again, you get you get in the idea, you get trapped in the mindset of I can I only want to be on a team, I only want to be operational. And I bypassed one of the most uh oddly, uh what I think could be the most impactful and most beneficial uh position as a green brain. That's being an instructor, being a cadre member. Um so if you're listening out there and you got that dreaded notification you're going back to Brag, I'd be excited about it. Like a lot full full stop, man. Like a lot of us, I think um I'm taking this from Jeremiah. Um, you will never be able to impact as many lives as you will if you're an instructor. Like that's the truth. Like, you you have the ability to mold and teach the next generation of green berets and impact so that they have these little anecdotal stories of how good of a leader or how good of an instructor you were, what a positive voice you were. Like, that's truly living forever. Truly. Like, because there's guys that still talk about instructors that their senior talked about or that their team sergeant talked about, and so on and so forth. I talk about leaving a legacy. There it is. Uh don't worry about it. Yeah, I was the same way.
SPEAKER_01:I never went to Swick. I went from because we had Oki, right? So I went from Lewis to Okie back to Lewis and then retired. And so I spent 15 years between Lewis and Oki and never, never went to Swick. Which, if I my when I thought I was going to Swick when I was at Anoch, and then when I was in Sephardic, I thought, fuck man. If I don't make I might come out of Oki and go right to fucking Swick. So I could come out to the SFAS community and like cadre. And I talked to the company commander each time that I was out there. Like, hey man, if I come down on Swick orders, this is where I want to come. I didn't want to go anywhere else. Yeah. That's the one course that I wanted to go to because I thought that was the most impactful course for me.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:As a as a kid that didn't know shit, was 20, fuck, I wasn't even older to drink a beer, dude. I was like the youngest fucking kid in selection. I was the E4 at 20 years old. I didn't know shit. And I was like, I I wanna I wanna come out, I wanna be. I always thought those instructors were in my experience in Swick, those were the number one most impactful instructors I had were the guys at not that I didn't learn shit from the guys in MOS phase and fade in well fuck my Robin Sage instructor was a shit show. I didn't know it at the time, but looking back, I'm like, bro, you could have done it. So like you the world, you have a the world is given to those guys. And I he was doing a lot of I'm doing this for my own personal game type shit.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So that was kind of fucked up. And then, you know, I I always tell guys, and I I love watching my my stepson who's 25 now, he's in the Air Force. I love watching that kid grow because he's an E5, and when I talk, he's in the Air Force, he's an E5, he's a mechanic, works on ground equipment. And the kid didn't know the difference between a fucking flathead screwdriver and a fucking Phillips. And now the fucking kid can like rebuild jet engines. And I just listened to him, like, ah, shit's all fucked up. And then he'll just listen and I'll say shit, and he'll be like, oh, the command's trying to fuck these guys over. And I'm like, well, what are they doing? And sometimes I'm legitimately like, well, this is why your command is doing X, but watching him grow as a leader has been a really rewarding thing. Yeah, it's been pretty cool, man, to watch him grow. And then I always tell guys, like, you can't ever stop learning. The minute you stop learning, I see it in group. There's a ton of guys in SF that come in as young E5 or E6 and they bust their ass for three to four years and they get a good reputation. They make that seven list. Because let's be honest, fucking E7 and SF is a joke. Unless you've like got a domestic violence fucking deal or you've fucking got a DUI, and most of those are putting you out anyway. So pretty much nine, it's a 99% success rate that your first look, you're gonna make E7. I watch guys come in and they make E7 and might put another year or two of work in, maybe, and then they just rest on those laurels that they've created, yeah, and they do not continue to work.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and it affects a lot of young guys.
SPEAKER_00:I saw that. There's the there certainly is those individuals that um I feel like they just give up. It's almost like you're you're in that marriage and you're not putting any effort in it. It always bothered me too, like just get out. Just get out, leave. If if you're not gonna improve, and that's for any any profession, any endeavor, if you're not gonna continue to like push the envelope and do better and try to aspire for something else, try to go to 4th battalion, try to go to this school, try to innovate, try to have a career that's actually like shows that you're trying to progress and do something great, get out. Just leave because the organization is suffering from that stagnation as well. You're taking up the spot for somebody that wants to be there, that's hungry, that wants to innovate, that wants to like help push the envelope, that wants to help shift the culture from being happy with the status quo to constantly evolving and growing. I've seen remarkable E7s, I've seen remarkable guys that have pushed the envelope, have lobbied and asked commanders to try to institute this type of training, or went off to school and did this and brought back brought back a capability to the team. Guys that were on the leading edge for the whole drone stuff. You know, it's a big thing now, but before there were guys, I remember dudes that were leaning forward on it in like 2018, 2019, because they saw it. They saw the innovation. Oh, hey, you know, I'm picking up the stuff because I'm I'm studying this on the side about AI, tech, and and drones, and I like to bring this capability. I saw a lot of that, but I also saw a lot of the guys that didn't want to be there that would just complain, complain, and be miserable. Man, I hated that. That's one of the worst things for any organization.
