Saving A Child, Surviving The Job, And Speaking Up

Two Marines cross paths and change a life. Gilbert traces a path from cadet drills and satellite comms in Helmand to a rural deputy’s hostage rescue, the grief that followed, and the choice to heal and help first responders get resilient.

• early structure through Navy cadets and family service
• choosing the Marine Corps and a comms MOS
• building battlefield communications and wire work in Helmand
• reaction to the Afghanistan withdrawal
• hiring, culture, and rural patrol realities
• prioritizing guns, warrants, and drugs over tickets
• hostage rescue decision-making under stress
• deputy coroner duties and mortality up close
• cumulative trauma, suicide loss, and therapy that worked
• 2020 riots, restraint, and policy limits
• leaving the badge for coaching and writing the book
• actionable mental health and fitness for first responders

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Transcript

Growing Up Central California

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hector Bravo on chaos is now in section.

SPEAKER_03 0:11

Welcome back to our channels, Warriors. We are still growing. And as we continue season two, we got another special guest today, none other than Gilbert, a former U.S. Marine, because there's no such thing as an ex-Marine, and a Kings County Sheriff Deputy. What up, Gilbert? What's going on, Hector? How was your flight over here, dude?

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Sucked, actually. Why? So we actually flew. I had to stop at like four different airports to get over here. How? Why?

SPEAKER_03 0:37

That's the one you booked, or is it just like problems? Problems. Oh man. Spirit? No, no. Wife problems. Oh man, it happens, dude. It happens. I get it, bro. So you grew up where? Uh Visalia. Visalia. That 559?

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

Alright, because I'm starting to meet more people from around that area.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Nice, nice.

SPEAKER_03 0:58

What do you guys consider that? Central California?

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Central.

SPEAKER_03 1:01

But there's northern gang members there as well?

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:04

And Southern gang members.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Yes, but Northern controls most of Central.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

Northern controls most of Central. Who controls most of Visalia? Northerners. Damn. What year did you graduate high school? 2010. Cool. Wait, and that's the year that you joined the Marine Corps? Yes. So 2010, bro. Let's break it down. Let's uh because as you can see in 2025, the world has gone to hell in a handbasket. Yes. 2010, things were fairly normal. I would say 2012, things turned to shit, bro. What point did you want to join the Marine Corps?

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Probably that year.

SPEAKER_03 1:43

What year, your senior year?

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Yeah, I wanted to go to the Navy. Why the Navy? I think my grandpa. Um, since I was in fourth grade, I wanted to go to the military, go to the Navy.

unknown 1:53

Damn.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

I was in the C cadet program in uh Naval Air Station Lemour, did that, and then um I was just so stuck on going to the Navy and then it switched last minute.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

What did that consist of going through that little cadet program you're talking about?

Cadet Program And Early Military Pull

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Everything. They you had to go to boot camp for two weeks as a child. What are the age limits groups? I think it was like maybe the youngest was probably like eight, and the oldest was 17. And then um you wear the same uniform that you get the uniforms from the base. So it has to be maybe regular uniforms, the ribbons are all the same. Um, your your ranks are all the same. You go to boot camp for two weeks before you could do anything, and then you go to trainings after that. So every summer you go for two-week trainings to like SEAL training or demolition training or firearms training or firemen training. Actual training? Actual training on the bases. So like boot camp was here in San Diego on the USS Hornet, I believe it was.

SPEAKER_03 2:43

No way, dude.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Yeah, it's pretty cool. Or a kid.

SPEAKER_03 2:45

Yeah. Whose idea was it to enroll you in that?

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Mine.

SPEAKER_03 2:50

At such a young age, dude. How how or why? Were you watching television or movies?

SPEAKER_01 2:55

That no, my uncle was in the Air Force, he was in Vietnam, my grandpa was in the Navy, and then um I just wanted to serve. I don't know if it's seeing how they Are you Mexican? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

All right. And solely because your family members were in the military that drew your attention? Yeah, patriotic, you know. So that's what I want to do. What about the current wars that were raging on? Were you aware of them?

SPEAKER_01 3:18

No, I wasn't even understanding what was going on.

SPEAKER_03 3:21

Shit, bro. Looking back in hindsight, how do you feel about that was going on and you weren't aware of it? I put I would still be one ago for sure. But you do you realize the severity of what those wars cost? Definitely, yeah. Yeah. Um so how long were you in that program of that cadet program? Three or four years, I believe. So you were in the Marine Corps. What did you gather? What did you learn during that trial period? Did you learn uniformity? How to march?

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Marching, ranks, uniformity, yeah. I already knew practically most of the military stuff, basic stuff when I got before I joined.

SPEAKER_03 4:06

Did that give you a pay raise before you went in?

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Yeah, so they actually counted it towards like the I was E2 before when I got into boot camp already. Well, after I graduated.

SPEAKER_03 4:14

So for the viewers out there, there's normal numerous ways you can um from go in at a higher rank into boot camp. One is by screwing over your buddy, and uh the other one is apparently going through these classes, these academies. That's awesome, dude. Um, was it strictly like Navy-based training?

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Strictly Navy based. Um, but you would do, yeah, it's like pretty much think of yourself as like um a weekend warrior. You go there, you literally go there once a month for a whole weekend, and you would sleep there. You don't go home, you sleep there over.

SPEAKER_03 4:46

Did you have friends that did you make friends there?

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Yeah, lots of friends. One became a corpsman uh for the marine, he went into the greenside for a marine unit, and he's a corpsman over there.

SPEAKER_03 4:56

What would you, from your perspective, say the statistic is of those children actually joining the military?

SPEAKER_01 5:05

I can't, I mean, if if I remember right, it was practically everyone once they got to that age. Dang, bro.

SPEAKER_03 5:11

I'm gonna put my daughter in some type of army or marine corps boot camp, man. Were when you said you mentioned you went to boot camp, were they mean to you guys or yelling? Yeah. For children, I was like, damn. Like what kind of stuff were they saying? I'm sure they weren't verbally abusing you guys. They were cuss. Or were they?

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Yeah. Kids were crying. Um, it was funny. But I mean, I mean the stuff that they're to me it was funny. Uh the situation was this, because I wanted to do it, but as far as like thinking back in that hindsight as like a children, you know, 10-year-olds, 11-year-olds, and it's yelling, screaming, cussing. Um, it was yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:49

Well, there's adults that cry, 18-year-old kids that cry when they're getting yelled at in boot camp or basic training.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Oh, yeah, I remember that shit was funny.

SPEAKER_03 5:56

They're breaking down mentally, bro. They never encountered that type of resistance.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

And then think of think of like 17-year-old kids who are more like the higher ranking, right? Because they're at that point, they're like officers like that in that in that world. Right. And they're like being little assholes to kids because they're of that rank or whatnot. So pretty, I would say it's pretty good though, still.

SPEAKER_03 6:17

It's uh and I'm sure you agree, man. It's a fine line between being an asshole and actually being a good leader. Oh, definitely. But they're kids too, you know? Like, how are they gonna know that? Correct. Um was there anybody that were troublemakers that were forced to go into the academy?

Choosing Marines Over Navy

SPEAKER_01 6:37

I would say no. They're pretty picky. Um, like if you're they had rules, and if you wouldn't go, if you were against those rules, they'll kick you out. Was there a verbal warning? Do you get pulled into like the principal's office? No, yeah, there's warnings for sure. But at the end of the day, they were still big on like um these children have rules, and if they don't want to follow when they're just gonna they can just go back home.

SPEAKER_03 6:58

I like that, bro. That builds structure.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Yeah, I think it's pretty good in that sense. Dude, I I see like structure. Um I think one time a kid came with bad grades one time. The parents told the people and then they made them do PT.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

How was the PT? Get down and do push-ups?

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Back then I'd say it was pretty good. Yeah, because I've always worked out since I was that age, and um we would do the mud runs. Um, that's freaking awesome, bro. We would do the runs all the time because the base had the mud runs over there all the time, they're hosting them, so they would they would have us do the mud runs. But yeah, they did every kind of PT you could think of. Obstacle courses.

SPEAKER_03 7:36

I'm sure that was fun for you guys, dude.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:39

When did you get the idea that you wanted to be law enforcement?

SPEAKER_01 7:42

Uh probably like a month before I joined the academy.

SPEAKER_03 7:48

No way. Yeah. Well, we're gonna get there, but that's a trip, dude. Because you people take various paths, right? Or some people goal, have goals and try to achieve them. Um, how did you end up going to the Marine Corps?

SPEAKER_01 8:01

So the Marine Recruiter actually called my home. And we're still cool till this day. But uh he called my home and he had asked, Yo, is Gilbert there? And I was like, Yeah, oh my dad's gone, my dad has the same name as me. Okay. Now I'm looking for the younger one. I'm like, oh, this is him. Hey, this is like staff sergeant, so and so. I'm gonna, I'm the Marine Recruiter here at your school. And I was like, Don't worry about it, man. Like, I'm gonna go in the Navy. I was a dickhead, I was an asshole. Yeah, and that I was just rude. And then he's like, pretty much trying to sell me, you know? How boys come talk to me? It's fine, whatever. And I was pretty much like, I ain't going. He's like, I heard you're a wrestler.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

He was pretty much like, Oh, he's good, bro.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

You're a wrestler, why would you want to go to the Navy? You know, they're like pretty much selling that part. And I was like, and then he was more talking shit in the sense, like he was throwing little backhanded jabs, and I was like, I like this guy. I you know, I think I'll give him two minutes of my time, you know. He's like, I was like, you know what, man, I'll just meet you at lunchtime tomorrow. He's like, All right. So when I went to go meet him at lunchtime, I walked in, he's like, Oh, you're shorter than I thought. And I was like, This motherfucker, you know what? I like him more now, though. Right. I like that shit talking, I've always loved it. And so the Navy guys weren't like that. I shook the the army, uh, Air Force recruiter's hand, it was like soft, like you know, like he's like never touched anything. Right. And so I was like um little baby girl soft hands. So I was like, I don't want to go there. This guy was just talking shit the whole time. And then I said something back to him and he started cussing at me, but like just talking shit, and I was like, he's talking to me like I'm a an adult. I was like, I like this guy even more. He was just bullshitting with me after that, telling about the Marine Corps, and I was still just being an asshole, like, you know, Marines are just, you know, they go the first to end, the first to die, whatever, like it's just nothing. He's like, and he was infantry. And he was just, he got to a point where I was just being too much of an asshole, to where the gunny, he kind of stood up and I was like, Well, what are you gonna do? And then he's like, fuck, he's like, fuck this kid, gunny. Like, just tell him to leave. And the gunny's like, hey, stats on to step out, and then the gunny's like, hey, like just chill out, you know, calm down. I was like, I was like, I'm just talking shit. And he's just like being more cool, talking to me about everything, and then but even though he was getting the staff starter was getting upset, I liked that, I liked how the whole environment was. I just that's how it was. I like that chaos in a sense, and so I was like, I like this culture better. And even though he was getting upset, because I was just being like obviously he's an adult trying to this motherfucker's being a little bit. How old were you? I was only 17, right? And so the gun he was cool too talking to me. And then um at that point I was like, you know what I'll go. He's like, just come out to one of the dept days, you know, and then see how you like it. And I went out there and I never stopped going.

