LIGHT DUTY PODCAST #11

Ron and Evan finally take the wheel and things get real fast. Disney rants turn into parenting debates, barracks war stories from Okinawa to Alaska, a DUI on Columbus Day that somehow worked out, and one of the most unexpected faith stories you'll hear on this show. Evan Slaughter has been through it — and Ron's got plenty of his own receipts.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

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SPEAKER_02 0:35

All right. Brother, you look a lot different than Kevin. A lot more handsome of a guy sitting in the chair over there. Hey, I I concur. Yeah, I love the flow, dude. How long have you been growing the hair out?

SPEAKER_03 0:47

Uh you know, um, I typically was wearing like that kind of flow hawk for quite a while. Yeah. And then um, you know, my son's a little skater, and he was doing flow hawk too. And then, you know, because he had grown his hair out. He cut his hair off right after he graduated preschool. Hair was like 28 inches long, and we were telling him, you know, if you cut your hair, it it's gonna take you as long as you've been alive to grow it back. Yeah. And we were like, How about we trim it? He goes, No, I want I want a crisp pat haircut. But then we told him, like, hey man, you know, there's kids out there who don't have hair. And he's like, What do you mean? So we start telling him about it, and so he donated eight 21-inch braided ponytails to wigs for kids. How old was he when he did that? Five. So he's now so he's pop-year-old's got a bigger heart than I do right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

I mean, he's he's more mature than I am.

SPEAKER_03 1:43

So he started growing it back out, so now he's got his whole skate hair and everything like that. So I was doing it with him, but I'm like, man, what's the faux hawk? Like short on the top? Yeah, just like you know, like and then I shaved it and pulled it to the point, and then, but now like, man, it's it's hot, bro. Yeah, dude, I gotta use a lot of products.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Well, you gotta say, I'm a big hair guy too. Mine's matted down right now, but I'm someone that takes pride in my hair. When you're short and fat, you don't have a lot of other things going on, you know. So it's like when someone's like, dude, you got rocking hair. It's like, yeah, I know, dude. I've probably got good hair. It's like the one thing I have. My brother's always been taller than me, you know. Uh but he's losing his hair, so it's like that's the one thing I got. It's like, dude, looking a little thin up there. And you got that Tom Selleck mustache. The mustache and the hair, which randomly kind of comes in red, which is odd because no one in our family has like red hair or anything. So I think they call I think I'm called a day walker when it comes to like the ginger scale, you know. Like I'm not obviously not full ginger. Yeah, not even half, but I'm a day walker.

SPEAKER_03 2:46

You get an invite.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

You get a pass. Yeah, yeah. I'm not affected. You know, if one bit me, I wouldn't be, I wouldn't, you know, be affected necessarily. But cool, man. What's been going on, dude? You just guys just took a trip, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:59

Where'd y'all go? We went to uh so we went to Florida for a skate competition. Okay. And you know, make it, you know, make it kind of fun. We have a lot of latitude with what we my wife and I can do as far as movement. So we went down and um we have friends down there, so we saw our friends, and then we did a day at at uh at Disney at um Magic Kingdom on Wednesday, and then we didn't. So this is Orlando, yeah, Orlando, yeah, yeah. And then uh we did um um Hollywood again, because we'd done Hollywood two years ago. We did Hollywood again on Sunday. Oh, okay. And I gotta tell you, man, cheat code, bro, Hollywood on Tuesday. Really? The park was thinned out, the lines were like literally 15 to 25 minutes. We did we rode the Millennium Falcon four times. Damn, we did the rise of the resistance four times. Um, we just really yeah, we had a blast. So you just get off and you could go back through and walk around Sunday. Wow, yeah, man. And we did we did we did 10 and a half miles each day at Disney Walk. Um, yeah, I gotta tell you, man, my just my son, nine years old, not one complaint. He's the skater, yeah. Not one, not one complaint about walking and everything. And we kind of gotta run a joke. It was like whenever you would hear a kid, it was like one of the three of us, we would just be like, happiest place on earth. Yeah, just look over and like there's this kid, and I'm not talking little babies, I'm talking kids that are probably my son's age or older, absolute meltdown. Yeah, yeah. Screaming, having a bad day, yeah. But I will tell you, man, it's like it we try to, you know, we want to be a good example for our kids, right? We want them to be better than us, right? Like, but I the things that we saw this time, either we didn't pay attention last time, but we saw it on both days.

SPEAKER_02 4:50

How many times have you been to Disney?

SPEAKER_03 4:52

Uh I did Blizzard Beach with my boy okay, like in 2000. Yeah. And then two years ago we did Hollywood, and then we just did Magic Kingdom and Hollywood.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

We have done a handful of times, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

So familiar with enough on how to navigate it now, yeah, because we will go back and yeah, we want to do the animal kingdom and all that stuff, but um man, the laziness, uh the lazy parenting, and just like yeah, like these kids were strollers, right? Like big like buggies, the bob. I saw a kid that I swear was 11 years old riding a street in the bob, just sitting there just chilling with a fan, and the little like four-year-old who should have been in a bob was on the dad's shoulders. And I'm like pushing this big and I'm just sitting there, I'm like, hell no. I wanted to like like yeah, I wanted to smack the dad ass out of it. Yeah, like that what is wrong with that. There's no and it wasn't just it was You're raising a serial killer.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

That's how serial killers would make it.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

He's gonna murder someone. Yeah, he's too lazy. He's gonna it'll be a serial like Coco Puffs killer. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

Serial killer's the wrong way. I was thinking of more like that McKinsey girl from the crash. Like, I don't know if you've seen that on Netflix, who's just the most spoiled that's going around right now. She like killed someone in their cars and was was charged with murder because she did it on purpose. But she's gone viral because yeah, she's yeah, it's the documentary's just out. She's gone viral and she's in jail serving a uh 15 to live sentence for this murder. But the reason she's gone viral is because of the parents, the mom, like they they baby her, they spoiled her rotten. It's not like they have money, it's not like they have that. She was 17 years old living with her 20-year-old boyfriend and going to high school, and that and the dad and the mom are just cool with that. Imagine your 17-year-old daughter living with a 20-year-old m man down the street from you and getting up and going to you know, senior year, junior year in high school like that. And he's just thinks that that's normal. Like, no, that's not how it's meant to be. Let's give it a few years. That's where that's where kids like that are headed, in my opinion. But I didn't want to take you from the Disney time. No, man, but it was I want to hear more.

SPEAKER_03 7:10

It was this Disney drives me crazy, dude. Then there was like, then there's the the other observations, like the people who dress like the characters, and dude, we're Star Wars nerds. Like, I have my son has all I have all the original stuff from the 70s. I have all the original counter toys. He's got them all, right? Like, I have all that stuff. Damn, like all packaged up at all.

SPEAKER_02 7:37

Yeah, no, dude, I was taken out, broken, all my grown up.

SPEAKER_03 7:40

They're all used, but they're all accountable, you know, accountable. Yeah. Um, but but man, there are like and when I say people are dressing up like characters, I'm talking like little girls dressing up like the princesses. That's adorable. That like that's what's supposed to happen. I'm talking full-grown adults with no kids. Yeah. In the park dressing like Winnie the Pooh, dressing like Ariel, and it's just and you just sit there and you're uh you're like, I start to think, it's like, man, like I don't even what happened in your life, you know? But then there's like the other trend, it was we started noticing was the Disney shoulder blade tattoo on women. Oh, it's like a real tattoo, like it's like the mouse ears and like a heart or something of like that combination. And like next time we're gonna Disney tramp stamp is what I'm gonna do. Next time, yeah. Next time we're gonna do we're like gonna keep like a log of things out there.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Yeah, you should take pictures of them. There are, I don't know if you've noticed this. So my brother is is a big his family, they are big Disney people. They're not the obnoxious Disney people, though. They do it right, they they've gone for a while, they've worked their ways through the ranks and gotten the points and the system, and they can eat at these restaurants and stay at this park for yeah, it's a whole thing, a whole world. What was funny about that is I've only been to Disney twice. We went once whenever I was like too young to enjoy it. I think I was like four or five. My brother was 18 months older than me, so six or seven at the time. We went during Christmas, and I the only thing I remember about the trip is waking up on Christmas morning at Disney, but being pissed off because we didn't have any presents under the Christmas tree. And my parents were trying to explain Disney is the present. Yeah, be grateful for it. You know, my dad wasn't making a bunch of money, that was a lot for them. So to have a little shit like me going, dude, it's all where's the Christmas present? You know, I can imagine what that would be like to be parents. So I think my brother like took that experience and like from that one time we went as kids, he was like, I'm gonna give my kids a much better, you know, like he went all in. So he's got four kids, he takes them and does a thing, but he showed me, and this is like a thing, there's Disney content creators, right? You know, big YouTube channels with people that create, and it's all about navigating the parks and all these different things, but there's a plus-size uh Disney content creators out there, and it's this one particular girl, and it's just her content is specifically how to navigate the Disney parks as an obese person, right? She talks about which restaurants have the best chairs to sit in for your fat ass, which you know, what walk, minimizing walking, how to get from here to here without having to walk too much and do this and this. And look, you know, here's the thing. I I, you know, I'm not in great shape. I gained a bunch of weight after I got out of the army and and got off heroin, essentially I gained weight, right? But I was never okay with it. I wasn't like adapting life to no, it's like, no, I gotta do something about it. I gotta get in better shape. It's not like let me change my circumstances to fit my fat ass and walking around this part, you know. And so that kind of stuff was killing me. But these Disney adults, dude, it's like a whole, dude, like a whole thing. It's a whole world.

SPEAKER_03 11:00

It's like it's probably, and I'm you know, I'm a recovering CrossFitter, but it's uh it's it's worse than CrossFit. Oh, yeah, you know, way worse. It's like what was that joke? It was uh it was a vegan and uh and uh CrossFitter walk in the room, how do you know? Well, because they tell you right away.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

Yeah, same thing with a Disney goer.

SPEAKER_03 11:23

But I'll tell you, man, like I remember being a kid and and watching like the wonderful world at Disney like Sunday nights, and it was like, oh, it was a big thing, you know. Back then we had four channels. Knocking like the Disney station, you know, like so like going to the Magic Kingdom was was pretty epic for me because they we did we did the the classics, like the small world, we did the carousel of progress, which was like honestly, I didn't want it to end, I wanted it to keep going. And then the hall of presidents, man. I gotta tell you, like, just the hall of presidents was epic.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

Yeah, y'all did that this time, this last time. Yeah, it was incredible. What is it?

