#80 - The Wildest War-to-Startup Story You’ll Ever Hear w/Marcus "Doc" Haralson

A ridgeline in Okinawa turns into a “Christmas tree” of chem lights. A young Navy corpsman—adopted by Marines, hardened by the desert, and allergic to excuses—learns how fast jokes turn off when core temperatures spike and a friend’s life hangs on a bag of ice and an IV drip. From Third LAR in 29 Palms to the first firefight of the Iraq invasion in an LAV, he paints the chaos with unflinching detail: a gunny with a cigar and a 240, green streaks of artillery across the sky, and a bullet that somehow slipped skin while punching through a flak and blouse. The losses that hurt most weren’t always in combat; sometimes they were self-inflicted or silent, and those are the ones that linger.

Then the story veers into Kabul, where contractor life felt like a satire—training in a ghost-town range, piss-test acrobatics, Gurkhas who needed nine people to open a gate, dysentery from bad chow, and MRAP joyrides to flea markets. Out of the absurd came “Aegis Underground,” a meme insurgency that roasted incompetent leadership and accidentally built camaraderie. When a beltway boss tried to bark orders, the phone clicked and a new chapter began: college, guiding on the coast, a nonprofit that used trips as a pretext for the real medicine—men talking without posturing.

What follows is the blueprint he wishes more vets heard sooner. Identity doesn’t end with a DD‑214. Purpose can be rebuilt in small, disciplined moves: fasting, breath work, running, labs, and a circle of friends who answer late-night calls. He’s honest about the grind of entrepreneurship and the fear that comes with walking from guaranteed pay. He’s also proof that you can trade adrenaline for ownership. His newest leap is Dillo, a high-output, wireless, Bluetooth‑dimmable adventure light built for nights on rafts, golf carts, and UTVs—a simple idea executed well by someone who learned to trust his hands and his gut.

If you want war stories with humor, contractor chaos with receipts, and a clear-eyed map from service to a self-directed life, this one hits. Tap play, share it with a friend who needs to hear it, and leave a review so more people find the show.

To check out Doc's crazy adventures, follow his journey at @Ilive2fish on Instagram

Chapters

• 0:00 Cold Open: Oki Hump Disaster
• 1:12 Meet Doc Marcus: Corpsman Origins
• 9:55 Recruiters, MEPS, and Boot Camp Hustles
• 26:30 FMF School and Pendleton Culture
• 39:20 Third LAR Life: Field Cred and First Saves
• 52:45 Heat Casualties and The Silver Bullet
• 1:01:50 Invasion Memories: LAVs, Firefights, Airpower
• 1:15:30 Loss, Self-Inflicted Tragedies, and Quiet Costs
• 1:25:10 After Action: Identity, Bond, and Respect for Doc
• 1:36:40 Contracting Chaos: Training, Piss Tests, Gurkhas
• 1:52:30 Kabul Shenanigans: MRAPs, Memes, and Firing
• 2:06:10 Building a Civilian Life: College and Guiding
• 2:18:15 Vets, Purpose, and Real Talk on Mental Health
• 2:34:40 From Guiding to Founder: The Dillo Light
• 2:42:50 Discipline, Health, and Redefining Success

Transcript

SPEAKER_03: 0:00

We were at Okinawa on a deployment and we had to do a hump at like Hanson in the middle of the night. I was like, holy shit. Because you're hiking in the jungle. There's no there's no light. Dude, I remember going over this first ridgeline, dude, and I came down and it was a Christmas tree. Just bodies. Bodies. I've never seen anything like it in my life. So I just ran to the first guy and like it's like I can't I can't felt my leg is not his legs cramped. I was like, dude, I gotta take your temperature, bro, and like you're the first one. So like and I remember just getting like sweaty ass all over my hand, dog, and I was like, Went all the way up there. I just stuck it and I just had like my hand in like sweaty ass cheeks. And it's like Okanala. It's 100% humidity, dog. You didn't have gloves on. Oh dude, you don't wear gloves, dude. Like, I was like, I was pissed.

SPEAKER_00: 0:59

You were listening to Doc Harrelson Smooth Jazz. Smooth jazz with Doc Harrelson.

SPEAKER_03: 1:04

Stay tuned, ladies.

SPEAKER_02: 1:08

Are you ready?

SPEAKER_03: 1:10

Alrighty, dude.

SPEAKER_02: 1:10

You ready, kid?

unknown: 1:11

I'm ready.

SPEAKER_02: 1:12

Well, Doc Marcus, I guess we'll go with but everybody listen, but I know as you is Doc because we work together in Afghan, and you were uh Navy Corpsman. So we get to go into some crazy Navy Corpsman, Marine Corps stories. I'm sure you have some because there is a special bond between a good corpsman and a platoon of Marines. Yeah. You're like the mother, the father, the doctor. You you're like everything, but even sometimes the chaplain is a corpsman's role. I would that's how I would describe a Navy Corpsman. Yeah. And with that being said, you get sucked into the chaos of a marine platoon. So you pretty much get adopted and go through all the hazing and everything that comes along with these platoons. So I definitely want to dive into that. You deployed, you did like the push, if I remember correctly, right?

SPEAKER_03: 2:10

Initial invasion, yep.

SPEAKER_02: 2:11

You did the initial invasion, which I I love hearing some of that shit because it was such crazy times of how the gear and equipment and dudes were just rolling around and softbacks and doing some stuff together. And then you and I met going on a contract to Afghanistan. Woo, which was an absolute shit show. Shit show. And I would like to dive into that because we have some hilarious ass times working with some fucked up people. So, bro, I uh you're one of my oldest buddies and closest friends. So let's let's just dive right into this, get comfortable. This is gonna be an absolutely hilarious episode. That's a lot of pressure, bro. Nah, dude, you just be you. Um before we start, I would like to every guest gets a fresh loaf from the sour bee that the girls whipped up. So if anybody's looking for fresh, amazing, better than your wife's sourdough, check out the sour bee.

SPEAKER_03: 3:05

And it's really good. I've had some already.

SPEAKER_02: 3:06

So like your brother crushed like three loaves yesterday.

SPEAKER_03: 3:09

He ate like all the cookies before you even got to the stoplight down there. You're like, dude, you're gonna get sick, but like really, really good bread. They do a great job.

SPEAKER_02: 3:16

Thank you, dude. So all right, Marcus, also known as, so where are you from?

SPEAKER_03: 3:22

Uh let's start with, yeah. I'm from the dirty Corpus Christi, South Texas, live on the Gulf of Mexico. Uh America. I grew up like always, like I always had like three goals as a kid. I wanted to be like a doctor, a race car driver, and a bull rider. Like that was like I'm gonna do them all, and I feel like I've done them all. I'll do the race car driver coming up pretty soon. But like, those are the what I wanted to do. So, and then the military was a huge thing too. My grandfather was a Navy corpsman in World War II, and um, I always kind of thought that was really cool. I didn't understand what a corpsman was or any of that at the time. Yeah, I did you're just a kid, I wasn't like military family. So when I was graduating high school, it's kind of a funny story. Um we were on our own growing up, so I didn't mean on your own. We just kind of raised ourselves. We were uh I was I had a single father, like raised by a single father, and he worked all the time. So she lived in Dallas. She dipped? Yeah, she dipped out. She lived in Dallas. What age? Uh I was like in fourth grade, so whatever that is. Like really? Yeah. How old is that? Like 11 or 12 or something? Um nine. Nine? Maybe. Yeah. So I was pretty young. My parents got divorced. So I was raised by my dad, all kind of male household, my grandparents, all we have pretty much all males in the family. And um, so I kind of grew up like that. And then uh and I got off track. What were we talking about before?

SPEAKER_02: 4:50

Growing up on your own.

SPEAKER_03: 4:51

Oh, yeah. So just kind of growing up on my own, but I always wanted to do like military type stuff. We always played war games with all the neighborhood kids, like all that kind of stuff. But I didn't understand, like, if you went to college, you had to apply. Like, I didn't know you had to like fill out applications and like took the SATs. Like in the movies you see as a kid, like in the 80s, especially, like they get letters in the mail, and you're like, You're going to Harvard, you know, like, woo. So, like, this is pretty funny. The only letters I ever got in the mail were like Marine Corps and Navy recruiting, like letters. Like, do you want to and have like the little dog tags in there too? And you're like, Oh, really? Yeah, dude. You're like, Oh, that's weird. Like, they already made me dog tags. So uh that's all I would get, and I didn't understand like you had to apply to college. So, like, I I was we were raised pretty wild chaos, like, yeah, and we weren't great. I got like a hell you and like I wasn't like I'm an adrenaline junkie, like straight up. So um okay.

SPEAKER_02: 5:44

So, what's life like growing up on your own as an adrenaline junkie?

SPEAKER_03: 5:47

Surfer, I surfed like 24-7. I lived with like three other dudes that surfed. We got up every single morning, I would surf, and I would haul ass a class, like haul ass a class. And then I found out a way, like, if you're really shitty in your first period of class, which started like at nine o'clock, I think, in high school. If you're really shitty, because I class for an hour and a half, I didn't have to be at school till like 10 30. Because like that first teacher would be like, Hey, if you never come into my class, I'll give you a beat. And you just had to be that shitty. And you like once you broke that thing, it'd take like two weeks, and then after two weeks, like the rest of the semester I could surf till 10 30. If you really wanted to push the limit, you do it in your second class and you could surf like up to lunch, and then you'd go to class. That's a whole nother story. Like, we it was so bad. That's all we did was surf. Uh, I did sailing a little bit growing up. Okay, some fishing and hunting, stuff like that. But I was I was a surfer.

SPEAKER_02: 6:38

Like, do you stay out of trouble? Because Cor Corpus Chrissy is is hood. It's I mean, it's yeah, it's an interesting ass place.

SPEAKER_03: 6:44

Man, it's interesting. Like growing up, like if you fight one guy, you're fighting like him and all his cousins, kind of deal. It's so it's South Texas, it's like the border. Yeah, it's it's I mean, it's it is what it is. Like, I was always usually like very small majority of the white kids, so you're like the one white kid in a school sometimes, especially in my middle school. Really? Yeah, it's pretty bad. It's pretty violent. Like, I would I wish they had just burned that school to the ground. Like, if I ever became their president, I'm just gonna just like pull a Trump move and just smash that building to the ground. Even though they just rebuilt it, it was bad. It was bad. Every day I got fought in a fight. Every day, yeah. And it'd be like 20 dudes, 10 dudes, 15 guys, just before the bell rang, you're getting in a fight. And at first I just got my ass kicked all the time. And then after like, because you're just so I was so little, dude. I didn't I didn't have any side, I didn't put on any size, so I was like a year into the military. So I was so little, and then finally just figured out ways like I could push off a wall and push them all off this edge, and they would all fall like off a freezeway. And like there's ways to fight them. You could hit them with books, like like there was all kinds of wild, but yeah, that was growing, it was wild. Like I hated middle school, dude. By the time I got to high school though, I could fight so good, like I could take on five guys, like let's go. And then to this day, like I love to fight, like it takes everything in my wheelhouse to sometimes just not wreck house on fools, because I like to I like mean like I like to choke a dude out, just be like, oh like I don't anticipate it, but like anyway, that's a military thing. That's from hanging out marines too much, too. But anyway, so like I didn't get any applications to high school, like okay in college, like nobody like like even like UT, I was like, I'm just gonna go to UT. Shit, it's like right up the road. Like, I didn't know you have to get accepted. Like, dude, there's like so much stuff I didn't know. So I was like, the military is like my best bet.

SPEAKER_02: 8:34

My only option at this point.

SPEAKER_03: 8:36

And it's funny because like I don't know what you could talk about on here, but like anything. I had we had a one-bedroom apartment between me and three other like Hispanic guys, and they were older than me, and they all surfed, and they like either dropped out of high school or had already graduated high school. And like one of my really good friends still, like, he worked at KFC at the time, so he had like free food, and like Hispanics take care of their own like very well. Uh thank God about that, because we would have starved to death if it wasn't for their parents and stuff or their grandparents. Like, I mean, I come from a white family, and we actually have money, and like my my dad would let us start. Like, you we would start. Like, they would if I was like, Dad, I'm hungry, I need food, he'd be like, Oh, get a better job. And like, you know what I mean? You're like, I have a job, like a pharmacy tech. Like I live on my own, I go to school, I'm struggling. I need a job. They're like, Nope, nope, but in oh well, whatever, that's what it is. But um, so we're sitting in a one-bedroom apartment with four dudes, like so I mean you can imagine what that's like. You're like, I think the oldest guy was like 21, I was 16. Okay, and so it's like spread out between there, and uh it's like girls constantly, parties every like dude, there was a party every night. And the rule was like in the one bedroom, there was two twin beds on like a normal bed frame and a one uh a mattress, a twin mattress under one of the beds.

SPEAKER_02: 9:55

So like three of you dudes slept in one room?

SPEAKER_03: 9:57

Yeah, so like three dudes the first two to go to bed got a bed. Third dude go to bed, got the mattress underneath, which was always me. And then I I could never get I was a little, I was the youngest too. I never got a bed. I always got the pull out, but then the third dude or the fourth dude had to sleep on the futon.

SPEAKER_02: 10:14

So you lived, huh?

SPEAKER_03: 10:16

Yeah, 16 to like when I went to the military. Really? Yeah. I feel like you guys were running amuck in this house. Oh, dude. What do you do when they pay bills? It was hard. Our rent was$300 a month, and the four of us barely could afford it. Really? Really, like it was wild, dude. And I had a I was a pharmacy. I made I like I think I made like close to 10 bucks an hour as like 16-year-old kids, 17-year-old kid. Like, but it's still it's a lot, dude. Like so much wild stuff, dude. That how there's the whole podcast could just be on this. But anyway, so like we're all sitting there chilling, and we had this giant, like, six-foot bong, uh-huh, like huge bong. And like I remember like standing on the couch, and like someone have to light it kind of the plastic like Spencer's bong till. And I'm not trying to be like talking about drug, like, don't do drugs, kids. Like, but uh, and there was a knock on the door, dot dot and we're like, What? Like, who's here? It's like 7:30, like it's too hot to be like it's South Tech, it's too hot to be doing stuff in the summertime. And uh, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock. And we look, and there's this dude in a uniform, and it looked like a highway patrol guy or something. We're like, oh shit, and like there's no way out, there's no re like egress out of a back window. There's like you're stuck, like all the windows face this way, and it's like second floor, you're gonna die if you try to jump. Or this trooper, he's brought other troopers in the parking lot. Like, this wasn't our first time. We just like we just like try to be quiet, so we're being quiet in there, and you can hear us like uh uh uh like coughing, yeah, coughing and stuff. So, like he's like, I'm not the cops, like no, that's what the cops want you to say. Like that whole thing, you keep on what the cops would say come in. Like, we're just doing the whole cheech and chonk skate with them back and forth, and we're looking through the people, and he has like all these ribbons and stuff. Like, do I think that's like an army dude? So he like comes in, and this is how they get us. So, like he comes in, he's like, Oh, we're like, Oh, look, whoa, look at all this smoke, like, wow, that's so weird. And he's like, I'm not here about that, boys. He's like, We'll worry about that in 30 days. And you're just like, All right, like, what's going on? He's like, Your father said it was their father's, not mine. My dad didn't give a shit. But like, their dads are like, I guess they went to a recruiter and said, Hey, my sons are perfect for this. They there's four dudes that live in a house, go get them all, kind of deal. And they sent him to our house, and he was there, and he was like, You guys want to join the army? Like, see, we're good. And he's like, We'll give you like$30,000 a year. And you're like, Wait, what? Like, how much money again? Amountness? Oh, yeah, I was no, like as a as your salary. Oh, yeah, yeah. And you're dude, I was like, 18. I was poor, dude. So I was like, What? And then it was like, Yeah, and you're gonna go to Germany. And you're like, Germany, I've never been to Germany. He's like, Yeah, no what they have in Germany, and I was like, what? And he's like, blonde girls in BMWs, and you're like, what? And he goes, Everybody that goes to Germany gets a BMW, and I was like, What? And he's like, Yeah, they just like give them to you. And I was like, Oh, wow. So I was like, I want to join the army, and it sounds cool. And I was like, girls, BMWs? I don't even I have like an old beater jeep. Like my son. I was like, what do I gotta do? So he's like, what job do you want? And I was like, I don't know. And he had this poster and he pulled it out, and he's like, You guys can have this. And it was like two snipers in a tree, and I didn't know they were snipers at the time, full ghillie suit, like cami paint, like sniper rifle, like sniper rifle, even had like the ghillie suit on it, and they're in the tree, like typical recruiting video or poster, and you're like, Oh my god, I want to do what those guys do. And he's like, Yeah, yeah, I'm writing it down right now. That's what you're gonna be doing. So, like fuck the army. The recruiters are dirty, dude. Like army anyway, so so this dude, he like talks all four of us into joining the army, and so like so we go, I go to the recruiter and all that stuff. And let me backtrack. One of my really good friends at the time, the year before, he was a senior above me. Okay, and I was a junior at the time, and he graduated and he joined the Navy as a corpsman. And I hung out with all the recruiters and they would take us to play paintball. It was like a different vibe than the army guys, right? Like it was it just seemed more like, yeah, they didn't care if you recruited you or not. They were just like, hey, if you want to join, join, if not, like there's the army. Yeah. And then, like, if that doesn't work out, there's the Marine Corps.

SPEAKER_04: 14:20

Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 14:22

So, like, that was the vibe I got. So when I went to MEPS, I go to MEPS, do the physical and all that stuff, and my buddy called me, and I go back to Corpus, and they called me and they're like, Hey, do not join the army. Like, if you join the army, I'm gonna come down there and flip out. Like, go to the navy, tell the recruiter you want to be a corpsman and you want to come to Camp Lejeune, and you want to go to like I think it was like 2-5 or some one, I don't know, whatever Camp Lejeune hellhole over there. So, and I didn't know anything about Camp Lejeune or the Marine Corps. I was like, Hey, my grandfather's a corpsman. So I asked him, like, hey, my buddy said I should be a corpsman. And my grandfather had like his mansalt, like that talk you get, you only give other military guys, like not that, not like, oh, the military is great, like great per career path for you. He told me he was a Marine, so he told me what it's like. And you're like, okay. And uh, so I told the I went and talked to the Navy recruiter, and he's like, Yeah, F the Army. He's like, This is what you do. Next time you go to MEPS to join, change your mind last second, let them do all the paperwork, and it's easier just to transfer you at MEPS instead of us starting a whole new package on you. Okay, and I was like, cool. These like they're gonna be super pissed, but like just who cares?

SPEAKER_00: 15:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 15:32

He's like, I'll call the senior chief up there, and I don't know anything. Like, I don't know anything about the military. So, anyway, calls the senior chief up there, they take care of it. I go up there, I do all the stuff, like everything, like this time. Like, you I think the first time was like this is where you like swear in that time. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I go and then um I do all the stuff, the duck walk, all that, and then I went nuts check, like they do all that, and then they walk us through maps, walk us through maps. Oh, dude, it's like you have to like quack like a duck, like squatting, and like what else they do, your blood work, what else? You have to like they they grab your nuts. I don't even know.

SPEAKER_02: 16:08

MEPS is an interesting time for I guess young male, because that's the first time you're like you're exposed to like that type of shit, like bend over, cough, fucking nutting the finger up your nuts, and that's a person like a duck. I mean, dude, that shit's I'll never forget the dude that watched me do mine. He was just this creepy, fat old. Oh, it's creepy, dude. Yeah, just like staring at me as I'm duck walking in my little whitey tidies.

