Jocko Podcast 46: Jeremiah "JP" Dinnell & Jocko Discuss War, Fighting, and Life

2016-10-26T16:07:25Z

Join the conversation on Twitter: @jockowillink, @jpdinnell, @echocharles 0:00:00 - Opening 0:07:30 - JP Dinnell Intro 0:19:50 - BUDS 0:24:50 - Deployment 1:12:13 - Loss of a Team Mate 1:36:10 - Getting out of The Teams, MMA is a stress reliever. 1:52:12 - Relationship rough patch. 2:08:12 - Living in the Moment 2:18:10 - Internet, Onnit, JockoStore stuff 2:37:00 - Closing

AI summary of episode

I got to learn actually how to work with guys and actually manage guys, you know, effectively like, and, um, which, it's funny, you know, you get on the outside and you're like, man, what you're doing the outside is no big deal, you know, compared to the teams where you're like, and charge with like 100 plus role players and 17 instructors and logistics for travel and hotel and make sure all the training is set up and managing the guys that Nubi talking with the other units that we're talking to and at this time, I'm still only 24, you know, maybe 25, I don't think that goes 25. And could you imagine if we didn't know where exactly they were or where we were and you're sitting there like, trying to listen to a map, you know, read a map when you hear your boy over the radio, like, have been shot and shot and you just hear huge machine gun just going off and you're just like, like, but the boys were with, that's between commander, the breath, JP, where we, you know, he knew we were out, but he's like, hey, where do we need to go? And, you know, we were crushing the work up, so it was, I was built, I felt even better about life, and everything, I was like that, and we know we're going to war, and you know, I just made a mistake, and you know, pay the consequences, you know, I'd come home, and I'm like, oh, what do I do? And, you know, a couple other fighters from a gym, Joe Pass, Andy and Teddy, like just bump voice, you know, like out there, they became like, they became my team guy buddies out there, like they're cut from the same cloth as us, you know, and just down to earth guys that, with Jimmy, always, they have my back out there. Like they don't know how to like, you know, they don't have a reaction because everyone else is like, I want to be the next USC champion and I had a horrible life and I hate my parents and I'm just, you know, I'm like, It's like, dude, the worst stuff, you know, you're just, okay, you know, and, you know, how to great time and structures are pretty solid, you know, and, um, then all of a sudden it was like, because we had a condensed work up. You know, in sushi with good people, you know, we're doing, you know, kind of like you're totally, it's like you're explaining to him, but you're explaining to yourself, like, what, what am I experiencing right now? Like, she had to straight up like how I mean, D-talk, like, I'm not saying D-talk's in a bad way, like somebody who's like, but it was bad, you know, and she identified that right away. And he just was like, you just need a change in mindset, you know, and he's like, you need to stay focused because after this deployment, it might be something completely different, you know, and he's like, just stay the core, stay focused and, you know, get the mission done. You know, and they're trying to be like, hey, you know, you know, my daughter knows, like, well, you know, daddy, if you and mommy didn't argue so much, maybe we could all live together. I'm like, I just threw everything away, you know, like, for what, you know, and I was really upset, and I went and told the Badger, you know, about it first, I was like, I need some advice. You know, night and day like, I think about it like, dude, she's such a hard worker, you know, and she runs everything and then she'll make sure I have a cup of coffee like on the nightstand like next me in the morning. And so, yeah, they're like, you know, city, I was like, oh, I know Aaron Vaughn and they're like, how, how do you know, Aaron Vaughn? I like, I try to like get, you know, so, oh, not some of them is like, you know, because Jocker used to joke is like, JP just wants to be 205 pounds walking around. And, you know, that was another thing was just, you know, I mean, I talked about all the time, like, even when we were talking prior to recording today, you know, I was like, hey, this is, this is kind of blurry to me. And we needed to know that you can't have a delay in communication when you're in a firefight, you know, or, you know, or guys are down, you know, and there's just, and I went, you know, just, I heard it over the radio and Cowie got shot. You know, I know, but we can, we can settle it, you know, and I think when guys don't do that, when guys don't think about it, when they keep it buried all the time, that's when it can be really problematic is, you know, you, you got to, you got to, you got to face the fact and you got to be okay with it, eventually that, hey, this is what happened. I mean, she'd gorgeous, you know, she's awesome, but she's a small town girl and, you know, sometimes we're back home, she'll be driving, just like, how you can drive, you know, because she doesn't want to drive in the traffic on, you know, the road, the main road. So, one asked me, uh, this is, night yesterday, day before like, they're like, hey, I know, I know, you know, you guys are done with on it and all that stuff. You know, I mean, that you're in that highest leadership position, you just, and the same thing, like, I had to get myself together, you know, just because other guys in the boutune, like, I thought, I really felt like they looked up to me as well. You know, my brother and my sister, like two of my closest best friends, still, you know, we just always used to grow up playing Navy Seals, you know, and, you know, where'd you get okay, so going into the next question, which, which I am always curious is, how did you hear about the teams? Yeah, he's a guy that tells the story about where, like, when I want to see him in Charlie Medseries all morphed up, we rolled in there and I like went to shake his hand, like a bro handshake and in like when I grabbed, he reached up, he grabbed my hand and he like pulls me down, right? So there's times where the machine, like 50 cows right over us in the front, like the barrels like sticking out and you're getting that blast, you know, like, oh, I mean, it's just put it's part of it. You know, you're always constantly driving and pushing you each other to be better, to be stronger, to be faster, to be smarter, you know, I remember multiple times like you would come in to, hey, if you ever heard this website, I'm like, no, you're like, you need to start reading it every morning. I mean, everybody's hurting, you know, it was, you know, that deployment you can't not be close with somebody, you know, and especially someone like Mikey, man, like he, he knows I liked my sleep. And, you know, especially after that deployment, you know, I just, you had to keep yourself together, you know, I was just, it's just a weird, weird situation, you know, I was first time I ever experienced that, you know, at that level. So then also in her friends, you know, she should get support group and it's like, you know, I was just like, man, and a couple of things didn't work out when I had screened, you know, I had another surgery when I was out. Like, I was like, someone looking at the bathroom, I'm like, maybe we shouldn't have that best, you know, maybe I was like, dude, anyways, um, on social short, they, uh, I had the chief's review board, and luckily, they were doing remodeling over the compound. And people who like, click through, they buy shirts or something like that, they're kind of like the backup, kind of like the reinforcement, you know? And, you know, we always joke about he's like, man, like, he's, I just remember like this, we all like just would hang out in our free time. You know, like I remember, you know, just like just rubbing the flag, you know. I'm like, I could have, but you know, I just, I guess I never really got the like the taste like I like to stand. And she's like she knows, you know, she's like that's like my little trigger, you know, I'm just my trigger point. I'm like, I broke, you know, I was like sick to my stomach, I was like, oh, I don't know how this could turn out. Like, I don't know, like, you know, my mind, I'm like, I'm leaving for boot camp tomorrow. You know, like, like, Jocco, Dean Lister, and you know, like, just whatever. Like, I wanted that like numb feeling and she was just like, you're not the same person, like quick, like she recognized it. And he was just like, hey, guys, I need help, you know, that's one thing I learned later on a life is like, when I was doing sales, I'm like, people don't want to be helped, but they want to help. He doesn't need to be worried about that because he's working too radio, trying to get in cat, you know, he's got to figure out, like, hey, let's get some tanks in here to mow the city down to get our boy out and get them to the hospital, you know, and so the story that JP's talking about right there is like, that's first significant gazzle that we had. I was pissed that other guys were out doing direct actions, DAs, and I want to be doing that, and you know, my boy pepper, you know, he talked to me, he sat me down, he was like, man, this is a big picture thing, you know, and this is part of it. You know, I mean, like, and then when I tell people like, yeah, you know, since 2005, Jocco could have been rolling in training all the time. And so every weekend, we definitely watched it, and then we would, you know, dress up in camis and pan our faces and stuff that we got from old Army Navy surplus store or just from garage sales and we would go play Navy Seals, you know, and we got to my grandparents as like a haven, you know, and it's funny. I make really good money and I just want to have a little stress reliever, you know, it's funny, you know, like, you know, I wasn't fighting to turn pro because I need to make money. You need to cool up that was a little bit more like, late for an hour is talking about how, oh, you know what, you know, it's not like you're seeing the movies because with these sniper overwatch positions, we'd have a bunch of people with us.

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Episode transcript

[00:00:00] This is Jocco podcast number 46 with echo Charles and me,
[00:00:06] Jocco Willick. Good evening echo. Good evening.
[00:00:14] There is a little survival instinct.
[00:00:22] It's very subtle.
[00:00:25] But I would notice it sometimes in a combat situation.
[00:00:34] When guys are thinking that enemy fire at any time could open up and kill them,
[00:00:44] you'd see some guys subconsciously.
[00:00:48] They just, they just try and make themselves a little bit of a smaller target.
[00:00:54] They just kind of slouch their backs down a little bit and they just kind of bow their head just a tad.
[00:01:04] It's not a bad thing to do.
[00:01:06] I don't think guys actually think about it. I don't think they consciously do it.
[00:01:12] I think it just kind of happens.
[00:01:16] It can happen when you think you could get shot at any moment.
[00:01:20] It's likely a good instinct to have.
[00:01:30] And when we first got to Ramadi, we were out on patrol and I saw one of my guys
[00:01:39] on a real patrol. My first time seeing this particular guy on a real patrol.
[00:01:44] And it was in the Malab district of Ramadi, which was just an enemy controlled,
[00:01:53] cesspool of violence with threats everywhere.
[00:02:00] And as I saw this guy, he was standing straight up.
[00:02:10] Just standing straight up as head was held high.
[00:02:14] As a weapon was at the ready, he was scanning.
[00:02:20] He was hunting.
[00:02:23] There was no slouching his back. There was no lowering of his head. There was no fear
[00:02:30] a parent on his face or in his posture. He was just boldly facing the threat.
[00:02:36] Standing tall.
[00:02:44] Now you've heard me talk about some of my guys in tasking at Bruser
[00:02:54] that I worried about.
[00:02:57] I just some of the guys that I thought that they basically had too much courage,
[00:03:05] too much bravery. And it just didn't seem like that kind of attitude
[00:03:14] was survivable day after day after day after bloody day in Ramadi.
[00:03:23] But somehow some way through some divine providence, this particular brave soul did survive,
[00:03:38] and actually thrived in that environment, in the battle of Ramadi with tasking at Bruser.
[00:03:46] Now tasking at Bruser was made up of two seal potoons, Charlie Potoon and Delta Potoon.
[00:03:54] Charlie Potoon we've talked about before.
[00:03:57] Lave Fabon was the Potoon commander, Tony Afradi, who's been on the podcast.
[00:04:03] BTF Tony, he was the Potoon chief and the lead sniper for Charlie Potoon was Chris Kyle.
[00:04:10] And in the other Potoon, Delta Potoon, where Andrew Paul, who's also been on the podcast,
[00:04:21] he was the assistant Potoon commander and the point man and sniper, the lead point man and lead
[00:04:30] sniper for Delta Potoon was that guy was the guy that I just described walking through the literal
[00:04:39] valley of death with his head held high.
[00:04:51] And his name is Jeremiah De Nell, also known as JP De Nell. That's what I always called him.
[00:05:01] And we have him as a guest on the podcast tonight. Now,
[00:05:05] when JP was in tasking at Bruser, he was a kid. When we were in work up, I think he was 22 years old.
[00:05:16] When we deployed he was 23 years old and I love JP. He was like a brother and to be quite honest,
[00:05:25] really he's like a little brother to me. And I loved his aggressiveness and when we were going through
[00:05:33] work up, he would just just straight up execute anything I told him to do. Anything.
[00:05:40] Like a like a hyper aggressive Terminator robot. I would look at him and say, JP take that room or
[00:05:46] JP get on that high ground or JP get those prisoners out of here and he would just get after it
[00:05:50] and make it happen and just destroy or outmaneuver anything that was in his way.
[00:05:57] One time we were going through Mount Training, which is urban warfare. So we're in a kind of
[00:06:03] fake city with buildings and all this and there was a building across the street and we were taking
[00:06:08] massive paintball fire again. It's just training but we're getting shot up with paintball.
[00:06:14] And in my mind I'm thinking, okay, where if this is real we're getting killed.
[00:06:18] And I know that we need to get aggressive to stop this and say, I'm kind of give the command of,
[00:06:22] hey, we need to hit that building across the street and it like as the last word is coming out of
[00:06:25] my mouth. I see JP just bust out of the door the building we're in.
[00:06:29] Just go running across the street with his gun blazing. Just caveman smashed through the door
[00:06:36] of the target building. Do you go in there and I just see muzzle flashes. He's just machine gunning people.
[00:06:43] And I thought to myself, okay, JP can bring it at least he can bring it during training
[00:06:53] because courage against paintball in training is actually not that big of a deal at all. In fact,
[00:07:03] it's borderline meaningless but it is an indication.
[00:07:10] Now courage in sustained combat is another thing.
[00:07:15] And JP proved himself as a true warrior over and over and over again during the battle
[00:07:26] of Ramadi. And I'm honored to have my brother JP to know on the podcast today.
[00:07:35] JP, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me here. And we have to start with trying to understand
[00:07:50] where you come from. How much time do we have? Where you grew up and in all that.
[00:07:58] And it's pretty cool. I know your mom and dad and I've actually grappled against your dad.
[00:08:08] 20 of his highlights. He loves that. He talks about it all the time. He has a long, strong,
[00:08:13] man, scary strong. Yeah. Like, and how old is he now? He is 54, 55. No kidding. Yeah.
[00:08:24] So 10 years ago, he was my age. Yeah. So when I grappled with him, he was my age. Yeah.
[00:08:29] And I thought he was all old. No. And right now, if you called me old, I'd be pissed. Yeah, I know you would be.
[00:08:35] So Mr. Vanilla, I apologize. I thought you were old back in the day. No. He grabbed the
[00:08:39] hold of my head and you were a must. I am right now. Oh, that's crazy, isn't it? Yeah. Sorry.
[00:08:45] Yeah, no, that's true. So tell us about where you come from. What was like growing up?
[00:08:52] All that stuff. How did my parents are awesome? Very hard workers.
[00:08:59] You grew up tied on money. My dad did construction and framing in the 80s and my mom taught
[00:09:06] step aerobics not a lot of money there. But they constantly worked for our family. It was awesome.
[00:09:14] Now we, every Sunday we were at church, you know, not having a lot of money. You go out and do stuff.
[00:09:20] We'd go for, for drives. You know, that's what we did. Our family would go for drives. And just go,
[00:09:25] you know, see the, you know, we're in Northern California, Sacramento within 20 minutes.
[00:09:29] He can be in the foot hills and it's just beautiful. We go to my grandparents' property.
[00:09:34] You know, my dad's parents were a very big part of our life as well. Growing up,
[00:09:39] grandfather's old world, or two of that was on the destroyer. On a destroyer, my grandmother's
[00:09:46] amazing woman, you know, wakes up every morning, still at 5 a.m. to pray for everybody in the family.
[00:09:52] They have five acres up in the foot hills, the pasture, the horses. So for kids, there's awesome.
[00:09:58] You know, brother and sister. My parents, you know, they didn't wait for having kids, you know,
[00:10:03] I had me and then, you know, I think it was like 15 or now 17 months later. My brother comes
[00:10:09] then 17 months later, I thought my sister comes. So, you know, our dad and you know, I've
[00:10:14] kept the rich twins. They call that. Yeah. It was like boom, boom, boom.
[00:10:20] Yeah, awesome. You know, my brother and my sister, like two of my closest best friends, still, you know,
[00:10:26] we just always used to grow up playing Navy Seals, you know, and, you know, where'd you get
[00:10:32] okay, so going into the next question, which, which I am always curious is, how did you hear about
[00:10:38] the teams? Actually, my brother saw something on TV. There's some special about the forming of the
[00:10:47] seals and the, you know, JFK's speech and all this stuff, and he had my parents record it.
[00:10:53] And we would watch that every morning that we could, you know, we're young, you know, trying to
[00:10:59] go to school with my brother's popnet and the VCR. And so every weekend, we definitely watched it,
[00:11:05] and then we would, you know, dress up in camis and pan our faces and stuff that we got from
[00:11:10] old Army Navy surplus store or just from garage sales and we would go play Navy Seals, you know,
[00:11:16] and we got to my grandparents as like a haven, you know, and it's funny. Now, like, I didn't know
[00:11:22] what I was doing, but I used to like do make up little guilly suits. And I would have my parents
[00:11:28] dropped me off at the front entrance of my grandparents property. I'd wait until I got up to the
[00:11:32] house and I'd say, hey, I want, I want to see if you can see me sneaking up there. I would try to
[00:11:36] stock up to my grandparents house. You're training this. I mean, yeah. And yeah, so that, you know,
[00:11:43] it was a really good life. You know, all my, all my aunts and uncles and cousins, you know,
[00:11:47] we're all really close and just really close family, you know, my uncle, my cousin's uncles,
[00:11:54] he was a cop, back where we grew up and, you know, he's still serving the community. He's a
[00:11:59] legit badass. And, you know, so I was surrounded by a lot of good people that didn't know anything
[00:12:05] other than working hard. Like you just have to work hard. There's no excuses for that. There's no handouts,
[00:12:10] like you've just got to get after it. And that's just kind of how I learned about the teams. And,
[00:12:16] you know, as you get older in high school, you kind of forget about that stuff. But yeah, it was
[00:12:20] pretty good solid based. Great life. Did you win list right out of high school? Yeah. Yeah, I was in,
[00:12:25] um, missing year of high school. Uh, weren't you breaking leg or have some weirds?
[00:12:30] I had my, I broke my hand. Broken hand. Yeah, so my hand was in a cast. How'd you do that?
[00:12:37] Well, I had to get to get to the best thing that you do. You sold this story of this kind of, uh,
[00:12:44] you know, picture perfect childhood with all this goodness around you. But just,
[00:12:51] I'll just going to straight up tell people. JP might crack a few people once in a while if they
[00:12:55] need it. What he was a young kid. Yeah. Definitely definitely never went out looking for it and
[00:13:00] starting it. But if it was there, I, you know, like, anyways, we're at a party with my buddies. And,
[00:13:07] no, actually, we're just like kind of hanging out the house and, I don't know,
[00:13:10] I happen some guys like show it up the orange. Anyway, it's gotten a fight, broke my hand. Um,
[00:13:15] don't, you know, like a smart young man. Don't go to the hospital that night. My hands like
[00:13:20] ballooning up. Well, you know, the next day we're going to go whitewater rafting. So I mean,
[00:13:25] I can't not do that with all my friends. So I just put my hand in the river the whole time.
[00:13:30] Because I'm like, that's like ice right? I get home. I thought my mom was going to just beat me.
[00:13:35] She's a short little, just thin athletic woman. And I was just like terrified of the
[00:13:41] fridge. She's going to do some step aerobics on your head. Yes. Exactly. She was going to get after it.
[00:13:46] Um, and so I go, you know, so she's like, yeah, we're going to the hospital. So we go there and they're like,
[00:13:52] yeah, you broke her knuckle, this bone, and fractured the wrist. I'm like, okay. So I get in a cast.
[00:13:59] Of course, my dad's pissed off, you know, and, um, he's just like, you know, just,
[00:14:05] he's my senior year. I'm getting close to graduation. And there was no talk of college.
[00:14:10] I played water polo. My senior year in one of the J.C.s or my coach at, hey,
[00:14:15] you know, if you go to this J.C., you see Davis, you know, you could be going over and playing over there.
[00:14:20] I just knew college wasn't what I wanted to do. At the time, it just wasn't for me. I wasn't going to waste time
[00:14:25] more money doing something I just wasn't driven to do. And, um, you know, my dad's like, what are you going to do?
[00:14:31] What are you going to do with your life? And I was like, I don't know, probably be a white water rafting guy
[00:14:35] and live up up in the mountains. He's like, what are you going to do with your life? You're like,
[00:14:39] not there on with that, but you know, he's like, no, like, you're, no. And, uh, because one of my best friends
[00:14:46] did that, and, uh, which is just cool, which is a lifestyle, but it seems cool, yeah, it would be great for the
[00:14:51] soul, right? And, um, so anyways, my dad was like, what about the military? Like, what about being a Navy
[00:14:56] seal? You always talk about it. And, at the time, all I could think about was just like the regular
[00:15:02] fleet Navy recruiters that would come to high school. And this was pre 9-11, so nobody's really
[00:15:06] very motivated. And, you know, they, they would come to the high school, but they never really
[00:15:10] engaged with the students or anything. So I was like, uh, that's the Navy. I don't know.
[00:15:17] I'll go to work that next day, and because I'm in a cast, I had me at the front register.
[00:15:23] And for the first time ever, I noticed across the street is a Navy recruiting office.
[00:15:28] I was like, oh, I'll go in there. So I went in there and of course, I was like, oh, what are you
[00:15:31] going to do with a while? What are you here for? I was like, I was thinking about joining the Navy,
[00:15:35] you want to be a Navy seal? They all start laughing. I was like, check. I would pass. Like, I was like,
[00:15:41] real mad. I thought, well, you know, all the seal wannabes have to talk to pedda after so and so.