SPEAKER_03 12:07

I mean, explain that to me because I didn't Disney Walt was Oh, the presidents of the company, no, the United States presidents so he went up there and they and it started from the beginning, starting like how the country started through Washington and all this, and and that you know, it was cool for me to see that because I remember seeing it on TV and it always got bigger at each president and everything like that. And then, but for you know, we homeschool our kids, so he's all where you know, we're going in to be finished with World War II this year, uh at the end of his his curriculum. So we're going in and it covers all the presidents and the big major things and everything, you know, this and the other, and um and it's it's wave tops, but it has then all of a sudden like the movie screen opens and it's like tiers of tables back there, and it's their their androids, like the Terminator 3.1, right? Up there, all the presidents, and they're all all all moving and everything. And everything, and so it's got you know, it's got George Washington down there and Donald Trump is standing because he's the current president, yeah. And um it was really cool, and uh it was um and it was funny, is because it's just like my son hates Andrew Jackson because we just like that dude, like he did some good, but he was kind of a dirtbag, you know, on the way he did things. But it was just that classic like Disney, you know, and that was really cool. Yeah, that is cool. And then we did like uh on Hollywood side, they have the Walt Disney thing where you get to go through and you get to see how he started and everything like that. Yeah, the thing I really liked about his story, like, is that and we don't need to know it's all about Disney, but I thought it was really cool because it made me think of like Colonel Sanders. Like Colonel Sanders had failed at everything in his life, and he didn't start KFC and he started in a like it basically in a little gold stream. Yeah, yeah. And you go around a garage, yeah, yeah. I remember hearing that. And um, he had been bankrupt, divorced, and like and everything, and all of a sudden he just made chicken. Got the secret recipe, yeah. He didn't he didn't start it until he was like 55. That's incredible. Sold it, I think, when he was like sold the brand when he was like 72 and it was made a bunch of life-changing money for his family back then, because I think it was like late 70s when he sold it. Late 70s when he sold it, and it was only for like three million dollars. Yeah. But I don't know what the equivalent to what now. But like getting to see how Walt Disney and his dad, how his dad had was an entrepreneur and did things and they worked, and then they failed, and he shifted gears and shifted gears. And then Walt did the same thing, and he was later in life when he came up with this, and he had gotten he was already successful in in cartooning, and then he gotten screwed over, he lost all his rights and everything like that, uh, rights to his intellectual property and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 15:02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:03

And then just to see a man just he had a vision and he stayed the course, you know. Yeah, um, you know, aside from do you know the back tunnels and the child abduction and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

But besides the hidden pedophilia messages and all the other stuff, yeah. Whatever, you know, that's its own thing. You know, let that let's not bring that into our Disney experience. That's how I looked at it. Um so I I'm gonna tell you a a story about Disney that's probably I don't know, it won't piss you off, but it'll kind of be like, you know, it'll it'll make you realize the different ways to experience Disney. So I, my brother's been several times, but I've been twice. I went the time when I was four or five, and then I went two years ago. And I went two years ago with a group of friends, and the it was a friend of mine, she's her name's Hannah Brown. She was on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, she was also on Dancing with the Star. She's a celebrity, she's written books, she's done all this stuff. I mean, she's still mainstream now. She's got two New York Times best-selling books, all this stuff. She was turning 30 and wanted to do Disney for her birthday, so she invites a close group of friends, and we all live in Nashville, we all go together, and her agent, you know, lines up the Disney trip, right? And so when you're that level and higher, you know, um, your Disney experience is much different. Okay. I didn't even know this package existed, but and this was all given to her, keep in mind, right? We got we got discounted rooms at the four seasons. So I think I paid, you know, for three nights there, three or four nights of the four seasons. It was under a thousand dollars for three or four nights at the four seasons, which is crazy. And then how we would experience the park is each morning we would all get up, we'd meet in the lobby of the four seasons, and then our private Disney VIP tour guide would meet us with a van at the four seasons, pick us up, we'd get in the van, and he'd take us to whatever park we were going to that day. And he had it all mapped out, right? So we would just go with him. His name was Joey, the one we had, he was awesome. Joey would take us around the park and any rides we wanted to do, we'd go, he would go to each thing, and we'd, you know, we rode pretty much every ride. Some of the people didn't ride rides because they would get motion sickness or whatever, but I'm a roller coaster junkie, so I was riding everything. Hannah was the same way. Uh so we'd come up, we'd go, all right, who's riding this one? And there's no lines for us, keep in mind. There's little secret back entry hallways that they take you down, the employee entrance in a lot of them, a lot, you know, where the characters are changing and this and that. You know, we'd walk through one hall and you'd see a character putting his costume on or whatever. And we would come right out into the front of the line in front of everybody who's been waiting out there for hours. Kids, you know, these screaming and crying kids are talking about, you know, the make-a-wish kid that's probably there doing his felt bad, you know, jumping in front of him like, yeah, good luck, buddy. No, but uh we would literally pop out in the front of every line, never had to wait, and we could ride each ride twice. So if we we if we really liked it, we would get done, and we would just go again on the ride while all these other people are still waiting to get on the thing. And we experienced the park like that. And I think we were there three days, three or four days, but I mean, all of it was done in two days. They did Universal the day that I wasn't there, and then we did the entire Disney experience in two days. We had like a VIP spot for the fireworks, uh, food, all this stuff. We never had to walk too far. You know, the van would take us to here there. It was I literally told them when I left, I said, I can never go back to Disney again unless I have this same experience. Because I'm not gonna go stand in line now, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 18:49

No, dude, it's like flying first class, or it's like even so like I've been fortunate enough to meet some really amazing people in my life and become friends with, and we're friends with corn. So when corn the band, yeah, so I met Brian with I'm a huge corn fan. Yeah, so we would link up, we'd go hang out. We we'd always try to get down there whenever they would get in town, we spend a day with them and you know, hang out with Fieldie. And when Brian came back, you know, and it was awesome because actually one of my boys in the Marine Corps out from Cali grew up with them, and they grew up and they were all playing in bands together and everything. Damn. And so that when I met him, and then he was like, Yeah, these are my boys. I'm like, What? I've been friends with them for a few years, and then when I next time I saw them, dude, and they were just they gave me so much dirt on them, it was beautiful. It was amazing. But yeah, but like, dude, you go back there and you hang out with them, they walk up on stage, you walk with them, you're standing on the side of the stage, and like when just corn opens up, right, it burns up and yeah, like drops, dude, and you just can see this like 20,000 people, yeah. And it's like and then you sit there and it's just like you can't go back. Like, I've been to a couple of shows after, and I was just like, I'm above this.

SPEAKER_02 19:57

Oh, yeah, you're not gonna go to the crowd now. Yeah, you're not gonna go mosh pit now that you've been backstage hanging with the band after that. You know, you can't, dude. I have that's that's funny you mentioned that because I actually, when I met Brian Welch, it was crazy story. You know, I've been to rehab a few times. The last time that actually took, you know, I went for three months back in 2021. It was the last time, but I had I had gone a couple times since then. I went to a PTSD facility because I was blown up in Afghanistan. I went to, you know, getting off opiates, doing all this stuff. And one of the times I'd gotten out of the military, um, I was in the process of turning my life around. This was probably 2015, 2016. And my mom had given me his book, Brian's book, Save Me From Myself, the first book he wrote, where he tells his story, you know, about you know, his meth problem and and quitting the bancorn and doing all this stuff and turning his life over to Christ. Um, and that book had a huge impact on me because it was the first time that I actually read something from from someone that you could actually kind of respect, like, you know, like, well, if this dude can stop using meth and turn his life over, then I feel like anyone has the power to do it, you know, or or should have the desire to want to change their life. Like this dude had it all. Brian had it all whenever he quit corn. They were at the height of the pinnacle of their career, you know, it's what he talks about. He takes all this meth he finds in his house, flushes it down the toilet, you know. He's got this daughter that he's really close with now that that he was wanting to be present in her life, you know. It was just a it took a lot of balls, and it took someone to say, imagine being a rock star like that, you know, and then just giving all that away because your your life is that miserable from drug abuse, you don't want to do it anymore. So that book had a huge impact on me, and and I I'm not a big reader, and I actually read it, you know, it was a big deal. So I really liked, I always liked corn, but I really liked him specifically after that. And so I was, you know, at the process of of sobering up, turning my life around, doing all this. I just read his book, you know, and and a buddy of mine had a Catering business in Birmingham, and he would cater for the bands that played at the Oak Mount Amphitheater. That's where a lot of big bands would play. And so happens to be the show that Corn's there, Breaking Benjamin's there. It's a tour, and it's the first tour that Brian's back as the lead guitarist. Well, my buddy asked me, hey man, can you help us with the catering business tonight? You know, we could use an extra set of hands, and I needed some money, you know. And I was like, sure, let's do it. I was like, you know, we'll be back there, you know. Might see corn, might not. I don't know, but we're just gonna be serving the food. I didn't know what the experience was gonna be like. I didn't know that he catered like actually directly to the guys playing in the in the band. But we're back there, you know, and they they would tell us right, right, yeah. That's right. It's yeah, it was it was good, it was legit. You know, it's nice tents, nice setup, really good food, gourmet food, you know. It was my first time doing it, so I didn't know what to experience. But then they would tell us, like, all right, you know, don't interact with the musicians. That's not what we're here for. You guys serve if they talk to you, great, but don't, you know, try not to interact with the with musicians. But I knew in my head, I was thinking, fuck that. If I see Brian Welch, dude, if I see Head, I'm gonna go over there and I'm talking to him. I don't give a fuck. Fire me tonight. I don't care. I'm gonna go say something to him. And sure enough, he comes in, right? And I I was respectful about it, you know. I was making sure, kind of seeing what kind of energy he was he was putting out, you know. But from what I had seen and heard and how he's interacted with other people, I felt like it was gonna be fine. And I just went straight up to him and I said, Man, um, I don't want to bother you, but your book changed my life, you know. And he stops, he puts his plate down. He was about to go get food, he puts his plate down and he he pulls me aside and he's like, Tell me about it, you know? And I tell my story, talk about being injured in Afghanistan, getting hooked on opiates, doing all this stuff, you know, and how his book really changed my life. And my mom had given me a little Bible verse she had written. She was doing this thing, you know, at the time when I was living with them. She would write a Bible verse on a piece of paper and give me one every morning when I would leave, and I would put it in my pocket. And I took it out and I, you know, I told him what it was, and I gave it to him, and he held on to it, put it in his pocket or whatever. But then he goes and gets his pastor friend who he did the spiritual stuff with and did the documentary with, who has dreads too, and you know, he would bring him on tour, I think, at the time, because he liked having him there. You met him, but yeah, he's a great dude. I'm blanking on his name, but he's a well-known individual pastor guy, not your typical pastor, you know. And he goes and gets him and he brings him over to me and he says, Tell me what you were just telling him. You know, tell him what you were just telling me. That's what Brian says to me, right? And I tell him the story, you know, being injured in Afghanistan, blah, blah, blah. And they're like, Can we pray for you? So, dude, literally back there during this catering thing. I have the video on my phone still now. I've got Brian Welch, I've got his pastor friend on their knees laying hands on me, laying hands on where I was injured, praying over me while Brake and Benjamin's in the background, jamming out, you know, playing. And we're filming this thing, and and they literally, I mean, so he took the time to like, that was a huge moment for me. He took the time to listen to my story, you know, got down on his knees and prayed over me. I mean, this is a dude about to go out and play a huge rock show, yeah, you know, who's down there doing that. It really taught me a lot. And so I can say, dude, you you know more because you, you know, you hang with those guys, but from my experience, I was like, this dude's legit. He's not faking the funk. He's stuck with it. I mean, it's been years since that's happened. That's that was you know, 2015. So it's been at least 10, 11 years since that happened. He's stayed the course, dude. I mean, he's stayed on it. He's living up to what he's preaching, you know. I mean, from what I can see, and that's not easy to do, you know. A lot of those guys go back to drugs.

SPEAKER_03 25:48

You know, last couple of times I saw him is him and Fieldie both had because Fieldie got saved, right? Or like got off drugs too.