SPEAKER_03 10:33

Were you in high school?

SPEAKER_01 10:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:35

This was in Visalia?

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 10:37

How is the recruiter station set up? Are all the branches side by side? Side by side. All of them. All of them. And then after that, Navy was in your rearview mirror. Yeah. Not even a consideration. My dad was pissed. Why?

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Because uh he didn't know. I asked I had told my mom, and my mom didn't tell him. You he didn't know what part to get the signatures and stuff. Who signed? My mom. Not your dad. He ended up signing because the the staff sergeant came over and he's like, the mom already signed, he's already in, I just need your signature. And he was like, it took him about like a week.

SPEAKER_03 11:11

Prior to the signature portion, what was the discussion about between you and your parents and the military?

SPEAKER_01 11:16

I'm going to the Navy. Just like his dad.

SPEAKER_03 11:19

And were they on board with that?

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:20

And they everybody understood that you were gonna join the Navy and that they were gonna sign the papers.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:25

And then one day you just flipped the switch on them, and uh, all of a sudden it's the United States Marine Corps.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:31

The few, the proud.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

There's no other Marines in the family, so all he knew was just what he knew about the Marine Corps. Did your dad verbally say anything to you? He's like, You're not going.

SPEAKER_03 11:42

Let me get this straight though. Had you turned 18, you would have eventually gone anyways.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Oh, yeah, yeah. That's why he knew I was like, Well, I'm gonna go regardless.

SPEAKER_03 11:48

So, dude, there's something about young men, bro, that are like full of testosterone and no direction. Like, they're gonna do what they want. Yeah. Um, so he signed. Okay, your parents signed, you are now belong to the United States the government. Uh did they calm down and give you support after that?

Boot Camp To Comms MOS

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Yeah, I was support. My mom supports anything I do. Correct. I could rob a bank and my mom would still say that's the nicest kid. Like, that's my son, he's amazing. Oh shit, yeah. But my dad's different. He would it took him a while. But the moment when I did become Marine, his whole now he's all supportive and like you gotta understand their perspective, bro.

SPEAKER_03 12:31

Oh, there's two wars raging on around that time frame.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Yeah, definitely. With numerous casualties, they already had the first push of the you know, before that. I was still in school, so it's like I could see them seeing all that for sure.

SPEAKER_03 12:43

Yeah, bro. Do you remember 9-11 when all that happened?

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Yeah, it was fourth grade. Fourth grade. I actually got more patriotic after that as a kid, you know. Just more like, oh, see that happen. I really want to go now even more.

SPEAKER_03 12:57

Did you have a concept of what the military does? And that's kind of a dumb question because nobody really does. Did you have a concept of what your job role was going to be?

SPEAKER_01 13:08

I had an idea, especially going through that that program. Oh, yeah, yeah. They talked to different jobs and whatnot. Okay. They spoke about all the different jobs. Like I said, you have to take your own path too in that program as a child. That's cool, dude. Yeah, so some had like the green rank, which is more airmen, some had the red, which is more the fire. In the Navy, they have different colors on their ranks, which goes to different professions. That's cool, bro.

SPEAKER_03 13:29

I like that. Um it's almost like the Spartans training, the agogi training when they're uh youngsters. So when you went to boot camp, where did you go? San Diego or Paris Island? San Diego. Had you turned 18 yet or you were still 17? No, I turned 18 a few months before I left. Before you left? Yeah. Out of Visalia. Yes. Did you find it? Hey Warriors. If you haven't already signed up for our all new website, HectorBravoshow.com, make sure you sign up at the link below, HectorBravoshow.com to watch explicit, uncensored, never before seen prison footage. With that, love you. Keep pushing forward to San Diego?

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Flu.

SPEAKER_03 14:14

Flew. Where'd you go to maps at?

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Uh Sacramento.

unknown 14:17

Damn.

SPEAKER_03 14:18

How's that experience for you?

SPEAKER_01 14:20

It was fun. First time out with uh just a bunch of dumb, you know, all dumb kids in the hotel room. Yeah. Trying to do dumb things before maps and then go to maps and kind of weird, you know, having these people check you all over head to toe.

SPEAKER_03 14:34

So they were still doing weird things, old creepy white men looking at the butthole and everybody else.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Kid went home for his ears having ear wax.

SPEAKER_03 14:44

So then when you get to uh what was the MOS that you do they that's this thing that I still don't know how that works, bro. With the Marine Corps, how does MOS picking work?

SPEAKER_01 14:54

So they have a they have like a list, because they did it too when I was when I was about to re-enlist, they give you like a we had this many seats open for this MOS, and you kind of choose from there. So they had at that time infantry was full um when the when I was going in and they had all these other MOSs, and then they had contracts that said like it just said$10,000 bonus, but it had like a wording of saying like, well, now that I know I was older, you could go anywhere. But the contract read a certain way. But um all I saw was ten thousand dollar bonus, and so I was like, oh, I want that one. Because I didn't want to. There was like um there was radio operator, there was some a few other ones, and I was like, Oh, I want that one right there. And he was like, Okay, I'm like, what is it gonna be? He's like, My recruiter told me sometimes is it like it could be this, it could be that, you know, probably fall in the communication category, maybe. But I found out later when I got in, two other people who did the same contract all over the state that they ran into, they went into different places. They could they pretty much went wherever the Marine Corps needed them, they put them.

SPEAKER_03 15:56

I was always the assumption that the e the army or the marines just want people for the infantry, like that would be the primary to fill.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Yeah, and that's the thing. Most of us, because I wanted to go there, and then most of the other, obviously all the guys that were like, I want that spot, and they said it's closed right now.

SPEAKER_03 16:11

That's the trip because yeah, I totally get it, but I'm like, that then I guess that's a good thing, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:16

And they said you could wait, they were saying uh you could wait till like August, and then because mine was slated for June. You could wait two months and then get that spot in infantry, and I was like, I just want to leave my house right now.

SPEAKER_03 16:27

From when you graduated high school to when you went to boot camp, what was that time period?

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Uh I graduated in May and then went to boot camp or in June. So they said you could wait two more months. And I was like, I don't want to wait at all. I just want to leave.

SPEAKER_03 16:37

What was the reason you didn't want to wait? You don't want to get in trouble back home? No, I wasn't a troublemaker.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

I was wanted to leave. I don't know. I've always been kind of weird like that. I love my mom, love my dad, but I just freedom don't want to be at home.

SPEAKER_03 16:50

Um, when you land, when you go, what is it, the yellow footsteps there? They start yelling at you. What was that like for you?

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Uh to me, it wasn't bad. At all. No. Why? Because you had the experience before? No, honestly, I I tell my wife this all the time when I was telling her, is this to me it felt like this is where I was meant to be? Because I've been wanting to do it since I was fourth grade. I wanted to join some kind of thing. So we were on the bus and they're yelling, and then you're on the bus for like hours, and they have your you have your head down the whole bus riding. And so I'm guessing all they do is just driving in circles down here.

SPEAKER_03 17:23

You were in 2010?

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:25

Was there a uh drill instructor, Hodges, in that time frame? I had a friend, Hodges, this dude was out of control, man. This dude was more crazier than me around that time frame at at um San Diego.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

I can't remember the initial drill instructors. I did meet one of them. He ended up becoming my staff sergeant in the ring corps. And I only remembered him because his face and he pushed me. And so when I got to my unit, I'm like, You're the fucker who pushed me. And he's like, I remember you, and it was pretty funny. Were these dudes war vits? Your DIs? Uh some, yeah. Some of them? My my uh my kill hat had a purple heart and uh a couple other things. His he was stacked, and he was a first-time drill instructor. His first, I was his first class.

SPEAKER_03 18:02

Were you able to determine the difference between drill instructors that had seen combat or had not? Yeah, because I was already because of that program, I already knew most of ribbons. Did you understand the significance of like probably if they've experienced something like that, then probably they know what they're talking talking about when it comes to maybe life or death situations? Yeah. You did? Did you take it serious, the training?

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Yeah, I definitely. So I like I said, when I showed up, it was more like um this is where I want to be, but I did under I did respect and understand where all of them are coming from. I took it very serious in that sense.

SPEAKER_03 18:34

But what about the other kids there? It's pretty much the same.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

They were just scared. Like my I went with my one of my close friends I was in the debt program with. We showed up the same time, he was crying, and I'm like, what are you crying for?

Afghanistan: Big Base Comms And Wire Dogs

SPEAKER_03 18:44

Like, this is oh, so you were in the debt the delayed entry program? Yes. Me too. For how long were you in the delayed entry program for? Like six months. Okay, because that counts towards your IIR inactive ready reserve for your eight-year total contract. Yeah. Um both of you guys enlisted together?

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:03

Do you get to pick your duty station?

SPEAKER_01 19:05

No. How does that work? I feel like they just put you on the opposite end of where you want. So all the California boys went to North Carolina, all the people on the East Coast went to California.

SPEAKER_03 19:15

What the hell, bro? So you ended up in North Carolina?

SPEAKER_01 19:19

Yeah. Well, you had to go to uh you graduated boot camp, then you go to combat school in San Diego here, again, Camp Pendleton for a month, and then from there you go to MOS school, and then that's when they give you your papers, like you're going over here.

SPEAKER_03 19:33

How were you when you received that news? Thrilled? Happy, yeah. Why? Because it's just North Carolina? I don't know. I just don't want to be home. So and when you get to North Carolina, how does your unit differ from being in boot camp?

SPEAKER_01 19:46

Way different. The moment I showed up, I got kicked in the chest, and then they ripped my uniform and then they told me to stand outside parade rush for like three hours. Because you messed up? No, just because I showed up. Right.

SPEAKER_03 19:57

Um Do you believe in hazing? Yeah. You think it's effective?

SPEAKER_01 20:04

I think so.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

So do I, to a degree. Yeah. But yeah. Somebody I asked somebody before and they're like, yeah, as long as there's a purpose behind it. Like, just don't thrash motherfuckers for no reason.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Yeah. I mean, I think that too, but also I've also believed in like the I don't know how the army works, but in the Marine Corps you get like blood stripes. Yeah, 100%. And you get like the how they had that red stripe down their pants. You have to earn those by getting haze and getting eat in the the leg until it bruises so bad you can't walk and whatnot. Some stuff that pays stuff like that. But and then the rank stuff too. And when I became a corporal, I wanted it. Like I want if you're if you're gonna get it and receive it, you know that you deserved and earned it, kind of in that brotherhood sense. And the people that they didn't like or they knew that would probably tell you like that motherfucker didn't earn his blood stripes in that sense. He became a an NCO, yes, but it's like yeah. So did you get your Yeah, I got my first one from actually um well, it's probably it's been years now, I probably not gonna care. But when I was MOS school, I got uh promoted because I was number one out of the school. Damn and so they pulled me to the side. He's like, hey, you like youngster, like come over here, my staff started and he's like, Um, don't say nothing. And he pulled out my ring because I was front of the whole battalion. I got promoted because I went, I beat everybody, and then he brings me in, respected him a lot. He just took my things off again, he punched him in, and I but I felt like honor, like 100%, bro. This is this is nice because no one else, you know, in the world.

