From the Shadows to the Center of Power: Sean Hagerty on War, Writing, and Washington

Sean Hagerty is a retired Special Operations Soldier with over 25 years of experience. He spent his younger years training and conducting combat operations with the 1st of the 75th Ranger Regiment. After nine years, in 2005, he was selected for and assigned to a Special Operations unit at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. There he spent sixteen years and finished his military career, retiring as a Sergeant Major. He received several awards and decorations throughout his career including three Bronze Stars. Sean currently works for the Department of Defense Science Board as the Senior Advisor. “The Defense Science Board (DSB) is charged with solving tough, technical, national security problems for the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the Under Secretaries of Defense, the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other senior Department officials.” His wife Misty is an Executive Officer at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Their children Courtney, Travis, Samantha, and Delaney all live in the Washington D.C. area and are thriving, growing and traveling along their own paths. The grandchildren Rowen, Jameson, and Wren keep Sean and Misty busy. Sean Hagerty has combined over 25+ years of service in the Special Operations community and deep-rooted research instincts from years of academic pursuits in history to tell this story. This story was written mostly in the plush seats of the daily Tackett's Mill/Pentagon commuter bus and the shaky bucket seats of the Franconia Springfield/Largo blue metro line. However, a few chapters were written while traveling for work, taking advantage of uninterrupted thoughts on an airliner. One chapter was even written during an evening break while on a business trip aboard the USS Nimitz CVN 68 aircraft carrier out in the Pacific Ocean. Cabal all came together during evening edits in his home shared with Misty, in Lakeridge, Virginia. Jones Point was the first novel in the Dane Cooper series. Cabal is the second. The Department of Defense, Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review has cleared the publication of both novels. Review was required due to Sean's past and current security clearance. Jones Point was published by Blue Handle Publishing on April 15th, 2024. Cabal will be released June 6th, 2025.. Readers can learn more about Sean at authorseanhagerty.com and follow Sean.Hagerty.73 on Facebook/Instagram and @seanhagerty850 on TikTok.

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Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Field ops smell bad, not like forgot to shower bad,
like rotting jimsock married a dead raccoon bad. But here's
the deal. Clean troops are sharp troops. If you are
out there ghosting through enemy lines or running ops from
a muddy fob, you don't have time for a hygiene crisis.
That's why elite units pack the scrubble washbag becau us.
Dragging around eighty pounds of gear is hard enough without

(01:03):
carrying your own stench cloud. It's hand powered, super compact
and knocks out laundry in ten minutes. Flat cold alps done,
jungle heat done.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Gear clean.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
While prepping for Helo Xville double done. Pack a scrubba,
not a second pair of regret. Hey, what's going on?
It's your host, rad and I am ready to roll
with another episode of soft Rep Radio for you. But
first before I introduce my guest, who you already know
because it's in the link and you guys are like
super excited. Here what we're going to talk about I

(01:37):
want to mention the merch store. So we have soft
rep dot com forward slash Merch and we are just
branding cool goods with our logo all over it, like
the new mug that has the Playboy Bunny Tactical Operator
on there. Go check that out. We love seeing it
tagged all over the internet. And the support that you
guys give us by buying the merch helps to keep

(01:58):
the fireplace gas lit. Right, that's gas. I'm not out
there chipping away it would that's gas. I'm just gonna
say that clearly. Second, we have a book club and
that is soft rep dot com Forward slash book hyphen Club. Now,
if you're new to us, welcome to your first episode
with myself, Rad and soft Rep the community.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
We have a book club, so go check it out.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
That's book hyphen Club at soft rep dot com. Now,
my next guest is an author, a former special operations operator.
His name is Sean Haggerty. Welcome to the show, Sean,
Thanks appreciating having me back.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Well, yeah, welcome to be bag. Glad to have you back.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Now, just to bring my guests up to speed about you,
I'm gonna read your bio from Sean Haggerty or excuse me,
author Sean Haggerty dot com.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Sound cool, sounds cool? Okay? Where's it at? Okay, Let's
see Sean Haggerty author.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Sean Haggerty is a retired special operation soldier with over
twenty five years of experience. He spent his younger years
training and conducting combat operations with the first of the
seventy fifth Ranger Regiment. After nine years, in two thousand
and five, he was selected and assigned to a special
operations unit at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. There he spent sixteen
years and finished his military career, retiring as a Sergeant Major.