SPEAKER_02 25:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:55

Yep. And um and he's the bass player, yeah. Yeah. And so Fieldie, it was the same. And it was, I think it was at the it was the same when Brian had just come back. Yeah. And one of the things like him and Fieldie were like, We're we're not gonna be silent about our faith. And they would always, afterwards, they would always, they were like, they'd asked me my my buddy Jake, they were like, I remember this a couple times. They're like, You guys walk with us and just kind of like hold the crowd back. And it went up, dude, and they they did a mini sermon. And bro, it was amazing. Like at the concerts, they would go out. It was after the concert, yeah. All the fans are back there, and they're panning up there one night. And they're like trying to get autographs and shit, and then they'll talk about it. Yeah, and then they end up doing pictures of people, but you're going to hear the word. Yeah, yeah. And it was just like, you know, I I think about that now, like back then, and that was before I was saved, right? And it was just like, but being part of that and ask them asking us to help them, you know, with that, and then just to see them do something like kind of in that environment, not a popular thing, and just leaning into their faith, which was I look back on it now and I'm like, involves for you to see to to witness that. And uh man, no, it's great. And dude, I will tell you, it's just that it's it's uh I think it's it's you know, like your struggle, and then so many other guys out there, like I think that you hit a point where you become you get you get to like a full circle of to you get to the ultimate high, but then you break. And then because we all internalize, it's just like you have to figure it out, and then something you know, you just pray that the right thing finds you. You pray that you hear you know, you do hear the voice when it calls you, and that you don't dive deeper into the to the addiction or to you know run yeah from the voice. And you're the follower Christ too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm too. And and it's and it's just like when you get to see that and and see these guys fight, and it's not, and I will tell you too, from what I've witnessed and seen other guys, it's not like okay, yeah, cool, I'm good. No, like, no, it's work, and for me, it's work and all that. So that's pretty cool that like like I I can like validate your story because that's yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

I didn't know that you knew them like that. And I mean, so that's a crazy connection. Yeah, yeah, just like he lives in Nashville, Brian does. No, that's I found that out. I didn't know um until recently, but I I haven't connected with him again since then, but I would love to and just tell them where I'm at now and what's been going on. But it's crazy because like, you know, I grew up, I grew up in in the church. I mean, I grew up in a very southern, you know, typical, we weren't Southern Baptists, we were Church of Christ, but which is even worse than Southern Baptists. It's you know, very strict, you know, church twice on Sunday and Wednesday night Bible study. That's how I grew up. And then meanwhile, my dad's, you know, leaving us when I'm 16 and is a Coke addict, you know, and doing all this stuff. So I had a weird, twisted, I started like hating the church whenever that happened because I was like, all this shit was a lie. Y'all are making me go to church and do this, and my dad's running around with women and doing coke and blah, blah, blah. He's since gone to rehab and remarried my mom, and things are great, but that's where we were at at the time. So I I like I got real turned off by church. And a lot of people get those things confused, you know. They think they hear Jesus or God or this and that, and they immediately think church, you know, and that's not that's not what it is, dude. And that's not like someone like Brian, I'm sure, would tell you, and probably you would too. It's like actually the only time Jesus in the in the Bible gets mad is at religious leaders, is at the church, and he flips the tables over because they were disputing over money. So people, I think church has its place, it's important, there's great people there, blah, blah, blah. But that's not for me. That's not what it means to be, you know, to follow Christ. Like you look at someone like Brian Well, you know, Welch from Corn, if God can take a guy like that who's just gone off this meth, you know, lead guitars for this huge rock band, basically the opposite of what you would think of at the time when you think of God or Jesus, you know, the music that they're putting out and everything like that, like the opposite. And then if they can touch someone like that to a point to where he's quitting this band and and giving up all this money and all these things because of his desire to stop what he's doing and go a different direction, that's what it was about it, his story to me, is it was it was more than just the quitting drugs. It was like, okay, there's something to this. Yeah. Because if this dude who's like in this rock band, lead guitarist, making all this money, blah, blah, blah, wants to give that up and walk away from it, that must mean that it must be so bad. It must have gotten so bad on meth and all those things that it wasn't worth it for him to continue down that path. And then he found something so much better and good that he knew was was good and and and was right and felt good. And and, you know, he was experiencing real love and he walked away from that and he went to this, but then it comes back full circle, and now he's back in corn and he's ministering to other band members, and he's going around to the shows, and he's you know, talking to people like me and fans and stuff, you know, telling his story. That's what that's what for me it means to believe in God or follow Christ. That's what it looks like for me. It's not sitting in a pew at church, you know, singing these songs from the 1900s where you know, that's how I you know, I I just couldn't get behind that, man. But it was it it's cool. That's a crazy, crazy story. And there's so many of them like that. Like we had Cody Alford on here not long ago, and he's got a crazy ass story, man. I mean, he really, really does. And what he's doing now with his his life and his direction is just it's powerful, man. There's a lot, I think that's how you reach people, you know, that are really hurting. Is you take someone who's had a negative experience and and turned it around and got and and recovered from it, and then they go share that with other people, you know.

SPEAKER_03 32:05

That's what it is. You you know, you got to share your testimony on that side of stuff, you know. That's the whole thing behind AA, anyways. It's just people sharing their experience. Same thing. Giving you a tool, giving you a tool, whether it's a coping tool or whatever it is, but you know, um did you ever struggle with drugs or alcohol or anything like that?

SPEAKER_02 32:24

No. Like if you drink now, so do you care?

SPEAKER_03 32:27

No, my wife, I think we're like, I think we're like closing in on six years where we haven't drank. Yeah, you know, and it wasn't you just stopped because you just didn't want alcohol anymore. See, it's funny, it's like it's like you know, alcohol is the one thing when you tell people that you don't use it, they automatically assume there's a problem.

SPEAKER_02 32:44

She had a problem, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:45

But I'm but I look at it, I'm like, well, I also don't do meth. Yeah, so I mean, can we?

SPEAKER_02 32:49

I mean, you know, also don't murder people, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:52

Don't murder problem, but dude, it was like, and I had gone through you know, ebb and flow. I dude, 20 years in the marines, bro. You know what Barracks life is like. Were you drinking in the Marines? Yeah, okay. I was like, dude, like we used to be able to get quarts of old English on the sea store at Main side for 32 cents. Yeah, yeah, right? And like in in like 1993, yeah, I may or may not have had a military D card, but you know, right, right, because my first tour was Okinawa, we had beer machines in our barracks. You could drink at 18 in Okinawa. In Okinawa, and in Camp Pendleton. And the Marine Corps was that fine with that? Like well, on Camp Pendleton and 29 pounds because the Marine Corps owns that land. And I remember when I was in column school in uh 1990, the we were as students, we are not allowed to have beers at lunch. Yeah, you used to be able to have beers at lunch. What's wrong with the lunch beer? Yeah. Here's the thing they were like beers at lunch. They were like two beers, there was a two beer limit at lunch, provided you weren't in the capacity of uh driving a military vehicle. Yeah, yeah. Then the the e-club, they they they blew a good thing. They started selling 32-ounce beers at lunch, so dudes are going back, chugging 94 ounces. Yeah, yeah, that's their two beers.

SPEAKER_01 34:11

Right?

SPEAKER_03 34:11

Yeah, that went away. All right, I'll have two beers. Um, and then Okinawa, you know, Okinawa in the 90s, it was amazing. But like legit, man, we had a vending machine on each floor, and it had Blue Bull, Red Bull, Budweiser, and Miller Light in it. Damn. And it was a dollar, and it was a um it was a deuce-deuce. Yeah, and it was a dollar, and it would come out, dude, and I swear it'd have ice on it.

SPEAKER_02 34:36

Come out in a brown bag and everything.

SPEAKER_03 34:39

That'd be funny. So it was culture, and it was and like, and like, but then I would hit phases where like I wouldn't drink, you know, yeah, at all. And then I would have a couple here or there, and you know this and the other. But you never had a problem with that. Never control me. I didn't, I I you know, I've gotten lucky. I would say I've I've never got a uh uh or as as uh we just saw Bryson Banks when he came to town, we took him to the range, and he was just like, Yeah, when I got a Marine Corps, I got that. That really uh it's an illustrious award. A lot of Marines get it when they leave service. It's called DUI. Yeah, I've got yeah. So I've been I've been pretty fortunate. I've I've come close. Yeah. In my past, not proud of. They had to I used to call it had to do the Jesus test, you know. The yeah, and um uh but yeah, I was fortunate on that, but no, we hit a point, man, where it was like for me now everything is everything is my son. Right, yeah, um how old are you right now? 54. 54, and you've got two kids. You've just got one, so he's nine. Cancer threw off our timeline. Okay, but I also started late too. I met my wife after I retired.

SPEAKER_02 35:54

Okay. Um so y'all just have the y'all have the nine-year-old now. Okay, that's cool. Yeah, I think that's the way to do it, man. Dude, I'm gonna tell you, man, being an old dad is so dope. Yeah, that's the way to do it. You get you get to experience life with just you and your wife, you know, without having to worry about raising kids and throwing away your youth and being a good thing. All that shit. Yeah, and you get to do it right.

SPEAKER_03 36:14

I used to sit there, man, and you're mature enough, you know, to be a dad.

SPEAKER_02 36:18

That was my thing. No business being a dad 25 years old. Like 35. Yeah, you know, yeah. Oh, dude, 35. Shit. I was still you know, in react, going to rehack, you know, getting in trouble. Yeah, I got a DUI actually in the army. You know, I'd already been deployed, all that stuff. I was injured in combat. Everybody, you know, I was purple heart recipient, all that stuff. So the guys at the unit, like they knew who I was. They knew I wasn't a shit bag, you know what I mean? They knew I had done my job as an infantryman and gone overseas and performed well in combat, you know. So I had that kind of mentality and that attitude, you know. So we were all kind of partying at Fort Hood when we got back, but just like every kind of unit does. But I was, it was Columbus Day. I always remember this because it's like October 13th was Columbus Day. We were in Austin, because that was the city we'd go to from Fort Hood to party. And we had the day off the next day because Columbus Day, but they call a formation. So something else had happened at the unit, and that's that one scenario where you're like, oh shit, I hope nothing happens and they call a formation because we're not supposed to be in Austin, you know. So, of course, they call a formation. I get the phone call. Yeah, yeah. And so I'm hauling ass back to Fort Hood, doing like 93 in this forerunner I had in a 70 mile per hour zone on the interstate. Didn't even know a cop was behind me. We go from Travis County into the next county before he pulls me over, and he's just like, What the fuck? You know, and I wasn't I had been drinking the night before, you know, and it was one of those like I was out drinking late and didn't sleep much and got up pretty, you know, pretty early. So I for sure still had alcohol in my system for sure, and on and probably on my breath, and I knew that, but I wasn't incoherently drunk. I was hauling ass because I needed to get back to post, but 23 miles per hour over in a 70, you know, at this time of day in the morning, and me looking like hammered ash, you know, wasn't helping. And I also had a four loco can in the back seat on the floorboard, but they didn't say anything about that. And that was when four locos were still four locos. So he pulls me out and he knows, dude. He's like, Have you been drinking? I was like, I was drinking last night, you know, and tried to play the army card. That doesn't help when you're, you know, in Austin and you're you're Fort Hood's right down the street. There's 65,000 troops. They deal with military people all the time. You know, that wasn't getting me out of it. But he has me do the field sobriety test and I pass, but then he asked me to blow, and I and I blow because if you deny it, that's an automatic admission of guilt, essentially. I know you're getting the charge with it then. Um, and I blew a what's what's legal? 0.08. I blew a 0.09. No shit. 0.09. He takes me to jail for a DUI. This is Texas, by the way. It's not great there for DUIs. We're literally in the back of the cock car. He's like, which county do you want to go to? I can take you back to Travis County or I can take you to this county because you were started here, but we pulled you over here. And I was like, what's better for this scenario? You know, and he's like, probably Travis County. Let's go to Travis County. So he takes me back to Travis County, and then of course, there's no judge, all that dude. I'm sitting in this fucking jail in Austin to, you know, two days before I get out. And I had to report back to the unit, you know, and tell them, but I didn't tell them that it was reduced. I got it reduced from from DUI to um reckless driving. It was that obstruction of highway justice, is actually what they called it. And yeah, got it, got it reduced and thrown out. So I didn't get it then. But and it honestly didn't even like affect me in the military, which was weird because normally when that happens, especially if you're charged with a DUI or convicted of one, you're fucked. You're losing rank for sure. Nowadays, uh at the time I was in, you could get kicked out. Like guys were getting kicked out over that because they had plenty of people, I guess. Um, I nothing happened, dude. I just I just coasted right through it. Uh it had to be 2012 or 2013, probably.

