Bombs to Bees: The Unlikely Path of a Navy EOD Specialist

Leadership isn't a position—it's the ability to transform challenges into opportunities and inspire others through authentic action. Dan Martin embodies this truth, tracing his extraordinary evolution from a self-described teenage troublemaker to an accomplished EOD Master Chief whose leadership was tested in the most dangerous environments imaginable.

This deeply personal conversation reveals how Martin's rebellious nature—once his greatest liability—became his greatest asset in naval special operations. After joining the Navy as a Radioman in 1995, Martin's path took him through multiple specialties, deployments, and leadership positions across the globe. His candid reflections on his early disciplinary issues, including restriction for breaking curfew during his first deployment, highlight a pivotal realization: the military offered him a path to become someone better, if only he would embrace it.

What makes Martin's story particularly powerful is his perspective on leadership development through crisis. During multiple Iraq deployments as an EOD technician, his teams responded to hundreds of improvised explosive device calls—work where mistakes could be fatal. These experiences crystallized his leadership philosophy: "Everything starts and finishes with you." This accountability-centered approach emphasizes that leadership isn't about perfection but about building trust through consistency, admitting mistakes, and continuously improving.

Now retired and pursuing seemingly contradictory passions—beekeeping for peace and leadership development through his company SpecOps Solutions Group—Martin offers invaluable insights for anyone in a leadership position. His discussion of how organizations often focus on developing visionary leaders while neglecting to teach managers leadership skills addresses a critical gap in most leadership development programs.

Whether you're a veteran navigating the transition to civilian life, a parent trying to connect with teenage children, or a manager seeking to inspire your team, Martin's combat-tested wisdom offers a roadmap to more authentic and effective leadership. Connect with Dan through SpecOps Solutions Group to learn how his unique approach can transform your leadership journey.

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Transcript

Introduction and Reuniting with Dan Martin

Speaker 1 0:00

And I know I was born for this. I know I was born for this. Don't care for the critics my world and life is a force that they can't stop. They just don't get it. I think they forget I'm not done till I'm on top. I know I was born for this. I know I was born for this. I believe. I believe we can write a story.

Gary Wise 0:28

All right, Ohio. Good morning, good afternoon, half a day, Hello everybody that's out there listening to the sound of my voice, it's Gary, Gary Wise, Wise Leadership Solutions coming to you with another podcast from the Wise Leadership Team for the words from the wise. And today, today we've got a teammate of mine that I used to love watching this brother run down the street in Guam. Man, I'd be out riding my bike and he would just be trucking, he would run. I felt like the whole damn base. Every day I can set my clock to it. He's a retired EOD master chief. He is the CEO and founder of SpecOps Solutions Group, which is a leadership development group out of the great state of Texas. Let me welcome to the stage Mr Dan Martin. What's up, Danny?

Danny Martin 1:17

What's up, brother Good to be here. Thanks for having me, man.

Gary Wise 1:21

Thank you for being here, bro, and look, I'm not even lying. I remember watching you run that road on MBG right, right by the headquarters building.

Danny Martin 1:31

Yeah.

Gary Wise 1:32

And I'd be going out for my bike ride, like every day at lunchtime, and I saw you getting it and I wasn't getting out there. I was like I got to get out there, bro. Look at Danny, he's already out there, just trucking. What was that run every day? Was that like a six-mile run every day?

Danny Martin 1:48

Yeah, it was about a six-mile run.

Gary Wise 1:50

Every day in Guam at like 11 o'clock in the morning.

Danny Martin 1:54

Yeah, I loved it. That's one of the things I miss about Guam, honestly, is all the running and stuff, because you couldn't go fast on base and everything else out here in Texas, where I'm at, man, I got worried about all kinds of things. I go for a jog now, so it's it's a little different, although I don't miss, uh, those black birds, the Durangas. I hate those things. Oh man, I've got PTSD from those things. I ain't joking those things. A bird comes by me right now and right now and I'll flex.

Gary Wise 2:24

It's like an explosion going off on me People be running with like tennis rackets as they're running.

Danny Martin 2:29

Yeah.

Gary Wise 2:30

Those birds were hostile man.

Danny Martin 2:32

Oh yeah, they came from every angle. I was surprised. I always told my wife I was going to die of a heart attack from those things, and I'm not joking, I get it, bro, I get it.

Danny Martin 2:42

When I was running out there I dealt with them Not too much on the bike, but that's the thing If you were on a bike or walking, they didn't mess with you, Unless you were in certain time frames. But if you were running, oh, they came at you and they would follow you almost a quarter mile. It seemed like it was forever.

Gary Wise 3:03

They had areas, for sure they would like, they would squawk to let you know that you were entering their battle, their threat space, and then they would begin to attack. Right, they would triangulate.

Danny Martin 3:13

Oh yeah, for sure but I never heard him. I never heard him because I was always rocking out to some music and in my head, right you?

Gary Wise 3:19

just had to look at that spider sense with tingling or you get the flutter right, it's crazy, crazy anyway yeah, I can probably spend like an hour complaining about those birds, because they just mess up my workout forever.

Gary Wise 3:32

So oh, yeah, we're gonna talk about guam man. I I got a conversation earlier today, uh, with with another brother of ours who was out there in guam. We were talking about everything that he went through. Alex, right, I think you know him. Him, yeah, and talk about Guam. It was great things, all right. So, dan, I want my audience to have a good idea as to who you are, so I like to go back to the beginning. You live in Texas. Now, were you from Texas originally?

Danny Martin 4:00

I'm from the great state of Texas. Yep, I moved back to the area I was raised in, right, so okay.

Gary Wise 4:09

So born and raised in Texas, and you said what part Houston area. You know there's certain states that have like multiple states within one state. Yeah, florida's like that as well, right? Yeah, everybody in Florida, they all back up Florida for sure. But Orlando is different than Jacksonville and Miami is different than Tampa and you know, the panhandle is a little bit different. So Texas, I feel like it's kind of similar. You know, you got Fort Worth, dallas area, you've got the Houston area, you've got down south by El Paso area, you've got East Texas, west Texas. So your part of Texas when you were growing up, was it like, was it? Was it like varsity blues? Because for me that's what I think of when I think of Texas.

Danny Martin 4:59

I'm not gonna lie yeah, I mean you know football and all that kind of stuff is is huge around here, right it? It wasn't for me, because Texas got that thing called what's that thing called? No pass, no play, right. So my grades, my grades, always stopped me from playing.

Gary Wise 5:14

Okay, so it's academics, but I mean, I'm just thinking people riding in the back of pickup trucks throwing things on the weekends community all that, yeah, same, same same. It's literally that right there, right, that's awesome that that's america, bro.

Gary Wise 5:30

Yeah, I was so great to find that again when I came back home from the service. Yeah, you know, living abroad, you start to think like man, what is my country becoming? And then I got back home and I live in ocala, florida, which is like horse country, yeah, and it is beautiful. People here are great, the community is awesome, the churches are solid and strong, the kids are freaking they're beasts, right, they're freaking animals and so it's real good thing. So when, when you, when you were in Texas growing up and you're going to high school and I, you said, hey, no pass, no play. What did you think you were going to do after you graduated high school? Did you even think you were going to graduate high school?

Danny Martin 6:08

Oh, oh. So that's where we're going to start off at Right. So you're talking about who I am. You know my wife would get mad at me all the time when I would be open and transparent about like these things. But like this is who I was Right about, like these things, but like this is who I was right and this is the things I did. So, like growing up, man, I graduated high school two years late. Right, I graduated. I graduated two years late. I never did my homework, I skipped school. All the time. I lived in Saturday detention. You know, I was always in the school. You know, in school suspension, where you go and you sit in a cubicle and you just get tons of work and everything. And uh, I was on probation twice growing up with the law. Like I was, uh, I was a troublemaker, right. So like when you, when you ask, what did I see myself doing? Like I didn't even see myself making it to 25 years old. Honestly, right, that's where I was at mentally growing up, right.

Gary Wise 7:06

So I hear that, bro, and look, I can relate. Dude Dropped out of high school at 15, left parents home at 15. A lot of us in the service have similar stories so I can connect Right. Do you have any idea as to why you were so freaking, fired up at that young age like why? Why was school not a priority to you?

Danny Martin 7:25

because what was the priority oh man, it was anything and everything else. Right it was. I've always had like a lot of energy, so and that's the thing is like, uh, you know, the things that got me in trouble in my past are the things actually helped me succeed nowadays, right, and in the military, right. So a lot of times it was just put me in a box and told me to sit there and be quiet and do all these things. That was not for me. So, like my sister, she was straight A student, right. She had scholarships to Texas, a&m and all this kind of stuff.

Danny Martin 7:57

I always I felt sorry for my mom. So my mom passed away like two years after I came in the military and then, uh, but she was proud of me for doing that. But I tell my dad all the time, hey, I'm sorry that I, I was who I was growing up, because I put him through. I put him through a lot, right, him and my mom through a lot, and uh, but that's one of the things is like you know, but that's the thing your past.

Danny Martin 8:24

Your past makes your present and your present makes your future Right. So, like the things, the things I used to go through actually, you know, it's made me where I like I'm more understanding. I can see things in people that maybe they don't see themselves, because I'm like I could read through it and see through the you know the BS for them and everything like that. Right.

Gary Wise 8:44

And I will tell you, society doesn't always dictate the best ways for everyone to perform right.

Danny Martin 8:51

Yeah.

Gary Wise 8:51

I see this every day as a teacher. Now I will get young people in my classroom and I will see what their energy is doing and I will approach them in a whole different perspective and see if that will work. And I learned that through years of leading and growing adults in the service right, because I learned that we're not all wired the same and that we don't all respond. A person that gets yelled at they might respond one way. Another person gets yelled at they might just fold and call it because that was they were not ready for that, right. And so I could see where you, coming up as a young person and trying to figure out who you were, what you were, why you were, and then struggling to meet other people's expectations. But then, as you now look back on your life, you realize that some of those areas that you were your perceived weaknesses as teenager were actually your strengths and you got other opportunities.

Gary Wise 9:45

Okay, so how did you then? So? Okay, so you graduate high school a few years late, but for whatever reason, you keep at it and you get there. Right, are you? Was there a reason that you kept at it? Was there a reason why you didn't just quit? Or was it like your parents just kept on you and made you keep going for it? Or did you wake up one day and realize like I need to finish this fricking high school diploma thing?

Danny Martin 10:08

Uh, I think it's the quitting aspect for me, right? So like my whole career, like, if you look at like everything I've done throughout my career, my life, I don't like quitting, right. So like I might uh make things a little more difficult at times on myself and everything but like when I was younger, but I don't like the, the quit aspect, right, that's it. Like like it's the whole self-belief thing. Like when I did my homework, like I said I did good, I got good, I got a's and b's, but I just never did it.

Gary Wise 10:38

so okay, so I think all right. So I appreciate that. Right you, you weren't gonna quit, even though you weren't gonna try. Matter of fact, you got personally probably offended when they said, hey, you're not going to graduate. You're probably like, well, what? Oh I?

Danny Martin 10:49

didn't even, I didn't even walk. I, I, I went to summer school. And my last class in summer school, so I went to summer school after my freshman year until right before school was started again, I got my diploma. Right beforehand Everyone used to joke with me. They'd be like pretty soon you'll be able to drink beers during lunch. And I was like, well, you ain't getting any right Not with talking to me like that.

Gary Wise 11:15

So, you know, the fact that you had a comedy and you had to come back for it, right, and the fact that they were giving you that kind of a conversation shows they respected you, right. And look, you got to respect when people are being authentic, even if they're authentically not meeting their full potential. Yeah, yeah, they got to own it. So then, okay, my question is that what the heck made you decide to consider joining not just the United States Navy, but did you come to the Navy with the idea of, hey, I might want to talk Naval Special Operations?

From Troublemaker to Navy Radioman

Danny Martin 11:48

Oh, no, oh man. So I always loved watching all the old war movies and all these different things, right and. And one day, you know, I graduated and then I started seeing all my friends going to college or getting adult jobs and I was, you know, back then there was no Google, there was no, nothing like that. So you kind of fell into the lane of you know, who do you know? And all that kind of stuff, and I couldn't figure anything out. And my dad did six years in the Air Force and he was always preaching to me about the military and he stopped eventually because he knew like the only only way. Like the more he tried to push me towards it, the probably the farther away I got from it. So he kind of left me alone and I just started going like hey, I know I'm built for more, this is not who I want to be.

Danny Martin 12:38

And then I was watching a bunch of old movies. So one of my favorite movies is I don't know if you've seen it, I'm pretty sure you have Mr Roberts, right? Do you remember that? The old war movie with they're on the ship and he's always trying to go in. I can't remember who's on it right now, but he's always trying to get to war, get to war and their captain is horrible and all this kind of stuff. And he's got the pineapple tree by the. Do you know what movie I'm talking about?

Gary Wise 13:05

I think I do. I think it was the actor that was in that Flubber movie a long time ago, I think it was the same guy. But it's a black and white Navy movie.

Danny Martin 13:12

Yeah, it's an old black and white movie, but that was one of my old favorite movies and I always loved the military movies, right. But one day I was and I worked at a grocery store that I used to work at when I first came in and I've been thinking about joining the military and I went back to the back and someone had spilled over a whole bunch of sugar and left it there for someone to clean up. That someone was going to be me and I walked up there and I was like not today. And I literally left. I went up to a friend, I hand him a dime and I walked up to him. I said, hey, two out of three. And he goes, cool, what are we flipping for? And I said heads, I'm staying here, tails, this place kissed my, you know, and I'm gone.

Danny Martin 13:55

And he was like okay, and all of them landed to where I was leaving and I was like do two more, five out of five, we'll do three out of five. And it all landed on for me to leave. So I literally went, clocked out, and I went straight to the recruiter's office and that's that's how I came in. But coming in, I was nowhere near the person that I needed to be to go in the spec ops community. I was, I only weighed like 120 pounds at that, and then, like my asvab scores were horrible and all this other kind of stuff, and I wasn't mentally or I wasn't physically or mentally prepared to even think about that.

Gary Wise 14:29

That was not even anywhere on my radar so did you go directly to a United States Navy recruiter or did you go to just a record, like like a whole recruiting center, and whoever got your first wins?

Danny Martin 14:40

I went to, I went to. I originally went to go to the army and I so they had army right here, navy Marines, everything but army was out at lunch and a friend I went to school with he was home on a vacation on harp duty Right, and he walked out and he started telling me stories about his REM pack he just came off of and everything else and I was like, oh man, and I was like that's it, cause I originally wanted to go in the Navy but I had a lot of friends that made fun of me because they used to be Marines or whatever. And uh, and so I was like, and then at that point I was like, man, I just got to do this. I want, I love the ocean, I love the water. So I was like that's it. So next thing, you know, I'm in the Navy as a radio man. So I was a radio man and my first duty station was Yokosuka, japan, right Back in 96 to 99.