(03:18):
He received several awards and decorations throughout his career, including
the Three Bronze Stars not the Bronze Star Three Bronze Stars.
Sean currently works for the Department of Defense Science Board
as the Senior Advisor the Defense Science Board. DSB is
charged with solving tough technical national security problems for the
Security of Defense, the Deputy Security of Defense, the Undersecretaries

(03:38):
of Defense, the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, and other senior department officials. His wife, Misty,
is an executive officer at the National Geo Spacial GEO
Special Intelligence Agency.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
Did I say that right? Geospatial Intelligence Agency caught me off? There?

Speaker 2 (03:59):
There children and Courtney, Travis, Samantha and the lady all
live in Washington, DC area and are thriving, growing and
traveling along their own paths. The grandchildren, let's give them
a shout out. Rowan Jamison and Wren Keep Sean and
misty busy Grandpa, Sergeant Major Huh let me keep reading.
Sean Haggerty has combined over twenty five plus years of
service in the special operations community and deep rooted research

(04:22):
instincts from years of academic pursuits in history to tell
this story.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
The story was written.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
This story was written mostly in the plush seats of
the Daily Tackets Mill Pentagon commuter bus and the shaky
bucket seats of the Franconia Springfield the Largo Blue metro line.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
Am I saying that right?

Speaker 2 (04:42):
However, a few chapters were written while traveling for work,
taking advantage of un uninterrupted thoughts on an airliner. One
chapter was even written during an evening break while on
a business trip aboard the USS Nimitz CBN sixty eight aircraft.
Carrier out in the Pacific Ocean. Cabal, the book we're
about to talk about all came together during evening events
in his home shared with Misty in Lakeridge, Virginia. Now, Cabal,

(05:06):
just to point out, is the is the second book
in the series. Jones point was the first book, right,
Dave Cooper and Jones' point was a daughter went missing
and special operations going after her trying to find her.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
Right.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
Yeah, basically, if he's as he's going after, he gets
recruited into a cabal. Like minded erics decided to take
the law to their own hand, hunting as child creaditors.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
And so where does Cabal pick up from Jones point?

Speaker 4 (05:33):
Cabal picks up right the Vancooper series. He's still continuing
his mission. They uncover someone in the first book called
the Keeper, and they think that he is coordinating abductions
amongst these monsters.

Speaker 5 (05:45):
The twist is that as the Cabal continues.

Speaker 4 (05:48):
Hunting, they start getting picked off one by one, and
suddenly the hunted becomes the hunted.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
Now, when you're sitting on the metro.

Speaker 4 (05:59):
The little you're right, they got a couple of new cars.
It depends if you get a new trainer or one
of the older trains. I always see what we get real.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
First of all, there's so many things I want to
touch base on. You know, you're wearing the Ranger one hat. Okay,
you got the first ranger on. I was fortunate to
have a standing second ranger on recently, Colonel Nightingale. That's
kind of rare to meet a ranger who's still alive,
who created some of these groups, like the first Second
and bats. You know these things. So you know, how

(06:29):
long ago did you enlist in the military, if you
don't mind me.

Speaker 5 (06:32):
Asking, nineteen ninety six October ninety six. That's what I
went through. That picture was that?

Speaker 3 (06:38):
And you did you go in as a ranger? Do
you think I'm gonna go in?

Speaker 5 (06:41):
No?

Speaker 4 (06:42):
I went it as a regular infantry mentor, and I
was in basic training and I had to Joe Stark,
who was a Panama ranging and he came up to
me and it was kind of funny.

Speaker 5 (06:51):
Pretty good at Pete, pretty smart? You want to go
to ranger regiment? What's that?

Speaker 4 (06:55):
I was supposed to go hunting first, but I took
the contract right there out of basic training. In this
they right to Airborne school. Ranger in doculation, and then
I got to first Battalion April of ninety seven.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
Funny how they pick you out of all of them
doing PT.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
You know, do you ever realize that maybe while you're
running around the tractor in PT at basic, that there's
a couple of guys watching you with your drill sergeant.

