From Ranger to Road Warrior: John Renken’s Mission with Tactical Traveler Group

Tactical Traveler Group is not your average vacation service. It’s a purpose-driven platform offering deeply discounted and even complimentary travel opportunities for veterans, active duty members, and their families. With PTSD and burnout at an all-time high among the military community, John is on a mission to make healing, family reconnection, and mental decompression accessible and affordable through unforgettable travel experiences.

As a decorated warrior and former 6-time MMA champion, John knows the value of resilience and recovery. He’s already helped countless vets transition to civilian life through mentorship—and now he’s using his platform to give them something many have never had: peace of mind on a beautiful beach or a mountain retreat.

This is a powerful human-interest story of transformation, service, and visionary thinking—perfect for your readers who care about wellness, military life, and purpose-based entrepreneurship.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Lute force. If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough.
You're listening to Software Radio, Special Operations, Military Nails and
straight talk with the guys in the community.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Well, hey, what's going on? This is rad with another
awesome episode of soft Reap Radio. Insert cool music now listen.
Before I tell you who I have on the show today,
I just want to remind you that we have a
merch store and it is constantly updated with the newest
branded items like the software hoodie totally legit. I know

(01:02):
it's a little warm right now, but it'll be cold
soon in about four or five months, and you'll be
pulling that hoodie on and tagging us in photos because
you're gonna take them and put them on the internet.
Tag soft Rep Mafia. Second Our Book Club. If you're
new to soft Rep, welcome to the podcast. If you're
a return listener, thanks again for your repeat listening. But
you know I'm gonna tell you to check out thesoft

(01:23):
rep dot com Forward Slash Book hyphen Club. That's Forward
Slash Book hyphen Club, and you can go and read
all sorts of books. Just like a gym you go
to work out your muscles, you go to work out
your body and a gym.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Well, the book club is a gym for your brain.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
So go check out the books that are curated by
folks like Brandon Webb and others on the back end
of soft Rep who just stay in the shadows and
make sure that I'm not in the shadows.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Here.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
I am front and center and today's guest, I'm gonna
introduce you to him. Okay, he goes by the travel
the Tactical Traveler. His name is John Renkin, and welcome
to the show.

Speaker 4 (01:58):
John, hey Man, thanks for having me.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
It's a pleasure. Thanks for reaching out, having Rob reach out.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
You know, Rob's great your publicis He's like, hey, rad,
I got one for you, and I was like, bring
him to me, bring him to soft Rep.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
Let's go. So, John, tell me something. How old are you, bro?

Speaker 4 (02:14):
I am. Wait, you said don't say things you don't
want on the internet.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
I did warn everybody. I say, don't say what you want.

Speaker 4 (02:21):
Internet man about to be fifty three.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Okay, I thought you were gonna say forty seven like myself. Now, John,
what I like to do is kind of get to
know a little bit about you. Let my listener learn
a little bit about your space from you know, when
you were a young man to the military career. So
tell me how old were you when you decided that
joining the military was something that you wanted to do well.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
I actually joined in high school and then got booted
before I joined, and then managed to run into an
army recruiter who somehow got me in, so I had
to actually join the Air Force when I was seventeen.
I wanted to do pair of rescue and then they
ended up finding that I had a like a it's

(03:05):
not a disorder, but like a blood disorder. Blood condition
doesn't do anything except for when I'm sick and tired,
I get johndice. That's all he does. But the spelling
of it is the exact same word for another blood disorder,
which is terminal. So the Air Force thought I was
terminal and terminated my contract. Two years later, I ran

(03:28):
into an Army recruiter in Burger king and he said
I can get you into the infantry and I was like, no,
you can't, and he was like, yes I can, and
he did.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
So here we are so eleven bravos. So you went
Blue Cord Infantry, probably like Fort Benning, Georgia, where'd you
go to infantry school.

Speaker 4 (03:45):
Yeah, Fort Betting, Yeah, so did infantry. You know, I
had a good enough GT score to do other stuff,
but you know, I just wanted to do shoot people.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
So what's a GT score do you read?

Speaker 4 (03:58):
That's like, that's what you get on the as FAB.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Oh sure, so I don't know what the other branch
is calling. But yet sixty one, Well.

Speaker 4 (04:06):
That's your as BAB score. But then there's the GT score,
which is like, and I had a good I had
a good GT score too, but ASTHAP is what you
need when you're getting into specialty schools and stuff, at
least for the Army. I don't know about the other one.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yeah, air Force though, was just straight.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
I didn't have a GT score that I know, Yeah, yeah,
but we just went by the asspad.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
Maybe it was a sixty three.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Actually, you know that test that ASPAB right, for anybody
that might be potentially joining or going to do it
or has done it, it's like four hours of just
intense sitting inside of MEPs and saying which way does
the cog of this wheel go? If the cog of
this wheel goes this way, But then you have a
bevel gear and I'm like, I don't even know what
those three now I know what they are today, but

(04:49):
as a young man twenty years old, I'm like, I
just want to do what you said. I just want
to hold a gun. I just want to where's the
button for holding a gun?

Speaker 4 (04:57):
That's right?

Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (05:00):
So so so, so you know now that you've joined
the military. What year was that? You think maybe that
eight ninety three? Yep, oh yeah, you just a little
bit of an older brother to me. Nineteen ninety three. Okay,
So here you are. I'm a junior in high school, okay,
and you're already.

Speaker 4 (05:19):
Two years out of high school.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah yeah, yeah, and off you go. So did you
go anything else other than levin Bravo? Did you like
wind up going airborne?

Speaker 3 (05:27):
Did you wind it?

Speaker 4 (05:27):
Yeah? So I did Airborne school, ranger school, Aerssoult school.
I did all that kind of stuff, a bunch of
other stuff, right, so my stint in I got airborne qualified,
ranger qualifying, et cetera.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
Did you go to the regiment?

Speaker 4 (05:42):
I did not. I tried to Mike Jamie command shut
that down faster than you know, having fun on a
four day weekend when you shouldn't.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
So and did that give you any insight into like, hey,
you know this is what I want to do. But
now I'm being kind of shut down. I mean, like,
you know, you still have some free will. You wanted
to be ranger, you want to go to regiment, Well
they want to do it.

Speaker 4 (06:04):
Of funny. So I had a really good AZBAB score
and I was a national level athlete already at that point,
and so when I told the Army that I wanted
to join the Army with the recruiter, I was like, hey,
I want to go to Ranger bat and they're like, okay,
well when you get to ASBAB, just let them know.
And I was like, okay, cool. So when I or

(06:25):
not the ASTHAB, when I got down to maps, and
when I got to maps, I said, hey, I want
to go to Ranger Battalion. I walked into boot camp
with a two ninety pt score. So they were like, nope,
we don't have any ranger slots. Well, my uncle and
my cousin both served, so I knew that if I

(06:46):
went to Airborne school, I could get a ranger slot
from Airborne school, right, So I was like, okay, well
just give me an airborne slot. They're like avenue. I
was like what and and I didn't know to play hardball,
so I should have played hardball, but I didn't. I
was like, well, what's available, and they're like, oh, we

(07:08):
can put you as a paralegal with your score, and
I'm like, I don't want anything to do with the office,
you know, I'm dooying to do fun stuff. And so
they tried to give me all these different MOS's and
I was like, no way. And then they're like, okay,
you can go to Germany. You can go to Fort
Carson and become mechanized infantry, which was sitting in the
back of the tank. I was like, no thanks. They're like,

(07:30):
or you can go to Fort Campbell and jump out
of helicopter. So I was like, fold, let's go yep.
So I was actually, you know, in hindsight, it worked
out in my favor, but I was really bummed about
it because I wanted to go to a regimen.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yeah, you know, and guys like your drive, you know,
you just wanted that.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
And I mean my dad was a Green Beret, total
driven type of attitude athlete, you know, good runner, you know,
a very faithful person as well. Out side of the military,
he had, you know, LDS. He was a Latter Day
Saying and believed in his faith very heavily, you know.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
And same with my mom.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
And I also know that you took a turn into
the faith and we're doing ministries or do you still
go around.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
I went through a divorce, so I've kind of back
off from that for a while because I went through
really bad divorce. So yeah, but yeah, but you still
have to actually became a Christian When I was in.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
The army, so oh was that right?