SPEAKER_03 40:14

Dude, when when we became uh Marsok, it was you know, there was already in the beginning, there was already all of the the problems that happened, and then it was the drinking and the duis, and there was like there was like zero tolerance. Yeah, there were like zero tolerance. And then the other big thing was I'm and I'm I'm probably sure it was the same in the army, was everybody came home with the stacks of that war money and was just buying motorcycles that right. Yeah, and the motorcycles became like like the number other than driving them for T, motorcycle deaths were like were higher than suicides. They more dudes died in like a six-month period from motorcycle accidents than in the war. Yeah, it was just and I don't even know if that's a real statistic. I don't it could have just been like seer fear that they tried to you know.

SPEAKER_02 41:07

I think it's real because motorcycle incidents across the military period, motorcycle safety was a big thing. They pushed you, you had to wear the safety vest on post.

SPEAKER_03 41:16

And it changed, dude, it changed like I swear to God on Camp Bajun, it changed monthly. And then it was like, and then you had mandatory, we never did it, but you had mandatory motorcycle clubs for each unit. And it was like, oh my gosh. So you have to pass the on-post test, riding around. Well, no, no, like you had to ride as like as a you had to go and do it. It was like it was considered PME, uh, professional military education. Like you go on out, like you guys go out and see a battlefield night and come back, and um, but it was it was like those are the big things. Make sure you have your your motorcycle safety card and then don't drink and drive. Oh yeah, dude. We had two dudes, and they were like seasoned, seasoned dudes, yeah, and came back, and dude, not only did they they made an example like they didn't just like porter clearance, nothing dude, they am in septum, and these were dudes who are like 13, 15 years ago. That's upsetting, and it was just like and it dude, and it sent a message to the command, but it was like it was it was it sent a message, but on the same sense it sent another message, you know, and it was just like uh Yeah, our guys don't have that bag. So, yeah, should we have done better? Should his boys but but the here's the thing too is we also back then, man, we were not I'm not gonna say I don't know how good it is now, but it's not the awareness of taking care of people and like recognizing symptoms every back dude mid-2000s, man. It was still like suck it up.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

Oh, it was like that for me. I I went to my platoon sergeant. I I ended up sell because I started struggling with opiates, you know, when I got back from deployment. I mean, I I had a history of addiction issues in my family, my dad, and then I had had some opiate issues even prior to joining the military, but but I was straight. Like I was good, I was in great shape. I'd gone through special forces selection, airborne school, uh reconnaissance, you know, courses, all these different things. I was passing shit. I was the man when I was in. I deployed, I was everybody loved me. I was the go-to dude, you know. Uh, I wasn't a shitbag. I was smart. I wasn't stupid. I, you know, I would go, you know, didn't ask questions. I was a good, good soldier. They knew that. Uh when I got injured overseas is when is when shit got bad because they started prescribing me opiates again. And until that happened, I was I was fine. And then what did they do? You know, you need to take these pain medicines. And so here I am, like knowing I probably didn't need to do that, but also doing what I'm told to do as a soldier. So I get back on opiates and I get home. From from deployment, they send me to pain management. It gets worse. They're prescribing me these really, really heavy, heavy opiates. And honestly, nowadays, I've from what I've heard, it's not like that anymore. Yeah. They don't do that anymore. And that's actually huge to see because I could have avoided a whole lot of problems if they had not sent me to pain management. But here I go getting back on the opiates. And I remember I started, you know, abusing the opiates, not taking them how they're prescribed. And I self-reported. I went to my platoon sergeant over my platoon and I told him, like, I remember like, you know, gearing up to go have that conversation with him because I was like, this guy's gonna think I'm a bitch.

SPEAKER_03 44:40

Or like I'm done.

SPEAKER_02 44:42

You know, he's like a sniper, ranger dude, you know, all these things. And I was I was terrified. It took a lot of courage for me to go do that. Yeah, I don't know if whether they're gonna kick me out or not, but I'm also having to go admit this to this badass dude who's my platoon sergeant. And I go and I I tell him, I say, Sergeant, I've got a problem. I can't stop. I'm abusing this medication. And he didn't understand addiction. That was the problem. He personally had no experience with it. So that's bad right there. You know, he's he doesn't understand it, but it was also the mindset of just suck it up, you know, like suck it up, just stop, stop taking them. Just stop taking them. It's like, uh, you don't get it. I'm at the point where if I stop taking them, I'm gonna be really, really sick for a few. It's gonna, it's not that easy, you know. Like I'm gonna, I have a problem. Um, and and nothing was done, like nothing was done, dude. I self-reported, they told me to essentially suck it up, and nothing was was was done. And so by the time I go to get out, I leave the army with a bad, with a bad opiate problem, you know, and and no help from from the military. So I'm not blaming them, but it was it was a little fucked. Like they just check boxes, dude. There's no real education, it's the same thing with the motorcycle thing. Like, oh, you want a motorcycle, all these people are dying. Let's start the you know, mandatory motorcycle club, and you have to wear this yellow safety vest and ride so you instead of real education about hey, should you even be riding a motorcycle? Have you ever ridden a motorcycle? Yeah, what qualifies you to own a motorcycle? You know, like it's the same way. Like, someone comes, there needs to be better, you know. I'm I don't know what the solution is, but there needs to be better, you know, ways to handle because let me tell you something. I mean, you know it. I'm not the only guy that struggles with addiction issues in the military. Fuck, a lot of the military struggle with addiction, they come from addiction issues, dude. That's why suicide and addiction rates are terrible. And you send a guy who comes back from combat already fucked up, PTSD, all that, and he's got a tendency to have addiction issues. What better coping mechanism than turning to your addiction? So it's like the education is where it's it's flawed. It's typical government bullshit.

SPEAKER_03 46:57

And you know, like and then like every check the box, everything is like alcohol-related, you know, events and all that stuff. Yeah, yeah. Um, I had to, I was stationed in Alaska, I was I and I. So in the Marine Corps, you have uh inspector, instructor staff, right? So you have that's the active duty component that trains and runs the reserve center. So I had gone from second force recon up to Alaska to Fourth Recon. You were forced Recon for how many years? Oh almost my whole career. Um well, until we became Mars Acc. So uh I think like 94 I left Angle.

SPEAKER_02 47:30

Oh, so Force Recon became MarsOc.

SPEAKER_03 47:34

No. Okay. No, no. Marsock. You have Recon Battalion, which supports traditionally supports division, Marine Corps division. You have force reconnaissance, which to typically supports the Marine Expeditionary Force.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 47:49

The Marine the Force Reconnaissance elements give the Muse the special operations capable component to the ships when they go overseas. I gotcha. And uh the depending, but the recon battalion element provides their RS element, right? Okay. And I'm sure that's changed and verb is just changed a little. So which part's SOCOM? Like which branch of Mars a SoCom? They have a SOCOM command. Okay. And when Marsock first came about, they didn't want another sex, they didn't want more shooters. They felt that they had enough. They just wanted which is now known as third marine special operations at the time, used to be called FMTU, Foreign Military Training Unit. They just wanted the Marine Corps intelligence piece. And the Marine Corps was like, Nope, you get it all, you get none. Yeah. So then what they did is they had in true Marine Corps fashion, they're like, Well, we'll just take these guys here and then they'll just figure it out over there. They're like splitting up. Blah blah blah. So they rolled up the second force and the first force colors, and then they and then the mute, the maps were like, Hey, where's my special operations cable component? And then they they were thinking about putting the Marsok dead on the ship, and they're like, That's not a SOCOM mission, you can't have them, and then they're like, Well, we need that, and then so then they uh divided recab battalions, and it's and it's a and I'm probably off on that, but that's wave tops of it, right? Yeah, yeah. So that was a shit storm, yeah. It's a shit sandwich, and and it's just in in true Marine Cro fashion.

SPEAKER_02 49:18

I don't even remember where I was going with that, but uh no, you were telling uh God, it was it was a good point because you were talking about so I went to Alaska.

SPEAKER_03 49:31

Why did I bring that one up?

SPEAKER_02 49:32

Uh we're talking about We're talking about the addiction issues and the safety stuff to how they treated the motorcycle and like just how the military handles issues like that. So maybe something happened in Alaska.

SPEAKER_03 49:48

I don't know, but I would tell you this.

SPEAKER_02 49:50

There's a reconnaissance, there's a marine recon unit in Alaska, though.

SPEAKER_03 49:53

Used to be. Oh, okay. So it was Echo Company Fourth Recon. Okay. So recon battalion, you have you have a force. There's now a uh I was recently found out there's a Marsock reserve component. You have I didn't know that you had a battalion and you have a force, um, a force recon reserve component. Okay. Uh so the battalion it traditionally was um Anchorage, San Antonio is the headquarters, Billings, Montana, and I um and then the force elements were Mobile, Alabama, Reno, Nevada, and Hawaii. Um, so I got up there, I wanted to go up there, I had done cold weather training there like three years in a row, and I had to be a staff sergeant, so I get up there, and man, it was Oh, that's what it was. Oh, that's what it was. No, yeah, I was trying to explain you that that was it. So I remember. So when you're in the active duty component up there, you have collateral duties. You have a, you know, I was a comp chief, but I was like one of the rip instructors, but then I'm also I ran choice or toss for the entire state. You clean the bathrooms on Saturdays, yeah, and then and then I uh had to become in America what we call it, the Sacco, the Pecker Checker.

SPEAKER_02 51:02

Oh, you had to do the old P tester.

SPEAKER_03 51:05

So I went love that shit. I went to I w Let me see that dick. I was on uh uh Elmendorf Air Force Base, and and I think it's now called J Bear or something like that. And it was um it was up right up next to Fort Richardson, yeah, right? So I went to the Army uh drug and alcohol concert thing.

SPEAKER_02 51:27

Because we do it the best over there. Oh, dude. So this verification courses for that. Bro, we're sitting there. You want a guy to look at a wiener? You go to the army.