SPEAKER_03: 16:30

At you like that, bro. But dude, that's the first time I stayed in my own hotel. Like, I said, put you in a hotel, so they give you like the nights in, it was like really bad. And then it's like, here's like 20 bucks for food, and you're like, okay, and there's like a McDonald's, so I like went to McDonald's, I got like$19 worth of like cheeseburgers, cheese, double cheeseburgers, like every 99 cent thing. I was like, I just I just want all of this. And I took it back to my room and watched sniper, like, like, dude, that was on TV. I was like, how cool is this? So anyway, I go to MEPS, I do that, and it's a deal. Like the guy, army guys are pissed, or like raising hell, and the Navy guy's just like, fuck them. Like, we're gonna do what we want. Like, you're in the Navy now, dude. Well, they look and they're like, Oh, you've been arrested before. And I was like, Yeah, but I didn't get in trouble. Like, yeah, but you got it shows a minor possession of alcohol on your I've never been arrested for any never been arrested in my life. Cuffs a shitload, but never arrested. So, like, man, I've been they're always like, Yeah, I feel you. I'm so fortunate as a corps. This is a perk of being a corpsman is most cops are Marines, and as soon as you're like, Doc, or they'll see veteran on your driver's license, and they're like, What were you? And you're like, Oh, I was a navy corpsman with the Marines. They're like, get out of here, Doc. And they let you go, yeah, or they drive you around the corner so like nobody else sees you getting out of the cop car. So that used to happen at the branding iron in California all the time. So, but anyway, um, so I do the MEPS deal and I transfer over, and they're like, dude, you have a Miyan Resistance, we have to get like a waiver for you. And I was like, I don't know what to do, do what you have to do, man. Like, I want to be a Corpsman, I need to go to Camp Lejeune. I think it was like one five, one of those units. Like, and he's like, Calm down, cowboy. He's like, let's just see if we can get you Corbin first. And I was like, Oh, this isn't guaranteed either. I was like, wait, what? And they did, they found me a slot, but they're like, you have to leave like in seven days. And I was like, Yeah, I thought I was leaving today. Like, I was like, like, I said peace to my girl already. Like, I was like, if I go back in my home, like I don't know if I'm gonna make it back here. So anyway, during that whole entire process, two of my roommates, two of them backed out and didn't do it, and one of them went to go party right before we were supposed to go to MEPS and get a and got a DWI. Oh, so he was out like the night before D dub before the MEPS. So he's out, like he ended up going into the army later, and then so did the other roommate. Both of them ended up going to the army, okay. Like two, three years later, both of them went. But uh in Iraq, Afghan, they did all that stuff, had a lot of PTSD from that, I think.

SPEAKER_02: 18:55

But yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 18:56

Um I do that, and then like you have to you can be a corpsman, but you have to leave like right away, seven days. So I was like, shit, I have to go back home. So like go back home. We party for a week, dude. Like, I went, I flew to Chicago like more hungover than I've ever been in my life. Like, I slept in a surfboard bird, like a board bag on the beach. I woke up like sweating and hungover, and I smelled, you know, it sleeps when you smell on a beach. Like, you slept on a beach before, you know what you smell like. Smells foul. So I'm like, I'm gonna I think I took the plane and smelled foul. I got to boot camp and I had like I have like bracelets and stuff like this. Um like when I when I was a kid, I climbed a lot of mountains and stuff. And when you climb, you would take a piece of cord and you'd put it on there as like a reminder, like hey. And then like with the group, you would do that. Like, I climbed a lot and I hiked a bunch. I was like, hippie, man. I had like anklets and like I made my own hip beads, like I made hip necklaces and I made my own beads in the oven, and so I had all this shit on, dude. I was like, yeah, what's up? I had a Hawaiian shirt just like this, dude. There's a picture of it somewhere, but anyway, like you show up to boot camp like this, yeah, dude. Like man, thank God there was a dude that had like yellow bumblebee hair. He had like dreads that were dyed yellow and black, like dipped and dyed, like really, yeah. So it looked like bumblebee, like a bumblebee, and he was like right in front of me. So like thank god, dude. That dude took the bront for us, like, but it's scary, dude. Boot camp is scary as shit. Like, I'm not used to it, dude. I was like, whoa, do you guys just need to chill out, man? Like, like, this is not so serious, and like, yeah, don't say that. It is serious. Like, you're in a whole nother world. What year was this? 99. Okay. September of 99, like right after the summer. I was like, uh, yeah, right after the summer. This is perfect.

SPEAKER_02: 20:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 20:40

So September 20th, 1999.

SPEAKER_02: 20:42

Off to Chicago's year school.

SPEAKER_03: 20:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 20:44

What is Navy? Is you don't do your your corpsman training there. That's just Navy boot camp. That's Navy boot camp.

SPEAKER_03: 20:50

What's Navy boot camp like? Stupid. It's fucking gay. Can I say that? Oh, sorry. No, but like, no, it's not bad, dude. It's about it's it's uh where they do is it's about the discipline to get you that regimen in. Okay. It's more about like they're really focused. It's like they don't you're a corpsman, you're a packer checker. Like, I'm not I don't even can like the Navy hates you. Like, you're like really Yeah, it's so different. Marines love you, Navy hates you.

SPEAKER_02: 21:14

Like Yeah, because you're green, you're not blue.

SPEAKER_03: 21:16

Even if you're blue, they hate you. You're like, you're the one that has to like you're always messing with them. Okay. Punching their board. The only time you see a corpsman is when you're like sick or hurt on a shit. Okay. And then like their all deals like about sealing hatches and firefighting and stupid shit. Like, I don't like let this place burn. I don't care. Okay. I'm yeah, like whatever. I'd like to fight fires, dude, and like like crawl around in smoky compartments and like lock doors. So like when we it floods, we flood in there and nobody else dies. Or like stupid shit like that. And like general okay, so like in boot camp, that's how stupid Navy boot camp is. Like, they gave me a moron for a rack mate because it's like bunk beds. He was a nuke, and I'm not gonna say his name, but he was like nukes. Like, I don't know how to compare him with uh equivalent in the Marine Corps would be. But anyway, they work on like submarine nuclear propulsion systems, they're different, they're different. They're like anybody on subs are different, they're brilliant, like brilliant, can comprehend so much stuff, but like tying their shoes, they can't do it. Like I had to tie shoes all the time. Like, how do you you're a grown-ass man, like you're 18, dude, you can't tie your shoes?

SPEAKER_02: 22:20

Like, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_03: 22:21

So, like, I would make his bed for him, and I do like all this extra shit, and I was like, I was over it. So, right when I got to boot camp, right away, I was a culture shock for me. Like, we go into our birthing, it's like beds everywhere. Like, I've already been in my tidy, I had to get boxers for tidy whiteys. I'm like standing there in your underwear, like freezing. It's like three in the morning. I was like, nightmare. So then, like the first or second day, they're like, Who wants to be the laundry petty officer? And I knew like a petty officer was a higher rank, so I was like, Oh, I'm gonna get promoted for doing laundry. No, it's just a title, like you stupid ass. So, like, so you volunteered. I volunteered, man. I thought you were gonna get promoted. Yeah, and I picked my my boys, I picked like two other dudes too, and uh thank God, because it was like hanging out with like a dude like you. You're like, oh, thank God. So, like what we would do, dude, like the first round came out pink, second don't you're fucking everybody's laundry? Everyone's laundry, really, dog. So like I would just drop that shit off at my grandma's house when I was like younger. Because like my grandma had a maid, Gladys, so I was like, I grew up with she was just anyway. So I didn't know how to do laundry.

SPEAKER_01: 23:25

So then uh you don't know how to do laundry now, you're in charge of everybody's laundry at boot camp. Yeah, just tearing it up.

SPEAKER_03: 23:32

But I learned quick, dude. Um you know me, dude. I don't like I'm I can figure out a system really quickly. Yeah, so like they'd be like, I knew we were about to get hazed or something, and I'd be like, oh shit, it's time to go do laundry. Let's go, guys. And like we would take off. Like, yeah, I'd be like, we have so much laundry we have to deal. So we would just go over there and like take the warm laundry out of the dryers already. The giant bed, no, it wasn't even our laundry, it's like some other stupid platoons, and I would just take all their warm laundry out, and it's these giant sacks, like as big as this beer rug. Yeah, and I would stuff all the clothes in there, and then we'd just take naps. Like on warm clothes, it's like a giant warm mean bag. So then another thing is it's all civilians in there too, so they don't give a shit. They're not military, it's like contracts, like Chicago, dude. So it's like dudes that do not care. And there's like vending machines that were like getting Snickers bars, so then I'm able to get it. Yeah, so I was able to go back and barter, and then I was like, okay, I figured this out. Like, I like a Snicker bar is like a dollar. I can get like$20 for a Snickers bar. You're like, oh, okay. So then it came service week, and then you have to do stupid crap, like guys get like drill, like all this cool stuff. Like, I had to go work in the chow hall. I did two days in the chow. I was like, hell no. Like, hell no. At first I got really sick on these caffeine, I made these like Ricky Rockets. It was just like coffee, pure syrup, coffee, and then a little bit of hot water, and you stir it up, it made like a paste, and you drink it, and it was like, Waaaa! But anyway, so like I did two days of that, and I was like, I'm not cut out to be cooking shit, so like I'm out of here. And I was like, Oh, all my face, like, oh, it hurts so bad, and my wisdom teeth must be coming in. And they're like, go to dental. So I go to dental, and the dentist is like, I can't even see your wisdom teeth, dude. I was like, no, they're hurting, dude. And he's like, I'm gonna take them out. I was like, do what you gotta do. He's like, you're gonna be SIQ, like sick in your court. Like, you're not gonna have to do anything. I just get to lay in my bed for like three days. I was like, oh no, like take these puppies out, and so he had to cut them out, and uh that I don't know if that was so smart or not, but they gave me Vicodin, no, yeah, hydrocodin or Vicodin, and uh a shitload of Motrin. Like, you know how the military is just change your socks and drink 100 like Motrin. So I was like, huh. I worked in a pharmacy, I was a pharmacy tech before that. I know how people are about pills, like I I saw so much drug addiction coming in, like I saw all this stuff, and I was like, Well, if I nobody looks at the pills, they're not smart enough. If I take all these hydrocodone or Vicanin, whatever these out and dump them out, put them in like somewhere else, and put all the motrin in there, everybody's gonna think this is Vicodin. So then I was like, You want a Vicodin for the week? Gotta make my bed. If you want, you gotta make his bed, you gotta do his bed.

SPEAKER_01: 26:20

So like you're slinging Motrin as Vikodin if that was like first the end of the first month.

SPEAKER_03: 26:29

So going to the second month, probably. So like I figured it out quick, and I don't have to do anything anymore. So then when you get in trouble, like not in trouble, like they do uh man, I'm I'm going off on some tangent here, but in boot camp, you have to do like what are those stupid things? You have to like iron your uniform and they have to like check your rack and they ask you military questions. Oh, like inspections, like yeah, like military inspections. So like you're allowed three strikes. So like I don't know what any of my general orders are. I've never learned a general order, and then there's like a fifth one that's like don't abandon your post or something. Yeah, I couldn't tell you any of my general orders. Yeah, but I'd never learned them. I was like, I'm gonna take a hit on it. So then like I would just like go and then be like, what's your whatever general order like hit? And like you can't just say hit. I was like, yeah, hit. And like what push, and I'm like, cool, like push-ups. Oh no, I did 10 push-ups. Like, I don't have to put stupid shit in my brain that I don't care about. So I got through boot camp that way.

unknown: 27:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 27:28

So then at the very and then, oh man, let me tell you a story about boot camp. Yes. So it they call me Dor. I was Dorothy.

SPEAKER_02: 27:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 27:37

Like from The Wizard of Oz. Okay. And then I had a little click, and they were like 10 man Toto, like all the animals from The Wizard of Oz. Okay. All the guys had that. Like this guy Bishop, everybody had a name. And we used to, there was this deal called, we call them like Ricky Ninjas. Everything in the Marine Navy boot camps, Ricky. Ricky this, Ricky that. I don't know why. Super gay. But uh Ricky Ninjas, like we sneak out at night in boot camp and go run amok. Like all over the everybody's asleep on a base, dude, on a on a training base. Nobody's up. There's like those dudes aren't driving around. Like, no, it's empty. So I remember I was always getting like weird haze. Like, one time I had a dude, I was doing stand-up. Like, we're like on Sundays, you have to write like letters home for an hour to like let them know you're alive and all that. And they were all gone. They I thought they left like to smoke, and I was like standing there with my back to the squad bay first doors, and that was like the first mistake. And I was like telling jokes, and they walked in, it's like in the movies where it gets quiet as shit. And you're like, What? Like, that's a good joke. Like, what you guys didn't think that was funny? And they're like, Dorothy in our office now. And I was like, What's going on? Like, why didn't you guys say anything? I'm just like looking at my voice, like, none of you, none of you are like. So I go in the office, and like we've had it, like, get a pencil out of this, like, it's like a whole box, like number two pencils, and they're like, electric pencil sharper, and they made me sharpen it, like sharp as shit. And they're like, that's not sharp enough, and get it sharp. And they're like, push-up position. I'd like fuck not again. So, like, I did a lot of push-ups in boot camp, dude. So, like, I was in the push-up position, and they're like, just hold it. And then my drill instructor got down and put a pencil under my chest, and he's like, Man, everybody else is writing letters home, and we're gonna have to write your dad a letter saying you killed yourself with a number two pencil, really? Yeah, and uh, I just sit in push up position like this, and I'd be like, they're like the all the DIs are in the room, and I'll just like shake my arms are shaking and this stuff, and they're like, This is it, boys. And they're like, We're gonna get one to do it. And I was like, Oh shit, these dudes are serious. And they're like, Are you gonna tell any jokes again, Dorothy? I was like, no, no more jokes. And they're like, We heard one more joke out of you. You're definitely killing yourself with a pencil. And I was like, Okay, so they flattened the pencil and I fell, dude. I was like, I couldn't hold myself anymore, dude. Thank God. So, like, I was like Alright guys, like I have to redeem myself because like it was so close to graduation, and if they got mad, I thought like if they didn't like me at that point, like oh they're really trying to kill me now. So like I was always in trouble. So like I was like, I have to redeem myself because on the last day we were all gonna go to my boys like parents' house, and they was like, because we graduated on Thanksgiving, like you know what I mean. So it's like I didn't want to get stuck in the barracks like with by myself with them, they would haze me all day, so like that was the plan, like haze doc while everybody's out having fun on Thanksgiving, yeah. So like oh man. So anyway, my drill instructors always wanted a pull-up bar in like our grinder, which is like the area of the haze you want, like a just a street thing hidden in the buildings where nobody else can see it, and they wanted a pull-up bar, but it's like pull-up bars are like I beams, like bars to them, and they're like only on certain deals. But I remember getting haze on another like two buildings over. There was one on their grinder. So we figured it out how many guys it would take, and I stole that one and I brought it over there, and then like it took all night, dude. I'm not even joking. Like, the sun is coming up, and I we were about to get woken up, and we just put it in a position, and you're in you're in it's like Ricky Ninja, so you're like in your navy sweats, you know what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_02: 31:15

The ones like naked, the gold the gold navy across them.

SPEAKER_03: 31:17

Yeah, but it's like blue, so it's like dark, you're still kind of camo with a hoodie, and like you could hide like in the bushes and shadows, and we got in there, and I was sweating my I was like sweating to death. And I get in there and we're dying, and they knew something was up, so they're taking us on the grinder to haze the shit out of us. And then like they went out there and they they saw it and they stopped, and like I swear he had a tear in his eye. Like our main drill instructor, or they called him RDCs, and he's like, Everybody back inside, Dorothy in my office now. He's like, I can't prove that you did that, that you did it. I know he's like, nobody else would have done this, and he's like, Cool, and then like that was it. And on graduation, they let me do my thing. But they pulled me in the office and they said they never had a recruit, like ever. Like I believe it. They're like, dude, like if you were pissed off and having a bad day, everybody was pissed off. And if you were happy and laughing, like it changed, he's like, it changed the tempo every single day. He's like, We didn't know how to haze you without you changing the vibe and let's get a mutiny against us. But anyway, but yeah, sling in Motron is Viking and helped, and then all the other stuff. So that was Navy boot camp. And then for the Corpsman part, it's still on the same base. Oh, you didn't go to Del Mar? No, so like that's the Marine Corps still. So now that was just Navy boot camp, and then you have to go, and I think it was like oh, that was another hell. Um I don't know how, I think it's six months in Navy Corpsman School, and I was there over two years.

SPEAKER_02: 32:48

That's not in Del Mar. I thought the Navy Corpsman School was Del Mar.

SPEAKER_03: 32:51

What is it? The Marine Corps FMF school. That's it to teach us how to be with the Marines. Oh, I have to do two, I have to go twice. It's a totally different medical deal.

SPEAKER_02: 32:59

Oh, so you I didn't know this.

SPEAKER_03: 33:01

Yeah, so we have to go to we're like at six months or something, five months at Great Lakes. Okay. The other side, there's like our training store right next to the bowling alley, and they keep us separate. We have our own chow hall, we have our own private bully on you're separate from the rest of the base. Like really, yeah. The Navy hates Cormann bro, it's no joke. So that's interesting. So, like, um we were over there, and I was a I was a seal. I came in, it was like buds, like I was a bud like select like deal. So, like all through boot camp, I was doing like buds PT in the morning. Like, so like say in boot camp, I think they get you up at five or something or six in the morning. I don't know, whatever time they wake up, you up in boot camp, like the time is the right. You have to get up two hours before that, and you go PT at the pool. Okay, you swim, it's just swimming, it's swimming, it's just laps, get reputation, flutter kicks, like it's not hard, but it's like to prep you. It's like pre pre-Buds prep kind of deal. And then at Corman School, I was still in that. And they did in Chicago, they have Raves, and I'm kind of going off like on a tangent here why I got out of the Buds deal. But like originally Buds contract, so Corman Bud, like that's what I was gonna do. I was gonna be a December class out of uh Coronado, which is like the worst one, but you like you go into the summer, so it's not it finishes in the summer, so it's not so bad. It's like a I think it's like a December and April class with the two or something like that. I don't remember anymore. But I was like the December class, and in the Corman school, I had like four dudes as a roommate, and they put this like guy in our room that was weird, like uh like a green marine. They put this dude in our in our uh room, and and uh he's in there, and he was going to rave at night. He was on like restriction or something, like we didn't know what the deal was, but he was sneaking off and going to raves at these things called jam vans, you give them like$30, they take you to like Milwaukee and give you ecstasy, and you just party all night. So he came back, he took like ecstasy and some like acid or something, and we're all asleep. It's like three in the morning, and like all of a sudden, this dude comes in, he's like, There's blood everywhere, like flipping the lights on, like pulls my roommate out of his bed, like tries like starts hitting him, like and it's like concrete floor, dude. So like you're getting your head bounced off a concrete floor. So we grab him, we throw him against the door, and it's like a metal door, like yeah, like metal barracks door inside, and they're pinning him like hit him. My nickname is squirrel at the time. Like, hit him, squirrel, hit him, and I go to hit him as hard as I can, and he just shadow, like moves his head, dude. And I just full-on smash a metal door, and I get a boxer's fracture, I break my whole arm. So that like I was like, shit, like that sucks. So like I didn't, I didn't, I never had a broken bone. I had all my ribs had been broken at that before then as a kid, but never my arm. And it I mean, like this whole thing, my knuckles were recessed in, like had all this pain here, and it was like purple. So like I didn't want if I didn't want to get in trouble, so I didn't say anything. So like the next day we have to do CPR on these dummies, and like you have to do it's like full compressions, and I couldn't, I was like, just one hint, like and they're like, You're not getting it. Like, you they really like they're it's yeah, like technique is important, especially when you're learning. Like you want to you want to high dial it in, and they were seeing something was wrong, and he saw because it's long sleeves too, so like they pulled my deal back, and he's like, Do you have a boxer's fracture? And I was like, No, no, no, I don't even I don't box. Like, I didn't know anything. Like, I'm not they don't I don't know anything really. So I go and I get in a shitload of trouble. They're like, What who did you hit? What did you hit? Like, why? And they're gonna like I'm gonna get in trouble, like go to the see the captain. And I was like, nothing, like they're like bullshit. Like they got x-rays, like came back, like they're looking at the x-rays, it's all cormen, bro. All your instructors are cormans. You're like, You can't get shit by them, you can't get shit by them. They know, and they're all FMF corpsmen too. All of them are FMF Cormen, and you're like, Man, uh, like what happened? And I was like, nothing. So they pulled my roommates in, and my roommate had like a black eye or something, and they thought I hit him, and they were gonna NJP us, and we're like, dude, it was this dude. Like, we dimed him out. Like, I hit he we were gonna hit him, I miss, I hit the door, and this is a straight up truth. Yeah, and the guy even said, Yeah, these assholes like pin me against the door, and da-da-da. But he's like, I just I just took too much ecstasy, and you're just like, You're an idiot. That guy got kicked out, he was they put him on where they have to like a restriction where you're like on the quarter deck or whatever, you have to answer phones and stuff. Oh, yeah, yeah. He got mad at a chief, old school like rudder phone, picks up the phone and hits like a senior chief across the face. Dude, I never knew what happened to that guy. He's probably in the lake out there, like for real. Like, dude, like FMF senior chief, dude, like good luck. Like, yeah, I ain't messing with that. Yeah. So anyway, um, I got pulled, I couldn't do because I couldn't do CPR, I got pulled out of my class. So then I get stuck like just holding in like a holding powder forever. Months. So like it took us four months to get to that class period. There were so many corpsmen, there's like 400 of us all at one time. So they had to put like 30 at a class at a time. So we're all just sitting in like a quarter deck for months, just waiting, like waiting in a like a lounge, playing like cards and reading books and like ordering Papa John's and shit. Like, dude, boots bored out of their mind, sitting around in a barracks like to go to class, waiting like three months. It was horrible. So, like that was like five months in, six months into that. I get my arm has to heal. I get in trouble for doing trying to do a polar bear swim. I like on my cast, I had this thing. I don't take cast very well. Like, I shot bottle rockets out of it when I was on leave, and then the bottle rocket spun and caught the wadding on fire, and I had to pour beer down it, and I had like first degree burns, and it was like charred, and it smelled like I was at a ranch with beer, and like I went back to Chicago with it, and they had to cut it off again. It was like the I told I was gonna get NJP'd, I was on like my seventh cast already. So, like, if I did it again, I was like screwed. And then I told the Navy, like the CO they could suck it. Like, I don't want to be a corm anymore. Because like I got food, I classed up again, and I went to AW Rubier at the mall and I ate this chicken sandwich and I got food poison. I was hospitalized for like four days. I got pulled out of another class, dude. I was there for two years. No, yeah, dude. All my boys are graduating, and I just get like later. It'd be like, dude, being in high school and getting held back every single year for two years. Right before you graduate. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 39:35

Oh god.