Speaker 4 (08:27):
Yeah, I wasn't a Christian. My squad leader ended up
leading into the war.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
Okay, yeah, And I mean you have to have something
to believe in to even be SF Like, that's a
requirement to have a faith. So it's not like anything
to be shy about, right, whether you believe in Jedi,
or you believe in Jesus, or you believe in Allah,
or you believe in MOhm whatever. Yeah, no, really those
are all classified religions, right.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
I just want to be open about it.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
And uh, you know, you know so so so you
kind of had that bestowed upon you and you found
that faith, right, And I'm sure a lot of my
listeners can relate with that you know, you're in some dark,
desolate place, maybe not even a foxhole, just something dark
maybe in your head, and you need to find something
that can help pull you through.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
And I think that that's kind of what you found.
Huh Yeah.

Speaker 4 (09:13):
Well for me, I when I was a younger, younger guy,
actually got into witchcraft and Satanism, and so it was
a complete one eighty for me.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah, and that's something that we can all hear and
learn things for being opening to talk about that. It's
kind of a touchy situation. They say, you don't talk
about religion and politics around the dinner table.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
You know, it's well, it's funny.

Speaker 4 (09:37):
My grandfather used to get so mad. He's like, the
three things you don't talk about it sex, politics, and religion.
My response was, what the hell else would you talk about?

Speaker 3 (09:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (09:46):
I mean, like, what are we going to talk about? Okay,
I don't have to embarrass about sex? Where do I
come from? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (09:53):
What's my purpose? Why am I here? The three things?

Speaker 4 (09:57):
My grandfather was a great guy, but he this like
I don't know, like I guess, and this was I
mean he was saying this, you know, late eighties, early nineties.
Was he didn't past until like two thousand and eight,
so it was always in my life. Really a great guy.
But for some reason he just thought that you don't
talk about those things at the dinner table. And I

(10:18):
was like, why not, Like what else would you talk about?

Speaker 2 (10:22):
So he already knew, he already knew, he already had insight.
He's like, because it's argumentative, because we just keep it,
you know. And one thing that my dad always taught me,
I'd always ask him who'd you vote for?

Speaker 3 (10:31):
This year?

Speaker 2 (10:31):
When I was young, it was like do Caucus versus Reagan?
And it was like, you know, Gore versus Bush, or
it was Obama versus whomever.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
And I was like every year, every time I'm like,
who'd you vote for?

Speaker 2 (10:41):
He's like, I don't have to tell you. I'd be like,
but i'm your son, I don't. That's the right I
have as an American is not to have to talk
about it with you. And so you know your dad
or you know your relative and my dad are probably
the same cloth.

Speaker 4 (10:56):
It's like, hey, yeah, yeah, as a matter of fact,
that's actually funny to say that, because I don't know where.
I didn't know where he's politically stood until after he
passed and my grandmother started talking about all the stuff
that drove him crazy, and then I kind of figured out,
you know, where he was at and that you know,
spectrum things, but it was just such a again not

(11:19):
necessarily taboo, it just my grandfather didn't really talk about
those things.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
So yes, and Dad was always like, you know, that's
our right to vote, our right to freedom of religion,
and our right to keep it to ourselves without half
of it.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
You know.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
It's like something got missed in the last twenty years
about this conversation, like, you know, we need our grandpa's
and our dad's back just a little bit more to help.

Speaker 4 (11:43):
I would say that we don't need them back, we
need the in between of where they were at and
where we're at now. Right, Yeah, Like I just, you know,
without getting into the politics of it, but I was
just watching a video in Minneapolis. They had riots that
broke out this weekend because the federal law enforcement was

(12:05):
doing a sex trafficking state and one of their politicians
made it about immigration when it when it had nothing
to do with immigration, had to do with sex trafficking.
So you have on their side of the spectrum, which
was nobody talks about anything. Now you have this other
side of the spectrum, which is lunacy, and I think
I think we just all need to be adults and

(12:27):
meat in the middle. And like, look, man, I'm you know,
and I'm just gonna make a joke out of that
because I don't really care. You could be this left
leaning as possible. At the end of the day, I go, okay, cool.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, Like, if someone wants to call me liberal, I'll
say maybe with my Akmo catch up.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
You know what I'm saying, you want to label me liberal,
it doesn't even matter.

Speaker 4 (12:48):
You could be you know, hardcore right right, Like, at
the end of the day, as an American, that's your
right to be that whatever that is, right, as long
as you give that back to me where it's your
right to be that, and we can both.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Go cool, right and just come like I mean really,
you know, I like to show folks that I can
meet somebody that I've never met before and have a
conversation without showing each.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
Other's throats apart.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
And here we are, John, just totally getting together having
a conversation. We're going to talk about how you can
travel around the world as a veteran, how you can
use these benefits that have come to you. And and
we've just had some kind of you know, dicey toks.
We just hit the three things you're not supposed to
talk about except for sex, but we'll leave that up
to Motley Crue and those guys to bring that to
the Yeah, I just.

Speaker 4 (13:34):
Think as a cool so now.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
I'll blend this in.

Speaker 4 (13:38):
I actually think it's because of my world travel that
I'm a little bit more open and a little bit
more less what would a word be, like, I don't
really take things seriously because I've been all over the
world and heard some crazy stuff in countries, and I've
been in places where I heard stuff that boiled my blood,

(14:01):
But then I've been in places where it was almost comical.
You also, like you start to learn to not take
offense to things, just let people be beautiful.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
Yeah, agreed. You know, I love to travel.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
I've been to England a few times myself and they're
like rad, I'm all, yes, are most Americans like you?
And I'm like yes, and they're like, then we like Americans,
And I'm like, so.

Speaker 4 (14:30):
Funny. Have you been to Ireland.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
I've not been to Ireland, but I've had Ireland kind
of come to me for this huge thing we did
for software at this boxing event. Oh nice, yeah, yeah
over in England. But tell me about Ireland.

Speaker 4 (14:42):
Well, it's just so when you listen to the TV, right,
everybody in Europe hates conservatives and Trump and all that stuff. Sure,
And so I went to Ireland and it was so funny.
I got in the cabby and the first thing right
off the rip, which is not what I do when
I travel, I want to learn about your culture. I
don't want to talk about.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
Trump, right right right.

Speaker 4 (15:04):
The first thing is this Irish guy is like, so
tell me about Trump. I'd rather not. He's like, no, no,
we love you beer. And he just started going on
about the immigration issues between Ireland and England. And you know,
Ireland has I don't know if i'd quite call it racism,
but they're pretty you know.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
An there's racism everywhere, right, I've seen it. I've seen it.
I've heard it in England.