SPEAKER_03 21:23

That was like a rite of passage.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:25

Um, so you were probably just loving it. You told me that you loved getting into arguments with your recruiter. Now you're getting fucking kicked in the chest, bro. You're head, you're in heaven, bro.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Yeah, I was at prayer. That's like, hell yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:35

So at what point do they tell you you're going to Afghanistan?

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Uh that week.

unknown 21:42

No.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Were you thrilled? Nah, it was more like um, oh shit. Well, this was pretty fast, you know. Surreal. Yeah, it's three months later. Three months till we go.

SPEAKER_03 21:56

Prior to you getting notified you were gonna be going to Afghanistan, did you have an inclination you would end up in war zone?

SPEAKER_01 22:04

No. How? Well, yeah, no, yeah, but like uh I would I didn't think it's gonna be that fast, you know. Thought I show up and do a couple things, you know, train some more, whatever.

SPEAKER_03 22:12

So had there been other people in your unit for a longer period of time?

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Yes, yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:20

Like your seniors or whatever? Yeah. Now, had there been anybody in your unit with less time than you that came in after you?

SPEAKER_01 22:26

No, it was just we're the fresh ones, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:28

You were the fresh ones. How many of you guys were new together?

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Maybe ten.

unknown 22:34

Oh fuck.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Yeah, that was close.

SPEAKER_03 22:37

Oh man. So, like, what how did that preparation look like? What did you what were you doing to prepare to go to Afghanistan?

SPEAKER_01 22:44

Uh obviously the range a lot. We had to get all the qualifications. We only had three months to get the new guys all their qualifications, everything they need, Humvee stuff, uh rifle stuff, pistol stuff they had to piss. Oh, we didn't have the pistols, but and then uh went to the field. Uh what are the stuff that they do? And then we do all the comms stuff, so we have to see if we're even up to par with knowing how to set up communications. So we have to set up communications with Afghanistan, actually. So even though we're home, we have to set up comms training-wise and set up comms links into connect with talking over there.

SPEAKER_03 23:15

Hold on, bro.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:18

You're able to be in North Carolina and and converse via radio with somebody in Afghanistan?

SPEAKER_01 23:23

Yeah. Well, not a radio, it's gonna be more like a call. You have to set the whole call up from the field to talk.

SPEAKER_03 23:30

What would that be considered a satellite radio or a satellite phone?

SPEAKER_01 23:35

It's gonna be more like a it's hard to explain. It's gonna be more like um a landline. But it's it's communicated through what it I was I always had a hard time understanding. I did the job well, but I always had a hard time how it connected. Because you had the the the nerdy marines, the data guys, so they set up the whole satellite and they point in a certain direction. We set up the fiber and the wires, and then you have to do all these computer coding in there. It's called like a RAM. I think it's called a RAM, it's been so long. But I would handle all the coding in the computer, do all the setup, you have to get them talking and troubleshoot if it doesn't work, and all of a sudden you get this line, and then you hit the hit the button on the phone and it's like, hey you there, and it's like boom, it's someone over there on the other side.

SPEAKER_03 24:16

Wait a minute. So it's like creating a landline from scratch.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

From scratch, yes.

SPEAKER_03 24:20

And you could probably do this anywhere in the world?

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:23

What the hell, dude? I didn't even know this was a thing.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

And we get trained, so you go like, all right, go start, and then we have to start doing everything, boom, boom, we get all set up. And then you're working with all the different comm units, so the radio guys, the data guys, the wire guys, and then you start putting it together, and then you make comms, and then it's like, cool, we got it up. And then break it all down, do it all over again.

SPEAKER_03 24:39

Is there a secure? Is security a thing? Is you guys have like a security perimeter? Is that part of the the the process? We do have a watch and perimeter, but I mean you would figure, right, you would need guys with guns protecting you guys outboard, pulling 360 degrees security or something.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Yeah, that'll usually be for because I remember our second employment is with 27, I believe, so they do most of the security outside of it, like surrounding.

SPEAKER_03 25:06

How long does that process take to start up landline from scratch?

SPEAKER_01 25:13

30, 40 minutes. 30, 40 minutes. If I remember it's been a while, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:17

That's that's pretty fast, dude. That's pretty freaking fast. Because if you call freaking like Cox cable to hook up wireless internet at your pad, it's gonna take probably longer than that. Probably a good hour. You gotta start testing shit. Dang, dude, for some Marines, that's not pretty bad, bro. They're crayon eaters. So you guys go there, where do you land?

Second Deployment And Permanent Infrastructure

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Uh we landed in Man, I can't. What's that main base over there?

SPEAKER_03 25:47

Andahor?

SPEAKER_01 25:48

Kabul.

SPEAKER_03 25:49

I didn't I never went to Afghanistan.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

Oh, okay. Uh shit, dude. It was in Helmand Province.

SPEAKER_03 25:54

Did you stay at a big base or did you go to like a smaller camp?

SPEAKER_01 25:57

The first deployment, big base, second deployment, smaller base. But then you just you distribute the calm guys everywhere as well. So we had a unit go to Lashkar Gawa, which is an even smaller base in the middle of town. Uh so you start distributing different guys different places. Where did you go? I stayed in the big base. Because I was the since I was the guy who was number one out of school and I knew the and they put me on the telecommunications, like that whole computer stuff. They're like, well, you're the guy who kind of knows the job more, even though you're newer, you kind of had that experience. We're gonna put you on this. And so um I ran the whole communication network for that area.

SPEAKER_03 26:29

On that big base, did they have all military branches? All of them. All of them. Australian, Canadian, oh yeah, yeah, two of the other countries. Yeah, but I'm talking about they had like Army, Army, Navy, Air Force. Good Chow?

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Yeah, great chow.

SPEAKER_03 26:44

PX.

SPEAKER_01 26:46

I think a small one, yeah. Gym? Gym, yeah. That's one of the perks of like being on a big gym. I actually missed that gym too. I mean, some of those gyms are awesome, bro. Well, it was run down, but I love that old equipment. It had the old equipment, not none of this like new machine stuff, yeah. You don't like like the no new stuff? No, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 27:06

So how did your schedule look like there, dude?

SPEAKER_01 27:09

12 hour shift, seven days a week.

SPEAKER_03 27:11

Oh fuck no, bro. How did you like that?

SPEAKER_01 27:16

Uh I didn't mind it. I mean, it's just to me, it was just work. Sucks, but it's just work. But it was more I would say it was worse for my friends because I would I got picked as the younger one to man the communications just because of um what I did in the school. Yeah. And so, like, all right, you're gonna you're gonna be one of the guys to not only have the corporal, but you'll be with the corporal running the whole thing. But all my friends who didn't, obviously, they got put, so we're called wire dogs. So not only do we deal with the communications of that, the telecommunications that they have to run the wire. So it's never I don't know if you've seen like Saving Prime Ryan or like the old movies with the guys with the wires and they're running? Wind talker.

SPEAKER_03 27:52

Wind talker.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

They had the little white cables on them, they're running. That's a wire dog. So now think of them just running digging trenches with shovels, not equipment, and just running right with wires like miles and miles of it everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

You gotta be kidding me, bro. Yeah, so they had it much harder than do they have e-tools or like shovel shovels? Shovel shovels, big shovels?

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Yeah, still sucks though.

SPEAKER_03 28:13

And I would imagine they they have to train on this, like out in the field. Yeah, yeah. You mean to tell me you got real humans, marines, digging holes and laying like laying line for how for how long? How far?

SPEAKER_01 28:27

My second deployment, they ran one from that main base all the way to Dwyer, like hundreds of miles. So they had to use a unit to cross across and run that under the ground all the way to the small fob out there.

SPEAKER_03 28:39

Dude, that sounds horrible.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

Oh, yeah, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 28:43

That sounds like a shitty job, dude. Oh, yeah, it's very but I didn't say for me, it was good because that whole time I got put in that. When you're digging this hole, I'm sure it's not a trench. It's a trench. It's a trench. Yeah. Big? Or just big enough to put a wire?

SPEAKER_01 28:58

Oh no, pretty big, normal trench. You could you could jump in it.

SPEAKER_03 29:01

No, absolutely not, bro. I wouldn't do that.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

When the runs the ones they run across the whole countryside is gonna have more of machines with you. Correct. But the ones this on base is gonna be more hand tools. You're almost better off like just dodging IEDs and you know. The guys will fit finish 12 hour shifts, they'd be full of dirt from head to toe.

SPEAKER_03 29:19

I'm probably exhausted.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

Yeah. And then I would one thing I did would would run though is um so as they're built as the army guys are building infrastructure, we have to run all the cable through the buildings. So you'd be in the attics and 120 degrees running cable through it.

SPEAKER_03 29:32

I know you guys are smart when it comes to that kind of stuff. What kind of neat little tricks were you guys doing with your guys' knowledge?

SPEAKER_01 29:38

Yeah, setting up stuff in your barracks room or well, I called my at that time I called my ex wife pretty often. Because I knew how to set up the so I didn't know.

SPEAKER_03 29:47

What other stuff were you guys doing? Man, getting yourself some satellite television when you weren't supposed to, or like knowing how to tap into things?

SPEAKER_01 29:54

No, in the on our in our little tents, yeah, we get a little bit more stuff for sure.

SPEAKER_03 30:00

So you how how many months were you there for? Six months. Did you guys receive indirect mortar fire? Rocket fire on that base?

SPEAKER_01 30:09

I think there was a couple times in the bigger base, but it's so big. I didn't really I remember there's something to talk about this on the other side. The smaller base was the moment we showed up, it was right off the bat.

SPEAKER_03 30:18

And that was on your second deployment?

SPEAKER_01 30:20

Second deployment, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:21

And what was that one like? Like when you showed up there in comparison to your big base?

SPEAKER_01 30:25

Uh it was hardly anything. I could see the I could see one side or the other and look at the other side and see the other fence on the other side.

SPEAKER_03 30:31

So and to you that was felt different, abnormal?

SPEAKER_01 30:36

Yeah, I mean, it felt a little bit abnormal, but I remember the first my first diploma, I did go to Lash Cargov, which is the middle of town. And I um I remember that base is just as small, just as tiny. And I had they had they needed someone to transport more communication stuff to the small fob out there because the the wiremen out there needed more stuff. And so I volunteered to go out there and to uh an offspray with my gunny and then went out there transported stuff. But being out there too, I was like, I was just curious and like really admired, like, oh, this is this is crazy, it's pretty nice. So when I got to the second base, the second, the second deployment, the second fob, I was like, oh, okay, this is normal in a sense. And then they had the SEALs out there too, a SEAL unit out there. On the small base. In the small base, yeah.