[00:15:47] And, yeah, do you mean you said the seal wannabes? I was fired up. And then you guys,
[00:15:52] and we can't do anything with your cast on. Am I right? Roger that. They're like, you know, if you
[00:15:56] want to come talk to them, he'll be on Thursday, he'll be on Tuesday. He'll be on Tuesday.
[00:16:00] Okay. So I go, go back to work. I'm just staring at the Navy recruiting office a whole time. Just
[00:16:06] just doing. So I'm like, I'm in good shape. You know, like I'm very good athlete. Like, I can do this.
[00:16:12] Go back home and tell my dad my dad's okay. How's work? I'm like, good. I was like, I'm joined the Navy.
[00:16:19] And I can't go do anything for boot camp with this cast on. Like, I don't know, like, you know,
[00:16:24] my mind, I'm like, I'm leaving for boot camp tomorrow. So I'm like that, right? And so he's like,
[00:16:28] cool, go start the bathtub. Start soaking it. I'll get some tools out of the garage.
[00:16:31] And so my dad comes in there and he has like some like sheet metal shears and something
[00:16:38] out, a saws off. Yeah. And we just got out there and we cut off my cast. Dude, I thought my mom
[00:16:44] was going to beat my dad. Like, she was like, what? Of course, I was like, yeah, I'm joined the Navy.
[00:16:49] I'm going to go be a Navy seal. So I'll sudden I cut off my cast and now her baby boy is leaving to,
[00:16:54] you know, go join the military and she's my poor mom. You know, and so I go back on Thursday. I walk
[00:17:01] in. They look at me. They look at my cast not being there. They're like, you need to talk to
[00:17:05] petty officer's son. So, like, all right, Roger that. And so I just started the rest of the process.
[00:17:10] And, you know, a lot of rehab, my parents had a cafe. They sold that. So,
[00:17:18] maybe my dad could do construction together to spend as much time together as possible.
[00:17:22] And my mom was able to spend time with her mom that was passing away. And that's how I rehabed my hand.
[00:17:27] And my dad would actually wrap my hand up in some of my old kickboxing raps and boxing raps.
[00:17:33] Tape it up. And then we would tape the hammer to my hand. I couldn't grip it.
[00:17:37] I like I could not grip anything. And, you know, that's why he did. Because I see my old
[00:17:40] bag go to work with a cast on and he would have to tape tools to his cast to work.
[00:17:45] I mean, your dad's not the kind of guy that's going to let broken limbs stop him from getting a good
[00:17:51] day's work and just tape that tool to your body and make something happen.
[00:17:55] So, that's what he did with me. And it was awesome. And he knew, like, I wanted to go to
[00:18:00] buds and I was going to go to buds. And so, he would push me to my absolute limit every day at work.
[00:18:06] Like, I mean, every day meant, I mean, I would be pissed sometimes borderline crimes. I
[00:18:11] so mad, not like tears of like, you know, pain or whatever. I was so mad at him. And he'd see it.
[00:18:16] And he'd throw it back a little bit and he'd make, you know, some days like, I'd come in
[00:18:21] to work on over sometimes. And he would be like, hey, I need to go read a 90 pound jack hammer.
[00:18:27] There was no need for a 90 pound jack hammer. Yes, there is. He's a jack hammer. You're brain.
[00:18:32] That's exactly it. And so for eight hours, I would be jack hammering concrete with a 90 pound jack
[00:18:38] hammer while he was doing what he's doing. And then, I mean, it was awesome, though. I mean, he
[00:18:43] would push me to the absolute limit in my mom and him. Or awesome, with communications and helping
[00:18:49] me out with stuff. And it was good. And so then I went, I left September 5, 2001.
[00:18:55] Had a seal contract. I was in buds. I was in boot camp when 9-11 happened. And, you know,
[00:19:01] it was just weird. I was so pissed. Did they tell you guys about it? Yeah, we were all locked down.
[00:19:07] And they were like, hey, the nation's been attacked. You need to get us more info and we're like.
[00:19:12] What? Of course, you have all the week-minded people in there that start crying. Like, I'm 18, right?
[00:19:18] Like, barely 18. And there's just grown men crying. I didn't show it up for this. I'm like,
[00:19:25] I'm getting fired up, like, you need to shut up. So down, like, I'm just like,
[00:19:28] he's looking for a battle accident at this point. Yeah, I'm like, how do I go to bud right now? Do I have
[00:19:33] to finish boot camp? Can I just go, you know? But yeah, so I was in boot camp when I leveled up.
[00:19:37] And then I always felt like, I didn't feel like I knew that being a Navy SEAL is what I needed to do.
[00:19:44] What I wanted to do is what God wanted me to do. And just everything just fell into place.
[00:19:49] You know, it was pretty awesome. So then you go to buds. You went to buds right around the same
[00:19:56] time as late for an Andrew Paul. I was one class behind them. They were class 241. I was class 242.
[00:20:01] And then you, but you ended up in SQT with those guys. Yeah. Yeah. All this is, which is the,
[00:20:07] which is like the training after you get through the basics, seal training buds, which is where
[00:20:12] you do pushups and all that stuff and do pull ups and you have a boat on your head and all that
[00:20:17] stuff and bunch of people quit. Then you go to something a little bit more advanced.
[00:20:20] Called SQT where you actually learned some SEAL skills. Yeah. And then you check into a team.
[00:20:26] And then you get, so you check into team three. Yep. Check into team three. And knock out your first
[00:20:32] between as a new guy. What was that like? It was, it was good. It was cool. You know, I checked into
[00:20:37] team three and you know, it was like, okay, we need some volunteers. We're going to a driving school.
[00:20:42] It's an off-road, hummer racing and navigation school. I was like, how do I get my hand up fast enough
[00:20:47] for that? And it's just worked out great. Like I literally checked into the team. The team's ridiculous.
[00:20:53] It is. I mean, you're 18 years old. Either like everyone said you'd off-road racing school
[00:20:59] for free or you'd bunch of money to go there by the way. So you can buy good meals. Yeah. You're going to go
[00:21:03] for a month. Two weeks straight is going to be off-road driving racing and two weeks going to be
[00:21:07] navigation. I was like, I literally just, yeah, I just come back from Kodiak Alaskan. We were doing
[00:21:13] our cold weather training. So I was up there. I was gone for a month, come back,
[00:21:16] legitimately for a couple of days. And you know, I grow from other times, I call you back. I'm so happy.
[00:21:23] And then I'll say, I was like, I'm waving tomorrow. And I mean, I was just like, I was just happy.
[00:21:29] You know, I was like, yes, this is awesome. This is legit. I'm in the teams. Like I'm getting to do stuff.
[00:21:34] You know, and I went out there. There was a freaking war going on. Yeah. I just wanted to be
[00:21:40] as well equipped as possible. And one of my good-brows, Derek Benson, he was killed on
[00:21:47] extortion 17. He's from Northern California as well. And he was one of both class ahead of me.
[00:21:53] So he had checked in the team of a team three prior to me. We both went to that driving school together.
[00:21:58] And that's where we just became like best friends. You know, so it was awesome. It was a good time
[00:22:03] out there. You know, learned a lot. And you know, there's an older team guys out there too. You know,
[00:22:08] that I got actually interact with. And you know, just guys not from my platoon. So they weren't so hard
[00:22:14] on me because I was a new guy for the same time. Like I was just learning the balance of the teams.
[00:22:19] Because I'm overly nice and social. And I like to talk to everybody and be everybody's friend.
[00:22:25] And when you're a new guy in the sealed teams, that's usually not the best thing. When you're like,
[00:22:29] hey, how are you doing? Buddy? You know, they're like shut up. Like, or like, why are you talking to
[00:22:34] me? And I'm like, because we're going to be friends. Like, we're going to war together. Let's be friends.
[00:22:39] You know, so, you know, but it was cool. You know, and then, um, come back and, um, then all of a sudden,
[00:22:47] we're headed out on our first trip. And we're headed out to Shaws to do shooting school. And, um,
[00:22:52] I mean, we're getting ready to fly out there. And I just see the big huge native American dude.
[00:22:57] I'm like, I hope he's in my platoon. You know, I mean, I'm just like, you're drawn to like just
[00:23:03] awesome warrior looking guys, right? And he's just very stoic and just so I was like, dude, I really
[00:23:09] hope he's in my platoon. And he was, it's my boy Steve Chiro. You know, he lives out in Vegas. And, um,
[00:23:15] you know, he's, he's, he's an awesome old guy to have in the platoon. You know, and then
[00:23:19] rest of the other guys in the platoon, um, you know, they're still active. Dude, he's like, I'm not going
[00:23:24] to drop their names. Um, you know, my boy Pepper, this is Nick name. He was like the perfect old guy to have.
[00:23:31] Because he was so hard on you. Like, you were just waiting for him to whip your ass. But he also
[00:23:37] mentored and guided you. And actually taught you stuff, you know, and it wasn't just, I'm not
[00:23:42] hammering you because you're a new guy. He's like, I'm a hammering you because you're a new guy. But
[00:23:45] show you what you need to be doing and why what you did was wrong. Um, so I was fired up, super
[00:23:52] fired up. So we go out to the chas, you know, your first trip super overwhelming. You know,
[00:23:58] your soul and nervous said it isn't they even told us, okay, this is usually a trip where you
[00:24:02] want it to be halfway or towards the end so you can get a solid grass from what you're doing and
[00:24:06] grow. Um, but we got after it was awesome. Like I said, although, you know, the older guys, um,
[00:24:11] we're solid, uh, we had a really weak LPO and, um, he actually got fired on that trip. So I was a little
[00:24:18] just, you know, concerning to me at first, Mike. Okay. That's for the LPO. And then he's a complete
[00:24:24] third. That's one of the, uh, myths of definitely of the seal teams is when you come in and you think
[00:24:33] every guy is a hard combat warrior and then you get in and you look at some guys and you go wait a second.
[00:24:40] That's not that's not who that's not who I was thinking I was going to be working with. Yeah.
[00:24:44] And of course on the other end of the spectrum, you meet guys where like I want to be like that guy.
[00:24:48] So so you guys, you guys wrap through that work up and go in your first deployment. How is that
[00:24:53] first deployment of you, which I wrapped in your first deployment, right? Um, yeah. Well, for the second
[00:24:57] hour, first half went to Gwam, which was just heartening. You know, Mike too. It was a war going on.
[00:25:04] Let's go to war. How cool you're going to go to Gwam. But, you know, it's part of the, you know,
[00:25:08] it's just part of the, you know, part of the mission. Part of the mission. One of the, you know,
[00:25:12] yeah, again, military people deploy all over the world all the time to maintain stability
[00:25:17] in that includes all units of the military, even special operations. So seals. Sometimes you get
[00:25:24] deployed to places where there's no, you know, really visible threat. Yeah. And it's not what seals
[00:25:32] generally want to do. Yeah. So we did training, we crossed trainers, couple different countries.
[00:25:37] You know, some other pertinent went to the PI, we were in Gwam. You know, we went to Thailand to work
[00:25:43] with the Thai seals for nine days and I mean, it was cool getting to see how other countries do stuff.
[00:25:48] And now that I look back at it, it did give me a much bigger picture, you know, overview of
[00:25:54] stuff. But at the time, like, I'm not even 21, like I just want to get after it, you know, and
[00:26:01] uh, I didn't, uh, for the first half, but then we ripped and we got our act. I'm like, yes, going
[00:26:06] our act. Well, I knew what we were headed over there to do. I was hoping there would be, you know,
[00:26:11] they'd be able to do a lot of different stuff and in up doing personal security, um, for some higher
[00:26:17] dignitaries over there during the elections. And I mean, it was cool. You know, what you're looking
[00:26:21] back now, you look at what you did and you put that on your resume, people like, what, wow, you did that.
[00:26:25] I'm, to me, I was thinking, you know, it sucked, you know, but it didn't. It was also very,
[00:26:30] it was a very good learning experience. Um, and it was part of the mission. In the problem is,
[00:26:36] when they had a gap in that protection, you know, some team guys came to do it and team guys
[00:26:43] do what they do and they just knocked it out of the park. So I guess what? Team guys now have the
[00:26:47] mission for that. And um, but it was cool. You know, we worked with, uh, some different units, some
[00:26:52] Marines and Army guys and they were phenomenal over there as well. And I was, it was awesome to
[00:26:57] learn from them. You know, guys I've been on there, you know, a couple deployments already and the
[00:27:01] wars hasn't really really kicked off and um, that was good. Um, yeah, or, and then our chief got fired.
[00:27:08] It was just like, chiefies. Um, but I had shared with saw like our OIC, AYC, who became our
[00:27:17] the Delta Bulltune Commander, saw the dudes, you know, and so we just had to weed out some of the
[00:27:24] E-coins right on. And that's the nature of that mission, you know, is defense and I don't want to
[00:27:32] be on defense ever, right? I won't be on offense. So where I want to be. So it's a tough, it was a tough
[00:27:37] mission for the guys to meant to, I mean, of course, you, you never know this from their, from their
[00:27:43] professionalism, but no one was saying jumping up and down saying, hey, great, we, we had to be on defense.
[00:27:48] Yeah, all the time for a long period of time. And the fact that the guys did perform so well and
[00:27:55] that we kept the mission again, like you said, we kept the mission because we did a good job,
[00:28:00] not that we were jumping up and down excited about doing it because we don't even be on defense.
[00:28:03] We want to be on offense. Yeah, absolutely. Um, yeah, I look back on my, you know, some of the
[00:28:09] thing, and I did get to do a pretty cool thing there. Um, and then, I mean, we've, we've got to
[00:28:15] see all of our rack, you know, I got to go up to Northern Iraq up in Kurdistan. Oh, yeah, because
[00:28:20] those dignitaries were traveled around. Well, he was Kurdish and he was from, uh, from Northern Iraq,
[00:28:25] and it was, it was gorgeous up there. Yeah. Well, we actually stood, you know, so I had a little
[00:28:31] come to Jesus talk with, um, one of older guys, you know, he was just kind of real in me back in
[00:28:36] because I, I wasn't very happy. I was pissed that other guys were out doing direct actions,
[00:28:41] DAs, and I want to be doing that, and you know, my boy pepper, you know, he talked to me,
[00:28:45] he sat me down, he was like, man, this is a big picture thing, you know, and this is part of it.
[00:28:50] He's like, and you're a new guy. He's like, I know you want to get out there. I know you're
[00:28:54] aggressive, but it's a good deal, you know, like, yes, it's not the ideal thing that we want to do.
[00:29:00] He's like, but this is not a bad deal. You know, we're in civilian clothes and fully armored
[00:29:05] SUVs, you know, getting a trial around this guy. And he just was like, you just need a change in
[00:29:10] mindset, you know, and he's like, you need to stay focused because after this deployment,
[00:29:15] it might be something completely different, you know, and he's like, just stay the core,
[00:29:18] stay focused and, you know, get the mission done. And it was awesome talk. I needed that, you know,
[00:29:23] I just needed that guidance and mentorship, because I was young, you know, for sure.
[00:29:26] Pepper's the older guy, he had a good amount of experience, and, you know, he just,
[00:29:30] you just knew what I needed to hear. And, you know, rough me up a little bit and continue to
[00:29:36] comment, it was good. It was awesome. Learned a lot from it. So yeah. So you get back from that deployment.
[00:29:42] Yep. And this is when you start, you, this is when we formed up, and we started working together.
[00:29:48] Yes, sir. And T U bruiser. Yep. Again, you went to come back from, or, or come back from
[00:29:55] deployment, and then all of a sudden, I was like, hey, we, we need snipers. I'm like, how fast
[00:29:59] I can get over this one, you know. And, uh, literally gone, like again within a week. And, uh,
[00:30:06] went through the NSW short course, which, you know, we didn't get our snipers certificates from that,
[00:30:11] because we didn't do everything, but I didn't care. You're giving me sniper guns. You're, you know,
[00:30:16] I know how to use them. They're dope. Then I get a kill savages. Okay, you know.
[00:30:21] You know what's crazy is, remember when they used to try and they had rules about how much we
[00:30:26] could be gone from home. Yeah. For those days. Oh, we violated it. And it's, it was for, yes, we
[00:30:30] violated it, violated it, violated them. But then young guys and the teams and a lot of old guys, too,
[00:30:35] they literally are raising their hand for everything. Like, oh, yeah, get me out of here, man. Oh,
[00:30:38] you're going to send me that school. Oh, you're going to send me on another deployment. And it's
[00:30:42] weird because there's some people that, you know, a guy that's married has a family that they're,
[00:30:45] they don't want to do that anymore. And they shouldn't have to. But they blanket apply the rules
[00:30:49] across the board, everybody. Because I'll tell you what, when you're 19 years old and you're in the
[00:30:54] Sequel teams, you don't want to be at home any night of the week. You want to be either on
[00:30:58] deployment or getting trained and getting after it. That's what's awesome. Yeah. But they, they
[00:31:03] blanket those rules, which is a bummer. Yeah. I mean, I was just fired up and to go, they're going to
[00:31:09] start for school. Yeah. And I like because, um, you know, it's a big deal. It's a huge deal to get to go
[00:31:15] to start a school. And one of the older guys in the Poutoon, he's still active in the teams,
[00:31:20] I don't want to say his name, but he's one of my real good buddies and I really looked up to him.
[00:31:23] We did an awesome mission together on that first deployment. And I know you're talking about,
[00:31:28] yeah, he's one of my favorite guys. The Badger. Yeah. The Badger. And, um, you know, he's just,
[00:31:36] this is an awesome guy. He was a sniper. You know, he would always talk to me about little
[00:31:40] things. And I was just, even before I went, he was like, teaching me stuff and he's like, yeah,
[00:31:45] you know, this is this. So, I don't know if you had to say him, he going there or what, but I went,
[00:31:49] I was super excited. And then also Chris, you know, Chris was a big influence as well. He's,
[00:31:53] you know, he's a successful sniper on that his second deployment. I first, I'm a loser. Yeah,
[00:31:58] and you're just hearing about what he's doing in a solution. I was like, please, please, Lord.
[00:32:01] Like, I just want to do this so badly. And you hear Chris, you know, tell stories and hear
[00:32:06] other people telling stories about Chris. You know, and I, I even had a buddy who was back from
[00:32:11] Sacramento, who's a Marine, who he was a Marine officer in charge of Chris and those guys over there.
[00:32:16] So he's telling me stories that we're just like, I was like, what? You know, I do this is awesome.
[00:32:22] And so, you guys got, we got to the short course. It was, it was legit. It was in the summer
[00:32:28] out in the mountains and desert doing everything. Guys are blocking out on their stocks because
[00:32:32] it's 120 degrees and you're trying to do a four hour stock in a gilly suit. And, but, uh,
[00:32:37] which was awesome because it prepared us for a Romadi. It's like, dude, the worst stuff, you know,
[00:32:42] you're just, okay, you know, and, you know, how to great time and structures are pretty solid, you know,
[00:32:48] and, um, then all of a sudden it was like, because we had a condensed work up. You know,
[00:32:53] they're like, hey, we got to get gone. So normally, what, you would take 18 months,
[00:32:58] we had a condensed into 11 months. And, you know, all of a sudden, then we're headed out to
[00:33:06] our desert journey facility for our first trip. Yeah. And that's where we met for the first
[00:33:11] met. Yeah. I heard about this guy, Jock. And guys were fired up because we were like,
[00:33:17] dude, this guy is fired up. He's just, you know, I think it was just, you know, this bigger,
[00:33:24] stoic guy that was professional, who had a good amount of experience than teams and who just
[00:33:30] wanted to get in the fight. I was like, yes, this is what we need. You know, it was pretty apparent
[00:33:36] when I first met you that you wanted to get in the fight, too. Yeah, I might have been bandaged up.
[00:33:41] A little bit from smashing out a car window. Yeah. But, you know, yeah, some idiots downtown.
[00:33:50] It's like, what were you saying that was saying to you when I saw that? So when you saw it,
[00:33:55] yeah, you're like, hey, I'm Jocko. I was like, I'm JP. I know you are. I was like, like,
[00:33:59] that, you know, it's kind of like, okay. And you're like, so what's up with the wrist?
[00:34:04] I was like, I got a couple stitches. And you're like, from what? It was like,
[00:34:09] you know, smash out a car window with my elbow and I got caught. He's like, oh,
[00:34:13] you're going to stop doing that stupid shit. Like, yeah, he's like, you need to be training here with the guys
[00:34:17] and with us and focused on work up. And he's like, if you want to fight, we fight. You know,
[00:34:22] I was like, Roger that, sir. And I was like, I'm going to go workout. So I'm going to walk into the gym.
[00:34:29] You know, I just changed out the bandages. I had stitches and staples in my arm and I had all
[00:34:33] bandaged up and trying to get after us. I was going to go workout. And there I see the silver back
[00:34:39] gorilla. It was awesome. It was good. You know, just, and you just set the president, you know,
[00:34:45] you set the tone for, hey, yeah, it's cool to be aggressive and want to fight and get after it. But
[00:34:50] you do it in the right place and the right time and don't forget, you know, at the end of the day,
[00:34:56] we're going to work to kill bad guys. That's the number one focus. And it was just like,
[00:35:00] that just kind of really opened up my eyes. So it was cool. Yeah, and that work up was,
[00:35:08] that work up was awesome. It was so excited. It was so much fun. I mean, just just the energy there.