Speaker 4 (15:30):
I don't know if it's I don't know if you
would call it racism right, because it's it's more it's
not ethnic, it's more cultural. I don't know what that
word is. But they don't like the emulation.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
Oh no, Look, I was in a club and I
had just I was like one of the guests of honors.
I had a tuxedo and I was hosting a boxing event.
So I'm like I got backstage passes. So I'm like
hanging out at the club and i have a gentleman
who's like, yeah, I'm a proper kingsman from you know,
the South side of England, et cetera, et cetera. And
this other guy comes over to me, my friend Harry.
He's like he smells like piss rad And I'm like,

(16:07):
what do you mean, Harry, You're from Ireland? And I said,
do you even know each other? And the Englishman's like, no,
we don't know each other. This is how it is.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
It's a Protestant Catholic thing. Oh okay, yeah, totally, just
totally like almost. I was just like, is this real?
Are you for real? Is this real? Right now?

Speaker 4 (16:23):
There's no joke so in front.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
Of my face and I was just like Harry, I
was like no, I was like, not right now, this
is not what we do right here. And my buddy,
who was a submarriner in the Navy from you know,
he's like a proper Englishman.

Speaker 3 (16:34):
He's like, that's just how it is. Rad. I'm like,
I can't. I'm literally witnessing this full on. Bro.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
We're just hanging out, having a good time, and then
he smells like piss and I'm like, whoa, hey.

Speaker 4 (16:45):
There's some real strong like blood there, like yeah, not
like each other, you know. And when you look at
the history of it, right, and you have Ireland getting
this independence but not Belfast, and there's all kinds of.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
Right to go.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
But it was just I was right in the middle
of it. I was right in the middle of that,
and I kind of squelched it. So I felt a
little bit like my mom. Yeah, yeah, like the peacemaker, like, hey, everybody,
you know, come on, bring it down a level.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
It's funny because they're very outspoken about their political persuasion
on any of the isle, right, and which you know,
it's almost American the way we do it in America now, right,
we didn't me that way. But the Irish are very boisterous,
or at least where I was at in Ireland. I
couldn't say all of Ireland, but definitely in Dublin and

(17:43):
the places I was hanging, they seem to be very
outspoken and opinionated.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
Well, well, how does one veteran go to Ireland to
listen to the opinionated voices like you or I have
heard traveling you know, like you know, yeah, I've flown commercial,
I've even when I was in the Air Force, I
flew space A from San Antonio to Travis.

Speaker 3 (18:04):
Air Force Base. You know.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
I was like, where's the scanners for the metal detector?
Whe's TSA And they're like, oh, five bucks and here's
a wand you're good to go. Get on the plane.
And I'm like, okay, this is a military plane. I've
got somebody on a gurney who's going to the same base.
I've got, you know, people who are getting their wounds
maybe re dressed at that base for more professional so

(18:28):
in the military, you know, and they're not all active duty, right, Okay,
there was people on the plane that were, you know,
just taking space A space available. It's usually like every
Wednesday from certain bases they fly out.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
Is that what we're going to crack open here? You're
going to talk about some of that.

Speaker 4 (18:42):
Well, I don't do a ton of the space A
And I'll tell you why space A is great, and
you should totally take advantage of it if you're in
a place in your own life where it doesn't matter
if you get on that plane or not. Okay, So
what I've seen is most veterans don't have the the
disposable income to be that flexible, and so when you

(19:07):
show up for space A, you don't know if you're
going to get on or not. Right, it's all based
on needs of the military first, and then whatever's left
over then they have a hierarchy for that. So I
don't actually use it that much. I still think it's
a great program. You guys can really dig into it
and figure it out. There's whole groups dedicated to it,

(19:28):
and I'm in those groups and I pay attention to it.
But that's not really my expertise.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
So well, let's talk about your expertise.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
Okay, Let's say I'm a veteran and I am out
and I put in two years, got wounded.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
You know, how do I.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
Use benefits with you know, a short time in yep
versus you know, twenty year guy.

Speaker 4 (19:49):
But it doesn't matter how long you were in for.
So let's just establish that it doesn't matter if it
was two or twenty. There are benefits out there for
all of us that are not based on our length
and and I'll talk through a couple of So first,
first is space A. You can only use if you're
one hundred percent p and T or retired, So if

(20:09):
you're a veteran or if you're a veteran, you can't
use it. Same for USO unless you're a dependent or
retired or one hundred percent PNT. Okay, USO is the
same way. So those are two travel benefits that have
some some qualifications for now. The next one down that

(20:32):
I think is really good, but you have to know
where you're at. If you're retired one hundred percent p
and T or active, you get fifty percent off Disney
and you know, Okay, Now, if you're a veteran and
you're any type of disability, you're getting somewhere between twenty

(20:55):
and thirty percent off. Now you have to go to
your local what we call on the Army MWR. I know
it's got a different name for the Navy, and I
think it does for the Air Force, but it's basically
where you can do travel accommodations and stuff like that.
I forget what it's called for the other branches. But
you have to be that at your local local or

(21:17):
not local, but the nearest post to you, okay, because
they have to verify your status.

Speaker 3 (21:24):
Okay, So just reach out to that post.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
So if you're someplace and there's an Air Force air
Force base, you can just call up and say, hey,
I need to get the travel desk. I want to
say it's at the rec Center here. I'm at Hill
Air Force Base and you taught myself. I want to
say that the Rec Center and next to it is
the Office of Travel because you can buy your Disney
tickets there. You can get all of that put through

(21:46):
through there.

Speaker 4 (21:48):
Yeah, let me let me look at up youre real quick?

Speaker 3 (21:51):
Just sure, just.

Speaker 4 (21:52):
Because as people are listening. So for the Army and
that's the morale, well for our recreation. The Navy they
call it MWR a well, but it's the CNIC. And
then for the Air Force they call it Force Support Squadron,
and the Marine Corps calls it the Community service. Coast
Guard calls a MWR.

Speaker 3 (22:13):
Okay, So three of the branches keep it with MWR.

Speaker 4 (22:16):
Well MWR and then they have their specific designation for it,
like the Navy is the CNIC. So Okay, so that's
how you guys can find those tickets. And then now
let me go down the next one. So here's another
one that most people don't know about. But it's only
available for one hundred percent PNT and it's only available

(22:38):
in certain states. There's forty two airports. You're one hundred
percent PNT. You get free airport parking when you travel.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
Well, yeah, no, that's great because I mean, if you're
going to take a couple of days you need to
park your car, thirty six dollars a day adds up
to one hundred dollars in three days.

Speaker 4 (22:56):
You know, in one of those states, Salt Lake does it?
I don't know, because you have what's the other one
down in Provo, Provo. I don't think maybe it's Provo
that does it.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
I have to Provos, some very small airport that's becoming
a little bit bigger, right, and so we now have
like Breeze.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
Airways, a region flies out of there.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
Salt Lake though international, I know they do have the
veteran assistance.

Speaker 4 (23:20):
Vegas has it, Nashville has it. Every airport in both
Florida and Texas has it. So doesn't matter where you're
at in Texas or where you're at in Florida. Every
airport has free parking.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
Yeah, and so how would somebody do you think go?
They just go to their local airport parking app and say, hey,
let me find to.

Speaker 4 (23:38):
The airport, get the packet, fill out the packet, provide
proof that they're one hundred percent PNT, or show their
handicapped blacuard, and then that's how they do it.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
Okay, Well, I hope somebody's listening that can take advantage
of this right now.