SPEAKER_01:Like that's why I left.
unknown:No.
SPEAKER_01:I got out. I I took, you know, beat, when you get picked up as a green adder as a first sergeant, that's a fucking kingmaker.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Like you're guaranteed to make E9. Yep. Bro, that first sergeant year was the worst fucking year of my life. Really? Bro, I fucking hit it. I was the GSC, I was the last GSC first sergeant before they made it an E9 position. And I my company commander Jerry was a great dude. I I still talk to him today. He's a great fucking guy. I just hated that position. I hated dealing with people that like it was most SF guys get it. When I mean get it, they understand the overarching piece of what the fuck is going on. And you can make deals with those guys and they understand it. You cannot do any of that with support personnel. Now, I don't have anything against support guys because without them, I can't function. And I get that. However, Carmel, after that year of dealing with the fucking shit that I had to deal with, I'm like, I don't want to be a fucking sergeor. And so that was at that point. My next my next deal was, you're gonna go to a basement. I'm like, I don't want to fucking go to a basement. So when they turned ops detain into Sophasic, I was like, the company served major over there. I was like, hey, do you need an ops guy? He's like, yeah, come on over, help me out, help me like unfuck what's opsted's just been a shit show for years, help me unfuck this. And now that it's turned into a guidon carrying UCMJ heavy company, I said, Yeah, I'll do that. That would be great. Thank you for the, you know. And I went and worked for Rob for a year. And at that point, I was like, I want out. I'm done. I don't I wanted to go teach ROTC and get my degree and then um leave, like retire. And the group, Sign Major, and the battalion star major, nothing against him. I still talk to Brian Morrison to this day. Um, they made the decision that if we send him to ROTC, he's gonna make fucking E9 and come back to the unit. He's gonna fuck that school in a year. And I was like, I'll sign a death statement. And they never submitted my packet. And to me, that was them making my career choice for me. Yeah, and that is the first time in my career that that had happened. And so at that point, I'm like, I'm fucking done. I'm I'm over it. So I was like, now I'm gonna go play college football. Like, fuck you, watch it. Like, hold my fucking beer. So I is that how simple it was? Yeah, that's I got a call. I had so I had submitted a packet to take over the University of Arizona um ROTC program. And the out the outgoing GSB commander had just sent about a year prior a major down there that was having family issues. Um, like he need not with any family issues, not with his immediate family, but with like his parents. Something had happened, like they had been in a wreck or his father was passing away, and they were from the Tucson area. So they PC cut a deal and PCS this guy down there. Colonel Kers, and I still talk to him to this day, was like called down there, was like, this is the guy you want. This is the fucking dude that you want there. Like he actually gives a shit. Okay, cool. So basically the university was like, this is the guy we're gonna take. Well, they never, I sliped out the packet, submitted it. They never submitted the packet because both the battalion and the group CSM were like, well, we had had a slew of fucking guys, like, here's my retirement packet, and you know how that goes. And then they come out on the nine list and four days later decide, oh, I'm staying in the army, and now they're shuffling. And so it turned into one of those. They didn't want that to happen. And so I was like, I'll sign a deck statement. Well, the company started major, Rob gave me a call. I was in Sophastic already. Actually, the company commander, and he's like, hey, Rob wants to talk to you tomorrow. You took off where he could grab you. He was busy, blah, blah, blah. And I just called Rob and I was like, I know what you're gonna tell me. You're gonna tell me I didn't get the job at the U of A, and I'm gonna fucking retire. So wherever I need to sign, I'm gonna sign. Like, that's the end of it. And he was like, they never submitted your packet. And at that point, I was like, okay, well, you you made my career choice for me without asking any questions. So at that point, I'm fucking I'm leaving. And I found a long snapping coach, Matt Wigley. Fuck that guy. Um, he did like one session with me and was like, I want to make this guy famous and I can get fame off of this cat. And I did another lesson with him, and then he's like, Yeah, we're gonna work this. I got two more years. And then all of a sudden, he sends out a text to like six of us, and all these kids are high school kids, but me. And he's like, I'm moving to Southern California. Basically, if you want to have lessons, you've got to come fly to Southern California to see me.