[00:35:15] I mean, everyone was ready to get after it. And you, you drove it and all of us, you know,
[00:35:19] I remember you coming up to me when we're in between Iads and you're like, hey, every time,
[00:35:25] like, someone gets to door, I want you to be the dude that's as loud as possible. You told me to
[00:35:29] go put to tape J. P on the back of my helmet. I always wanted to be able to find you. And,
[00:35:34] you know, maybe you did, maybe you didn't, but oh no, I did. I mean, that's a legit right there. So,
[00:35:40] hey, I'll tell you right now. I say this all the time. Well, I should, I shouldn't be sad.
[00:35:45] Say I say this all the time. But there's people that have certain qualities, right? Certain qualities,
[00:35:51] whether they're leadership qualities, whether they're skills at art or at speaking or at basketball,
[00:35:58] right? People have certain qualities. So, you had a good ability. You had a great ability to get
[00:36:04] command of something and make something happen very quickly, right? And that's, it's a because you're
[00:36:09] allowed, you're allowed number one, number two, you're aggressive. Number three, you can take whatever
[00:36:13] that problem is and like get it into some quick words. You can simplify it into something quickly and
[00:36:18] say it. And as soon as I saw that you could do that, because we have to get people to perform
[00:36:24] fairly complex things in chaotic situations. But when I saw that you had that skill,
[00:36:30] I said, okay, he's a guy that I can utilize and that his Petune Commander can utilize and that
[00:36:35] that the whole troop can utilize to handle such certain situations when there's some chaos going on
[00:36:40] and something needs to be straightened up. So, what I want you to do is take some rigors tape and
[00:36:43] I want you to write J.P. on your helmet. So, whenever I'm looking around on my night vision or
[00:36:48] or during the daytime and I see you just see a bunch of helmets that look the same. Now, I know it's
[00:36:51] J.P. When I see him coming like, oh, J.P. Make this happen right here. And J.P. can make it happen right there.
[00:36:56] I still have that helmet with the tape. I'm sitting in my garage on the shelf. That's all.
[00:37:02] That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. So, we get, we get obviously orders two weeks prior to
[00:37:12] deployment that we're going to our body. We had thought we were going somewhere else. We thought
[00:37:16] we were going to back dad. We thought we're going to have kind of a cookie cutter deployment of
[00:37:19] what the teams have been doing for a few years. And we find out two weeks before deployment that
[00:37:25] we're going to our body. And, wait, how did you find out? Then I call, do I? Did the Delta soon
[00:37:32] come in? Did the chief call you? How did you find out we were going to our body? Because you guys were all
[00:37:35] on leave. You remember? I don't, I don't think they even told us to talk about that about it.
[00:37:40] I mean, because they did all the interviews. They did all the interviews. What was going on?
[00:37:43] Yeah, they did all the interviews. Yeah, they did all the interviews. I don't think they told us
[00:37:47] about it until I told the leaders. Yeah. And, as it hey guys, stand by to get some.
[00:37:55] Yeah. Yeah, because I remember we found out we were on leave. We came home.
[00:37:59] Came back to San Diego and we're getting a roll out. That's when we found out where we're going.
[00:38:05] And we're getting right in. We had all our families. We had our families, you know,
[00:38:11] the day we're shipping off to say goodbye. And there's a couple of guys like reading, like news reports
[00:38:16] and articles about the area we're going to. And I'm like trying to like pull them all the way.
[00:38:20] So she doesn't hear this, you know what I mean? And my dad's just like listening, like getting fired up.
[00:38:25] He's like, yes. You know, my dad, you know, you could tell as a father, he's very excited for me.
[00:38:31] My mom's terrified and nervous. But my dad was nervous as well. Rightfully so, you know,
[00:38:37] like your son's going off to war and combat, but he was just, it was just mixing emotions for him.
[00:38:42] And so he was trying to hide like the nervousness by saying, when are you leaving?
[00:38:47] Come on, we've been waiting. It's about time for you to go. One of my dad here.
[00:38:50] He's just remembered when I got told, when they said the, when the commanding officer brought me in,
[00:38:58] and he's trying to sell to me, going to Ramadi instead of going to Baghdad, he's like
[00:39:05] proposing it as like, hey, you know, this could be good. And inside, I'm like, oh my God, I'm like still.
[00:39:11] And I remembered, I bargained for something. There's something that I said, well,
[00:39:16] well, we want this. If we can do this, then we can make it happen. I think it was gear or some kind of
[00:39:20] gear swap we did. But anyways, I remember them trying to sell it to me. And I knew I was in such a
[00:39:26] good position because it's like someone trying to sell you free money. You know what I mean?
[00:39:31] I was like, oh, you want to screw the money? Okay. Let me think about that for a second.
[00:39:36] And inside, I'm going, don't blow it. Just act cool. Yeah. How careful. Those get too excited. Just,
[00:39:41] you know, maybe you might be able to leverage something, just relax inside. Like, okay, you know,
[00:39:45] I think we can make it happen. I need a little bit of this. I might need a couple more support
[00:39:48] personnel out there to give us a hand getting acclimated and getting the turnover done. But if I can get
[00:39:53] five or six more personas, I'm just gathering logistics support for my troop. And that's what I was
[00:39:59] bargaining for. I was gathering logistics support for the troop getting more C. B's to come help us.
[00:40:05] And more intel guys. Like, as long as we can have this and that. And he's like, yeah, I'll talk to them.
[00:40:10] We'll see if we can make it happen. And it happened. Yeah. The C.O. is awesome. Solid dude. Yeah.
[00:40:19] Yeah. So I remember, yeah, because I got in trouble when I went home on leave during Christmas
[00:40:25] time. Am I seeing some kind of a pattern of trouble here? Or, you know, if you want to say that,
[00:40:32] you know what, but I just want to my best friend. I didn't have the outlets. One of my best friends
[00:40:36] in the Silti when I was younger, right? We were the same way. We were maniacs. And one time he got
[00:40:43] in a really big trouble. And the, the platoon commander, who's one of my favorite guys in the guy that
[00:40:50] inspired me to go the officer route because he was a priori and listed guy and he was an awesome guy.
[00:40:55] He was made the platoon awesome for us. That guy. So I'm thinking he's going to, he must be so angry
[00:41:02] at my buddy that got in big trouble. Like borderline international incident. And I kind of said,
[00:41:08] hey, you know, are you mad at him for what happened or what do you think of this? And he goes,
[00:41:14] he said something along the lines of, he's a warrior. You can't stop these things from happening.
[00:41:22] It's, it's in your guys' blood. We have to just deal with it the best we can. Yeah, and you,
[00:41:28] you guys did, you know, that's what I was always, that's what was always my attitude. You know,
[00:41:32] I look back now I'm 33 and I'm like man, but you know, you learn from your mistakes. And he makes
[00:41:38] you don't, you know, pay them again. I got, you know, I got, I was up in Reno, I got arrested for,
[00:41:42] you know, like older guys started to fight with me and my friends. And I was with non-team guy
[00:41:46] friends. They're super passive guys. And he's an older, like much bigger guy, you know, and
[00:41:52] you know, it was coming out, you had a bottle on his hand. There's just, you know, anyways,
[00:41:56] do some damage to him. He ends up in the hospital for a long time. I get rolled up, I get arrested.
[00:42:02] I go there, they're looking to my wallet, they're like security clients,
[00:42:05] still team 3 and I'm like, yeah, and the cop goes, why didn't you tell me this?
[00:42:11] When we're out there, he's like, I would have dropped you off around the corner.
[00:42:14] I was like, well, I didn't want, you know, I'm not going to try to pull that card. I made him a
[00:42:18] stake. He's like, well, you're here now. So we have to deal with it. So I go home. I remember I,
[00:42:23] and I tell the LPO about it, it's like, we got to tell Chief and Chief's like, are we going to
[00:42:29] still the LIC? We got to go tell the Command Mass Chief, Command Mass Chief, you know, an
[00:42:34] awesome Mass Chief was press on and bro. Too phenomenal. I mean, just couldn't get better,
[00:42:40] higher- than-lessed leaders ever, right? So of course, you know, they're here in the story,
[00:42:44] and they kind of like give me the rundown. You know, Mass Chief press on goes,
[00:42:49] but you think you're the first team guy to get a rest of your fighting? Let me tell you some stories.
[00:42:54] He just kind of, he's like, hey, we just got, we got to fix this. You know what I mean? He's like,
[00:42:57] obviously there's clearly self-defense, and he's like, whatever you need from us. That was good.
[00:43:02] Cool, whatever. What I do is I make the mistake is I go back home on Christmas leaves shortly
[00:43:07] after that, and I got to wet and reckless. So not a DUI, but you know, whatever, close enough,
[00:43:13] I was an idiot, and, you know, I'm super mad. You know, I'm only 22, you know, I'm not even 23 yet.
[00:43:20] And, you know, we were crushing the work up, so it was, I was built, I felt even better about life,
[00:43:27] and everything, I was like that, and we know we're going to war, and you know, I just made
[00:43:31] a mistake, and you know, pay the consequences, you know, I'd come home, and I'm like, oh,
[00:43:36] what do I do? I'm like, they're going to kill me. I was like, I'm possibly not going to
[00:43:42] deploy. And I remember I broke down, like I just broke down emotionally. I'm like, I just threw
[00:43:47] everything away, you know, like, for what, you know, and I was really upset, and I went and told
[00:43:54] the Badger, you know, about it first, I was like, I need some advice. And I was like, you know,
[00:43:59] I think I can take leave and take care of this on my own, and everything, he goes,
[00:44:03] yeah, I think we can, he's like, but if not, you know, it's a big risk, you know,
[00:44:08] he's like dude, we have solid leadership right now. Now's the time that you just get your
[00:44:14] book kicked for this, and just deal with it, you know, he's like, dude, just take what comes out
[00:44:18] you. I'm like, I broke, you know, I was like sick to my stomach, I was like, oh, I don't know how
[00:44:24] this could turn out. We go to the LPL, he's like, you boo boo, I'm like, right, you have
[00:44:29] to get rid of that, go to chief, chief, same thing, go, LIC, I was Andrew Paul, Andrew Paul,
[00:44:37] like, JP, really. Like, he was just, what hurt is how disappointed everyone is disappointed,
[00:44:42] like you're better than that. And I was, you know, and then so we go back over there to go talk
[00:44:49] to Master Chief Yardboro and press on, and I was just like, I was so ashamed. Like, I was just,
[00:44:56] you know, I just got the chills, I was just, I was disgusted myself, you know. So, you know,
[00:45:00] they got through and they're like, all right, well, I'm gonna have a chief, chief, you're bored.
[00:45:05] So if you go to keep your tried and stay in the teams, I was just like, try not to throw up
[00:45:11] like you're dead in there, I'm like, go back to the between space. Like, how do you even
[00:45:15] function the rest of the day after that? Like, I was like, someone looking at the bathroom,
[00:45:19] I'm like, maybe we shouldn't have that best, you know, maybe I was like, dude,
[00:45:23] anyways, um, on social short, they, uh, I had the chief's review board, and luckily,
[00:45:31] they were doing remodeling over the compound. So I was two rooms over, but the ceilings were open
[00:45:36] and vaulted. So I could hear them all talking about me beforehand. And of course, you had a bunch of,
[00:45:41] like, it was all the cheese in the command. And you know, there was some cheese there that,
[00:45:44] you know, were support person now. They're like, screw this kid, let's move a ball. Like,
[00:45:48] you know, a lot, and then like, your bro goes, hold up. Like, the kids are good, kid. I was with
[00:45:54] him at SKT, you know, he made a mistake. And so, like, remember him taking my back because he's like,
[00:46:00] oh, really? Let's get ready. And he starts pulling up like, other guys that had made my
[00:46:05] stakes, he's like, what about when you did this? And what about when you did that? He's like,
[00:46:09] no, he's good. And press on, he's like, nope, we're keeping them. We're going to crush him,
[00:46:13] but we're keeping them. So I go in there and luckily I had heard that. And so I went in there and just,
[00:46:18] you know, face the man and, you know, the whole rest of work up, I know, it was on restriction.
[00:46:24] Yeah, we're on the road. We're awesome trips. We're going to Vegas for a work trip. And guess who
[00:46:28] has a curfew? Did you ever curfew during that? I don't. I do remember that. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Like,
[00:46:34] if I was to go get out food, I had to be back with it in a certain time frame. They're like,
[00:46:37] oh, wait, actually, guess what? They serve food here. So you don't need to leave the building.
[00:46:41] You can get room service because you don't need to be sitting down at the tables. I'm like,
[00:46:46] you know, but whatever. I think it's good that you had that kind of sense of fear in there. I mean,
[00:46:51] just looking back, I can tell you right now, you could have like, you could have committed
[00:46:56] a broad series of crimes against humanity. And I would have still taken you on the foot.
[00:47:01] And I basically told, bro, that for sure, like, hey, I don't give a shit. Yeah. You know,
[00:47:08] it's just, it was very lucky in blast. We were blessed to have, you know, good leaders like you
[00:47:13] and bro and press on in those guys that were just like, hey, man, guys make mistakes. We're going to,
[00:47:18] we're going to fix it. You know, it's not like you guys are like, oh, no big deal. You're like,
[00:47:22] oh, cool. You got to learn. You got to learn from it, you know, and you know, I definitely learned from it.
[00:47:26] And the C.O. was super cool. And the C.O. stood by what you guys stood. And that said a lot to me about
[00:47:32] him as a leader as well because he trusted you guys as judge. And I remember he comes out like,
[00:47:37] towards the inner part of the point that we're going to be getting it. We've been getting it the
[00:47:40] whole time. He's like, man, really glad I listened to them and kept you around. Like, so it was this
[00:47:45] awesome. I kind of turned around because it was basically you guys were like, hey, we're going to hold it
[00:47:49] worth that. And we'll see how he does on the point. And when he comes back, we'll hammer him and if we need to.
[00:47:55] So yeah. All right. So we go on the point that. Yep. And like you said, like, people are reading the
[00:48:03] newspaper. I mean, I knew because I was reading all the intel. I mean, I was totally read in and
[00:48:08] was trying to explain to you guys and telling you guys, staying by to get some. We show up there and
[00:48:15] do some, do some, you know, basically the forces almost instantly divided into five different teams.
[00:48:22] And we end up doing big operation over an eastern Romadi. And that kind of set the tone and
[00:48:29] carved out a little space for a certain crew. And actually, in the retirement speech that I gave,
[00:48:35] you know, I talk about, hey, we're going to send some guys over here. If you want to go volunteer,
[00:48:39] you got to put your name on this list. And of course, everyone put the name on the list,
[00:48:43] which made it go back to the original plan, which was the Delta Plunk Tune Commander saying,
[00:48:49] you know, these are the guys who take I need whatever. Eight guys, I'll take these guys. And,
[00:48:53] you know, had a little make sure that we weren't making anything too unbalanced. But obviously,
[00:48:58] obviously, he wanted you with him. And so you guys roll out to
[00:49:06] correct it or with the first the 506 band brothers. Yeah, those guys are phenomenal. Yeah,
[00:49:12] love those guys. Talk about full metal jacket. A blown out old school. I think it's old school
[00:49:24] or like a university university. All the universities just completely blown out like walls. I mean,
[00:49:30] there's more bags of sand than concrete. I think they're holding the place up.
[00:49:35] You know, with Army Marines live with us in there. And I always show up. Or just like,
[00:49:40] yeah, we for when I went there for that big first kickoff. Yeah, that place was just dirt floors,
[00:49:47] mosquitoes everywhere, bugs everywhere. Yeah. I don't even think there was AC. No, there was,
[00:49:53] it was like one dangling light in every room. Yeah. That was hard living. But that was all one big
[00:49:59] room. They had like thick, they had like a sheet of plywood that divided the big room that
[00:50:04] we all ended up eventually like building our own rooms into. Yeah. I remember getting over there and,
[00:50:09] you know, guys, I was so fired up. Yes, I'm in it. Like this is horrible. It's horrible because
[00:50:17] there's a fight going on right here. You know what I mean? Like the nice built up basis. There's
[00:50:21] not a fight there. Where it's like horrible? You know, there's a fight. I was just super excited.
[00:50:26] Yeah, Craig and I were always awesome. And there was guys with the first the 506. That place was
[00:50:30] getting mortar every day. That place was getting attacked every day. I mean, remember when we first went
[00:50:36] there and it was like, I said, um, guys, like, can we can we go up on the walls? Can I just
[00:50:40] my first go up on the walls and like defend? And I was like, um, yes. And we did. Yeah, you guys went
[00:50:46] up and started whacking people all the time. Yeah, it was awesome. You didn't even have to leave
[00:50:50] base to kill guys. Yeah. That what kind of a joy is that right there? It's like the best Christmas
[00:50:55] present ever. But it was also the same times like if you want to go grab a child, you have to be
[00:50:59] in full body armor, helmet and your gun because you've got to constantly attack. There's a couple
[00:51:04] times to hear. Do, do, do, and you just hear the incoming mortars and you're sprinting to try to
[00:51:09] either get, you're like, when you're in the middle, you're like, do I go back? Do I go to the
[00:51:13] childhood or are they aiming for our building this time? You know, I remember there was one time
[00:51:17] I was going out to take a shower. This is just a no. Just make one and go. And um, this is a complete
[00:51:26] had my angels god thing and we come back from it up and guys are smoked right? And the most
[00:51:32] guys are just like, I'm just going to get in the bed like my baby wipe shower and just lay down.
[00:51:37] I just wanted to actually just go take a shower right? And so the army guys are awesome. They
[00:51:41] gave us the code so we could use it on our times when we came back, you know, instead of the standard
[00:51:46] schedule of the army shower time. So I go out there and get to the shower tent and like,
[00:51:52] forgot my lufus sponge. You know, so I can actually try to like wash with my soap and
[00:51:56] our car and cord JP Denel in combat. You know what you got to bring to combat with you?
[00:52:02] Guffing your lufus sponge. That's what I'm talking about. You got to clean the body.
[00:52:07] So anyway, I cycle back and um, as I'm walking back up the steps to get into the thing,
[00:52:14] shower tent gets hit by three mortars. Oh yeah, just showing gone like I was like,
[00:52:22] okay, that was the shower tent that was like 20 meters from full metal jacket, right?
[00:52:26] Yeah, I legitimately was just like in there and I was like, I remember I was like, I'll just put the
[00:52:31] soap in my hands and I was like, nope, that was complete. I had my angels, you know, god was like,
[00:52:37] no, you need to get out of here. And so I walked back and I literally taken the last step like
[00:52:42] into that little dark hallway and I was like, okay, where's my baby wife? So I can
[00:52:50] have to go get some baby and that's what was so crazy. It was like something like that. It was just like,
[00:52:54] okay, shit, I'm pissed. You know, and so baby wife's up and until we get that fix,
[00:53:00] we're doing bottle water shower. You know, you poke holes in the top of a water bottle and
[00:53:05] your buddy squeezes it over you and that's how we shower. Yeah. Yeah. It was awesome.
[00:53:09] Yeah. And that's another thing. The, the, the army guys for the first of the 506. I mean,
[00:53:17] obviously they're living that way too. But every day you'd see them, they're always in the square
[00:53:21] away uniforms, always, you know, shaving every day. No slack. No fucking slack whatsoever.
[00:53:26] Yeah. The first of the 506. And that was the attitude that you guys went over with. Yeah.
[00:53:31] We know. Actually, I made sure our guys had shaved heads because I was the acting
[00:53:35] LPO. The badger was the acting chief. And we, I mean, we rocked the army cam. Yeah. We put
[00:53:42] you guys in the army cam. We camis and we all had shaved heads and we shaved every day. You know,
[00:53:47] we just looked like the army. I mean, because who cares about haircut and a shave? You know,
[00:53:53] unless I needed to have a beard, which I mean, I have a red beard. So who am I blending in with
[00:53:57] Russians or Irish? You know, I mean, like, I'm in Iraq. You know, I'm in like a bright blue eyes and a red beard.
[00:54:03] Oh, it must be a local. Oh, like, so being attacked by leopard. Yeah.
[00:54:08] Chewing it. That's a giant tattooed leopard cons. And so, you know, we just shaved heads and got
[00:54:14] after it. And I mean, you know, like why? It doesn't matter. That doesn't make you a less
[00:54:21] effective, you know, either way. You know, and you could tell that, you know, you could flip side that.
[00:54:26] The other way is like, hey, well, if I'm long hair and beard, what does that matter? It really doesn't.
[00:54:30] But it's the army's battle space. And we respected and loved those guys. They were phenomenal
[00:54:36] guys to work for. So why are we going to do something that is just to pass them off? You know,
[00:54:41] why? Who cares? Like, so we just shaved and, you know, how to keep their heads shaved,
[00:54:45] which is awesome, actually, because your, your helmet stuck to that like a little broo-up hat.