Gary Wise 15:30

Well, hold on Before we get to Yokosuka, japan, right. So you go to the recruiter, you get the opportunity to go to MAPS, you get through all the processing stuff, you take the test, you get RM. Before it was IT, it was RM, just quick. When did you go to boot camp? Like what month? I went May 95. Okay, so it was summer, it wasn't the winter. That was my first, because I love hearing from guys from the south when they go to basic. If they go to Great Lakes, like the winter and the shock and awe of the weather, right, they lose their mind on that. So you went in May, that's not too bad. I guess when you got to basic training, were you surprised by what was waiting for you when you got off the bus there, or were you prepared for it mentally? You knew they were going to be. What did you think of basic training?

Danny Martin 16:17

I guess I'm trying to say I knew it was going to be like that. Literally it was like the movies, I envisioned it right. Yep, I knew it was going to be like that, literally, like it was like the movies, like I envisioned it right. And being in trouble I grew up with like authority figures always yelling and screaming at me, right, like that was. I was used to that. So a lot of people aren't used to that, and I was so and.

Danny Martin 16:39

I knew that like and that's one of those things like, I was asking for it, right. So I knew that I got there, they were going to yell and scream at me, they were going to beat me, they were going to do all these things and uh, and it was, and I knew it was all to make me like a different person, a better version, and bring you like I knew they're going to break me down, to build me back up, right, my dad had told me all that and all the movies show you that. So I was like I, I expected it and it was what I thought it was gonna be. I wasn't physically fit back then like I as much as I am now. So it was. It was challenging for me, right, what I didn't think was easy.

Gary Wise 17:14

So so you graduate boot camp and then you go to school right there in Great Lakes.

Danny Martin 17:20

I went, I went, I went to San Diego, so RMA school at the time was back in California at the time.

Gary Wise 17:28

Oh. So you got right out of boot camp and you got to go to sunny San Diego as a young man with a pocket full of cash.

Danny Martin 17:36

Yep.

Gary Wise 17:37

How was that bro, how was that going from not having any freedom to getting liberty in like downtown San Diego?

Danny Martin 17:44

Oh, it was awesome. The only thing I didn't like was so I was 21. So, cause I was like graduated late, right, and so I turned 21 right out of bootcamp and but all my buddies that I was hanging out with they're 18. So but back then you could drink on base, right, so you could go and have a beer at the bowling alley, but the other guys, they were all wanting to go to Tijuana and stuff, and I'm that's not my thing. So, like, right it was, it was. I liked it because I love the ocean. Like I said, that's my first time in California. My first time on a plane was on the way to boot camp, right, so I loved it. Like I love San Diego, right, I really do, I like California.

Gary Wise 18:25

Well, you got to San Diego and you were in school. You didn't go buy a car right away. Oh, no, no you were just walking from barracks to bowling alley, to school, back to barracks.

Danny Martin 18:34

Yeah, good. Yeah, I just walked everywhere and I was trying to go overseas, so I wasn't trying to buy a car or anything like that, right, you already came into school knowing hey, I want to go see the world.

Danny Martin 18:45

Yeah, I know. So quick, quick story. When I was in school, in RMA school, the student detailer came walking in, you know, the one that did all your dream sheets and everything right there, where you want to go. I actually ended up working with him later on, you know, when I went air crew, you know, before I went to AOD and but he came walking in there and he was mad. He was mad and he came in there.

Danny Martin 19:12

He's like he's like where's Martin? And I was like I was like right here. And he was like you're good, he goes, but the rest of you need to do all new dream sheets. He's like I don't know how you came in the Navy thinking you weren't going to go do a big great thing. He's like let me read some of these. And he read it. It was like shore duty here, shore duty here, shore duty here. You know, especially as a radio man, you can do that and and. But he was like let me read y'all Martins. And he's like he goes anywhere West coast, overseas, y'all martins. And he's like he goes anywhere west coast, overseas, anywhere east coast, overseas, anywhere overseas. That's what I wrote down and I wrote down small boy. Right, I wanted to go on a small ship, and so he was like y'all better sound something like his, and then, and then that was it right.

Gary Wise 19:59

So yeah, okay, so you get your wish right. You get the opportunity to go to to your coast of japan southern fleet. What ship do you get the chance to go to?

Danny Martin 20:09

oh, I got the mob, I got the mobile bay yeah yeah, good yeah.

Gary Wise 20:16

so when you got to japan, uh, rock, rock me through, because my first ship was also in japan, but I was in sasamoasebo, but how was that getting off the airplane in?

Danny Martin 20:27

Tokyo. Oh, it's crazy, you know, that's the one thing. So throughout my career I lived in Europe and in Asia and you know, when you walk around Europe, a lot of people look like you and it's easy to not feel like you're overseas at times. But when you get in Japan, oh you know, you're in another world, right, and, and I love the Japanese culture. I really do so. I did a total of six years there. Eventually, right, I I went back later on as an EOD tech. But I love Japan, my wife loved Japan, my kids love Japan and like, but it's crazy, when you get there and you get off that plane, it is you talk about culture shock. It is Especially for a Texas boy, right, one of my buddies quick story One of my buddies, he's a Filipino guy, radio man with me and he was like he's like, oh, you got to order Japan.

Danny Martin 21:21

I was like, yeah, man, I love Chinese food, man, I'm excited. And he was like you are stupid. He was like, he was like there's two totally different things between japanese and chinese. And I'm like, man, I'm from texas, I don't know any of this stuff. And he was like he's like when you go there, don't ever say that and uh, and now I know the difference, right and uh, but I love, I love, like all that, like I lived over, like I did 27 years in military pretty much right but like, uh, like 16 of y'all's were overseas, right, so I get it, brother, and I will tell you.

Gary Wise 21:57

When I first got to Japan, just like you, people didn't understand. There's not a like you go to some countries and there's a lot of english signage and their local country language, japan, not a lot, especially not back in the late 90s, right like a late night. I remember back then it was like cigarette machines, alcohol machines. The culture was a little bit different than it is today. Right, there wasn't all this technology everywhere that had all the anime, at least not that I knew about.

Gary Wise 22:26

I just remember thinking like how do I get? And back in those days you'd print, they'd give you like these pieces of paper. There was no cell phone to tell you where to go. What do you have? Some paper, just like walk here, walk there and whatever. And I can only I mean I know it was like going to sasbo. So I can only imagine trying to get to Yokosuka, get on the blue bus, ride it all the way from the airport up there to two hours away to Yokohama, or down to Yokosuka to the base, and then get picked up in the middle of the night by probably the duty guy for the ship and drove back over to the mobile. Did they pick you up at least from the bus, do?

Danny Martin 23:02

you remember that part? No, I went and found the ship. I got there and I went and found them. They just were like hey, they're at pier this. And I was like okay. And I went to the pier and my ship was actually in dry dock. So I got there and they were like oh no, you need to go to this burgeon barge over here.

Danny Martin 23:25

So like I got to run around carrying out my sea bags for a while and uh, bag your garment bag, just yeah, yeah, so I'm, I'm happy to, so I'm brand new and and I'm happy to learn two new ships, right. So the berth and barge was huge and I got the ship that I'm working on. So, like trying to navigate, trying to remember, like when you start walking around, like it's granted, you know, I've never stationed on an aircraft carrier, but I've been on a couple but trying to imagine learning two new ships as a new guy, I was late, very often, right, because I'd get lost and I'd get in trouble 100.

Gary Wise 23:56

I understand. I can relate, so you were. I mean so your ship's in dry dock. You're on the burthen barge. How long is it until you move back on board your ship?

Danny Martin 24:06

Do you remember? It was about probably about a month, a month and a half, probably about a month and a half, and then we. Yeah, yeah they were. They were close to wrapping up when I got there and then, uh, then we went through LOA and all that kind of stuff and started deploying and everything so and all that kind of stuff and started deploying and everything.

Gary Wise 24:24

So okay, so what did you think when you were at rm? Were you in radio actually, or were you like an adp, or what were you?

Danny Martin 24:31

your radio I was. I was radio man on the on the small boys back then. That's all they really had. So when I went to rma school that's when they first started that we were like the one of the first classes where they started merging dps of data processing, processing and radioing them together. When I went to the ship we didn't really do too much of that stuff. They didn't even have the internet or anything yet on my ship. They were starting to put it on there later on, but at first there was no DP really stuff to it.

Gary Wise 25:05

I remember still, when I got my first email address and I had to write my mom and dad a letter, yes, and then my letter, I wrote them the email address. I was like, hey, I guess if you send me an email to this address, it means something I don't know and I would like check it. And one day I got an email and I was like, oh my god, I got an email from my parents. Yeah, you like aol online, it's an email, right? Yeah, and that was a game changer, bro, because overseas remember talking with people back home was hard yes, there wasn't no cell phones like it is today, at least not that I remember.

Gary Wise 25:37

There was phone cards and the phones by the laundromat yep, yep, yep.

Danny Martin 25:42

And to do email, you had to, for us, the chaplain was in charge of that, so you had to go pay the chaplain or the RP, the religious paid officer. Right, you had to pay them to send and receive emails, because they ran that aspect.

Gary Wise 26:01

It was an NWR ur function. That's crazy yeah yeah, that was you know it's a three-year billet for you on board this ship and you're in radio. Are you enjoying it? I mean, are you enjoying the job?

Danny Martin 26:15

yeah, well so I was on restriction when I first got there, right. So, like, like I said, like I, like I said, my first Liberty port was Subic Bay, philippines, and then I went to Hong Kong. And when I got to Hong Kong I got put on restriction for being UA. They did the Cinderella Liberty right. So this was like back in the days. So when I first showed up to Japan, I can go out and stay out all night, didn't matter. And all of a sudden, now my ship picks up and goes to Hong Kong. Now, all of a sudden, I can go out and stay out all night, didn't matter. And also now my ship picks up and goes to Hong Kong. Now, all of a sudden, I'm supposed to be in at midnight.

Danny Martin 26:49

Like I already told you, I was a rebel, so that didn't pass my smell test. So I got in trouble because I came in. I was supposed to be in at midnight. I got in at six in the morning and, uh, I was the only one on the ship that didn't make curfew.

Danny Martin 27:03

So because it was E3, it was supposed to be, you know, e3 and below coming at midnight, I was an E2. And so E4 and above could stay out to whenever, and so I got put on restriction. But that was, honestly, one of the best things that happened to me, because that's when I started realizing that I didn't want to get in trouble no more, that I joined the military to improve myself and do all this stuff. And then here I am doing the same kind of stuff that got me in trouble. And I got two leaders right. I got two bosses Tom Farley and David Deary that literally took me underneath their wing and started helping, mentor me and stuff. So at first I didn't have fun because I was in trouble a lot and then later on I started enjoying things when I actually started like doing my job and stay out of trouble and everything you know.

Gary Wise 27:56

When you got restriction, did they take money to it or rank, or was it just the restriction?

Danny Martin 28:02

I got 30-30, so 30 days of restriction, 30 days of extra duty and then a suspended bust for six months.

Gary Wise 28:10

Hey you know, I think that's about fair right. That's kind of what I'm curious to hear, because I love suspended things and giving them an opportunity to recover. And sometimes getting grounded on the ship for 30 days is enough to make you want to change your mind, especially if you miss out on the next port or whatever it is you know.

Danny Martin 28:27

Oh yeah.

Gary Wise 28:28

That's, that's tough.

Danny Martin 28:29

So so in my in on my ship you could serve, your restriction could be done at sea or when you're on the pier, right? It didn't have to be in in land because it happened, right. So I, literally I pulled in. We were at import for a month, right? So I was on restriction for a month and then the day I got off, we were getting underway for a month. So I literally I'll tell you what, when I was on that restriction for a month, there was no one took off any trash. I took all the trash because the only way I could get off the ship was taking the trash to the dumpster at the end of the pier. So I would literally go to every department and I'd be like you guys got trash, you need me to take out, you got trash you need me to take out, I'll take it for you. And people would not take out trash.

Gary Wise 29:14

So I can get off the boat. Just try to get out of that Georgia coffee machine on the pier and get some free time, get some freedom. I'd be like, hey, chief, can you take me to the exchange?

Danny Martin 29:25

Yeah, oh no they would not even do that. I didn't even get to go anywhere. Like this was back in the days, like you did not get off the boat unless you were literally throwing, like the roach coach would pull up. Right, they have the roach coaches that pull up with food. I couldn't even go over there and get my own stuff. I'd have to give you money and get you to go get stuff for me. That's back. That's how it was back in the days right man, so I deserved it.

Early Naval Career and Growth Challenges

Gary Wise 29:50

I know that I deserved it I got held accountable you got, you got caught big, yeah, and what I think is, and you ran it all the way right, you put back my midnight east side zero six hundred yeah yeah, yeah, I pulled up because my boat was out at the, you know, out at the whatever, and so we had to use Liberty boats.

Danny Martin 30:10

Right, yeah. And when I pulled, when a Liberty boat pulled up, my CO, my XO, my command master chief, the master at arms and the operations officer were all standing on the core deck waiting for me to get there. I was like, oh Lord, oh, I messed up on this one. Yeah.

Gary Wise 30:33

So there you are on that boat. You're finally getting right. You got some mentors looking after you. You probably survived your cranking time already. You're probably. Yeah, I cranked twice, out there. Well, I mean, that's what you get bro.

Danny Martin 30:45

Yes, I know, I deserved it.

Gary Wise 30:49

I'm not even surprised, right, two talents for the shit, mate. We're going to hook you right on up, but I didn't mind it though. Cranking is people underestimate the impact of a good FSA tour. Right, if you go down to the mess decks and you make some strong connections, some friends outside of your rate, it could be a game changer for your entire tour well, that's the thing is being on restriction.

Danny Martin 31:15

You know who I I got in with was all the all the dc men and engineers right, because you know what they made me do. They made me go down and clean all the bilges and stuff, right. So, like they, they snatched me up every day for my, my extra duty and then cranking. I met everyone else right. So, like I very quickly met, uh, met everybody on the ship, right very quickly, and the cruisers crew size is just about right.

Gary Wise 31:43

You know 350, right you get. You kind of get to know everybody. So are you enjoying Japan overall, though? Do you do you remember like I love this first ship, because I remember a lot of walk in my first ship no car, no barracks room. I lived on the ship. Did you have barracks rooms at that point?

Danny Martin 32:00

No, no, I had a coffin wreck. Right, that's what I had, so same thing for me, right?

Gary Wise 32:05

So I remember a lot of walking because I wasn't trying to always be on the ship. I didn't know where to go. You know base clubs hanging out there. Yeah, do you ever go out to the haunch when you were younger?

Danny Martin 32:16

Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Gary Wise 32:18

The haunch for everyone listening. The haunch is like a bunch of bars and stuff. Right outside the gate there's a bunch of stores, shopping. Blue Street is a very cool street, right outside the gate, lots of good shopping and it's known for sailor entertainment, right Like sailors go out there to relax and wind down and there's nothing wrong with it. It can get a little wild, but anything gets wild after 1 o'clock in the morning. Right, just don't be up at that late, you'll be okay. Um, so, as you're wrapping up your first ship, are you thinking about staying, getting out? Are you thinking about staying in like I was? Are you an rm3 at this point?