SPEAKER_03 51:35

Dude, so they had what they called them the 50 worst, they had the 501st um parachute. What a shit job, you know. And uh oh, dude, so they're sitting Oh yeah, the 500, the 501st was a big parachute infantry regiment. And we did a lot of jumps with them. They're I they were in Alaska too, right?

SPEAKER_02 51:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_03 51:54

So they're going through and they're like, all right, guys, we're gonna learn how to do BACs today. And I was just like, BAC, I'm like, like, what happens when a cop pulls you over? And they're like, Yeah. I'm like, Do you guys do that? And they're like, Yeah. And I'm like, Wow, yeah, who gives a fuck? And they're like, uh, to see if any of the Joes show up drunk to work. And I'm like, All of them are drunk at this, and I'm like, wait, and I'm looking at them, yeah, and I'm like, what? Yeah, and they're like, You guys don't do that? I'm like, no, and they're like, Well, I'm like, because the Marine Corps would shut down, yeah. And they're like, no, it wouldn't be at work, and I'm sitting there and I'm like, and they're like, You guys don't do BSC? I was like, no, we just look at dudes' dicks, yeah, while they pee in a cup, yeah, and they're like, uh no. And they're like, I'm like, literally, before I came over here, my first sergeant was at his desk with his Copenhagen cans for the week open, pouring Jack Daniels in there. Yeah, yeah. And they're like, what? And I go, Yeah. Yeah. And they're like, and and I'm like, and that's Monday.

SPEAKER_01 52:55

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:56

And they're like, oh and no one said shit to him. Yeah. And uh, and then so so then they're like, I'm so so when do you guys do this? They're like, Well, we'll have everybody come outside for form formation for PDF. And they do breathalyzers, and I'm like, what? And I was like, so what happens if someone pops? And he's like, well, then it turns into when was their last beer? Well, how high did they call? And did they drive in? Yeah, yeah. And he goes, if they drove in, now they get busted, it became a DUI. Yeah, because we want to fuck their whole world up. And I'm looking at these guys, I'm like, that's messed up. Yeah. I'm like, and I was like, so is that a bit they're like, well, you know, we we because we do this, we have less incidents now. And I'm just like, Yeah, and less, you know, and I'm just like good soldiers that actually oh my god. So then, so then I went through, went, graduated that whole thing, and I had to because we had to do it what year was that 2000 like one. Oh, okay. I was still a staff sergeant, nothing. I was still an E6. Yeah. So right around 9-11. Yeah, it was right at shortly after, right? So so well not shortly, but little app anyway, so we go back, and because I had to go through it, because I was still the new guy, that's how I got assigned to it. I was nick new guy. And um What rank were you at that? I was at E6, yeah. Yeah, okay, shit. So we had to um we had to get one in, we had to get one submitted because we hadn't they hadn't done one in like a year. Sadly, every time you run a piss test in at that unit, you guys got you get you guys got some dudes who pass or fail, however you want to say that. Yeah, yeah, fail. Yeah. Um well we did it, everything was good, boom, boom, boom. And because you always have to send in your credentials. The Marine Corps denied it because I went to an army school. I didn't I didn't have an I didn't have a Marine Corps certification. Wow. So because I'd already done that one, I had to be at Camp Pendleton for two weeks to do it.

SPEAKER_02 54:50

To really be able to know money that cost the military and everything, like it's just so backwards and fucked up. It was way, way easier.

SPEAKER_03 55:00

Oh, I bet. Yeah, like dude, we would show up should be complicated. We showed up at nine, we were done at noon. Yeah, and I'm like, and I'm they know it's a joke, everybody like that. Yeah, and it was just like do this, take this test, here's how you do this, how you fill out these forms, and it was just a lot of repetition of doing this stuff. But yeah, that was that was the one thing I was just like, you know, differences in in you know, military. And I was I could not believe that they did BACs on their dudes at PT. Yeah, and I was just like, dude, that and I then I told him, I was like, typically in a traditional Marine Corps base, the run of the morning is to get it out. Yeah, it's not really how it works, but that's what the mentality is. Yeah, yeah. Everybody's just like, wow, I was like, I have been, I've received jump briefs from a jump master.

SPEAKER_01 55:41

Yeah, hammered.

SPEAKER_03 55:43

Still hammered for sure.

SPEAKER_02 55:44

Like, I'm just saying, and that's what's crazy. It's like the armies, it's gonna be different. Like, you just happen to go where they're certifying people, so they have to do it that way. Because I was never breath of lies. I did everybody take piss tests, right? And I did, I was one of the ones that failed. But coming back to think about it now, like I never should have what I tried to do was the I the guy that was in the bathroom with me, the E5 sergeant that was supposed to be watching my pecker, he wasn't really watching, but he was also the cool NCO, and I knew I was gonna fail. So I just went in there, Ronnie, and just and just took my clean pee out right in front of him, poured it in the cup, you know, not right in front of him, but just as I'm like, I didn't care. I thought he was gonna not give a fuck, you know, but he gave a fuck because as soon as I come out of there, he goes straight to the first sergeant and tells him what I just did, and they come get me like, Slaughter, did you just take clean pee and pour it in the cup in front of Sergeant So-and-so? And I was like looking at him like, what the fuck, dude? We've hung out and had beers to get like, you know, like you're gonna go and fucking say, but you know, I get it.

SPEAKER_03 56:51

It's not beer on you with that, with that certification. Yeah. Like, dude, they bro, they throw that fear at you, like they are going to you're gonna be you're I I basically if you falsify that stuff, yeah, you're just you might as well have done the oh yeah, no, I get it. It's not his fault.

SPEAKER_02 57:08

It was just like one of those things where you're just like, this motherfucker and then you know, and then like uh it was come to think of it, I never should have even tried to fake like and put clean pee because I was prescribed opiates, so I should have failed for opiates. Right. And now I'm thinking about it like, why did I even do that?

SPEAKER_03 57:27

Here's the thing, dude. Like, I when we ran one, I remember I had two of the reserve marines come in and they're like, hey Stessar, can I talk to you? Yeah, that's when you know I can fail. And they're like, hey man, like I was at a party and there was some some smoke, and then I had a poppy seed. I'm like, get the out of here. Like poppy seed bagels aren't gonna call it. Dude, they always find it. And that thing is like, you could not ingest as many poppy seeds, it's just not real. People that say that have no clue. If I send in 20 boxes, right? Whatever it was in the box, they only take 10%. So it'll take one bottle. Oh, that's right. I heard that one bottle from this box, yeah, and boom, and they'll test those.

SPEAKER_02 58:07

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 58:08

And if they come back negative, yeah, they throw them all away. Yeah, if they get a hit, then they'll test. Yeah, and and and it's just I'm just like, so honestly, when you they're trying to when you pass a piss test, yeah, like, or you fail, hardware is right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:24

Suck up, you are like my scenario. I knew like they called me in specifically to take a piss test, so it wasn't like the whole company was, it was like, Evan, you need to come down here. That was right after I self-reported, you know. So I knew and uh so yeah, but I remember hearing that, and it actually so they really do try, I think, to get people by it.

SPEAKER_03 58:45

You know, I think it's a cost, it's a cost thing, too.

SPEAKER_02 58:48

Yeah, right, because it's just like yeah, they'll only test four samples out of the 50 or however many you have, but god forbid they have to send you to two certification courses to get the right certification. Yeah, it's so fucked up.

SPEAKER_03 59:00

Yes, not not fun, not not fun. How do they handle weed now? Is weed so the I the I think about weed, I think at the VA now. Bro, I the certain VAs here's the thing though. So, where is the limit, right? Where's the line? Because you can go into any gas station here and get Delta 9. Yeah, you can go and get a five milligram seltzer, yeah, right. So, unless that they have I don't and I haven't talked to anybody in active duty, how are they handling that? Yeah, right, because yeah, because now like so. You potentially could pop on a piss test, yeah, but like you may just stay away from it's no different than going and buying a beer, right? Yeah, it's actually easier than buying a beer, and safer in a lot of people, you know.

SPEAKER_02 59:49

So they're probably I bet it's just still like nope, can't have to, you know, you just have to pass, you can't do any of it, so don't go get something even if it's legal because it's not legal for your ass.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:00

I don't even know because that's even interesting, too, with like you know, for North Carolina for concealed carry permit, right? Like you can't be addicted to these certain things. Well, Delta 9 is not THC, right? Yeah, not legally, yeah. Right. So it's just like because if you shoot somebody or you're involved in a self-defense shooting, you're gonna do a toxicology, right? Yeah, so that's a question I need to ask the attorneys, but uh yeah, yeah, like how they would look at that if you like were hot for weeks. What if I was sitting here drinking these high noon seltzer and I had 14 of them, yeah, and they had five milligrams, you know. Like, oh dude, you know what? Before I forget, man, so the first time I met you was when I was first in studio guest, yeah, but it was the second podcast to air. We were do you we were talking about pickleball, and you sent uh you like I first off, bro, man of your word, and I've I'm like I loved it, dude. Like, I think it wasn't even like five days, yeah. And and I was like, what is this? And I opened it up, and dude, I was crying. This is cool, right? Bro, my son has the button, he still walks around, he's like, I love it. I can't he's memorized all you're saying, yeah, yeah. So I gave the paddles to my in-laws because they play like daily, and dude, yeah, yeah. You want to talk about like like do people just like to create drama, dude. There are there's pickleball court drama and wars down on the south end, the capsule beach, bro. It's bad. And it's just a bunch of like old, retired white people, bro. It's got well, white people.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:35

Yeah, it just depends on where you play. And actually, there's I've been getting emails. I need to I need to send it to you. There's a veterans association for pickleball now that are military veterans, and they're having a big pickleball veteran tournament coming up, and it's like it's pretty big. There's multiple branches of service represented, all that dude. I'm saying the same thing. I sent it to my manager and I said, you need to contact these people because they are missing out right here. But then I started looking at like the email and the newsletter and stuff, and it is, it does seem like it's a lot of like older veterans, like not even OEF, OIF, like older veterans, you know. And so I was wondering if if that's why. But it is it is definitely continuing to grow. There's a lot of different, you know, young people. Hell, the the best player in the world is a girl named Annalee Waters on the Pro Tour. She makes millions, sponsored by Nike, all playing pickleball. Started playing when she was 12 or 13. She's 18 now and the best player in the world for pickleball. She literally just went on, I think they said a 700-game win streak where she hasn't lost in 700 games of pickleball. She's beaten adults, she's beaten so everybody stigmatizes pickleball with like, oh, it's old people out there hitting blah, blah, blah, or it's this women. And there's definitely that. But the way I do it, man, is like I learned pickleball in rehab. I think I told you that. But when I went to the last rehab, hopefully, think, you know, God willing, that I'll go to in 2021. I'm out there, you know, it's a three-month program. It's like, you know, shit's hit the fan again. I'm I'm sobering up for the last time, trying to turn my life around. And these buddies that were out there, you know, that I'd met at the rehab, they were like, dude, you got to try this game. It's so much fun. It's called Pickleball. So I go over there and I start playing it. And it was the first time in a long time that I had like genuinely laughed and had fun again. And I was moving around and exercising and I was doing my thing. So when I left that rehab, because you know, I fell in love with it there. I played every day for almost three months. I fell in love with it. I get out and I start making content and I start making funny pickleball content. And then the rest is history. You know, it's taking me all over the country. When I was talking to you on the phone um a few days ago before coming up here, that's right. I was at a pickleball tournament, not playing, but making content. It was a professional tournament. And you were at Disney. You were coming back from Disney. You were doing the Disney thing, and I was doing the pickleball thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:00