Speaker 4 (23:53):
Yeah, you know, I've got a buddy that saves a
couple of grand a year doing it.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
So, yeah, especially if you're trying to you know, coupon
your way through the world and try to travel internationally
for like two hundred bucks.

Speaker 4 (24:05):
It is thirty six dollars a day. So if you
take a ten day trip, I mean you're at almost
four hundred bucks, right, I mean that that you know,
it's not like massive money, it's a significant savings.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
So four hundred dollars towards food in Thailand or four
hundred dollars towards your car chilling.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
Yeah, just sitting there right, four.

Speaker 4 (24:28):
Hundred thiland goes way further than food that's what I
saved Thailand for two weeks and it cost me five
hundred bucks. That was air conditioning, hotel.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
Tank tops.

Speaker 4 (24:41):
Yeah, is like, yeah, this is cheap.

Speaker 3 (24:45):
Oh, there's like a meme.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
It's like one day in Thailand you're like completely tourist. Yeah,
three days into Thailand you're like flip flops and a
tank top. Six days into Thailand, no shirt, bandana, riding
a mopen.

Speaker 4 (24:59):
Now with that parking, there's also free RV and camping
sites all across the United States. So you just have
to be a veteran. So it doesn't matter if you're
active hired the table, you just have to be a veteran.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
Well, I have a story so young man, I was
probably ten eleven. My dad active duty Green Beery at
the time with mom booked us a beach tent stay
in California on the base. I can't remember the exact base,
but there was a beach there in the ocean. And
then we went to Disneyland and you know where you'd
have to pay huge amounts of money to stay on

(25:37):
a beach, like in Santa Monica or any of these
places to try to you know, have that beach view
and be right so close to it. The base I
think was like eight bucks a day and they gave
you ten spots or it was like yeah, maybe even
nothing like you're saying. I just remember Dad saying it
was like five or eight bucks a night.

Speaker 4 (25:52):
Yep. Yeah. And similar to that, there are five resorts
around the world that you can stay at for your
either your disability rate or your rank in the military
to where you're coming out at about one hundred and
fifty dollars a night. They've got one in Hawaii, one
in Orlando, one in the Swiss Alps, one in Korea

(26:15):
in Seoul, and one in japanan in Tokyo. And they're
the Armed what do they call it, Armed Forces Resort
Center I think is what it is AFRC. But it's
available for anybody who's served, first come, first serve basis
based on active duty. First. They're high end, you know,

(26:39):
they're not like, you know, an all inclusive in Cancun,
but they're very nice properties.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
So oh and it probably makes you feel just really nice,
very luxurious, and if you've never been to a property,
it's probably going to be like mind blowing to go
to the property.

Speaker 4 (26:53):
I mean that one in the Swiss Alps man is
really nice.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
Swiss Alps. Let me write that down Swish. There's an
ah arc in Swiss.

Speaker 4 (27:02):
Yeah, it's on the border of its it's on the
German side, in the Bavarian whatever it's called. It's called
Swiss Unburger Lodge or something like that. Uh, but it's
like it's in the Alps man and it's.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
I'm writing it down right now, r C.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
I mean, if you're just joining the podcast and you're listening,
I'm talking with John Renkin, and he's the tactical traveler
and he's giving us insight, you know, just into all
of the different options out there that can uh, you know,
save us some money traveling around with that veteran status
that you earned that you.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
Got elderwise elderwise elderwise.

Speaker 4 (27:46):
Yeah, and you know it's right there on the on
the border, the border on the German side. But you know,
when you think about it, there's all these perks and
I haven't even got into the two best ones, Like
I'm just giving you the load right and tier ones. Right.
When you start thinking about the average American fifty it's

(28:08):
fifty four percent of Americans don't take vacation which contributes
They've done the math to over one hundred and fifty
billion dollars in medical procedures, stress, drugs, all that stuff, right,
because we get so burned out and then we're medicated
and suicide and all that stuff. The effect of just

(28:32):
one week of vacation a year on your healthcare costs
as well as your overall kind of health is staggering.
There's research on and the four weeks prior to vacation
and the eight weeks after vacation you are one hundred
and twenty percent more effective at your workplace.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
Well, maybe you found a purpose.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
You're like, hey, you know, if I keep doing this,
I could take another vacation and then become back. Mental
health days are just as viable as a sick day
to me, right, So if one of my guys at
my office is like, hey, rad today I'm taking a
mental health day because I.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
Don't take them often, but I take.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
Them right like a sick day, and I'm like, all right, Well,
and if I see you out on the snowboard, I'm
not gonna be upset about that because you're taking a
mental health day. And if being out in the mountains
or exploring or traveling is conducive to your health, Well,
why it would.

Speaker 4 (29:26):
Actually prove them that it is, so that actually research
on veterans who spend time in nature, it significantly reduces
PTSD symptoms, significantly reduces the chance of suicide. And there's
a concept out there that they're starting to push, which
is called two to two to two. So every two

(29:47):
weeks you should take two days off. Every I think
it's every two months you should take a long weekend,
and then every two years you should take two weeks off.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
Sure, a little bit of a sabbatical, yeah, right right.
I worked at a company where they're like, you've been
here five years rad. I'm like yeah, They're like, here's
a month off paid. Wow, We're not gonna call you,
someone's gonna handle your book of business. You're gonna come
back to your job. So you know, you know, shout
out to eBay. Let me just say that real quick.
I love working there, but you know, they'd give you
a sabbatical, and they also are very veteran friendly at eBay.

(30:23):
You go to toy, they're going to keep your job. Yeah,
and every five years you get that one month off.
So people are like just trenching along, dude, it's like
three years two months. Okay, it's like four years six months.
Oh yeah, dude, it's it's it's it's great. Yeah no,
it's it's time off. It's all paid and it's your salary.

Speaker 4 (30:42):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
So if you're making twenty grand a month, there as
like somebody high up. You're getting that twenty grand and
you're on vacation and no one's calling you.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
So I kind of stole that idea and implemented a
smaller version in my my tactical store. So I own
a couple of Airsoft wargame shops here in Salt Lake City,
and all my guys in there, you know, whether we're
trying to mentally boost them up with pizza almost every day,
or something to eat, Chick fil a, something different, like
just not pizza. You know, mental health and morale really

(31:14):
goes a long way. You feed your troops and they're
gonna want to fight, that's right, you know. And so
and they also know that I have the same opinion
of like, hey you need a mental health day or
hey hey rat Every morning I'm out on the snowboard
with my wife at nine am, and I get back
to work by twelve.

Speaker 4 (31:29):
You really like, I would encourage all of you guys
listening and you as well to go do just a
quick Google search on the actual pure reviewed research on
the effects of vacation for PTS.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (31:45):
Yes, it's staggering.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
And I guess what I'm trying to get at, John,
is that the place I go is where people travel
to from around the world, and it's in my backyard.
So I go to Brighton Ski Resort here in Utah,
and I mean me and my wife. We sit on
the chairlift hanging our snowboards and I look at it
and I'm like, we ride everybody's bucket list every day
like this is you know, people that we ride on
the lift.

Speaker 4 (32:08):
With them about it all the time because we travel
here in Germany in Salt Lake. So I've done some
medical travel and I found a clinic that does deals
for veterans up in Salt Lake that does stem cell
for veterans who have sustained injuries.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
So sure, yeah, a friend of mine here, uh Kirkham,
Jeff Kirkham, Green Beret. He's in that medical field as
well of helping out with that. And I just have
to say his name because you know, he's an awesome
SFDA that's got thrown out there.