SPEAKER_03:Fuck you. Like, no, come again.
SPEAKER_01:Chris Rubio had called me because he heard my story from Matt on Matt's, I don't know, Facebook page. He had called me before and I said, I'm gonna stick with Matt because I had a loyalty thing. And when Matt did that, I called Rubio right up and was like, and Chris Rubio's been on my podcast twice. He's a super good friend of mine. His son plays defensive tackle at fucking Montana State. Like, I've been to at least one of his games. Chris is a phenomenal individual, and he took me under his wing, and in nine months, he had me ready to go to college to be a long snapper.
SPEAKER_02:Ugh.
SPEAKER_00:That's insane. Nine fucking months.
SPEAKER_03:Bro, I snapped the fucking leather off of footballs, dude.
SPEAKER_00:Dude, it's gotta be a little challenging to walk in not only the the age, but the life experience. What was it like getting on a team with fucking young men that you know for most for most of us we call kids? One of the guys.
SPEAKER_01:So you're right, 18 to 22 years old. I walk in and I just turned 38 years old. And one of the kids was a smart ass. He's a backup offensive lineman. I don't talk to him as much anymore, but he walks in and he says something fucked up, like, I don't know, he says something fucking a grandpa to me. And I was like, dude, what were you doing in 2005? And he was like, Well, I was in like fucking the third grade. I was like, I was killing fucking people in Afghanistan. Shut the fuck up. And at the play, 90% of the football team stopped talking to me. They were like, this dude's fucking crazy. Like, who the fuck is this guy? So and they expected some dude to come in that was like Rambo and just gonna be a complete asshole. And at that point, I was I was retired. I didn't give a shit. Like I'm not, I'm not fucking here to be some like outstanding dude and treat you guys like shit. Like, I'm just here to fucking like be a part of a team. Like this to me is what's gonna help me transition out of the military.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Fuck. And so it was it was cool. Like I had a I had a kid. I was the best recruiter for that fucking school. I think there's like six dudes in the army, like two dudes in the navy, four or five guys joined the Marine Corps. And they all did it because one of the tight ends was like, bro, why the fuck are you here? He's like, you have a you know a$300,000 house in Washington, you own a Z01 Camaro, you own a Toyota Tundra Rap Warrior, you have a Hot Wife. Like, why the fuck are you here? I'm like, because I can. Like, I'm here because I can be. This is where I want to be. I want to get a degree. And I figure if I'm gonna have to sit in a fucking school and listen to all you guys, I might as well fucking do something fun while I'm at it. And it was, you know, like you did all, you acquired all of this shit while you were in the military. Like, yeah, the military is a good place to go. If you don't know what you want to do, or you're lost at life, like that that'll give you direction, dude. And so I had a kid that was from Miami, wide receiver. And then I had another dude that was from Chicago, Glove. Uh fuck was his last name, Glover. I can't remember his first name, but everyone called him Glove. And he's this like 400-pound fucking offensive, defensive lineman. And oh, I cannot remember. Watre Jones, I think, was the guy on my left. And one day he said something to me like, hey, old man, do you know the difference between the N-word? And Glove pushed me out of the way. And he was like, bro, this guy has killed more people than diarrhea. Like the fucking last thing you want to do is ask him some bullshit. Like, this is Uncle Nikki to you. So for the rest of the time I was at Lindenwood, the entire football team knew me as Uncle Nikki, like I was a fucking mobster, bro.
SPEAKER_03:Fuck yes, dude.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, God. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's uh I can't even imagine the importance of like like it's one thing to be around team guys. Like everybody's, you know, for the most part, everybody's done the same thing, everybody's gone through the same stuff. So you, you know, when you mentor a junior, you know, they have a frame of reference of what's expected. You're going to war. You're gonna take some hits. Going to a college and trying to mentor or be like a person, a man of caliber to try to talk or give you know guidance and wisdom to these younger kids, like, how did you even fucking breach that? Because, you know, we're in uniform, you got rank, you gotta listen to that person. Like, even on a team, though, like, how did you forge that? How did you how were you able to breach that gap?