Speaker 5 (07:18):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (07:18):
No. My father was a former drill start back during
the Vietnam dase, and I remember what he told me.
He was like, hey, basically training's gonna stuck. He's like,
don't be first, don't be last, go on notes. So
I try to stay kind of near the top of
the pack. But I was also I came out. I
already graduated college, So I mean, I'm not saying I
was great at everything, but I was. I was not
your typical seventeen or eighteen year old who had no

(07:41):
experience in the world, and I couldn't figure things out.
So it was usually the task I was done pretty quick,
and they were like, how'd you figure that out?

Speaker 5 (07:47):
It wasn't that hard, or maybe I was forced gump.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
Who knows, you just kept going just because you told
me to drill sergeant. You probably were Forrest Gump at
that point, you know, it's like, hey, you're going to
range regiment. You're like, okay, drill sergeant, Sure, right the
way whatever you think is best for me, right, Yeah,
that's amazing.

Speaker 4 (08:09):
I had a couple of duds to my left and
right bottoms, and they didn't seen the most competent folks,
and they were going other places, and I was like,
I don't.

Speaker 5 (08:15):
Want to go when they go.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
No, And that's cool that you went infantry because it
takes infantry to go a ranger, right, you have to
be infantry courted or is that just green beret Maybe
I'm thinking I.

Speaker 4 (08:24):
Don't know exactly right now because it's changed so much.
I mean, they've gound other moss. I mean you've got
you've got cooks, you've got your typical S one and
your intel officers and S two. So to be in
the line, yes, but now I mean regiment scott work
in their docks and everything.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
A little blend of everybody. Huh. That's cool. Yeah, I
get that.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
And they don't all have to be like an infantry dock.
It doesn't have to be a blue cord dock. You
could be a doc.

Speaker 5 (08:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
See, I see, yeah, okay, that's cool. Now when you're
sitting on the shaky metro and you're thinking, I need
to come up with the second first three ten chapters
of this book, and all of a sudden you start writing,
and you're like, oh wait, I think I'm writing chapter
five and I should beach writing chapter one.

Speaker 3 (09:09):
Do you ever have that? Where are you?

Speaker 5 (09:11):
Like?

Speaker 4 (09:12):
Everything is written on a little three by five cards,
and I have all these stacks and all the chapters.

Speaker 5 (09:17):
So if I'm making something like that, I simply move
it around.

Speaker 4 (09:20):
And also, you remember Jones's point, I wrote completely by
hand on yellow legal notebook pads, which is how that's
how my brain works. My wife got sick and tired
of watching Men the evenings type into the computer and
she bought me one of those remarkables. So now it's
all it's my handwriting, and then I zap it to
the computer where it converts to text.

Speaker 5 (09:38):
But it's nice.

Speaker 4 (09:39):
It's all organized chapters, so I can move chapter sixteen
to chapter twenty. It takes me a nanosecond, really quite
easy to do.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
That's really that's really an interesting insight into how you're
writing your book. Is it just handwriting it out on
a legal pad just going is are you writing it
in print or cursive?

Speaker 3 (09:58):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (09:59):
Print print? Like as my curson is, it's just hot
garbage forget. It's hard, remarkable. It's hard enough on a
movie vehicle to write. Anyway.

Speaker 3 (10:10):
We're laughing.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
If you're watching, we're laughing, if you're if you're listening,
we're laughing at each other. We're just like giveing this
like quiet laugh of like it's true. You try writing
and it's like, you know, so this remarkable device. It's
able to scan your paperwork and then pull out the
words just right.

Speaker 5 (10:26):
No, what it does. I actually write on it itself tablet.
It's just I see a special pen and I just
write in it. And then I had to convert to
text and it converts to text.

Speaker 3 (10:38):
And exactly that's remarkable.

Speaker 5 (10:40):
So it heads to day remarkable. There you go.

Speaker 4 (10:44):
Yeah, it's a life stiver, and I can. It's so
easy that I can. I have all my notes. I
didn't have Jones's point on there, so I converted it
to there. So if I'm screwing up or I can't
remember a character trait or something because a character, it's
hard a lot of awful and create it's a lot
of hard times to remember. Every single week, I go
right back, I go with chapter eight, Jones boy pulling
up real quick. Oh yeah, that's that's what That's what

(11:07):
he's like, or something like that. That's what he said
in that book, to make sure he says it the
same way the book.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
How exciting, And so when is the book going to
be dropped? When's it released? Is that a June jue
coming up soon?