[00:54:50] And I didn't move around a lot. And, you know, and then the Marines that were with this
[00:54:54] Anglical guys, those phenomenal guys, you know, they started doing the same thing. They were shaving
[00:54:59] their heads and my boy Nick Hobbs, you know, he was with us. He's out. He's an awesome stud
[00:55:04] Marine. And, you know, we always joke about he's like, man, like, he's, I just remember like this,
[00:55:09] we all like just would hang out in our free time. And he's like, you come really close with somebody
[00:55:13] when they're standing in there like boxer breeds and you're having to pour water over them
[00:55:17] for them to shower. And we're up on the rooftop right? Like doing bottles of water shower. And it's just
[00:55:23] just funny man, like I miss those days. Yeah. Yeah. And just so everybody knows now, I mean,
[00:55:30] just to kind of give an overview if you don't know what the, what the overall operations that
[00:55:36] were taking place were pushing in the camp carregador, which we've been talking about, which is
[00:55:41] where this building full metal jacket was was on Eastern Ramadi. And the first the 506 was
[00:55:47] responsible for the Eastern Carter Ramadi, the really the southeast, turned in some other sections,
[00:55:52] but where the seal platoon was or the seal squad now is basically a smaller group as a
[00:55:59] work and was inside this area called the Malab district. And as the first the 506 would do
[00:56:04] big clearance operations. You guys would go out and primarily do sniper over watch. Although you,
[00:56:10] of course, you did, you did all their stuff, you did clearances and all that, but the primary
[00:56:13] mission, thank God you went to sniper school because you were the lead sniper and you did a lot of
[00:56:18] sniper work over there. Yeah, it was awesome. We got just right place right time, you know,
[00:56:24] it was just a thought I can really explain. Yeah. Now we worked to get work and we, you know,
[00:56:30] we pushed the envelope constantly, but we were no better than anybody over there, just we were
[00:56:36] just hungry, you know, we wanted it so bad. And I remember when we showed up there,
[00:56:41] the Colonel, you know, won't say his name, but he was awesome, you know, I mean,
[00:56:48] I was she was running for president. Absolutely. I would vote for him and obviously I would vote
[00:56:54] for him instantly. Yeah. He was just unbelievable. Go to campaign trail. Yeah, I can a heartbeat.
[00:56:59] No doubt. No doubt. Anyways, awesome guy and, you know, you talk about communication from
[00:57:06] leadership. You talk about a guy that say his name, by the way. He's a general now. He, it's,
[00:57:12] it's very obvious who it is, the commander of the first the 506 during the battle of Ramadi.
[00:57:16] Okay. A guy by the name of Ronald Clark. Ron Clark was just unbelievable leader and,
[00:57:25] yeah, just an unbelievable leader. Ron Clark 2020. Yeah. But, awesome, awesome guy, but he,
[00:57:32] you know, he had the ability to communicate with us where we wanted to help him. Of course.
[00:57:37] And he was just like, hey, guys, I need help, you know, that's one thing I learned later on
[00:57:42] a life is like, when I was doing sales, I'm like, people don't want to be helped, but they want to
[00:57:46] help. And he knew that, you know, and so he's like, guys, I need help. We're losing guys every day.
[00:57:50] This is what we're going on. Hey, here's your R always. Please go get some. And we're like,
[00:57:56] yes, like this is it. And we had that connection with them. And, you know, just being able to go out and
[00:58:01] work for them was phenomenal. Yeah. And just, just awesome. I mean, the Delta Poutine Commander
[00:58:09] formed such a good relationship with those guys and was, and you know, my relationship with him.
[00:58:17] Yeah. I mean, he was just solid dude and wanted to get after it. Yes, wanted to get after it
[00:58:27] as much as humanly possible. Yeah. And then some and then a little bit more, yeah, and with a little bit more on top of that.
[00:58:34] Right. So yeah, it was great. Great combination. And you actually, you did a lot of those operations too. So yeah,
[00:58:41] kind of the standard, we called standard. It wasn't that standard at the time. They time presence
[00:58:46] which rolls get some. No, and when I did that, I cared the mark 46. Oh, five, five, six belt
[00:58:52] fed action. And it was awesome. You know, you have two on a round of the gun. And I threw another 800
[00:58:57] rounds on my front. I had another 200 in the back. So 12 on a round with body armor, grenades,
[00:59:04] smokes, water. And that's when I was, when I said that story to the beginning, he's like,
[00:59:08] one of those first big operations we did out there. And that's where that's where that's from.
[00:59:12] That's where that memory's from to see you walk and you're being okay. Guess all those way that he
[00:59:17] acted during training with paintball. He's gonna act the same way right here with his life on the
[00:59:21] line. Either walk, it was cool because I either walked a point or rear security because I was
[00:59:26] a machine gunner. You know, and you want a machine gun up front and you want one on the back
[00:59:30] because they're coming from the rear. I just remember that, you know, first push that you were
[00:59:35] talking about the first real firefighter got into just cut these dudes at half. And it was awesome.
[00:59:42] And, you know, everything that Colonel told us was gonna happen happened. Hey, usually within this
[00:59:48] amount of time, friend, they start coming out. Here's what they do. They come around the corner,
[00:59:52] then they distract you and they do this. And this is when they attack happens. And like,
[00:59:57] like, luck work. I mean, these savages were just coming out as exactly how we were told it was
[01:00:01] gonna come out as. Yeah. And that I think that helped us gain even more respect for the army that
[01:00:06] we worked for because they could have just been like, hey, go get some, but they're like, hey,
[01:00:10] go get someone come back. So you can continue getting something. Yeah, know that the turnover
[01:00:14] that we would get from those guys was phenomenal. And the professionalism that they had like what
[01:00:18] you're talking about, like the Charlie Company commander, crazy Joe. Yeah. And he was freaking awesome.
[01:00:26] And one of the things that he would do, and this is when I said, oh, he this guy is all the next level.
[01:00:30] He's doing something that I never even thought of every time he went on patrol in the Malab.
[01:00:35] He was recording it. He was video recording it. And then he'd come back and review every street
[01:00:39] corner, every building, every signpost. He knew everything about it. You know, that city. He took his job
[01:00:46] like so seriously down. It was, it was phenomenal. I remember the Delta Poutine commander had told me
[01:00:52] that he was doing that or we knew that. And it really emphasized us to, hey, we need to know
[01:00:59] this area just as well. And I mean, it didn't take long. I'm not trying to be cocky or anything,
[01:01:05] but within a couple weeks, like I didn't need my map. Like I knew that city. You know, I mean,
[01:01:10] like, now I had the map on me too. So if I needed to look at it and be like, oh, I'm at this building.
[01:01:14] Hey, we're pushing over here. So I can scan real quick and go. But like I knew exactly where
[01:01:20] I was at all times because I, those guys did. And we needed to know that you can't have a delay in
[01:01:25] communication when you're in a firefight, you know, or, you know, or guys are down, you know,
[01:01:29] and there's just, and I went, you know, just, I heard it over the radio and Cowie got shot. Just,
[01:01:38] like, I'll never forget that, you know. And knowing exactly where they're at. And there's a
[01:01:42] little confusion leaving. And I was like, no, we need to go this way. I would generally just
[01:01:46] start running that way, you know, because you just hear Mikey opening up and the badgers trying
[01:01:52] to pull him out. You just, your boys are in a firefight and you just don't know what's going to happen.
[01:01:56] And we're trying to get there as fast as we could and it was just like, we got, I mean, we
[01:02:01] legitimately got there as fast as we could. And it was because we knew we had to be prepared, you know.
[01:02:06] And could you imagine if we didn't know where exactly they were or where we were and you're
[01:02:11] sitting there like, trying to listen to a map, you know, read a map when you hear your boy
[01:02:14] over the radio, like, have been shot and shot and you just hear huge machine gun just going off
[01:02:19] and you're just like, like, but the boys were with, that's between commander, the breath,
[01:02:25] JP, where we, you know, he knew we were out, but he's like, hey, where do we need to go? You know,
[01:02:29] exactly. And you know, because he's a, he could have gotten us there, but he wanted me to
[01:02:33] guess there because I was, no, that's the point. He could write all the things. He doesn't need to be
[01:02:37] worried about that because he's working too radio, trying to get in cat, you know, he's got to
[01:02:41] figure out, like, hey, let's get some tanks in here to mow the city down to get our boy out
[01:02:46] and get them to the hospital, you know, and so the story that JP's talking about right there
[01:02:50] is like, that's first significant gazzle that we had. We had some other guys get fragged a little bit,
[01:02:54] but that was the first one, uh, Kawi, yeah, and Kawi got shot and uh, about losses like, they were
[01:03:01] able to save it now. He's a stud, yeah, still, you know, but uh, she was, she is, or lepros don't
[01:03:11] lose their spots. Yeah, no doubt. He's still warrior inside and out, solid. Yeah, he's a guy that
[01:03:17] tells the story about where, like, when I want to see him in Charlie Medseries all morphed
[01:03:21] up, we rolled in there and I like went to shake his hand, like a bro handshake and in like when
[01:03:28] I grabbed, he reached up, he grabbed my hand and he like pulls me down, right? And he, and he, and he's like,
[01:03:34] in my ear, and he goes, let me stay. Oh yeah, he was, I'm like, I'm like, hey bro, you're about to lose your life.
[01:03:42] I, I didn't tell him that, but I was like, hey bro, let's make sure you get healed up and
[01:03:46] I think you're gonna have to leave. And he's like, just, he's like, let me stay because I don't care.
[01:03:53] I'll, I'll, I'll all, all clean, you know, but this let me stay. And I was like, bro, we're uh,
[01:04:00] it's just going healed up. If you have to go, go, go, heal up, we'll bring it back. And of course
[01:04:04] he and he'll up fast enough because it was pretty jacked up. He got a armor piercing round. It's like the
[01:04:07] entered like down by his knee and exited up by his growing. Yeah, they hit the femur right. Yeah,
[01:04:12] just travel. I mean, he's nasty. He's lucky. He has like, absolutely. He's a legitimate lucky. So
[01:04:18] I've got to get him on the podcast. I'm done. His whole life is awesome. All right. Well, you know what,
[01:04:23] you know what, I was thinking there's one more up that I was thinking of besides the kind of urban
[01:04:28] sniper operations you were doing. Yeah, and presence patrols. You need to cool up that was a little
[01:04:34] bit more like, late for an hour is talking about how, oh, you know what, you know, it's not like
[01:04:40] you're seeing the movies because with these sniper overwatch positions, we'd have a bunch of people with us.
[01:04:43] You know, we have 20, 15, 20, 10, 30 people. You have a lot of people to be in these buildings and
[01:04:49] hold security and all that. It was as in the movies they always portray like two guys out in the middle of
[01:04:54] nowhere. And we always go, yeah, no, that's not that realistic. But you guys actually did go and
[01:04:59] all that. Yeah, we did. It was fun. It was pretty awesome. Yeah, so up in northern Sofia, we're getting
[01:05:08] just hammered by mortars, you know, just constantly. We knew that's where they're coming from.
[01:05:14] So we get dropped off a little outstation north of, you know, the Milab district and we just did a
[01:05:22] patrol. It was a long patrol up there. And remember, you know, we're, you know, hugging the river,
[01:05:28] trying to stay as close to the river as we can. It's, you know, you go from the drive to dead city to
[01:05:34] this lush vegetation and you're trying to patrol through that. I'm just like, oh, dude, hands, like,
[01:05:41] all the guys in Vietnam, all those guys like just got off to it. Like, I've always respected them. But
[01:05:47] that just brought a new level of respect. Like, we have night vision. They didn't. They're nice and
[01:05:53] tired. You know, I was just like, and it is, it is hard for everyone to understand that that area
[01:05:57] north of Ramadi that was like well, irrigated by the river by the refugees. Yeah, it looked like
[01:06:03] Vietnam. Yeah. They had palm trees. It had like patties and dikes and all that stuff. It looked like
[01:06:09] Vietnam. Yeah. And Laf we're talking about the other days. Like, there was like the bull pulling a
[01:06:15] plow type situation straight up. Look like Vietnam. Yeah. It was crazy. So anyways, we go up there
[01:06:21] and mad, it was, we had dogs that were following us. So I can't say his name is still in, but he always
[01:06:30] he carried a suppressed MP5 with subsonic rounds. So he was our dog killer. And that was pretty funny.
[01:06:39] And so he just, you know, these are bad savage dogs. And so we're getting up there, you know,
[01:06:47] barking given away our location. So we, you know, handle them, we keep going. And we get set up at night,
[01:06:53] you know, we get all OPs set up and, you know, we're right on the river. Like, that's around the river
[01:06:58] because we, you know, if we need the boats to come in support us, they can come in. We can get fast.
[01:07:02] That's extra out of there. And, you know, so I mean the badger, we, you know, we have changed out into all of our stuff.
[01:07:11] You know, like we're, we're caring gear for like three or four days, right? Like, it's almost physically impossible to carry that much water.
[01:07:18] Like, and all your ammo and everything else like that. And so we get it done and we change out,
[01:07:25] get on our guillotine suits. And I just remember like thinking like, dude, this is like, yes, it's it.
[01:07:31] Like, you see like the ambient light coming in through the trees where we're all like hidden and
[01:07:35] veged up in the guys who set their perimeter. We're in our, we're in our guillotine suits. And we just,
[01:07:41] boom, and one of the other guys like to use awesome, you know, guys are there and we're turning around.
[01:07:45] He goes, and you go to gone. Like you just disappeared in the dark and, you know, we wouldn't
[01:07:50] got set up, you know. And like I said, you know, the badger was, you know, he was a sniper before,
[01:07:57] you know, so I learned a lot from him. And but this time we both had a good amount of experience of
[01:08:01] actually on the gun and whatnot. And so he was, you know, no, no ego with them. You know, he was just so like
[01:08:07] easy back. He's like, man, this is what we're going to do. What do you think? I'm like, yeah, let's do it.
[01:08:11] And then there's a, I'm like, hey, maybe we should change up that. He's like, all right, yeah, let's do that.
[01:08:15] And so we end up veging up in this area that I mean, it was the only the opportunity for where we had to be,
[01:08:23] wasn't ideal, you know. We legitimately were on the other side of these bushes out in the open.
[01:08:29] It was like thick bushes around us. So we could wedge up and blend in, but we were out there by ourselves.
[01:08:36] And we knew that. And we had after we did a recon, we told the guys, okay, this is the only place we can go.
[01:08:40] This is what you really like the only place we can go to be able to, you know, get these guys. And so our
[01:08:45] contingency is if something happened, we're going to have to wait a while before the guys could actually
[01:08:49] move to a position to provide cover fire and, you know, everything else like that. And we're like,
[01:08:54] all right, cool, you know, not a big deal. Yeah. And so like, cool, we have our pistols and sniper rifles,
[01:08:59] you know what I mean? And so we go off, we get veged up, we, you know, help veging each other, get ourselves
[01:09:04] into position, raffles are laying like kind of underneath the, the drag bags, which are veged up.
[01:09:09] And we had our pistols out just because I mean, there's, I don't know, people can't see us right now,
[01:09:14] but there's the distance from me to you. We had people walking past us. And it was just one of those things.
[01:09:19] So three, four, five meters away. Yeah, five meters. There's, there's people walking by. Yeah,
[01:09:24] just walking by us. And we're out there, you know, all throughout the night, the day, you know,
[01:09:28] it's one of those things. We're like, I have to pee. You know, you're not trying to drink too much water.
[01:09:33] You don't have to use it by the same time. You're like, it's hot. So I need to luckily, since it is that hot,
[01:09:38] you're in a gilly suit, you're sweat most of it out anyways, but, you know, cold time to add a piece.
[01:09:42] So you like slightly roll over, dig a hole, relieve yourself, cover back up, and lay back on top of it,
[01:09:48] you know, and it was good though. You know, we actually got, got mordered at that position.
[01:09:56] And we, we got lucky. You know, we definitely had our angels there because, you know, it messed up
[01:10:04] our radios temporarily. And everything around us was just kind of tore up. Look, all the bushes
[01:10:10] and everything. And we didn't get hit by one thing. And, you know, it was just like, hey, what
[01:10:16] would we do? Do we stay here? Do we move them? Well, our radios rejected up. So, you know, luckily,
[01:10:22] you know, they didn't move us, you know, it's starting to lay down, cover fire while we're trying
[01:10:26] to move back to them. So we just waited a little bit, make sure like we weren't trying to get
[01:10:32] suckered out, you know, ambushed or anything. And then we just slowly made our way back to the
[01:10:37] group. We told what happened. I mean, dude, me and him were pretty jacked up from that. Like, we're
[01:10:41] thrown up like just the blast and everything else. Like, 120s, you think? I did honest, I have no idea.
[01:10:47] There's a couple of them. But like, if they rocked you that hard, then they were big. We were throwing
[01:10:52] up the whole patrol back. Oh, and we were all throwing up. We evolved, we were all tabled in our
[01:11:00] urine and stool after that. And it was just, I mean, I was, but you know, whatever. I mean,
[01:11:05] we got the guys and, you know, we called in counter stuff and we came back and everyone was happy
[01:11:12] because they didn't get more the base thing getting harder for a while. So I remember after that,
[01:11:16] the laundry guys, you know, these guys were like doing a laundry. Like, they're so stoked that we did
[01:11:22] that. We're like, man, we were stoked. We got to do that, you know, the name, that's awesome.
[01:11:27] They would come and like, come and pick up our laundry for us and we're like, dude, oh, we're good.
[01:11:32] Like, this is awkward. Like, you know, I mean, like, you know, go pick up your boys, laundry. Like,
[01:11:37] we're, we're good. But it was, it was really cool to be able to do that. You know, something completely
[01:11:41] outside the box that we hadn't been doing the whole time. So we were able to go from, and it just came
[01:11:47] from good planning. We had, like I said, we had solid leadership. So we had a good plans in place.
[01:11:51] Yeah. Yeah. And it was the amount of sustained combat operations for the whole past,
[01:12:00] it was was, was damn. It was an incredible opt-up. Yeah. It was just like, up, up, up, up,
[01:12:08] every day to one unit, two unit, three elements going out for us. It's all the time. Yeah.
[01:12:14] So we start getting towards the end of this deployment. And obviously, Mark got killed on August 2nd.
[01:12:30] And, and then September 29th, Mike, you get killed. Yeah. And we're, I mean, we're,
[01:12:48] we're not done operating by any stretch because we get a bunch more operations. But it was definitely winding
[01:12:53] down at that point. Yeah. We had to start thinking about redeployment. Yeah. And, uh, I mean,
[01:13:01] we're all packed up. I remember because we weren't out at, uh, at a regular anymore. Yeah. We had
[01:13:07] guys that were, you were one of the guys that had come back from Craig Doris. We started trying to
[01:13:11] filter guys back. I was solid. So mad at it. Come back. You know, I think about every day when I
[01:13:16] filled this finger, because like, you know, I cut my finger down to the bone. And, uh, they actually had to
[01:13:22] cause back me out, uh, to go get surgery on my finger because I thought I was going to lose it. Because
[01:13:28] we tried to work on it across the street at the aid station, which those guys are phenomenal,
[01:13:32] combat medics over there. And when they were like, dude, we need a bird for you. You're going to lose your
[01:13:37] finger, um, the multiple-tune commander and the badger were like, dude, we out. Yeah, absolutely.
[01:13:43] You know, so I went back, wrapped some gear. And, um, yeah, I feel that every day.
[01:13:53] Well, just hard, um, like that was the only op I wasn't on. You know, every time we went out,
[01:13:59] I was set a group prayer for the guys. It didn't matter if it was like, hey, we have to go
[01:14:03] right now. The hospital didn't come under or the badger or somewhere to that, hey, we got to get
[01:14:07] JP real quick. And I'd say a group prayer and we'd roll. And that was the only one that I wasn't
[01:14:12] a part of. And, uh, you know, my IQ was my ADUP Gunner. You know, he was always next me when I was
[01:14:19] doing my sniper overwatches. And he was next me when I was rocking point, you know, because you need
[01:14:25] to ADUP Gunner. And JP might have gotten a little crazy towards the last half of the deployment and
[01:14:29] started to walk in point with 300 win mag. And my IQ was there. And I wasn't there, you know. And
[01:14:35] I don't know. So, well, the good news is you got to go home with them. Yes, yeah, got to
[01:14:48] escort his body home. Which was, unlike anything else, you know, you're like, cool. You know,
[01:14:59] you get to be a part of that. But also the same time, you like, this is really shitty to be a part
[01:15:04] of, you know what I mean? I don't know. It was like, yeah, I wanted to be there and make sure everything
[01:15:09] went well. And I just remember us flying back and just just staring at the flag over his coffin,
[01:15:17] you know. And some guys would, you know, lay next to the casket. We lean up against it.