Danny Martin 32:55

no, yeah, so I was rm3, I was going to get out and then, uh, I literally came home, uh, on on vacation, a little bit before I was due to get out, and because I was still trying to figure things out, and then coming home it made me realize that I wasn't so in such a hurry to get out. Right, because, because I have now started to grow and develop and do all these different things and and a lot of people that knew back and then they really didn't change much, right, and everything else. So I was like, alright, I joined the military to change and do this and that, and, and I was actually starting to do that and I felt like, if I got out at the time, I was gonna, you know, I was gonna set myself back so and so back in the days they had the link, link, link magazine and they always had all these Advertising for, like, flying radio men. And so my senior chief, david Deary, he, he kept always pushing it to me hey, you'd be really good at this. I think you'd really you'd fit in with the aircrew community and all this kind of stuff.

Danny Martin 34:04

And there was only a handful of of flying raven one back then and, uh, it's, it's tinker air force base. So they got two squadrons there and in oklahoma and um, and so I I put in a package, I went, figured out how to do an air crew package, did all this stuff and I got picked up and then I went. I went air crew from there very cool man.

Gary Wise 34:25

That's freaking awesome, bro. Like you're a person, you saw it in the link magazine. You talked to the senior chief about it. You figured out how to put in the package and it got accepted like that's a freaking success, or you know many people don't do that in their career. It's incredible how many people could have, should have, woulda and they have no idea how their life would have been differently if they just would have done that. Bro, yeah, took the time to figure out the instruction, get this stuff together, send it off and so now you get picked up to go to flying radio man air crew. But where is that school located?

Danny Martin 35:02

uh, it's in penn and pensacola, so you go to. It's in Pensacola, so you go to Pensacola for air crew school and then you go to San Diego. I went to San Diego for SEER school. So POW camp right Survive, escape or survive. Escape, resist and sometimes yeah. Yeah, but so you go to. And then I went to a communications uh school for the for the planes in tinker air force base in oklahoma.

Gary Wise 35:35

So just so I understand. This is before. Air crew is its own rate yeah, yeah this is back when it was like, essentially you had a source rate that was radio man, but now you are an air crewman, as like a designator, if you will, and so you're going to be In helos or whatever it is After that it's a Boeing 707.

Danny Martin 35:57

Yeah so the only place that radio men would do the flying radio men thing was basically a Boeing 707. I thought I was going. So when I went to air crew school everyone we went to air crew school and then they have rescue swimmer school that people go to for the helos and everything and I was talking to somebody because we're getting ready to graduate and I was like, hey, it doesn't have that in my school. And they were like and one of the instructors was like you are a radio man. They're like you're never going to jump out of a Boeing 707 to save anybody's life. And I was like, yeah, but later on he's like there is no other place for you. He's like you don't realize that. And I was like, no, I don't know that. I don't know what's all out there for this kind of community. He was like, yeah, he's like where you're going is pretty much the only place that you can go. People went to Oklahoma as flying radio men and did their whole entire career in Oklahoma City.

Gary Wise 36:49

Right Sea duty shore duty?

Danny Martin 36:51

Wow, yeah, because they have training commands there. They had shore duty commands there and they had, you know, sea duty for deployable people to fly and everything else.

Gary Wise 37:01

Right. So is this for, like, intel gathering and stuff like that? Is that what that boat, those aircraft are for?

Danny Martin 37:08

no, so it's takamo, so take charge and move out, and it's. It's basically it's part of the like the nuclear triad, right, so the the president could uh send and launch nukes from there. So everyone I've worked with was like a pretty much a either really really seasoned e6 they should have been a chief or they were e7 above right so here you are thinking this flying airman is going to be or radio man is.

Gary Wise 37:37

I mean, it's a very cool certification, very cool school. Sounds like it was competitive and intense. Right, you went through fear. But then you get to Oklahoma and is it what you thought it was going to be? Or were you a little bit disappointed with what the actual mission was going to be?

Danny Martin 37:52

No, I loved it there. I really did. I loved it there. I worked with a great group of people right and then I loved the job and everything. It was exactly what I thought it was going to be Awesome, I mean that's good to hear, bro, because I feel like going through that air crew school.

Gary Wise 38:14

I thought it was going to be something different and then when you started telling me, I started feeling like, oh my God, this is like subdefinitely, like you said, some very special mission type stuff.

Gary Wise 38:23

And then you just like nuclear trial, because there's levels to this organization called the United Armed Forces that we're not all read into right, and I'm not the guy that knows where all those freaking B-52 bombers are at that can launch and go touch people over on the other side of the ocean overnight. Right, I'm a regular old squid, right, like I'm going to do this in the engine room. I'm happy that we can do that and I'm proud of my team, right. But I never got that opportunity. And so now here you are. You weren't being a deck plate sailor going on restriction for being late in Hong Kong, two times FSA mess, deck warrior. Now you're freaking on these Boeing 707s in Oklahoma attached to this major special mission area that is high-level Stratcom type stuff, right.

Danny Martin 39:13

Yes, it is.

Gary Wise 39:15

Super cool. You're an RM2 at this point.

Danny Martin 39:19

Yeah, I'm a second class. I made second class there. Are you still single at this point? Yeah, I'm a second class. Yeah, I made second class there.

Gary Wise 39:23

And are you still single at this point?

Danny Martin 39:25

I just started dating my wife at this point.

Gary Wise 39:28

Okay, so did you meet her in Oklahoma? Did you know her from Texas?

Danny Martin 39:32

I met her when I was in Japan. I came home on leave and me and my friends went to a Beastie Boy concert up in San Antonio. Me and my friends went to a BC boy concert up in San Antonio and, uh, her friend was dating one of my one of my friends, and she was smart enough to not let all of us go up there without supervision, so, so a couple of them came up there, and she was one of them. And then, but when I got to Oklahoma, that's when I started calling her and uh, and we started dating from there.

Gary Wise 39:58

So Very cool, very cool. So that's where you started thinking like, hey, this Navy thing is second tour here. I'm a second-class petty officer. Now I've got this special somebody I want to talk to more and tell her my thoughts and my things that I'm thinking about. I mean. So how do you go? I'm trying to understand, how do you go from being this flying radio man in this special community that you could be essentially in Oklahoma for what sounds like your whole career? Yeah, at what point do you decide I'm going to pack up and go jump into some other craziness like EOD? How does that play out?

Danny Martin 40:34

Well, I went, we flew in the Key West. It was spring break, right. So we flew in the Key West and during our our trip, I went snorkeling one day and we're out, we all went out snorkeling and then we all went out, had dinner we're having a couple drinks and one of the pilots there was a prior enlisted eod tech, right. So he's a lieutenant now and uh, and a pilot and he's us stories. We're sitting at like Denny's having breakfast real late, right, all of us and he's telling the stories about EOD. At the time I weighed like 130 pounds at this point and he's this massive dude. His nickname was Mongo, right, he was a big boy and he's telling us stories. And I was just sitting there like that's it, like that's what I want to do, right, and there was a bunch of other guys that were sitting there with us and they were all saying I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna do that, and he was just like yeah, yeah, cool, and I didn't say anything to him.

Danny Martin 41:35

And then I started talking to my wife. Now, right, I started talking to her, telling her I was thinking about doing this. And then I went and got a personal trainer, gave me a workout, a diet, all this stuff. And then I started doing things and a couple months later I went and talked to him and started asking about the program and he told me he's like yep, he's like I was wondering when you were going to start talking to me because, you know, I saw, after this moment, I saw you shift your mentality and everything. You started doing these other different things. He's like I was wondering what you're doing. I was like, yeah, I want to go do what you used to do, right. So that's what I did, right.

Gary Wise 42:14

So what was the process? So you're an E5 already in the Radioman community. I'm sure you have to find a motive, a motive, a motivator somewhere to let you see you like your pst and to show them that you're serious about doing this certain thing. Because from what I saw you do in guam and from what I saw other people do throughout my career, first thing you got to do is impress somebody enough to say, hey, I'll lobby for you to even possibly apply for the program.

Danny Martin 42:43

Yeah, so typically we have, like the spec ops recruiters, right that's, you go to any command but there's requirements for people to endorse you and all that kind of stuff and every command has someone designated to do that. I actually did that in Japan when I was there as an EOD tech. Like I still I screen for everyone going seal, swcc, eod and divers, divers. Well, divers had SRF out there, right, so the divers did divers, but I did all those. But I contacted the detailers and I was like, hey, I'm in Oklahoma, I don't have anyone around here, but I have, you know, this lieutenant who was prior enlisted EOD tech and then he was a, he was a master tech, so he met all the requirements.

Danny Martin 43:24

So they actually let him screen me and everything right. So he, he vouched for me, he did my interview, he did my pt scores and all that kind of stuff and then and then I had to they let the flight because I had a you know flight surgeon. So they let him sign. Look at my, my medical record and I scanned it, sent it to a DMO, so a dive medical officer, for him to verify it and everything like that. So there's ways to do it. You just got to figure it out. Right, that's one of the things.

Danny Martin 43:52

That's one of the things like you talked about earlier, like how many people do that? So that was my second package I had to put together, and you don't know how many people I met throughout my career. They were like oh, I was going to go SEAL, I was going to go SWCC, I was going to go EOD, but I couldn't figure out this one thing, and I'm a firm believer if you want to do something for the right reasons and you really want to do it, you're going to figure out your way to do it. So there's speed bumps in the military. There's speed bumps put in the way for do it.

Danny Martin 44:19

So there's there's speed bumps, you know, in the military there's speed bumps put in the in the way for a reason and those those things stop anyone. That's truly not serious about doing something. So if you really want to do something and that's like that moves to like what we're doing right now, right, we're here right now because both of us have goals and and both of us this is one of the things we can either not do this stuff and we use it as a speed bump, and then we were going to do these things for this, or we we find a way around it, over it, through it or whatever, right?

Gary Wise 44:46

so 100%, man, I agree, and I think that, especially for any program, multiple programs, those entry-level barriers that people look at, I look at those as requirements where you've got to prove you how bad you really want to be there, because you just can't waste everyone's time in the room because you're taking somebody else's spot that might have really wanted it Right. And so I applaud those programs that hold those high standards and make you do the physical fitness test. It seems like it's not overly complicated until you have to do it. You know people would come see me and be like, oh, mass Chief, I want to be EOD or I want to be a Navy diver, and I'd say, all right, cool, I'll connect them. When I was an MBJ I was sending them over to you guys at EODU5 or to the dive locker and then I'll call you guys up later hey, how'd that, ma? Because my mas are always like well, I want to go do this. Okay, bro, go see if you can pass this baseline physical fitness test, because, yeah, if you can't even pass that, you got work to do. And how bad do you want it right? And so you already recognize I gotta get this trainer, I gotta get my nutrition, I've got to get this package put together, I've got to get these things figured out, and no one's going to do it for me because, oh, by the way, that ingenuity you're demonstrating is exactly what they're looking for.

Gary Wise 46:11

I remember I was in, I was in Japan and I had a DC two working for me who was a phenomenal human being, right, this kid was freaking amazing and I'm a senior chief. And he came to me one day and he said, hey, senior chief, I think I'm gonna get out of the Navy, but I did find one billet that if I could do this one billet, I might stay in the Navy. And I was like, well, what is that billet? Well, it was a billet for the group in Damnek, right. And he was like, well, what is that billet? Well, it was a billet for the group in Damnek, right, and he was going to be doing CanBio stuff for them. I didn't even know what he was talking about, right? I had no freaking clue. So I'm like, well, give me some more information. And I get some information and I call the guys up in Damnek. I'm like hey, my name is Gary, I'm a senior chief in japan. This kid is freaking amazing. I would highly recommend you at least consider giving him an opportunity. So they literally said all right, gary, thank you for the phone call. We need somebody of that rate, that flavor. Uh, it's rare that a senior chief will call us. So we think that's pretty cool, send us some information.

Gary Wise 47:16

So then, flash forward, like five months later, he tells me that he had gotten notified that he was going to go to screening and that he was going to be leaving in like a week. And I was just like, well, what do we do? Where's the orders? How does it work? All these questions that a regular is going to have, right? And he's like I don't know. So I call them up and damn, that can get.

Gary Wise 47:37

And the guy was like, hey, hey, brother, I appreciate you calling me, but that's not how this is going to go. He's going to get notified, he's going to be told what he's got to do and he's got to figure that out. That's part of this process. And I was like really, and they were like yeah, bro, and I was like, wow, so you don't need me to mother him.

Gary Wise 47:53

He's like no dog, I appreciate him, bro, because that's cool, like that's cool, and I could see going into the EOD world, you showing them, hey, I'm doing this work, I'm gliding this up, I got this guy that will vouch for me. I got this other thing, I guarantee no matter who finds out about that in the future, it's better preparing you for what's to come, no matter what. Yeah, and oh, by the way, mongo knows somebody, so he gonna tell them hey, this kid, martin the dude's a real deal, bro, heads up and so you do. All that stuff is the. Are the rms happy to let you go? Are they like? No problem, you can cross right, no problem yeah, so I went.

Danny Martin 48:40

So, being an air crewman, I worked for a different detailer, right. So so when I went, I worked for the air crew. So actually, when I submitted my package in, it was me and another guy that were going together and he, I submitted my package and they're like, hey, you got a year before you could go. And I was like, okay, cool, I'm accepted. Though. And they're like, yes, you're released, but you can't go to EOD until a year from now. So I was happy with that. So cause.

Transition to Air Crew and Finding Direction

Danny Martin 49:09

I spent literally the last two years prepping to go. Like I was literally getting up at you know five in the morning going to the pool. I would time I had a lifeguard that would sit there, I would tie my hands and stuff and I would. I would drown proof forever Like I was swimming all the time. I was doing all this stuff and I was like, cool, I got a year to get better, you know, you know faster and stronger, and all these things before I go.

Danny Martin 49:31

And then my buddy put in his package and they were like, yeah, you can leave in a month. And I was like, wait a minute. I gave my package before him and, uh, but it turns out that when they sent my, my package in, we messed up because I sent mine to the radioman detailer. So the radioman detailer was like, hey, you could go in a year.

Danny Martin 49:49

And the the air crew community, they were like, hey, you can go in a month from now because, uh, my plane that I flew on they were starting to kind of phase them out and so other people were getting other different NECs for the other planes that they were bringing on. So, my NEC, they were like, hey, you're at the point where we got plenty of you guys. You either need to stay in here or you need to go do this other NEC. And you're not doing that, you're going to EOD. So cool, we'll let you go. So I literally left Once I got figured that out. I left literally like a month later and I went to a mobile unit in Virginia and, uh, they uh prepared me physically and mentally, if you know what I mean. Aka, they beat me.

Gary Wise 50:33

So you went to an EOD mobile unit in Virginia and your wife went with you, like on order.

Danny Martin 50:38

No, she stayed in Oklahoma yeah she stayed in Oklahoma. She didn't come down, she didn't join me until I got to EOD school. So I went to Virginia, to Mudpup, that's what we call it. So I was TAD, getting mentored. Then I went to dive school and then after dive school then she moved down because dive school was only like two or three months, three months. Dive school is only like two or three months, three months, and then eod school is like a year right.

Gary Wise 51:06

So that's once you move down with me. Are the eod schools in the same places, the dive schools there in panama city?

Danny Martin 51:11

yeah, so dive school is all all one, right. So recon goes there. Divers like scuba divers, all these different like branches, parts of it, right? So we were all there in panama city and then eod school was in eglin at uh, right around the corner, like an hour away, so okay, and how cool was that, bro?