So dude, they love those paddles, though. They're like my motherfucking.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:03

The button is funny.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:04

Yeah, she thinks it's hilarious. She's like, Yeah, I hit him in the face every time.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:08

Wow! I'm like, I got something cool to show you when this is done, but uh, you're gonna love it. I didn't know you were a Star Wars guy. Yeah, yeah. Hilaire, the people, the company I'm with that make my paddle, they do a lot of licensing deals. They've got the Star Wars license, they've got a line of Star Wars paddles coming out. And I just did Saturday, this past Saturday, I did the photo shoot for them for the stuff coming out, and it's me with all the Star Wars stuff. Oh, dude, that's dope. It's it's it's really, really cool, dude.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:36

Yeah, so they they so they told me the next time that I see you to tell you thank you good uh for that. And they do use the paddles, and they they thought it was awesome that uh um they were just like, and my my father-in-law was like, How do you know this guy? And I'm just like, Well, I just I like I've known who he is and I've just met him. Yeah. Oh, those I can show them.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:58

I can send it to you later, but it's like those are they did three, yeah. Oh, nice. They did the three nice. It's dope. Um, yeah, yeah. No, I appreciate you saying that. Um, I can send you more anytime you need them to. They uh the one that they did for me was just like a little fun collab paddle that I did with Valer. But that the what's funny about the button, you said your kid loves it. I get told by so many people who I've sent that paddle to it's always their kid. My kid loves this thing. I might found my kid. He took the button and he's hitting it, or he knows all the sayings to this and that.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:31

He kept it in his pocket for like months. The push button. Yeah, yeah. What a great market. It would sit there like this. I don't know where that came from.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:40

This one girl I sent it to, she was she she texted me. I get all these crazy stories about that button, but she's she's actually it's Danny Spiegel, big CrossFit athlete uh female. She's doing the um American Gladiator stuff now. She's on the new American Gladiator thing, but she was like a pro CrossFit athlete. She played pickleball in her spare time, so I sent her one of my paddles and she made Messaged me and she was like, Man, I was just freaking out. I thought someone was in my house because I kept hearing this voice. She's like, and I go back there, I look in my garage, and my cat is stepping on the box that has your paddle in it, and it's pushing that button every time. And I thought someone was literally in my house. Dude. She was like calling her boyfriend, freaking out, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:21

Bro, did you speaking of gladiators? Have you ever watched a documentary on Netflix? I haven't yet, but I want to. Bro, what like wild dude? Just like and I see it in the tactical industry and everything. I just can't stand unscrupulous people, dude. Yeah. Um, but uh two weren't they doing a bunch of drugs and stuff too or something? Like, dude, it's a watch the Hulk Hogan documentary. Okay. Like, whoa. Yeah. Um Terry comes clean, bro. Really? And yeah, it's like it's good. But uh two shot shows ago, because the cry party, you you've been a shot, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:57

I've never been a shot, but I'm supposed to be maybe going this time.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:01

Let us know because we can we we're always there. So I want to go, yeah. Um maybe you you you'll be on uh team Mitchell Defense. That'd be sick. I'll make some content for you guys. The cry party is that's what I've heard. Dude, it's it's over the top.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:16

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:16

This last year was a horror theme. It was like a um, what's that? Uh what's the the horror series on Netflix? Um Stranger Things. Yeah. Like that and all the other and it was actually, I mean, there's a lot, there are they're planning it right now. It was a lot. Year before, it was American Gladiators. And when I say it was American Gladiators, it was legit the hamster wheel. It was all the gun. So people were running through the thing. You had to sign these crazy waivers, and you could get in there and play and everything, and they had all these little costumes you could put on and stuff, and it was getting drunk and being shit. Oh, dude, and we're just sitting there and we go, we show our face, we see who we need to see, and dude, we we are like we have it to a science.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:54

We're out at 9 15.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:57

Yeah, back back at the Airbnb, hitting the rack at like 9 45.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:03

Because you got a full day the next day. Yeah. And you see, and you see all the people that you see dudes that literally will roll, like will roll in from the cry party in the same clothes they had on the day before working their booth. And I'm like, you know, it's like back to like why I stopped drinking. It just like I don't have the desire to feel that way. We're we're walking around Disney. My wife and I, I'm just like, babe, I'm like, I just can't believe that I actually like used to think, you know what, let's sit down, let's have a cocktail right now, and then go walk around, get on these rods, yeah, and then drive home, you know? Yeah, and then it's just like I hit a point where like I like the IPA, I love it taste of IPA, and I would drink an IPA, and I'm like, all right, you know, and I would venture not have another one, dude. I wouldn't get halfway through, and I'm like, oh, I'm done. You can't do it. You know, and the next day I might as well drank a case of 40s, you know what I mean? So it's just like it's just like my body has transitioned into like you gotta listen to your body. I'm not yeah, you know, I'm not trying to go on Nicholas Cage, you know, leaving Las Vegas and Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:05

Um I'm the same way. I still drink socially, you know, that was the thing. Like, I opiates were always my thing, but I've I've found out that I've never struggled with alcohol and like I stayed away from it for a little bit, but then I got to where I was like, yeah, socially I do want to have some drinks every now and then. It's never been something where I like come home and like want to fix myself a drink and watch TV. I've never felt that way or done that. And not saying there's anything wrong with that, I just don't have that desire, but I have noticed like as I get older, you know, I'm 40 now, I'm trying to get back in better shape. I need to drink more water. And it's like you start taking care of your body.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:40

I wish I would have cared about my body 20 years ago, like I am starting to now, you know, like there's a guy is out there now, he's like, and and this is where how I live now, but it's just like, dude, it's ever since I had cancer, I have not, I can't shed weight like I used to. What type of cancer did you have? I had to cigarette cancer at like 40, I think 43, 42, 43.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:06

And um literally found the lump on Saturday, had an ultrasound on Monday, got results on Tuesday, pre-op on Wednesday, surgery on Thursday. They take one testicle or they took one, and I made a man cub on one on one nut. So what's that? I made a boy, made a son. Oh, I beat the roof on curse. You had your son with one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:26

That just shows you we only need one nut.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:28

That's why my it's a backup nut. That's why my my Instagram is instructor one. Ah, okay. Yes, yeah. But um, uh, it's the work you're doing now at 50 isn't gonna pay off when you're 80. Yeah. And that's kind of, you know, and that's like and my wife's almost 10 years younger than me. So it's like for us, just the routine, the fitness, the clean eating, all that, and and plus what she does for a living. You know, she's a functional nutritionist, practitioner, blood chemist, and all that stuff. So it's like everything's about reading blood and reading labels, and like what what does your body need, you know, just because and this is the thing where like you gotta be careful getting sucked into all the stuff like TRT and yeah, I was gonna say, do you do any peptides? I don't do anything, dude. Yeah, I do dude. I so I just what we're talking about. I I I was fortunate enough to be invited to go to the Invicta Project in April. So the Invicta Project is uh is a nonprofit organization. So if anybody watching this wants to wants to donate, it's it's like it's not even two years old, it's so new. This is an insane organization, and it's not just for for vets, it's for first responders. Vet and first responders, so they're working with with vets and first responders. And it's and it's sponsored through the Parker Performance Institute, which is one of the premier neurological chiropractor colleges out there, and it's co-located with the Star, which is the Dallas Cowboys Training Facility.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:56

This is all in Texas.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:57

This is in Frisco, Texas. I feel like I've heard of it. Yeah. So uh I got nominated to go. Chris May is a is uh is a force reconnaissance legend. He owns Brother Recon, and he is one of the former um uh the former directors of the Marine Recon Foundation, which is another veteran-owned organ uh nonprofit that is pretty much pretty much the only one that I would ever recommend and support, uh, just because I know the dudes that run it and there's no shenanigans in it, there's no misappropriation of funds and on it, and they're dude, they're they run it very, very strict as it needs to be. So the Invictor Project, I you know, we talked, we met it, we saw a shot, we're talking and everything like this. And I was like, Man, that sounds awesome, man. And he goes, I said, Did you go? And he goes, That's how I got in here. He goes, I got invited to go because I knew somebody there and they went through and he goes, dude, it literally changed my life. And he goes, he goes, I was just dealing with pain and everything. And he goes, I've got this, that, and everything like that. And it's like, well, and he goes, How are your eyes? And I was like, fading, you know, you know, I've had to do this and the other. And he's like, All right, he goes, Well, you're going, he's like, Have you ever done any uh post-service clinics or treatments? I'm like, No. I was like, I was like, Chris, I retired before you, man. I was like, I I retired, I had the retirement seminar on Main Side and retirement ceremony, and that was it. There was no Skills Bridge, there was no Honor Foundation, there was none of these things for us, and so I'm so glad that these things exist now for the guys because it's just it's just awesome to see like post-service um programs that are there, but like there's a lot of these uh and I'm not into the the the ayahuasca stuff does not appeal to me at all. I don't feel biblically, I don't feel like it aligns. It's just not um and I don't think that helping neurologically and structurally is for me is gonna be solved through it's definitely not for everybody. No, that's for sure. And if someone gets that that that's that's them. You know, I'm not it's just not for me, right? So this thing was completely different. There's no drugs, it's nothing invasive at all. It's all movement and stimulation through simple things, right? So you show up, you do a lot of work, you do blood work before you go, they read your blood and everything like this. And the biggest the biggest question that I got, they were like, So you're on uh what prescription meds are you on? And I was like, none. And I I I had like four different phone calls, four different people, and then when I got down there, they could not believe I at 54 years old. I wasn't on I'm on yeah, 54 years old cancer survivor that's at, you know. Yeah, and I'm on no meds. Yeah, and they're like, How are you on no meds? I was like, I don't believe in them. Yeah, like I tried my wife is like tries to like we try to do everything as holistic and natural as we can. So we go and man, it is like do you have like you do like these preliminary tests, right? So this one thing is like you're in this like half eggshell thing, you're standing on this platform that kind of moves, and you're in a harness, and it gets all like twilight zone on you. It has like these little ripples in there, and you have to stand there for a minute, like stand there, stand still, right? And then you stand there another minute with your eyes closed, and then you do that like six times, right? And then the floor kind of moves, but you gotta you gotta work the best is to you know stop it and try to stay the level, but you don't have anything to see other than like these lines right there, right? So they're testing. Yeah, so I'm saying in my head, I'm like, I'm a snowboarder, man. I just killed this. They're gonna be like, they're gonna be like, yeah, dude, you did so good. You yeah, you probably don't even need to be here.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:28

Yeah, we never seen a guy pass a test like this.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:30

Bro, I was so far from being good. Yeah, it was like all the all the markers were like all red, and I was like, ooh, it shattered me. But I was just like, all right, that's cool. So jump forward a little bit. Do you do your retest at the end? They told me at the end I had the highest improvement of anybody, even for pro athletes that they had seen in a two-week period. And like, dude, I have So you're down there for a certain amount of time. Two weeks.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:59

I know you commit, you're there for two weeks.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:01

Bro, they fly you down, flew my wife down, we flew my son down, they give you a rental car, they give you a suite. You're in a hotel or something? Yeah, they give you a suite, and uh, they give you a food stipend and everything, and you just gotta show up. So I show up, you know, my appointments are nine. I'm good marine, I'm there like 8:30, 845. Uh half an hour, till half an hour, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:21