SPEAKER_03: 39:36

So I told him, I was like, I don't want to be a corpsman. I hate all of you. Like, I want to go chip paint on a shit because I want to just get SEALs. I just wanted SEALs. Like, all like I don't I don't have to because like you're not even a corpsman as a SEAL. Like everybody is. Yeah, they ever yeah. So like I was pissed, dude. I hated the Navy at that point. I was like, what did I do? Because two years out of school is too long, dude. Like, I'm not a broke dick. Like, I'm still running like every day, like still working out. Like, I did some questional, I like anyway. Like, I got in trouble a couple times, but like nothing like on paper. Okay, so like finally, I get out of there and I get the Marine Corps, like FMF school. So they sent me to Camp Pendleton, and it was one of those deals like, do you want to go to Pendleton or Lejeune at the time? And I'd already been around. I mean, I was salty, I was a salty ass two-year boot at a school, you know what I mean? Like, crusty, crusty, dude. So I was like ready to get out of there. And uh they're like, where do you want to go? And I was like, I was I wanted to surf, and I was like, there's no why would I go to like North Carolina or South? Why would I go to that gross ass place when I go to Cali? Like, yeah, yeah, that's a no-brainer. I want to go to Cali. So they let me go, and I've been there so long, like I knew like I was part of staff basically. So no shit, dude, is wild. Uh I had so many privileges by the ends. But uh I had my own room, like, dude, like not even a student anymore. Not really. It was bad, but anyway, I graduated there, go to Pendleton. I love it. Like, best place in the whole world. Like, I was like, this is where I'm gonna be. Like, this is this is like made it all worth it, like everything worth it. So they put us at like temporary again, you're waiting to class up because that all those corpsmen that went through ahead of me, they're all in the Marine Corps school now. Yep. So I had to wait at the naval hospital at Camp Pendleton. So I did that. What's that like? The greatest job ever. Wow, how I worked at the career counselor's office.

SPEAKER_00: 41:30

Oh God.

SPEAKER_03: 41:31

No, but it was cool because like a guy I went to high school with, it was the same age as we graduated together. He was already in the he had already been there like six months ahead of me, working there. So like uh we were able to like do that. A bunch of dudes I actually worked to high school were at that hospital. We were all there at the same time. Oh no shit. Yeah, so we were going like TJ partying all the time. Like I mean, what are you doing at the hospital every day? Just answering phones, like in the career counselor's office, like a little room, but yeah, like a cubicle deal, just answering career counselor questions. But I learned like I was doing officer packages, like star, like all that kind of stuff, doing taps classes, like all that, setting up officer packets for like Navy guys. So I learned a ton of stuff about that when I was there. So I even like later on, I put in a thing to go to Annapolis and got accepted.

SPEAKER_00: 42:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 42:20

But my chief was like, that's not your jam, like your grunt. Like, yeah. So anyway, thank God. Because like I am a grunt. So, like, anyway, I do the Marine Corps, like we go to the Marine Corps boot camp at Del Mar deal, and I was like, I was drinking the Kool-Aid dog. Like, what do you mean? I loved it. Like, I drank the Marine Corps Kool-Aid. I was just like, oh, just taking the core all over my face, dude. Like, I'm telling you, dude, when I was like, I was moto. I was really, oh dude. I was, dude, even so I got out, I was moto. I mean, I didn't have the high, I had long ass hair. I pushed, I had sideburns, like I wore her wine shirts, like you have to. Yeah, Hawaiian shirts, so you don't have to tuck them in on a marine corps base. Yeah, yeah, because if not, I have to wear like a belt and like tuck in my shirt. I'm like, Lareg say if I wear Hawaiian shirt, I don't have to tuck this in, like, done. So like, done. So that's why that was that. But uh, it was funny. I like same thing in that Marine Corps boot camp deal. It's Marine Corps, like drill instructor guys, and Navy FMF Corpsmen like teaching you.

SPEAKER_02: 43:23

We would watch you guys because our barracks were for our students, our barracks were right across from York.

SPEAKER_03: 43:27

Yeah, we'd have like battles on that across that deck right there. Yeah, dude. It was wow there. I remember like all your guys' windows getting busted out one time. Yeah, like all ours got busted out.

SPEAKER_02: 43:37

Yeah, there was a few there was like a rivalry between Navy Corpsman school and then the track school.

SPEAKER_03: 43:41

Track school A Vs, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 43:42

Yeah, and it was like always there's it, and then it got it got bad at one point where Navy were on certain hours to go to the chow hall, and then if you were part of the schools, you couldn't go to the chow hall for certain times, so they had to have like blue and green hours for Navy because there was like guys getting in fights and really it was it got rowdy for a I believe that a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_03: 44:02

Like, but that chow hall was good over there. Like Marine Corps does do good chow halls. Like that chow hall wasn't bad. No, and then but they had that pizza hut there too. I ate a lot of pizza hut. Yeah, yeah. Did you have that pizza hut? It was there when you were hitting it. I know, yeah, it was there, but I was never a Pizza Hut fan. No, I'd get like little hot and ready and like little things. I was a little fat kid because we like surf all the time. Yeah, but guys would go UA, it would go off, and guys would be like, take off to Mexico, and and they'd come back like 29 days after 29 days, and they're like, dude, that was genius. And like, yeah, they're gonna give me the same thing, like two days versus 29. I'm just gonna surf. Come back tan, like long hair, like a beard already.

SPEAKER_02: 44:37

You're like, We had students that would do that, they would they wouldn't show up like when they would leave um MCT and come to check into the schoolhouse when I was an instructor there. We would have students that just wouldn't never show, and then like a couple months later, some kid would come walking in to the office. We'd be like, Who the fuck are you? And they'd be like, Oh, I'm private so-and-so, and he'd be like, like looking through the rock, like, who the hell is this kid? He'd be like, Well, I was actually supposed to be here like three months ago. We're like, sit down.

SPEAKER_03: 45:03

Yeah, like I've decided just to come and do whatever I want to do.

SPEAKER_02: 45:06

They just come back, these kids would just show back up, like we're like, Well, you're done.

SPEAKER_03: 45:09

If I had the balls like that. I mean, I was cocky and I never got in trouble, never in JP, but like, I don't know how I pushed the limit. Like, I'm with you. And then as a corpsman with the Marines, you could really push the like there's a fine line I could run. It was just like, I'm a corpsman, I didn't know. Yeah, like blank, like, dude, I don't know how many Humvees I wrecked. Like, it's like, dude. I remember I wrecked a Humvee, getting my Humvee license, and the Motor T gunny came flying out, dude, to murder the damn Marine that was driving it. And he came up to me, and I would he was like, Why the did you hit that Humvee? I was like, I was just trying to get close enough so my buddy couldn't open his door, and I just sidestwiped the whole side of it, dude. And he looked at me and he saw a caduce on, and he just like fucking Corman and walked off. And he had a ride, he's the one that signed my Humvee license. But you know, I mean, me and you got our life, you know what it's like riding with me, dude.

SPEAKER_02: 45:57

You know what it's like right with me.

SPEAKER_03: 45:58

Yeah, D were chaos on that one for sure. So, anyway, okay, so let's back up. So, Marine Corps boot camp. I'm about to graduate, like the Corman for I didn't even take a sip of this shit. Hold on. So I'm about to graduate, and they're all pull us in a room. It's like different in smaller groups. Yeah. They pull you in a room and they're like telling you where you're going. And they're like, You're staying in Calais. I was like, yeah, because I just serve and all I did was surf. Like, and he was and they're like, You're going at 29 Palms. And I was like, 29 palms, what's that? And they're like, It's the biggest beach ever, dude. And I was like, all my instructors always mess with me, like, bruh, like, dude. Like, always giving me that. You know how it is, dude, especially the Marines. So, like, they always must have my balls and like biggest beach ever. And I was like, sweet. I was like, cool. And then a bunch of my buddies got it. It's for like high five, and we're like, We're gonna be partying. And I just thought it was up the road. Like, I didn't even this is before like phone, like, yeah, there's no googling, there's like none of that shit. Like, I had to go to like the computer, like the the computer center, yeah. Like the day before I left, like, and just go to map and print out a map quest directions. And I just like two and nine palms hit print, and I just like didn't even look at it. And like, we graduate, and I'm like looking at this, I was like, where does this want me to go? Like, huh? I was like, okay. So I just started driving, dude, and I was like, this can't be right. Like, where's the beach out here? And I'm like, yeah, showed up two and nine palms, dude. I was like, what is this? And it was a Friday, and I was like, what is this? I I didn't know what to do. And I checked in, I checked into the BAS, dude. I was third L E R, third light armor Constance. So does the sun as cool what it is? As it sounds, it's not that it's cool as shit, but it's not that cool. But like I check in, dude, and then like they didn't even know we were coming. So when I get there, it's like a bunch of salty corpsmen, like a bunch of like corporal versions and sergeants, dude. And I'm a boot ass. I was like an H A, like an E2 maybe at that point. And I go and I have to shack, I have to like they have to put me in one of their rooms. And they're just like pissed, pissed, like two corpals basically getting a boot ass in their room. Like I get it now. Like at the time, I didn't know why. I was like, why are these dudes so pissed? Like I said, it's like you have four beds, they got two bunks in here, like nobody sleeping on the top. Like, what are you so pissed about? Yeah, they were pissed. And they're like the saltiest dudes in the damn deal. Yeah, and that's we'll get into that in a minute. But like I go into their room and it's like they won't even talk to me, they're just like pissed. And I'm like trying to put my stuff in a wall locker, and they're like, they're all taken, like they're theirs. And I'm like, okay. So I like edited a Zuzu rodeo and I just like put my shit back in my car in the back.

SPEAKER_04: 48:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 48:50

And I thought about it, and I like went to talk to one of my buddies that came. He's another corman, too. This guy young. I was like, what are we doing here, dude? He's like, I don't know. I was like, dude, we have the whole weekend. Fuck this place, let's go. So we went back to Pendleton and party with all our boys like all weekend.

SPEAKER_02: 49:04

You drove the 29 Palms, yeah, and got out of there as soon as we could, dude.

SPEAKER_03: 49:07

I was like, I'm out of here. I was like, we can still surf all weekend. So because so many people had to like a couple hours, right? I mean, yeah, it was like two and a half hours, nothing, dude. Like, yeah, I wasn't gonna be in 29 palms for the weekend. No, all two and a half hours isn't shit. Yeah, like at the time I hated it. So we get back, and all our boys that like are waiting, they have to wait for flights anyway. They're not leaving until Monday. So it's like we just partied like all weekend. I think we went to TJ again. We go back, and Monday's hell. Like, dude, uh that was my first like understanding of like rake rake rake uh military rank structure meant something.

SPEAKER_04: 49:44

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03: 49:45

You can't just be like, what's up, bro? Like, you can do it to Marines, it's okay, but like those corps to go as a corpsman to go to third LAR, you would have to have been with like two, five or three, you had to been with a grunt for like a whole turn like three years, and then that was like the cut, like going to tracks. Like a corpsman at tracks usually is like you've done a grunt unit and you go there so you could ride. You know what I mean? It's like okay, it's like you're getting hooked up to go there. So these dudes are all salty. And this is the first time they put like I think there was five of us, all boots, got there, and then and of course, like I'm like kind of a little ringleader, so like they're just like, go ahead, say something, squirrel. And I was like, What's up, dudes? Like, this place sucks uh and then like this guy a Pusin who became a command, he went mustang, became a commander and all that. Like, thank God he was there because he hates me every single day of my life, and like just like what's up, dude? Like every morning, and then I'd get taken out into the shed. And then, like, you know what I mean? Like, I had a hard learning curve. So I get the what's up, bros? Like, like I can picture you.

SPEAKER_01: 50:57

Oh, dude, so I got percent picture.

SPEAKER_03: 50:59

And I'd been in forever already, dude. I was like three years in already. Like, so I was just like, I'm halfway done with my enlistment, dog. Like, why are you guys tripping? So, so yeah. Um, thank God for them though. Like, they gave me discipline. Yeah. And to get away from them though, I spent like 300 plus days in the field my first year of the Marines. Jeez. Like, so really quickly, I found out if I was in the BAS, I had to see patients, and if I wasn't seeing patients, I was doing medical records. And you're going through medical records and checking them all every year. You have to go through all the medical records and then sign off on them and do it. There's a lot, it's a lot of work actually. It takes like, and then we get uh evaluated, they they come and inspect it.

SPEAKER_00: 51:42

I remember this happening on Facebook. Horrible, bro.

SPEAKER_03: 51:44

I remember this. You'd shut down BAS because they're going through the city. Yeah, you have to go through the medical records. So get ahead of it all year long. You're already purging stuff and you're working on it constantly. So when you're not doing that, you're you're doing that. And I'm not a records like sit call kind of guy. I'm a wooden picture. Crawl around in the dirt, like I want to, I want to play with you guys kind of deal. So all those salty dudes, none of them wanted to go to the fields. And you were just like sign me up. I was like, dude, sign me up. Like, I'm not gonna get hazed by you. And I go to the front field, and I'm like, they let me shoot everything, like anything. And they're like, and then I can't went to the field so much. Like that first year, everybody knew me. Like, all everybody knew me, dude. Like, this is how this would work. I would get in LAV, I'd go to the ramp, like on a Monday, they would pick me up, go out in the field, run like a two-week op, do cacks, whatever, dude. You're in 29 palms. It's just nothing but field ops. Yeah. And on the way back in, they'd pull over on the side of the road, kick me out, throw me a case of MREs, and be like, Delta company's coming to get you in like three hours. And you're like, cool. I would just sit in the shade on the tank track trail, just sit in the shade under a tree, dude. It's usually where they buried the ammo.

SPEAKER_01: 52:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 52:49

That's where they drop me off a lot of the time.

SPEAKER_01: 52:51

Yeah, we're not gonna get in.

SPEAKER_03: 52:52

So much ammo buried. Bro, people don't even know. In the desert out there, so much ammo. Because if you don't shoot it, it's like a huge pain in the ass. You just gotta bury it.

SPEAKER_02: 53:00

Yeah, you gotta recover it. I've talked about it on this podcast where we we went through and opened fucked up and opened a bunch of cans ahead of time, you know, like moto privates. And yeah, we were just every time we would get done with a maneuver, I was just dumping cases and we'd pivot our track and just bury it, bury it, just roll out. Yeah, bro. There's so much of that.

SPEAKER_03: 53:19

So, like, I usually got buried where they dumped the ammo and they would come and pick me up, and I did that like non-stop. Like non-stop. But the cool thing was, like, I learned like how to call for fire, how to call in a medevac from being in the field, like training constantly. Like how I went to the scout school. I knew how to drive an LAV, I know how to shoot an LAV, I can be a gunner, like you know what I mean. Like, I've shot range 500 as a corpsman. You're like, I've shot mortars, I've shot uh howitzer, like I've shot it all, dude. You're like, I've never shot a javelin, I've never shot a tank, but man, I wish I could have shot a javelin. Like any anyway, so I did that for a whole year, and I was actually salt when I came out of the field after that year, like my camis were like white, like so cool. And then and I was a boot, and then but everybody was just like I had that first year I had an LEV go off a cliff, and another corpsman was in there, and they all got hurt. I had a telephone pole smash a guy's head and I kept him alive for like five hours to the beat to the hospital, like craziest stuff, dude.

SPEAKER_02: 54:19

Like, okay, yeah, let's jump into this real quick. Oh, yeah. What's some of the shit? Because I mean, obviously, we we joke about it a lot as Marines, like, we're gonna find the trouble no matter what. How true is that being a corpsman?

SPEAKER_03: 54:30

Like, but it's bad because I'm just there, I'm right next to you. I'm so bad, dude. Like, like I remember being in the Corpsman's school, the Marine Corps one, and like we had a Marine Corps, uh, it was like a gunny teaching us a class on like hazardous like snakes and shit like that. He leaves the room and he's like, Don't listen to shit he just said. The Corpsman said that, like the instructor, he's like a first class, he was like a chief or something. He's like, dude, if a Marine sees a snake, it's like, what was that movie where they're like monkeys and like with sticks like poking it, like uh Lord of the Flies type shit, or like uh Planet of the Apes. He said, like they would resort to their primitive state and they start grunting and poking it, and you're like, No way, and this is funny as shit, bro. So he told us that, and we had to do like a they're breaking you into filled ops. So, like, I think we did a three-day fill-up on this ridge in Pendleton, and it's like the old school canvas cutter, like you got a half and a stick, and you like snapped our two pieces together, and like a pup tent, like old like Boy Scout. That's what our tents were. Okay, and I remember we're on this like plateau at Pendleton, and all the marine instructors are there, and a rattlesnake came out, and we're all all the corpsmen are setting up their deal at sunset, and I remember looking over, and all our instructors were all like with sticks, like and then like that first class looked over and it's like, see, I told you, like, dude, a snake comes out, they're just like little kids, they're retarded, like it's so bad. So, anyway, it was cool, like you're always messing with stuff, like Marines, like the stories they tell you, because they're everybody's from so many different places, mostly California and Texas, but like so many places and so many diverse backgrounds, so many like I'm from South Texas, so I just like naturally gravitated to like the Hispanic Marines, like just because like most of them were for Texas, we had that same cult. I understood their culture, like uh it just that's why it was a lot of my boys are all Hispanic, like in the Marine Corps, and like um I don't know, it was different, dude. Like, I loved it. Like, I drank the Kool-Aid, dude. Like, I I just that's all I want to do. Like, I I didn't know anything. Like it took me so long to get promoted to the Navy because I just didn't give a shit. Like, it doesn't matter. Like, you did do like no matter what, I could be a lieutenant as a corn, like there's no way you're a lieutenant as a corpsman, but I could in the Navy, you don't even know my rank anyway. Yeah, I'm Doc. Like that's it. And if I'm not Doc, if you're calling me by my last name, then I'm a piece of shit. So, like, you know what I mean? Like I just prided myself on being the best damn Corpsman I could be. Okay. Because like people don't like all seriousness now. Like, yeah, I goofed off all the time, but I took this job extremely serious. Like everybody's like, oh, Corman's the best job. Yeah, absolutely. It's the best job until I'm working. Because the deal is like in training environments and all that, it's not there's not a connection there. But like when I was in 29 Palms, I'm with those dudes for five years. Like we just had our reunion, like nothing misses a beat. For sure. But when it's one of your boys, that's just hard. For sure. Like if we were doing something, you got hurt, and I'm sitting there trying to like I block it. Like I know how to like you're a machine. I'm a machine at that point. Like when I go into corman mode, like everything shuts off. Like, I don't hear you screaming. I don't sorry, man. Uh it's different. Like, it's just different for me. And like that one year gave me so much street cred with the Marine Corps, and then with all those other corpsmen, they put me in a I was a senior line corpsman, the youngest one. Like, had all these dudes working, because I just like I took it so serious, dude. And um that was the deal. Like, uh, guys didn't take it serious, and like I don't want to be around you, like and I'm extremely competitive. All corpsmen are extremely competitive if they're worth a shit. Like, there's no corpsman better than me. But then you put another corpsman in this chair, he'll tell you the same thing, or you sure as fuck better tell you that. Yeah, it's like that's how it is, man. And it's it's hard. Like you get the special bond. Close, dude, like close.

SPEAKER_02: 58:40

You know, I I feel that all military branches, for the most part, when it comes to like a camaraderie, are close in a way. I I want to at least think that. But I feel besides like SF units that are very small, tight-knit groups that are living together, the next closest thing is a group of Marines.