Speaker 4 (32:43):
So the next two are the ones that everybody gives
me hate about until they take them and then they
figure out that I'm telling the truth, which is that
if you served, you don't have to be disabled, that
retired or acted. If you are serving or have sure
as long as you got an honorable discharge or rather than.

Speaker 3 (33:03):
Honorable, just right, just not dishonorable.

Speaker 4 (33:06):
Not dishonorable, you get five days in the Bahamas at
Atlantis for just under five hundred bucks.

Speaker 3 (33:14):
No kidding, no kidding.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
How do you That explains why my buddy is always
down there once a year, probably jet Sorry, I have
COVID brain, so sometimes I forget what I'm talking about.
And so Dan, so excuse me. So Dan a buddy
of mine. Dan, he goes down there. He was just
down there with his wife on Jetski's And really, I
did have COVID like four weeks ago and ever since

(33:42):
I've had it. John, I just want to let you know.
I'll be talking and I'm really good at talking, and
then I just stop. I'm like, I'm old man, Rad,
I'm like, what's going on with me?

Speaker 3 (33:51):
Dude?

Speaker 2 (33:52):
I'm like is this COVID brain? Do I have COVID fog?
I hate to go in that direction, but you know,
my listener you're listening to, I'm really just like hashing
this out with John right now, Like, you know, diagnose me.

Speaker 3 (34:03):
Tell me I don't have COVID fog. Man.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
Tell me it's like los A brain cells from high school,
you know, party days you come on, bro.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
I mean, like, you know, but right, I'm hitting my
head too much.

Speaker 4 (34:15):
You know.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
It's like but again, yeah, I don't know yet using
that or not. But you just have.

Speaker 4 (34:22):
Any Caesar Palace property, which is a casino, you do
not have to gamble. So they own Caesar's Palace, Harris Casino,
and there's one other one that's smaller. It's only got
a few locations. They got ninety locations around the country.
Show them your veteran ID card active DD retired car
or your DD two fourteen. They give you what's called

(34:44):
the salute guard. Takes about twenty four hours forty eight
hours to activate. Then you call them and you book
your trip to Atlantis.

Speaker 3 (34:52):
And that's called a salute card salute guard.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
So if our listeners like, hey, what was that, how
do I maybe even call the operator say hey, how
do I get the salute card?

Speaker 4 (35:01):
No, I actually have a free step by step PDF
to show you how to do it step by step.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
Where can we find that?

Speaker 4 (35:09):
You can do it on my website or in my
Facebook group.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
What's the name of your website.

Speaker 4 (35:13):
Tactical Traveler Club dot com And my Facebook group is
the Tactical.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
Traveler right, And so I just want to make sure
that my listener knows Tactical Traveler Club dot com is
where they can find a good resource of information that
we're talking about right now?

Speaker 3 (35:27):
Right's free?

Speaker 4 (35:29):
Like I don't. I don't. I don't make any money
off of it. I'm not their affiliate. I do it
simply because I believe that you guys deserve.

Speaker 3 (35:36):
To travel for a love of the game. Dude.

Speaker 4 (35:39):
Yep. So now the next one is more unbelievable than
that one. But I do this one all the time
as well. So what is that you get up to
free ten day crews for just having served? Now this
one's a little more exclusive because you can only get
this card in Atlantic the at Ocean Casinos. Okay, the

(36:03):
cruise this year and following is on.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
Virgin Oh that would be Rock star style. Yep, I
love to fly Virgin Airlines.

Speaker 4 (36:13):
So you have to go to Atlantic City. You have
to go to Ocean Casino, show proof of service, you know,
veteran ID card, retired card, active card or d D
two fourteen. They give you what they call their Veterans
Player card. And once you get that card, it takes again, Uh,
they take a little bit longer because they actually validate

(36:34):
your info. It takes about two weeks for them to
put you into the system. After they put you in
the system, there's a one eight hundred number you call
and you book your cruise with Virgin.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
And I'm sure that they can find that info at
the Tactical Traveler Club dot com.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
It's all right, practical traffic. We're going to lead you there.

Speaker 2 (36:51):
You go. What's that one hundred number? Rad tell it
to me right now, right down. No, No, I'm not no,
go to Tactical Travelers.

Speaker 4 (36:58):
They have the one eight hundred number if you don't
already have the car, because they look you up and
they're gonna go you don't have an account. So and
just so everybody clearly hears me, you do not have
to gamble to get these cards. You don't have to
gamble on the ship. You don't have to gamble on Atlantis.
It's just a it's basically a tax right off for them.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
And Atlantis is the Bahamas, right right, And I mean
that's that's that's that's there's nice blue water that you
can put your feet in and and reconnect.

Speaker 4 (37:28):
After every single day because all the money I saved
on the resort. Yeah, you can eat lobster.

Speaker 3 (37:36):
Yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
And I think that they're having like the world uh oh,
the slot machine tournament coming up. There's like a World
slot So if you do play a little slots, you know, yeah.

Speaker 4 (37:46):
They have a big casino there, so.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
Yeah, you know, so they do got some slots, those
dirty slots.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
Tell you what.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
Careful with that though, that's a whole other addiction. I
got to say, hey, watch out. If you have problem
with gambling, call those eight hundred numbers that you hear
about and talk to somebody. Okay, don't don't bet your mortgage,
do not do that, or your retirement bench and don't
do that. So so the the the key thing here
is what I'm picking up from you is the Tactical

(38:17):
Traveler Club dot com is a resource for us to
go and just to kind of.

Speaker 4 (38:23):
Travel or Facebook group because that's.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
Live right right, and you're right, and there's probably a
coalition of everybody in there that's got information like hey,
I just use this and that and look here with there.

Speaker 4 (38:34):
You see that all the time. Every I have everybody
post their card or videos when they're in the lands
or on the careers.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
So cool, that's so cool for veterans to know that
there's something to help, uh, you know, offset the cost
of travel, and you know it doesn't have to be
space a yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:52):
You know, and that's really cool. So what else do
you have?

Speaker 2 (38:54):
What kind of tips and tricks can you give us
for you know, trying to go to like, you know,
an airline, Is there an air line that you prefer?

Speaker 3 (39:01):
That is just always was.

Speaker 4 (39:03):
The choice just because you didn't have to pay baggage,
But all that's changing now. So there are a ton
of airflight hacks and there's a hotel hacks as well.
So on airlines, my favorite is what we call the
across the Pond hack. I flew to Iceland for four
hundred and fifty one dollars, so that's good. Using the

(39:25):
what we called the across the pond haack, which is
where you book a round trip ticket to your layover
destination before you go Internashville. So in this case, I
went to Boston. So Nashville to Boston was one hundred bucks.
So I booked from Nashville to Boston. From Boston to
Iceland was three hundred and fifty one dollars.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
Otherwise it probably would have been nine to one thousand
dollars from your direct flight from Nashville to icelan.

Speaker 4 (39:51):
And I would have had a layover in Boston or.

Speaker 3 (39:53):
New York or anyways, ID anyway.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
So you basically just said, Okay, I'm going to book
a round trip to Ashville because you have to go
there and come back from there.

Speaker 4 (40:02):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (40:02):
So a little plotting though with your your calendar.