Gary Wise 51:30

was it rare for you to be a e5 coming from the fleet, to be going through eod accession school or eod school? Was that rare was?

Danny Martin 51:39

Well, so back in the days you were supposed to be an E5 to even apply for the programs, right. But when I went through they were actually starting to make it to where they were taking less and less fleet returnees and they were taking more guys right out of boot camp, right? So when I went through there was only three or maybe five of us that were fleet returnees in dive school. And then when I got to you don't always start off you go to dive school, then you go to EOD school, and in EOD school we had there was more fleet returnees in there, like in my class that I went through, than new guys, right, okay?

Gary Wise 52:21

cool in there, like in my class that I went through. Then, uh, and new guys, right, but okay, cool. So you there. You are in a whole new community, whole new group of friends, whole new group of people, professionals. Um, academically, was it a challenge for you or was your academics fine?

Danny Martin 52:34

oh, oh man. No, like I told you, I graduated high school two years late.

Gary Wise 52:39

Right, I told you, I graduated high school two years later. Right, I told you that part I heard that part I thought it was high school.

Danny Martin 52:43

So because EOD school, like man, eod school is, like we always say, it's equivalent like a four-year college rolled into one, like that's legitimately what it's like and you're literally taking a test every day or every other day. Almost You're on the verge of getting kicked out because you have a test all the time. It's either a written test or a practical test where you got to go display things and first, starting off like dive school, you can take all your materials home with you and study, right. But EOD school, most of it was classified so you could not take anything home to study. So you had to you, they had like study periods for people, but you had like this much time to learn this much stuff, right, right.

Danny Martin 53:29

So it was, it was challenging. I had to get, I had to learn a different way to learn right, because what I, the way I was learning, the way I studied, wasn't working for me, and so I had to like kind of reinvent the way I learned and studied and everything. And now like my studying, now like I'm it's totally different, like I could pick up a book in a heartbeat and like nail it, because I figured out how to look for the material that's important. Out of it now right.

Gary Wise 53:57

I get it. So I I tell people when I went to high school, dropped out of high school, it's not because I was dumb, I just I was just not academic little bit more. My bachelor's degree I actually had to show I could be an academic right. But then the master's degree had to show that I was educated. And I say that because an educated person knows how to incorporate new material at a relatively quick pace, identify what matters, incorporate that into what they needed to be and then deliver it back to whoever they deliver it to in the way that works for them.

Gary Wise 54:46

In my mind, that's an educated human being and it doesn't require you to have a certain college degree, right. But for some, like for me, I recognize that through my different progressions in education. You just said, hey, I got a whole all this degree packed into one year. You had, and you had all that experience from graduating high school up until that point, going through the different schools you went to and on the job, training and exposure to different mentors and all these other maturity opportunities along the way. I'm sure that it all came together at eod school and now you, you were here, you were, you were just beginning to really become an academic who's educated, because that's, I'm sure that's only the beginning, as you move on throughout your career.

Danny Martin 55:30

Oh yeah, that's my. My dad always makes fun of me Cause he's like for someone who hated school. You sure did pick a profession that you have to study all the time, because once you go through and you make it through, eod school is EOD school. It's the core, you know, it's the basics. And then once you get out of EOD like I was always studying, I was always you know, there's a lot of stuff that's unclassified once you get into the realm and I went in to work all the time to study once you get into the realm and you, I went into work all the time to study I would be sitting at home watching, you know, some football games with the with a manual in my hands, always like you, you you are always studying because, like, the cost of not knowing is so high, right, cause me not knowing something equals someone dying, like me dying, or, worse, someone else dying.

Gary Wise 56:21

All right, danny, just give me a reference point now. You joined the Navy in 1995. Yep, what year are you going into EOD school? Oh two so after 9-11 yep, yep.

Danny Martin 56:34

So I was already going to EOD school before 9-11. I was already working out before 9-11 happened, and then 9-11 happened and then I went through and that was that's one of the biggest things too is going through the OD school. You knew if you made it you were going to war. Right, that's it.

Gary Wise 56:53

Well, and I wanted to kind of reinforce on that point, the instructors were making sure you understood that you were going to war. Right, and I mean I remember before 9-11 and nothing against the generations before us. Right, because they had their fight and they did what they were going to do. Right, it wasn't their fault, they had their service, desert Storm, whatever. But your generation, my generation, those of us that were from before 9-11, all the way till 2022, whenever we retired, the whole damn freaking, exhausting, freaking from 01 until 2019, if you will, because not everyone knows everything. It was a lot. And I'm sure at that point in 02, not even they fully understood what this was going to be in the long run. Right, it was just. But they were probably like, no matter what you guys were going to be in the sauce. And I mean, were you guys even thinking about things like ieds and stuff like that that early in your eod journey?

Danny Martin 57:56

no, I mean. So ids was the department that you, that you you know a class that you went through and but it was, it was a small component of everything, right. So EOD school is really it's just seeing if you can learn at a fast pace, right. So you learn a lot of things in EOD school, but it's to see that you can learn it and then apply it quickly and then you really learn more of it when you get out. Because we, like, we go through team training and everything like that, right. So before you deploy, you go through team training. You'll go do like more advanced training, like you did in the od school and uh. But but ids were, were not as bad at that at the beginning, right, because, like back in the day, it was more of a shooter's threat, not an ied thing, right.

Gary Wise 58:44

And then later on.

Danny Martin 58:44

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and then later on it turned into an ied and less shooters right that's what I'm thinking.

Gary Wise 58:51

I'm thinking of where we're gonna end up in 05 06 07 08 and how that was. But you're coming in, oh two, and I just again, they don't know what they't know. And so, after you graduate EOD school, where do you go next?

Danny Martin 59:05

I go to Mobile 4 in Bahrain. So I was on an MCM team, so mine countermeasures, so I did a lot of diving out there and everything else. I dove all around and that's what we did for the majority of time. And then I got rapidly deployed to and for a small for uh. Then I got rapidly deployed to afghanistan. For a little while out there, uh, while I was on the mcm team I went to afghanistan with uh, someone that you, you know, rick's training yeah, I do know rick, yeah, yeah so me and rick me and rick me and rick went to.

Danny Martin 59:38

Uh, we deployed to Afghanistan together. He was a senior, he was a chief and I was a first class.

Gary Wise 59:46

Awesome, so you were already in the. Was EOD a rate at that point already?

Danny Martin 59:51

No, no, EOD became a rate. My first time up for chief.

Gary Wise 59:56

So you were still, were you still an RM.

Danny Martin 59:59

Yep.

Gary Wise 59:59

All right, so you were an RM11 and rick was a chief whatever flavor and he was a fleet returnee who also went eov and you got the opportunity to go to afghanistan because what you were in bahrain and you were available and you were willing to go, or what yeah, so they, uh, there was some stuff that happened.

Danny Martin 1:00:17

Right, some guys had bombs, like the, the embassy, and there was a couple places that they needed to send people and uh, and rick was one of the guys going and he had literally just showed up to our command and uh, so he, he didn't have a team yet and they were going to send him and they told him he could go pick anybody to command that and he could take them as his team member and uh, and then he came up to me one day. He's like hey, your list, your name's not on the list of people that are available. And because all the chiefs wrote down who was available and I was like yo, I was like what are you talking about? And he said no, your name's not on there. And I was like, yeah, I told him I go. And he's like you want to go?

Danny Martin 1:00:56

I was like yeah, and then he was like cool, and then, cause he told me he's like hey, man, you're always smiling, you're always working, you know like I was always talking smack, I was always grinding and I was, I was always putting in that work and and he saw that. And so he was like hey, I'm going to take you with me and then. So me and him went to Afghanistan and stuff, and then, uh, and that was, uh, that was an interesting time, right. Go from from diving all the time to being in Afghanistan without certain training that I did not have. Oh man, that was a learning curve, right.

Gary Wise 1:01:35

So just so I understand. So you guys, are you your geo bachelor in Bahrain? I would imagine your family still back in the States, Yep, and so when you go to Afghanistan, you're just plugged in with another group Like you guys are just like TDY to some other people.

Danny Martin 1:01:50

We were out there with some Marines.

Gary Wise 1:01:53

Okay, yeah, and they needed some EOD support, right. So you guys are there to do the EOD support, but then just because your EOD, the enemy doesn't know your EOD, they're thinking you're the enemy, right, so you have to fight whoever's coming your way. How long is that Bahrain, that EOD, whatever that group is for the? Is that a two-year tour, a two-year billet?

Danny Martin 1:02:15

I ended up being out there for like a year and a half. It wasn't supposed to be long, but then, yeah, they end up standing the mobile unit down. It's actually CTF 56 now, right, but they end up standing it down and then they end up putting everyone throughout the rest of the mobile units. So everyone got moved right.

Gary Wise 1:02:38

Okay, so where do you end up going then after the Bahrain time?

Danny Martin 1:02:43

Virginia, where I mud-pupped mud pups moving it too okay, so is that?

Gary Wise 1:02:46

is that in like virginia beach, or is that in norfolk? Uh, it's an it's on little creek, little creek. Okay, yeah, and your wife is there with you yep and that's your first. Like no kidding, eod got a house, got the car, got the dog, all that yeah, yeah okay hold on how long are you there at that tour? Are you a chief at that point? Are you up for no?

Danny Martin 1:03:13

I'm a. I'm a first class, I'm a first class, so I made I made first right before I graduated eod school. Okay, yeah, so I did a year and a half in Bahrain. I went to Mobile, unit 2. And then that's where that was probably, I think, one of my favorite tours as an EOD tech, right, there was a lot of great people there, right. And then basically I did two iraq deployments there. So, like I didn't join eod not to deploy right not to to do the job, so, right, I really enjoyed that tour well, and you have a lot of cross-pollination on little creek too, right.

Gary Wise 1:03:57

They call it joint expeditionary base now little, because there is so much diversity of organizations, right. And so I'm sure you got the chance to network and get to know a lot of different people, different teams, in your community, which is, I'm sure you're probably learning more about what that means to be a part of that special warfare community. I can only imagine. And then for the two deployments to Iraq, is that an EOD like your, your group deployment, or is that like a bigger thing than just your EOD group deployment? How does that work?

Danny Martin 1:04:31

so. So they got task force out there, right that are doing different things, and so the first deployment was Baghdad and so we got uh sent out to uh I want to say it was like task force troy or something like that and uh, and we were, we were out there redoing our own thing, we're doing nine, nine uh response. So there's just our platoon, so there's eight of us. We've deployed direct, just the eight of us, and then we show up. A couple of us went to one base and then the other guys went to a different base and then we all get assigned. We got like our Army security forces attached to us and then we were just sitting there waiting for the phone to ring.

Danny Martin 1:05:12

The phone to ring, you go do an IED or you go do a cash or a post blast for a vehicle getting hit by an IED or whatever. You were just sitting there 24 seven for six months waiting for the phone to ring. So that was a. That was a pretty uh. So back then IEDs was very heavy. They had a lot of car, we had a lot of car bombs out there. We had a lot of uh, efp, so explosive form projectile, right. So it's like it just melts through your vehicle Like it's nasty and we had quite a few of that going through there. But I think as a platoon, I want to say man, I want to say it was like 700 or something like that calls. That we did as three different teams, that we did as three different teams and I know my team, we did like I want to say we did like 220 missions in six months, so that's like we did a lot of work every day.

Gary Wise 1:06:16

And just so I understand, do all the branches have EOD flavors of their own, like Army, air Force, marine Corps, and so when you're out there on a task force, are all of the multiple variations of EOD also available too, or is it just a certain group for a certain period of time?

Danny Martin 1:06:45

Yeah, it's typically so. First of all, air Force, army, marines and Navy, e, eod, we all go to the same school. So, like, like, we all go to the same school. We all just graduated different times, right. So, like, for us, we go to eod, we go dive school first, then we go to eod school and we go longer in the pipeline than other branches because we got to do underwater and some other stuff and uh so, but we all get the same core, like core value, like core skill sets, right. And then when you go deploy, yeah, it's like Air Force will be covering down over here, marines will be covering down over here. Back then, typically, the Air Force was more on like base response and Marine and Navy and Army were more out in the field, type of things, right, but that's changed here and there.

Gary Wise 1:07:28

So, yeah, I remember, because it was kind of like all hands on deck and there was just a big group of different people and players. I'm sure C2 and comms was a kind of a mess and everyone was trying to figure out who's who in the zoo. And there you guys are, in the middle of it all, an eight-person platoon just trying to do your best, and you're I can only imagine what that's like for chiefs. First, classes, yeah who used to not that's one of the things.

Danny Martin 1:07:55

We used to not be called platoons, we used to be called detachments, so debts, right. So we like we showed up, we were at debt 14, but when the Army and everyone else looks at a detachment, they think it's like this many people. So we started using their terms to where they realize there's only like this many of us.

Danny Martin 1:08:12

Right, Because they would trust us, like we were a 200-man, you know detachment, doing all these things, and we're like, hey, there's, there's eight of us and really there's three of us here, right, so yeah, no, communication matters, right, words matter and they are different meaning for different tribes, right.

Gary Wise 1:08:30

So there you go. So you're in Virginia or you're in Little Creek. You get the two deployments to Iraq. Do you, do you promote at all during that time period?

Danny Martin 1:08:42

I made chief right when I was transferring from Virginia going back to Japan. So I showed up to Japan putting on chief. I found out I was on leave getting ready to fly out when I found out that I made chief when I was going back to Japan.

Gary Wise 1:08:59

So I made chief right where I was. What's that? Did you go through initiation then in Japan, out that I made chief when I was going back to Japan. So I made chief right where I was at. Did you go through initiation then in Japan? Yeah, yeah, okay, damn, you missed little. I heard stories about little creeks, chiefs, initiations man.

Danny Martin 1:09:12

Oh yeah, no, I would. I would have loved to gone through with the.

Gary Wise 1:09:15

I heard, I heard stories about there, for sure, but Jak there for sure. But jacuzzi does a good job too, though, so you get there, you're. Where are you going in yacuzzi? What are you doing?

Danny Martin 1:09:25

there is there. There's a short end. There's a short end there. There's only a handful of us, there's like there's only like five guys or something like that there. But uh, we do all like base response, right. So if there's a suspect package anywhere or anything like that, or someone's doing construction, you know, j Japan has a lot of ordinance spread all over the place, right, just like Guam does, and so that's what we did. We did like debt Mary. You know debt Mary in Guam, right, we're the equivalent of them in Japan. So we covered pretty much all of Japan too.

Gary Wise 1:09:55

Where was your guys' office space? On Yakuza, it's right over there.

Danny Martin 1:10:00

It's right over there across the street from srf, like it's on the water, by the old movie theater and stuff like that okay, got it.

Gary Wise 1:10:06

I know that's that all right. So, and did you want to go to japan?

Danny Martin 1:10:10

oh, yeah, yeah, I love, I loved it out there so your wife was excited to go check it out yeah, yeah, we're, we're all about that and did you guys have kids yet at that point, or no? Yep, yep, yeah, my daughter, she was almost three and my son was one, just about turn one.