[01:15:23] Yeah, it was just getting bring him home was important to be a part of that. But, you know,
[01:15:36] everybody felt so much guilt. And we all try to keep each other accountable on that. You know,
[01:15:43] it's like, amen. This is a war. You know, Mike, you saved a lot of lives. You know. And we made an impact
[01:15:51] over there. And so it wasn't like it was for nothing. And what he did, I mean, the guy's lives that he
[01:15:59] saved, they all now have families and kids, you know, a couple of them had kids. Mike had the
[01:16:07] easy out. And just like he always did, he never took the easy road. He took the harder road. The road
[01:16:15] that would actually make a difference. And this time was a life of those, of those guys around him.
[01:16:21] And it was just the ride back. I mean, you just think about all that. And yeah, it was also kind of a
[01:16:31] blur as well. You know, like I remember, you know, just like just rubbing the flag, you know.
[01:16:39] The flag's always been very important to me. I remember graduating how we can just sing the
[01:16:44] flag fly and then you hear it in the national anthem. And just sing it over one of your boy's
[01:16:52] caskets was just brought a new level of connection and love for that amazing flag that we have.
[01:17:00] And I sure, I just out there. I just would just rub the flag, just rub it, you know, because I had
[01:17:07] flags that I carried with me on every deployment, every mission. I still do that sometimes. Like my
[01:17:12] wife Amanda will just I'll be doing something and I'll find a flag and I'll just kind of rub it.
[01:17:19] And she's like she knows, you know, she's like that's like my little trigger, you know, I'm just
[01:17:23] my trigger point. I'm just, I just started thinking about things again. And you know, I've taught my kids
[01:17:31] Aiden, Korra and Nola to love and respect the flag. Like whenever they see a flag, they're like
[01:17:39] Daddy, Daddy, it's your favorite thing. Daddy is Daddy's favorite thing, you know, they love
[01:17:44] getting American flag t-shirts and shorts. They saw some American flag cowboy boots. Of course,
[01:17:50] my daughters want those now. And I've been honest with my kids, you know, my boy Aiden, I call my
[01:17:57] bonus boy. He's my stepson, I love him just like mine. You know, he asked me about the flag and
[01:18:04] why is it so important to me. And I told him, I'm like, you know, it was it's been draped over a lot of
[01:18:09] caskets of my buddies that didn't make it home that were killed overseas. He's such a special kid.
[01:18:15] He was just like, that makes sense. And, you know, he just he's a flag and I explained to him why
[01:18:22] flags at half mass. And he's even said, hey, I'm sorry, that flags at half mass. I can't
[01:18:28] he doesn't know why, but he knows something happened. And he knows what it does to me and guys like you,
[01:18:33] whatever, the flags at half mass something horrible has happened. And he knows that. You know, and so
[01:18:40] I just remember, you know, we, I think he went to bestead Bethesda and then we continued on to San Diego.
[01:18:51] And just tried to mentally reset for a couple of days, you know, your back in San Diego.
[01:18:56] So it's awesome, but it just didn't, you know, because you knew you're waiting to receive your
[01:19:05] one of your boys' bodies, you know. So it didn't matter where we were. It didn't matter where
[01:19:11] in San Diego. Like, we didn't want to be in San Diego. We want to be back overseas, still, you know.
[01:19:20] And when we went to Habanía to put him on the bird. And
[01:19:32] he was open. Yeah. And we were just finally in by. And I remember you were ahead of me. We're
[01:19:57] walking into like a mil van. It wasn't like a one way thing. It was a cold mil van. It's a cold mil van.
[01:20:04] And you were ahead of me. You were one, you're literally right ahead of me. And you walked in.
[01:20:13] And you know, you, you, you know, you took your last look at Mikey, you put your hand on the
[01:20:18] on the casket. And you turned around and I was right, you know, we were just looking at each other.
[01:20:26] And when I saw your face, the looking your face, I was, I felt super worried
[01:20:48] about you because I could tell that you were tore up. And I said to myself, hey, man,
[01:21:01] Jaco, you need to get your fucking game together right now and be strong.
[01:21:05] And you were. And that's what we needed. And guys like the Delta Platoon Commander,
[01:21:19] super, super strong for us. But you saw them. I mean, everybody's hurting, you know, it was,
[01:21:24] you know, that deployment you can't not be close with somebody, you know, and especially someone
[01:21:28] like Mikey, man, like he, he knows I liked my sleep. And so he would make sure I didn't get my sleep.
[01:21:36] Just because Mikey didn't sleep. And we were, you know, we were everyone's right next to each other.
[01:21:42] You know, I was back in this corner, he was over in this other corner. There's a sheet of
[01:21:45] plywood between the two of us. And you know, he was always like, what's up homes? He's like,
[01:21:50] okay, homes is sleeping. I'm like, yeah, I'm trying to homes. He's like, he's like cool. He'd open up the
[01:21:58] tarp, you know, the little candy, you know, tarp that I had over for my door and just come in and
[01:22:04] sound the edge of the bed. I'm like, what's up, buddy? He's like, nothing. Just want, you know,
[01:22:10] he just talked about family stuff and you could tell that was always on his mind. You know,
[01:22:15] and he's like, hey, you want to watch the newest episode of thirsty traveler? All right,
[01:22:22] that means a thirsty traveler. I was like, no, but I'm awake. So I guess we're going to watch
[01:22:27] the thirsty traveler because there's a couple times where I play a cable. I'm trying to sleep,
[01:22:32] like, just go do your own thing, you know what I mean? And he had a little hole that he carved into
[01:22:36] the plywood between our rooms. And he would crack Kim lights and push them through. They'd fall
[01:22:43] right next to where I was sleeping. You know, I'm like, I'm going to sprinkle this guy,
[01:22:47] but it was my boy, my key, you know? Like, it was my boy. You know, we were close in the
[01:22:53] work up. And then obviously, you know, we should ride three bikes together. And anyway, so deployment
[01:23:00] he was just fun. I just, I say all that said, is he did that with everybody? Yeah. It was hard
[01:23:05] not to be close to him. It was, you know, there's a different connection when you're at,
[01:23:10] when you're legitimately at in war with your boys. You know, that's why all the army and marine
[01:23:16] guys that we've served with, like, in time I see, I still see some of them once in a while. I randomly
[01:23:21] ran into one of them up in Ohio. And I was just like, dude. And I just, I was up there on a
[01:23:27] cell strip and I just ditched myself, same guys. You know, because I wanted to hang out with them,
[01:23:31] you know, I just, and there's been other trips where I, same thing, another one, my boy Nick
[01:23:35] Hobbs, you know, ran into him. I was with my cell steam and I was like, come on, you know, it's just,
[01:23:40] just that connection is just, it's hard to explain. I mean, you guys know how it is doing
[01:23:43] you just to combat sports where you're wrong with guys and you, you legitimately, you're helping
[01:23:47] guys cut weight and just all this stuff. Like, there's that bond in that connection.
[01:23:52] Take that times up by a thousand and then add some more and that's the connection you get with
[01:23:58] these boys and calm that. So it's just real hard. I mean, in part of it is, that's just who I am.
[01:24:04] Like, I, I remember my heart and my sleeve. I just connect and attach to people very closely and,
[01:24:09] you know, my key is just, it was, it was really hard and that's the look that I saw in your face.
[01:24:16] That's the look that I saw in your face. I was like, and I know, I mean, obviously, I know what
[01:24:21] kind of personality you have. I knew what kind of personality you have and I saw that look of
[01:24:26] devastation. And it was the first time because we'd been together. I mean, we, we were, we heard the news.
[01:24:31] We, you know, but it was the first time that I saw your, your look, where it was almost like that
[01:24:35] was the first time that you really realized that Mike, he was gone. That was it. Yeah. I'm right
[01:24:41] around. But no, I'm the look in your face. I was like, okay, he is, he is devastated right now.
[01:24:49] And that's what I thought to myself. And again, I mean, I, I don't, I saw you as my little brother.
[01:24:56] I mean, for sure, I don't mean that in any kind of derogatory way in any sense. But I literally saw
[01:25:02] you as like my blood, little brother. Yeah. And so to see you just devastated like that.
[01:25:08] And I knew that you were looking at me like, well, okay, what's Jocco gonna do? And I knew that
[01:25:12] I knew what I had to do was I had to show like, listen, this is what we do. This is who we are.
[01:25:18] Get your shit together, Jocco. And, and handle this. And, not saying I didn't, you know,
[01:25:25] I'm not saying I was a robot. But I knew that I had to maintain strength. You have to
[01:25:33] define that so that you guys could go, all right, we're gonna be okay. What have we, what's been
[01:25:41] pounded in termine since, but when the fight, like, if you're gonna fight, when the fight,
[01:25:47] when the fire fight, right? And right then that our fight was, you had to keep the guys together.
[01:25:52] You know, that's why I thought it was self-adbuddied, right? You get shot, you get hurt,
[01:25:56] you take care of yourselves because if you're in a firefight, your boys are going to win the
[01:26:00] firefight first before they can take care of you. That's just part of it. That's how we operate.
[01:26:06] And you had to do that. You know, I mean, that you're in that highest leadership position,
[01:26:14] you just, and the same thing, like, I had to get myself together, you know, just because
[01:26:18] other guys in the boutune, like, I thought, I really felt like they looked up to me as well. And,
[01:26:23] you know, especially after that deployment, you know, I just, you had to keep yourself together, you know,
[01:26:28] I was just, it's just a weird, weird situation, you know, I was first time I ever experienced that,
[01:26:33] you know, at that level. So,
[01:26:39] no, and then, you know, obviously, Mike is feeling what you were at. I obviously wasn't there
[01:26:47] because like you said, we were still, you know, most of us were still in Iraq. Yeah. And had to
[01:26:52] had to finish out the deployment and do the turnover with the guys that were coming in from team five.
[01:26:58] And, you know, that was another thing was just, you know, I mean, I talked about all the time, like,
[01:27:04] even when we were talking prior to recording today, you know, I was like, hey, this is,
[01:27:09] this is kind of blurry to me. Like, I was asking you who went home with you. I mean, I was, like,
[01:27:15] okay, you know, these guys are gone. Okay, here's what I got to do that and focus on the next thing. I, like,
[01:27:20] couldn't get dragged down or think about that anymore because I had to, like you said, I had to do my
[01:27:25] work, I had to do my job. And, you know, I think that's the good thing is for guys that were
[01:27:32] able to go to the funeral and everything. It's like, you get to get to get that, like,
[01:27:36] bit of closure. Yeah. Well, a lot of, you know, the guys that were still over there, we were just,
[01:27:40] we didn't get that. You know, until we got home, yeah, we got home. And, you know, get to go see
[01:27:44] Mike, he's grave and, and meet with his family and get to know his family and get to be together,
[01:27:51] again, as a, as a trooping. So, all those things are kind of how you, you, you, you go from that
[01:27:57] anguish. Yeah. Well, I should say for me, the buried anguish of, you know, that you have to vary
[01:28:04] on deployment when you get home, you go, okay. Now, we can get this stuff out and discuss it. And at least,
[01:28:11] maybe not discuss it. I don't need to say anything to you, JP. I don't need to talk to you about it.
[01:28:15] You know, I know, but we can, we can settle it, you know, and I think when guys don't do that,
[01:28:22] when guys don't think about it, when they keep it buried all the time, that's when it can be
[01:28:28] really problematic is, you know, you, you got to, you got to, you got to face the fact and you
[01:28:34] got to be okay with it, eventually that, hey, this is what happened. Yeah. And, you know, when we're
[01:28:40] talking about like, who's, I guess you could say, you know, who's to blame? And I told this to
[01:28:47] multiple people. Matter of fact, I told everybody, you want to blame somebody? You blame the
[01:28:53] fucking moust. Yeah. They're the ones that did this. Absolutely. Yeah. That's what happened. Yeah.
[01:28:58] And what we're going to do is concl more of them. Continue to go kill more of them. Yeah.
[01:29:02] Yeah. So that deployment obviously was a, was a, was a game changer for us, for a huge impact
[01:29:16] on our lives and, and, you know, everything really that we're doing to this day. And you,
[01:29:22] you got home, I moved over to, you know, take over the training command there. You started another
[01:29:28] work up, but you got hurt. Yeah. So, you know, I was just, the desert, a smoked, you know, just,
[01:29:36] you know, come home flat deployment, you know, initially just still kind of messed up. We're not
[01:29:40] still kind of, I was messed up with the whole Mikey thing. I remember I went and told Yarbara
[01:29:44] was a cat. I just want to go pick on like just let me reset. He's like, okay. And then he, he knows.
[01:29:51] And he knows me. He's like, all right, cool. Yeah. Roger that knowing that's not what he's going to
[01:29:56] do. And I'm driving back up to Sacramento on leave. He's like, hey, I know you said you want to go to
[01:30:02] pick on, but yeah, we need to get after it again. So you're going to go that rack again. Or
[01:30:09] our possibly have cast hand. I was like, get Roger that. Yeah, I don't even know why I said that.
[01:30:14] You know, like it was just as long as things were just like, you know, no good to be
[01:30:18] pick on. Go to Thailand. Stay in Delta, too. No, they switched it all up. So I remember that, but they
[01:30:23] were so surprised that stayed there. Yeah. So no, I was going to be. I'll for a problem too.
[01:30:30] So after our deployment with TU Ruser, they took it instead of keeping it together, because
[01:30:37] there was all this experience in this two-partons instead of keeping it together, they just split
[01:30:42] everybody apart in a different pattern. So other patterns would have these guys in their
[01:30:46] patterns with a ton of combat experience. Guided pest. Yeah, everyone was pest. Like, super
[01:30:51] pest. Yeah. So we start work up. And my shoulder out of joint, all right, one.
[01:30:59] I was a bad one. Not like I'd done that multiple times before. Like, I mean, we're out at
[01:31:03] Nylon. You know, doing our desert warfare, getting it on. And my shoulder came out and I just
[01:31:08] relocate the shoulder. And you know, so I cut off a little bit and keep going. And this was a bad one.
[01:31:13] And so, ended up having to have surgery. That's all right, cool. You know, you have surgery. You'll
[01:31:18] miss a little bit of work up. But, you know, we'll catch it up and we'll get going. And when I had surgery,
[01:31:23] they punctured my break on nerve or did some damage to it. So I would actually drop stuff.
[01:31:29] And, um, that can't be an activity. You put it on when you're dropping stuff. You know, randomly,
[01:31:35] because I was at rehab. And I just, I couldn't grab on to stuff or I would just drop stuff.
[01:31:40] So then they pulled me. And I went to Buds. Um, for a little bit as an endoc Instructor.
[01:31:47] And, um, a good time over there. Learned a lot about, you know, just professionalism and,
[01:31:56] you know, things change and evolve and, you know, um, so when I was a trade-up with you guys,
[01:32:02] and, um, you and, uh, Z, you guys pulled me over there. And it was awesome. You know,
[01:32:08] stepped into, uh, assaults. And then we're doing all the CCC and Error warfare training. And
[01:32:14] trade-it was awesome. You know, I'm working for you again, which is, I'm like, yes, we're getting
[01:32:20] after as it should be. Yes, absolutely. And, um, I learned a lot at trade-it about
[01:32:28] good leadership and bad leadership. You know, there's some guys that trade it, um, that
[01:32:32] hadn't really done anything. And, Jocco was pushing those guys out of there. Not in a bad way,
[01:32:38] but just like, hey man, like, you're not gonna, you know, the war's really being gone on for a while.
[01:32:44] Training, you know, combat is getting intense. Training needs to be intense. And it needs to come
[01:32:49] from guys that actually have experience. Or are willing to listen to the guys that have the experience
[01:32:55] and apply that, you know. And so you really shaped and changed the platform of training for all the
[01:33:01] West Coast seal teams. And so I was super proud to be a part of that. And, um, I learned a lot
[01:33:05] about leadership and growth. You know, I learned good bosses and bad bosses. And, um, actually
[01:33:11] ended up becoming the LPO for, for, for, out. Well, I guess it's now called South, you know,
[01:33:15] Siren, all the urban warfare training for a year. And that was awesome. I got to learn
[01:33:19] actually how to work with guys and actually manage guys, you know, effectively like, and, um,
[01:33:25] which, it's funny, you know, you get on the outside and you're like, man, what you're doing
[01:33:30] the outside is no big deal, you know, compared to the teams where you're like, and charge with like
[01:33:33] 100 plus role players and 17 instructors and logistics for travel and hotel and make sure all the
[01:33:39] training is set up and managing the guys that Nubi talking with the other units that we're talking
[01:33:43] to and at this time, I'm still only 24, you know, maybe 25, I don't think that goes 25.
[01:33:51] Oh, no, it was 25, you know. And maybe. And, uh, so I just learned a lot about that and, um,
[01:33:58] that was pretty cool. And then, uh, I spent a lot of time at CCC, which every good team guy loves,
[01:34:04] or urban warfare, land warfare, and CCC, you know, and, um, you know, I had some really good bosses over there
[01:34:12] as well. And my boy, Chuckie, he still ends all, respect his name as well. We actually lived together
[01:34:20] and I worked for him. And that was a huge lesson of, you know, which we all have in the teams
[01:34:28] is balancing personal and professional because the teams are very tight, you know, you go out and
[01:34:32] drinking with your bosses, hang out with them and then, uh, work the next day. But different when
[01:34:37] you're living with somebody. And, um, man, I was late for work when they were on the road. And I was
[01:34:44] like, I came out and run a little late. He's like, better not be late, you know. Something's long
[01:34:49] of those lines. So I get there. Like a minute late, right? Dude, I had a bomb like restriction.
[01:34:58] Not like really fallen restriction like military thanks about it, but it was like,
[01:35:02] he was like, yeah, he's got to do this. The base I was, uh, or go to you guy where I got to do all the
[01:35:08] work, you know. And, and it was good though, you know, he is, I expected that of him. Like I knew,
[01:35:14] like I made a mistake. I got to pay the man and he, you know, I put him in a heart position,
[01:35:19] you know, which was unfair to him. And, you know, you can't be doing that to your boys, you know,
[01:35:25] like you can't take advantage of like, oh, my buddies, my boss, I can do this. No, my buddies,
[01:35:28] my boss, I'm going to work even harder for him. And, you know, that's what, yeah, I was again,
[01:35:35] well upset with myself. And, yeah, there's a couple of times like he had asked me down and we just
[01:35:39] talk, he said, come in, you know, he can't be doing this stuff. He need to be focused on this. And,
[01:35:44] he really helped with my professional development, you know, really helped him, helped me learn a lot
[01:35:49] of stuff that I was able to apply to the outside and be successful. And, you know, he's still a great
[01:35:55] friend of mine. He's got a beautiful family and it's just, it's awesome seeing him grow over the years.
[01:36:01] It's still kicking ass into the team. He's a legit boss. Like the guy,
[01:36:06] top of the guy is like, I really want to work for him, you know, and so I just took a lot of the
[01:36:10] stuff that I learned from him and I've applied it to the outside and it's been awesome.
[01:36:15] And you, I mean, you ended up on your outside because you made this decision to, to get out.
[01:36:20] Yeah. And I'm a Quitter. Yeah, the joke is in the seal teams. If, you know, no matter what you've
[01:36:28] done or how long you've been in for, if you ever get out of the seal teams, you're a Quitter.
[01:36:32] So, that's what they tell you. So, you decide to get out a bit, pretty much based on your
[01:36:40] family, right? Yeah, I got out. You know, I'd already had a failed marriage. You know, I have a son,
[01:36:47] a tear and California that I'll ever get to see because his mom is awesome. And, um, you know,
[01:36:54] I'm at Amanda and just, I mean, she's the love of my life. She's amazing. She deals with me and
[01:37:01] deals with me very well. I give her big props for that. Absolutely. Nice work Amanda. Yeah, she's, you know,
[01:37:08] you watched me be 300, you know, the queen. Yeah, that's her, right, 100%. You know,
[01:37:13] and, um, you know, she was going to move to San Diego with, uh, with Adon. I was super fired up
[01:37:19] about that and then, uh, she was pregnant. I'm like, okay, cool. I'm still still, still happening and then
[01:37:25] pregnant with twins. She's like, er, nope. I'm not leaving a mom and my support group.
[01:37:32] I remember I was so mad and it caused a lot of issues because I held onto that anger longer than I
[01:37:37] should have. You know, and, um, I just so angry and upset, but now that I look at it, you know,
[01:37:42] she's a small town Mississippi girl. Yeah. I mean, she'd gorgeous, you know, she's awesome,
[01:37:48] but she's a small town girl and, you know, sometimes we're back home, she'll be driving, just like,
[01:37:52] how you can drive, you know, because she doesn't want to drive in the traffic on, you know, the road,
[01:37:56] the main road. I think about that. I'm like, that's like no traffic here in San Diego. So it
[01:38:02] wouldn't have been fair. And then all of a sudden, it's like, for me to expect her to move to San Diego
[01:38:06] with Aiden and, hey, you know, I'm taking him away from his dad, so that wasn't really fair.
[01:38:12] Yeah. And I could relate to that. And, you know, her parents are awesome. So then also in
[01:38:19] her friends, you know, she should get support group and it's like, you know, I was just like, man,
[01:38:25] and a couple of things didn't work out when I had screened, you know, I had another surgery
[01:38:30] when I was out. Yeah, I just took it as, hey, you know, this is maybe the time I need to move on.