Speaker 4 (40:05):
Yeah, so you have to you have to pay attention
to when you're booking times, and you got to give
you enough time on the return flight to clear customs.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
And don't forget the time changes, right like Zulu time,
GMT time. You're like, oh, today's the thirteenth, I'm flying
back on the fourteenth. But if you're in England on
the fourteenth, because the time shifts, you're coming back on
the fifth that changes your flight, so you got to
pay attention to those time frames.

Speaker 4 (40:28):
But you know, I did a round trip ticket to
Norway and spend a day in England, and it cost
me six hundred bucks from Nashville.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
Yeah, that's a really good fair, you know, And and
that's probably was internet provided on that plane.

Speaker 4 (40:45):
Uh well, I don't think you give internet once you
hit international waters.

Speaker 3 (40:50):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (40:51):
Now now I know that's changing now because of Starlink,
but when I did that trip, I don't think you
could have internet in an international.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
Because I remember flying to London on this WAMU and
I was like, oh wow, they're all Spanish from like Spain,
and I was I was like, okay, everybody's speaking Spanish
on this flight and I'm flying to England.

Speaker 3 (41:12):
I'm like okay.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
But I had a basically raw dog the flight because
my phone was just stuck on whatever game I had
and there was no service or anything like that. And
then when I got off the plane, I was told, oh,
next time, download the app before you get on the flight,
so you have connectivity.

Speaker 3 (41:30):
And I said, oh, oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (41:31):
You know, there's probably some of that overseas, but you know,
because in Europe it's a little bit different than here.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
So my advice is, if you are traveling internationally and
you're not sure if you have it, you should ask
the representative at the gate, do I need to download anything.

Speaker 3 (41:46):
Before I fly?

Speaker 4 (41:47):
Sure?

Speaker 2 (41:48):
You know, because what I did is I learned on
my way home about that trick, and then there was
this young family that was getting ready to fly on
it for the first time. I was like, hey, make
sure you go download the app before you get on
this flight, because once we get on the plane, you're
not gonna be able to download it.

Speaker 3 (42:00):
No, no, because.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
It's like, no, there's nothing, and even right there at
the terminal you can't get it. It's just like, so
screwed that I learned. And they got on the plane
and like halfway through they looked over at me, they're like, yeah,
good job, dude. You know, nine hour flight.

Speaker 4 (42:16):
So there's a ton of really good and I have
again it is on the website as well as in
the Facebook group, but I have a free pdf on
the top five airflight hacks on how to save money
on airfare, and that across the Pond technique is my
favorite though, because you really do save the most amount
of money when you're doing international flights.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
So oh yeah, and if you want to be treated
kind of like a rock star and you don't have
the rock star budget of first class.

Speaker 3 (42:42):
You know.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
What I've learned is I was flying back from London.
This is like maybe a couple of trips.

Speaker 3 (42:46):
Now. I went to the international airport. There's that plate.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
Yeah, thank you, he threw up, and there's a Herod's,
which is this store, very expensive, high end. I didn't know,
and I'm just walking through and I'm like, well, I'm
going to buy the crew some.

Speaker 3 (43:01):
Chocolate that I'm flying home with.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
Okay, So I just got something that was like individually wrapped,
it was like thirty bucks, you know, and put it
in this little green Herod's bag. So I'm walking through
and I get on the plane and as I bored,
I'm like, hey, this is for the crew, and the
crew member took it from me and she was so happy.

Speaker 3 (43:18):
She's like, thanks so much. Man.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
Every single one of them came up to my seat
that flight and just want to say thank you for
the treats. Think if do you need anything, And people
next to me flying back from Paris are like, why
are they talking to you? Some why did they come up?
Why did they give you your food first? Yeah, I
was the first one to get my food. Which is
another travel hack too, by the way, which you can
go into your flight and choose vegetarian or alternate option,

(43:42):
and then they when you sit down on your flight.
You don't know this, but they put a piece of
tape on the back of your seat so when the
service comes through, they know to take you your special entrede.
And so I would get like Indian food, you know,
because a vegetarian, I'd be like, oh, give me some curry,
give me some of this. Didn't know how it worked.
I got fed first. People were like what, I like,
can I go sit up at the front bar and

(44:03):
the Virgin airplane and they're like, yes, rad you can.
I was like, thanks, chocolate, A little bit of chocolate
goes a long way to these, you know.

Speaker 3 (44:10):
The pilot came. I mean, everybody said thank you to
my seat and that's in the back.

Speaker 4 (44:14):
That's funny. Yeah, you definitely. You know, you catch more
flies with honey than you do with vinegar.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
So well, let me let let me, let me let
me tell you one more thing. My wife and I
were flying back to London maybe a year later or so,
and we're going through Salt Lake International Direct flight Delta
and that's how I came home on that flight was
a delta and I said, honey, that that crew member
is getting ready to be the gate guy. And he
has the little bag I gave him when I came

(44:42):
back from England and she's like no, and I was like, yeah,
it's the small, little green Herod's bag and it was
taped like he did not ever want to get like lost,
and he was just carrying his little stuff in it
and he set it down. I walked over to him
and I said, is that the bag that I gave
you with the chocolates from years.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
And he said it's you and it's like it's me.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
Dude boarded first plane. Okay, one hundred percent, like rekindled
that relationship. My wife is like blown away that that's
the bag. I told her a story and then yeah,
and he was still holding onto that Herod's bag as
a gift that I had given the crew. And now
I found out that Harods was Princess Diana's soon to
be husband that died in that crash with her Dody

(45:27):
that was his stores so Herod's is a very fancy
They got one hundred thousand dollars plates that you buy
for ten times plate.

Speaker 3 (45:33):
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
The silverware of the flotwer is like gold, and like
everything in there is like they got It's crazy. If
you ever get a chance to go to England, go
check out Herod's right right downtown London. Just go eat there.
They have a huge, massive, like banquet of food. Man,
like you got seafood, you got fresh every I mean,
it's just like it's five stars. I definitely recommend going
to Herod's. And after going through the gift shop, I

(45:57):
took my wife to the actual Herods and it's like
four or five stores, old school brick building. It's just
like this huge, fancy mall. I really only bought food
there because everything else is just like so expensive.

Speaker 3 (46:08):
Bro.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
But that's that's a good place to go. And I
love traveling. And listen to how excited I am talking
about it.

Speaker 4 (46:15):
Yeah no, that's great.

Speaker 3 (46:17):
And you're just like letting me bounce it off of you.

Speaker 4 (46:21):
I think all those are you know. So again, to
circle back to what we first started talking about, if
we were just decent people and treated people decently. Yes,
we would get a lot further, we would get treatment. Yes,
it doesn't matter if it's traveling oriented or sitting at
the restaurant. Just be nice, Right, didn't cost you anything.

(46:42):
I mean, I know it doesn't cost you anything to
be an asshole either.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
But you know, I mean, like you said, flies with
you get more, you get more with honey used honey, Yeah,
you know.

Speaker 4 (46:53):
You know. So we have tons like how to write
your travel off, how to get up to seventy percent
off your hotel space. Like, there's a ton of stuff
in that group, depending on which way you want to go.
There's there's a lot of tips and tricks in there
that and for me, I've made everything about the military community.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
So yeah, of course, and so that's a really good
focus because you know, there's another program that I got
vetted through. I was shopping at my local Lows and
they were like, okay, we don't take veteran idea up
front anymore.

Speaker 3 (47:28):
At the checkout.