The Withdrawal And Reenlistment Roadblocks

SPEAKER_03 31:17

And you had the same job duties as you did when you were on the big base.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

No, I did. So we didn't we weren't running the we were breaking down the base. So we're doing fiber, we were doing more fiber lining. Okay. Uh to set up permanent communications. So a lot of stuff was more short-term, and this was more permanent infrastructure. So that's why they're running that wire from that big base to the small base for hundreds of miles. They showed up, and then we've when they showed up with the wire, we had to set up all the fiber lines connected to that wire so that they're talking continuously permanently.

SPEAKER_03 31:45

So just more trenches and then more fiber, not uh smaller capes, more knowing all the hard work that you guys put in and then ultimately giving the by Afghanistan back to the Taliban, how did that make you feel?

SPEAKER_01 31:58

It's pretty sh- I mean it sucks, pretty shitty, but that's good experiences with like I guess.

SPEAKER_03 32:05

Did you watch the with failed withdrawal of Afghanistan on TV?

SPEAKER_01 32:10

Yeah, I was a cop at that time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:13

What emotions ran through your head?

SPEAKER_01 32:15

Just upset. At who? The current like uh administration. Who was it at the time? Biden. And waste of money. I know that military waste is a lot of equipment, a lot of money when we're out there, but that was just complete waste. Yeah, in life, that was a complete waste of everything.

SPEAKER_03 32:34

Everything.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

Yeah. When we didn't have to do that.

SPEAKER_03 32:37

That yeah. And you were a cop.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:41

So you really couldn't be that voicely opinionated.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

No. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:45

Because also during that administration, it's definitely not now. Now we are allowed to be more vocal. Right? I believe it's kind of coming around, hopefully. Yeah. Did you want to re-enlist into the Marine Corps?

SPEAKER_01 32:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:59

You did? Yeah. How come you didn't?

SPEAKER_01 33:02

Max, well, no, I wouldn't say I wouldn't put on her. It was more um. So when I went to my sec or my second deployment, what happened was um I had thought I had re-enlisted already. So they asked you, I had six months left of my contract or seven months left on my contract, we're gonna six months deployment. Talked to a career planner, and she said, Do you want to re-enlist? I said yes, and then they're supposed to put all your package together. Well, I guess something happened. She was on baby leave and she left and didn't bother to touch a couple guys' packages. And so when I was out there in my second appointment, the gunny was talking to me. He's like, Hey, like Reels, like you gonna re-list? I'm like, Yes. And he's like, I didn't see your package on my list. And then he called back to uh North Carolina and they're like, No, Reos doesn't have nothing. And so they checked all the seats for like the whole uh MOS for the Marine Corps. He's like, You got no job, man.

SPEAKER_03 33:49

No freaking way, dude. Yeah, was that when the Marine Corps was like downsizing? Yeah, due to what tattoos? They seemed like they wanted to get rid of the good old people and just like downsized big people.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

They were downsizing and they're giving like people early outs. Like if you want to leave out early, you could leave six months early. You were part of that time frame. Yeah, I just had no job. Yeah, part of that time frame, and I had no job. He's like, You had no like you have no job.

SPEAKER_03 34:12

Like once you're done, like you just had that lady done her job, would you have been in the Marine Corps? Yeah, that's why we can't depend on these women, bro. And then so what but what he did though they have one fucking job, bro. One fucking job. You're a better, yeah. One job. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 34:29

But anyways, and so what happened? He they did some calls. My lieutenant was a Mustang, so he was a force recon operator. He was pretty respected. Yeah, uh, even though he was a lieutenant, he had a huge stack because he went from the the gunny tube and becoming an officer. Yeah, and so um he called me some calls and he's like, Hey, Rios wants to join or whatever. He's like, he wrote me a little letter and I was like, Yeah, I want to do this, but I had no job still in that spot, so I had to get a whole new MOS. And my ASVAB was too low to get any of the jobs that were open.

unknown 34:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:59

So I was like, uh, oh shit, okay. And so all they had, they had Marsock and they had um UAV operator and some other things.

SPEAKER_03 35:06

That'd be cool as fuck, bro. UAV operator.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

Yeah, so I was like, all right. Uh so I did my I retook my ASVAB, I had a study, retook my ASVAB, and then I got a high enough score for all those jobs. And then I put in for MarsOc, and then I got selected for Mars Acc and then um the that lieutenant because he had that special operations background as well, he put in a letter for me in the Marslock as well, so I got accepted. So now I had a a place to go, came home, and then I went on leave for two weeks, and I was like, I guess had like that sparkle of being home. Because I hadn't haven't been home in like you know, I was in North Carolina, I'm from California, so I wasn't going home often. So coming home for that week of home, I was like, what am I doing? I should just stay here. And then I haven't so I just took out the package and I ended up going home. And then I had a was married, had a had a kid, did the whole thing, became a cop.

SPEAKER_03 35:59

So how many law enforcement agencies did you apply to?

SPEAKER_01 36:04

One two. Which ones? I applied to Vyselia PD and then Kings County Sheriff's Office. And did you go through the process of both of them? Yes. You completed both processes? I completed uh I went through interview with Vyselia and then I went through an interview with Kings County.

SPEAKER_03 36:23

How did you ultimately end up with Kings County versus Viselia?

From Marine To Sheriff’s Deputy

SPEAKER_01 36:27

Uh Kings County chose me, Viselia denied me. But I was hoping my my main goal was to get Kings County. Which you got it. Which I got it, yeah. Right. But when I was going through the process, they only had one spot open. And so it was either I started, they said put in other applications because if this doesn't work out, then you're not gonna have nothing. But I only wanted to work there for there's a specific reason why I wanted to work there, but I only want to work there. So I I had my interview with Bicelia earlier, much quicker than they did. Took it, and then as I did my interview with Kings County, and then both came back and I was like, okay, deny I was like, well, perfect, I got the one I wanted, anyways.

SPEAKER_03 37:01

So at that time frame, what was your motivation to joining law enforcement?

SPEAKER_01 37:06

So I was going to school, I was going to college when I came home, and there was a guy in class named Tom, and he was the really the only reason why I became a cop. So he was a Marine as well, um, a veteran, and they pretty much asked you in school, well, in that school I was in, is there any veterans in here? Raise your hand if there's like army guys, you know. And there's usually always one like one Marine. Right. And so I was like, always raise my hand in class, and then this one class I had, he raised his hand, he just looked at me, gave me that nod, like, and I was just like that instant like brotherhood.

SPEAKER_02 37:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:36

So at lunchtime came around, he's like, Hey, let's go for a beer. And so he went for a beer. You're not supposed to be drinking.

SPEAKER_03 37:42

He was a fellow classmate?

SPEAKER_01 37:43

Yeah. And then I was talking to him, he's like, Oh, I'm a I'm a cop at Keynes County. And uh, he's a SWAT operator, a cop at Kings County, and he's like Marine. We're talking bullshitting, we're just chit-chatting. And he's like, Why don't you come on right line with me? And I was like, nah, dude, I don't like cops like that. Like, I don't want to be a cop, you know. My dad's, I don't I oh, I had put in for a CEO. That's right. I had put had put in for a CEO before that. And uh I was already slated to go to Corcoran 2, I believe. And um already had the academy set up already, and I was like, dude, I'm gonna go become a CEO. Like, you know, this like this is all we do, that's all I know. Like, just become a CEO. And he's like, just become a this come and ride long, me, me, you'll like it, man. Like the cop, like you'll like the job. A lot of guys there are veterans, a lot of Marines there. Like the the way our culture is at that department is pretty nice. Like, you'll like it. We don't get paid the best, but you'll like the culture there. And I was like, No, I don't want to. Well, it's come on ride long. Well, I went on a ride long and it changed everything.

SPEAKER_03 38:33

So what did you say the pay was?$70,000 a year?

SPEAKER_01 38:38

At that time it wasn't that high. At that time, it was like 20 something bucks an hour when I first started.

SPEAKER_03 38:45

Knowing what you know and your experience on the job, do you think cops are underly paid or overly paid or just right for with the duties that they do?

SPEAKER_01 38:54

Underly paid. Underly paid. There's people who made less than I did. Damn. In other departments, smaller departments.

SPEAKER_03 39:00

But I would imagine like the the responsibilities that come with the job are shitty. Shitty. At times, right? Every day's shitty. Every day's shitty. Yeah. They do say that you're dealing with the worst the society has to offer.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

Yes. And you start knowing them by name.

SPEAKER_03 39:15

We'll get there, bro. We'll get there. Um so, bro, you're just pulling these wild cards out, bro. You wanted to go to the Navy, you end up with the Marine Corps, you wanted to be a CEO, now you're a deputy sheriff. What did that academy look like?

SPEAKER_01 39:30

Oh, that's the easiest fucking thing I did. Well, because you were in boot camp. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:34

Where was that academy located? Hanford. Hanford. Shout out to Hanford. Uh, what was it at a college campus or like an academy?

SPEAKER_01 39:42

Yeah, the COS college campus.

SPEAKER_03 39:45

Did you get slotted? Were there other people there that were putting themselves through the post-examination on their own? Yeah, you had to pay for it. And you were the only one from that agency?

SPEAKER_01 39:57

No, I wasn't with them yet.

SPEAKER_03 39:59

So how did that work?

SPEAKER_01 40:00

So, with the way that academy works is you could do the whole academy and not have a job. Correct. At the end of it. So maybe like a month or two before I was graduating, uh, Keens County opened up. So Tom had worked for Keens County and I went on a ride-along. And I loved everything. I met all the people there on his shift. There's all the guys who were Marines as well, and I was like, the way they operated. We had a pursuit that night. We had uh they got into a use of force that day, and I was like, and the way they operated and did things together was outstanding. I loved it. And the the culture there was really great and welcoming too. And then the guys is bullshitting. Like nothing about them was formal, even though I was like a new guy coming in, like, hey, he's a Marines good. They acted like themselves, like there was no like they weren't doing their job any different. And I was like, I fucking love this place, this is cool. And um, after that, I started going on rylons with Tom often, like for 10, 12 hours. That's what you're supposed to go on rilong for two hours as a as a I'll go from for pretty practically a whole shift. A whole shift with Tom. A whole shift with Tom, yeah. And it was cool, just kicking it. He was just cool, yeah. And he would just talk to me bullshit about the Marine Corps, he talked about the job because I was already in the academy now. And so he's like, Oh, I learned this at the school, and he's like, Don't fucking do that. And he was teaching me the real way of how to do police and whatnot. And I was like, Um, I really want to work here because I started knowing that the people even the sergeants and whatnot, and he's like, Well, we don't have we don't have one, we don't have a spot, but like, you know, hopefully there might be a new spot coming up. So when that spot did come up, I had to earn that one spot. And I think like 30 people put in for that uh interview.