SPEAKER_03: 58:59

I yeah, I would say that same thing.

SPEAKER_02: 59:02

And so for a corpsman, you get adopted into that group. Like you're ex not all corpsmen. No good corpsmen get brought into that circle, and it's like, dude, if somebody said something to you, you don't you have 40-50 Marines that will murder somebody for their dock. Like that's that's the relationship between a corpsman and a marine platoon, a you know, is a good corpsman that fits in where you're you're fighting, like you have like a whole platoon of Spartans behind you, you just point and be like, he did it, you know, and you know you got a whole platoon that's gonna come whoop ass for you. So you you it's a different bond for sure. And then you as a green corpsman, you guys really don't connect on the blue side because they're hospital corpsmen. Like that's that's a whole different they're only there for me to steal their supplies from.

SPEAKER_03: 59:52

For sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 59:53

So what's I mean, what the hell are you going what's some of the shit that you're seeing Marines do out in the field?

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:01

The snake. You see a lot of the snake stuff. A lot of the snake. And then we have gillow monsters. You have that. Yeah. Tortoises out there. Tortoises, but they're protected. Uh you can't mess with them. A lot of dude, a lot of chaos. The barracks is where like the field was like chill. Like, that's where my vibe was. The barracks is where the crazy stuff were like you're sewing up Marines for getting attacked by like not sewing them up from dog. They'd get attacked by dogs. Like MPs would stick the dogs on dudes. Like, oh my god, dude. Like getting out of the barracks as a corpsman is like the greatest relief in the world. Like, dude, in the barracks, dude, you're still working. You work 24-7. There's no like day off. Like, dudes are knocking at my door at like two in the morning, like, Doc, I got my dick stuck in this jar. Like, or like, hey, I have crabs, and this chick has crabs, but my roommate doesn't have crabs. It's cool that I had sex on his bed, right? Like, he's cool. Like, we can't get crabs that way. And you're like, no, like, dude, what? Or this other guy, he had a thing for prostitutes in Vegas because we're so close to Vegas. So he would go to Vegas like every weekend and come back and get like gonorrhea. Are you dealing with a lot of STDs with Marines? Man, not as much as you think. Like on a Mew, I was on a 31st Mew during September 11th. We had a deal there. Like, there was a huge general warts outbreak from a bunch of Marines went to a hostel and stayed in Australia and got General Wartz. Like dude, training command. Like when I was I was a Quantico instructor, and like, dude, the silver bullet wasn't a thing like they make it out to be. Like, Marines, by the time they're in the fleet, dude, after you guys get a like boot camp SOI, you know how to hydrate. Like only the dumbest. Like you're it still happens.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:43

It still happens. What's the silver bullet for people listening?

SPEAKER_03: 1:01:46

Silver bullets just like a digital thermometer you stick in a guy's ass to get his core temperature. Okay. Like you're trying to get his like it's the closest to his true temperature, and like you're just trying to keep make sure they're not over like a hundred, like a hundred and one, hundred and two, one hundred and three, hundred and four, like you're starting to like get in danger.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:01

You hear in 29 palms, like, oh, don't be a heat, cas, you're getting the silver bullet.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:04

I never did a silver bullet. Really? Not once. What? Never. Never in 29 Palms. Never.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:12

Did you ever have to do it? Yeah. What's it like putting a thermometer up someone's butt, especially a dirty ass marine in the field?

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:19

The first time was in Okinawa. Really? Yeah. I was on we were at Okinawa on a deployment, and uh that's when they used to do trips to Oki and then like a Mew, but then September 11th had.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:30

Libo floats.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:31

Yeah, Libo floats. But we were there and we had to do a hump at like Hanson in the middle of the night, and it was like with another unit, like I think 2-5. It was 2-5. It was us and 2-5 because we were attached to them for the Mew. And it was like a training hump for the Mew. And they didn't know what they were doing. And I like saw this already. I was like, oh shit. Like there it the whole thing was run like a shit show. So I got every all the Corpsmen together, and I was like, hey man, get we had chem lights, which are like glow sticks. Basically, you snap them, you throw them, and it glows. And I got as many cases of chem lights as I could and just stuffed every corpsman, every marine, like every other marine had a chem light, like everybody had a chem light. Because you're hiking in the jungle and there's no there's no light.

SPEAKER_04: 1:03:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:03:15

So basically, like if somebody went down, you would never see them. And we had to do our humps at night. And I was like, dude, if somebody goes down, just throw a chem light on them, and then somebody can see it from somewhere. Dude, I remember going over this first ridgeline, dude, and I came down and it was a Christmas tree. I I've never seen anything like it in my life. Like just bodies, bodies, like not even you don't see bodies. I just saw chem lights like green and red and orange and like the per like all of them, dude. You're like, like what? That was like over a hundred at least, right? And we just started that we were like 200 yards, maybe a mile into the hump, dude. Like we went over a ridge and came down, and it was just like that. And I was like, oh my god. I was like, holy shit. So I just ran in the first guy, and like I remember like pulling his pants down. He's like moaning, he was like, I can't, I can't feel my leg, his nut his legs cramped. And I was like, dude, I gotta take your temperature, bro, and like you're the first one. So like and I remember sticking my hand just getting like sweaty ass all over my hand, dog. And I was like, You went all the way up. I just stuck it and I just had like my hand in like uh sweaty ass cheeks, and it's like Okanales, it's like it's a hundred percent humidity, dog. It's like I had swamp ass all over my hand, and I was like, I was pissed. I was like, dude, my hand is no good now. I just take like Pure L and I'm just like just soaking it. And I was like, you didn't have gloves on. Oh dude, you don't wear gloves, dude. Like, I was like, I've been covered head to toe in blood, and a nurse yelled at me one time, like, why aren't you wearing gloves? And I'm like, like, so anyway, uh, and I remembered like just like matter back, throw them on a they were just throwing dudes on the deal, and I had treated like three or four guys, like to stabilize them. And I got to a guy that was really bady, like 104. I throw a bag at him. I'm like trying to get ice from the ambulance to put on him. I'm like popping ice packs, like stick them in his groin behind his neck, like in his armpits, like just popping ice bags as fast as I can, trying to get his core down so it doesn't fry his brain. And I rode back in the ambulance with him because he just wanted to stabilize. I was scared he's gonna swallow his tongue or something, like black out.

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:18

Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_03: 1:05:19

I get to the deal, and they had called every corpsman from like three bases. Every all my boys from the corpsman school, the first one in Chicago, were there. Like it was like a reunion, but we're like there was just bodies laid out everywhere, like every bed in the BAS, every they're bringing IV bags in, meta dude. It was like there was like 230 casualties that night. He showed casualties, yeah, it was horrible. Why they didn't fry that CEO from 2-5, I don't know. Holy shh. Shit like that, dog. You're like, what? This is not like like and they stopped the hunt. I've never been where they stopped a hunt, they stopped that hump. Like, yeah. And we're talking like two miles in. Jeez, bro. That was the worst. That was the first time silver bullet, but I was instructor at Quantico at TBS and like part of the Med Platoon, and it's like a new thing, like plank owners. There's like if you start something new in the Navy, it's like you get a plank or something. I never got a plank because they suck. But uh I've never done, I mean, like ten a day. Like, it's all boot lieutenants, bro. They don't know. They're just like constantly in Quantico, it's all what like Virginia, and they're in the trees sweating, covered in ticks, like boom, passing out. A lot of females. Really? Yeah. Like, and then it's uncomfortable because like I've never really treated female Marines, so you're like, How do I handle this situation? Yeah, and like you pull their pants off and they have like a pink thong on or something, and you're like, I'm out, like, I'm not, I'm not getting arrested. Like, somebody like give me a female corpsman. Yeah, right. Yeah, or they you'd take their blouse off to do like a blood pressure, and they have like their blouse cut like here, like the green skivvy shirt, they would cut it so it's like half a skivvy shirt, like just to like to their boobs, and you're like, no bra and stuff. You're like just because it showed their collar, and I was just like, dude, I'm out, like, yeah, oh yeah, because that's awkward, it's just awkward for me. After a while, I don't know. You're it's like sure, it took like a couple months.

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:15

Yeah, but you went from the fleet of just grunt units, now you're transitioning to oh no, I had to do that too.

SPEAKER_03: 1:07:22

So I'm at 20 Palms, I do that. We deploy, we go to Iraq, we do all that. We get back, like, best time ever. I love my boys. Like, there's a close, like we still have such a tight bond. Yeah, like that unit, but like I got back and I had to leave. I got uh stationed in Corpus. And then they and then like they there was like the deal. Like I was married at the time and married a couple times, true military fashion. But like my first wife, I was young, I was 21, and I was like, we were not good, like we're gonna get a divorce, like whatever. And they're like, Where do you want to go? I was like, I want to go to Hawaii. And they're like, Don, dude, you're going to Hawaii. And I was like, shit, I just want unaccompanied Hawaii. And they're like, You can't do that. She has to go. And I was like, Okay, so I don't want to get divorced in Hawaii, and then she's stuck in Hawaii with me. Yeah. So I took Corpus. They're like, that's the basically the deal. The detailer at the time, let's backtrack. I told you I worked at the career counselor's office at Camp Pendleton. Yep. That guy, not the guy my buddy that I went to high school with, hit our boss at the time, became our detailer, basically.

SPEAKER_02: 1:08:26

Which is who sent you anywhere you want to go.

SPEAKER_03: 1:08:28

So it's anywhere you want to go. Monitors, what monitors, what you guys call them. So, like, he's like, dude, you go, where do you want to go, dog? Like, you just got back from Iraq. This is a golden ticket. And I was like, I need to get divorced, I need to go back to Texas. And he's like, Corpus, babe, you're done. Like, that's where I went. And I got divorced, was there for a year, canceled orders, and went, and the only way out was to take like there's like five jobs in the Navy as a quorum, and they needed bodies like now. You get promoted to E5 and like$50,000 bonus, like all this shit. Yeah, yeah. And it was like a radiation health tech. And I was like, I don't even know what that is, but it's not like other options like EOD, like SEALs recon. I'll go into this later. And I was like, no, like I just I don't I don't want to do that, grunt. Like, I don't want to be recon right now. Like and it's like what Flujo is about to kick off.

SPEAKER_02: 1:09:17

Like, well, let's talk about Iraq because you skipped over that. Yeah. So you do a Mew first, yeah. Traveled, hit some crazy countries. I'm sure you did a bunch of wild shit there. When how long did you do total? How many years? Nine and a half. Okay, so you guys are getting ready to do the initial push then at this point.

SPEAKER_03: 1:09:37

No, so we did, I was on the Mew, we did a liberation of East Timor, and then we come back to the States, and then uh shit. How long was I here, man? I don't think that long. Maybe a year or less, and then we went to Iraq. How was that working up with that as a it was it was chill. Like uh, I was so moto, dude. Like, I just wanted to go to war. Like, we thought we were going to war already when I was in Japan. When the towers hit we all was in Japan when the planes hit the World Trade Center. So like I thought we were like the next day we were jumping on the Mew. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like it was like that. And then we went to East Seamor to kill like tri terrorist training camps.

SPEAKER_00: 1:10:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:10:16

So because like Al Qaeda at the time had something. I think it was Al Qaeda back then, right? The initial is Al Qaeda. Who knows? Who knows? Dude, it changes all the time. Yeah, it's not ISIS yet. So um I get back for like a year, and then it's like the shuffle, like you're you're leaving tomorrow, kind of deal, and you're like, Wait, and that goes on and on for like weeks, and like everybody we're like the last ones on the base, and then we fly out, go to Iraq, sit around Kuwait for like a month while they're digging the trench the wars hasn't kicked off yet. Not at all. We're just sitting in Kuwait playing video games. Really? Yeah, like we had I had a guy in my unit shoot himself in a porter shitter on purpose, on purpose, yeah. And that happens a lot. Yeah, dude. It's like, why would you just not go out in a blaze of glory, you wuss? And then like I got in trouble later on because they were trying to like we have a Italian shirt that has like all the guys that lost their lives over like the employments that we did at 30 L AR for the Iraq war. And uh his name's on there, and I was like, he killed himself. That doesn't and I got a huge fight with a bunch of people, and like anyway, I just had to walk away from that. Yeah, but whatever. It just pisses me off. But anyway, because I have boys, dude, that really does like you know what I mean. Like it's like he didn't go out the same, yeah. It's not the same, but anyway. Um that guy stabbed themselves, dude. I was having to go to like Kuwait hospital all the time and take dudes from like getting hurt, like flipping knives to go through your foot, or like it was so hot, guys would get like Constantino wire was on our vehicles and we'd wrap it in burlap, but like it'd get hot by the exhaust and that would burn off, and guys get like razor wire cut, and I'd just staple heads, like just simple. Like it was chill, yeah. Just sit around waiting, yeah. And then that sucked. Kuwait sucks, like Kuwait just sucks. So hot, so hot, dude. A miserable, like what a shitty country. And then the CBs and all that, dude. They like there's like a huge like people don't realize, like when you go into Iraq from Kuwait, there's a huge wall, like the biggest metal wire wall, like forever, and like there's one on the other side too, and like a giant trench in between them, like a hundred yards deep or something. And they the CBs had to build a sand bridge across, blow the two walls at the same time, and we invaded the country.

SPEAKER_00: 1:12:28

That's how they did it.

SPEAKER_03: 1:12:29

Yeah, so like it'd be like a like a game fence on this side and a game fence over here, and then in between's a trench, where they set up all the charges all on it. The CBs built a bridge across the trench by filling it with sand for like months, like four months. And then when it was ready to go, they blew it and we just took off. Really? Yeah, so I remember that night. You guys are mobile. Mobile, yeah. Yep. LAV. So like I remember sitting on the top the night before the invasion, like sitting on the vehicle, and they are sitting already because there's like a whole entire battalion of like Iraqis at this place called Saffon Hills, this giant hill. We went to bed, huge hill, you see it in the background, like a hill like here, not like a mountain, but like a hill. Yeah, and they're supposed to be like hiding there, like a tank battalion, like all that stuff. Well, dude, the Navy and the artill, Marine Corps artillery leveled by the morning, it was gone. There's nothing there. It was like flat ground, no shit. And like there was nobody left. Like they left. I remember like they're putting pennies on RD rounds, and they were just green. Like it looked like glow bugs just going across. I've never seen so much RD in my life, dude.

SPEAKER_00: 1:13:34

What do you mean pennies on artillery rounds?

SPEAKER_03: 1:13:36

You put art pennies on artillery rounds, the thing, it glows green. The copper going through the air, it calls like a friction deal and it makes it glow green. I've never heard this before. Yeah, dude. So like when you're looking up, dude, you see like millions of green like RD rounds, and you're like, dude, somebody's getting level tonight, and you just start boom, boom, boom, boom. You just watch it. I remember all night long watching. I fell asleep to that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:13:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:13:55

So yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:13:55

What was that like? I mean, knowing the next day you're you're like invading.

SPEAKER_03: 1:14:00

Were you? Yeah, I was like 20 years old. Scared to death. Like, I didn't even know what to expect. Like, we're going in the dark. I remember getting there, and you're like, like, now what? Like, where is everybody? Like, what's the party? And I remember driving for like three days, and nobody wanted to kill us. And you're like, wow, this is stupid.

SPEAKER_02: 1:14:20

Like, oh really? Yeah, we're like you guys do the invasion, you drive for three days and nothing happened?

SPEAKER_03: 1:14:25

Yeah. Oh, dude, you gotta hear so this is wild. So like we're sitting there and we're like all on the radio, like calling everybody, like, hey man, anybody get any shit yet? Like my CEO, like my CEO's my boy. Like, I love Kevin Rodriguez at the time. And uh he was like just calling everybody, like, hey, is anybody like anybody anybody like fucking around want to find out? Like, anybody? Like, nobody was like getting any contact. And I think it was like three days we got to the this place called the Warren 18 Northing, and it's a famous battle. They did like a mural at the MCRD of us from it, but like I think it was like the first firefight actually, and these morons were these Iraqis are like in the we're driving on this like berm road, like elevated road, and they're like ditches on the side, and like just fields out everywhere. These dudes had like tarps and they're underneath them, and we have thermals, like we have thermal imagery. It's like all of a sudden you hear like tink and like around, like hit the vehicle kind of deal. You're like, Wait, somebody just shoot at us. And I remember we had CBs in the back of me, my LAV, and then my gunny and is a badass. He was like original force recon. Like, he was like the shit where you see like in The Rock, where you're like, we need you guys to break into a sub base to tell us the weaknesses of the security. He did stuff like that. Like, one of the coolest dudes I've ever met in my life. Just smoked a big cigar, wore a flak with no blouse, no cami, like just a flak, Kevlar, like textbook Marine Corps gunny. Like, yeah, your hero. You're like, that's the guy. I would he would be like, dude, we're all gonna die doing this. Let's go do it. And you're like, let's fucking do it. Like, so he I remember like sitting there, and it's like people are coming. I like remember looking, dudes are coming out of the ditch, and I just remember my gunny like swinging the 240, and he just like it's a butterfly mount, so he's like pendle mount, and he's like, dot dun dun dun dun dun. And like me, it's just me and my two CBs were like, I remember my eyes just getting big, and we're just staring at him, and he has a cigar in his mouth, and he just looks at us, and he's like, get some, get get some, fucking get some, and we're just like, Holy shit!

SPEAKER_04: 1:16:35

Like no shit.

SPEAKER_03: 1:16:37

Yeah, dude, this is your first firefighter. Like so the whole feddying army is like trying to take us on, and like they had no idea what they were doing.

SPEAKER_02: 1:16:49

LAVs are brutal, bro. Like, yeah, you got a 25mm bush master.

SPEAKER_03: 1:16:53

Just smokes, you did a whole company. Like, dude, there were I'll just tell you this the sun was setting, and I remember just sitting there like it was so slow motion, like everything was in slow motion for me. Like, greatest experience that like y'all never have that high again. And I remember like looking around, just like holy shit, and just watching dudes drop. And then like all of a sudden, these jets came in, dude, and they did like this weird like wing like deal. You could see the dudes in the cockpit, and they just drop were dropping like 500-pound bombs on these dudes, and you're just like cobras came in and we're smoking dudes in like out of our range, just like just do like cobras and air coming in and 25 mic mic. I had the biggest like arm like Marine Corps boner like in the world. Like, I was like, this is it, like this is it, this is this is this is it, this is all I want to do. And I remember after that firefight, dude, we're all just like high-fiving, and like my unit, we smoked these dudes, like so many bodies, and we're all chilling, like we're cracking MREs, dude. And I remember this lieutenant, and I just saw him at our reunion. He was like, we had a um fourth LAR attached to us, which is like a reservist unit, and it was all like these gatoline gun anti-air LAVs that were like pods that had two Gatling guns on them, and they would just like shoot like a it looked like a laser beam.

SPEAKER_04: 1:18:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:18:15

Well, this dude, this Green Marine, he got shot. He was or he was in the pod, and the AK round went in there, bounced around, hit him in the back. And they waited like 25, 30 minutes to come and get a Corman. And I'm not even their Corpsman. Like I was just there, and they're like, I was like screaming right. I did a corman. I'm like, lieutenants get hysterical, dude. You know how every time, yeah. You know how it is. So this dude's like losing it. And he might see, dude, are you gonna do something? I was like, I don't even know who that is. And he's like, Go check on it. So I go over there, dude, and it's like a dude sitting there and he's like smoking a cigarette, and I was like, What's up, man? He's like, I got shot. I was like, You got shot, and you're just chilling like this? Where? He's like in the back. So take his flack off, hole straight through the flax. And I'm like, Whoa, that sucks. And I take his blouse off, hole through the blouse, hole through his green shirt. And he was he's a green, he's a black dude. So he had a white, a white mark on his back and a bruise around it, and blood was like trickling. Like we get like that first layer of skin, it's that white like little drops of blood was just coming out of that. I took a photo of it. I was like, holy shit, bro. And it's like his spine, and it was like right here, like half of like an inch away from his spine. It had paralyzed him from the impact. But how do you have a bullet go through your flak, through your blouse, through your green shirt, and not pierce your skin? Like, God love that dude.

SPEAKER_02: 1:19:35

So Was that your first person that got shot that you dealt with?

SPEAKER_03: 1:19:40

In in combat, yeah. In combat? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I think we had guys, do we have I don't know if I had somebody dealt with any gunshot wounds before that. I think Ash heads, like V LAV wrecks, like that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02: 1:19:58

Were you dealing with a lot of I mean you guys were doing the invasion, did you guys lose a lot of dudes or no?