Gary Wise 1:10:29

So I also transferred overseas with a wife and a little one. That little one is as excited as we were. It was stressful getting the whole, getting the house of goods packed out, getting all the stuff. How many suitcases are we going to have Going through the airport with all these bags? But was this time much different showing up to the airport, compared to when you were RMSR showing up? Did you have like a sponsored meeting?

Danny Martin 1:10:57

Oh yeah, this was totally different, right, because the guys from the shop are sitting there waiting for me with vans and all that kind of stuff. It was totally, totally different now, right?

The Path to Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD)

Gary Wise 1:11:07

yeah, so I, yeah, I always think that's unique, how it's different as we move throughout our careers and that and that sponsorship piece matters so much. For your wife to see like these guys are waiting to pick us up at the airport. Your kids to see, like I don't know who these guys are waiting to pick us up at the airport. Your kids to see like I don't know who these guys are, but they're daddy's friends. That's awesome and we're going to fall asleep on this car ride back to base and go to. Navy.

Gary Wise 1:11:28

Lodge and get checked in. Did you live on Main Base or were you over there in the Kago? We lived on Main Base. That's a good deal. What year was that? When did you go to that EOD? We were there from 8 to 11. Okay, so I was on board the george washington from 10 to 13, so did you leave before the earthquake?

Danny Martin 1:11:51

I was there. I left after.

Danny Martin 1:11:54

Yeah, I was I was actually, uh, when it happened, I I had a guy there that he was trying to go EOD. I think he was trying to go EOD and he had an appointment with the DMO, the medical officer, for a physical and he did not show, he did not do all these different things. So I had him there. I actually had him in the lean and rest. He was doing push-ups. I had him in lean and rest and I was talking to him about how we in the spec ops community, how we're responsible, right, we, we notify people if we know we're not going to show up. We do this. We do this because that guy was doing him a huge favor and the earth starts shaking and he's and I, he starts to stand up. I was like no one told you to recover and then I told him get back down and then it happens again. I was like, all right, get up, let's let's get up, let's go right.

Gary Wise 1:12:46

So so yeah that was an inch. I was on board the ship when that earthquake happened. Man and my wife was in the building. We were in the adjusai tower over there on main base and you know the evacuate twice out of the building. I mean, how was that weekend for you and your family after the earthquake?

Danny Martin 1:13:05

oh, man, it was, yeah, it was crazy, you know, I think I think the I think the biggest thing for you know. So I liked when they evacuated everybody, like when they got all the families out, because it was just so much drama and stuff that followed afterwards, right, and then especially like so because everyone's you know the nuclear stuff right. And, as an EOD guy, like we understand all this kind of stuff, right, kind of stuff Right. And uh, it was just frustrating when you would have everybody going crazy on all of these kinds of levels, right, with all the social media and all the rumors and everything, and it's like none of it even makes sense. Half of it's like. You know this guy who is, uh, he's a, he's a MS, so he's a cook, he's telling all these things and I got my wife asking me all this stuff. I'm just like man, calm down. Do you see me flipping out?

Gary Wise 1:14:01

like I'm not flipping out so I think that I remember first off it was like 70 or something aftershocks that weekend we're like legit earthquakes of their own yes, right like I will tell you my wife. You remember those alarms people had on their cell phones that would activate when an earthquake was coming. Yeah, people, people had problems with those for a little while afterwards because, I don't think a lot of people understand at first.

Gary Wise 1:14:27

And then I remember I was on the ship. I worked with like 10 o'clock that night on the boat doing my pms on the ship because I'm a grinder, right, I'm working. He said she's okay, I'm good yeah right and then I remember when I started seeing the devastation happen up north in Japan for the tsunami Right, and I was just thinking like that's freaking incredible bro, like that's. That was what I thought was the tragedy, right.

Gary Wise 1:14:50

And then, I had no thoughts about there ever being this plumage or this snowfall. That's like this ash landing on us, and I think that we saw during that that weekend, like social media for the first time in my life really become a problem, right, because the spouses were on that social media and they were worried and and and I think the other problem was and we've seen this probably a few times in our career because we think we could talk covid in a little bit. But it's like when they change the goal post, everybody's like okay, they change the goalpost, everybody's like okay, I don't know what to believe now.

Gary Wise 1:15:25

Don't take your shoes off when you're walking in your house. What does that mean? Yeah, and so I agree. And you know, I actually flew my wife and my son out before the evacuation even started, because I was on the ship and they were like how many days do you need to get the ship underway? The george washington yeah and I'm like we're broke down, we're like in the yards.

Gary Wise 1:15:48

And so we told them like a month, you know may 18 days to a month, and they were like y'all get in the way on sunday and I was just like you're out of here right like because I didn't I was not gonna leave her freaking out in yoko while I'm gone, hayze grain underway like I can't control a lot, but I can get you on a flight right and I'll never forget me and ty giles he was a brother of ours who was on the on the uh, the gw2. We drove our wives up to the airport, pushed our wives and our kids into the airport with the with the stroller, walked out the doors crying bro. We were just like bro because we had no clue what was going to happen next right we were like we're gonna.

Gary Wise 1:16:28

We thought that george washington, because it was a nuclear aircraft carrier, was never going to be allowed to come back to guam because, or to japan, because our tanks were going off, right, we didn't. We didn't know whose radiation was whose anymore right, and so that's cool, that's interesting, you were there during that time it was. And then that base became a ghost town real quick, right, like yes, yeah, I would always, always laugh because I would.

Danny Martin 1:16:52

I'd be at the taxi, stand me and a guy would go out get something to eat or whatever. Come back and you see someone with a little you know, they have a little radiac little monitor and they, they would be testing things and I'd be sitting there like, hey man, what you got there, you know what are you doing. And then they would be like, oh, nothing. I'd be like, oh, what do you, you know? And I would start talking to them about their equipment that they're using, yeah, and they would start looking at me like who are you? What do you got going on? That you understand, like what you know.

Gary Wise 1:17:19

So yeah, I'm surprised they didn't pull you guys in and make you guys go out there and start doing assessments on crap so I thought we were gonna get pulled into a lot of the stuff.

Danny Martin 1:17:28

But uh, but we really didn't. I know, uh, they stood up uh, you know, like a headquarters and everything, and we went there a couple times to help out with uh, a few things at least my oic did, I think I went up there like twice with him or whatever but uh, uh, yeah, we didn't really. We didn't really get too involved.

Gary Wise 1:17:48

I thought we were going to and, uh, we didn't not so necessary because so many people came from outside you know, and so I remember they came to us on the ship and I was like, look, dude, my job is to plot radiation decay after the big bomb, right after the boom. I don't know how to tell you about low levels of radiation gradually moving forward and even then again, in my scenarios we're all dead right, like if you're still alive. I'm more worried about fire, flooding, toxic gas, not worried about these things you're talking about yeah and and they were like well, this is called, this is what we're gonna.

Gary Wise 1:18:27

They made us scan like every inch of that shit, bro, from the radiation. It was freaking all anyway. So how long did you were you in your coast at that time? You said it was a three-year time.

Danny Martin 1:18:38

Yeah, I left in 2011, so I was. It was three-year tour and after 11, where?

Gary Wise 1:18:44

where were you hoping to go? So that was a three-year tour, not deploying too much, right? So you get to be home with the family. You got the chance to enjoy yoko. What's next? Right, are you looking? You're a chief. Now are you a senior chief at that point?

Danny Martin 1:18:57

I was the chief. I was a chief, I went to san diego. So I went to a mobile unit out in san diego and I did a bunch of. I did two deployments out there and they were out, fifth fleet doing mine, countermeasures again, stuff like that.

Gary Wise 1:19:12

So diving, diving and again, what did you say? How'd you like that tour in san diego?

Danny Martin 1:19:18

oh, I loved it. I loved it, man. I had, uh, I had. So that was my first two platoon rides as a, as a lcpo, and I had a bunch of great guys, you know, on the team and everything and and, uh, you know, you come really close together when you're out there diving and you're cold, wet and hungry all the time and everything. So, yeah, it was a good time.

Gary Wise 1:19:37

So and then after san diego, is that when you decided to go out to guam?

Danny Martin 1:19:43

no, I went to spain, I went out to spain and then, uh, so I went to mobi nate in spain. I showed up there and then I got attached to a green beret team out there with that in germany. So I was attached to the green berets out there on the crisis response force and then, uh, and then after that I started the troop level right or so, like you know, like an SEA type of thing for a while. So I had a couple of platoons that worked underneath me. So, yeah, Spain, I love Spain too. Spain and Japan are my favorite places and my wife's too.

Gary Wise 1:20:19

But Spain, just so I understand Spain. The mission was much different than yucosca, spain. You were looped in with stuttgart and some guys doing fun things out of there, yeah and but were those more like we're deploying for special things and we're not just deployed for like long periods of time?

Danny Martin 1:20:34

it's more about there's a certain mission, we're gonna go do that thing yeah, we, we were on the hook, for if certain things happened throughout Europe, we were going to be the guys to go out there and take care of it. Awesome.

Gary Wise 1:20:48

Yeah, Okay. And in Spain, you and your family. Where did you pick up? Senior chief?

Danny Martin 1:20:55

Right before I went, I picked it up on my second platoon in San Diego.

Gary Wise 1:20:59

Okay, yeah, I picked it up on my second platoon in San Diego. Okay yeah, san Diego. Looking back on your career, do you think Yakuska was your first major leadership role? Was that you broke up on me. Which one would be your first major leadership role. Do you think Would it be Yakuska or would it be Spain? Or would it be. San Diego.

Danny Martin 1:21:20

Man.

Danny Martin 1:21:26

So when you talk about so that's one of the things.

Danny Martin 1:21:27

So when you talk about like, I think, how you think about it, it would be, you know, san Diego would be it, right, okay, but honestly, one of my first major roles as a leader would be in Virginia, as an E6, right. So, because for us, like, within two years of graduating EOD school, I was in Virginia, we got I put on senior tech, so we got basic tech, senior tech, master tech, right. So when I put on senior tech, I got qualified as a team leader or EOD supervisor, and so both of those iraq deployments I did, I was in charge of our missions, so like. And so that's where I think the, the first like, the most important like role started was like going out on doing missions and and, uh, trying to keep us alive, right. So that's where I think, uh, I think that was my first major role as a supervisor, as a leader, right. And then San Diego would be my first one where I actually got my first platoon and then I was in charge of all these other different things on that level, right.

Gary Wise 1:22:37

And I mean I guess for me I'm also looking at it like you're not just an operative control but you also administratively got to take care of all these people and the care and the feeding and the training and you got to pay your bills, timmy Right.

Gary Wise 1:22:51

Otherwise you're not going to be able to be a good sailor. And the higher up you get, the more you have you're supposed to care about these people. And then that adds so many different dimensions because you just wish we could focus on doing the job right, like, why can't we just do the thing? But if a person is not well at home, or if they're not well at in their health, then they're probably going to not be able to do the job, and then we start. So for you, did that also start in virginia beach as well?

Danny Martin 1:23:18

those extra layers of concern oh yeah, because if you're not, if you're not mentally there, right, like if you're, if you're not so well, first of all I was an lpo as a basic tech. I became an lpo on an mcm team when I was in bahrain, so my first command. I ended up being an lpo within like six months of getting there on a platoon, but it it was just not the same, right. But when I was in, when I was in uh and going to baghdad and stuff in ramadi, like yeah, because if you're going on those missions and everything's not right like here, you ain't paying attention with those things, right, like that's in the, in the, the, the missions I was telling about, that we did earlier. Like there we were, we were, we were dealing with some dangerous stuff, so like I'm not, I'm not joking, there was, there was numerous times where I walked away and I was like man, I'm glad we're, we're, I got all my digits right now. There was some times where it was because I, we actually lost, like that's where we started, uh.

Danny Martin 1:24:28

So like one time we lost, uh, we lost a guy from my command and uh, literally my wife asked me like the day, like a couple days afterwards, she talked to me's like I literally just had dinner with his wife right before they found that he passed away. She was like are you doing things like that? And I was like, and she asked me to give her. She's like tell me. And I was like, yeah, I was like almost.

Danny Martin 1:24:51

I was like you want to know honestly. And she's like, yeah, I was like I almost died two days ago. You know, this was what happened to me. And I was like I'm surprised that I'm, I'm, I got nothing wrong with me and uh, and she was like oh, oh. And then, and I realized at that point that I should have never told her that, because I wanted her to not worry about me. I wanted her to walk around with the kids and go get ice cream and whatever, and just not not think that's things. She knows the dangers of the job, but I don't need to make it too real for her. Right, there you go.

Gary Wise 1:25:26

All of us on deployment. We want to have this vision in our life, in our mind, that our families are doing great and they're okay and they're not of concern, they're not a problem, they're safe, and that's why I'm doing what I'm doing, so they can have that Right. Yeah, and I remember my wife I'd take, I'd tell her, drive me to the ship, and that before we got underway, because I don't want you standing on the pier while we're going to see, I don't want to have to worry about you driving home in that car.

Danny Martin 1:25:51

Yeah.

Gary Wise 1:25:52

God knows, you're going to drive a whole bunch of other places after I'm gone, but I don't want to have that worry that morning. I want to wake up knowing, okay, I'm on deployment and she's taking care of her business and she's good. She's okay and I'm going to focus on what I got to focus on, and so I get all that. Bro, so you're in Spain, your family's probably enjoying it, you're doing some cool stuff, but you're hopefully getting some good shore duty or some good liberty in between all that. Are you at 20 years? At that point?

Danny Martin 1:26:20

Yeah, I, uh, when I left there I was right at my 21 year mark, right. So I uh, I was either I needed to either reenlist or get out Right. And uh, and I, I was still having fun. I was like I said I was attached to the green braids so I was still blowing things up, kicking down doors, like I was, I was doing the fun stuff, said I was attached to the green braids so I was still blowing things up, kicking down doors, like I was, I was doing the fun stuff. And then, uh, but I re, it was time for me to re-enlist.

Danny Martin 1:26:47

I re-enlisted and that's when I went to the troop spot, right, where I was in charge of people. And then after that I went to uh, to stewgard, right, so I was at soccer, so I was a staff at in the j5 department, so planning for, uh, for stew. So Special Operations Command Europe, so they own like all the special forces, special warfare and all that kind of stuff within Europe, right, so I worked for a two-star over there and then I made Master Chief there. And then that's when I was like I need to go back to a mobile unit. I wanted to be a Master Chief at an AOD mobile unit, and that's when I was like I need to go back to Mobian. I wanted to be a Master Chief at Neo de Mobian, and that's when I went to Guam.

Gary Wise 1:27:25

So you went from Spain. Even so, you went from Spain. Getting the Green Beret stink on you into the belly of the beast. It's too hard, yeah. Which means you must have done a good job, bro, because, let's be honest, they probably just happy to pull you on up in there and give you some opportunity. Did your family like Germany, Uh?

Danny Martin 1:27:47

not so much. My son did, my wife and daughter didn't. So if we would have went to Germany first and then Spain, we would have liked Germany more, right, but like Germany is army-centric right, but like Germany is army centric right. So bases run the army, they don't. It's different. And then we went from San Diego having a really nice house, spain having a really nice house, and then Germany living in basically apartments, right, and we hadn't lived in any kind of thing like that since we were in Japan back in the days.