That's it, bro.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:22

And um, so I go in and I ended up what I start every day. I called it like the brain tapping. So they put you in this one chair and have this thing up here, and it's just like, and it's sending like this you're in like a barber's chair, right? And it sends this shock through your head, and it's like 20,000 pulses, and it's like 15 minutes. It's just like right, maybe it's 2,000. The first day, it was really, it was discomforting, right? But dude, I got to the point where I'm like, I liked it. And it was like like it felt, it was it was just like it woke, it woke you up differently, right? And then I would go from there, and then I would have like, and I have this at home. They give you home, I have homework I have to do, I do every single day. And I have this flag and it's like a butterfly, it's got butterflies, and like, and you know, it had this little head laser, and then I have to trace the wings, and then I have with the metrodome, I have to like move my eyes with you know, I dot, eye dot, I dot all over the thing. And then I have this bead test I have to do on a metrodome and all this, and all this stuff works with my neural responses and all that. And then the biggest thing for me was I haven't been able to do roller coasters. I haven't been able, I can't just because of motion sickness or all of it, man. Like anything, dude. If I like if I get up too fast, bro, I'm like oh, you'll get sick. I'm like, whoa, right. You know, if I spin around too fast, typically, and I'm like, so they have this thing is this gyrosphere, and it looks like a carnival ride, right? So, like this gyrosphere, you get in five-point harness, right? And it's like a closed door, and she like so they spin me around nice and slow, and then they have these stickers up there, and you have to do this thing called a no-no. So I look at the center one and I just move my head, right? Right, cool, it stops, spin me the other way, boom. Then put me a little sideways, you know, and this that and the other, and they're like, How you feeling? I'm like, I'm I'm actually feeling pretty good. So then the third day comes, and they're like, and I'm like, there's an assert pistol, like that little training, the red and black training pistol where you pull up user press, and there was targets all around the wall, and like on the the border, like here's the chair in the cage, and it's the it's the external, right? And I'm like, when at the first day I was like, when do I get to use that? And they're like, We'll see how you do. Yeah, all right, she goes, here you go. Yeah, they're gonna go. So they did me on the same thing, and I'm like, that's good. She goes, Do you want to go a little faster? And I was like, Yeah. So he went through and I'm like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And then the next day came in, she goes, All right, she goes, We're really gonna kick it up today because you're everything is like taking. Bro, I was like spinning 360 coming around, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And it was like, I think it was like one or two minute increments, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:19:06

This is by like how long during the third fourth day.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:10

Oh shit, the fourth day, and they're like, How do you feel? And I'm like, good, you're like, any motion sickness? And I'm like, no, like it's we stopped and it stopped a couple seconds after, like the woof, and I did my no-nos and it stopped. And it was like, I'm like, I bro, I am like laughing. Like I had like honestly, you would have told me, like, hey, I gotta go in that right now. I'm like, you better have a mop because I'm gonna grow up. Oh, I'm gonna coat the inside of this. So then it got to the point the next week when we're doing it now, she's spinning me. I'm going faster, and she's just like alphabetical order places, cities, states, towns, countries, whatever, shoot only the targets that light up green. So now it's like green, and it's just like Alaska, boom, B, Boston, right? And I'm like, now I'm like, now I'm cognitively like spinning, right? Going upside down, all this, and I and I'm getting done and I'm like, oh my gosh, right. So that that was like your my first 90 minutes of the morning. The second 90 minutes are with the other chiropractor, and what he's doing is I've got my neck mobility. I dude, my neck has been I see an amazing chiropractor here at the Wilmington VA. This guy's incredible, but he's under the constraints of the VA. Right? If that dude could see me every day, or twice a week, or three times a week, or once every week, man, it would be great. But I hit a maintenance phase now, and I have enough like uh exercises that are designed for me from them. Like, dude, my my appointments with him have been great. I've had two since I've been back, and he's just like he's so happy, and then like, and I'm sure we're sharing information and all that. So these you went you you did this how long ago did you finish the inviction?

SPEAKER_02 1:20:55

First uh second two weeks of April, and then and then you went to Disney not long ago. So this is just Disney training as well. It was dude. So I got on the Trump training, Dave.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:04

And it was a big thing, like, dude.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:06

Yeah, can you norm had you not had that, would you not even have roller coasters? No, that's just how you've always been.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:12

Yeah, yeah. I would not have gone. I like roller coasters, and I hit a point where I can't do it. Yeah, and um, so then I love them, and I I hope I never get to that. Dude, I will tell you, man, it was like it was I uh because my son was like this too short to go, he didn't want to do it anyway. Dude, you get in on the bike, bro, and you pulled it up.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:32

I've done the tron one, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:34

You know, it is like and you're it's dark and it's yeah, and I'm like sitting in this like you're sitting on that thing, yeah. And I'm like, and it stops, and I'm just sitting there, dude, and like like I hurried to get out, bro. I like I got emotional. Like I'm tearing up a little, but yeah, like just to be able to have that experience, dude. It was given back, yeah, yeah. And it and it was and it was through nothing other than just like fixing pathways in my body that had been disrupted. So we were fortunate enough to be there for the invictor for the fundraiser. It's 20 grand. It cost $20,000 to send one person through. Okay. Right for two weeks.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:15

But that's what the but that's what they the organization does. They raises funds money so they bring people. They can take that 20 grand and they can take someone, and how do they find the candidates that get to come to this? Is it combat wounded veterans usually or is it any anybody?

SPEAKER_03 1:22:28

So check this out. They told me about check that out. There was this retirement, I think he was a veteran, retired firefighter, and I'm I have it off a little bit, but he's in his 80s. Okay, this dude has a really long driveway, and they asked him, they always ask you, like, what are your goals? And I was like, for me, it was uh Ride the Tron rider is I want to snowboard with my grandkids when I'm 95. And they're like, All right. And this old man was like, I just want to be able to walk to my mailbox and back with my dog. I should have bought him a damn golf cart without my walker. Yeah, apparently he has a really long driveway. Yeah, this dude is doing it all the time with no walker now, and he's in his 80s. Damn, he hasn't you, he's not dude. They give you so much. I'm doing and the thing is, is like, is how many go at one time? Uh, I think that they have it where you can do they can do four, but it was with other guys buyers. I was you're buyers, it's all one out. There's dude, I'm telling you, man, like, and and Kyle was telling me the whole time, he was like, bro, you know, like this is he goes, I can't give you names. He goes, but I'm doing the same thing for you that I do for dudes who wear that star on their helmet. Yeah, so they see all the pro athlete. He goes, You are literally getting pro-athlete care. Oh shit, okay, dude. It is insane, it is insane, you know, and it was just like, and it's a really cool little park, and I'm gonna tell you, man, like, and then so then you do that. So then I think everything's bigger in Texas.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:59

Yeah, that just proves it right there.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:00

So I do my modalities with him, and then you have a recovery. So it's either on the pemph table or it's some deep uh massage, and um, or it's like the um I cannot remember these glasses and the headphones and they're amazing, and it's another electromagnetic chair. And it's just like you walk out of there, man, and it's like, and it took about they always say don't fight the nap. If you feel tired when you leave here, take the nap because you're only there for like maybe three and a half hours or less. Okay. And it's and it's very efficient because they also are open to the pub. So there's people that pay to go there. Like that's their chiropractor, too. So they schedule you around that. So when I was done my first week, there was another dude who was coming in, but he was in the afternoons. And um, so it worked out amazing for us, and it was great. And like, dude, for us personally, like, well, one, we ate in and out like non-stop. Like, yeah, yeah. And then, but there was we went, my son got we went to nine different parks, which are all epic.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:55

They got like Legolan up. Oh man, we didn't even do any of that, dude.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:58

We skated, man. We skated like every single day. Yeah, we did the zoo, but man, I would just dude, it was just like it's outside of Dallas. Is that what you said? It's just uh Frisco, I think, is just north of Dallas, uh DFW proper. Okay. Um I'll be out that way at the end of the month. I might drop other um but check it out. Yeah, I'll and and you know, we we could talk later, but dude, we were fortunate enough to be there for the gala, and they had a real auction there. We put Mitchell Defense, we auctioned off a rifle. One of the rifle go for. Uh man, I think the rifle went the rifle brought in, I think, about five grand.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:35

I was gonna say, I probably didn't.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:36

And uh Flo, I cannot, he's Army dude. I cannot remember his full name, but he's a medal honor recipient. He's the one who bought it. I know exactly who you're talking about. Um, we had seven medal of honor recipients there, I think. More than I can't remember. It was amazing, dude. They raised enough money that night at that gala to send 30 dudes through this coming fiscal year.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:55

Damn.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:56

Bro.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:57

That's awesome. Yeah, yeah, there's gotta be big name coming through that thing, dude. It it was so we're working to the donors to that. Are there any big name like that?

SPEAKER_03 1:26:05

I have no idea, dude. I have no, but I know that we're working on, I've come up with a program to help to do some training stuff and everything like that. And my goal is to get it, and we we have a meeting at the end of the week, but well, when this airs, it'll have already happened. But we're going to plan it where they have a soft experience, and my ultimate goal is to have it where all of the guys who cadre with me are people who have gone through the program. So these donors who are paying big money to spend the weekend with us and get a team experience. But here's the thing when they sign up, they they're gonna they're going home with a rifle, a pistol belt, a pistol. Like it's it's not gonna be cheap. It's gonna raise a lot of money. It's really worth it. Yeah. And what better way to drive home the value and impact this program has than to learn from the guys that you're helping send through? Oh, yeah, for sure. And firsthand, like tell you your experience. Oh man, dude, it's just it's it's I I cannot speak enough about it. It's actually, and there's like it's pretty funny because my son's got some good jokes, but we were at Disney Walking, he goes, Man, I think I need to go to Invicta and get my feet worked on. But that's the thing too, is is since then, like I I lived in Chuck Taylor's forever. Right? Like I've run marathons in Chuck Taylor's, I do Olympic lifting, I've done CrossFit in competitions in Chuck Taylor's. It's the perfect shoe. I got married in patent leather Chuck Taylors, bro. Right? Yeah. Um I haven't been able to be in zero drops for like more than a couple hours without like my back, my hips being destroyed. So it's what got me into the Hocus. Dude, I I've worn the Hocus are slippery slope. I've worn my Hocus twice since I've gone through this for like an hour. Bro, I don't wear them anymore. I got two brand new pairs at home. Like they hurt my back. I have been in nothing but zero drop smell. And like a Chuck a Chuck Taylor. I'm glad I saw your nose because I'm gonna order those. I've been looking at the thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:04

Yeah, they're Chuck Taylor-esque.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:06

So do we just get their sole? Yeah. We did 10 and a half. We wear vans a lot. I'm a big van guy, which are you know, they're a little thicker than Chuck Taylor's probably on the bottom, but they're very similar. But I would do CrossFit and stuff in vans all the time.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:17