SPEAKER_03: 1:20:02

Not at all. Really? No. Uh our casualties were like self-infli like a guy went to sleep in his uh sleeping bag with his saw. He unloaded his saw, took the drum out, and there was that one in the chamber, and he slid it in his bag and it double lunged him. Really? Yeah, dude, that was hard. My two of my Coron buddies worked on him and they're dead. They it's too much for their like there's like their good friend. Damn. So that's what people don't realize. Like losing your friends, like that's hard. Like, I don't have like PTSD, I don't think, from combat. I think it's from the losses, like still seeing those and like just your boys, dude. Like, it's hard.

SPEAKER_02: 1:20:41

I think a lot of it comes down to is how much time you actually have to be able to like grieve and process it, because there's none. Zero. You're just on to the next, especially for you guys as a corpsman and in your busy times. Like, there might be dudes that you're not as tight with in a platoon or whatever, but they're still your boys.

SPEAKER_03: 1:20:56

Yeah, there's dudes that I like I loved and they were my family. And then there's guys I was close with, and there was like everybody else, but like those guys are still like I damn, I've known you for five years. I'm not gonna like still have a connect, it's gonna hurt.

SPEAKER_02: 1:21:07

It hurts, like yeah, and you can't you have no time to like process, especially when shit's going down or whatever.

SPEAKER_03: 1:21:15

I think most of my stuff was all like training accidents or like just like doing something and guy, I mean guys get hurt all the time. So um, yeah. The initial invasion we didn't have a lot. We had some guys, I had an RPG go by me, dude. That was pretty cool. I found a Chrome AK, and dude, this is cool because I was like, I was a scout corpsman originally before I so like during Iraq, I got moved to HS Company. Oh to a log LAV instead of a scout LAV just because of the experience. I had to somebody had to like be in charge of like my company. It was me, dude. There's no way I could I couldn't have done it from the back of an LAV in combat situation. So uh I had to do all this like not dog and pony, like hearts and minds, like as a Corpsman Iraq, you're treating Iraqis too. Oh, really? Yeah, like these SEALs or CIA dudes shot. I remember like we were sitting there eating one day, like kind of by these buildings, kind of watch into a perimeter watch, and this like helix, which is like Toyota Helix, like a Toyota Tacoma, but it's like uh Iraq version, and it's bouncing across the desert towards us, and dudes no shit, Brian came out of like bushes, black baseball hats on backwards like this, dude, like uh 5'11 tactical pants, dude, and like polos, and smoked this dude. It like rolled up to our convoy, like with like perfect headshots in the deal. So then they're like, You gotta those dudes rolled up to me. I'm like, Who the fuck are you? And like, don't worry about it, you gotta go treat those guys. I was just like, well, fuck you, okay. Like, so anyway, I go over there and the dude they were all screaming, like one of the kids, like the teenager was dead, the a brother was driving, like a guy like your age. Like, if we were brothers, yeah, you were driving, and I was in the front seat, I was a hysterical one in the passenger seat, and we had to like just zip tie and shut him up. And then you you got a bullet in your neck, and it like went around the neck in the skin, and like came out over here, stayed under the skin. Not one jug like went in with a jugular wrist, you, and like didn't kill this dude. Just had like a weird scar. And you're like, Bullets do some random things. Our dudes would get auto injectors, Iraqis would find uh you never had a two pan chloride or the atropine injectors for like nerve agents. You guys didn't carry that shit? Our cormen did, we didn't. No, everybody had that when we were there. Really? Nerve agent stuff. You didn't carry any of that? No. So there's these like auto injectors.

SPEAKER_02: 1:23:50

Well, we were well, I'm after you, bro.

SPEAKER_03: 1:23:51

Oh, okay. Yeah, I didn't do the push. So, like, cause they thought we were gonna get hit with like biological stuff or nut, we had like stuff or both on us. And I remember guys would just throw them out, like, dude, I'd even wear a mask, dude. I didn't I didn't even care at that point. Like, we got gas, I'd even put a mask. I stopped putting my mask on. I didn't care. I was like, whatever. Like, oh so, but guys were throwing their injectors, dude, and Iraqis had find them and they didn't know what it was, and they'd push it and it would shoot. Uh, because it's like an auto injector. You hit it and it shoots a needle through, then it puts a chemical in you, and you're good. They would shoot it, it would go through their finger, stay on the other side of their fingernail, fill all that fluid up, which is like three or four cc's behind the finger, and they have these giant throbbing thumbs, and they're like wanting me to cut their thumbs off, and I'm like, bro, you just gotta suck it up. But they I got a lot of kids. Like, I think my nam was from saving a bunch of kids. Oh, so uh they bring you so a lot of Down syndrome, and so kids with like severe mental there was a lot of that over there. Yeah, so they would bring me those kids a lot and try to get me to fix them. And like I had to get my interpreter to explain like this is not like something I could fix. But like I would get a lot of kids who would have like malnutrition or like super high. They brought me a lot of kids had fevers. Like, I don't know why I dealt I've I figured it out though. Like, I got so many kids with fevers all the time, and I it could have been malaria, but you can't give infants pills. So I would take and br this is where I learned how to do this later on, too. It helped me through my career, but like I would grind up like Tylenol, or like half of a motion, or trying to find the doses and trying to break that off, make a powder with it, put it with like Kool-Aid powder, Marine Corps Kool-Aid powder, which is like grape, a lot of grape, and cherry, cherry and stuff, and mix it with a little bit of that and water and make like a syrup, and they would take it like cough syrup. Really? Yeah, for kids, and it worked. So that, or like I didn't have Benadryl cream, so I'd break up Benadryl and mix it with like petroleum jelly, and like for like weird stuff for kids, like rashes and stuff, and like just all that kind of stuff. Like so many. I did a ton of stuff for Villa dude. Like my CO was like, because we were there doing two where they were uh not riding, what's it called where you were like looting, where they're stealing generators and combines from like John Deere factories and like all this crazy stuff. You'd like see a stolen John Deere getting down the road with like 10 generators chained together just getting dragged, like a serpentine snake. Really? Yeah, and like they came over the net and like all looters shot on site, kind of deal. And my CEO's like, we are not shooting these people to put generators because they want generators and power in their mud huts. Like he's like, if if that is not our rules of engagement. So, like, I mean, that's the kind of dude he was. Like that's good, at least. Yeah, like there was no savagery, yeah. Thank God. Like, because you know that happens with units, and like dude, you see it. Like, these people are just like they've been oppressed, like they are oppressed. Want some freedom, freedom, and like uh so but I I like I thought like the initial invasion we were doing good, and it just went to hell. I think like Fallujah, all the the army kind of comes in and messes stuff up a little bit sometimes. I feel like um did you guys do Fallujah? No, no, my my guys did later on. My my unit did. You only did one to Iraq, right? Yeah, okay. They all that Fallujah is bad for us. We lost a lot of dudes. Yeah, that screwed all my Corpsman. All my like all my buddies are a corps, and that was like their that was their widow maker. They all killed themselves basically after that. Really? Yeah, no shit. Or mean like the um the suicide rate's pretty high. You don't no one talks about it. No, it's it's bad.

SPEAKER_02: 1:27:39

And if you think about it, it's like dude, they're dealing with all like cops and everybody here, but overseas, like you're dealing with uh like you said, nobody's calling you to come fucking hang out, like in their back of their vehicle. You're yeah, something's happened, so you it's just always negative that you're dealing with.

SPEAKER_00: 1:27:52

It's always, yeah, and then like Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:27:56

Oh well. Um Yeah, I think that's another thing too. Like it's hard when you lose a corpsman. I mean, not just from speaking from a corpsman, like it's hard on a unit, like for sure. It's like it it drains a lot, like because sometimes you guys think we're invincible. And like I run around like I was invincible all the time.

SPEAKER_02: 1:28:17

Like, because I felt cormen are like the cameraman, they never die. You know, it's like a it's like a joke, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:28:22

They do though, for sure, but it's rare. Yeah, like statistically, because there's only one in me.

SPEAKER_02: 1:28:27

There's one in a platoon, you know. You're not the guy, you're not. It's like, you know, like that's like the j we'd always have the joke. It's the the cameraman never dies. It's the same with the corpsman. You hear all these stories of like whole units getting freaking just their asses hand to him in the corner always pops out, and I mean obviously they're they're a target, but yeah, I can see it's probably pretty rough, especially when you lose one, and then that takes a lot of a lot of morale out of a platoon.

SPEAKER_00: 1:28:51

I think it does for sure.

SPEAKER_02: 1:28:52

And then um 'cause you're like your little stepbrother, you know? Like that's how you look at a corpsman. It's like you're little.

SPEAKER_03: 1:28:57

Yeah, I'm like a little like a brother. Like I feel like a little I've always like and um I mean I'm even littler than you. Like most Marines are always so much bigger than me for some reason. I'm like, damn, I'm a big dude. Like, I feel like sometimes I get around like all my like like at home, I'm a normal sized dude. And then I got like around all my Marines, like when we're at the pool and shit, and like I am the littlest dude there, like still, and you're like, what the fuck? Like, come on, man. Like, how you guys taller than me? Like, no, but it's funny, like, but it's always like they would defend my Marines would defend me no matter what. Oh, yeah. Like, I would go into a bar and somebody could bump me. We're like getting thrown out for a bar fight because of it. Like 100%. Like, I never gotta get a lot. I didn't get a lot of fights in once I was in the military as a corpsman because like Marines. Marines would never let like as soon as some like you're about to get hit, and all of a sudden, like some dude's like jumping in there getting hit, and like they're all killing him like bees, like a swarm of bees on him, and you're like you just felt powerful sometimes. I bet you're like, Whoa.

SPEAKER_02: 1:30:00

The whole platoon of personal security that just yeah yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:04

But you it is all but like that's a perk. Like, and then sometimes you don't pay for drinks. Like, I don't know, it was fun, dude. Like, yeah, I always got and the cool thing with cormon is like no matter what you do in most any any Marine Corps base, any Navy base, there has to be a like there's cormen there. So, like you ain't go anywhere. There's like some weird places corming you to go that nobody else can go. Huh. And you're just like, cool. Like, cool.

SPEAKER_02: 1:30:27

So you get out of the Marine Corps.

SPEAKER_03: 1:30:29

Yeah, I get out. I was a quantum instructor, uh a bunch of my Corpsman buddies, they died in a helicopter crash in Yuma. Really? Yeah, my buddy Brennan just had a little girl, and I talked to him like on Monday and Friday, he was dead. You're like, fuck. Oh shit. Yeah, it's hard. It it hit me. He was like my brother, like brother. We have like matching tattoos. Like there's like three, there's me and two other guys. They had matching, and then another guy, the four of us were like brothers, and two of them are dead. One of them killed himself, one was a helicopter crash. And Mike, I thought he was in that helicopter crash too, because they were both we they were together as SARC Wormen, and uh I thought they died. When well Brandon did die, but like uh that was it for me. Like, I already got accepted, I was already accepted to college. Like, I just threw it out there to see what would happen. I was at Quantico, I'd been there two years, like leadership was shit. My chief was a piece of shit. He was like super racist, like type deal, and like yeah, holding it. I don't know, it was just this weird like dynamic there. And I would have done 20, but Quantico killed it for me.

SPEAKER_00: 1:31:35

That sucks.

SPEAKER_03: 1:31:35

Yeah, I will I mean I would like I would have done 20, no questions asked.

SPEAKER_00: 1:31:40

Schoolhouse killed it for me, too.

SPEAKER_03: 1:31:41

Yeah, like dude, I will as a training command, dude. Like, people don't even realize like being with the grunt is one thing, like doing filled ops, training command filled up, dude. I'm in the field every single day for six months. I have never been in the field so long away from like my wife. Like, dude, you're only pushing lieutenant. I taught on and I loved it. I loved it. I love the like I just I drink the Kool-Aid, but like I couldn't come back and get any support from like my leadership. Yeah, and you're like, I can't keep coming out of my pocket on stuff, and like I'm sleeping in my truck, like we're having to take our own food to the field. Like, that's another thing. Since we were staff, we didn't get MREs. We had to buy our own groceries. That doesn't make any sense. I would do a two-week fill-dop or a week fill-op, and I had to take all my I had to take a cooler out to the field and cook my own food.

SPEAKER_00: 1:32:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:32:34

Like, I believe it. I was like, you can't like it's like$45 for a box of MREs or something. I don't know$80. I don't know it was expensive, but they take it out of my pay, and I'm like, I'm not, I'm not paying for MREs, dude. When I can buy a mountainhouse meal or something or cook ramen or like you know what I mean? It wasn't worth it to me. Yeah. So it's time to go. So I got out, I got accepted to Texas Tech. Um, I went there. I was bull riding in 29 Palms. I was like a big bull rider. Okay. Uh I wanted to go to like Texas to bull ride. So when I got accepted to tech, I thought I was gonna be like bull riding. Like, I was like, this is game on. And uh there was like no bull riding except at the university, and they didn't have any bull riders. So I remember one time, like I found the rodeo deal, I went and talked to them, and I have all my had all my own gear, and they're just like, Wait, you know how to ride bulls? And they're like, Yeah, like we'll give you a full ride scholarship. Really? And I was like, I've never even been on a bull, like doesn't even matter. We need a body on a bull. Because like, because at Texas Tech, they're all ropers, like Texas are all ropers. Like, I'm not a roper, I don't ride horses, that's whatever. No offense to you guys that ride horses like out there, like I like to bullshit. That's that's not my speed. So, like I'll I'll do I would do bareback horse, like bronch riding, no questions asked, but I'm not a rope, I'm not a roping. That's what I mean. So, like the guy's like, we just need a body, and I was like, cool, but I was 26 years old, and um, like so the rodeo is PBR, like pro professional bull riding is like the PBR, and now it's different. I think they do like teams or so. I don't watch bull riding. We watched some last night, but I haven't seen it in a while. But um, college is P B R C A. Pro collegiate or P R C something like collegiate. Okay, they won't insure you after 25 years old. It's not like NCAA, like where you just show up, you know what I mean? NCAA, you can be a 40-year-old man to play football. If I get hurt, I'm covered through the NCAA through legalities and insurance and all that. They don't cover you, they don't cover you, and they're like, if you want to ride, you have to have your own insurance. And I didn't know, like, also when you get out, you have a year's worth of insurance. I should have just done that because it would have been cheaper for me to pay for insurance in my first semester. Like, I just didn't do it. I was married, I was trying to be responsible, like it was stupid. Like, I should have bull road, yeah. Like, anyway, but I did it before, so like I have chucked off, like I said in the beginning of this, I wanted to be a doctor and a bull rider. I rode for three years in 29 Palms, and I was a corpsman, so I kind of count both of those as like I did it, like I don't have to prove shit. I mean, I know I can ride bulls, like you know what I mean. But next will be the race car driving. But anyway, um I turned that down, went to tech, and I started I saw like there's kayak fishing, and I was like, kayak fishing, that sounds cool. I have kayaks, like what does that involve? And so we signed up for a tournament, and my buddy, one of my best friends, he signed up with me, and me and him we go, we get like third place, and you're like, Oh, that was kind of addictive. Like, like we won. And then, like, I think St. Croix, like a company, a fishing company out of like Minnesota or Milwaukee, I can't remember where they're at, like uh Great Lakes area. Yeah, they reached out and they're like, Hey, do you want to do you being on our pro staff? You want rods? And I was like, dude, I just won one tournament. I got rods, like, I'm in. Like, so I moved to Tech, I get accepted to I go, I'm long story short, I ended up going back to I get accepted to Texas AM Corpus and I moved down there, go through a divorce. Like your second divorce. Second divorce. Okay. Going through my divorce and going to school and fishing, and I loved it. Like, I loved college. Like, I like it was so much fun. At tech, it was fun. I didn't know. I like I you could tell I was a marine dude. I went and I bought every color polo I could. Like, I would go to Dillard's and get them like in the wintertime. We were on sale for the like half off. So I'd go to class every day with like a polo and like jeans and boots. Like, I was dressed up every single day, and everybody was like bums. And then by the time I transferred after my first semester, it's I was like flip-flop, like YMN, like just normal. Yeah, yeah. I had to find yourself, yeah. Like be like, wait a minute, like, don't take this so serious. But tech was a huge school, and Tech's AM at the time and Corpus was a smaller school, so like 20 people in a classroom versus like 150. Yeah, and that's my speed. So I knew my professors every like I had them multiple times. I was friends with I was the older dude, I was like 26 when I went to college. And I graduated at 30. That was my goal. I had to graduate on my third 30th birthday. So uh went to Portugal in college, like for the Portuguese government, like did it all, bro. Did it all like best time ever. Like, I love I was single the whole time. Like, I love college, like so much fun. And if you backtrack, I was stationed in Corpus and they they have like an ROTC at that campus. Yeah, years before that I was ever there. I they were like, we need a corpsman to help just cover the ROTC kids repelling off the route, the science building. And I went there and I remember sitting by those pads, like looking around at this campus and be like, one day I'm coming here. Like, oh really? Yeah, there's so many, like I I'm a testosterone and like I'm driven by females. Yeah, I mean that just and my young, my young not now, I'm married, but like my younger self is driven by females. So like I'm like, oh dude, there's like girls everywhere here. That's where I'm coming to school. And then I ended up going there, and I like every time I walk by that science field, I gotta look over that roof, like, fuck yeah. Like, I came here. And I loved it. It was a best, and um I graduated and then I met you in Afghan.

SPEAKER_01: 1:38:21

Like, oh no shit.

SPEAKER_03: 1:38:22

Yeah, so like 2011, I graduated in December of 2011, and uh I'd been through the 08 crash, the 11 crash, like all the crash, I like a lot, like whatever money I had was gone. Yeah, is that what led to our government sucked and they don't know how to manage our funds, but um I lost everything. So when I graduated college, I was like, yo, I would like work for the Portuguese. I did all this shit. I was in the military, I had two clips, like all this shit. I was like, there's no way I'm not gonna get a job. I applied everywhere, dude. Like a hundred applications like a week, like everywhere. I would do anything. And I'd get like go and I would go. And like I remember one time I got a job. Like, I got hired. I was like, oh shit, like I got a job. And like I was so excited. And I go in there, and the dude was like, Yeah, come into my office. Like, it'd be like I interviewed you with you on Friday, and I come in on Monday for the job. And I'd go in and he's like, Tell me a little bit about yourself. I was like, like, what? And I was like, what? And I was like, okay, uh, I like to fish new college grad. I'm like, I was in the military. And he's like, Why would this why do you want this job? And I was like, You asked me all this stuff on Friday, dude. Like, you gave me this, I'm here to work. And he's like, Oh, okay, yeah, that's right. So I was like, So he's interviewing again, didn't even remember you? Didn't remember me. So I was like, Man, the turnover must be high here. Like I thought about that. And he's like, Oh, here, take this shirt, go in the room. You have to like put the shirt on and wear it. And I was like, It was a marketing job. And I was like, okay, so I go and I put it on, it's a polo, and I go into the bathroom and I look at it, and it's an old polo, just like the normal polo. And I look at it, and the collar had like those balls on it where it's like been rubbing on your skin and like it'd been worn a bunch. Like it gave you a used shirt, a used shirt, dude. And I looked at it and I was standing in the mirror, and I'd like and it slapped me like a giant dick to the face, dude. Like, not gonna lie. I remember looking in this like metal, I was in this tiny little bathroom, like half the size of your bathroom, dude.

SPEAKER_02: 1:40:25

And I remember looking in the mirror, like studio bathroom for people listening.

SPEAKER_03: 1:40:28

Oh, yeah, studio bathroom. So I'm like, I'm sitting in the bathroom and I'm like looking at myself in the mirror. You're like, dude, you're a combat vet. You've been through combat, you have been, you have a college degree, you've been through two divorces, like you have come, you've lived on your like I was thinking about all the shit I've overcome to get to this point. And they're like, this piece of shit out there thinks I'm gonna wear this dirty old shirt. Like, I don't even care. I don't like I don't even care what this job is anymore. I walked out there and I was like, here's your fucking shirt, man. And he's like, excuse me. I was like, dude, you just gave me a dirty shirt. I was like, you're an idiot. And I was like, he's like, you don't want this job? I was like, fuck your job. Pardon my language, sorry. And I left and I was like, never again. So then I only applied to jobs I wanted, and my buddy's like, dude, you should do security. So I just typed in private security, and Aegis popped up, and I sent an application off, and I took off for like a five-day kayak trip with my boys. We were kayaking the guad, like middle winter, and I remember I left my phone in my car, and I get to my car and I have like a lot of voicemails from a recruiter from Aegis, and they're like, Hey, like, are you gonna return my call? Like, and I was like, dude, I would I've been at I've been on a river for like five days. What's up? He's like, Oh, we would really like to offer you a position at Aegis, like da-da-da. So I went to DC, did all that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:41:45

And I met all hell broke loose.