Speaker 5 (11:18):
Just yeah, a little little under two weeks?

Speaker 3 (11:22):
So yeah, D Day is ju seventh. D Day is
June sixty day.

Speaker 5 (11:26):
Well, June six is D Day.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
But I've been to one of the celebrations before their Normandy,
and I had some old timers telling me bullshit, June
fifth was because they were out of that burden before midnight.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
Yeah right, right right, They're like June fifth, midnight.

Speaker 5 (11:39):
That's Jude for us.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
All right, whatever you say, Well, that's cool, what a
cool correlation that that's going to launch on that day?

Speaker 3 (11:46):
That must be a Tuesday, right, most.

Speaker 4 (11:48):
Books it's a Friday, because then the next day on
I live just outside of a little town Oorn, Virginia.
That's a huge two day festival, our craft show. It's huge,
ten of thousand people, so I got a booth there,
so I kind of launched them. They go right into
promoting the book and selling the book and the book there.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
Well, really cool, really lucky.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
It's cool that you've joined us today, you know, prior
to your book going out there and you know, being
a repeat customer of software radio and in the culture
and Special operations.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
So just to enlighten, enlighten us the special operations.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
So growing up the son of a Green Beret, myself,
my father's flag always on the mantle behind me with
his beret there, you know, going into Rangers. Is Rangers
considered a special operations community versus a special Forces community?

Speaker 3 (12:35):
Is that going to be the difference there?

Speaker 5 (12:37):
Yeah, normally if it's the way.

Speaker 4 (12:39):
And again too, I haven't been in regiments since two
thousand and six, so things have changed.

Speaker 5 (12:43):
I'm sure they're standing in the world.

Speaker 4 (12:45):
But bottom line is yet there they're they're Green Berets
and Rangers. We all we all get along with the
bulk figure and make fun of each other and I have,
but right Rangers are tactically assigned to Special operations as
far as I still are.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
And that's how you would have been assigned to special
operations as a sergeant major. As you got into that,
you know that rank, you know you were special operations
that whole time. And what specifically was it that was
your specialty? Are you like a radio guy? Are you
a weapons guy?

Speaker 3 (13:16):
What is it? So?

Speaker 4 (13:18):
In regimen I actually people go normally two different paths.
Either like a sniper, I went heavy guns goostaff in
that route because I'm not as good as sugar and
so I know, yeah, my margin of error was a
little bit better.

Speaker 5 (13:32):
You know, they're over there hitting the watermelon. I'm blowing
up the field.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
Yeah, completely a goo stuff.

Speaker 5 (13:37):
Yeah, that's that's that's the uh, you know, the the boomstick.
That's the route I went. Heavy guns have been taking it.

Speaker 4 (13:43):
You know, they're managing the fifty cows and a heavy
weapons right the direction I went.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
And just to kind of explain to my my listener,
correct me if I'm wrong. The gustaff is a shoulder
mounted fired rocket launching system that has a tube that
opens in the back that allows the shell to go
inside and then relaunched latches closed and then you can
fire when ready.

Speaker 5 (14:02):
Yeah, it's called breech loading. Yep. And you have a.

Speaker 4 (14:04):
You have an assistant gunner who puts that round on
the tube, point smacks on top of the head and says,
gun up. I mean he's that person's responsible for the round.
If you use an H, I'm sure got new rounds now.
But if you use an AH, if you use a
heat round, if you're using smoke, if you're using a loom,
some of them have dials to.

Speaker 5 (14:22):
Like an explode at certain distances.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
So oh yeah, combat.

Speaker 5 (14:25):
If you want to say, pay the targets at three
hundred meters, you aimed for.

Speaker 4 (14:29):
Three hundred, but you step around for two fifty on
an HG round and it'll be a flying claymark.

Speaker 5 (14:34):
So things like that.

Speaker 4 (14:35):
That's the guy behind your responsible and all the gunner
does get on target trigger.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
So I could be the leader of the bad guys
that you're aiming at.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
Let's just put it out there.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
Let's put a scenario and I'm like, I'm like, oh,
they're three hundred meters away from me, they can't hit me.
And you're like, you know, I'm gonna drop a two fifty.
Let him move out fifty and then watch what happens
and then it detonates because it's timed.