Gary Wise 1:28:27

So if we would have went to Germany, first, first, we would have loved it more and everything like that. So you guys get those nice, you get that good oha over there right to go out oh yeah get a nice big house. I I wanted to go to spain but I never was able to make that happen, but it was on my bucket list.

Danny Martin 1:28:39

We loved it out there. We loved it out there I felt like I was on vacation every day when we were there.

Gary Wise 1:28:44

When I was there. So what was it about wanting to go back to AOD Mobile Unit as a Master Chief? Why was that such an important thing for you?

Danny Martin 1:28:56

Well, I mean, I know you've seen it right. You've got people that are in top positions, that they're on the road program, like they've already retired, like they're already on the, you know, retired, on active duty, or they're not doing the things. They kind of forgot. You know what it was to be like, you know, on the deck plate and everything, and I just I wanted to be able to be around my community and I wanted to because I didn't know if I was going to stay in or whatever, right, and we're probably going to keep going after one more tour, and I wanted to be able to be at a mobile unit to, like, help people get out the door. You know, go to war basically without, like you know, without having to worry about me, right, because I'm there to to take care of you so you can get out the door. So, yeah, and I'm, I'm gonna work for you, I get.

Gary Wise 1:29:47

I you know I wanted to make dc master chief before I became a cmc right because I wanted to know that I had gotten to the top of my community and I wanted to be on an aircraft carrier as a DC master chief.

Danny Martin 1:30:04

Yeah.

Gary Wise 1:30:04

Because that was like, and so after I did that I was like all right, I can go CMC now, because I don't want to keep doing that, but I wanted to do it at least once, Right. Yeah.

Gary Wise 1:30:12

Yeah, so I get that Right and I, I I respect that hunger for, like, I've made it to master chief now. Now I want to go be in a community. My last job as a dc master chief. I taught senior enlisted damage control school. Right, like that was my fist goodbye to the community before I, before I turned in my crossed axes and went to the cookie club. Right, became a freaking cmc. Right, I went and did all that. So when you get to eod mu5 and when you get to guam, you've now gotten you got spain experience, you've got germany experience, you've got yacosca experience, bahrain experience what were you? What did? How did guam stack up when you, when you looked at all your other tours, right, have you ever been to Guam before?

Danny Martin 1:31:02

Yeah. So, being in Japan on a cruiser, right on the mob, we pulled in there all the time. I love Guam, so I told my wife. When I told her, I said, hey, when I make Mass Chief, if we can go back to Spain, I will go there, but if we can't, I'm going to go to Mobian 5. Like I going to go to Mobina, I'm going to go to Mobina five. I like I want to go to Guam.

Danny Martin 1:31:22

And uh, she was like all right, all right, and Spain wasn't open to me, but Guam was cause Guam's hard to get anyone to go there, right, yeah, so, so, so I asked for Spain, and then they told me no, and then, uh, so I went to. I went to Guam, which I was excited about it. I love Guam. I love Guam Like, like you said, I was always running out there, go snorkeling every day, paddle boarding Like I loved it out there, like I really did. So I'm a pizza bum. I'm shorts and flip-flops, that's it.

Gary Wise 1:31:56

I loved it. Uh, you, it's always a mixed bag Whenever I talk to somebody how they remember, but I also, me and my family fell in love with that island, bro, yeah, I fell in love with the community, the island, but there were some challenges right there was, yeah, I mean, just being honest, it felt like we were kind of alone and unafraid of the world, fighting, fighting for every scrap of whatever we could get. You know, yeah, and that was a tough, that was a tough job, I mean, for me, looking back on it. Plus, we were there at the same time. When did you retire? What year? What?

Danny Martin 1:32:25

was it 20,. What was it right now? 25.

Gary Wise 1:32:28

So yeah, it's the end of 22, maybe so I retired in December of 22 as well, so we retired about the same time, yeah, yeah, and so we were there for covid and all of the crap that that brought to guam, and that was a tough time, but me and my wife count our blessings for being on guam during that whole experiment, because it was a great place to be quiet. Right, yeah, like the world was quiet, everybody was not going a lot of places. Well, you know, we can go to the beach yeah you can go to whatever.

Gary Wise 1:33:01

So how was it going for you? Because I remember when I first met you, you were the ops master chief. Yeah, that was like your role, right, you were running operations for eod mobile unit 5 and I was talking with alex earlier on his podcast and he did eod mu5 after you did it, right, he went there as a diver and he was telling me how busy that mobile unit is operationally. Oh, yeah, right. So how was that role for you as the ops master chief? Were you just like, oh my god, this is freaking, what everything I wanted it to be, or was there? Or was it a tough leadership challenge for you?

Danny Martin 1:33:38

no, I, it was definitely a tough challenge, right, because we're EODs, undermanned and overworked, right, and Guam is undermanned like big time, right. So that's one of the things. So every Moby across the board is undermanned for the most part. But then when you add the overseas screening and then no one wants to go to Guam, like, it's hard to get that right. It's hard to meet all the mission requirements. You're always doing body bingo with everybody and all this kind of stuff and you know, and then sailors aren't always happy because their families might not like it there and everything else right. So like there wasn't. You didn't meet too many people in spain that didn't like spain, right. You didn't meet too many people in japan that didn't like japan, right. But but, but guam, yeah, it was, it was. You're either one spectrum or the other, right?

Gary Wise 1:34:35

yeah so and and there could be toxic parts of the community too, right, like there could be pockets of people that were just. I mean, unfortunately there was a whole online. There was a lot of negativity, right. You had to kind of counter all I can tell you story upon story of craziness that was brought to my doorstep and I was just thinking like how does this happen on a Thursday in Guam right.

Danny Martin 1:34:58

Yeah, I can imagine.

Gary Wise 1:35:00

Yeah, it was chaos. So you're getting to the what you're looking at, your career, you're at guam, you're at the eod mobile unit and what makes you decide like, maybe I'm gonna no longer do this navy thing because I know why I decided to retire and I retired at 25 years, right, yeah, and I was cooked. I'll tell you straight up and down no problems about it, no qualms. I'm sure I could have gotten out of Guam a year earlier if I'd wanted to and gone somewhere else and whatever. But I just told my wife and staying there was awesome, god.

Gary Wise 1:35:38

It was probably more worse for the wearer because I had to deal with a bunch of crap, right, but I, I should have just left, right, but I was done, I wanted to retire, I wanted to, I was ready to get out and go do something else in my life and I already knew you know I was, I was having that pressure behind my eyes and I didn't want to have there anymore. I can feel it. I can feel there was things going on. So, uh, what was it that made you decide like, hey, you know what, man, I'm gonna go ahead and do something, I'm gonna go to texas, and? And how the hell, did you decide to get involved with beekeeping bro?

Danny Martin 1:36:11

yeah, all right. So that was a lot there. Let me get in there, all right, so one day. So I was actually supposed to, so I end up. You know, you said I was in the office, right, and I ended up taking over as a command master chief, and though I wasn't a command master chief I didn't have the bubble, right and uh, I was originally supposed to go there and I was going to do a tour as the ops master chief and I was going to take over as the command master chief, like I was originally going to do two tours there and uh, but then when I because we, you know, slating for command match chief differently than the fleet does, right, yeah, and so, anyway, so I took over as command match chief and then I had I was up for orders figure out if, uh, I was having to start having conversations with people about, hey, was I going to extend at the command and do longer, or was I going to go somewhere else as a, as a cmc or whatever, or I could get out at that point, right and uh, and at some point I just woke up one day and I was like I don't want to be here, no more, right, I had another tour left in me and I told you before I wanted to go back to a mobile unit because I wanted to work, like I wanted to make sure I was able to use my screws to the benefit, right.

Danny Martin 1:37:33

And so now I was like man. I was like you know what Life's got to go on? There's got to be something Like I'm going to have to start over, no matter what, right, I'm going to have to retire. And and I just I did not want to stay any longer than because if I knew, if I went somewhere else, I wasn't going to be all in, and my whole career I was always all in. And so at that point I was like, oh, it's time to move on to something else.

Combat Deployments and Leadership Evolution

Danny Martin 1:38:08

And so when I decided to move on, I went to Intrepid Spirit, which is in San Diego. It's a medical thing for, like, tbi and PTSD and all these kind of different things, right, because I've got issues, right, I've seen some stuff. And so when I was there, I was starting to think what's next, right? And uh, and I started trying to think of something that kind of occupies some of my time and I'm sitting there putting the honey on everything. And I was like man, I want to learn how to do beekeeping, you know, cause, like a lot of people are scared of bees and you got to wear a bomb. Yeah, I go from bomb suit to a beekeeper suit, right? And uh and man, I just I just started thinking about it and I started reading a bunch of stuff on bees. I never really paid attention to them and I started reading all this stuff and start watching all these videos and then I signed up for a beekeeping course in Texas, like shortly after I retired.

Danny Martin 1:38:58

I already signed up when I was in Guam to go to it and then, I got here and I went and did a beekeeping class and I love it, like it's cool, like I tell you, there's actually quite a few couple EOD guys that do beekeeping now and I tell everybody it's nice and relaxing, like when you get into the hive and you see what they've done, what they've made, and then you hear the humming of them and everything like it's a it's, it's pretty, it's pretty awesome, it's a great experience, right. So I made my wife go through the beekeeping course with me too, and she was. She was trying to stay away from him. I was like get over here, woman, you know.

Danny Martin 1:39:37

I was like come over here we came, here, we're going to put our hands on them.

Danny Martin 1:39:41

And I went through that class twice because I went through it myself. Then I went through with her so she'd come out and help me every once in a while. And I've got the kids go out there. No one plays with them, with me. I go out there by myself, I put on some headphones sometimes and just go out there and play with them and everything it's.

Danny Martin 1:40:05

I love it. It's pretty awesome and that's one of the things is so the beekeeping community is, uh, so, as an eod tech, you know, like we share knowledge, right, we share knowledge and, uh, we don't hoard it like some of the communities do in the military, because it's not a competition thing, it's me, it's all of us working together, keep each other alive, and the beekeeping community is the same way, like people will go out of their way to help you and educate you and all these other different things. So that's one of the things I also love about like the beekeeping community is they it's all about, you know, sharing information and everything. Because, like, we need pollinators, right, so like it's a huge part of our food chain, right?

Gary Wise 1:40:41

So, so yeah, I remember when you first was talking to me about it. You were in Guam even, and you would mention it. I forget where we were at, I can't remember if we were over in Afro, talking on the road or just somewhere, but you had told me in Guam that you were interested in getting involved with beekeeping when you retired, right uh.

Gary Wise 1:41:01

and then, of course, through social media, I was able to see when you first got your first like, whatever you are, those called hives, like the boxes you have yeah, yeah I remember when you got your first batch of hives and you were like, oh, I got these bees, yeah, and I was like, look, and I love when people do what they say they're gonna do.

Gary Wise 1:41:18

Right, I respect that, like people when I told everybody I was going to go teach high school JROTC, I've been saying that for a long time, right, and so now people that see what I'm doing on social media, like Gary man, props to you, cause you said you were going to go do that and that's what you're doing, right, yeah, and you're going to be a beekeeper. So so you get out of the service, you're setting up beekeeping. You buy your property in Texas, you got your little mini mansion or whatever, your homestead or whatever you call yours. I mean, I got my whole castle, my own courtyard in my backyard and I love it to death. But where do you decide? Now? You want to step out into the leadership arena again and you want to start looking to give leadership development opportunities to your community so.

Danny Martin 1:42:08

So when I retired, I wouldn't start working for my, my in-laws they, they own a small company in the oil and gas industry and uh, and so when I started working for them, like like they, like they, they know this right, I have like hardly any job satisfaction now. Go from jumping out of planes, diving, shooting guns, blowing things up, saving lives, and then like helping, like as, even when I've got stuck behind a desk helping people get out the door to go do those things right. Like I struggle with job satisfaction and I need purpose, like I need to do things. I like helping people. That's one of the reasons. So when I went EOD, everyone asked me they're like, hey, why don't you try to go SEAL? You know, everyone wants to be a SEAL in the Navy. And I was like, hey, man, it's an easy choice to me. It's like, at the time, seals take life, eod saves life. So I want to go EOD.

Danny Martin 1:43:03

And and so when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I started doing uh, I don't know if you know who Andy Elliott is. Uh, he's big on social media. He's buff, dude, bald, always wear some short shorts. Look like he should be an EOD tech or somebody Right. And uh and uh, I started watching all of his videos and I was like man, that guy has the spec ops community like mentality, but he's in the business world. And so, uh, I saw one of my friends hit me up, or one of my friends had posted a picture of them, and I literally texted him. I was like man, I love that dude's videos and he was like, dude, you should go one of his uh event, uh, his seminars. So next thing, I know I was going to a seminar in Arizona and he does sales training, right, and so that's what he does. He's one of the number one sales trainer in the world. So they have like roofing companies, all these different companies come there, learn how to sell and everything.

Danny Martin 1:43:57

And when I was there and I started like hanging out with those guys, like I started doing things with them, I got into like some of their training platforms that they do and everything, but everything that they do is just centered around being a good person and be, and and a lot of leadership type stuff. And they would always reference people from the military, especially like seals and green berets and everything. And they're, they're, they're talking about that and I'm like that's me, like that that's me, that's what I did, and and I would talk to them and they would ask me questions. I'd be like, yeah, and I've talked to them. And then one day I was like, hey, I'm thinking about doing this. And they were like, yeah, you should. They're like, hey, you realize, like all these successful people, they always reference you guys on team building, you know mentality and all these different things.

Danny Martin 1:44:45

And they're like we're talking, like everyone's talking, in theory, you're talking to experience, like, so I'm just like yeah, and then that's, that's eventually where I landed at where I'm at now. Right, and that's why I like I love that you're doing this right, because, like, I feed off of this right, like this is I miss this right here, being out of the military, being around people that are trying to do good and they're getting after it, right. And then you and you say, hey, I'm going to do this. And then you do that thing, what's that thing called? Oh, follow through? Right, you do what you say you're going to do and um, and so like, like I miss, I miss all of that Right. And so, like I, I just needed, I needed purpose and I was trying to figure out what to do, right? So I'm in a in a process of building right now. I really haven't even tried to sell anything or do anything yet. Right, I'm just building my brand and and that's it. Right, I'm trying to build content and trying to build myself.

Gary Wise 1:45:41

Right, that's literally it, right now I hear you, bro, and you know what I love about everything you just said is, first of all, I can relate to all of it because you know, I agree, right, my purpose for so many years was taking care of the people that took care of me, and that was the sailors that were doing the mission. Right, yeah, that took care of me and that was the sailors that were doing the mission. Right, yeah, at the end of the day, I could whether I was on the carrier, whether I was on the base, whether I was on the ship didn't matter. Um, there was 300, 400, 000 people behind me getting it done, and I did a video the other day about how I like leading from the front. I like leading from the back. I even like leading from the center because I can find places to be the leader that they need me to be in all those locations.