SPEAKER_01:You know, and I just I just talked to those guys like they were normal human beings. So I'm not gonna say the guy's name because he's a Ranger Battalion now, but there was a Spanish citizen from Spain playing football. So remember, I went to an NAI school, so it was a small school. So this kid was like, hey man, I want to be a fucking Navy SEAL. And I was like, all right, whatever, dude. Like, fuck it. There you go. Don't don't fucking ask me. So, no shit. I was looking for the picture last Christmas. I think this dude sends me like five photos of him and um multicams with a fucking gold and black tab on. And he texts me first, he's like, hey, this is so-and-so. Do you remember me? I'm like, oh yeah, dude, what are you doing? How's life? And he sends me pictures, and I was like, bro, why the fuck didn't you tell me I would have bought tickets and come to Fort Benning to watch you graduate, Rangers?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So he's in 275 now, and he absolutely loves his life. I had guys that like they would fail a test, and I would be like, and I would know they had a test. And it, you know, you have an uncanny ability to remember shit as an SF guy. And I would like, hey, how did your test go? And some of those guys, if they fail the test, wouldn't fucking they would avoid me. It was like avoiding, it was like avoiding your dad. Like some guys that go out and smoke pot in the fucking parking lot before practice and come in and I'll be like, bro, guys don't smell like pot. Like, I don't want to fucking run.
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SPEAKER_01:So I was like spraying dreadlocks with fucking uh uh Lysol and shit. And they're like, they're like, what the fuck? Who is you know, it was just I got along with all those guys. Like one of those guys is in prison for murder right now. Fuck another, but um, one of them's a uh cop in Springfield, Illinois. The other one is a school teacher that coaches football. And another guy, I just went to his wedding like two years ago. I flew out to the Ozarks to go to his wedding. Nice. Like I some of those guys have come out to the house and we'll just fucking drink liquor and work out in the gym. And it's I I just taught like pre-game. If you could imagine what pre-mission is like in group, that's what pregame is like. But you know, Saturday before game. So guys are like running around, like listening to music, getting all jacked up, fucking doing whatever they can to raise that. And I'm like sleeping next to my locker. And people are like, what the fuck are you doing? And I'm like, bro, I've been to war. This is your combat zone. Like, I understand.
SPEAKER_00:Like, I get it, but it's no one's fucking dying here.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, like no one's dying. Like, I don't have to worry about getting shot. And it was, I enjoyed, and I had a couple fucked up snaps. Like, I put a snap over a punter's fucking head. It was bad, dude. Like, fucking bad. And when I go back and talk to those guys, they were like, I'm like, man, I I think we lost that game because I put that fucking ball over the punter's head. We were 0-10 that year, and that team was fucking horrible. The coaching was a shit show. That's a whole another story. But all those kids were like, Well, you weren't really a long snapper anyway. What do you mean? They're like, ah, you look like a guy on a team that like just talked to us and fucking treated us like adults and like we're our friend, and you played football on the side.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. It's it was just a weird like that.
SPEAKER_01:That's another story. All the shit you heard about what went on in colleges when Trump got elected is fucking factual. It's all factual. Really? Oh yeah, bro. So Trump got elected Tuesday night, and of course, you know, I walk in Wednesday morning and I'm like, fuck yeah. And I and remember, I'm 20 minutes outside of St.
SPEAKER_03:Louis. So I have an 8 o'clock class, and the teacher doesn't show up. And it's 8 30, and there's an older guy in the class with me. I look back at him, I'm like, if she's not here by 8 40, I'm fucking eating.
SPEAKER_01:Like, that's we'll have 10 minutes of class left. So he's like, I agree. 8 40 comes and we're walking out of the classroom, and she's like, Where are you guys going? Like, well, you miss 40 or 50 minutes of class, and she looked like she had been put through the fucking ring. And I'm like, hey, I I don't know, I don't care, but if you can't show up for fucking work on time because of an election, that's a problem for me. That's a problem for every student in this fucking classroom. And then throughout the day, there was uh, if you need counseling, there's counseling available. What the fuck? Like, seriously? Then they were like, all tests will be postponed for a week. There will be no tests for the rest of the week. They will resume next week if you have testing.
SPEAKER_03:Really?