Speaker 5 (14:55):
Yeah, yep, yep, they're in a lowerheard.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
They're in a world of hurt. Yeah, that's cool.

Speaker 5 (15:04):
I remember, that's it. I can't remember all the stats,
but it's a pretty widespread.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
Oh I'm sure, I'm sure.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
And as you guys all get out of the military, everybody,
even my own dad, I would always ask him questions
about like, uh, doing Morse code, and He's just like,
I just don't remember, you know. And I'm like, oh, well,
if you don't stay on top of it, if you
don't stay completely you know, doing everything. But he also
always liked to say, I just don't remember, you know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (15:26):
He'd always be like, I don't have.

Speaker 5 (15:27):
A goos in my garage and they go shoot on
the weekend.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
So well, actually, you know, I do war games here
in Utah on a large scale, like really using Airsoft
replica training rifles, you know, the whole nine yards. There's
a goose stuff. Oh yeah, yeah, it's pretty legit. It's
about a five hundred dollars item, but at the end
of the day it fires about.

Speaker 3 (15:49):
Fifty to sixty feet.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
But the projectile is about a two inch three inch
ball that flies out of it, so it's pretty good
for the feet per second that it is, and when
you're going up against like you know, armor, personnel carriers
and things like that that require some type of device
like that to take it out. At these large scale wargames,
it does the job. And so you know, even for
us in war games, that's how I know about the Gustaff.

(16:14):
The g is because of Airsoft wargames. Putting it in
my hands. They're like, yo, rad I was at shot
show like two years ago in Vegas and they're on
the training the shooting range out there with all the
other real guns, and I go over to my Airsoft dealer.
I'm like, why are you guys over here. He's like, well,
we want to fire this for people and show them
that it shoots. So we had to be on the
range day and I was like, let's check out this

(16:35):
Goostaff and so you know, it's a full on one
scale replica as long as as well as all of
the other equipment that we use for wargames. It's all
I mean in our radios are like one hundred percent radios.
We got guys with peltor the whole nine yards. You know,
it's just wargames and it's finest. Now, what do you
do to stay to stay active other than writing your books?

Speaker 3 (16:59):
What are you doing?

Speaker 2 (16:59):
Are you still run in training gunning? Are you going
to war games? Are you involved in airsoft? Do you
do anything like that on the side, You know, I.

Speaker 5 (17:08):
Just try to stay active, go to the range now
and then work out.

Speaker 4 (17:11):
But I mean, for the most part, I just recently
got freed up from my job. So I know you
heard about the government pot in the road, right, I
took it. So I'm actually a non starving artist for
the next five months, which I was lucky I did
that because then two weeks later my job was eliminated.
So I know I am still on paper the senior

(17:31):
advisor of Defense Science Board.

Speaker 5 (17:34):
The board has been eliminated.

Speaker 3 (17:36):
Is this because of DOGE? Are you a part of
the DOGE?

Speaker 4 (17:39):
Well, it's it's just the downsizing and general throughout throw
off the Pentagon in the military. I mean, they're just
looking at anything that waste brought of use, so they
don't fix necessary and quite frankly, I can't blame him
on this. I think the Science Board does great things. However,
I think you've got all the departments and I think
you've got all the research laboratories, and I think you
can get that information without spending that kind of money.

(18:00):
This is dropping the bucket. I think it was more
of a prestige thing for a lot of people. I'm
sure I'm going to get some hate for it from
board members, but I felt like I felt like I
was doing something, but I could have been doing more. So,
like I said, I'm not I'm just glad I took
the buyout before because and I was been fired, nothing,
no sefference, nothing. So this allows me to write push

(18:20):
push to this, you know, the second book, get it launched,
work on some other projects, and see if I can
kind of kickstart this whole thing and make a living
of writing books instead of taking.

Speaker 5 (18:32):
Right.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
I mean, you've given yourself to the country for so
many years, you know, and you always will have that
in here. You really took and you're going to take
the oath with you to your grave just like your
tax you know, and.

Speaker 5 (18:45):
Go to the Pentagon.