[01:38:34] It's a good chapter in my life. An amazing chapter that I'll never forget and it's very important
[01:38:38] who helped mold me as a man. But I absolutely was not going, I was not going to be there for
[01:38:45] Amanda and the kids, you know. And so I got out and there's a lot of guys are upset about that in the
[01:38:51] teams, you know, and don't be. Yeah, you and a couple of other guys. A couple of guys are still active,
[01:38:58] you know, but, um, it's like I got out and, um, there's a rough transition. You go from
[01:39:05] I'm born and raised in Sacramento, California and lived in San Diego, my whole life or I mean,
[01:39:12] I'm sorry, lived in San Diego the whole time in the Navy. And then I'm in North Mississippi.
[01:39:19] Yeah, awesome. Just I just, man, you talk about culture shock. It's cool to go visit, you know,
[01:39:26] I used to always love when we go out there for work, but you're leaving after two weeks. And now
[01:39:31] all of a sudden I'm living there. And it was just nothing bad with the South or where I live. It just
[01:39:36] for me, it was a huge change. And I go from being a seal to now I'm doing sales at a financial job,
[01:39:44] a financial company, which of course I get after it because you have to provide for your family,
[01:39:50] but just the transition and I made the mistake of not reaching out to people and asking and helping,
[01:39:56] you know, maybe like, um, one of my boys is still in, Lowe's, you know,
[01:40:01] goodbye his little nickname. I did reach out to him a couple of times and he was real solid.
[01:40:05] He would reach out to me. But I came out and how you doing? How was J.P. really doing? You know,
[01:40:11] and I talked about stuff, he was like, man, that's not good, bro. Like we need to, you know,
[01:40:15] whatever. And there's times where he's like, all right, well, you know, you just know what you need to
[01:40:18] do. And, you know, Chuck E. Same thing, Chuck E would reach out to me as well and he'd come out there
[01:40:23] for training and he'd come over and hang out with the family and the kids, you know, he's my boy, you know.
[01:40:28] And so I found a gym and a new MMA gym was opened up like right around the corner from the house.
[01:40:34] And I was like, boom, yes, you know what I mean? And came really close with a couple of guys,
[01:40:42] Jake and Zach under what they're actually from Union City, same city, Aaron Vaughn was born and raised in.
[01:40:47] So they already knew about him and I didn't tell him what I did, you know, they had no idea what I did.
[01:40:54] And so, yeah, they're like, you know, city, I was like, oh, I know Aaron Vaughn and they're like,
[01:40:59] how, how do you know, Aaron Vaughn? I'm like, are you so working together like,
[01:41:04] what do you mean you're so worked with them? You know, and I told him like, what, oh, cool.
[01:41:08] And, you know, a couple other fighters from a gym, Joe Pass, Andy and Teddy, like just bump voice,
[01:41:14] you know, like out there, they became like, they became my team guy buddies out there, like they're cut from the same cloth as us,
[01:41:19] you know, and just down to earth guys that, with Jimmy, always, they have my back out there. And they,
[01:41:25] it was weird because I never really explained much to them about my time and the teams, but they knew us having a hard time transitioning.
[01:41:32] And they were just there for me, you know, they just there at the gym, they'd push me to my limits,
[01:41:36] you know, they're like, hey, you're gonna start fighting. I'm like, awesome. You know, and so, you know,
[01:41:40] have seven amateur MMA fights and just a challenge of cutting weight and just training with the boys and sparring him.
[01:41:49] You know, I do it as a stress reliever, which is funny, you know, because like you watch some of my YouTube videos
[01:41:54] and the analysis is like, yeah, and Jeremiah Patrick says he trains as a stress reliever. That's unique.
[01:42:01] Like they don't know how to like, you know, they don't have a reaction because everyone else is like,
[01:42:04] I want to be the next USC champion and I had a horrible life and I hate my parents and I'm just, you know,
[01:42:10] I'm like, yeah, I have an awesome life. I make really good money and I just want to have a little
[01:42:16] stress reliever, you know, it's funny, you know, like, you know, I wasn't fighting to turn pro because I need to make money.
[01:42:22] I was just like, there's a lot of stress reliever. And it was being around guys that were like
[01:42:27] mind is fighting. Yes, there's fighting is fun. And sometimes when you can't get a machine gun to fight with,
[01:42:33] it's fun to fight with your fist. Yeah. And it's fun. You know, it's it's in your, it's in your
[01:42:39] parts party or instinct as a human. Yeah. No, it should be. Well, yeah, it's not. Yeah. I guess,
[01:42:45] I guess for some people it's not, but for the people that I know it's part of their instinct as a human
[01:42:50] is you should be able to defend yourself. You want to be able to fight, you know, you should.
[01:42:54] I mean, you watch little kids, little six year old seven year old kids after you bring any random
[01:42:59] six year old or seven year old boy into a jujitsu place and put them on a room with padded walls and
[01:43:05] padded floor and you say do whatever you want they're going to end up attacking each other. That's the
[01:43:09] way it works. That was my daughter's like, I got on my jujitsu two weeks before they turned three.
[01:43:14] Nice. As most of the owners of German, Joel, he's a former team one guy. He's a part owner of the
[01:43:20] gym. He's a five time world champion. And I believe it's ghee four time world champion, no ghee.
[01:43:26] I don't think he's had one point scored on him in the last five years. Yes, I saw it. Just bringing
[01:43:31] the team guy reputation into jujitsu world. You know, that's it. Just tell us it. Joel,
[01:43:38] Gingery. I don't know. Team one. He's so solid. How old is he's 50 something? How
[01:43:44] how do I know him? He must have been the teams are the same. I mean, I was at team one for like eight
[01:43:50] years. Maybe it's when you went to the East Coast. I don't know. Anyway, super solid guy. I remember
[01:43:55] you when you started when you started fighting. Yeah. And you were like, I'm going to fight. You
[01:44:01] know, because you said me text too. Yeah. You said me a text like, I'm going to, I'm starting to train.
[01:44:06] And then like a month later you're like, dude, I'm I'm getting into it. And then a month later you're like,
[01:44:10] bro, I can't believe I did train with you all the time. Because you guys are trained in this
[01:44:14] list. But like, I'll train with anybody any time. And you would train with me like once a month
[01:44:19] when you could have been training with me seven days a week. I was furious. I was, I was, I was laughing
[01:44:25] inside and I was also pissed and I was like, I tell people that. Oh my god. So I basically
[01:44:30] could have been doing a Jitu since 2005. Yeah. Jocco. Yeah. And people like, what? I'm like, I could have,
[01:44:37] but you know, I just, I guess I never really got the like the taste like I like to stand. I don't know.
[01:44:43] I'm an idiot. That's why I did an episode. You know, actually, and then get yourself, you called yourself
[01:44:47] an idiot when you were talking about your youth before. And I realized that when I bring
[01:44:53] team guys on here, when they talk about like their past, the term idiot comes up all the time. I know
[01:44:58] I do it all by my calls and idiot. Yeah. And Tony's like, I was an idiot. It's just like classic,
[01:45:04] you know. You know, I mean, like, and then when I tell people like, yeah, you know, since 2005,
[01:45:08] Jocco could have been rolling in training all the time. And then when you opened your gym,
[01:45:12] you know, guys like echo and his brother and do you list her and you know, I was there. But I was
[01:45:17] always doing the stand up stuff. And I was doing Jitu just to do Jitu. I didn't do anything
[01:45:23] in the M. A. Stuff, you know. Now look back at it. Just like, Jitu made me get upset about it. Sometimes,
[01:45:29] I'll tell people like, yeah, and they're like, you're an idiot. You know, like, like, Jocco,
[01:45:34] Dean Lister, and you know, like, just whatever. I mean, hey, everything happens for a reason. I mean,
[01:45:40] I've done pretty well so far. I'm six and one. And, you know, the guys out there are solid.
[01:45:45] Yeah, solid. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I was a week straight last night.
[01:45:48] Yeah, I had done anything like 60 months. Yeah. Yeah. That, that injury went into my last fight.
[01:45:55] You know, my coaches were like, down pulling you. And Joel, dude, he's such a legit badass. Just
[01:46:00] tough. Like, people are terrified of him. But he has the other side that people don't realize
[01:46:05] team guys have where he's like, hey, I'm pulling you from this fight. Like, I can't let you get hurt.
[01:46:09] You know, like the nurturing, like, you got to take care of your boys. Because I went into it with
[01:46:13] a facial fracture from here, done to hear all these teeth are still numb from it. I deviated
[01:46:20] septum crush sinuses and a herniated disc in my neck. What'd you do getting to fight with a bear?
[01:46:26] Yeah, sparring Teddy Holder. Oh, you know, knocked out Chago Silva. Yeah, that's one of my boys in
[01:46:31] Andy, Yuruk, Bellator fighter. I mean, Zach, all these guys. I mean, just they get after it, you know.
[01:46:37] And, um, yeah, I hope they get after a little bit less of your sparring sessions for now on. Yeah, we learned
[01:46:43] that well, and also it was pretty, that's an old school man. I'm telling you now, that is old school.
[01:46:48] You don't need to spar like that. No, we know that. And, you know, in the guys have changed up.
[01:46:52] Yeah, so legitimately changed up because guys were getting knocked out and fights. And, you know,
[01:46:56] we could talk that could be a whole none the podcast, but they get really changed it up.
[01:47:01] And so, but I, you know, when I got the call for that fight, I thought not to
[01:47:07] close before that with this guy, a tough, tough guy. You know, ours was like a grudge match.
[01:47:15] You know, everyone thought we hated each other. And, you know, we just, do we sold so many tickets
[01:47:19] or is insane? Like we each sold over 110 tickets. So you're like, you're like the
[01:47:23] Conner McGregor of Amateur of fighting. The Conner McGregor, Amateur of fighting in the mid-South.
[01:47:27] Yeah, mid-South things. It's like the next big thing. And that's like, you know, and so
[01:47:31] it's something you guys mean that guy Danny Shell, good guy. You know, he's awesome. Dude,
[01:47:38] he really is a really good guy. You know, I mean, we just, we'd get after it on social media just
[01:47:42] to, you know, just because we're born, I guess. But it came down, you know, we had a tough fight,
[01:47:48] you know what I mean? And, you know, I mean, it was, it was awesome. Like you watch it. We're just
[01:47:52] waiting for it. I thought anywhere between 172.205. My first fight, we're going to
[01:47:59] run that right now. Uh, 2015. Yeah. Um, not nice. You, you're not a good two-fifth. I tried to be gentle over
[01:48:06] here. No, that's fine. You don't have to. You know, but my first pass. Yeah, exactly. Hey,
[01:48:12] you used to walk around like in the in the in the in the in the bruiser, you were like 185. No,
[01:48:16] like that was my heaviest. Like I couldn't break 185. Like I was trying to like do like all the body
[01:48:22] building lives. Yeah. Like get his biggest I could. I could never break 185. And then my dad's
[01:48:26] like dude wait until you get your 30s. Like whatever. He's like, oh, okay. Because your body is
[01:48:32] a little legitimately done. Everything mine has that every aging command. And then yeah,
[01:48:36] get big. But my first fight fought at 205. But I only weighed 190. Um, because I was going to fight
[01:48:42] at 185 for my first fight. But, um, that's why I know him. I don't go by Jeremiah now on like social media
[01:48:50] because guys started googling Jeremiah to know, you know, I test fight against Justin and Jerry
[01:48:55] with the whole Chris Kyle thing and whatnot. So you google Jeremiah to know, there's a bunch of
[01:48:58] Navy seals up out there. And so I checked that's why I checked my Facebook page to Jeremiah Patrick
[01:49:03] just because you know, fighters would look that up. I'd like to my coaches were like, they didn't
[01:49:07] want to tell me. I knew there's something weird with Jake and Zach and my dad. Like I knew there
[01:49:13] was something going on. My fighter backed out. Oh, and then they're trying to find like another fighter.
[01:49:18] And then he backed out. I think it was like two or three guys. I had sold on my first fight
[01:49:24] over a hundred tickets also. Like I'd fed I'd people flying in from California driving out like
[01:49:30] like drive for East Coast West Coast, Washington, you know, my ant and alcohol flying out. It's like
[01:49:34] first amateur fight. This is ridiculous, right? Should have just traveled somewhere where this better
[01:49:39] be a good show. Exactly. Well, for Washington. So yeah, exactly. You know, and um, I remember
[01:49:47] telling my buddy Jake, I'm like, dude, I don't care if it's a heavyweight. Get me a fight. Like I
[01:49:51] can't not fight, you know, I mean, like I will find. So I found some good he had a good amount of
[01:49:57] fights already and like he cut down to two or five and I weighed in with your flip flops. Like cut off
[01:50:04] can't be sure. It's all my stuff. My pocket is at 1901. And um, that was awesome. It's good. Good
[01:50:09] to go first fight. Um, got myself way too amped up for it. You know, I should have just gone in.
[01:50:15] That one's on video, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I sent you everyone. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was
[01:50:20] looking at that fight and I'm like, yes, this is the JP that's extremely amped right. Yeah.
[01:50:28] Yeah. Yeah. The finish him in the second fight. Uh, second round. Um, TKO and the second fight.
[01:50:34] Finch that guy on the first round. Uh, third fight. Which was hilarious. I had me as the main event
[01:50:41] on this card for the third fight. That's it. You're getting yourself in a hundred tickets. I know.
[01:50:46] You know, yeah. We're pretty in the main event. Yeah. That's, yeah. Not good for adding just
[01:50:51] unneeded stress. Well, you know what? You know what? No kidding. Like in watching your
[01:50:55] fights and everything. You do have the, I mean, you have this anyways, but you, you have like a level
[01:51:00] of charisma that makes people want to watch you fight because you're just fired up and you have a
[01:51:07] good level charisma. It's like, you know, you're like, I compared you to Connor McGregor jokingly.
[01:51:11] Yeah. But it's a reality. If you watch some of your fights, it's like, yeah, Gekke's in the mid-South
[01:51:16] people going, I want to go watch Jeremiah Dell get after it. Punch him in the fight. Yeah. Like
[01:51:22] this. He should come watch him fights in the South. It's always the tickets, man. I think I can
[01:51:27] get you a ticket, bro. But, you know, the so the fights have been awesome. Uh, my fourth fight, I lost.
[01:51:33] I actually went into that fight ahead. I was in the hospital or the doctors in and out of the doctors,
[01:51:38] almost hospital, like the week prior. Uh, I was cutting out a 170 again also with hand foot mouth
[01:51:45] disease. Is that, is that your method of cutting weight? Get your self-hand foot mouth disease.
[01:51:50] Dude, I would not recommend it at all. Uh, I had to take this medicine to numb my mouth and
[01:51:55] throughout just to drink water. So it did help with cutting weight, except for it was horrible.
[01:52:00] Amanda was legitimately taking care of me like everything. And she's helped. So she preps all my meals,
[01:52:07] you know, come home for the jam and she, you know, we get out. I mean, are you, you think you're
[01:52:11] gonna fight again? Yes. You know, you got to heal up. But yeah, it's been good. Yeah, I've
[01:52:17] looked, I mean, you and you also had a rough, rough, little rough patch with Amanda, right?
[01:52:23] Yeah, yeah, we did. Um, you know, I owe emotional thinking about that sometimes just,
[01:52:32] you know, we're so lucky. What we have. We got a second chance, you know, we actually
[01:52:36] fallen how to divorce, moved out. I had my own house, you know, she was doing her own thing. I was doing
[01:52:42] my own thing. And, um, you know, I just came down a lot of communication, which when I really look
[01:52:49] at it and we both look at it and we were both just being selfish, which, like, I, I tried to think
[01:52:56] that's not me. And with Amanda, like, that's not her. You talk about somebody who's not selfish,
[01:53:01] I hate that's her, like, to an extent, but we just, I don't know. Yeah, well, it's bizarre too. And
[01:53:09] because you, you are, I mean, in the teams, you are obviously extremely selfless. And, but I see
[01:53:18] how these things happen. For whatever reason, with your team guy, bros, it's like, I'll do anything
[01:53:25] for you. And I've had situations with you where I've been like, hey, I need this right now and
[01:53:29] you've been like, I'll be there in three minutes and 30 seconds. And I'm like, okay, cool. You know,
[01:53:34] and, and, but for some reason, guys don't always, guys and girls both don't always do the best
[01:53:41] job of translating that selflessness into that relationship at home. So it happens, but I'm glad that
[01:53:48] you guys were able to kind of, yeah, I'm able to do that. Yeah, like I said, you know, about a year,
[01:53:54] you know, we're doing our own thing. And, you know, we just kept getting drawn back to each other and
[01:54:00] it was a kids. And everyone says, oh, my kids are so smart. Our daughters and Aiden are
[01:54:06] incredibly intelligent. Like, you know, my daughters will be five in January. So this time,
[01:54:12] for them, you know, they're, they're, they're three, you know, and they know what's going on.
[01:54:16] You know, and they're trying to be like, hey, you know, you know, my daughter knows, like,
[01:54:20] well, you know, daddy, if you and mommy didn't argue so much, maybe we could all live together.
[01:54:26] And to hear that from your kids, you know, I was just like, it was rough. It was really hard.
[01:54:34] And you do anything for your kids, you know? So what do you think is the key element that made you go?
[01:54:39] You know what, Jack asks idiot, you need to get in the game here and make this work. Like, what?
[01:54:45] And then what method did you use? Where you said, okay, next time that she does this,
[01:54:50] I'm going to counter instead of attacking or instead of getting defensive, I'm just going to be like,
[01:54:54] all right. So what made me get back in the game is I still loved her. Like, I was just,
[01:55:00] I'm still, you know, head over heels and love with her. And head over and heel and love with
[01:55:05] my kids. And I didn't want somebody else raised my kids and Aiden, you know, like, I would still
[01:55:09] pick him up and take him to school. You know, even though, you know, okay. So there's a pretty
[01:55:15] clear answer, then what did you have to change to make it work when you went back when you said,
[01:55:21] hey, I'm going to, the zoo, in your own mind, what did you do differently? That's made it successful.
[01:55:27] We put each other first, boom. And we learned to communicate, you know, and I was sitting in
[01:55:34] Amanda, you know, I don't know. We both just had like this come to Jesus with somebody, like,
[01:55:38] I can't remember who I was talking to. I don't know who she was talking to. And, you know,
[01:55:44] she's crafty. She's smart. She knows how to deal with me. You're right. So she calls.
[01:55:49] And she knows it's my weekend. It's all obviously she's calling me to talk to the kids. And she's like,
[01:55:54] hey, can I talk to the girls? My, yeah, absolutely. I'm sorry, put on a speaker phone. She's like,
[01:55:57] hey, girls, a lot of you. Hey, girls, do you want daddy to pick me up for a church? So we can all go
[01:56:02] together. Do that was so pissed. And the chorus, the girls, like, yeah, she was like, I was like,
[01:56:09] cool, hey, outside and five minutes, or I'm driving. Still going to keep driving. You know,
[01:56:14] she's waiting outside in this dress. Looks stunning. Just, I was like, all right. And that was at the
[01:56:20] beginning, you know, and then we just learned to communicate with each other and we, we put each other
[01:56:24] first and you know, cover and move exactly. Maybe a lot of cover moves. There's a lot of cover
[01:56:29] move. And we legitimately have to put each other first. Instead of, you know, just doing it as a team,
[01:56:35] like my focus. And I'm, I don't do this all the time on it. Try to act like we have this
[01:56:39] perfect relationship and everything's phenomenal now. But we legitimately try to put each other first
[01:56:44] and almost everything that we do to try to take care of each other. And out of all the arguments that
[01:56:49] we've ever had or anybody else has ever had with their significant other, it was because it was too
[01:56:54] complicated. Something was complicated and messed up. And so we just had to simplify things.
[01:57:01] Let's just go ahead to, you know, law combat number two, exactly. We got one covered. Yeah,
[01:57:07] cover move. Keep things simple. Cover move. Keep things simple. Yeah. And I know what you're
[01:57:10] talking about. You know what that is. That's when you, when you take a look at this argument that you're
[01:57:14] in and you go wait a second. What are we arguing about right now? Oh, we're arguing because I put my
[01:57:19] spaghetti in the microwave before you did. You know what? I'm sorry. Yeah, I'll let you have this
[01:57:26] spaghetti first. Let's simplify because because that little thing of who's using the microwave
[01:57:31] first, all the sudden spirals into you, you know, a major blowout if you're not careful. It's
[01:57:35] over something stupid. I mean, she's an alpha female. I'm an alpha male. So of course,
[01:57:41] we're just like at times we just want to challenge you Tyler, but then we're like,
[01:57:46] no, this is stupid. Yeah. I had an idea instead of challenging each other. Why don't we work together
[01:57:51] and start with the world? I know. That's all. Well, that's our plan right now. We're doing it.
[01:57:56] And then, you know, I mean, and then just legitimately figuring out what it was priorities in our life.
[01:58:02] Like we just had to be so we could be on the same page. Echo, priority or time is execute.
[01:58:07] Boo. Boo. Boo. Yeah. Look at that. And I was, I've talked a couple of different people about this.