SPEAKER_01:And then um, I think class even got out early on Wednesday that that day. They let class out like an hour. They cut the last block of class off, if I remember correctly. Because I had a two o'clock class, and at the end of the class, the instructor's like, okay, I know what happened. And I the minute he started in, I just got up and walked out. I'm I don't fuck I'd be here, man. I'm not gonna listen to this shit. But that's how academia acted when that guy got elected. It was crazy. Like, so everything you heard about tests being canceled, counseling being offered, teachers fucking crying, all that shit's real, dude. And it happened.
SPEAKER_00:That's such a strange footnote in history. One man's election brought about the psychological health of our uh leftist uh uh college schools.
SPEAKER_01:It's it's crazy. And then so what I left, I only did a year. Um mid-semester, Lindenwood Belleville pulls me in and says, none of your military credits transfer. We're not going to honor any of that. You're gonna need to be here for four years to do a bachelor's degree. So I'm like, what do I gotta knock the fuck out? Right. So I'd already done my math class. I was like, let me do science and let me do something else. I don't remember what it was. And then they had this deal. They're like, hey, you have to have an international studies class. Okay. We're gonna, if you pay five$3,000, we'll send you to Ireland for five days, bring you back, and you can write a two-page paper on it. So I went to the dean of students or to the dean of administrations and I said, hey, listen, if I draw you up a 10-page paper on three different countries that I've spent a majority months on in, I was like, you could, I'll give you the list of 28 countries and you can pick from three, and those are the ones I'll write on. But why would I pay this when I've been to 30 countries and I've lived in a bamboo hut for six months in the Philippines when I lived on the economy in Thailand, when I lived on the economy in the Philippines, why would I fucking and they were like, nope, you must pay the money. So at that point, I chose in Gen Talk my wife, and I'm like, I'm I'm over it, I'm done. So I left and went online and finished my degree, and I did it in nine months. Because it just wasn't worth it to me.
SPEAKER_00:It's not. There's we can go for hours on the uh the the curriculum for an undergraduate is is just filled with courses that have no bearing and no weight in the real world. Um it's insane the amount of times I had to sit in a fucking course and and watch a lecture talking about white privilege and all sorts of weird things. And I'm not from this country by birth. I'm you know, I'm a product of immigration and um love this country, love everything about America. And every time I got on one of these, you know, discussion boards, I'm like, dude, um if any of you, I will pay for you to fly to any third world country to live there for a month, and just to just to have the thought experiment of what do you think of the other, you know, the rest of the world? How you how do you think the rest of the world operates? Like it's this is a this country is amazing. It is it is a a gift to be here, whether you're born here or you immigrate legally into this country, it is a fucking gift. And not one of my in none of my courses did I ever have a teacher or explore the great the the things that were great about this country. I was always exploring all the shit that's wrong with this country and the unfair treatment. I'm just like, it this is this is insane. And and uh if it wasn't because I had a goal of 4.0, I made it a goal, I would have blown off so many classes and I would have just rode that minimum to graduate with the bare bones. But fuck the amount of times I had to write a paper and spew out exactly what these these motherfuckers wanted to hear, I'm just like, I hate myself for writing this. I hate myself for writing this purely because it's graded on that curve. It's like, how how much can you agree with me as the instructor of how bad America is? It's like, fuck, dude.
SPEAKER_01:Um, I had that, so I transferred to Ashford, which is now the University of Arizona Global Campus.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So I transferred to Ashford and I did a nine-month course, and I have one course was government, and I wrote a piece on like term limits, and I'm like, term limits aren't the answer. Deincentivizing Congress is the answer. Then my instructor was like, but if you even if you did term limits, like you're gonna force these people to get a new job every four to six years, and I'm like, bro, you miss the point of like civic duty. You're you're missing the point. The point is exactly it's not supposed to be a fucking job, dude.
SPEAKER_03:It's listen up, bro. So I I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, and what the fuck did he say? He showed me something.
SPEAKER_01:Oh he he showed me something about some dude. It's a YouTube video, some dude is made what he's called an outer net, and it's basically like um Starlink, but it's a mesh network of satellites that gives the whole world internet access at high speeds with zero latency. And the Chinese asked to buy it from him, and he basically was like, No, I'm not doing it. And if you know our are friends with Carl Rausch on LinkedIn, Carl put it on his on his LinkedIn page.
SPEAKER_03:Um, and he's a first group guy.