SPEAKER_03: 1:41:50

Yeah, yeah, it was uh it was interesting.

SPEAKER_02: 1:41:54

That's the only way I could describe that job, is it was very interesting. Do you remember us when we first got to Afghan? They didn't even know we existed. And we sat at that villa hotel thing at the roses with the with the pool for for weeks, and they lost my whole entire security package. It's like a top second. Oh, yeah, the original hard pack, and they're they call me into the the HR department. They're like, hey, we don't have your secret clearance package and everything. I'm like, uh, I gave it to you like three weeks ago. They're like, we don't have anything on record here, and they lost my whole entire package in Afghan.

SPEAKER_03: 1:42:34

That's wild. Gurkhas. Gurkhas, bro.

SPEAKER_02: 1:42:36

We gotta talk Gurkhas.

SPEAKER_03: 1:42:38

Okay, so Afghanistan. That was interesting, don't you?

SPEAKER_02: 1:42:43

Let's just start with training. Plius? Pli Plias, New Mexico. CIA Black Side, I swear all my life. It has to be. Had to be. So the only way I could describe this place. Imagine an old nuke town that they had built to like set up those fake cameras and those videos where like the town gets wiped away, but the camera somehow never does. Super weird, right? Weird.

SPEAKER_03: 1:43:03

Anyways, it was like cars are there, then they're not there. Yeah, you've seen that one? Yes. Anyway, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:43:08

Super weird town, like swing sets, everything's these cookie cutter little homes.

SPEAKER_03: 1:43:13

Yeah, they're multicolor, like pastel, like the whole textbook. I'm gonna drop a nuke on this town.

SPEAKER_02: 1:43:19

In the middle of nowhere.

SPEAKER_03: 1:43:20

Where it's probably been nuked before. Hundred percent. Those people were like nuked at least once.

SPEAKER_02: 1:43:26

The people that lived on this little base are so weird.

SPEAKER_03: 1:43:30

So weird. So we're we they're all related. They have to be related. They were all related, right? They're all sisters. They're all sisters, I think, or cousins.

SPEAKER_02: 1:43:37

Well, that's what made it so embarrassing about me having to buy condoms there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:43:41

Do you want to talk about that story? Yeah, I think. Yeah, I don't, it doesn't matter to me. Okay. So, like, you want to tell that story? I don't know how to it's your story more though than mine. I was just like, you don't want my piss, bro. Like I have Rainbow.

SPEAKER_02: 1:43:59

Yeah, we get to this course and everything's going fine. And like a couple weeks into this course, they call me to the HR office, and I go down the HR, and they're like, hey, you popped on a piss test. And I was like, I popped on a piss test. I'm like, I don't do drugs. And I'm like, well, what did I pop on? Like, that doesn't make any sense. I was genuinely confused. I'm like, what the fuck? I don't smoke weed, like, I don't do coke, I don't do anything. I was I'm clean. Like, I know I'm clean. And she writes down this long ass word on this piece of on this on this, you know, little sticky note. Yeah. And I leave the HR office and I type in like the first like four letters of this scientific name she gave me, and DECA pops up. I was like, oh that dude. I was like, damn it, I popped on steroids.

SPEAKER_03: 1:44:44

Well, hold let's backtrack this though. You're what you're failing to mention is they pulled, they're like, they came in that classroom, remember that? And they read off a list of names. And it's like the seven meat heads in our class. I was giant at that. Yeah, dude. All it's like, there's all of us, and it's like, Brian Morse, blah, blah, blah. So and so, so and so, so like the six meat heads get up and leave, and we're like, yeah, no shit. We all know what they got busted for.

SPEAKER_02: 1:45:10

That was huge, too.

SPEAKER_03: 1:45:12

You were huge then, dude.

SPEAKER_02: 1:45:13

That was massive, and so yeah. So then I'm like, I come back and I'm like, fuck, I popped on a piss test. Like, what do I do? And then I think it was you. We're like, yo, you got a piss at a condom. And I was like, Well, you get a piss for me?

SPEAKER_03: 1:45:26

And you were like, no. Like, I love you, dude, but you don't want this piss. They're gonna be like, Well, you only pop for one thing earlier. I was kidding.

SPEAKER_02: 1:45:36

How do you have ketamine in your ketamine?

SPEAKER_03: 1:45:38

I smoked a lot of pot, I think, back then. Yeah, I was in college, bro. Yeah, and so this dude's my girlfriend, not this dude refuses.

SPEAKER_02: 1:45:46

He's like, You're better off not using my piss. And then my roommate had my back, and so then I'm like, where the hell do I get a condom out here? Because we're in the middle of the desert. Middle of the desert. And so their only people on this base are dudes.

SPEAKER_03: 1:46:02

Dudes.

SPEAKER_02: 1:46:03

And we're and the people that work there, and the people that work there, which are all sand creatures.

SPEAKER_03: 1:46:09

Sand creatures.

SPEAKER_02: 1:46:10

So I'm trying to convince you to go buy me condoms because I'm too embarrassed. He wouldn't do it. So I go to this little PX and I gotta buy like these lube free free like condoms. The only pack. Was the only because you walked with me there.

SPEAKER_03: 1:46:25

I went over there with you. It was like a three-pack.

SPEAKER_02: 1:46:27

And yeah, it was the only pack they had in there, and they're looking at me because there's nobody else there. So now I think that they think I'm gay because I'm buying-think I was banging me.

SPEAKER_03: 1:46:37

Damn it. Shit, bro. All these years I never thought about this because it's just me and you, dude. You're like my raw dog condoms over here. Like, and I'm just all here smiling in my head, laughing, like this fucking guy, and those ladies are probably like looking at both of us like look at that guy.

SPEAKER_02: 1:46:57

He's having sex with him. I was just giant, dude. You were this tiny little surfer.

SPEAKER_01: 1:47:05

Poor guy. Now that we think about it, I think about it right now. When you say it out loud, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:47:14

So I'm gonna bank you. You are gonna bang me. I'm not gay. It's not gay, as long as you don't make eye contact, right?

SPEAKER_02: 1:47:22

So, yeah, so I buy these condoms and do this walk of shame, and we're planning this thing out. Then my roommate he pisses in a water bottle. I I fill the water this condom with the his my roommate's piss, and I tie it, and then I tie this thing to my wiener with dental floss.

SPEAKER_03: 1:47:41

Oh, I remember that.

SPEAKER_02: 1:47:43

So uncomfortable. It was the most awkward, like tying it tight enough so it wouldn't like work itself down. And uh, so I leave a class early. Well, you guys all go to training. I'm like, okay, I gotta go do this piss test. I got this this condom filled freaking with piss tied to my dick, and I'm doing like this penguin walk because I'm like, it's all super awkward. And halfway of walking to the HR, the condom breaks full of piss, and I have no idea. And all of a sudden, I just feel this warm, wet sensation just all the way down to my knee, and I am covered in Ryan's piss. My roommate.

SPEAKER_03: 1:48:22

Is that when you realize you're like golden showers is my thing or not my thing? Yeah, nothing.

SPEAKER_02: 1:48:28

And so these dudes come pulling up in this van and they're like, yo, what the hell? And I got piss all over me. I'm like, get get out of the way. I get in the van, we go back to the house. I have to do it all again the next day, but I didn't tie it to me this time. I put it in my pocket. He pissed for me again. I tie this condom up, put it in my pocket. I got one condom left. I'm tripping because there was no more in the little convenience store. I remember that. Yeah, and I get there and they had a little mobile piss test.

SPEAKER_03: 1:48:53

Didn't they bring in a special van for you guys, right?

SPEAKER_02: 1:48:55

Yeah, like Yeah, and I go walking up because they canceled it the first day when my condom broke, they had cancelled it. Thank God. So it bought me an extra day. Oh, that's why. Okay. And then the next day the mobile guy came in and I turned the corner and there was like 30 people standing in line, and it was every giant meathead on the base. All failed. Everybody failed. And so, because that's when they were cracking down on steroids because of Blackwater. That's how they were got in all that trouble. They claim like roid rage and shit. So, yeah, so now this company's cracking down, and they they they everybody I was on a cycle or whatever popped. Dude, that place was absolutely wild. And they I got in, and then all the instructors like, what'd you pop on? What are you, what you what are you running? Remember, they're hounding me the whole time. Just tell us what you're on, you're good. Same team, dude. We're all contractors, man. I was like, I don't know what they're talking about. It was weird. It was a fluke, it was weird shit. Did you think Jimmy Green was CIA?

SPEAKER_03: 1:49:48

A hundred percent. Right. That dude was the scariest dude I've ever met in my life.

SPEAKER_02: 1:49:51

Was he the one that drank the buttermilk coffee or whatever?

SPEAKER_03: 1:49:54

Blackbeard, the Blackbeard. He was I would like to look him up, actually. I would love to do to like talk to him to see what he was doing. They were doing, they were had uh was it VRX where they're doing the going into countries and rescuing like kids. Yeah, yeah. They were doing some crazy shit. Crazy shit. Like that is one of the only dudes that I've ever met where you're like, I don't want to fuck with that dude. I don't want to fuck with him. Like there's a lot of dudes I get in a firefight with. Like, again, like I'm not scared a lot. Like, I was like, alright, I I got I could stay on my own on this. Then you see him, and you're like, Jimmy would smoke you in an alley with a knife before you even drew a pistol. For sure. That type of dude. These were our instructors. It was that was that dude was cool. I had Matters, but there's very few dude. I'm like, I respect the shit out of that dude. Oh, and he came to Afghan when we were there too, and he was super cool.

SPEAKER_02: 1:50:38

Dude, we threw a snake on you. You could tell that story.

SPEAKER_03: 1:50:42

So these assholes, it's like mixed service, mixed service, it's all like all Marines, basically. Almost all of them.

SPEAKER_02: 1:50:52

So like instantly you're like Well, we all the Marines kind of stuck together because the Air Force and the cops and all that were so we were like the old guys and the cop, like all those guys kind of stuck together in the Marines, and I stuck with you guys.

SPEAKER_03: 1:51:04

Yeah. Like we had me, you, Rob, Chad, Chad, a few others. Yeah, and then that was like our click, though. I anyway, I was doing something, and you guys are like, Doc, doc, somebody's hurt, somebody's hurt. Like, I don't remember who it was, but they grab I think it was uh anyway. They get my ass in there and I walk into the house, and I'm like, everybody's standing there, and I'm like, man, something's off. And before I could even like hesitate, it's like I just felt something on me, and I grab it, and it smells like the most awful thing I've ever smelled in my life, and it's a rattlesnake. And I scream like a girl. There's a video of it, so I can't say I didn't scream like a damn girl, but I screamed like a girl and I flung this thing across the room. Well, the roadkill and Plius is like there was dead snakes everywhere. Because the meat heads would do like the driving training in the streets and they'd run them over, and marines don't know how to do anything like they're without hitting a snake. So these snakes were out there for like days, and this asshole gets like a snake that's been in the sun for days. It was a giant, it was like mush inside of it, dude. It was like goo, and I fling it, it gets all over their houses. That's what you guys get. But I had that all over me, and every damn year, because these dudes posted it on Facebook and tagged it, like what almost 20 years or 15 years ago. Something. I still every year I get that reminder. And I'm like, I have to watch the video, and I just laugh. And it's so bad because it's so old and grainy now. Like, oh, but anyway, yeah. Plius is interesting, and then they nail us. Remember, we're all gonna go home for like three months and like chill and then come back, and then they're like, hey, you guys are all leaving from here. And you're just like, wait, what? Yes. Like, I need to go home and see my girl before I'm like going to Afghan for three months.

SPEAKER_02: 1:52:54

And then they fly us to Kabul.

SPEAKER_03: 1:52:57

No, we go to Phoenix.

SPEAKER_02: 1:52:58

Did we go to Phoenix?

SPEAKER_03: 1:52:59

We go to Phoenix, strip clubs in Phoenix. Yep. Then the In N Out What's your challenge in Phoenix? Dudes were getting girls off Craigslist. Like I wasn't there for this. I went home. Oh, that's right. You took off. Oh, dude. So yeah. Like, it was wild. Yeah, well, I I missed all this. So that was wild. And then then we flew to Atlanta from there. We went from Phoenix to Atlanta. Atlanta, Chad, my old roommate, he had a girl come in and meet him in the parking garage of Atlanta Airport. And he goes out there and knocks boots. And I got his bag next to me, and we're boarding. He was gone for like two hours. And they start boarding us. And we get on the plane. I'm freaking out, dude. You know what I mean? I get freaked out. I'm like, somebody's gonna be late. We're gonna miss something. I'm like, I get all like I'm kind of a nerd. So I get like I freaked out. And he like sh they like held the plane, they get him on the plane. And I'm like, dude, really? And he's like, oh, it's so worth it, bro. So worth it. And it's like chatty son of a bitch. And then we all gotta that uh Kabul. And I rem this is funny, dude. This is funny on that story, too. So we land in Dubai, yeah. Like Dubai airport's gangster. Like Dubai is awesome, period. Like, if you're got money, and uh we're in Dubai airport, we're all drinking at like the Irish place, the Irish bar, whatever. And I remember we had like a 10-hour layover, and I was just like just being my auntie self, and Chad was like, dude, take a Vikadin. No, no, no, what was it? Xanax, and I was like, I don't take pills. He's like, dude, you just need to chill out a little bit. Take a Xanax, and I took that Xanax, and I remember like shooting it with a beer, and then I don't remember anything else. And then I remember when the wheels hit Afghanistan and they touched down in Kabul. I remember like waking up, like, oh shit, what's going on here? And like drool all my whole face on my thing. It was like sticky, sweaty, and like smelled bad. And I'd fallen asleep on this red bearded Afghani the whole entire flight, dude, to Kabul. And I don't remember getting on the plane. I don't remember sitting in my I don't remember shit, dude. I slept on this Afghani, like he was an old man. I like I was like, oh my bad. Like, I'm so sorry. I didn't know what to do. I was like, oh shit. And then we land. You weren't there for that? No. Because then they wouldn't let us have our bag. They're like, you need to do our stamp your passports, and it but it's like chicken wire fences, and I was just like, fuck you. I don't have time for this. And I just grabbed my bag, and then like everybody was like, fuck you, and grabbed our bag. So like our whole crew just grabbed our bags and walked outside. Well, because you didn't fly in with Peck, right? No.

SPEAKER_02: 1:55:41

Okay, so I flew in Chad. Yeah, I didn't fly in with you guys. I flew in the next group over.

SPEAKER_03: 1:55:45

All that group, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:55:46

Uh our name, all those dudes who like we got there. You know why? Because they lost my package in the space. You gotta stay. And they sent me home to fit finish it again, and then they lost it over. That's what happened. That's why I missed you guys. I was like a day or two behind you.

SPEAKER_03: 1:55:58

That far behind us. No. But we got there, and like we the whole crew, like 20 of us, just went out into the parking lot. And we're like, oh shit, that's not a good idea. Yeah, because now you're out and standing. Now we're in Afghanistan. And then some dude like ran over. He was like, We're with you're with us, and I'm like, Where's our guns, bro? Like, how do I know I'm with you?

SPEAKER_02: 1:56:17

That was a really weird feeling landing in in Afghan without anything, and then you're like looking at the game. We didn't get guns, dude, for like a long time.

SPEAKER_03: 1:56:24

Dude, yeah, because we were partying at the villa. The villa with the rose bushes. Um, that was the trippiest thing ever, dude. Like going into like a thing that sold Dre Beats and had like a Olympic-sized swimming pool and like good ass food, French fries, like Coca-Cola, like we had real food. Yeah like that was. We thought it was baller, dude. Baller. And I was like, dude, this is car, dude. Every day we didn't do anything, we just sat by the pool for like two months, right? Like at least. We just laid out every day. Laid out every day, and I was like, dude, this is contractor life. I was like, fuck, I can do this forever.

SPEAKER_02: 1:56:58

I was like, pictures, there's me used to be dad laying at the pool just like tans rolling. All my boys, like, yo, you gotta get on the job, dude.

SPEAKER_03: 1:57:05

This is the greatest job ever.

SPEAKER_02: 1:57:07

This is dope. I was like, I'm gonna do this for 20 years. 100%. And then little did we know.

SPEAKER_03: 1:57:12

Little did we know when they offered us to go to the other base to get, what was it? Not eight, uh, that other contract company, we were replacing them. I went early. Armor group. Yeah, I went to replace them.

SPEAKER_02: 1:57:24

See, I was there for this too.

SPEAKER_03: 1:57:26

Yeah, and we got all their shit. Remember that? We were buying their TVs for like 50 bucks. And then so that's where I made out like a bandit too. As soon as guys are like, I waited till they were all leaving, and then I got all their food. Because food is a better currency than a TV. I could store case and I had cases of food from that. Yeah, and I was just like trading that shit out constantly. Because I can't eat Gurkha food. Like God, it was so bad. Yeah, I don't need it raining from my butthole every single day. Like so bad, bro. So bad. So horrible. Yeah, why should we be subjected and have to eat that food? Like that was fucked up.

SPEAKER_02: 1:58:00

I thought that was the majority of us are Americans working here, and then they made us eat the the the Gurkha food.

SPEAKER_03: 1:58:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:58:06

That was just what? Okra, rice.

SPEAKER_03: 1:58:10

I think it was just prison slob. It was awful, dude. You'd get sick. And then they didn't wash their hands. Like, Gurkhas are so gross. Like, anyway. Oh my god, dude.

SPEAKER_02: 1:58:20

These dudes would I think I've told it on this on here before, like the Afghanis that were running the chow halls, so they would just sneeze into our bowls of food and everybody was sick, bro.

SPEAKER_03: 1:58:30

You remember the the We all got like dysentery dysentery. We're all locked in our rooms. Like, we got I couldn't even finish my dude. I was in my room for like three days, and they're getting pissed. I'm like, dude, I am not sitting in an embassy booth, like running to the bathroom. Like, I'm a banning, I'm gonna be abandoned, I'll get fired. Like, no way.

SPEAKER_02: 1:58:45

Yeah, it was horrible, man. We all got sick. And then so the Gurkhas. How do you explain Gurkhas?

SPEAKER_03: 1:58:52

Um Gurkhas are like our first line of defense in case we got attacked at the embassy. I think they were like they're the not canon fodder. Decoys. Decoy?

SPEAKER_02: 1:59:04

Yeah, like they're the first yeah, first line of defense.

SPEAKER_03: 1:59:06

They're way out there, too. I mean, we remember having to work walk way out to the Gurkha thing, you're like, Jesus.

SPEAKER_02: 1:59:13

Yes, it these so the the history of Gurkhas are like these supposed to be these badass Nepalese warriors that like guard the Queen of England, they're like her personal security. You Google Gurkhas and there's pictures of these dudes in berets, and they got these cool swords and shit. So the whole entire time they're telling us, like, dude, you guys are working with these Nepalese warriors. We're like, fuck, this is badass. Alright, cool. Like, this is dope. Well, there's different tiers of these warriors, and then at the very bottom of the barrel are like the farmers that are just trying to get out of their life out of poverty and got a job, and that's what we ended up getting stuck with.

SPEAKER_03: 1:59:51

Yeah, I got my Gurkhas are probably all pitchfork farmers. 100%.

SPEAKER_02: 1:59:55

They were all old men, yeah. They're all like 45 plus, 60 years old. Old, some of them could barely even move. I mean, getting them in and out of vehicles or moaning and grunting, and it did it was old, dude.

SPEAKER_03: 2:00:06

All of them older than us now, like by a long shot. Yeah. Long shot. And then two, like, no offense, dude. They were single task oriented people. Yes. If I wanted a Gurkha to open a gate when a car drove up, I'd have a Gurkha stand there and thumb up a guy so the other guy could hit the button. Because that Gurkha that saw the car pull up didn't have enough bandwidth to hit the button. You know what I mean? And then so, like, if you ever played that game Lemmings as a kid, that's a Gurkha. That's why I was so good with Gurkhas. It's because like remember Lemmings? Yeah. So it was like you had to get a one to dig a hole and one to make a bridge, and like they all single task oriented, and like that's what we had to do with our Gurkhas. Remember that dude for the check stations? Like, a Gurkha had to hit a button, a Gurkha had to do a thumbs up, a Gurkha had a scan, a Gurkha had to there was like nine Gurkhas to open a gate, dude. You're like, like, what do you mean, three of you can't do this? Like, this is a three-person job. It would take forever. Ever. Oh my god, dude, we're so mad.

SPEAKER_02: 2:01:08

We'd be at the front gate, just let us just honking the horns of our trucks. It just god, what a shit show. And those dudes would blow snot rockets and shower babies everywhere. Everywhere. That's why we were all sick, man. You're gonna talk about us getting our licenses? Oh my god. Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 2:01:28

Let me let me start it how I this is the reason I did it. So, like the first time we had to go to the embassy, there's these giant buses.