Speaker 2 (47:29):
You have to go through this vetting process called ID
dot me, right, And I was like, oh, just another
thing just to get percent off on my screws today.
So I went through the process ID ME, and you know,
they send me a slew of things in my email, like, Hey,
did you know that veterans are getting forty fifty percent
off all this stuff from all these major brands, all

(47:52):
of these discounts on flights, So that would be a
good place.

Speaker 3 (47:55):
And I bet you some of these companies.

Speaker 2 (47:57):
Aren't adhering to the our adopt the ID dot me.
More and more companies are just like, let's just use
this aspect to vet them and then they're vetted. Takes
one one extra step away from them having.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
To do it.

Speaker 4 (48:10):
Yep, yep. So I have id me. They've got a
different stuff on there. Some stuff is better than others.
But I mean, at the end of the day, and
there's a lot in there.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
There is a lot in there, and what might be,
you know, not so hot for you, might be so
hot for me.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
And so if you just take yourself to id dot me.
Not that they are paying me to.

Speaker 2 (48:29):
Say this, but it's a veteran service where you can
check out, get vetted, and then you can see all
the benefits they have and try to help save on
everything else, including your travel, which you can go to
you know, Tactical Traveler Club dot com, which John runs
and check out his Facebook group too, because I'm gonna go.
I'm gonna do it. Let me do it right now
while we're talking. Go ahead, I can multitask John. You know,

(48:51):
it's just that simple. So here I am Facebook. Uh, oh,
it's a thumb print. Here we go. Let's see.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
So we're looking up Tactical travel Tactical t Traveler.

Speaker 4 (49:00):
Yeap, just put a Technical Traveler should be a group
that comes up right away.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
Tactical Traveler. Me and my fat thumbs. No, I want
an E not a y travel or. Let's sound it
out and we're going to join. You have seven point
two thousand members average of two posts a day.

Speaker 3 (49:20):
Tactical Traveler join. So now I'm pending.

Speaker 2 (49:23):
So I'm sure that once your admins get through you know,
pending me, I'll be able to go into the group
and say, hey, what's up.

Speaker 3 (49:29):
It's rad.

Speaker 4 (49:31):
There you go. Well, I am the admin of the group,
so let me just go and ad you.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
Oh, let's just see, oh this is this is Oh
I feel so yes, that's great. I love that.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
Give me one second and then any of our listeners
right now go check out Tactical Traveler on Facebook. Tactical
Traveler is a group dedicated to helping our military men
and women and their spouses travel more.

Speaker 3 (49:53):
You really, I can.

Speaker 4 (49:54):
Ada, so you can hop in and you'll be able
to see right away, you know.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
And now I'm in and oh yeah, and you see
you see, I know active duty military veterans and their
dependence military stay at Atlantis and the Bahamas.

Speaker 3 (50:06):
That's like your headliner.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
You're just like just preapproved an active duty airmen pcsing
from Germany. I mean, there's just so much going on
inside your group. This is a cool group.

Speaker 3 (50:15):
Yup here, I'll put hey, thanks for the ad. Let's
put thanks for allowing me in the group?

Speaker 2 (50:28):
Love Rad cause you know Facebook, bro, Yep, there we go.
So you'll get that.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
And and I encourage you know, anybody else.

Speaker 2 (50:40):
You know, even if I get one or two people
from here to join your group and that can take
advantage of it, that's sweet.

Speaker 3 (50:45):
Bro.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
I love to reach out to that one person who
emails me or the one person who's like thanks Rad.

Speaker 4 (50:50):
Right, it's literally you know, you go in there, there's
all these guides where you can get all the PDPs
you want for free. Do you ask for you? I
didn't do it for you, but I do ask you
for your email. Part of that's to keep scammers out.
Part of that's because I also email those ebooks to

(51:11):
you for free, so like.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
You know, and yeah, people, and you want to keep
it from bots, you know, and same. I'm a part
of a group and an admin as well. I'm really
kind of hands off on approvals. But the reason why
we do it is because we want everybody to be
kind of like a local person.

Speaker 3 (51:27):
Yeah, to be real, you know, right, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 4 (51:29):
When I asked three questions, are you a military person? Man?
What branch did you or your spouse serve in? And
then the second question is what your email? This is
to keep spammers out? And the third is do you
want me to send you the email on the free trip,
the free crews or the trip to Atlantis?

Speaker 3 (51:47):
Sure?

Speaker 2 (51:48):
Sure, And that makes total sense because now you're vetting them,
You're like, Okay, I've got seven thousand people in here.
Let's take away the two hundred. Let's just say they
got through the net. Okay, but you got seven thousand
that are just probably a good.

Speaker 4 (51:59):
Pretty I've my group has actually trained really well. As
soon as somebody posts something that's like bitcoin or you
know whatever, they I'll get five or ten notifications, report reporting.

Speaker 3 (52:12):
It and admin report ad and report a report report.
I love that.

Speaker 4 (52:18):
So if you're in my group and you see something
that's not supposed to be in there, don't ever hesitate
because I get rid of those people fast.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
We try real quick. The community, Yeah, because there's trolls,
that's what we call.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
Them, those of you on social media. Now through all
the excite that of talking to you about travel, which
has probably made me healthy in my head right now
thinking all I want to do is take my wife
onto the trip, maybe my kids.

Speaker 4 (52:43):
We're going to Georgiautahn, no matter how much money you make.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
Yeah, so you know I'm gonna hit this up and
just investigate more about the Tactical Traveler Club dot com
and just learn more about you, John By, and I
want my listener to go do the same thing. And
if you're watching, Hi, we're waving at you. If you're watching,
come check it out out now. Rob sent you over.
Did Did I miss a book? Is there a book?

Speaker 4 (53:07):
There is a book coming out completely separate from travel.
The book is divorce. According to Sun Sue, so I
went through really bad divorce.

Speaker 2 (53:18):
Those divorce, according to sun Suit like the art of
war of war.

Speaker 4 (53:24):
And during the divorce, I want the divorce, won my
kids in the divorce and tried to do things as
ethically as possible. But I have a lot of people
on my network, because my network is all military, that
are going through these things and don't get to see
their kids. So that's where really where this book is
coming from.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
Completely separate, sure, but still we want to put it
out there, you know, and let everybody know that that
book's coming out, and maybe there's probably some antidotes in
there that can help you stay saying, I bet you.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
Yeah. So if you're listening and this is something that
you see coming on your horizon, reach out to me
to shoot me a message. I'd love to be a
support system for you, for your father, and you're not
getting to see your children. I'm the guy that's going
to encourage you to stand up, spend the money you
need to spend, and fight to stay in their life.

Speaker 3 (54:13):
So yeah, because they'll appreciate it. They'll be like, how
come we didn't fight for me?

Speaker 4 (54:16):
Yep?

Speaker 3 (54:17):
But I did? But how come I did never come
to see you didn't fight hard enough?

Speaker 4 (54:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (54:21):
Right?

Speaker 3 (54:21):
I mean, and now I'm twenty two years old and
pissed off.

Speaker 4 (54:24):
I mean, they eventually will get it. So yeah, you know,
take take take art.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
So yeah, just stay stay focused, just tell them that
you love them, and just tell them that you'll you'll
you'll see him soon, and keep it up. And yeah,
I mean, hey, I know people who have been in
your position as well, you know. And yeah, a good
friend of mine didn't see his kid for like seventeen years,
like maybe once. They're every now and then, but never custody,

(54:52):
always doing the payments, always try to you know, never
able to travel, always try to hopefully get his kid.