SPEAKER_03 41:25

Can a person use their GI Bill to put themselves to an academy like that?

SPEAKER_01 41:28

Yeah, so they pay for that.

SPEAKER_03 41:29

I f I had no idea, bro. I had no idea. That's something for the veterans to realize to realize. I had no idea. Is that what you did? Yeah, dude, you're lucky, bro. Um, so you said how much month prior to the graduation of the academy did you get contacted? I think it was like two months. And what did that process look like? Hey, dude, you're hired?

SPEAKER_01 41:50

No, it's like, hey, we have an interview put in for it, did the interview. Um and I just went in there with the mindset of I'm not gonna get the job anyways. Why? I like to do that. I don't like to ever I mean it's good.

SPEAKER_03 42:01

Yeah. Right? But not too much.

Culture, Training, And Working Rural Beats

SPEAKER_01 42:03

Yeah, I just my wife tells me the same thing. She's like, why do you think like that? I'm like, I kind of want to be let down if it doesn't happen, type of thing. But I think they were I taught I had talked to the person as I became a deputy, like already years into it. And he's like, I was on your panel, like no three years ago. And I was like, What do you like? He's like, he's like, you just knew everything already as a new guy. You already knew like the the streets, you already knew what cities were there, you already knew the different units, you already knew how we operated. And I was like, that's all because of Tom. I knew the actual inner workings of the department, not just like, I want to be here because I'm loyal and I'm hardworking. I just actually, what do you want to know? You know, like what do you know about Kings County? Well, what do you want to know? Tell us about this. Boom, boom, boom, tell us about that, bam, bam, bam. How do we operate doing this? We do this, we do this, and we do that. They're like, damn, how do you know all this stuff? And it's just because I was just actually working with someone who was working there and learning everything about it.

SPEAKER_03 42:51

So how many cities in Kings County? Or which cities are in Kings County?

SPEAKER_01 42:56

Corcoran, Avanall, Kettleman City, Hanford, Armona, Lemoore.

SPEAKER_03 43:03

And how far of a radius are all of these? I think close or far?

SPEAKER_01 43:08

Far.

SPEAKER_03 43:08

Far? Yeah, I think. And what's in between? Farmland?

SPEAKER_01 43:11

Farmland, yeah. So I could be I could be in one part of the county and my backup could be an hour and a half away.

SPEAKER_03 43:17

No way, bro. Absolutely not. That's giving me anxiety.

SPEAKER_01 43:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:20

Then how the hell was Tom doing this?

SPEAKER_01 43:23

What do you mean?

SPEAKER_03 43:24

Tom was a Kings County Sheriff?

SPEAKER_01 43:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:27

So hit how far away was Tom's backup when you would go on ride ride-alongs? Far.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

He would just say, if something goes wrong, just hit this button, the rifle will open up. I trust you.

SPEAKER_03 43:38

I like that, bro. Yeah. I like that. He said I wouldn't do that for anybody else, but with you, I'd I trust you. And you knew where the button was and you knew where the rifle was. Yeah. And if Tom needed help, you were gonna fucking hit that button and help Tom with the rifle. Oh, definitely. That's good, bro. I like that shit. Um as a sheriff deputy, with your backup being an hour and a half away, do you have to develop a certain other set of survival skill sets?

SPEAKER_01 44:04

Yeah, speaking.

SPEAKER_03 44:06

Correct. Can you elaborate on that? Respect. Can you elaborate on everything you're about to say?

SPEAKER_01 44:11

You can't just be talking shit to people just because you want to, just because you think you have a badge.

SPEAKER_03 44:15

Do you think that varies maybe in like a city like Los Angeles or San Diego, where backup is very near?

SPEAKER_01 44:22

I think so. A lot of where I used to work just from my experience, where I used to work because we do have a city uh department there in Hanford and Lamore. They have and Avanel have city cops. And one thing they always say is like, you guys are so cool. Like you guys talk to us like we're people. I'm like, well, go down the road and it ain't gonna happen. So I hear what you're saying. Because I would walk up and be like, Hey, my hey, what's going on? My name's uh Deputy Rios. Like, I just stopped you because your uh headlight was broken. I don't I don't go up and be like, Good afternoon, my name is Deputy Rios. I pulled you over because of no, I just like you just kept it real. I talk like the way I do it right now. It's just very it's the same exact way. I never changed it. Yeah, I'd even cuss too. Like, oh, fucking the light was broken, my belly, whatever. And they're like, they'll get kind of confused at first, like, did he just I'm like, all right, well, I'll see you later. That makes the job fun though. Because you could be yourself. I wrote two tickets in six years.

SPEAKER_03 45:12

Is there a quota?

SPEAKER_01 45:14

No, that's a myth. No, it's more for there. It's against the law.

SPEAKER_03 45:17

Quotas are against the law? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:19

All right, that's good to know. But I will say, just from that thing though, it's against the law. But from what I know with working with like other departments, the way they kind of push it is like uh we're not working hard enough.

SPEAKER_03 45:32

Be more proactive, yeah. Right? And they were like, hey, we're gonna ding you here because you're not you don't have as many calls as this Mova Girl either or tickets.

SPEAKER_01 45:39

That's what I was talking about with Tom, like when I was learning the culture at Keynes County. They do not care about tickets. Well, at that time I don't know how it is now, but I'd never been on FTO. And my uh my FTO was telling me, like, like, um, how do I I never first my first time I pulled the traffic stop, pulled them over, and then I went back to ran the ran the name. I'm like, all right, what would I give him a ticket now? He's like, we're not gonna fucking give him a ticket, put that shit away. He's like, I don't even know how to give a ticket. Let's go. And I was like, oh, they love this place even more. He's like, all we care about is guns and warrants, and that is it. Guns and drugs. Guns, warrants, and guns.

SPEAKER_03 46:14

Guns, warrants, and drugs. Yeah. How often do you come across guns, warrants, and drugs?

SPEAKER_01 46:21

Drugs every day. Warrants every day. A shift will have a warrant. Guns, maybe every other ship or every So it's pretty freaking frequent then. Pretty freaking, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:32

And that's quite crazy because you guys are um like actually being proactive and like kind of like seclude, not secluding it, but like prioritizing that.

SPEAKER_01 46:41

Prior prioritizing real shit, not just not dumb shit, not speeding, just or not not dumb stuff, you know. Oh, your window tent. I could care. Now, will we use that those PCs to pull you over? Yes, but then like running everything, cool, name, no warrants, nothing. Okay, cool. He's not high, all right. Cool, he's not drunk. Um, can I search a car? No, okay, cool. I'll see you later then.

SPEAKER_03 47:01

What about felons or paroles?

SPEAKER_01 47:04

Yeah, that's full search right there.

SPEAKER_03 47:07

And do those stops usually end well, not well, cordial?

SPEAKER_01 47:12

I would say pretty well.

SPEAKER_03 47:14

They usually end well, yeah. Why? Because they're chill with it?

SPEAKER_01 47:17

I think it's because the deputy thing again. They always knew like uh we don't ever fuck with you guys, like you guys are cool.

SPEAKER_03 47:25

What would what would be a reason a deputy would fuck with a parole? Or what couldn't what can a dude do that would just amplify amplify the situation?

SPEAKER_01 47:37

It'll usually be more younger kids who would just talk diff too just too stupid. So I grew up around gangs too as well. Right. So when I would talk to them, I talk to them, I said they're my cousin. Oh hey, what's going on, bro? When we talking and whatnot. And then these kids will just they just act like an asshole for no reason. Just because they see like maybe X3 or X4 on their tattoos or whatnot. I'm like, he ain't fucking doing anything right now, so why does it matter?

SPEAKER_03 48:02

But they would amp it up and then all of a sudden they don't like being disrespected, then it turns into an argument, and then it just gets kind of would it, as they're escalating the situation, was it your goal to de-escalate the situation, or would you take it there if they took it there?

SPEAKER_01 48:15

No, I'd try to de-escalate the situation for sure.

SPEAKER_03 48:18

Did you guys have body one cameras? No. Was that a perk or not a perk?

SPEAKER_01 48:22

Both, I think. Both in the sense, I would say both in the sense of I feel like cameras make people. It's gonna be a it's a positive when you have a camera because you could kind of back up what you're saying. Evidence preservation, but then it's a negative because it makes cops act like not people, in the sense of they're being more formal and they're not like I if I had a camera, I couldn't be like, oh hey, what's going on? Like I'd be talking to a guy and like his girlfriend, and I'm like, oh yeah, that bitch, whatever, you know. Like on like you call her a bitch, and I'd be like, Yeah, this bitch over here, fucking my best friend, and blah blah. I'm like, oh that's fucking you know bitches, bro. Because I want to connect. Right, uh, yeah, I get it, bro.

SPEAKER_03 48:58

And then he'd be like, like, like we're cool, effective communication, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:02

And then, but could I say that on a camera? No, no, because they wouldn't understand.

SPEAKER_03 49:06

Whoever's watching that shit wouldn't understand.

Proactivity: Guns, Warrants, And Drugs

SPEAKER_01 49:08

Exactly. Like, but you want us to talk to you like normal people, but then we start talking like normal people, and then you don't like it. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 49:14

So you're you're a hundred percent right about body worn cameras, bro. They're actually a very, very good thing. I think they are, yeah. Very good thing.

SPEAKER_01 49:22

Just let us be normal, correct.

SPEAKER_03 49:25

It's almost not that hard of a theory, huh?

SPEAKER_01 49:27

There's guys in Vicelli Pedia getting written up just for saying bitch.

SPEAKER_03 49:31

I I know it. I know it. But we're all adults. Come on, we're all adults. Good thing you didn't join CDCR after all, because they had get written up for cussing. That's what my stepdad was telling me, yeah. They get written up for cussing often. Often. That's so dumb. Um, did how long did you stay on patrol before you started to do other fun, interesting stuff?

SPEAKER_01 49:53

Oh, so this uh so uh I was on patrol for two years, ended up getting into a shooting and killing someone, and then I got put to detectives.

SPEAKER_03 50:07

What was this incident revolving involving? It was a hostage situation. Is that is that anywhere on the internet or yeah, it is? Bro, you should have let me know beforehand, so I could have done my research on that. No, um can you walk us through the events of that day?