[01:58:14] You know, you know, it's awesome that you're saying this because I've heard a bunch of times from
[01:58:18] people that'm like, oh, extreme ownership saved our marriage. But I've never, I've always said,
[01:58:23] cool, thanks. But I've never said like, explain that to me. Yeah. But now you're explaining to me. Yeah.
[01:58:27] And it, it absolutely does. I mean, I always thought they focused on the ownership part,
[01:58:32] meaning, oh, don't worry. Hey, I'm going to take ownership of this. I'm going to, I made a mistake.
[01:58:37] Here's where I'm going to do to fix it. I'm sorry. It's my fault. Yeah. I always thought that that's just what
[01:58:41] they were talking about. But you're going ahead and applying other laws of combat to your marriage and
[01:58:46] making things happen. Yeah. Pretty legit. Yeah. I mean, and, you know, Amanda's the one that, you know,
[01:58:51] just recognize a lot of these, these shortfalls that we're having and would just
[01:58:56] communicate with me and she'd like, hey, if you're upset with me over something, I probably didn't
[01:59:00] mean to do that on purpose. So just let me know. That's good. And so that's simple. Yeah. And so,
[01:59:07] as far as us prioritizing things like we just, you know, and we still, we need to get like an actual
[01:59:14] fall on detailed detailed game plan for what we're doing. But we realized what was important and
[01:59:18] what wasn't important. And some of these certain things like the things that truly weren't
[01:59:23] important, like I don't think twice about it and she doesn't either. And we just focused on
[01:59:29] our goals for her business, my business, raising our kids the right way, trying to be involved in
[01:59:35] the church as much as possible, trying to give back to others like those are our priorities,
[01:59:40] not the stupid like, well, you said you're coming home at 10, but you stayed out drinking while
[01:59:45] with your girlfriend until 11. Who cares? She came home to me. She was relaxing with her girlfriend
[01:59:51] while since I've been gone for three weeks for work. Like, she should have stayed out all night
[01:59:55] and just relax. You know what I mean? Like, hey, how does sleep over at your friend's house?
[01:59:59] So you don't have to wake up to the kids three times during the night. That's what I should have done,
[02:00:02] you know? And she's done the same with me, you know? Like, I was a couple of times where I'm just like
[02:00:07] super stressed out or whatever and she's like, okay, you know, what do we need to do? Like, what do you
[02:00:11] need, she's like, you know what? You need to go workout. I'm like, yeah, but we need to go do this right now.
[02:00:16] And she's like, no, what we need to do is you need to go workout and I can handle this. That's awesome.
[02:00:22] And it's just been awesome. You know, night and day like, I think about it like, dude,
[02:00:26] she's such a hard worker, you know, and she runs everything and then she'll make sure I have a
[02:00:32] cup of coffee like on the nightstand like next me in the morning. So I went up, you know, and it's just like,
[02:00:38] you woke up early to go do that. So now like, I'll try to like do stuff for her or whatever.
[02:00:42] Dude, it's just one awesome one upsmanship. Yeah of kind acts. Right. I don't know. I hope my wife
[02:00:48] doesn't start that game with me. I'll lose. It's it's hard though with her because she is,
[02:00:53] she's so thoughtful and crafty like all of a sudden like, you know, I don't know, she's,
[02:00:58] it's awesome. So life's been good. You know, it's really turned around. I mean, there's a real
[02:01:01] dark time. I'm not gonna lie. Like, there was the divorce was rough, you know, and there's some other
[02:01:08] times before that that was real rough. You know, I was, I was drink a lot, taking painkillers,
[02:01:15] just because I had injuries. Yeah. But I was like, oh, I have an injury so I can take this
[02:01:19] painkiller. Oh, I can take two to three and drink at the same time. I was just trying to
[02:01:24] numb a lot of stuff that was going on, which is not the path to ghost, not the path to all.
[02:01:28] I wouldn't, we know that. And, you know, one of the things, I mean, there's so many things I'm
[02:01:34] pretty sure that I made to help me through, but I remember when I went to the VA because I was having
[02:01:38] a little hard time sleeping and just my body was all on a whack. Turns out I had like, my body wasn't
[02:01:44] producing testosterone anymore. I didn't know that, right? Oh, so I didn't know that, but
[02:01:49] so I go to the VA. I come home with like a bag of like no kidding, like eight different meds
[02:01:54] that they want to me to start taking. I was like, okay. So I take it first time. Like, oh my,
[02:02:00] like, she had like, get me out of bed for me to go to work because I was like a zombie. And it started
[02:02:06] then, like the second day and then that stuff started becoming really addicting. Like, I wanted
[02:02:11] that like numb feeling and she was just like, you're not the same person, like quick, like she
[02:02:18] recognized it. And we got off, like I was able, and I wasn't even on that stuff for like a full week.
[02:02:25] And it was so hard for me not to take it. Like, she had to straight up like how I mean,
[02:02:30] D-talk, like, I'm not saying D-talk's in a bad way, like somebody who's like, but it was bad,
[02:02:34] you know, and she identified that right away. That's the thing. And it was just like, oh, I know.
[02:02:39] And it was just like, nope, like we're flushing this. Like, this is gone. Like, we'll figure something
[02:02:43] else that. And she's always been the one to, you know, figure something else that and make make sure
[02:02:48] we work as a team on it. So it's been awesome, man. She's amazing. That is awesome. Where does this,
[02:02:52] where does all this leave you right now? What do you got going on right now? So, um,
[02:02:56] sorry, my own company called Never Settle Consulting. You know, I did sales in financial
[02:03:00] company for a while. Uh, a lot of good relationships. My sales team was awesome. Uh,
[02:03:06] but I want to do my own thing. Um, I wanted a little more fulfillment. It was taking a time away
[02:03:11] from me being able to do what I wanted to do to be able to grow and, you know, spend more time with my family.
[02:03:18] Um, because I had a second chance, you know, a second chance with Amanda and with my kids and I,
[02:03:22] I wanted to do something that fulfilled me that would help us grow. You know, so I started
[02:03:28] never settle consulting teaching tactics, combatants, and shooting to law enforcement,
[02:03:33] uh, trying to work out some stuff with some smaller military units and groups and, uh,
[02:03:38] for private civilian groups as well and, uh, able to incorporate leadership and sales team building events
[02:03:45] into that, you know, just doing what I love. Like, what I'm, um, decently good at, you know, as
[02:03:50] well. And so, how do a couple of buddies who's that, hey, I need a second instructor for this,
[02:03:55] you know, so I helped teach a long-range shooting course for NRR outdoors and then taught a
[02:03:59] carbine course for them as well. Um, so it's, it's been good, you know, it ties up and down. You know,
[02:04:06] I've worked with a couple clients that I thought was going to be a long-term thing and it didn't, but,
[02:04:11] hey, it's business, you're out on your own, you learn your lessons, you just keep moving forward them.
[02:04:16] You know, a lot of people like, why, why never settle? Like, they're like, I get it. It's awesome.
[02:04:19] And I was like, well, I just miss being in the sealed teams. You know, I miss being around guys that
[02:04:23] for the most part, legitimately, did not settle with average or, you know, a mediocre lifestyle.
[02:04:31] Like, you just didn't happen. You know, you're always constantly driving and pushing you
[02:04:35] each other to be better, to be stronger, to be faster, to be smarter, you know, I remember multiple
[02:04:40] times like you would come in to, hey, if you ever heard this website, I'm like, no, you're like,
[02:04:45] you need to start reading it every morning. I'm like, okay, so I go in and I'd print off the articles
[02:04:50] and I read them and highlight them and chocolate later on. He's like, hey, you hear about this? Like,
[02:04:54] yeah, actually, boom. Yeah, and so, you know, I just miss being around that, you know, and that's not
[02:04:59] in the, for the most part, you don't find that in civilian life outside, you know, in business. You don't.
[02:05:05] And I really wanted to be able to have an impact, like I want to work with veterans that have
[02:05:10] issues that are going through problems. I want to give back to law enforcement, you know, because
[02:05:16] they have a hard job, man, and they're underfunded, they're under trained. And I just, I wanted
[02:05:23] to give back, you know, and I enjoy that. I like doing that stuff. And it gives me freedom to be able
[02:05:29] to choose, you know, to help out with different projects and help people, and, you know, a man has
[02:05:32] been super supportive, and, you know, the other logo of Navarretutals, win the fight.
[02:05:39] No matter what, you just win the fight, and it's not a physical thing. It's life is a fight.
[02:05:44] We all go through our fights. We just have to establish what we want, like you talk about,
[02:05:49] the commanders intent. Like, if you don't have your own commanders intent for you and your family,
[02:05:53] you're screwed. You're going to wander around, and you're just going to waste your life away.
[02:05:58] And so I just, you know, and then under it is, in Latin, you know, signed met to,
[02:06:04] which means without fear. You know, fear is the opposite of faith. Like you read about Mikey, you know,
[02:06:09] you know, fear is no match for my faith. And I believe that. And I want others to believe that.
[02:06:18] I don't think a lot of people out there believe that. And if we can paint that message, and
[02:06:23] I would love, you know, for my company to be more of like a lifestyle, you know,
[02:06:27] and did some do went and got my logo tattooed on his calf. Because he's like, I wanted to be a
[02:06:32] reminder, and he would incorporate his kids names into the tattoo. He's like, dude, it's a daily
[02:06:36] reminder for me, not just settle for average and just get after it. And I'm like, all right,
[02:06:40] I'm doing something right. Hopefully, you know, and so Amanda's super supportive of it, you know,
[02:06:45] and she's just doing everything to help me out with it. And you know, she has her business, and she's
[02:06:49] still takes a time to help me grow mine. So it's awesome. And just helping people figure out what they
[02:06:55] want in life. Like, because I don't think a lot of people will take the time to establish that.
[02:06:59] And, you know, I think if we can help that, and if we can help veterans,
[02:07:04] and if we can help the youth, figure out what they want out of life and where they need to go,
[02:07:11] but I think, you know, we can actually make an impact in this nation. And that's important right now.
[02:07:17] Yeah, there's no doubt about that. And I guess that kind of brings us up to speed for this
[02:07:23] or up to present day with with where JPEs at right now been a pretty good chunk of time.
[02:07:31] And it's probably about good for tonight. And obviously,
[02:07:38] thanks for coming on the podcast. I mean, one of the, one of the best things for me about this podcast
[02:07:45] is that there's heroes like you that people don't know about. And those heroes from the past
[02:07:50] that people don't know about and being able to bring heroes like yourself and heroes from the past
[02:07:56] till the present time and let people know and introduce that there's warriors in the past.
[02:08:03] You need to know about and there's warriors walking with us today that you need to know about.
[02:08:08] And that's one of my favorite things about the podcast is having the opportunity to do that.
[02:08:13] And if, if you like listening to this podcast, we'll guess what?
[02:08:19] I believe echo Charles can tell you how to support the podcast. I have a question.
[02:08:24] Oh, man. Here we go. Hot sea. Why are you going to find you like that?
[02:08:27] I remember, um, I actually, the day I met you long time ago before I actually knew you real good.
[02:08:38] You don't be real good now. Was that new?
[02:08:40] Yeah. Oh, so big.
[02:08:43] But like you, you always, and actually listening to you now, like you kind of, I kind of realized,
[02:08:47] like you live in the moment a lot. Yeah. Yes. Like I remember we were sitting at this
[02:08:51] when we had sushi that night. Yeah. First time at May, you're like, what was that? Like, oh,
[02:08:55] it's just seven or something. 2007. Yeah. Yeah.
[02:08:59] And I remember you and you had another guy with you. I'm about to get it. Yeah, my buddy, um,
[02:09:04] cart. Yeah. And I remember, um, we're all talking about what I, you know, everyone's talking.
[02:09:08] And I hear you kind of on the side you're like, like, this is good, man. You know,
[02:09:12] in sushi with good people, you know, we're doing, you know, kind of like you're totally,
[02:09:17] it's like you're explaining to him, but you're explaining to yourself, like, what, what
[02:09:20] am I experiencing right now? And how good is this? How cool is this? Yeah. Almost like you
[02:09:25] had this stuff coming up and you're, but you're living in that moment. Yeah. There's just like,
[02:09:28] just like with the stories. Oh, like, you mentioned like the, and you saw the ambient light coming
[02:09:33] down. This is awesome. This is awesome. Yeah. What, like, why is that do you think? Or, I mean,
[02:09:38] is there a specific reason to you? Because a lot of people not like that. You know, like,
[02:09:43] there'll be like, oh, we're about to do this. I'm excited or that thing happened and that's,
[02:09:47] that's whack or whatever. Yeah. And they don't really, you know what I mean? I've always been like that,
[02:09:52] you know, my parents taught us to enjoy what you have. You know, it doesn't have to be material stuff,
[02:09:59] just enjoy the life that you have. And I've also always realized that people haven't a lot worse.
[02:10:04] And then after two deployments, you know, because I met you after my second deployment,
[02:10:08] like I'd seen the worst. Like, I'd seen evil firsthand. I'd seen actual oppression, not what some
[02:10:15] of these idiots are talking about right now. You know, I'd seen, you know, kids with underwear on
[02:10:21] and sandals in the streets. And that's all they had. I've seen, you know, women holding their kids
[02:10:28] crying. You know, I've seen guys use kids as human shields because they're cowards. And
[02:10:36] I'm getting to sit and enjoy sushi in San Diego, California with my best friend, Curtis, from
[02:10:42] high school and a new group of guys that I met, you know, through other team guys. And I'm like,
[02:10:48] man, life is good. We were with the kicknuts by the way. Oh, okay. That's making a
[02:10:52] little difference. Yeah. I'm about cast. Yeah. Solid dude. Thank you. Try to rip a tree out of the
[02:10:58] ground once. Probably. He did. Someone convinced and then he could he couldn't pull a tree out of
[02:11:05] the ground. So he tried. Yeah, Jeremy, probably tried it. Come in some of that. I think you're right on that.
[02:11:09] Yeah. Yeah. Really. Also the second thing, what did they find out? Why you, you had like, you weren't
[02:11:16] pretty pretty. Yeah. Just the, the Batutary gland. I'm the sacram, my Batutary gland was damaged and
[02:11:23] just you're pretty bad. From the, from the blast or something. Yeah, from from that blast and just
[02:11:28] multiple other like explosions and blasts overseas. I mean, we used breaching charges that open
[02:11:32] up doors. You know, you were hearing a gunfight in the machine gun is legitimately going on
[02:11:36] to bring this your head. That's providing like, crushing that. There's times after gunfights,
[02:11:40] like I felt like I was just drunk. Yeah. And I felt like I was drunk just because I was just out of
[02:11:45] it. And so just that much and then just combat sports and other stuff like that. And so, um,
[02:11:51] you know, when an anophiling got me to go to the VA to get my levels tested, you know, normal male
[02:11:56] or supposed to be between 600 to 900. I was 81. Yeah. That was bad. And they were just like,
[02:12:04] how, like, they called. I didn't answer my phone because I was at work. And I was on the
[02:12:09] alone or something like that. And they called a man that like, he needs to come back in right away.
[02:12:12] So, of course, they freak my wife out, right? She thinks I'm dying or something like that. Like
[02:12:17] and then so I go and I get it retested again. It was 87. And they're like, are you on steroids right now?
[02:12:24] I'm like, look at me. Like a monster. Now, granted, like when I was younger, you know, I'd
[02:12:29] take in some real strong supplements from like max muscle in different places like that that how
[02:12:33] I'm available. And I'm sure that mine have had an effect, but you know, I don't know. I mean,
[02:12:40] I know. I know. I like, I try to like get, you know, so, oh, not some of them is like, you know,
[02:12:45] because Jocker used to joke is like, JP just wants to be 205 pounds walking around. Yeah,
[02:12:49] nothing wrong with that. Oh, no, I wish I could get down to two of them. But, you know,
[02:12:54] um, so yeah, my levels were really messed up. And they're like, how do you even get out of that? How
[02:12:58] you do this, and this, I'm like, um, oh, I have a family I have to provide for. I really don't have
[02:13:03] another option. So just gotta get out there and get after it. We call that BTA just BTF and
[02:13:08] throughout the day. Yeah, that's crazy. And that's another part. Remember how we talk about where
[02:13:15] that's the part that you don't really hear that much about. Just those little detail like that you say
[02:13:19] in a gunfight if the machine gun is right here. And it hits you. Kind of like someone's hitting
[02:13:23] you physically. You know, it's a shock to your system. Yeah. I mean, I've been, uh, I was actually going
[02:13:29] through some videos and I'll try to get you guys some of these daily day where I'm laying down
[02:13:34] on the sniper rifle and we're in a big firefight and they come and straddle over me to start
[02:13:40] firing off rockets. And I'm getting that blast coming down just crushing me. You know, and then
[02:13:47] my key, you know, right next to me, the A-Dab gun is like, uh, I'm just like, oh my goodness,
[02:13:52] I'm like, like, me coloring grants or Christmas next year is something like, yeah. By the way,
[02:13:57] when you fire a rocket in training, you put on two levels of ear protection. I had none.
[02:14:04] You don't need your prone combat. Your ears naturally squeeze. It's pretty awesome.
[02:14:10] Yeah. Yeah. I remember, um, one of my friends went who went through sniper school too. He
[02:14:16] talked about the, um, I think it was like the 50 kelp. Yeah. Yeah. He's like, brother,
[02:14:21] thing is like, just shooting it is like you're getting punched in the face. Oh, yeah. Just shooting
[02:14:25] it. Yeah. Well, I mean, considering we mount those to the tops of hummers and if you don't have
[02:14:31] your foot on the break and it's in part, it'll move the vehicle and even that, and you see a vehicle
[02:14:36] going to do, like just moving like, and you know, I was also a lead driver. So there's times
[02:14:43] where the machine, like 50 cows right over us in the front, like the barrels like sticking out and
[02:14:46] you're getting that blast, you know, like, oh, I mean, it's just put it's part of it. You know what I mean?
[02:14:51] Like I would not change any of that. Yeah. For crazy. I felt like those details like to, to someone
[02:14:56] who hasn't met, that's kind of a big deal. Because you watch movies and the guy shooting and
[02:15:00] like, reaching across the guy shooting the guy in the street corner and all this stuff. And then
[02:15:04] if you know those details, you're like, whoa, whoa, you skipped over this whole big kind of element
[02:15:09] of this situation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I just, some of you're spec, you know, the guys that are
[02:15:14] still on the team. So you know, I just did under 12 years in the Navy. I didn't, I didn't do my
[02:15:19] full time. You look at these guys. I do 20, 22, 25 years. Like, I'm just like, do the hats off to those
[02:15:27] guys, you know? And like the guys that are still, same guys that I deployed with. You know, it's
[02:15:31] weird me talking about it. Like, I didn't think special, like, as a team we did something special.
[02:15:37] Yeah. And those guys are still in the fight. You know, they're still deploying, they're still doing
[02:15:40] workups. You know, they're battling divorces. They're, you know, dealing with new babies being born and,
[02:15:45] you know, taking care of their wives and your family. And it's just, like, just so much respect to those guys.
[02:15:51] And then you know, you look at all the other branches that we surf with. And with those guys, just
[02:15:56] do 18 month appointments. 18 month appointments. 18 month appointments. Hey, you get to go home for
[02:16:01] two weeks halfway through. Yeah. Guys are going home to like their families move out. Yeah.
[02:16:06] Just go on. Like, not all but I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, a couple of guys came
[02:16:12] home and they came back and from all leaving. I was like, how was it? Is like, oh my wife and
[02:16:16] kids are gone? I don't know where you're my stuff is. I'm like, so Jack, do you want to hug? I don't know
[02:16:22] to do. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it is, you know, JP and I were talking about that earlier. Like,
[02:16:28] like, we're visible. Well, I'm definitely visible. And I was telling JP, like, you will now be
[02:16:37] visible. More visible. I mean, he's been maintained a pretty low profile and trying to, yeah, because
[02:16:42] if you're fighting has a little bit of profile, but like, you know, you're going to be more visible.
[02:16:48] And when you get visible, people automatically think that you're special in some way. And like,
[02:16:55] I'm telling you, there's nothing special here. Definitely not for me because, you know, like,
[02:17:01] like, I did 20 years in the Navy, but okay, great. There's guys that do 30 years that guys that do
[02:17:06] 14 different deployments. There's guys that, you know, get wounded. And then you like JP just said,
[02:17:11] you branch that out to all the services. And you know, I'm another guy and we're just other guys
[02:17:18] where we have a little bit of a of a higher profile. But that's not due to our, you know, anything
[02:17:25] special that we did just just with a way thing shook out of the end. So I always want to make that
[02:17:30] clear. And like law enforcement, they're doing it every day. Like my uncle. I was telling you about,
[02:17:35] like, every day. Now we do a work up. And then we just go get after for six months and come on to
[02:17:40] work up, go get after it. But he's like legitimately getting after it every day for 15 plus years.
[02:17:45] You know, like it's a 23 year deployment. Yeah, to a combat. Yeah. With limited resources, limited support,
[02:17:53] and then the training, limited training and in an, a hostile environment on both the criminal
[02:18:00] side and actually oftentimes on the civil side, you know, people that are, you know,
[02:18:05] lash out at police officers from that whole other angle now. So yeah, unfortunate.