SPEAKER_02: 2:01:37

Mad Max buses.

SPEAKER_03: 2:01:38

Madmus bucks is like wires all over them. The only way in and out is the back door, which is a death trap. It's a death trap. You're locked, you get locked in there by the driver. And the driver's like in an 18-wheeler cab, it's like a bench. Literally a mad max bus. It's a madmass bucks, yeah. And like you're in an 18-wheeler cab towing this body that is just like a shell that has a bench down the whole side, it's probably 40 foot long. And like I got in that and I was like instantly claustrophobic. It was hot as shit. They you couldn't control when you came in and out of it. And I'm a control freak about my safety. And I was like, if we got hit by an RPG, I'm in this thing, and I'm not coming out. Because the idiot driving, it's not gonna let me out. Like, you know what I mean? It's his job to let you out, he's not letting you out. Yeah. So as soon as they're like, who wants to drive these things? I was like, yo, like that's a no-brainer because I'm never riding in the back. I'll quit. Like, I'm not riding in the back of that. So that's why I was like, I'm on. I just wanted to drive because I like being in charge. So these dudes, go ahead. So me and this dude, I think we were the first. Who I went first or you went first? I went first. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 2:02:48

We have video of this somewhere.

SPEAKER_03: 2:02:49

Yeah, and did you go first? No, you did. I did, and they were pissed because I like hit all the jerse barriers. I got it up on like four-wheel, I got it up on its side. Like you ran over a giant pallet of yeah, I ran over a bunch of shit.

SPEAKER_02: 2:03:04

I did it crunching. It's in the middle of the night. I I turn on the radio, I turn the radio on, it's blasting the loudest hodge music, just screaming. There's dazzled bedazzled shit and like tassels hanging from like imagine just getting into some Afghani old man's truck. That's what we did in this driving car.

SPEAKER_03: 2:03:22

He was in the middle, and that's another thing. It was me, the Afghani, and then you. And he was stuck in the middle of us. And it's like we had already fine-tuned our stick. We're like, we can play off each other, like if we're giving somebody a hard time, like we just feed off that energy, and like it's a it's just a very fun thing to do. And we're just like, this guy is scared, like he doesn't know what's going on, and then I'm like, we're switching and we're like laughing, and like it's too loud, it's chaos. And the instructors are like, What the fuck was that? And they're like, You can't even drive this thing, and they're like, Oh, you're a corpsman, like, here's your license, and then it was your turn.

SPEAKER_02: 2:04:01

No, you the first thing you did is put it reverse, it smashed into a wall, yeah, and it crashes, and then you turn not like the go around the jersey barrier, like the Hesco barrier, you like drove through it and scrape the whole side, rip all of this metal cage wide open. People are screaming at you. I'm got the music full blast. There's red lights, so you can't see out of the cab, and then I'm just telling you, I'm just pointing in directions that I can't see fuck all either. This little Afghani man sitting between us, like, no, no, no, no. You're just smashing over everything. That's how I roll. Yeah. And then I get in and I'm like, hold my beer.

SPEAKER_03: 2:04:45

So but you did so. That was the deal too. Like, we're about to switch. We're like high-fiving the Afghanis here, and you open his glove box and you find his Quran, and you're like, Oh, look at this. And he freaks out and just bails. And like, he wouldn't even like when you went to drive, he wasn't in there with us, right? It was just me and you. I thought, yeah, and we switch, and you are like, hold my beer, and like made it even worse.

SPEAKER_02: 2:05:13

I was like, we can jump this thing. And these instructors could not control us. I gave you give us our license. Yeah, so I'm mobbing this armored fucking vehicle, and these times smashing into everything, just trying to one up you, like, oh yeah, you got that. And these dudes are like, Great job, guys. Like, here you go. And they didn't want to go.

SPEAKER_03: 2:05:37

They're like, they were gonna have to drive or something if they didn't get drivers.

SPEAKER_02: 2:05:40

So they're just like, Yeah, we're not we were literally replacing them, and they were supposed to be shadowing us to teach us how to drive. They're like, Oh, they're like, You're good.

SPEAKER_03: 2:05:48

Yeah, never, I never saw them again.

SPEAKER_02: 2:05:50

No, that was the last time I ever saw them. And boy, did we tear up dude?

SPEAKER_03: 2:05:55

So that was another thing. So, like, every day we had to get up and drive to the embassy, and that was a nightmare in itself. Like, the police blocked the road for you. And do you want to talk about what you used to do to win the hearts and minds of the Afghani police who were trying to block the traffic so people wouldn't blow us up and kill us? This dude, there was a giant stop sign, it's like seven foot tall at least, and it was mounted like really nice the first time. And you took a corner, like they had their guard shack there with a stop sign to stop all the cars, like had warnings like, don't leave the Americans alone, like all that, and you smacked it, dog, and I would be behind you, and you would clip it with your bus just right, and you got good at it. You did it every day, dude. That thing would go flying, and they would every day it'd be different, like it'd be hammered out because it'd be all dented up. Dude, by the end, it was just like warped, they're holding it up together with sticks, and like it was not, it was just a shit show.

SPEAKER_02: 2:06:56

I made dude, those dudes would jump out in front and they would wave, and you know so in my defense, I would hit this like corner, it was like a roundabout, but I would like wouldn't go into the roundabout, I would skirt the roundabout, and the the speed that I would take this, the my bus would just drift. I could have probably have missed, but I would angle it just right, and I'd go through this corner, and they had this little police checkpoint, and I would crush through every type. So by the like within like two weeks, they would just they had to like duct taped and it was bad. I would fly through there every day and just wreck their shit, and they would get so mad. I tore the whole front of that fucking vehicle up, smashing that sign every day.

SPEAKER_03: 2:07:41

But I had to block you a lot of the times because the other guys in the convoy would rat you out, and they're like, Bam, hit the sign again. I was like, no, no, no, I was right behind him.

SPEAKER_02: 2:07:49

I always ran because they'd always tell on me, dude.

SPEAKER_03: 2:07:51

There's a bunch of blue falcon ass bitches there, dude.

SPEAKER_02: 2:07:56

Just dude. There was. We did you ever live at the Texas house? No, I did the villas. That was the Texas house. Oh, did we call it the Texas house?

SPEAKER_03: 2:08:04

It was like four-story, you pulled into our courtyard, we had our own in-rap. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 2:08:08

Yeah, because we got fired from there.

SPEAKER_03: 2:08:10

Yeah, yeah. So we went from driving that shitty thing, then they moved us to a villa, which was the Texas. It was like a four-story mansion.

SPEAKER_02: 2:08:18

And then everybody they moved out of there was like us. They were like, you guys are gonna go over there. Over there. Like, we can't borderline control you and you.

SPEAKER_03: 2:08:29

Yeah, you're in town now, and you're gonna be the QRF in case something happens at the embassy.

SPEAKER_02: 2:08:34

So these dudes get the bright idea to put me, you, Chad, Rob, Chad, Rob, all the dudes at the dude, everybody that was a problem. They're like, we're gonna put you guys in town as QRF.

SPEAKER_03: 2:08:45

We're like one house together. Let's go. Like, wait, we can buy hash in town, we have our own vehicle. Like, remember that dude? I remember like there was that nerd who was in charge of our vehicles, the older guy, and I'd be like, Hey man, I'm gonna go to the NBC to go explore and check. No, you're not. And I was like, why? He's like, last time you borrowed the MRAP, you were gone for like nine hours. And I'd be like, My day off, bro. You got pizza. Yeah, remember we tell him we're like, hey, dude, we'll pick you a pizza supreme or something. You want a pizza? Yeah, yeah. You better not be gone for more than two hours. Like, sure, sure, sure. Old day me and you on Jabalabad Road looking for Ted 2. Remember that shit, dude? Flip-flops, M4s, Glocks, Hawaiian shirts, and shorts. Like, it's me and you in an MRAP stole with the lights on, dude. Just mobbing down Jabalabad Road, dude. Like towards Pakistan.

SPEAKER_02: 2:09:32

Just in downtown Kabul.

SPEAKER_03: 2:09:34

Just bro, we were so many cool places.

SPEAKER_02: 2:09:37

We went to like that flea market shit we went to. Like, dude, leave it to you and I to just roll up in an MRAP and just hop out and start shopping.

SPEAKER_03: 2:09:48

And it doesn't even lock. We would just leave the lights on and abandon it, dog, and just go inside to go buy shit, like in a field, a tent. Like it'd be like a flea market. Do Americans roll up a flea market with a backwards hat like this with an M4 over their shoulder and a clock on their hip. Pull diplomatic security shirts. I don't even think I wore that. I think I was wearing like skinny water culture fly fishing shirts at the time.

SPEAKER_02: 2:10:13

Saltwater crew or some shit. Yeah, bro. We were so dumb. Just didn't give a shit. Yeah, we got we got in trouble because we were gone all day and we didn't bring them back any pizza. Got mad wouldn't let us check the vehicle out anymore.

SPEAKER_03: 2:10:28

Afghan was cool, but like No, it wasn't, bro. There was some stuff that was cool, but like the people we work for sucked.

SPEAKER_02: 2:10:34

Oh God. And then this dude and I, one of the greatest things I think to this day I've ever been a part of original meme. The company that we were working for screwed up and sent a mass email out that to the whole entire company. So now this guy and I and one other, we were like like the light bulb goes off like, oh, we have everybody's email now. Like they fucked up. Copy paste. So we copy all the cop all the emails. And so this company was garbage. Like they were screwing everything up, nobody was getting paid. There was a while.

SPEAKER_03: 2:11:05

Yeah, we were getting paid for a while.

SPEAKER_02: 2:11:06

We weren't even getting paid, so then they were mad at us because we would we refused to go to work and it wasn't going leave, like a bunch of weird shit. Yeah, a bunch of weird shit. So we were like, fuck it, let's just start roasting these dudes. So we had one of our buddies with like an artist, and these were like the original memes back in the day. So if something like significant happened or everybody was bitching about like a certain supervisor or some stupid shit that would happen, we would me, this dude, and another would like make up these cartoon memes about what was going on on base, and we called it Aegis Underground.

SPEAKER_03: 2:11:38

Yeah. And the what was it, blue falcon at gmail.com or deal.

SPEAKER_02: 2:11:43

Yeah, it was bluefalcon at gmail.com. And we would come up with these crazy badass like original memes of the company.

SPEAKER_03: 2:11:52

So it happened like that day.

SPEAKER_02: 2:11:53

It was on it within a day.

SPEAKER_03: 2:11:55

It had to be inside, like you know what I mean? They they knew we were there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 2:12:00

And so ever something would happen, like me hitting the fucking police. Dude, remember the date?

SPEAKER_03: 2:12:06

We made fun of everything.

SPEAKER_02: 2:12:07

Everything we roasted, and these guys, all of our supervisors are freaking out, trying to find out who who who it was. I think they knew immediately that they thought it was you 100%.

SPEAKER_03: 2:12:16

Yeah, but when you left, they were so confused. Yeah, we kept it going, and then I just stopped messing with it. Your Bob didn't have the password, I don't think.

SPEAKER_02: 2:12:25

Yeah, because I got fired. Only job I've ever been fired from.

SPEAKER_03: 2:12:29

That was a sad day.

SPEAKER_02: 2:12:30

It was, dude. I was bummed. I mean, we were just getting our groove too. Like, lose your crew. Like, yeah. Fuck. Yeah. So yeah, then we got I got fired, and then fuck, you stayed on for a little while. Yeah. Until I went on leave. And then you didn't go back.

SPEAKER_03: 2:12:44

Yeah, that's what happened. I went on leave. I was and I had to have like before I went, I had like a crown. Like a what like uh they put like a fake crown on, like a temporary crown. Oh, on your tooth? On my tooth. Like they took a tooth, they put a crown on whatever that means, like a root canal at a root canal. Yeah. So they did a crown, like a temporary, and when I was coming home from leave, I had an appointment to get the new crown put on. And it was like two days before I was supposed to after I was coming back, or something like that. So I I went to the Shire and like changed my deal. They're like, You're covered, don't worry about it. Like, get your tooth fixed, and you're just coming back. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's not two days isn't anything. Well, I remember like sitting there the day before I was supposed to get my crown, like the day I was a maybe the day after I was supposed to originally fly out, and some headhunter from DC called me for ages, and he's like belittling me, like, hey, you mother effer, like, where the F are you? You think you can just do whatever you want? Like, you have you missed your flight, you're costing like all this stuff, just like talking to me like I was a dog. Like, I was like, dude, who the fuck are you? First of all, like I don't I've never even I don't know who you are. You're not my boss, you're nobody. And he's like, I am your boss, da da da. And I was like, click. And then my phone rings again. And I'm like, Are you gonna chill out a little bit? And he's like, Hootie, click, calls me back again, and I was like, bro, if you don't change your tone, mother click. And then like nothing for five minutes. I was like, guess what? I'm a job anymore. And he called me and he's like, Motherfucker, who do you think you I'm like, I'm the dude that's about to tell you to go fuck yourself and I quit. And he's like, huh? And I was like, I quit. And I just hung up my phone, and that was me leaving Aegis. Good for you. Yeah, I was like, you can't call me and talk to me. Like, I was like, dude, I was like, call Sneed. He gave me permission. Like, there's pay I have paperwork here. Like, I can fax it. I'm on the water right now. I can't get it to you. You should have let I don't even know who you are, bro. Like, he was like some dude out of DC.

SPEAKER_02: 2:14:44

That was an interesting period.

SPEAKER_03: 2:14:47

And I started my guide business right after that.

SPEAKER_02: 2:14:49

Yeah. Yeah. You did. You've talked about an Afghan.

SPEAKER_03: 2:14:51

Yeah, I mean, that's what I was there for was to save up money to start my guide business, to buy my boat, to buy the You've always done everything that I've I've ever known you to talk about.

SPEAKER_02: 2:14:59

Yeah. Since then to now. You've always been like, I'm gonna do it. I do something, I'm doing it, dude. And you do it every time.

unknown: 2:15:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 2:15:06

I like watching that. It's pretty cool to be able to because I feel like so many, especially vets, man, like not to like change subject, but it's so sad to watch. Like vets have so much potential because they've gone through so much, right? Like, even if you didn't deploy, I'm just talking veterans just in the military just understanding structure, structure how to run stuff, like how a company's supposed like how stuff's supposed to flow.

SPEAKER_03: 2:15:30

Just like a little basis of it, right?

SPEAKER_02: 2:15:32

And then you've got to be able to get it. You've gone through so much shit you you've overcome and all the crap that you deal with the military. It doesn't matter what the fucking job is. But now it's like this this identity crisis of veterans, and they they don't know what to do, how to do it. It's like, bro, you just served your country. Like, why is you starting something the hardest thing, or why is it you're terrified of change? You just lived in the military where you just uprooted your family every three to four years and went to wherever this god-awful fucking government sent you, right?

SPEAKER_03: 2:16:06

Like, you should be able to do anything at that point.

SPEAKER_02: 2:16:09

You have no problem with that, but then you get out of the military, you're like, I don't know what to do with my life. Like I need structure, and it it's crazy to me. So to see guys like you that are just like, fuck it, bro. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna make it happen, has been pretty awesome to watch all these years. And and and I I wish you need to put more put out like I know it's not you, and you'll never do it because it's just not your lifestyle to like be able to like motivate people in that sense. Like, you're pretty motivating, dude, like on your boat, and like when people truly get to know you, you're just not like a face for it, kind of that kind of stuff. But dude, it's so unfortunate because I I look at guys like you and I surround myself. If I'm gonna be around veterans, it's yeah, guys that are even if, dude, I don't care if you got a pot the piss, as long as you're trying to better yourself and you don't have that mindset. And it's like so it's it's been so awesome to be able to from dude sitting in Afghan bullshit and talking about all the the goals and everything we were gonna do, and to watch you like you're like, dude, I'm fucking getting out of here, and I'm gonna go start a fishing coup fishing charter, and I'm gonna I'm calling it Doc's Fishing Clinic, and dude, you fucking did it, man. Like you were you were the first one I was like, oh shit, all right, this guy's making moves.

SPEAKER_03: 2:17:13

It was hard though.

SPEAKER_02: 2:17:14

It it should be.

SPEAKER_03: 2:17:15

Oh yeah, dude, it's a grind, but yeah, it was way better than working for ages, anything else. Like, well, it's like, oh wait, I could work for myself, and then once you figure it out, you're like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02: 2:17:24

100%. I I feel that's that's the that's the common denominator though, with and I'm only speaking for the veteran community, like you know, is it that's where everybody quits is in that first initial stage because it's hard, bro. It sucks. Especially when you walk from everything, or you have this guaranteed job, I got great insurance, you get paid, a bunch of money, yeah, guaranteed paycheck. But it's like, dude, you're you're you're not happy, or or you're sitting home collecting your VA and you have all the time in the world.

SPEAKER_03: 2:17:56

You do nothing, it's crazy to me, dude. And that's like we should talk about that because like we both worked. I helped you, uh what you did it all. You did the Wishes for Warriors, the veteran nonprofit, and I helped you for like two years, but like it's exhausting and it's a lot. And dude, it's crazy to me. Like a fortunate thing for me. Like, originally when you started Wishes, I wasn't in the place mentally or financially to be like a big part of that. Yeah, I just wasn't. I needed to, I went through like a sabbatical, like four years. I was just trying to figure out who I am as a person. It's a thing I chalk up all the time, and I've noticed it's like what I call like the Al Bundy effect. Like Al Bundy, he was like one state football. He's like a quarterback for like state football. And dude, he the guy was like 60 years old and a shoe salesman, and his whole life was like, back in 1962, I won state. You know what I mean? That's your identity. That's the that's the best way I've heard anybody put it. And I think Marines are military guys, that's the same issue, but you have to think about this. Like, you're joining the military at like 18 years old, 19 years old, very young age, and you really don't have an identity. Your identity is your family, it's your parents, your whatever. That's not your thought. You don't or whatever you left your senior year into. Like your politics and all that is your family. You don't have your own vision of any of that. So when you go into the military, your next identity is the one they give you. Like they shed your identity from your family, especially in the Marine Corps, and they rebuild you to who they want you to be. Whether it's through I'm gonna beat the shit out of you, or it's a mental game. Everybody has their way to break you down, and each person's different. And the military does that and they rebuild you how they want you. But when you and the problem is too, they don't talk about that. So many people in the military at young ages, like I got married at 21, and then my second wife, I was married at like 24, 25, so super young, stuff like that. Fortunately, I had no children at the time, yeah. So I didn't have to like I would chill kids are awesome, but like in a divorce, a military setting, it wouldn't have worked for me. So, guys, though, that I see in a lot of the vets we've had issues with, not issues, not I'm sorry, that sounds wrong, uh, that have a lot of issues, um, have come from the military, say did five to ten years, got married, had kids, got out, had to either work or had their disability or whatever, and they don't know who they are.

SPEAKER_00: 2:20:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 2:20:24

And the only thing they have to hold on to is the last thing they had, which was the Marine Corps. And they have no identity, and it's scary. Like, it's scary to get out of that deal, but like it's different if you don't even talk about the military aspect of it, if you're just talking about men in general, up to probably five years ago. I don't think it was men were comfortable enough in society to have some conversations we have now. I like I tell my friends I love you. I hug my friend, like all my boys. Like, because to me, when I was like starting my business and it was just me, I don't have family really, so like I didn't realize the emotional touch of hugging somebody is so powerful. Like, I didn't realize I went like two years without a hug. Like I went two years without a hug, and I went to visit my buddy's mom and she hugged me, and I remember like that physical sensation, and I lost it, dude. And I was like, if I have somebody hug me and touch me, and I I didn't realize it's been like two years, like because I stayed out of relationship, I was just focusing on me and my business. And for somebody to touch me to make me cry, like shit, what else? Like, what else is going on? And then if that's happening to me, that's happening to you, possibly, or somebody else. So, like anytime I saw my homies after it's always a hug. Because you don't what if you're the hug that they haven't had in two years? Absolutely, and it's crazy to think about that kind of stuff. And for men, we don't talk about our feelings or emotions and stuff like that, and it's like yeah, it's woo-woo and all that stuff, but I don't give a shit. Like, I'm a I'm a me personally, I don't know if it's a Corman thing, or I like I like helping dudes and like help and like helping vets is like my thing. Like, I like that's like my jam, like helping other men like uplift each other. Like that shit's powerful, and like it's really hard when you do like the veteran things, and dudes are like still putting each other down, and you're like, you're trying to like, man, or they're taking advantage of the system, or like all these things, and like these dudes just need somebody to talk to, they just need to have somebody listen to them. Like, we would do veteran trips, and guys would be like, I've been on my couch for five years. My wife doesn't talk to me. Like, duh, well, your wife doesn't respect you, dog, because you're not doing anything. Like, your kids are in school, she's at work all day, you're collecting a check sitting on the couch. Like, that's it's hard. It's hard for everybody around you, and it's very selfish, and guys can't get out of that. And dude, there is dude, don't give me the PTSD is real. Like, there's been some dark time, like PTSD from Iraq wasn't a thing for me. Like, came back, no issues. I was still in the military, but coming back from Afghanistan, I remembered stuff from Iraq, and then I wasn't around my boys to process it. I was at home by myself, and then it was PTSD from Iraq was hard for me from Afghanistan. When I got home from Afghanistan, that's when I got hit with my PTSD. Yeah, and like I remembered all my buddies and like the guys that died, and like you know, I mean, that's when that so I don't know if that makes any sense, but I think I I push so much down for sure when you're active duty, you don't think about it, and I didn't remember any of it. You don't have time, yeah. And then when I remember like coming home from Afghan and just thinking about like the relationships with my all of us, dude. We're like, we're all close, dude. And then like thinking about all that stuff. It just was weird for me. It was hard. So for me personally, I think guys don't talk enough, period. We can't express our feelings and things like now. I think that's turning into a thing. And I think across the board, not just military, I think just guys across. Like it you're start- I started to see a change in it.