SPEAKER_01 50:26

Yeah, yeah. So what happened was it's typical normal day, get a call for uh uh an adult chasing a child in the middle of the roadway. But to me, is um a lot of calls get come out when it's just a passerby, like someone calls and they're just a passerby or so in the middle of the roadway. We're talking like the countryside. So I'm like, these this these calls happen all the time. Like, you know, someone beating his wife or someone's running in the middle of the roadway doing whatever, but you get there and there's never anyone there because it's just the cars are constantly moving, right? So you get to that location, and 99% of the time, out of all the hundreds of calls I got like that over those two years, never there. So I was like, So my starting is like, hey, real is like could we had a burglary going on too as well? He's like, just go handle that call on your B. I'm like, copy, I'll be there. So I'm driving there where you're like, I want to go to the burglary, you know. There's still a suspect, I think there was a suspect running still. So I was like, I want to go to the action, you know? Well, we're going to a call and no one's gonna be there.

SPEAKER_02 51:23

Okay.

The Hostage Call: Window Break To Shots Fired

SPEAKER_01 51:23

And then I pull up, show up, it's dark. It's like around like 9, 10 p.m., I think at the time. And I don't see nothing. And I'm like looking around, and then I'm still driving a little bit more, and then I see a white truck, and I'm like, okay, fuck. This might be something. Pull up, run the plate, get out, walk up to the car. It's a guy uh sitting in the driver's seat, and there's a half-naked kid in the passenger seat. So I'm just like, all right, it's kind of you get that kind of thing in your stomach that's kind of hits you a little bit different. Like, I've it doesn't happen very often, but when it does, I already knew like this is something kind of wrong. So I knock on the window and he's like, You could go. And then I was like, Oh fuck. So I call myself, I'm like, hey, like you know, Sam 305, like come over to my location. I still don't have nothing yet, but I'm just like, just start coming over here. And I'm already kind of getting that adrenaline's already kind of going up. And I said I do hundreds of traffic stops over two years. I'm like, this one just feels 10 times different. And I'm like, hey, what's wrong with the kid? Like, why is it cold outside? I'm like, why is he naked? He's like, you could go. Oh, dude. And I'm like, fuck. So I'm like, started banging on the window, like, hey, like, talk to me, ask my questions. We got a call. You your car matches that call. There was someone chasing the kid. Like, do you know where this kid, like, do you know where this kid's at? And he's just like ignoring me. It's like this with his hand just looking straight. Which my thing growing up in an apartment and learning and training was it's always the quiet people that are more scary than the lot, the loud ones. 100% quiet. And I was like, this is just too quiet for me. Well, as I'm doing that, trying to get him to still communicate, the kid wakes up and he starts screaming, help me, help me, save me. He's gonna kill me. And then that's where I would everything kind of just changed at that moment. Pulled my gun out, had a mad gun point. I was like, get the fuck out of the car, like, don't move. Like, um, open the car or on your window, something. And he's still just sitting there, not talking, not moving. The kid's screaming, screaming. And then um he says he has a gun. I'm looking for a gun, but he says he has a gun. Don't see anything, but now there's a weapon involved. This kid's screaming, so I get out my knife and has a window breaker, and I end up breaking the window to try to snatch him out of the car window. Fuck's making me all fucking weird. So try to sergeant cow window, but he grabs the kid and holds him up, just like a typical hostage situation, holds him up as like a shield to um block himself, and then he starts uh the kid's screaming more, then he ends up getting a knife and holding it to the kid. And so now we have a hostage situation. At that time, the sergeant had just pulled up when I broke the window, and now we're giving commands, you know, let go of the kid, let go of the kid. And he's just not. And so pretty much to kind of summarize it, it's just like how to make a decision to Well, there was a point where he had went to go reach for something under the seat when he had the knife into the kid, went to go reach for something else, and then I remember the kid I said he has a gun, so I'm like, this pucker's gonna grab a gun. I can't shoot because if I shoot, I might hit the kid. So there's nothing in front of me, there's no cover, no nothing. So I'm like, I'm just gonna die in the process of it trying to save this kid. So I just backed up behind. I said, gun, gun, gun, backed up behind the truck and just had him at gunpoint from there. And then um pretty much made a it's pretty much like a second or two of just um I never recall it hostage situation. And I just made it while he was talking on the radio, my sergeant, I just made a decision of like um I'm just gonna go in there and if I die in the process of it, it's fine. And um fuck so it's all it's all pretty quick because I listened to radio things, it's like literally seconds, but to me it felt like minutes. But when I had backed up in that that that process real quick, all I could think about because my son was only four months old, and so he had um I never just thinking like I never talking to I wasn't really big into like God, but I still kind of wanted faith in that sense. So it was more just I never just saying like I know my son is um young and he doesn't know me yet, but just tell him that I love him. And I just went to go back into that situation. Ended up shooting the guy twice. He still didn't let go of the kid, but he was still hurting up to like move away his arm away. And then I shot him into the leg. Sergeant pulls him out the window, ended up shooting him because he wouldn't let go of the kid more, so I ended up shooting him and killing him. And then um kid gets pulled out, we start backing up. I do a mag change, and then um he's kind of sitting there still alive in a sense, so we end up as we're holding that cover. I'm holding kind of we're still back from the truck, but we're holding that point, and it kind of just like everyone gets there, you know. We call the I was on the SWAT team at the time, but you were on the SWAT team at the time? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 56:19

So you did you have hostage tra hostage um training?

SPEAKER_01 56:24

Not all departments had we do because at SWAT school we did have a hostage course. Okay. Because I went to the FBI SWAT school. Right. And so we did a course on it. So I kind of I guess I kind of had an idea. And we what helped in that training was we just had a training with breaking out windows with suspects in the car just a week a week before that.

SPEAKER_03 56:41

I'm telling you, bro, everything happens for a reason.

SPEAKER_01 56:43

And it was like, so I never telling my my commander, my uh team commander, I was like, we just had this and it worked out perfectly.

SPEAKER_03 56:50

Did you actually train during training to break the window? Yeah. Would did you utilize your same tool or did you use a different type of?

SPEAKER_01 56:56

I used a different tool that we had on the SWAT team. But it was like I had this knife on me, kind of similar.

SPEAKER_03 57:00

Yeah. When you broke the glass, did it break it on the first attempt?

SPEAKER_01 57:04

Yeah, it felt like water. Easy.

SPEAKER_03 57:07

The way you were describing that suspect and his demeanor to me seemed like evil, bro.

SPEAKER_01 57:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:13

Did you ever did you feel like a different aura around this fool?

SPEAKER_01 57:15

Yeah, it's the worst feeling I felt.

SPEAKER_03 57:18

Who did the suspect turn out to be? The kid's dad. Did he have a criminal record? Did he have was he a bad person?

SPEAKER_01 57:30

He had a northerner record. I think he was a dropout. What happened was when I started getting the information when they did the whole investigation, they were actually looking for him, Hampered was, because the mom had called and said, um this the dad has our kid, but um he I think he had sent a call to her and said, like, you know, like goodbye or whatever. And then when they interviewed the kid, the dad had told them, like, we're both gonna die tonight. And so the kid was scared. So when they went to a stop at an intersect, I think it was like the intersection or whatnot, he jumped out of the car, saw the fire stairs, the fire station across the street. So he jumps out of the car, tries to run to the fire station, because obviously fire menu could get help from them. And as he's running, he knocks out the kid, drags him back to the car. Fuck, dude. And as he drags him back to the car, that's when I pull up.

SPEAKER_03 58:15

Oh bro. But I didn't know that was. That's fucking hell. Was he under the influence of something? I mean, did he do like a toxology?

SPEAKER_01 58:29

Alcohol, he had alcohol for holy shit, dude. But the the part that bothers me every time I tell this story is more in the sense of I don't mind killing a dad for what he did. Is like, that's my job. Like I wanted I'm here to save the kid. The kid is my most is my biggest priority, and taking his life is okay, whatever did it. It was mainly the kid that kept bothering me after because it was constantly hearing the kids screaming when I was sleeping, but and then like just walking around. But the other thing was just even though the dad was bad and he was did what he did to his son, it was more like taking the dad's the kid's dad's from him his whole life. I'm the guy who took his dad from him, regardless if it was a bad thing or that's how I always looked at it, it always bothered me. Because now he doesn't have a dad because of me, but also he could have died because he doesn't have a dad because of his dad's actions. Yeah, too.

SPEAKER_03 59:22

Not because of you, but that's what that is. Um did you ever seek treatment or therapy as a result of that incident?

SPEAKER_01 59:31

No, no, you know it's not too late, bro. Alright, no, so there's more sort of story, so I do now. So my story comes with uh kind of a few things. Um it's like a three different incidents. But before this incident, I did a body removal of a family friend who was my dad's partner at work. And uh he ended up at the Kings County Hospital. And um as share steppers, we do body removals. All anyone that anyone that dies, we pick them up. We're share of. Oh, way, dude. So you see death every single day.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:05

Hold on. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. A sheriff deputy is the coroner?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:10

Only so ours were sheriff deputy corners. So deputy half-in corners.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:14

I know, but is there any just coroners by themselves?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:17

Yes, we have one corner.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:18

Okay. Can't handle all the deaths in the in the county. Is there a lot of death in the county?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:22

Oh yeah. When I come in, you don't realize you think people die in the news, like that person died in the news. Oh yeah, I wouldn't know. You get to work and it's like every day bunch of people. The whole morgue's just filled with dead bodies.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:34

And as if you're a sheriff deputy and do you have to go get the meat wagon? Like the coroner vehicle?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:40

No, so we have a private company that will pick them up and they would take him to the corner, but we have to pronounce the deputy corner has to pronounce them dead. So you have to do the body, check the eyelid, check the whole body from head to toe, deem deem whether it's just uh natural or are you able to declare somebody dead? Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:55

Because I always thought it was doctors that were able to declare somebody dead. The coroner can too. And the coroner? And then I'll think there's other three criteria if they're decapitated or something, and then two uh some other ones.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:05

I got called a few times, deep bottom rubles at the prisons.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:08

At the prison?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:08

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:11

So old Corcoran or new Corcoran? Both. And you would show up to the prison.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:15

Yeah, show up to the prison, take off all my gear, walk in there. Oh, he's dead. Call the people and put Bob and Rule, then take him out. The inmate. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:22

What a tri dude, what a I mean, it's a small world, it's a weird, it's just a whole different world, bro. So what happened with his body removal?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:31

So get a call, typical day. You see, you do this every day practically. So go to bottom rule, go to the hospital. Whether it's hospital, the roadway, whatever it is, person, the car burning, like just a normal thing. Deaf is nothing at that point. So you get there, and then I see the name, and it says um it said Armando Gallegos, and I was like, Oh, I know Armando Gallegos. My dad's partner's name is that. And I was like, Oh, small world, small world, you know. The CEO. Yeah. And I was like, oh, small world. And then I open the curtain and it's my Armando, you know, like my dad's partner.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:04

He worked at Kern Valley State Prison.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:06

Yes. And then I look over to his wife, and we just had dinner like last week at my dad's house. And now that's when it hit me, like, fuck, this is him, him, not some guy on a paper, like not like just some random guy.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:18

Gallegos was assaulted, to my knowledge. At the prison. At the prison by Southsiders.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:24

And he suffered from the injuries after.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:26

And he passed away. If you ask me, I'm not a doctor, but it would lead me to believe that he was murdered as a result of this attack in the prison system. Yes. But they never deemed it that. It was never like an official fact.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:40

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:40

Correct. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:41

From my I think they were talking about the whole thing. I I got removed from the whole thing because of my relationship to him, but I remember them talking about the doctors giving like their opinions, like, well, the injuries from that whole incident is what kind of caused it in that sense.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:57

I was on the phone two days ago with somebody that was Gallegos' partner, and he brought up him. He brought up Gallego's two days ago. Dude, it's trip. What other incidents were you involved in? Because you said there was three. Yes. That were like back to back.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:10

Yeah, so that happened four months later, my shooting happens, and then six months later, maybe like maybe like six months later, eight months later, um, Tom, the one that was the reason why I was a cop ended up killing himself when I was working.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:25

No, dude.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:28

And then that's when I they said you need to go to therapy. And then that kind of whole thing happened.