Yeah. So just like for me, like Jordan 1s. Um, but I I got those new Victos. Um, like they look like their skate chute, wicked comfortable, just a nice flat sole. Wore those every day at Disney. I've uh see, I've got I've got shoot man. Uh I've had them about three months. I probably have easy 250 miles in those shoes, teaching on the range, walking everywhere like this, airport, everything. And I freaking love them. And I'm just that dude, that being able to be back in like I something again, things that are given back to you that you didn't expect, right? And then at the the at the the Gallup One, we got to attend our first um live auction, like a true Texas auctioneer. Yeah, yeah, with a real guy. Oh my gosh, dude. Hey, banana, banana, bread, bad, ham, down, ham down, but and like, bro, just watch. I I talk a lot about my kid, man, but watching him, he was just he was just smart, and he was just like laughing, right? But he was so great. And then getting to meet the Metal Honor recipients, and I actually knew Mike Thornton, who's was Kyle Carpenter there at all? Kyle wasn't there. These are the guys Kyle before, yeah. I bro. I met I met him at a thing in New York. So here's how I met Kyle, man. It was that shot show, like, I don't know, seven, eight years, eight years ago, whatever. Yeah. And we were at the Marine Recon party at the Leatherneck Bar, and um, my boy's over there, and I'm just like, I was mad. Something happened, and I was just like, this, that, and the other. Goes, hey man, you gonna meet that? He goes, You know what it is? I was like, no. And I'm sitting here like this, and I go, I'm in my own space. And then I look at him and I'm like, and I look at him and I'm like, Holy Kyle. Yeah, come here, bro. And I just pick him up and hug him. I'm like, I'm so sorry. Yeah, and dude, he and I have been like like super tight fan, dude.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:07

I've met him one time, but I always followed his story. Like, I love that guy, very kind hearted. His story's insane. His book is great. Like, whenever you meet him in person, you're like, Oh, yeah, it makes sense. I know why you did what you did. I think that is exactly who you are. He was at the UFC thing at the White House. I saw that. I didn't, I didn't, so I was my flight got canceled and delayed, and I've missed a lot of the fight. I watched it on my phone on the on the plane, but did he get to walk out one of the fighters? I I know they were using a Medal of Honor recipient, and then they were using like a firefighter, a first responder, you know, that's done something heroic.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:41

Um yeah, I I've taken Kyle to the range.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:44

He was on the ring with Dana, posted pictures and met Ricky Carmichael and all that.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:48

Dude, that would that was that was so I didn't I actually definitely watch highlights on Instagram because we were at Disney. You were doing Disney till 10 o'clock at night. Yeah. Um, that's the other thing too, man. Like, how is Dakota Miles still a sergeant? How is he not a gunny? But well he went back in, right? I know, yeah, he did. But uh fucked him. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:08

Still, it should be an automatic pass. Like, oh, if you're a Medal of Honor recipient, yeah, uh, you should be like first sergeant. You know, or I guess you don't have first sergeants in the army the Marine. Yeah, we do. You do have to Yeah, yeah, yeah. First Sergeant and you have Master Sergeant. Let's see if I can name him. So you got private, right? Yep, corporal, nope, nope, private, Lance CFC. So you do have a private first class, Lance Corporal, Corporal, Sergeant, Staff Sergeant, Master Sergeant, Gunnery Sergeant, Gunnery Sergeant, Master Sergeant Sergeant, or First Sergeant, or that's that's like in the army. E9, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:31:42

No, that's E8. And then E9 is sergeant major or master gunnery sergeant.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:46

That's right, that's right. E8, first sergeant, or master sergeant, E9, sergeant major, yeah, and then command sergeant major and so on. So that much sergeant. Yeah, you just have sergeant major or sergeant sergeant. Well, yeah, I guess court. Okay. That's right. Yeah. Um yeah, it's so it's not that much different. But the the main difference, honestly, is the corporal, the Lance Corporal to Corporal, and then you guys, because you guys have specialists and corporal. Yeah, but and and in the Marine Corps, they, you know, they treat a corporal, a private treats a corporal like a damn private treats an NCO because it is an NCO. Corporals are mean in the fucking Marine Corps, but in the army, it's just like, why are you a corporal? Yeah, we have corporal in the army. That's what when someone has a corporal rank, you're like, what did you you're so you're a you're a shit bag, is what you're saying. You're better, you know, you've been here long enough to be more than a specialist, but they don't want you as an NCO or they don't have you slotted as a as an E5 yet. So you're a fucking corporal.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:41

Yeah, because in because for jump school Marine Marines, they would send you to go as a corporal into Marine Corps. Oh, to jump school? Yeah, to jump master, no, to jump master.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:52

Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, I didn't know that. So, like whenever I went to jump school, I was I you know, my my career was, and I know we're wrapping up, my career was I joined the army, uh, went in as an infantryman, thought that I had picked up, thought that the recruiter gave me airborne when I signed up, and that was the classic lie that I did not, you know, he made me think that I was gonna have it. So when I got in and realized, oh, I'm not going to airborne school after this. Uh some guys had an 18 X-ray contract, which is a special forces guaranteed chance to go to selection. So with 18 X-ray, you can join where you go, you know, you do your thing in the army, infantry, then you go to SOPSY, which is special operations preparation and conditioning, then selection. It's like a little way to like green light your way to special forces without having to be in the regular army first. And so we had some guys who, like, after you know, 14 weeks of enter infantry school, they're like, I don't want to do the 18x-ray thing anymore. I just want to go to my two weeks RR and then go to my unit and be an infantryman. So they dropped their 18x-ray option. So our unit was like, All right, guys, we have three 18 x-ray contracts. We're gonna offer them to the top three PT scores first. If they don't want them, then we'll go down the list. I was the third best PT scorer in our uh battalion for basic. And so they came to me like, Slaughter, you want 18 x-ray? I was like, Yep. My buddy told me one thing. He said, When you join the army, if you get offered something, just say yes. He said, That's all you gotta do, just say yes. Doesn't matter if they tell you to offer you something, say yes. Do it. So I was like, all right, yeah, let's do it. That meant I got to go directly to airborne school. So that was a pass with no hold order to airborne school. So I graduate, you know, from infantry school, which is 14 weeks straight in the army, say hey to my parents for like an hour, get on a bus and go to the other side of Fort Benning where I go register for airborne school. And now I'm in airborne school, and that's three weeks long. So when I get to airborne school, I'm I'm green as fuck. I just got out of basic. I just finished infantry, you know, I've got no unit patch, I'm a PFC. Uh, and there's other it's your first interaction with other military branches because I didn't know that they could be at jump school, you know. We were there with Navy guys going to Navy SEAL stuff. We were there with Marine Recon guys that needed jump school to go to, you know. So that was my first time around Marines, NCO Marines, you know, an E5 and E6 was there. And man, they treated us like dog shit. And it was funny because like we're not even in the same branch of service, and they know that, but it's still like you still respect an NCO no matter where you're at, and they knew we were green as fuck, and they ran all over us. They didn't, we didn't fuck, they didn't sweep or mop when it was their turn to fucking sweep or mop, you know, because we all share the barracks. They were leaving on the weekends without supposed to be leaving. They didn't give a fuck. But they were really cool, they ended up really liking me, but I jumped in between. They stacked all the Marines at the front for some reason. There were four of them, except for me. It was like one, two, three, me, and then this other Marine, right? And uh, it was like three Marine recon guys, me, and then a black Marine recon guy who was like not wanting to jump out of the fucking he was athletic as fuck, but he was terrified. So we were going to jump and he kept shoving me, like you know, he was like right on my ass the whole time. So that was my first experience meeting a corporal in the Marine Corps and all that shit. I was, you know, dude.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:14

When I checked in, when I checked in to my first unit in Okinawa in '90, I had this dude pick me up and introduce himself. He's like, I'm senior Lance Corporal Smith or whatever his name was. And I'm like, Yeah. And I'm asking my boy, I'm like, bro, what is a senior Lance Corporal? Yeah. And and uh, like, so like that is like in the Marine Corps. Is that a real thing? It's not a it's not in the rank structure. Oh no, no, dude, you are like bro, when you in the infantry and like those type, when someone says senior Lance Corporal, like they're next on deck to put on corporal, yeah, but like they are when the corporals or the sergeants come down, that's who they're that's who they're grabbing. And then when that dude speaks, bro, you listen. Yeah, yeah. And like, and so it's like it and have next time you're back in Kevin's here, ask them about senior Lance Corporal. Yeah, like dude, that is like Are they E5 or E4? What Lance Corporal? Is it Lance?

SPEAKER_02 1:37:05

E3. So Lance Corporal's E3, corporal's e4, because you don't have specialists, that's right. Then E5. Okay. But they consider corporal NCO or no? Yes. They do? Yeah. Yep. So they get paid, I guess, like an NCO, but it can't be that.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:19

Well, E4 pay is E4 pay.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:21

Okay. Yeah. Is it the same across the board? Is it really? Okay. Yeah, it's like that with you know, there's there's the E4 mafia in the army, you know, specialists. Everybody talks about how specialists is really the secret best rank to be. Yeah. Because you have no most fun. You have, you know, you've you've been there long enough to prove your especially ones that have deployed. So if you're like E4 specialist and you have unit patch, deployment, you know, combat infantry batch, you know, the army's all about wearing shit, airborne wings, all that shit. They know you're fucking proven. And like the only reason you're not an NCO is because you're either getting out of the army and not renewing or re-enlisting, or you've done something, you know, or something. There's not a slot for you or for whatever reason, but you you, you know, you've done your job, you know, it's kind of the same way. And so I got I got like E4 promotable when I got back from Afghanistan because I was actually battlefield promoted to E4. I was the only battlefield promotion in Afghanistan. That's it. They only had like one slot for it. They gave it to me after getting blown up, and actually, it might have been no, it was after, gave it to me after that all happened, and I chose to stay and turn down certain because I could have left deployment and gone out surgery on my ankle or looked at my ankle, but I told them, fuck it, let's not worry about it. I'm gonna stay here and do the deployment. So they really liked me for that. So they gave me the battlefield promotion and all that shit. But when I got back, I was like, I'm not gonna re-enlist. And so I never picked up sergeant slaughter, but they all were they were all pushing for it. So well, man, that was fun, dude. I've had uh had a good time, man. We covered a lot of a lot of stuff, dude. Yeah, thanks for sitting here with me and doing this, dude. That mobility, baby, that cognitive function, as you can tell just from the handshake, it's perfect. All right, so as you know, normal bulkhead, thank you for for sponsoring this podcast. We were just talking about bulkhead. If you haven't tried a bulkhead energy drink, you are missing out. I'm telling you, I'm I'm an energy connoisseur myself, and literally me and Ronnie were just talking about like finish that whole bulkhead and tell me you don't feel jacked up. I'd I drink half, wait an hour, drink the other half. That's how much I love it. But it's not a it's not a bad feeling. They taste great, there's no sugar, it's good for you, and gives you good clean energy. So pick you up some bulkhead, and um yeah, I think that that's it. So we'll see you next time. And uh I don't know who we have after this. Oh, I'm getting a tattoo on the next episode. So that'll be fun. I'll be getting tattooed whilst doing the episode.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:47

Coming in, Koi?

SPEAKER_02 1:39:48

Chris is his name? Chris, okay, whoever Kevin's guy is. Oh no. Nice. Check us out. Thanks for watching as always.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:55

Appreciate y'all. That's it for this episode of Light Duty. Before you head out, don't forget to check out Core Medical Group. They're doing great things in the veteran community. If you need to get your labs done, give them a call or visit their website. Tell them you heard about them on Light Duty Podcast, and they'll take $100 off your blood work. You're looking at $199 out of pocket or $99 through insurance. Take care of yourselves, and we'll catch you on the next one.