[02:18:15] You done with your questions, Mr. Charles.
[02:18:16] Oh, for now. Okay. But I do have good news though. You do. My career oil came in. Oh,
[02:18:25] got that. That's good news. That is good news. We are happy about that. You take a
[02:18:30] real one. I take shark cartilage. Sure. Is that the same thing? No, that's like what,
[02:18:36] glucose. No, it's good for your dormitory. My, my dad got me on it, but I'll, I'll get on what you
[02:18:41] guys have. I'll give it a run. Yeah. If you do or when you do on it, it's the best one. Okay. Well,
[02:18:48] he's at the best one. It's the best one. Straight up the best one. Everyone knows that. Or just
[02:18:53] more than just people know. How do I get it? What I got? You got to on it.com. But if you're
[02:19:00] down to support the podcast, yeah, chain of yours, because you're here, yeah, go on it dot com slash
[02:19:05] jackel and support your wallet 10% off. Dude, savings and the best. Well, get some. So,
[02:19:13] one asked me, uh, this is, night yesterday, day before like, they're like, hey, I know, I know,
[02:19:18] you know, you guys are done with on it and all that stuff. But is that the only supplements
[02:19:22] you take for real? That's like, yeah, that is. Creole oil, alpha brain sometimes,
[02:19:29] shrimp tech. Warrior bars, too, but I don't know if that's a supplement. Anyway, those are
[02:19:35] so good. Yeah, definitely supplements. Your, your, your need food and take. Yeah, yeah,
[02:19:41] big time tasty. But yeah, you can support that way. If you're in the mood to also the Amazon,
[02:19:46] if you, this kind of, I'm, I'm just trying to analyze the whole Amazon thing. Like, how, how does
[02:19:50] that kind of fit in the whole, I mean, we kind of know how, but okay, so you click through when you
[02:19:54] do your shopping on Amazon, you click through for you to your shopping. Through the website,
[02:19:59] not a jackbuck, as.com or jocostor.com. So, I'm, you support that way, but so how does this fit in?
[02:20:06] Right. So it's kind of like, okay, we're here putting out this message, right? And people who
[02:20:12] like, click through, they buy shirts or something like that, they're kind of like the backup,
[02:20:16] kind of like the reinforcement, you know? They're actually the full on supporting mechanism,
[02:20:20] never mind the backup. Yeah, so they're all in the field. Right.
[02:20:24] Battle field. So, back up is that's a bad one. That's like, they're like the reinforcement,
[02:20:28] you know? They're the full on support mechanism. They're the reinforcement. Yes, the
[02:20:32] reinforcement. Yes, very good. Very good. And yeah, I'm, and so, so the Amazon click through,
[02:20:38] that's a good one. Good way to support this podcast support. And of course, subscribe, right?
[02:20:44] Yes. Yeah, I used it. Yeah, you did use it. So, I should, I'm getting asked this a lot, right?
[02:20:49] Yeah. And I'm not, I was going to lay out there. So podcast, you bought, where is that come from?
[02:20:53] Yeah. The really quick story. Here's where it comes from. Mm-hmm. There's a guy whose name is
[02:20:59] Hennach Lardach. Hennach Lardach Lardach Lardach Lardach Lardach Lardach Lardach Lardach Lardach Lardach.
[02:21:04] Just for clearing. Okay, for clearing. But those of us that speak with a fake Portuguese accent
[02:21:09] from time to time would just say, Hennach. Right. Right. Yeah, that's the right way. So anyways,
[02:21:15] there's a video production company called Flexpoint videos, which is, which is Echo Charles's company,
[02:21:23] and they did a series that starred this Brazilian Gittizu master, Hennach Lardach. And my son
[02:21:33] actually was very into the Hennach program. And they're, in, being into the program,
[02:21:41] he started to adapt his own fake Brazilian Portuguese accent. Yes. And since he speaks no Portuguese
[02:21:49] whatsoever, he just simply does the, the pigeon of it. And he adds words or, or parts to words
[02:22:00] that he thinks in his mind sound like they might be Portuguese. So one day he said to me in a
[02:22:06] broken, imitated fake Portuguese accent. He said, that, are you going to record that podcast Shiboha?
[02:22:16] Ah. And I said, yes, I am. And then that is where it came from. It doesn't mean anything.
[02:22:24] It doesn't have any spelling. It's just my 13 year old son with his comedic vibe going on.
[02:22:33] Yeah. So he, and so, but he, where he, how he got that from, or what he got that from is
[02:22:40] podcast, that's like the podcast. And then Paul Ha and Boa, this two things. Right. Right.
[02:22:47] Paul Ha is like this expression. It's like, it means something specific, but it's, it's ultimately
[02:22:52] it's an expression. But ultimately, let's be clear here. It's also a very bad word. Yes, yes.
[02:22:57] It's like the worst swear word. It's a very bad swear word in Portuguese. Yeah, that's
[02:23:04] Paul Ha. Yeah. It's like slang. It's, it's a mix. Yeah. So there's that then there's Boa, which means good.
[02:23:11] Oh, I mean it's good. Exactly. So, you know, your son's thing, I don't know if it was
[02:23:16] Paul Ha or Boa, I'm assuming, Paul Ha because Henato says, Paul Ha all the time. Yeah.
[02:23:21] So that's what he says. Boy, from time to time. Yeah. And my son, when he says it,
[02:23:25] it's podcast Shiboha. Yeah. So I'm not 100% sure. Yeah. But that's where it came from. Yeah.
[02:23:31] When we got a listen to that podcast Shiboha right here. Yeah. That's what we're going to do.
[02:23:36] That's crazy what our kids say. Yes. It's indeed. And still when you think of it, that's still
[02:23:41] kind of an ambiguous explanation. Really. So where does that leave us? You know, like, okay. So what is
[02:23:46] him? The thing is is, I don't know. Although, I guess it does mean that we're talking about this
[02:23:53] particular. Yeah. We're excited about it. Yes, we are. There it is. Oh. So
[02:24:00] back to the support thing. You know, subscribe if you haven't already. That's a good way to stay
[02:24:06] in the game. You know, when the new one comes out, just pull on your phone. Listen, ready. I know I am.
[02:24:13] Me too. And I'm on it. YouTube channel, video coming out. I think I'm going to do a more of a comedy
[02:24:20] video. See how that goes over. Well, won't go over well with me, obviously.
[02:24:24] Yeah. Hey, we've got the the heavy podcast that everybody loves it and let's get after it.
[02:24:32] And let's crush people and let's do the darkness and you're going to do a comedy video. Is that where we're going
[02:24:36] with this? Yeah. All right. Just the CL goes over. We'll trust that judgment. I guess.
[02:24:42] Let the troopers decide on that one. Yeah. Also, jocco store. That's where, you know, we
[02:24:48] sling these shirts. But it's less about selling shirts. It's more about, hey, if you want to support the podcast,
[02:24:54] you want to wear cool shirt with multiple layers. By the way, I talk about the layers, but let's just say,
[02:24:59] I don't want to go into a big thing about the layers. But there's more to it than just the saying,
[02:25:05] you know, discipline equals free. And what does that even mean? It sounds cool. What does that mean?
[02:25:09] Anyway, there's a meaning darkness doesn't meaning and all the shirts have. Of course, the
[02:25:13] meaning behind the t-shirt that says, the one that you're wearing with it just says jocco podcast. That's just
[02:25:19] the name. Well, if you look on the back, you can see the meaning. Oh, there you go. What are you going to find
[02:25:24] about? That's the layers I'm talking about. You know, women stuff coming out, take tops are already
[02:25:30] out, but the women's t-shirts are coming out as well. Just going to give all the girls or the women
[02:25:35] and a small update. Some girls with some women are at the mustard. They certainly are. Asking
[02:25:40] about some stuff, I told enforce. That's some new patches. The two, the three by two, so they can
[02:25:48] fit on the standard Velcro situation. And I think, and there's like a tan color, right? It's like the
[02:25:56] official color that's good for the troopers that are going out. The desert. I'm right. That's FDE,
[02:26:02] federal dark earth. Yeah. Good, because I was trying to Google that and find out and there's a bunch of
[02:26:10] them. Yeah, FDE. I got the new sig 320 in. So sick. And of course, I had to get one for Amanda.
[02:26:18] So each have sig 320 compact FDE. Yeah. Actually, that's coincidentally really helpful. I was
[02:26:26] looking for a long time for that. Awesome. Yeah. Rascar's a good two. Look at them. Multiple layers
[02:26:33] like I said. Just trust me on that. And that, those, by the way, it's just support if you're in the
[02:26:39] market. You can also support the podcast by buying some darker YT. Yes. If you want to
[02:26:46] just improve every single aspect of your life. No, if you want to get some tea, you can get it. If you
[02:26:56] don't think you like tea, you probably will like this tea because even though it's technically
[02:27:00] tea, it doesn't actually even taste like tea. It tastes like a nectar that you need to try.
[02:27:08] I can't explain it. I agree with that. I did a lot of last couple of days. Yeah. And the
[02:27:13] mustard and man, I was awesome. It's tasty. And plus as we know from the Amazon
[02:27:20] reviews, it is added. There's a guy who deadlift went from 400 pounds to 8,000 pounds. That's a
[02:27:31] 7,600 pound increase. In your deadlift. And so that's right there. Again, that's good to go.
[02:27:40] So get yourself some Amazon tea. Also when you're on Amazon, you can pick up, you can get yourself
[02:27:48] a copy of a book called Extreme Ownership that I wrote with my brother, Dave Babin. And the thing is,
[02:27:53] if you have a copy, that's cool. Get a couple more. You want to have them on standby because sometimes
[02:27:59] you're just dealing with someone at work and all of a sudden you realize that they're not taking
[02:28:03] ownership of something. It's no problem. You're not stressed out. You're just reaching your
[02:28:07] desk and you grab a copy. You go, hey, one to take a quick look at this right here. Up the chain
[02:28:12] command down the chain of command. Now when you do that, now will be you're going to make their life better
[02:28:18] because they're going to be able to figure some stuff out. You're also going to make your life easier
[02:28:21] because now you're surrounding personnel are in the game. And you're taking extreme ownership
[02:28:30] in and of it. So that's actually because we're making it. Not like a lot of people. That's the question.
[02:28:34] That is deep. No, because that's the question people have there be like, hey, what do I do when
[02:28:37] my colleague is not taking extreme ownership? You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, yeah. See,
[02:28:41] the just the near nature of you saying, hey, you're not taking extreme ownership. That's you're not
[02:28:46] taking extreme ownership. So now you're only at your saying, hey, I recognize this situation of you
[02:28:52] doing and not doing certain things. Let me take action. What can I do to take extreme ownership
[02:28:57] over this situation? But it's true. That is true. That is true. Also, you know, as you are on Amazon,
[02:29:04] just just nod your head a little bit and say thanks to Brady Lanter, Brady Trooper, who has been
[02:29:13] the backside support to the podcast. She bohaha with all kinds of stuff. So shout out to Brady for
[02:29:21] getting after it. Technically, he's getting after it technically. Technically.
[02:29:26] I think they end up going to do it. Now you just talked about the mustard too. We just had to
[02:29:30] mustard and San Diego, California. It was freaking awesome. Yes. It was really cool. We had a bunch of
[02:29:37] people there. The guy that helped run the event and they met, he's going to run an event for
[02:29:44] 20 something years. And he came up to me two hours into the event. You know, this is after people
[02:29:50] were peating at 445 in the morning. This is after everyone was in their seats at 0800,
[02:29:54] ready standing by to get after it. No stragglers. Like, like, when I say no stragglers, I mean,
[02:29:58] no stragglers. 0 350 people boom in their seats, ready to rock and roll. He came out to me.
[02:30:05] During the first little break and he says, I've actually never seen anything like this. We're
[02:30:10] an entire conference is so just on board in the game and getting after it. He said, never seen this
[02:30:16] in any kind of conference. And so major prep. And yeah, come down. The schedule says, hey,
[02:30:27] echo, film some stuff. Right. That's the thing. Kind of the loose order. Commanders in.
[02:30:32] And look at this schedule. Hey, four of optional. Optional 445 workout and okay, I'm
[02:30:38] beyond it. So I'm not used to the 445. It's cool. Don't get it wrong. But I'm not just not used
[02:30:43] to 445 filming work workouts, whatever. Being awake. So I'm like, you know what I'm going to do?
[02:30:49] I'm going to go. I'm going to show up on time. I'm going to show up ahead of time. But really,
[02:30:52] though, optional, really first day. Let's face it. How many people are really going to be at this
[02:30:58] thing? Maybe 25 or 30. I'm thinking. And pan traveling to 20. Yeah, I mean, yeah, we had guys from
[02:31:04] UK, you know, five different countries were represented 42 different states like it was insane.
[02:31:10] So they were all over. Yeah. There's no way. I was like, I was even, I'm not a morning person.
[02:31:16] Like you. Like I'm usually got that's up and told two or three working on stuff. Yeah. So I was like,
[02:31:21] I'm going to get up. I was like, yeah, I'm here with Jock on life. I mean, that's all. I've got to
[02:31:24] get after it. I was like, I'm going to be pissed. There's like five people out there. Yeah, I'm thinking
[02:31:29] 10. I'm 20. It would be solid. But I pulled right. And I'm ahead of time. By the way, I'm pulling
[02:31:35] up like 428, you know, 429. I come around on the corner and I see a straight up riot. Like,
[02:31:42] not rioting. But like the type of crowd that's like, you know, in a protest or something. Which
[02:31:48] guy stretching, you know, I'm like, dang. So I go at a park lake on the side. I come and you guys
[02:31:53] already had worked out. Yeah. Yeah. So what people would lay for. I read. Yeah. What lay for
[02:31:57] I do is we went. I said, hey, life, we might get contingency is there's a 150 people. We're not
[02:32:04] going to be able to direct this thing if we're doing it. We need to get leadership position. So we
[02:32:09] need to go work out before the 04445 must work out. We need to go work out before that. Optional
[02:32:15] then. So we went and hit it before. And it's a pretty hard core workout. One of those workouts
[02:32:21] where it can suck as much as you want the suck. And of course, we wanted to suck that. So we were
[02:32:27] dripping with sweat. We come walking over. And it's the same thing for us. We are walking back
[02:32:31] from the workout area, which was down by the San Diego Convention Center. We're walking back to the
[02:32:36] hotel. We're in a little jog. We turn the corner. Now we're really close. We start walking. And we see
[02:32:42] the same thing. We see like all these people. And it was, you know, 250 or 300 people are
[02:32:48] ready to rock and roll at four. It's only 428. It's not even us. It's nighttime. It's not even
[02:32:54] nighttime. It's not nighttime. It's straight up nighttime. So we got after it. And that was a good
[02:33:00] representation of the attitude that was at the master. And the other funny thing was people kept
[02:33:07] it. When people asked questions, they'd say, oh, I just got promoted in this new position.
[02:33:11] And this is going on. And then someone else said, you know, I just got promoted three times
[02:33:16] in the last six months. And I want to know. And so you're thinking, okay, all these people are
[02:33:20] just fast-tracked. They're in the game. They're on it. It's just, it was, it was really an awesome event.
[02:33:26] Great job with the video, Eko Charles made some really killer videos for that. And it was awesome.
[02:33:33] Those videos were awesome. Like very captivating. You know, me sitting there in the crowd.
[02:33:38] Yeah. It was just like, other than the couple of times, I had to get up and the first
[02:33:42] test stood in the back, first sat in the back, and I had to get up and I'd pace. Because I was
[02:33:47] just like so connected. It was just brought me back, you know, or just emotional connection. And
[02:33:51] you know, everyone else in the same thing. And the second day I'm sitting up in front row. I was like,
[02:33:54] I can't stand up in pace right now. But just everyone, you just watch other people and just
[02:33:59] do great job. Those videos were insane man. You were in one of them. I know. I had the
[02:34:05] doctor's mask on, so nobody recommended it. Yeah. Yeah. Somebody asked me about it. They're like,
[02:34:12] pretty blonde in the gown and twins, babies and my get-up. Yeah, that's right. That's the rough transition
[02:34:19] video. Yeah. So the rough transition, Tristan video that Eko made is the person holding the baby.
[02:34:26] The baby. The babies. Yeah. That's JP, right, Jerry. So there's a little layer right there.
[02:34:33] Is there a little enough? I'm not sure what you're talking about. Yeah. If you're kind of on the
[02:34:37] inside, you're going to see them. You're going to recognize them. That's kind of the fun part. One of
[02:34:40] the many fun parts. Awesome. And also, so if you like what we're talking about here, and you want to
[02:34:48] continue, maybe you didn't get enough of this today. You want to keep talking to us. You can actually
[02:34:53] just find us cruising, cruising hard, apparently, on the interwebs, on Twitter, on Instagram.
[02:35:05] And you know, we even on that Facebookie. Eko is at Eko Charles. And I am at Jaco Willink and
[02:35:15] Jeremiah J. P. The Nell is at where you at. On Twitter, J. P. Our at J. P. The Nell, Instagram would be
[02:35:24] never settle consulting and Facebook page, never settle consulting LLC. So if you like the page,
[02:35:32] able to put out any upcoming events or anything that's going on, just try to connect with people
[02:35:37] through social media. Awesome. Deget. Eko. Any final thoughts from you? I don't really good to see
[02:35:46] you again. I mean, we kept in touch. Yeah, I mean, it's always good. But then, yeah, we're really good to see.
[02:35:50] Awesome. Oh, if you go to never settle consulting.com, that'll be up in the near future as well.
[02:35:55] But we can contact me through the social media, but the website will be up and running soon.
[02:36:01] But yeah, yeah, it's great seeing you again, bro. I come and I hear I was like, you know, just,
[02:36:05] you know, I got the call from Jocco. You know, I turned out a couple different gigs or, you know,
[02:36:11] switched some work around. I was like, yeah, I got out here. Yeah, on a man I was like, yeah,
[02:36:16] yeah, don't be in it. You're going. Yeah, we'll find a way. And it was awesome. You know, we work out and
[02:36:22] be on the podcast, you know, I just appreciate you guys having me out here, man. Of course. Awesome.
[02:36:27] You got to fight off all. Yeah. Obviously, I just want to thank all the troops overseas, all the
[02:36:33] troops that are home. The family members of the troops that never made it back. We appreciate you guys.
[02:36:40] All the law enforcement officers out there, firefighters, medics, you guys are getting after it.
[02:36:44] Serving your community every day. And of course, I want to thank Amanda just for her continued
[02:36:50] support and love and my kids, you know, love those kids. Look forward to the day where they're
[02:36:56] old enough where they can actually listen and process this. So, Aiden Coranola, I love you guys.
[02:37:01] And yeah, it's awesome. Well, thanks for coming on. Appreciate it. Obviously, thank you. And
[02:37:10] thanks for everything you've ever done for me, brother. I appreciate above and beyond anything I could
[02:37:16] have ever hoped for the kind of performance and the kind of the kind of attitude and the
[02:37:23] bravery and the courage always. Thank you. Thank you. Always. Thank you.
[02:37:34] And you know, the other day when we were at the master, we were in that big ground. And we had kind
[02:37:41] of, we kind of turned the corner and we were getting to the area where we were going to start the
[02:37:45] work out thing. And I knew I was so obsessed real quick. I said, I'm going to need some help
[02:37:51] getting some organization stuff going on here. And we really didn't have a plan for 300 people, right?
[02:37:56] We had a plan for 30 or 40 people. Wait, different. And so I'm sitting there and I'm going into,
[02:38:02] okay, what am I going to do? Got a prioritize next. I need some help. And it's just dark, you know,
[02:38:06] dark four o'clock in the morning. So, I just yell out, I go, J.P. And instantly, I hear some distance
[02:38:14] away I hear. Yes, sir. And I look up where that came from and I see J.P. And he like made
[02:38:19] quick eye contact when you're seeing moving, you know, down the stairs, he's coming to me. And in that
[02:38:25] split second, that split second, I remembered all the times that I had called your name. And I had
[02:38:35] asked you to do what needed to be done. You always stepped up without question, without, without regard
[02:38:45] for your safety or for your own security. You always stepped up just with your, the mission,
[02:38:53] and the team and your brothers in mind. Always putting others before yourself, but so many others
[02:39:04] in our task unit did. Mark and Mikey and Ryan and like the many soldiers and marines did
[02:39:20] in the battle of Ramadi and in the rest of Iraq and in Afghanistan and on battlefields all over
[02:39:28] the world throughout history, putting others before themselves with their heads held high.
[02:39:42] And everyone else that is out there listening, think about that. Think about putting the mission
[02:40:01] before your own needs. Think about putting others before yourself and think about walking through the
[02:40:18] world with all the threats and challenges in front of you. Think about walking through the daily
[02:40:28] battles that you face with your back straight and your head held high facing the threat,
[02:40:44] facing the fear, scanning for what is next so you can engage and get after it.
[02:40:54] So until next time, this is echo and jocco and my brother J. P. Denell out.