Aftermath, Coroner Duties, And Death Up Close

SPEAKER_03 1:03:34

What the hell, bro? Dude, it's crazy because you were the way you were talking about Tom guiding you through the school, taking you on ride-alongs. I'm like, damn, this dude sounds like a really cool dude, bro.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:45

Oh, badass. One of the best class we had there.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:51

Did he ever show signs or anything that this was gonna transpire?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:56

No, but then again, I guess like how they say most people you ask them how they're doing, they just say, I'm good. You know? Veteran, he was infantry, um, a couple points to Afghanistan. Uh he saw combat and um he went in shootings too as a sheriff's deputy as well. But the biggest thing was I think it was what happened we were on the SWAT team, we had a call out. There was an incident with him on that call, and pretty much the the team leader on that call pretty much snitched him out in the sense of like um whatever's going on. But yeah, he ended up getting in trouble.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:40

He he ended up Tom ended up getting in trouble? Yeah. Was he facing termination?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:45

No, no, nothing like that level, but just like you're in trouble, you're off the team, and you're gonna go to bailiffs. And this is a guy who said, like I'm saying, like one of the best guys in any duty, best cop, um, like I said, shooting his awards, silver stars, all that stuff. And his he would go do overtime just because he liked doing the job. Um and so when it kicked him off the team and they sent him to do bailiffs, and bailiffs is like, no one wants to be there, you know? And he was there for a couple weeks, it's just kind of sad, and then uh shortly after that, he finds out um that his wife's kind of leave him. And so I think all that together kind of just tipped that the whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:25

It's almost like uh, I mean, he sounds like a warrior. Sounded like he was a warrior. Oh, yeah, that's and you and you take that away from him. He feels like he has no purpose.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:34

Exactly. And I feel I feel bad because to me, he would to me, Tom was not only my friend, but I seen him much higher than me. Like he is like a big brother, taking care of me, mentoring me. So when you look at big brother, it's like big brother got he's good, you know. He he could he got the whole thing pretty much locked down. He's like, he's fine, type of thing. He'll figure it out and whatnot. So when I was seeing him at Bayless when I go to court, or if I text him, he was just like, Yeah, I'm good, bro. Like a smile too, same as I think, like my same smile, same everything. So I'm like, oh, like big brother's good. There's no reason to question him more, you know. Um, but obviously that wasn't the case.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:11

Just the way he mentored you when you were in college, bro, speaks volumes, especially when you were going on ride-alongs.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:17

I was actually his first trainee too.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:19

What was he, like an FTO?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:20

Yeah. Well, he became an FTO the moment that I got into the department, and I was his first trainee. He was the hardest trainee. The hardest FTO.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:30

With what you experienced in your agency, is that normal for other employees to experience like that?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:36

My experience?

SPEAKER_03 1:06:37

Your experience. No. Like the way you're making it seem to me in my head, it seems like King County was out of control, bro.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:45

We were having shooting when I remember I calculated one time whenever I got into my shooting, and I calculated before that and after. We averaged the shooting like every six months. That's kind of frequent, dude. Yeah, it's pretty frequent. But as far as hostage situation, they told me that was probably one of the first or second one that happened the whole time.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:09

What ye how long before that shooting, the hostage situation till you till you resigned? Two years. Two years? Yeah. How were you doing mentally?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:20

Uh I tell I say good. My wife said when I tell her a story, she said you probably weren't.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:24

So No, I I understand. I understand.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:27

I thought I was fine, you know? Just that mindset, that Marine Corps mindset, you just push and move forward.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:32

Because you don't feel it or you don't see it till other people start noticing it.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:35

Yeah. I will they I will say someone did tell me another Marine, so one of my good friends and one of my um, he was also my FTO as well. And uh he was my supervisor. Well, just the higher just the next level up as a corporal, or at that they're called seniors, but in terms corporal. Um, he was uh first force recon in the Marine Corps, older guy though. And um I think he's the only one probably noticed it, and uh my friend Taylor as well. He's also my supervisor as well. But I was always with Shu, that was the guy in the recon. I was always with them because we worked out together after work, and he lived down the street from me, and he'd come over and drink. So when after when everything happened with Tom, we were driving back home from the gym. He's like, hey little brother, like how you doing? I was like, Oh, I'm good. He's like, No, you're not. Yeah, he's like, Um, have you spoken with someone? I'm like, no, like I don't need to speak to anyone. Like, that's that's weak, that's stupid, you know. And I remember him looking at me, okay. Special oper, you know, like special force is an operator, right? First force recon. Like I've picked, you know, tip of the spear. He looked at me and he's like, I talk with someone. Do you think I'm weak? And I'm like, fuck. He's all there's nothing wrong with talking with someone. He's like, I'm not trying to force you to do it, but just think about it, type of thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:46

That's what I just asked you right now. I said, Did you seek treatment, dude? Because um during our time when we got out, there was nobody. There was nobody to guide us, nobody to show us give. And it was viewed upon as weak. But do you view it like that now?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:01

No, definitely not. So what happened too after that was um I was just doing my thing at work, and then uh so that was after the shooting, he actually said that. And then when Tom killed himself, my other supervisor and my friend Taylor Lopes, um, he had told me, You're gonna, you're you're close with Tom. All the close, all the guys that are closest to Tom, they they also got sent to therapy. Well, they got the option to go to therapy in Fresno from Dr. Janet Price, and he was like, You're gonna go speak to her as well. And I'm like, No, I'm not. He's like, I reschedule you're going this afternoon at one. I'm like, you can't do that to legal. I was like, I don't give a fuck. And then by respect to him, so I was like, fuck it, I'll go. I'm working, I'm busy. And he's like, nah. I already told him you're going. Commander already knows you're going. He doesn't know why you're going. He says, I you will be unavailable at this time. So I went there, walked into Dr. Price's office, and I was like, I don't know what I'm doing here, and I think this is stupid. And then somehow that lady got me talking, I don't know how, and I ended up just crying, and uh I feel like the best thing in the world. Absolutely, dude. 100%.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:10

When you resigned, uh, was that a tough decision for you to make? No.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:16

Yeah, that was easy.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:17

What did that process look like?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:20

Because with everything happening around the California, 2020, you know, so all this stuff happened before 2020. Then 2020 happens and the riots, and then going to Oakland riots and you went to the Oakland riots?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:32

Yeah. Uh uh with your department? Yes. You did you get attached to another agency?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:38

No, we handle all, we do all together. So everyone, everyone that's supporting, they stay within their department, but they're helping on the street as a unit.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:45

Was it chaos where you were there?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:46

Oh, yeah. It was insane. What did you see? Just uh the same thing you see on the kind of news, throwing fireworks, throwing shit, yelling.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:53

It's different, bro. From watching on the couch is different than being there fucking smelling the bullshit.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:58

Yeah, I'm just like smoke, just chaos and uh yeah, like I said, it's the typical throwing shit at you. Did you feel like maybe the zombie apocalypse or not real? Honestly, I kind of was just like, give me a reason. So I didn't I didn't care.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:14

I get it, bro.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:15

I was kind of like, oh, cool, I'm here in Oakland. Like nothing's happening where I'm from, so give me a reason now, you know? I'll be yeah, I'm excited, I'm excited.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:22

Like, right. So how was that safe, relatively safe, or was there danger?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:28

Fuck, I don't think it was safe. There's so many of them, there's so many people. How many?

SPEAKER_03 1:11:33

Hundreds, thousands, thousands. It outnumbered us way more. If they wanted to just overrun and take you guys, could they? Easily, easily, I think so. If they wanted to pick you guys off one by one or from a sniper hide, could they have?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:46

Yeah, there was no, there was not that good of security. Damn, dude.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:51

And yeah, so what was the goal? What was the goal? Well, what riots were those? Black Lives Matter riots? Yes. What was the goal of your law enforcement presence in Oakland of all places?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:00

Just to support Oakland PD so that they could continue to do their calls and then um try to keep order in some sense. Like be aggressive, but don't be that aggressive. And I'm just like, then what the fuck are we doing here?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:12

Was that to defund the police movement? Yeah. Oh, golly.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:16

Like, all right, this time they have like they're protesting, they're they're rioting, they ain't protesting, but we're still gonna allow them. Like, you're talking to Oakland, you debrief with them before you go out, and they're like, this is what we want. They're rioting already, they've already been doing this, we've been getting shot at at night, whatever, whatnot. But it's like um they have curfew at nine, I think it was, or eight or nine. Then you can start going and arrest them. But for right now, just kind of maintain things, sit there, chill there, let them talk, and then you hear them talking on the speakerphone. Like, it's just the fucking stupidest thing ever. And then you got the dumb cops who like the supervisors who like not my department, but the other departments who are like kneeling, going out there and taking a knee in knee, and then I'm like, what the fuck are we doing?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:55

Did you observe that? Yeah, you do you observe a law enforcement official go out there and take a knee? Yeah, and how did what was going through your brain? Just keep it real, bro. Fuck it. Just keep it real.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:04

Fuck this guy. I don't work with him. True, but it makes sense because they fucking work in Northern California and all this fucking liberal shit. It's like, are you fucking serious? That's not damn my does it almost seem traitorous, yeah. Treasonous. These guys are burning your city down and they got you to kneel in front of them.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:22

Fuck, bro. That's wild.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:25

And we had my commanders with us, and they're like, fuck that.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:28

Portland was off the hook too, or Seattle, one of those fucking shitholes.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:31

And that's why I like where I work, because my work does not care. My my sheriff, my sheriff literally said during all that time, like, this is not gonna happen. And even when COVID, or can I say that?