SPEAKER_02: 2:23:56

Yeah, I was like, I don't I don't know where it can't, it's like our dad's generation, like you know, oh boys don't cry type of shit, which whatever, man, if that's your thing, but it ain't healthy. It's not healthy. I didn't I was one of those like suck it up, bottle everything until I lost my brother, and that's when I had to learn how to like because it was killing me. Like what I was holding, everything buried in that shit. And that's where like I had to like really learn, like, okay, like I'd have like these deep cry sessions, and but like how do you unless they're true boy like you and I, right? Like dudes that have fucking known each other a long time, like I feel there's guys don't have that connection or the trust in other dudes to be able to go, but at the same time, it's like bro, how do you know? Like, just go and talk about it because you know you have this side right now where everyone wants to talk about mental health and men's then men this and nobody cares until it's vi anger or suicide or whatever, and it's like a huge portion of that falls on us, yeah, because we just need to reach out and talk to somebody, and it doesn't always need to be a wife or a girlfriend, they're not gonna understand, and like that's where I feel as a country to help get the men mentally health back on mental health back on track. Yeah, it starts with just talking, man, and just being able to like and it doesn't have to be listening, listening, it doesn't have to be based around going and getting fucked up and drinking and all that shit. If that's your thing, I really don't think it helps. It doesn't get to the root of why having that, but it it's a start, right? Or at least just go to the mountains with a dude and just fuck throw a line in the water and just shoot the shit about it. And it but it doesn't always need to be the negative shit.

SPEAKER_03: 2:25:36

No, it can be the all the buttons you could have a whole thing about the positives too for sure. So you can remember the good memories.

SPEAKER_02: 2:25:41

For sure, and that's that's a big part of it because that's why I feel a lot of these guys are in such dark places with the VA because they go to these therapy clinics, they go to these group PTSD sections, which we've all we've all been part of. That shit's miserable, bro. Yeah, like I log into these phone calls for like my psyche eval or my psych um what are they like the group the group therapy sessions? It's like bro, I got some chick in here talking about her fucking seven-ton tire fell on her, and then some other dude that was in like the the fought in the Gulf War or whatever, and he's talking for 45 minutes, and I'm sitting here like, bro, I don't give a fuck about any of these people. Like, I don't care, I don't want to listen to this shit. Yeah, and like so that then you have that, or you do your one-on-one therapy section sessions with a with some shrink. Oh well, my dad was served, and I so I have a special connection with you guys, and then you they tell you and they ask you the same bullshit questions. Like, I'm not a therapist, I I don't believe in therapists.

SPEAKER_03: 2:26:35

Yeah, I oh I mean there's a thing for it.

SPEAKER_02: 2:26:38

You dude, people need somebody to talk to though, like but yeah, I feel anybody could be a therapist, like as far as communicating and talking, but like as far as going to a shrink, they're only making money as long as you're stuck in your feelings and stuck just there. And I feel very few therapists, qualified ones, are actually trying to get people out of it. Yeah, and there's a lot of people who are like, oh, therapy changed my life. Great, but if you could find your homie that you can have that connection with, I think it's gonna be much more beneficial because you're able to talk about other things, but you might have that embarrassing time, and I I see all sides, but uh to me, I look at these therapists just like doctors, bro. They're not making money if we're healthy. Yeah, it's the same shit. If you're mentally clear and you're like, dude, I'm crushing life, you're not gonna go in weekly anymore. Tell me more about this. Let's let's recircle back around on this when this really affects why did this fuck you? It's like that shit. Cool, dude. You get out of the military, fucking run it for a couple years. But if you're 20 years later and you're still struggling, like a lot of these dudes are, we gotta start rethinking some shit.

SPEAKER_03: 2:27:37

Well, it's not you're not struggling because of that. You're not struggling because of your military deal. You're struggling because of another deal. It's either a new identity. Yeah, it's your yeah, exactly. You're having a heart, it's something else. For sure. And that was the deal, dude. Like with you running wishes, like there was so like yes, we did events. Yes, we went to like did ski trips, do all these different adventures, rafting, all hunting, all that stuff, fishing. But at the end of the day, the benefit was not that. It was the bond. It was the bond of getting guys at the house when we're at the house eating dinner and guys are just bullshitting or hanging around, like drinking beers, just like sitting by a fire in Alaska, playing cornhole, like for hours. Hours. That was the that was more important than the adventure. Yeah, and you're the adventure just brought the group together to have have an excuse to go, but like the benefit was the talkie. For sure, every time. 100%. So you and Britt like crushed that. Like, I think wishes can like I've never done any vet organization stuff except for you guys, like, and I didn't realize like when I started with you guys, I did some research. I didn't realize like 70,000 vet organizations a week or a month or something crazy like that, and they're everywhere, dude. It's like it's a lot, and there's so much that I would not do with other organizations ever. And I'd only do like you know what I mean with wishes, like you guys had so much faith in us, it was awesome.

SPEAKER_02: 2:29:01

I feel like we ran it as like the bros, though. It was good, not bro vets, but I'm talking we were just dudes trying to give back to the community, and so we ran it as such. Obviously, we had our guidelines, we weren't just like it wasn't just like get fucked up festival because it was. It was just volunteer work, dude. It was all volunteer and so yeah, I mean, but volunteering for a five-day backcountry rafting trip doesn't suck. So no, no, no. But it was just like it was just other vets there to just be reps and like, yo, let's let's sit down and bullshit. Yeah, and they we got them to open up quite a bit. I think we I think we did it right for all the years. There's a lot of things I'd like to read to go back through and you know, if we were gonna continue it to that we would change, but just at the point where we're at now, it's like, okay, like if in order for this to to go to what direction we want, we gotta revamp everything and we gotta it's just taking up so much. So that's where it's like, you know what, let's put all this time and energy into the kids.

SPEAKER_03: 2:29:51

And I'd be if we did you still had wishes, dude, I'd be doing all kinds of hippie shit for him though. I'd be making him do yoga and hypno breath work and all that. I know. It's oh well.

SPEAKER_02: 2:30:00

There we know chapters for everything. We'll bring it back again someday. Dude, I appreciate this conversation, man. This is good. Shoot the shit. This is what I enjoy.

SPEAKER_03: 2:30:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 2:30:11

It's good that you were swinging through town.

SPEAKER_03: 2:30:13

Yeah, you have to like, uh in the future, um you guys have to bring down come fishing.

SPEAKER_02: 2:30:19

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we're going fishing. So if people want to find you how they if they uh you're getting out of the fishing game. Yeah, I'm out of the fishing game.

SPEAKER_03: 2:30:25

December's my last. That's it. Damn, dude. I'll still keep the boat. I'm still fishing. I'll have like a couple more guys. I mean, I fish with like certain guys a lot, and I'll keep them on for probably till the summer, maybe. But I'm not taking new clients.

SPEAKER_00: 2:30:39

Do you want to talk about your new chapter, or is it too soon?

SPEAKER_03: 2:30:41

Yeah, we can. Yeah. Okay, let's let's jump into that real quick. Okay, so um I'm we started a new company. Me and a buddy started a new company. We're doing we created a wireless outdoor adventure light. It's Bluetooth, demoable. It's it's badass. It's like 14,000 lumens, and you can mount it on a raft, a golf cart, an ATV, UTV, all that. And we're just like about to be in production, and it's wild. Um never worked with, I didn't know anything about this industry. Yeah, like a buddy of mine was like, hey man, I want to go into business with you, but I'm a business guy and you're an idea creative wacko. Like, give me five ideas, and I did, and this was the first one. And uh, and honestly, so I looked at a turtle box and I was like, what if we just took that and put a light on it and no speaker and made like a wireless light bar? And uh yeah, that's what we're doing. And I I got a prototype, we got all this stuff. It's Dillo. Like, if you I don't, that's the name of our company. Somebody's does that look like dill to you, or is that like an O? My business partner says everybody thinks it says dill. My 11-year-old said dillo, the first thing. Yeah, the first thing, yeah. She got it. So like she's like, oh, it's an armadillo, dillo. Must be idiots to other people. Yeah. Yeah. So like uh it's Dillo, like armadillos come out at night, so that's why we're doing Dillo. It's like a one anyway. That's what we're doing. Uh for you, dude. It's scary as shit. Like uh you're walking from everything too. Yeah, I'm walking from everything.

SPEAKER_02: 2:32:12

That's what you I feel that's the for our level entrepreneurs, right? Like we're not we don't we're not the millionaires that already have the the capital. I feel in order to to live your true dream, you have to walk from everything. You can't you do you have to take that risk. And it doesn't mean it's gonna work if you if you leave everything, but that's what forces you to have to pivot. Yeah, or fucking re-scramble and get your the creative juices work into what's next. I mean that that's where I feel a lot of people that have that nine to five that are miserable, they're like, Well, I'm gonna start working on this, but then all of your energy is going to that, going to that. And that for us was wishes. That's why when we made the decision to retire it, yeah, it was like, dude, that's taking up 75% of our time. Like, how are we gonna get to the level that we want to be? And so that's where one of those big like, okay, that's gone now. But I feel that's like one of those little secrets to life where it's like if you truly want to break that cycle, the matrix and the cycle, so you can start doing doesn't mean it's gonna work, but that's that's one of the key pieces that you put in there. You're like, okay, we're ready. And that is just walking from everything. I know people are like, Oh, what how do you do that if you don't have any money saved? That's the point.

SPEAKER_03: 2:33:24

That's the point.

SPEAKER_02: 2:33:24

It forces you, you can't just sit around, you can't just talk about it.

SPEAKER_03: 2:33:28

You either gotta work or not, or I'm like guiding again.

SPEAKER_02: 2:33:32

Like, you know, and you're like, fuck, I don't want that. Yeah, I don't want to go back to court.

SPEAKER_03: 2:33:36

I just want to be on a raft like row rowing a river, like yeah, yeah, goofing off. You've built this life, dude. Yeah, well, it's not it's not easy. That's another thing, too. People think this happens overnight, like dudes are like, oh, it must be nice. It's like, dude, I created this and I created it from like I I worked my ass off for like almost eight years before I took a vacation in my own business, and then I figured out the months I could, and then like with wishes, like they that year before I did any trips with wishes, I was like, I just want to travel and do adventures, like, and I just like I'm gonna figure out how to do that, and then you were like, Hey man, you want to do veteran trips? And I was like, Wow, but I said that openly to the universe, and I'm not trying to say like manifestation is real or anything, but I said it and it came true, and then the next year on which is the second year doing it, I was like, How can I make this a lifestyle? And then when I met Michelle, my wife, she was like, I was doing 14, 21 days straight on the water, two days off, then doing it again. And I was like, I always used to laugh at clients. I'd be like, yo, if you book me like day like 10 through like 15 or 20, like sucks to be you. Like, okay, it's not the same experience, like you're over salty, yeah. So she's like, How about you just do three on, two off, three? And I was like, You're crazy, I can't risk the money loss. But then, like, I knew no self-care. Yeah, and I started self-care. And with wishes, I was able to start self-care, even though I got hurt all the time. But and honestly, dude, I swear on my life, if I wouldn't have broken my arm on that wishes trip. Which trip? The uh tamarack up here. I broke my ankle one year snowboarding at Jackson Hole, and the next year, Britt's like, you better not fucking break anything. And then I broke my arm the last day during a photo shoot on a bunny slope. Sheared it, dude. I sheared my arm off at the neck of my humorous, dude. Think got out of a rock star Playboy for uh uh surgeon. That uh he was like, dude, you could just suck it up and it's gonna be way badass that way. Or I could put plates in your arm. You want to suck it up? I was like, Yes, I want to suck it up. Like, yes. But uh I had to reflect. I was just blowing and going with you. Like, I was doing a wishes trip like every month. Yeah, like and then when I broke my arm, I was forced to stay in because both I broke my ankle at the start of the like March is my peak season, March, April, May, June is my peak season. I broke my ankle, so I screwed myself the year before. And then I went and I was like very hesitant, and I even sent all my Marines a deal that were on my reunion. I was like, boys, we got like two slots left. Who wants to go snowboarding? Let's fucking go. And they're like, Doc, we're like 39. We're like, we're not snowboarding, like you're gonna get hurt. I was like, no way, dudes. And then I've my reunion was like the next week when I got back from Tamarack and I couldn't go to my Vegas Marine Corps reunion because I had a broken arm, and all of them are just like sending me messages laughing at me, like that thing, we didn't go. That's rough. But I was forced to sit on the couch for like months reading books, watching Batman stuff, and like having to be comfortable in my own boredom and like that own quietness, and that helped. And then like Michelle got me doing like hypno breath work and like that, and I started coaching like that stuff, like that changed my life in the last two years. Like her dad passed away from cancer. We were doing hip breath work then, and then we went to that retreat, and I saw this, like my future, I saw my path, like from a session, one session. Like it was like, what's your like I want to retire at 45? And then our like facilitator was like, What's your number? And then she's like, add a zero to it, and add another zero to it. And my number's four million, like I'll walk away from everything for four million. Like then she's like, No, it's like she didn't she didn't know. I mean it's in my head, but she's like, add a zero to that, add another like four hundred million, like I can't get four hundred million being a guy. Like, what's the way to do that? I can get four hundred million though being dillo. So if I sold that company for like four hundred million, like that'd be crazy, dog. Yeah, you thought wishes was cool. Yeah, right. Happens every day. I'm not saying I'm just saying, like, if I was, dude, it's a different world. Like, I've never been fuck you rich. And I like saying fuck you a lot. So if I was like super fuck you rich. But the thing is though, like when we started this company and just like we started the original company, like the LLC started on the first, because the way the paperwork is, yeah. We've been doing it like nine months, ten months. But I saw like I could party, dude. And I saw like my life, and I was like, You did that, you did, you were part of that too, man. It's crazy how our lives interact. Like, you're fast. I always wanted to do a fast, seven-day fast. But like never like it's just me, like nobody else is gonna do it with me. And then you did it, and Britt did it, and I was like, if somebody does something I know, I know I know you. I'm like, I could do that, like, no problem. I'm like, I could kick Bam's ass on a fast. So like I did it, but it was like so beneficial for me. Yeah, and I saw that and I was like, wait a minute. And I got my blood work done from the VA, and the VA, like at the same time I started my, I was like three days into my fast when I went to the VA for my blood work. So I had my results, and she's like, You have high cholesterol, everything else is good, but I'm gonna put you on high cholesterol meds. And I was like, no, ma'am, I'm sorry, but I'm on three days, I'm on my third day of a fast right now, water fast only, and I'm not, I'm not doing it. Like, I'm not taking it. I want to see what this does first. And she was like, Hell yeah. She's like, What's your plan? And I told her my plan. I'm like, I'm gonna go from this to whole 30. Do you whole 30? No, I'm just gonna live healthy and like slowly add stuff to my life. And she's like, Okay, for cholesterol, you need to do almonds, you need to do almond butter, cut this out, cut this out. I told her I was cutting alcohol out, like telling her what I'm like what the plan is. And she was like, dude, you have a plan, I'll support it. But in three months, if you come back here and your stuff's not better, and it's never nobody's ever better. I mean, I was a coron, I know it never changes. It then you're on meds, and I was like, cool, whatever. So cut all the shit out of my diet, started doing yoga three days a week, started running three days a week, no alcohol, like super healthy living, like no everything. Then and I mean I went to Europe for like three weeks, so I had beers and I cheated a little bit, but dude, I'm not gonna go to Europe and I'd eat like prosciutto and drink beer and stuff, so and wine. So I came back, had my Marine Corps reunion, then had to do labs like as soon as I got back. So it was like, how much of this is gonna be good or bad? And they drew my blood, they did it, and she was like crying. And she was like, I've been a doctor for like 15 years, and you're the first person ever to come like actually have your results better. So it's getting better. Good. But the what I'm the point I'm getting here is like I saw myself, I see this business being successful, and I've seen lifestyles of both. I've seen this successful businessman that burns the system, does like all that, and one lives by the rules. One like I had a father-in-law that was he'd rather live in court and be a shitty businessman than go by the rules. And then also, like, there's a guy that parties his ass off when he's rich, and there's a guy that's like healthy. And I was like, I have the party habits now, and I had to change my habits, so that's what I had been doing. Like, yeah, four months, change my habits, start with your fast.

SPEAKER_00: 2:40:56

Hell yeah, dude. We're gonna do another one this here in October. October, November. Yeah, we're gonna do a 21-day or no.

SPEAKER_03: 2:41:04

When I was doing that, dude, my neighbors are thought I was crazy. We're all over there chilling, partying one night. I was just hanging out while they're all partying because I couldn't, and they're like just drinking water, and they're like, What? But I didn't know one of my really good friends, he did a 36-day water fast. Changed his life. Yeah. Like he said it was crazy. Like day 26, it goes to another level. Like you're saying day what'd you say, 13? 21. No, but what did you do? What was yours that changed? Like one day it kicked over different.

SPEAKER_02: 2:41:33

Day 11. 11. I finished on day 11, but when um like day nine, day ten is when you start kicking in for me.

SPEAKER_03: 2:41:42

There was like day five and then day seven. And that's why on day seven, I felt like so different. Yeah. That I was like, I'm gonna push it one more day to eight. And then I had I had a fish, dude. I had no, I had to re refast. That's what people don't tell you. You have to like bone broth, yeah, bone broth, avocado, like for a couple of days. You don't just do some food, it tears you up. Second day, dude, I was like eating boneless, skinless chicken breast, like pieces, but like chewing it like a hundred times. Yeah, yeah. It's different. It is, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 2:42:09

It's interesting, but it's worth it, I feel like. Yeah, dude. I love you, man. Love you, man. Did I talk too long on your podcast? No, this is a short one. Three pre-three hours? Chrissy's like, yes. I'll keep talking. Not just kidding. Bro, I'll come up here and she's like, So how what are we talking about today, dad? I'm like, oh, it'll be a quick one. And then our every guest is like four hours and uh every time. It's not even me, dude. It's the guests. I let him talk. Is that good? Are we done?

SPEAKER_04: 2:42:34

That was amazing.

SPEAKER_02: 2:42:34

Do you want to be done? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00: 2:42:36

Can I pee really fast? Yeah, we're done. We'll wrap it up. Hold on, don't go anywhere. Do you have more you want to talk about? I don't know. No, we'll wrap it up. Yeah, let's wrap it up.

SPEAKER_02: 2:42:44

All right, dude. I love you, man. Thanks for everything over the years and just being a fucking badass friend to me. We gotta get down and do some fishing. Yeah, man. We hit it off.

SPEAKER_03: 2:42:53

And yeah, if you guys don't listen to this podcast, listen to his other podcasts. Like nobody's made it this far. I don't even know who you're talking to. I was like, they need to see the what's it called? The rat one. That was pretty cool. And the hitchhiker one's pretty good too, man. There's a pretty good show out right here. I almost did that as a social experiment. I'll get you connected with Luke. The hitchhiking thing. I was like, when I was in college, I was like, what if I just like hitchhike to these little towns, like catch a greyhound to a small town and just walk around like I was homeless for like a week as a social experiment. Then I was like, uh he's doing it now. You get killed.

SPEAKER_02: 2:43:24

Well, dude, love you. Love you, man.

unknown: 2:43:26

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02: 2:43:31

Beautiful.

SPEAKER_04: 2:43:31

Beautiful.