Gary Wise 1:46:26

And I used to tell people all the time I love chiefs because they don't need anybody to chief them. I love senior chiefs because they chief chiefs. I love master chiefs because they coordinate the whole damn thing and no one even knows that they're doing it. Yeah, right, because there are roles inside of our senior enlisted leadership community. Whether we want it like it or not, there are, and I love to build teams and giving them the same paths to those similar roles, without having to wait years and years and years of promotion. And because, truly, you can get there through mentorship. You can get there through through getting access to people that can give you the cheat code to help you understand. But then here's the trick You've got to hear it all, incorporate it all, make it a part of your DNA. And then what's that thing? You said, oh, follow through. You've got to get out there and make. And so now I'm watching these kids do it.

Gary Wise 1:47:21

And, brother, I got, you know, I went in the military. You might have a year and a half with a team, maybe because someone's leaving, someone's going. Right, someone's leaving, someone's going. I have gotten, I get four years now with a group of these kids. So, like my senior class, this year was my first year as a teacher. Now they're seniors. I got like 30 of them, bro, but they're all now rising seniors that I've had four years with.

Gary Wise 1:47:49

Do that op we did tonight I just told them all. Here's the directions, here's the thing. I'll be there at this time to make sure you guys do this thing. And then I'm leaving because I got a thing. Y'all got it. Yes, master chief, master Chief, bro, flawless execution. And that makes I'm so fired up I'm not going to sleep, right, I'm going to now. I've talked to you, I did talk to them. I'm jazzed up on Mountain Dew, bro. And when you get all this energy, people like us have got to find a way to channel it into something productive or you're going to get frustrated, you're gonna flounder, right, because it's so much about who we are and we only get so many years of productivity, unfortunately. Yeah, right, and I'm not saying we're like beyond the coop, because I would love to be doing this into my 70s. My chaplain is also in the leadership development space. I did an event yesterday called Ocala Inspired. My chaplain was one of my speakers.

Danny Martin 1:48:50

How did that go.

Gary Wise 1:48:51

Great, great, great. Yeah, people actually paid to come. Yeah, that's awesome. Let me tell you, it was going and it was going and I was like no one's purchasing tickets. I don't know if my message is getting across. I don't know what's going on. And I was talking to a few of my other network and my mentors out here that I've been making friends with my wife, and then I called up the lady that does my website and she was like, oh, let me check something. She's like oh, 10 people actually booked tickets and I was like I went from zero to 10. That's huge. Yeah, right, because odds are at least.

Gary Wise 1:49:29

My real assumption was, if I would have gotten more than three to four, I would have been happy. Yeah, right. So I smoked that for my first time and then I had all the presenters and I gave them scholarships for people they wanted to bring into the room. And then I invited eight of my students, who are rising seniors, to come get access to some of the best leaders in my community. Right, because I wasn't speaking the whole time. I, I was the mc, like I would do at a at a base event. Right, I don't got to be the guy, I got a bunch of other Master Chiefs, let them talk. They got the talent and it was fun, right. And so I feel you, danny, I know why you're doing it, I know what you're and I agree with those other guys, your perspective and your lens. It's going to be great. As you figure it out and just keep working it right. Keep working your plan. Figure out how you can best communicate, get on opportunities like this.

Gary Wise 1:50:27

I started making the videos. You know, I started making the videos because a guy told me me and a guy got into an argument one time. He was a Marine, retired Marine, and I was doing the leadership thing with them, right, and he called me up. I was at the Pro Bowl with my family and he was like, hey, gary, your post is not in line with our brand. I was like you know what, dude, I don't care about your brand. Like I'm not, it's a sunday with my family, god bless you and your organization. And I had given them money to be a part of their team, right?

Gary Wise 1:50:56

yeah, a significant amount of money right and I, I told my my was like, what about the money? I was like, charge it to the game. It's an investment and a lesson learned. I never needed to do that because the real value is what my experience brings, not what their other thing brings, and I've got to figure out what that means. But I'm not going to be kowtowing to some dude about some stupid post that doesn't meet their identity, because authentic leaders don't live that life. I'm like worried about oh my god, does that match my thing? If I make a mistake, it's okay, I'm sorry it wasn't on purpose. That's part of being an authentic leader, right?

Gary Wise 1:51:39

yes, I'm not trying to be an authentic manipulator. Right, there's a difference, right? And so he tells me he's like well, you know, AI is killing all of the thought, leadership and all the writing. And I was like you know what You're right? Fun fact, this is all inside of me, bro. I can make a video every day and make it be different every time, because I'm always thinking of new stuff. You're the same way you always thinking of new things, and videos for me are way faster than writing.

Danny Martin 1:52:11

Oh no, I can write like this, I can be like, but then I get on a video and I'm just fumbling all over the place. So I do better at writing. I don't use AI. I write all my stuff and then I find something and I post, and then I so doing this right here. This feels natural, right. But when you're just recording yourself Trying to talk on a conversation about something, oh man, it's so hard Because you're just talking to yourself. I talk to myself all the time out loud.

Gary Wise 1:52:43

I'm just not being recorded during it, right so like this is exactly why I started this. Right, because I was alone in my room talking to myself and my wife was like you should probably put somebody else on the other end of the phone so that way you get a little more of that practice. And I said you know what're right? And so I started doing that. And then she says my wife because, just like you, my wife is like my coach, bro, she keeps me on track Erica says maybe you should start leveraging some of your people from the military background because maybe they'd want to be involved. Bro, that's been so freaking cool to have all these people that want to help me and that want to support. And they got a short story. That's down.

Gary Wise 1:53:27

Right, because not everybody's gonna be this high named, high level person that gets to the upper levels, like I did a podcast today with a brother who's a retired senior chief, right, yeah, and he's still working for the navy as a gs or whatever.

Gary Wise 1:53:42

But you know what his story was freaking dope, bro, like it was a beautiful story and I believe everybody has a unique story that they're living and they maybe they don't even know it yet and that's part of what we offer to people right, because part of leading people is learning how to look in the mirror and be like man you're. You're freaking cool, bro, like I like myself. How can I improve me, how can I lead myself? And then I can maybe expand that to other people. So, danny man, as we get ready to land this plane, bro, let me know how I can help. Right, I would love to be a team player, teammate. Thank you for spending time in the Chiefs Fest, because that's what it felt like, right? Yeah, it felt like we got to hang out in the cheese mess a little bit and just talk shop and catch up with each other. I appreciated your journey because, wow bro.

Danny Martin 1:54:33

Oh yeah, it's handful man. I know there's people out there with way worse stuff than me.

Gary Wise 1:54:40

I can appreciate that right was way worse, way worse stuff than me. I can appreciate that, right, but uh, not worse though, bro. But like I had no idea that you were an rm right, first, yeah, and then you had. Then you went to be a flying radio, like these are all things that I didn't know, and I think that adds value to to the, to what you bring to people as you talk to them. Okay, okay, so here we go. As I wrap up my podcast, I usually do some some rapid repeat question and answer stuff, right, um, so the idea here is you don't, don't nuke it, but the first few questions are thought provoking. Here we go. What is, to you, the most valuable leadership lesson? If you only had one, if you only had one opportunity to tell somebody something, what would it be when it comes to leadership?

Gary Wise 1:55:31

Oh man oh that's a handful right there, right, I know.

Danny Martin 1:55:38

I would just say everything starts and finishes with you, right? So there's like three things you need to learn as a leader, right? That you need to learn to accept. A, you can't make everybody happy.

Danny Martin 1:55:52

You have to do what you feel is right, right, like you have to have your moral compass that drives your decisions right. And then, number two, you're going to mess up right, and when you do, own it and learn from it and move on. And then number three remember number two you're going to mess up. And number one, you're not going to make everybody happy and just do what you feel is right thing right. So there's two rules, but number three is circle back and it's always, and then, like it's always your fault, right as a leader, there's always something that is either you could have, should have done better right.

Danny Martin 1:56:34

So anytime you start pointing that fingers at somebody, think about what you could have done to. You know to what part of the, of the, you know what part did you play and things go wrong or whatever right. And then you know you have to lead by example, like that's I. I hear you, bro, but I know that's not one thing, but that's like what's popping in my head.

Gary Wise 1:56:57

Oh, you gave me one thing, though. You said everything starts and finishes with you. Yeah, that was the one thing, bro, and the other stuff was the sauce. Right. But you gave me the one thing, though. You said everything starts and finishes with you. Yeah, that was the one thing, bro, and the other stuff was the sauce right. But you gave me the one thing, and I agree I.

Gary Wise 1:57:09

I tell this to the kids that I teach every day doesn't matter how tall you are, doesn't matter how fat you are, doesn't matter your skin tone, your eye color, how many teeth are in your face, doesn't matter, yeah right. If you want to do something with your life tomorrow, you start today, yeah Right. And if you don't, if you don't have that resolved today to prepare for tomorrow, you don't. You're not serious, yep, and I don't window shop, I don't play games. So if you come to me and say master chief, I want to do this, my fatal flaw is I believe you, right, I, I believe you, and so I'm gonna get disappointed if you come tell me you want to do this. So now I'm thinking how to help you and to prepare you, but then you don't want to do it.

Danny Martin 1:57:53

You don't want to do the work so so, so, like for real, when I did spec ops recruiting, I would ask guys I like, hey, how many people know you want to go SEAL or EOD or diver or whatever? And they would be like no one. And I would tell them, hey, step number one is to tell people you're going to do it, because if you tell people you're going to do it, that makes you follow through on it. And if you can't open your mouth and tell people you're going to do this, it means you don't believe in yourself. So, in order to make this a reality, you got to tell people you have a goal, and even if they don't, even if other people don't see it in you it don't matter what they see in you you speak it and then you make it come through period.

Gary Wise 1:58:34

That's great. That is the first step, always, bro, okay, all right, here we go. Next question what do you see is one of the biggest leadership challenges facing organizations today?

Master Chief and Guam Command Experience

Danny Martin 1:58:47

oh, I, I always go back to leadership, right, I, I do. I go back to leadership. If you look throughout, like majority of the organizations, like I, I think there's a lot of managers out there, but there's not a lot of leaders out there and there's a difference. Right, managers do programs and systems and all these different things, and leading is people and leading is managing all the different personalities and everything else that come with the things that need to do all that right? So, like, a lot of people kind of chalk that up because you know the AI thing and they think you know AI is just going to fix all these different things. And, man, I think I think like the one of the biggest challenges is leadership, because that's how you retain and that's how you build and keep your team. Right, so, if you're at leading, you're going to lose everybody very quickly. Right, they're going to go to someone else for whatever you're not doing for them.

Gary Wise 1:59:47

I think that one unique thing that I've found is I've met leaders that were such excellent visionaries that they could cast a vision and they were ready to take the hill, but they couldn't manage them way out of a wet paper bag.

Gary Wise 2:00:07

I've met managers that could manage a problem, but they had a hard time leading themselves out of the same problems. The difference is it's harder to teach leaders to manage than it is to teach managers to lead. That's my opinion, because leaders are so focused on the bigger picture and the vision of where they're going they almost don't want to be distracted by the minutia of it all, and so my priority is that these organizations out there to your point is start focusing on your managers and get them to be better leaders, because even if you can improve their leadership abilities a 10 percent, yeah, imagine the force multiplication that will bring to them if they're already doing a decent job at management. Yeah right, that's the game changer. So don't just focus on those visionary leaders that you're looking for, because some of those people are just kind of being. I don't know that leaders are born or developed or whatever. We can have those conversations, but I will tell you, through my career, I've been able to grow more managers to leaders than I've been able to grow leaders into managers.

Danny Martin 2:01:18

Yeah, yeah. And you have to have a mix-up to it. Both of them right. To be successful, you need to be able to manage and lead right.

Gary Wise 2:01:25

I agree to be the best, I agree to be the, but honestly, danny, not everyone's gonna make master chief right like, yeah, and, and so we, we gotta meet these people where they're at and then, as you and as you inspire that manager to become a leader, you might one day create a future master chief right yeah, because they might get a taste of it and never go. Or you might get a leader who needs to learn to humble themselves and they got to learn to work on their management stuff right, yeah. That could be true too. When I'm thinking about organizations, if I was going to take what your advice was, I would say organizations, look at getting your managers leadership training yes that way they can get that.

Gary Wise 2:02:11

I would rather see you give them that 10 quickly which it will because guys like danny are going to come in and they're going to inspire them, they're going to align them and they're going to help them look in the mirror and be more proud of what they're doing. And that's going to come in and they're going to inspire them, they're going to align them and they're going to help them look in the mirror and be more proud of what they're doing. And that's going to reflect in everything else they touch at your, at your job, at your company. Right, and that's from experience.

Danny Martin 2:02:35

Yeah, that's the thing. A lot of people don't know how to lead, right? So it's not that they're bad leaders, right? So it's not that they're bad leaders. They just don't even understand these little things add up to all these big things. You're like it's not hard. I don't think it's hard, I think it's very simple. Right, like it's literally you're managing people. So everyone always says you know, treat people like you want to be treated. No, it's treat people like people.

Danny Martin 2:02:59

Figure out how each you know the different nuances of each person, what makes them tick, what motivates them, right? So people look for five things in a job, right, or something like that. It's love what you do, love the people you work with, location, money or benefits right, benefits or time. It either consumes your time or it gives you plenty of time, and so it's hard to find all five of those in one job or one career. So you got to try to figure out what's the top three that drives those people, and then you, as a leader, got to leverage those things right. So like that's the reality. So like for me when I was in the military. I loved what I did, I loved the people I worked with and I was all about location right, because I wanted to go overseas. Those were my top three things and then since I retired, you know, that's where I kind of I had my plan of what my top five was. But that's a moving target, right as life comes at you, your, your stuff swaps around and what's the priority for you?

Gary Wise 2:04:04

right. Yeah, man, the opposition always gets a vote right. Yep, everyone's got a good plan, until they get punched in the face. Yeah, then they got to figure it out. But you know what I and I had this same conversation yesterday at ocala inspired because I told them.

Gary Wise 2:04:19

I said, uh, everything you just said I agree with. I said you need to know what inspires you and not be afraid to tap into it. Right, and not abuse it, but let it inspire you and then be comfortable, being uncomfortable, because growth is not going to feel like laying on the couch. Growth is not going to feel like laying on the couch. Growth is not going to feel like that.

Gary Wise 2:04:45

And as human beings, we're put on this earth to grow. And the minute we stop growing, the minute we start to get frustrated and we start to wonder, like, what am I doing? Why is there no value? And look, it's not because you're not doing things that matter, it's just because you're not looking at that matter. It's just because you're not looking at it through the correct lens. It's going to help you to understand what value you're bringing to other people and that's unfortunately not inspiring you.

Gary Wise 2:05:11

And so you got to figure that out and and and I will tell you, leaders and mentors and people that can help other people figure these things out are freaking what the world needs more of. Just put it like that, okay, next question I got uh, so this is gonna go to your kids, right? Because a lot of the people that follow my net, my, my content, is my students and my students parents, if you will, and I'm also. I'm directing a lot of my attention towards people that are raising children, especially teenagers, because I believe leadership and the parenting of teenagers is very similar, because they're growing up right. The kids are getting to the age now where you've got to treat them a little bit different than like a 10 year old. So how can parents better use leadership skills to better connect with and guide their teenage kids?