SPEAKER_01:So a buddy of mine, Sam, was like, no, what people will do for money, and my comment to that was money is a secondary advantage to having power and control. Power provides influence, control provides the access and strategic placement. Together they create the conditions to allow a person to enrich themselves. Dan Crenshaw is the fucking epitome of that say.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah, it's um he's the absolute fucking worst. Just the worst.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And there's a ton of them like that. But yeah, and then, you know, I I uh so I graduate from Ashford, I contract for a year, I go live in the UAE for six months, and I'm living in Abu Dhabi in a hotel on the economy, and everyone loves that fucking place. And I guess I'm call me a I don't know how to say this without it sounding fucked up. So, you know how like if you ever read books from North Koreans, they that are there's a really good book called Tears of My Soul by Kim Hung-hee, and she was a North Korean spy, and she got caught in '96 for the bombing of the Bahrain flight in '94, I believe. And she talks about everywhere she traveled in the world, all she could see was the horrible shit about the world, like Paris. Oh, it's disgusting. The fucking, the, you know, the alleys are gross. And you're like, the fuck are you talking about? But that's that's how they were trained. So I look at academia like that. It's it's or I'm sorry, Abu Dhabi like that. Like, it seems like a great place when you look at it, but when you start to scratch the surface of like the whole tolerance bullshit, or like you can't do any kind of like FaceTime, you can't use FaceTime at the Eagle. You can't use, I think the only video chat you can use in UAE now, I don't know if it's changed, but it at the time in 1920, it was Skype, and that's only because Microsoft said if you pull it, we'll pull all of Microsoft licensing some from the UAE. And then, you know, you see who has money and who doesn't, and how people are treated, and you're just like, Yeah. This place is not as great. But I had a Navy lieutenant commander tell me, she said, I would move to Abu Dhabi because there's cameras everywhere and I feel safe. I was like, Yeah. Somebody put you in a fucking car and drive you to the middle of the desert where there are no cameras and put you in a fucking sand dune. And then, well, we have her leaving the city, she just never came back. We don't know what happened.
SPEAKER_00:Right. Yeah. Or you have enough money bringing you to an office building that you never leave from.
SPEAKER_01:Or go down to your country in South America and see if the cartels don't get a hold of you or the fucking devastation that is down there.
SPEAKER_00:Bro, they just bought an entire country. Mexico is in crisis. Bought and paid for president. Bought and paid for president. I'm not going to say anything because I don't want to have to edit it out, but you know what I'm thinking. You know what I'm trying to say. You listening, you know what I'm saying. You know who she is. You know the group. Oh, but can't say it. You have to leave it there, have to leave it there. But the cartel paid for it. The cartel killed, not just silenced, killed every single other opponent. That's like that's like fucking me running for office against nobody else, and I win. And you're gonna champion that? And like the greatest thing, the greatest thing, she just had a public uh speaking engagement where she says, I am not gonna go after the cartel with military force because that is against human human rights. That goes against human rights. It's a human right violation. Lady, they are murdering women and children. Babies. Motherfuckers are killing babies, and you're not gonna go after them with the military? Get the fuck out of here. You're bought, you're bought and paid for. Luckily, people are starting to wise up and they're they're they're now demonstrating against it. But uh without and and and look, I am I am completely awakened to the fact that we were the empire. We were not the rebel alliance, we were stormtroopers. This we got bamboozled for 20 years. But I'm saying if there's ever been a righteous cause, uh Mexico, uh, they're in crisis, they need help.
SPEAKER_01:Um, they but everybody thinks it's okay. So, what's your take on this? Because I I have a different take than all the fucking soft guys that I've seen. Everyone's like, oh, let's let's go fucking smoke these dudes. Do you know what kind of terror? And I'm like, bro, are you fucking serious? I mean, there's a ton of guys that are predominant soft guys that think you're just gonna run into. Mexico as a tier one asset and fucking bring this level of violence. And I'm like, No, no. That sounds great, dude. But you forget those motherfuckers have everything you have.
SPEAKER_00:Not only that, but Nick, they can reach out and touch you. For example, if if, and I'm telling you right now, and I'm talking to all my friends are still in, the biggest concern that I have is cartel can touch you here. You you send seventh group, how how long before you start seeing incidents of violence directed at communities like Shalomar, Destin, Fort Walton Beach, where you live. They can exactly they can reach out and fucking touch you, dog. You're gonna go after them? Yeah, no, dog. You you gotta understand this is a this is a different way. They need a different type of intervention. And there's a case for it. Look at um El Sao, look at um what they did with crime. Um it was like, dude, this is a Mexico problem that needs to be empowered and supported and helped with the right person in office with the right resources. Because I'm I'm 100% under the belief that their their forces are heavily infiltrated.