SPEAKER_03 1:13:40

You can say whatever the fuck you want, bro.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:42

Even when COVID happened, he's like my deputies will still continue to work regardless.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:45

I didn't wear one, I didn't wear one mask the whole time I was working. I continued, I can't my job was exactly the same day it was the day before COVID.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:53

During the Oakland riots, did you observe destruction of property? Yes. Did you observe fires?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:02

Vandalism?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:04

Batteries? Like assaults?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:06

You did? And there wasn't anything you guys can do about it?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:10

No, you just stand there. Sometimes you would grab them and arrest them if they the one thing I hate is they get so close to you.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:20

How close? Oh, in your face.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:23

And you're just like, I have to well, I was the guy with the gun. With the with the um 40? Not the 40, the fuck, the the millimeter uh with the tear gas. The 40 millimeter or I can't remember now. Damn it's pencil. I'm horrible with that now. But I wasn't wanting shooting the gas behind the line. Did you actually fire off gas? No. I was pissed because I wanted to just fire them all of them.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:48

But uh, okay. Who who were you taking orders from?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:52

So I was taking orders from my commander, but my commander's also taking orders from the people of that city.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:58

I get it. There's a fucking uh chain of command, the hierarchy.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:01

They can't just let us loose 100%. Because yeah, because then he's gonna be in the case. So it's like, but he's still good, he's still like he's like, I'm gonna protect you regardless. If something gets too bad, you guys could do what you guys could be Kings County and do and be Kings County. But for right now, just that makes sense. Just try to just let them do what they're doing. Because the ones that are kneeling were not us, it was the actual people of that city, you know. I get it. So he's like, let them do what they're doing. We like, we know we're not from here, like let them whatever.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:24

That makes sense, bro. Damn, bro. I've never really spoken to somebody that was involved that no longer works there, that's able to speak out freely. Did America handle the Oakland riots, BLM riots appropriately from a law enforcement perspective?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:40

No.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:40

Why?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:41

Because they need to all be just put in jail and snatched up off the spot.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:47

You may have some viewers that watch and may not like comprehend the you know severity of the situation. But yeah, I mean, is it isn't it as simple as saying if you're breaking a law you should be incarcerated?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:57

Yeah, easy. That wouldn't, if someone did that right in front of me at Kings County on the street, I would have already arrested them. So why are we allowing this right now?

SPEAKER_03 1:16:04

Why were they allowing it? Because they're just a liberal city. And maybe we had a liberal administration at the time?

Mandatory Therapy And Real Help

SPEAKER_01 1:16:12

Yeah. But in our city, our county was not like that. So someone our our protest was like five people in our in our county. They already knew, like they we were kind of like we were love. We had so we even when that was going on, we have uh an African-American community in our in our area. But I remember chasing the black guy one time, uh, caught him, arrested him, like tackled him, caught him, arrested him, and that's what she's like. That's why you don't fuck with the sheriff's office, the black lady across the street.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:42

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:42

So, like she, even though he was black, she didn't care. She's like, she just wanted law and order, and we we were good, and we like I said we acted like us. We didn't act like real like robot cops. Yeah, I get it.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:55

It's almost but once that mob mentality takes over and you start burning shit and breaking shit, it kind of like fucking fasters, dude.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:02

That's why I always said, like, I don't like big cities, and I don't like too small of a city, it was just the right size, and it was law and order, respect, love, and only bad people are doing the bad stuff. Damn, bro.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:13

So oh, what a hell of a journey, dude. What a hell of a journey. And you're young, dude. You're still young. Yeah. What do you do now?

SPEAKER_01 1:17:22

I'm a fitness coach for first responders.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:24

Online or in person? Online. Online? Where can people find you?

SPEAKER_01 1:17:29

Uh I find me on Instagram, Gilbert underscore fitness coach, uh Resilient Responder, the Resilient Responder Coach.com, uh, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. Yeah, but you now, yeah. Uh the resilience sponder coach, the resilient responder coach. Gilbert, the little line, the resilient responder coach, I don't think.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:51

So but you moved out of state. Yes. How do you like not living in California? Love it. Do you miss it? No. You don't miss California?

SPEAKER_01 1:18:01

No.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:01

There's nothing you don't miss about California. Maybe the weather?

SPEAKER_01 1:18:04

No, it's the same over there.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:06

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:07

Where I live, it's the same exact, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:08

Right. Um and who do you reach out to? All law enforcement can correctional officers reach out to you?

SPEAKER_01 1:18:15

Yeah, anyone. I have COs right now, clients, CO clients. I've always had CO clients, uh, cops, firemen. Um, I have a lot of nurses too, which is weird. Um it's all part of the first responder realm.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:31

Um what goals do you have or future plans?

SPEAKER_01 1:18:39

Uh right now I want to focus more on my because I wrote a book back in 2019. 20. 2019, one of those time frames. Um it did really well. Um, I got like um that award on Amazon for like best new selling book. Dang, dude. What's it called? Uh Breaking the Blue Wall. Breaking the Blue Wall. And um, but I never did a uh a launch for it. So I sold a few hundred books, I think maybe two, three hundred. Didn't really market it. I didn't really market it. I did a soft launch just with friends, you know, texting friends, like, hey, I wrote this book, and a lot of friends are supported. Um and people bought it, have 75 four uh 74, five-star reviews, and I was like, oh shit, it did really well. And I started the Fifth for Duty podcast because of when everything happened with Tom, I started that podcast to kind of I felt like all this shit happened to me, these three incidents, which doesn't happen very often. I was like, my my story is pretty unique, and I could either not say nothing and be quiet about it and worry about what people say, or I could just speak on telling the truth and being honest with like the mental health side of things. It's okay to cry. If your friend if your friend kills himself, it's okay to be sad. And my thinking was no be strong. So I was like, I don't know why I was thinking so much, like, why am I so stuck on being so strong when it's okay if a friend kills himself to be sad? Like, why is it not okay? Like, why is my mindset like that? And so I just wanted to speak on that. Like, it's alright to be, you know, if your friend kills himself, and it started happening often too. Like, we had, I mean, LASO, they had like this this year had like four or six deputies choose themselves, kill them, kill themselves, you know. In my town alone, but uh until uh Tilary PD guy, like a year or two after that whole incident happened, he killed himself in his patrol car. Like a lot of shit is always happening, even now, still. So, like I need to, I could like I said, I could either be quiet and not speak on it, or I could speak up and just not care what anyone thinks. And when I did start speaking on it, people actually gave me support. But the thing that kind of mattered about is that so I do I do coaching full-time. So I was able, I was able to do, I was able to reach full-time status with my business to make to manage up to how I live and then leave the sheriff's office because again, 70k a year, it's pretty easy to beat that. Yeah, so I ended up leaving doing and then doing this full-time, but to run a business requires a lot of work. Um, people think it's easy, but it's actually more work than showing up to be a cop.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:00

It actually is more work, yeah. But it's more rewarding and it's fun because you're doing what you want to do.

2020 Riots: Oakland On The Line

SPEAKER_01 1:21:04

Yes. So I was like, but the thing, so doing that, I was like trying to be the marketing for the fitness business, the coach for the fitness business, the admin for like doing all those hats, and then like, oh, shoot the podcast, okay, getting people on the podcast. Oh, wait, the book. Now I wrote the book, now I gotta market the book. So I was like, the the business, the fitness business bringing me in the actual recurring money. So when it got really busy, which I was always busy, I only did a soft launch with the book. So I was like, you know what? Right now, things are in a much better position, things are kind of calmed down more. It's been five years since I started the business. So I was like, um, now I could put more effort and focus on the book and start telling the message of the mental health stuff for responders in the book and whatnot and start pruning the book more.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:43

Does the book cover that?

SPEAKER_01 1:21:44

Yes, it covers those incidents.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:47

That's that's awesome that you wrote the book, bro. That's awesome that you chose to utilize your experience to help others.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:53

Yeah, thank you. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:54

But I firmly believe that you experienced all of that. It was all your destiny. Like you were chosen, I believe, to experience all of that, come out on the end and be able to spread that message.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:06

That's what I felt like. I was sitting in my my office at home when when all that happened, I was kind of sad and I was thinking, I feel like I was talking to someone, yeah, and that that someone was just more like, you could just be quiet or you could speak on it.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:19

Just think about how just think about how much you would be robbing the world if you chose to be quiet.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:23

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:24

Just think about it, dude. And that's what I like about now, 2025, and podcasts, people are able to speak freely, bro. You don't even gotta know nobody in showbiz or anything, just a cell phone.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:35

Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:36

Um dang, dude. I don't I mean, freaking. How do you view America in 2025 right now? With with all the shit that just happened, Charlie Kirk was just shot, the reactions were horrible from some people. How do you view our country that you served as a whole?

SPEAKER_01 1:22:56

I was telling my wife this when she had asked me. I was I was telling her, I see a lot of I've seen a lot of death, and I see you see stuff on TikTok and people dying on live streams or whatever, and you're pretty conditioned to it. But seeing Charlie Kirk die was more upsetting. Like I was mad and more like uh why why are we letting why is this whole side that kind of controls a lot of things now in this day able to be so aggressive and violent, and then one other side has more restraint, but yeah, it's still called the bad side in that sense. It just pisses me off because there's so much restraint on one side. And I wouldn't say I'm fully on the right side. I feel I like to tend to be more in the middle, kind of see things how they are, and agree with some things, not agree with a lot other things, but it still pisses me off because I don't like you shouldn't just be able to kill someone just because you don't like what they have to say.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:52

Sometimes showing restraint is good though, and I have hope that things are turning around. Yes. I mean I can see it, dude. Especially now on the on the Instagram. So again, give the uh crowd that's your camera right there the name of your book, where you can find it, and then your social medias again, bro.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:10

Yeah, so my book is Breaking the Blue Wall. Um, one cop's turning to shit, something with God damn, I can't remember the second part of the So it's just Breaking the Blue Wall by Gilbert Rios. Uh, you can get that on Amazon. Um, I think I put the lowest price you could do on Amazon. I think it was like nine bucks. So I wanted to be able to give it to people and not charge like uh this like whatever price I could put on there for Amazon that they'll allow me to. And then um my Instagram is Gilbert underscore fitness coach, my YouTube is Gilbert at the or Gilbert, the resilience sponder coach. And then um, yeah, if you guys, I mean if you guys, if anyone of your people need like nutrition coaching, there is um I do have like a one-dollar nutrition starter kit. Cool. So I want to kind of give all this resource to them at uh just a little dollar.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:54

Well, they need it, bro. They need it, yeah. Fucking contrary to what they think, some big fucking law enforcement officers out there. Um, but dude, yeah, we're gonna link your stuff right there so people can reach out to you, man. I'm glad you came in, shared your story, dude. I was blown away, man. It's it's it's like heartbreaking almost, but it's fulfilling because you made it through the other side.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:15

And are being selfless and giving back. So thanks, dude. Thanks for coming all the way over here from out of state, man, sharing your story. I know it's not easy to relive those experiences, bro. If you ever need anything, feel free to reach out, bro.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:27

I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me on.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:29

Absolutely. There you guys have it, folks. Unfricking believable, blown away, man. If you need the help, which you probably do, uh, make sure you reach out and hit those links below. If you like what you saw, make sure you hit the subscribe button. Love you, keep pushing forward.