Danny Martin 2:06:09

Oh man. Well, once again, it goes with understanding your people, right, and trying to find that common theme, right. So you know me, fitness is big on me, right? And one of the biggest things was I would always tell everybody, as an EOD tech, like, here's the physical fitness standards for everybody, right? And you know, if I'm not meeting that standard, me talking to an 18-year-old or a 20-year-old and preaching them about doing X, y or Z and I'm not meeting that mark is huge, right. So that being, you know, being in shape, is that thing that bridges that gap and builds us. It's something that unifies us, right?

Danny Martin 2:06:55

So a lot of the leadership stuff is literally like trying to figure out what makes you know them tick. Right, because you got to figure out each one of them. You know all kids are different, right, just like people. Right, because they are people and and but you. But then you have to be doing certain things for them to listen to you.

Danny Martin 2:07:14

If people trust them, it comes always down to trust and respect, and if people don't trust or respect you, they're not going to listen to you, right? And if kids don't like you, they're not going to do it, and it's the same thing if we work together. I don't trust or respect you. You ain't going to be able to you know, inspire or influence me, because I don't care what you say to me.

Danny Martin 2:07:31

So like it starts with just earning that trust and respect, being that person. So I always say in the spec ops community, like in the military, we always talk about having you know, relationships and all that stuff. But in the spec ops community when you're going to war stuff like you, you have to be that person, that that people are willing to die with or for. You have to have those relationships that people are willing to die with or for you. And if so, if you translate that that that that relationship part to them is, like you know, would they, would they die for you? Right? Like, or do they or or are you just somebody that's just there, like putting a roof over their head, right?

Gary Wise 2:08:11

and I'll tell you, bro, I don't know if that answered it no, no, back to trust and respect, right?

Gary Wise 2:08:16

I think it's a great answer. And the reality is, uh, I remember that movie we were soldiers watching. Mel gibson was in that chapel with that young man who just had a baby right and he was like we're about to go to war tomorrow. How do you rationalize being a dad and being a soldier? And he says you know, I hope being good at one helps me be better at the other. And that changed my life and my whole life as a, as a leader. I was like I hope being a chief helps me be a better dad, helps be the good dad, helps me be a better husband, helps being a better husband helps me to be a better lead, like they're all symbiotic parts of who you are.

Gary Wise 2:08:53

And for me, trust and respect it comes back to saying what you do and doing what you say. Yep, right. So my words are what I'm going to do. My actions are going to be a direct reflection of who I am and I'm going to do my best to live by that. And when I don't meet that expectation or that standard, I'm going to be honest about it, not just with myself but the people that care about me, so they can hold me accountable, right, and I think that matters. So if I tell my 11 year old son that, bro, when I get home we're going to go outside and play catch, it's plan on that dog Like it's going to happen, bro, I said it right. And when I come home, he expects it to happen because he trusts and respects me, right, and I look at the same thing with these teams that I'm working with, believe it or not, they just want to do good and once they trust and respect you, they're going to want to continue to make you happy because they want to get your recognition. Yeah, right.

Retirement and Beekeeping Passion

Gary Wise 2:09:55

On the reverse side, I think a lot of people, especially people, live in the grind, live in the day to day. We lose track of what's filling our cup, we lose sight of what's making us excited to be who we are, and then we struggle doing for others. And so I think that trust and respect starts also when I look in the mirror. Do I trust myself? Do I respect myself? And that's freaking right. That's a tough question. I've been there and that's freaking right. That's. That's a tough question. I've been there a hundred percent, bro. There was, there was times where I couldn't even trust myself with myself and I was like I'm thinking it's crazy stuff. I got to go tell somebody because I can't go put my hands on this person that I want to go do that too. And so because, like I'm, I'm struggling right and getting that back into the box and figuring out what's really the wrong thing and what's going on.

Gary Wise 2:10:51

And I think that a lot of parents, just like leaders in any organization, when I used to tell my chiefs if you ever don't feel like being a chief petty officer today, stay away from the sailors. Yeah, get in the mess, get in your rack, come talk to me, let's figure it out, bro. Because if you don't feel like being a chief petty officer today, you're going to say something or do something that we're all going to have to freaking make right and we don't want to go through that, bro. So recognize you're not in a good place and go get some help dog, and get some space. And I would tell that same advice any parent that's out there. And then I would also tell them but don't be too hard on yourself, right?

Gary Wise 2:11:32

No one's perfect. No, no, dude, as great as you are in a lot of things, I'm sure you got a list as long as you, that you don't need to, that you don't want to share things. You probably don't feel like you're perfect at right. Oh yeah, for me I put six and I'm not skinny. I'm always insecure about those things, right, and that's why I was out there riding that damn bike 20 miles a day in freaking guam, trying to show everyone that I may not get taller, but I'm trying, bro. I'm trying. And you're not gonna say that master chief's not at least trying, right?

Danny Martin 2:12:03

and that, and that's the thing. Is that that whole leadership thing, right, it comes down to it's a growth mindset, right, like you should never be satisfied, you should always, always be trying to evolve. Right, there's always something to improve on period for sure.

Gary Wise 2:12:16

First, how do you think veterans can leverage their experience, especially when it comes to leadership in the civilian sector?

Danny Martin 2:12:25

Oh man, it's just telling your story honestly, like you need to learn how to, how to tell your story and apply things from the business world to the you know.

Danny Martin 2:12:36

So part of our problem, part of my problem right now that I'm working through, is we're a quiet professional, right. So quiet professional. No one likes a bragger, right, and it's all about team and everything else. And then but for, in order for people to understand what you could do with their uh, for the business, for the company or whatever they got, to understand what you've accomplished throughout your career and what you're capable of, right, and no one's just going to magically know that stuff, so you have to be able to figure out how to do a humble brag and everything else, right. So I think it's learning how to tell your story without coming off. You know there's confidence in cocky, right, it's a small line and, believe me, as NeodTech, we get accused of being cocky all the time because we're confident, right, and that's it. We are very confident and secure in who we are and what we bring to the table and um yeah, I hear you, bro, and I'll give you two things for that, because I I relate two things.

Gary Wise 2:13:37

number one imposter syndrome is real. Yeah, right, and that's start with thinking why would anybody want to listen to me, even though you've had all this success throughout your career? But then you start to question well, was I really that good, or was it just because they had to listen to me? Because I wasn't asking and I had this idea that I had to get out here in the civilian sector and find all this success before I could start having a platform, because I wanted to prove I wasn't just a military success, I wanted to be a success in multiple areas. And what I learned is that's just a waste of time because you're just wasting energy trying to prove things that you've already got Right. So that was number one, and so that's imposter syndrome.

Gary Wise 2:14:21

That's a a thing and we can use quiet, professional, we can use not wanting to be braggadocious, but the reality is, if you want to be in the leadership arena, guess what?

Gary Wise 2:14:31

Someone's always going to be able to throw rotten fruit at you, period, right, and by you being quiet about it and feeling like you're missing an opportunity to live the life the way you want to live it.

Gary Wise 2:14:42

I think you got to figure out a way to get through that, and so the other thing I would recommend is, for me, I want to give platforms to people that I know have those dope stories that can help. Because you know, like I know, bro, if if you're you're not just hanging out with these other kinds of people, if you're not successful, they're not going to have access. You're not going to have people that are going to want to get on like a podcast or get out there in the community and do something on behalf of somebody if that person has not earned their respect or not earned theirs, and that's going to bring not just the credibility but also going to give you a chance to share other people's stories plus sharing the spotlight right, and it kind of helps with it a little bit as you're building your platform, and then eventually you'll have a bunch of people that are tuning in for what you're offering, and then you can say hey guys, oh, by the way, I recently generated a new opportunity. If you want to get involved in this thing, here's how you would do so, right and then go from there like so

Gary Wise 2:15:43

for ocala inspired. Right, I am doing. I didn't advertise this, did not advertise this, I sprung it on them at the event. For everybody who actually came to ocala inspired and bought their ticket, they now get access to six leadership masterminds throughout the year, every other month. I'm not advertising them to nobody else, I'm not inviting nobody else, it's just those people me and I took all the notes from yesterday and I'm going to help re -attack those things, but I want to give them more value. Because they took and I told him, I said you know what, and if you don't dial in, it's totally fine. I have no expectations. I'm just giving you an opportunity If you want to get more access to conversations like this, because I feed off this. And I told him yesterday. I said selfishly this is as much for me as it is for y'all.

Danny Martin 2:16:44

Yeah, yeah.

Gary Wise 2:16:44

Okay, all right. So let's get out of the deep waters, let's get into some of the fun waters. It's Friday, saturday night. You're on the ship. You want pizza, bro, or do you want wings?

Danny Martin 2:16:55

Oh pizza, Pizza is my weakness All day.

Gary Wise 2:17:06

All day weakness all day, all day, every day, bro. Okay, pizza, I got it all right next up. Uh, you got two options you can either go birthing cleaners or you're the working party.

Danny Martin 2:17:11

Which one do you want? Oh man, I say birthing party. I can crime in someone's rack and take a nap you think the birthing, the birthing cleaners got it.

Gary Wise 2:17:21

Yeah Okay, all right, that's why you went EOD, bro yeah.

Danny Martin 2:17:26

I think outside the box.

Gary Wise 2:17:29

Hey, I'm not mad at you, bro, If you're watching a movie. Would you rather watch a De Niro movie or a Pacino movie?

Danny Martin 2:17:37

Oh, I don't know. I don't know about that one maybe.

Gary Wise 2:17:45

Chino. Okay, got it all right. Looking back on your career, what was your favorite duty station?

Danny Martin 2:17:51

oh, I would say far as like the command right, I would say I would say virginia, mobina too in virginia, just for the jobs, has everything. But then I love japan, I love spain, there's.

Leadership Philosophy and Rapid-Fire Questions

Gary Wise 2:18:11

That's not enough, that's not an easy answer right there bro, you had a, you had a hell of a career, bro. Yeah, I did I don't I don't take that for granted.

Danny Martin 2:18:19

I went to some awesome places and I had awesome people, so I don't, I don't take that for granted. I went to some awesome places and I had awesome people, so I don't necessarily know if I can lock it down on one right.

Gary Wise 2:18:25

Yeah, no, you had a hell of a career, All right. So looking back on your career, where was your favorite? Liberty Port, oh.

Danny Martin 2:18:34

It wasn't Hong Kong. I can tell you that. Oh man, I would say Russia, we went to Russia. Yeah, we went there. This is like in 97, maybe 98. Oh man, that was a good time right there. I heard I heard stories. Okay, yeah, that was a good port visit right there.

Gary Wise 2:19:02

Okay, looking back on your career, what was the most difficult qualification you ever had to earn?

Danny Martin 2:19:09

oh uh, master eod tech hands down master.

Gary Wise 2:19:16

Master for the eod tech yep, yeah, that's a.

Danny Martin 2:19:19

It's a 30-day process where you gotta plan all these like you get five different missions and you have to plan them like you're going to do them. You have to research all this stuff, you have to build all these PowerPoints, you have to do briefs. It is it's a panel of like five to six master texts that that come in there and you have to brief them all and everything. It's it's extreme. It's extreme saying it's extreme.

Gary Wise 2:19:40

It's extreme. Sounds like it All right, Next up. I think I know the answer to this question. I'm going to ask it anyway. If you had to do it again, would you do an overseas tour or a stateside tour?

Danny Martin 2:19:50

Oh, overseas, easily, Overseas.

Gary Wise 2:19:52

Yep, okay.

Danny Martin 2:19:59

Would you rather be independent or on a?

Gary Wise 2:20:01

team. I like being on a team. Okay, I like teams. Oh, I like being on team. Okay, I like, okay, I I understand, do you?

Danny Martin 2:20:09

have a personal leadership philosophy. Uh yeah, I mean it's. It's literally lead by example.

Gary Wise 2:20:14

Others will follow lead by example, all right. So in the navy we had these mission vision guiding principles. In our chiefs master right we had deck play, leadership, institutional technical expertise, professionalism, character, loyalty, active communication and a sense of heritage. Out of those, those values, which one was your favorite?

Danny Martin 2:20:38

well, I always think. I think communication is honestly the the biggest one, right? Because communication is either the thing that makes you thrive or it makes the thing that makes everything fall apart, right? So yeah, I would say communication, communication, big.

Gary Wise 2:20:54

Okay, danny, would you rather lead or follow?

Danny Martin 2:20:58

uh, whichever one, I'm needed I appreciate that answer.

Gary Wise 2:21:02

All right, brother, that's it. Do you have any saved rounds or alibis?

Danny Martin 2:21:06

oh, no, man. Hey, I appreciate you. You know, having me on here, man, I enjoyed it. The mountain, my truck, the sun's going down as you can get to where you can barely see me, right it's actually a great view of you, bro.

Gary Wise 2:21:18

It's kind of spooky, right, it's gonna look good when we do the camera chops. Yeah, no, but no man, I appreciate I appreciate you having me come on.

Danny Martin 2:21:27

That's what I was saying before, because I didn't get to say this yet right? Like I, I love the fact that you're doing what you're doing. Right, because me and you align right with what we're both going. We both started on our own right and then we're both here together right now, right? So you're doing your podcast, your post, like all those things I'm doing, similar stuff, right? Like? You wrote your little book. You wrote your book.

Danny Martin 2:21:48

I haven't even read it yet, because I'm also writing a leadership book and I did. I'm like, I know you, so I don't want to look at yours and then later on it'll be like well, you got that from me. So, like, I got my own thing. I haven't even read it yet. So once I finish mine, I'll be able to look at yours, right?

Danny Martin 2:22:05

But I love the fact that, even though we're totally different, we're saying the same thing and we're both on the same path and I respect the hell out of that man that you're doing what you're doing and just keep grinding, man, you know, like that, you know, don't let that imposter syndrome affect you, right? I think imposter syndrome is probably one of the best things that could ever happen, right, and the reason why is because it keeps you always striving to be more right, because if you feel like you've made it and everything else, then you're not trying to improve. So imposter syndrome to me because, especially being in the spec ops community, you're surrounded by some awesome people and and making and feeling like you're not good enough to to lead them or do things for them makes you work harder to to to get where you need to be right, so you know, I know I, I thank you for that, brother, and you know I mean, here's the thing you and I are part of the same dna, of the same navy family tree, right?

Gary Wise 2:23:02

we were, of course, different branches one of the different things but I, just by talking to you, I, I again I felt like I've been in the mess grabbing a cup of coffee, meeting another guy that I've never, and just finding out we've got a whole bunch of stuff in common and, yeah, I am excited to see what you do, because I know it's going to be great, bro, because Because I know it, bro, from the beekeeping and we've not talked about this, but you and I spoke before about the family concerns that you had and you got priorities with your family. I knew all those things right and you have done a phenomenal job taking care of your family and then moving on to the rest of your life, right? So I'm excited to see where it goes and I am here to help. Just let me know what I can do, let me know when I'm ready for you to be a guest on your show. Bro, I'll be there.

Danny Martin 2:23:52

Hey, we'll do it, man, and then you can tell your story.

Gary Wise 2:23:55

So get ready.

Danny Martin 2:23:57

Yeah.

Gary Wise 2:23:58

All right, brother, everybody listening to the sound of our voice. Thank you so much for your time, for your energy. Please, if you like what we're doing, like it, subscribe it, share it, tell a friend and look in the mirror. Trust and respect yourself. We appreciate y'all. We are out. Bye, bro, I know I was born for this.