SPEAKER_01:So like oh yes, dude, there's guys from the well, let's be honest. There are there are former compadres of ours. 100% that are down there fucking working for the cartel.
SPEAKER_00:Yup. Bought and paid for, signed, sealed, and delivered. That's been happening for a while. There's there's been big arrests. There's been people that have been brought in on charges. Uh, but Jesse ever been found? I don't think so. I I don't think so, dude.
SPEAKER_01:Other than that, that's all I'm asking.
SPEAKER_00:Bro, dudes, do some research. And I hey, I'm telling you, this this you see cartels doing fucking like proper ambush procedures on over over passes and highways. Where do you think they learned that? Where are you and like pretty soon, sadly, sadly, pretty soon, we're gonna be reaping what we like. You're gonna reap what you're so. If you didn't pay guys right and you let dudes go over there and you didn't have proper measurements, like shit's gonna get crazy. It's gonna get ugly.
SPEAKER_01:But and we gave and people understand this, we gave Iraq and Afghanistan 20 years of the greatest training from the greatest fighting force ever known to the planet, and those guys fold it in three fucking weeks. We have a handful of fucking guys in South America given this training, and those guys are excelling at what they're doing. There is a difference. Those guys have night visions, they have lasers, they have heavy weapons, they have rockets, they have fucking armored vehicles.
SPEAKER_00:This is not the big tanks. They built tanks out of blindados. So a lot of people that haven't heard about this, they built tanks out of blindados, and what they do is they they're blindado is uh fucking slang for up armored like escalates, big SUVs. They're literally fucking mounting 50 cows on the rear of these fucking uh SUVs, and they're going against each other, cartels against cartels, and fucking swagging each other, and they're killing American citizens. A lot of people don't know about the fucking massacres uh going on there against the Mormon communities. There's a huge enclave of Mormons that have been living in Mexico for decades, and uh sadly, families, entire families have been fucking murdered. Nobody's talking about it, nobody's engaging with it. Very, very few reports are coming out of it and showing it. Like you can Google it and find some of the shows on whatever streaming platforms you have. But the time, you know, we're living crazy times. But to think that it's as simple as just flying down there in a J set and uh fucking shwacking some cartel members, no, no, no, no, no. We're gonna need bigger, we're gonna need bigger boys, we're gonna need bigger, bigger resources doing some shit. And these and bro, I'm not I'm just saying.
SPEAKER_01:That will be a casual. Uh I would go out and say that we will lose if we were to go full-on cartel war, we would lose more service members in the first six months than we lost in 20 years of being in Afghanistan. Because I what's that number? Three grand?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Those guys aren't fucking around, and they're highly competent. Listen, getting an Afghan to do jumping jacks is hard. Getting a Mexican cartel member to fucking murder people, easy. There's a difference. They are not the same.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. I think it's time for all of us to revisit Sicario and realize it's a more complex situation.
SPEAKER_01:And that shit's real. That's so that is probably one of the most like realistic movies of exactly how ruthless a cartel can be.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I've told people never visit Mexico. I don't care how good the food is. I don't care all the reasons why. Just don't go. It's not safe. Hasn't been safe. And arguably enough, unless the un until the people have enough. Because here's the thing. You're at at the core of every Green Beret, you understand UW. You understand that the people, a certain percentage of the population has to be fed up and they have to be tired of what they're being subjected to to rise up. And that's what we need to happen. We need to see more of these demonstrations because you get these fucking abuelitas and fucking grandpas angry enough. I think that there's enough. I think that there's enough people down there that are finally going to say, fuck the amount of money, fuck the influence you're giving me, fuck the powers you're willing to give me. Uh it's time for you guys to go. Like, that's just yeah. But if as far as US intervention, I don't know, man. I don't, I don't think it's as easy as a fucking infill with a couple of soft guys. We need some some big hitters. Fucking.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, like do you think this I look at those Gen Z, because that's what they're calling it, Gen Z protests in Mexico. I look at those as the protests that happen in fucking Tehran about every five, six years.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Somebody will put it down and then it will end, and then five or six years will go by, they'll have another uprising. Yeah. And the govern the government or the cartels will put it the fuck down.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it it's it's um that threshold we were talking about, I was just mentioning a little bit. Are are you gonna are are you going to finally say enough's enough? Or is there enough relative good? Is the economy good enough? Is there enough goods and services? Is that good enough for you? Or are you finally gonna say, I don't want to fucking live this way? And it has to be a percentage of that maj of of the populace that says, no, I'm not happy. It's not good enough. It's like here in the United States, everybody's talking about change, change. Motherfuckers ain't gonna change or want any fucking change as long as they can get their hamburger, their fucking Mech Wendy Kings, their fucking Walmart, the moment you take that shit away, then you can expect some change. You take away Walmart, you take away the goods and services people want, and you make it uncomfortable to live. When you make it so that the fucking vast majority of that middle class can't live anymore, then you get some change. Until then. Yeah. Let's be honest.