Speaker 4 (54:58):
I have exty and have to make payments.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
So oh well, hey, I mean, you know, at least
at least she's not putting the child dates on things.

Speaker 3 (55:06):
That you're doing that are important when she finds out
about them. Oh you know what, Oh yes, you know
what I'm saying. I just like that's for my friends.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
Yeah, just from what they're like, Dude, they find out
the go do war games on a weekend and they're like, oh,
you have your kid on that weekend.

Speaker 3 (55:19):
Yeah, I'm like, bring your kid, bring your kid to
the wargames.

Speaker 4 (55:26):
Baby, and listen to We've got quite a few people
from Utah in the group that are military, So make
sure you post your wargame stuff because we're all about
the travel experience, right. Oh so I don't care if
it's local whitewater rafting for all of that stuff has
approved promote as much as you want to promote.

Speaker 3 (55:45):
I'll drop a link into that post.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
I'll say, hey, check out eight oh one airsoft dot com,
which is my indoor kill house I have here in Layton,
Utah outside Hill Air Force Space.

Speaker 4 (55:53):
You know.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
And if you're listening to this and you want to
come and check that out, you know, and you heard
it through this podcast, just reach out to me through
instant I'll help square you away if you're making plans
to come here, or if you're already in Utah and.

Speaker 3 (56:04):
You just you're like, rad what indoor air stots.

Speaker 4 (56:06):
Anything, outdoor hunting, Like we have safaris in the group,
we have honeting fishing trips in the group. We have
all of that because all of that to me is
a part of the outdoor travel experience, and so I
want as much of that as possible.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
Oh yeah, because Brighton Ski Resort has a discount for
veterans to come up there, and they have a huge
adaptive program for skiers and snowboarders alike or people that
want to get back on the mountain who maybe are
missing some limbs, you know, that type of thing.

Speaker 3 (56:34):
They're in the bucket seat and they're skiing and wow.
You know.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
So if you're I got a shout out Brighton Ski
Resort right, love that that's like my get away from home.

Speaker 4 (56:43):
That's awesome. See, and here's here's my issue. I would
have And so I'm not a skier, so I would
have never known that to start with, right, right, But
people don't know what's actually out there and actually available,
right And so maybe Brighton is on your list and
you want to go do some of those kind of things,
you would have never known that there's that discount. So

(57:06):
I encourage my people as they're traveling around the world
in the group and they find veteran discounts to post
them into group so that we as a collective community
can grow and figure out what's available. Because you know,
in twenty sixteen, when I found out about this Atlantas thing,
my buddy told me and I was like, yeah, bsd right,
He's like, go up and verify it. So I did

(57:29):
and then I went and I was like, Holy cow,
it Israel.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
So now you keep going, Yeah, you get to go
every year. Why why not not?

Speaker 3 (57:38):
Yeah? Why would you not? Now I'm going to look
into that. I'm going to go to Tactical Traveler Club
dot com. That's so funny. I love saying it, and
I'm going to check it out.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
I really will, and I'll say, hey, babe, you know
you know this is I just had this great interview
with John and there's these options for veterans.

Speaker 3 (57:52):
Let's see what I can explore.

Speaker 4 (57:54):
Yeah, and it's fairly close for you. The closest one
to you, they probably got some in Utah, but you
can go to Vegas four hour drive or whatever it is,
three hour drive and just get your card. The closest
one to me is an hour and hour and fifteen
minutes away.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
I think I am with Caesars already because I do
frequent down there for concerts and events, and so I'm
a big points guy.

Speaker 3 (58:15):
So if I'm going to spend anything inside of the establishment,
even if.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
It's buying my hotel room or if it's buying food
at the buffet, I just use my card and say
here you go, and then they add those points even
if you're not gambling. You know. We mentioned like you
don't have to always gamble, you know, and those points
come back to you and they're like, hey, come stay
down here for free now.

Speaker 3 (58:33):
Yeah, you know, And here's buddy.

Speaker 4 (58:35):
I have a buddy man and he's a gambler but
like he's not a professional, but he does really well
and he's always laughing because they flew him. They gave
him free playing to his free stay to come out
for some like amateur tournament.

Speaker 3 (58:50):
Right, just to come out, just to come there.

Speaker 2 (58:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:52):
Yeah, that's why I'm that's why it's like, you know,
I heard the world.

Speaker 4 (58:55):
Everybody's always like what's the catch, and I'm like, well,
there is no catch really except for you have to
prove you served. But they want you in their property
even if you don't gamble if you stay at Caesar's right, Yes, yes,
there's there's a market.

Speaker 3 (59:09):
You're gonna buy something to this.

Speaker 4 (59:13):
And it's the same for Atlantas, Like even if you
don't gamble, the benefit to the economy, you're gonna be there.
You're gonna spend money on food, you're gonna spend money
on the local economy, you know, so it makes sense
on so many different levels.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
Right right, You're gonna take social media pictures maybe and
post them up saying tag them at you know, Caesars.

Speaker 4 (59:33):
Don't understand that piece of the travel industry.

Speaker 2 (59:36):
Oh yeah, I love that, And I love this conversation.
And I can't believe you've been talking for a solid
hour bro about this. It's just going back and forth.
And again, what I want to teach my listener is
that you can have a casual conversation with someone you
never met and not get at their throats and not
get crazy. We talked about three sensitive topics at the
very beginning of it, when none of us were yelling
at each other. We talked about how you can take

(59:56):
advantage of your veterans benefits and how you can take
advantage of different you know, opportunities for discounts to help
save you some cash. And you know, I just want
to see veterans thrive, survive and stay excited for life
and continue to move forward, you know, gaining ground. Okay, always,
that's great, man, No, you've been great, dude. Hey, And

(01:00:19):
I want to say, you know, I'm gonna wind us
down here. I want to invite you back with more
tips and tricks from the any time. Yeah, a hundred
per se. And I want to say thanks to Rob
for you know, leaking us all up together. He's great,
you know, thanks for bringing me solid people, Rob.

Speaker 3 (01:00:34):
I appreciate the talent. How about that? Let me put
it out there.

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
And then thanks for going infantry, thanks for going aerosol,
thanks for going airborne, thanks for going ranger, thanks for
going through rip you know, okay, you know, so I'm
saying thank you for being selfless and continuing to do
so and trying to help your neighbor and your fellow
brother and sister in arms. So that's a big, a

(01:00:58):
big salute from us here at Software.

Speaker 4 (01:01:00):
You appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (01:01:02):
Yeah, and so on behalf of this.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
If you have any inclination to go travel, go check
out Atlantis, Go check out Ireland, go check out wherever
you want, but first check out Tactical Traveler Club dot
com before you go see if you can get any
benefits and if you need any real advice tips and tricks.

Speaker 3 (01:01:21):
Like Hey, I'm in the middle of Prague.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
Anybody know where the best food to eat between Street
A and Street b is. I'm here right now in
the Facebook group.

Speaker 3 (01:01:28):
I'm sure they're gonna be like you can get.

Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
They bag at and an espresso O Aziah was the cigarette. Okay,
I look forward to being in the group and on
behalf of myself Brandon Webb, who runs softwarep dot com,
and John Renkinuh who joined us today to talk about
some discounts that you can get traveling.

Speaker 3 (01:01:47):
I just want to say thank you and peace.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
You've been listening to self red Radia