SPEAKER_01:The only reason the cartels have gotten to this level of power is because there's an appetite for drugs and human smuggling. Let's be honest. We're the biggest consumer of both of those. Both of them, yep. And and until the appetite dries up, there the cartels are gonna continue to get stronger. And we have had administrations over the last 20 years that have not taken the precautions. And let's be honest, the war on drugs in the 80s was bullshit. Oh yeah. Fuck.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And if you don't think as a normal human watching this, not somebody with experience, and not saying that we're the end all be all, but if you think that the DOJ, the lawyers, the legal system doesn't profit off of the drug trade, you're fucking high.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Right? Like when you so if you shut down the drug trade, you're shutting down probably two-thirds of the DOJ's cases. You're shut and that's not just drugs, but drugs and human trafficking. That's probably at least 50%, if not 60% of the cases the DOJ brings on a normal fucking daily basis. You're gonna shut down how many lawyers are gonna be put out of business, how many prosecutors aren't gonna be needed. And and it just now you turn and you trickle it down even more. What does that look like for the local economy for wherever those courthouses are at? Like that is a the drug trade is not just a billion-dollar industry for the cartel, it's a billion-dollar industry for the federal government and the DOJ. I would be willing to bet that we seize trillions of dollars in drug money and drugs in the US on a yearly basis.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. Yeah. And and you can't forget where a lot of that money ends up going to. I'm not gonna say it. I'll let the audience at home figure it out. There's a lot of fucking money from drugs that gets funneled away somewhere. It gets utilized. It's part of the economy. Just saying it. That's it. I'm just gonna throw that. That's a perfect place to end this on because Riverside is listening to the keywords. Nick, this has been an insane fucking episode, dude. We we dove we dove into some shit that might get us banned. But hey, I'm here for it. Dude, if people want to connect with you or check you out, where can they go?
SPEAKER_01:My podcast is Sentinel Strength. I have a website, I'm getting ready to change it, so that you could email me at umblen at sentinelstrength.net. But that's how you can get a hold of me.
SPEAKER_00:Oh yeah. Guys, do me a favor. The episode's over anyway. You know the spiel. Go to episode description, click those links, and one more thing, scan this QR code right here.
SPEAKER_02:Bing!
SPEAKER_00:And support the Special Forces Foundation. Look, taking care of a Green Beret while he's in is fucking easy. Just fucking throw him some fucking, you know, pharmaceuticals, throw him some creatine, some whey protein. He's fucking good to go, good to hook, as they say. On the outside, however, a whole lot of shit goes wrong. And that's where the Special Forces Foundation works. They're there to support the Green Beret as he's going through transition, going through you know health crisis, and they're there to support the family. So please do me a favor, again, scan the QR code and donate today. 10 bucks, 15 bucks, 1,000, 200,000, 50k from the Black Slush Fund. I won't know, but please give today. Support them and support their mission. Nick, thank you so much for being here, brother. I greatly appreciate it. I can't wait to have you back on because we got to dive into some more stuff. This has been fucking a blast. Everybody listening, thank you. I appreciate it. Oh, dude, first a mini, because uh I finally found another friend that can go into the the the uh conspiracy theories with. We didn't even get a chance to touch, but I know you're there. I know you're checking those out.
SPEAKER_01:I'll send you a calendar link too, man, for mine.
SPEAKER_00:Hell yes. Guys, thank you for tuning in. Thank you, Nick, and we'll see y'all next time. Till then, take care.