Speaker 3 (18:48):
Yeah. I just think that, yeah exactly.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
So now it's time to be you and just uh,
you know, uh do the things that you feel passionate about,
which is writing. And I love that remarkable, remarkable, you
want to sponsor the show? Hit us up, I will,
I will talk about you guys all the time. Holy cow,
what a cool notepad. And and so your wife Misty
found that and said, hey, check this out.

Speaker 4 (19:09):
Yeah, I sh'd seen it when we were we were
best by doing something to get a computer. Look at
she just walks over picks it up. It's like, do
you want the smaller one? Is doing the larger one?
And what are you doing? She just walks up to
the gale larger one and you write slow. I just
took it up for it every evening. Tighten into the computer.
It's ridiculous. Join the Join the twenty first century.

Speaker 3 (19:30):
That's so great. So just bluetooth to your laptop and
you can just send it over to that.

Speaker 5 (19:34):
Yeah, so I can just sit right here and it's happening.
And like I said, now again you have a little bit.

Speaker 4 (19:38):
You know, I'm not the greatest fella, or you know
I miss words and I still but or you know,
we hit that nice pothole of the bus and mark
all across. But for the most part, Yeah, it it
cut my editing time probably by.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
Oh yeah, and does it does it? I mean geez,
I guess I want to talk about your book. But
that thing is pretty cool.

Speaker 5 (20:02):
Where I go.

Speaker 4 (20:02):
Everybody I talked to him, I'm like, hey, I'm a
little so let's start start a tour together.

Speaker 3 (20:09):
Remarkable. You need to hit this dude up right here.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
You hit Sean Haggardy up and say how can we
team up with you? He keeps talking about your uh,
your device there you know? And so with with over
twenty five years of experience and spending your younger years
training and conducting combat operations with the first and seventy
fifth Ranger Regiment, where did that lead you to, like
conducting those operations? Did you go into pretty much the

(20:31):
Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan or were you doing other types
of theaters?

Speaker 5 (20:35):
I did. I did a couple of trips to the
Middle East.

Speaker 4 (20:37):
I've been through Iraq in the carts chain, but I
did a lot of work in the cognitive Africa, so
I've bound start on Africa a lot different working on
different embassies throughout those those regions.

Speaker 5 (20:50):
So I love going there. That's one thing I missing.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
Actually wearing a I'm actually wearing African camouflage right now.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yeah, let me shore here. I'll shut it here here
you go. Nice nice, the pinks and the pinks and greens.
I had to have it.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
I'm a very that's that's at my wargame shop, Tactical
Airsoft Supply soft plug. You know, all my guys show
up in suits, but they're not suits, it's gear. It's
like I go in and Xander's wearing like some type
of like eerd L shorts with a leather belt with
some tucked in finished thing and he's all got like,
you know, like a handkerchief around his neck. And then

(21:31):
I go in and I've got African you know, rare
you know, gear on, and we're just looking at each
other like dude, and then we touch it, feel each
other's pants and shirts and things like, oh that's nice.
You know where we get like Miami tiger stripe, which
is like a pinkish bluish tiger stripe that's you know,
really a cool pattern. He's like, bro Miami, and we say,
what pattern is this? Can you guess it? So at

(21:52):
our shop, our drip is our complete loadout, you know,
it's like just the funkiest camouflage.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
Yeah, like you'd didn't just like how your dressed at
our shop the hat, the shirt, you know, be like drip.

Speaker 5 (22:06):
Jeez, and a T shirt. That's why I want to
spend my days.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
Right, not a suit and a tie. Being told that
your jobs.

Speaker 3 (22:13):
On the line, and you're like, well, I'm you're gonna
take it into yourself.

Speaker 4 (22:17):
That pentagon man, I walked when I was still there,
I walked around the bag of popcorn.

Speaker 5 (22:20):
Watching everybody's hair on fire, and it.

Speaker 4 (22:22):
Was just they have like them or not. This administration
is shaking up the establishment.

Speaker 5 (22:28):
That's for sure.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
So it's true.

Speaker 5 (22:29):
Huh's a feeding frenzy over there. So I'm glad. I'm out.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
Okay, and you took that choice. You said, hey, okay,
I'll take it. And have they Have they paid you?
Are you getting paid?

Speaker 4 (22:40):
The first one came through last week. I was like, yes,
this wasn't a lie.

Speaker 5 (22:44):
I get paid. It was not a lie. Mortgage.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
Yeah, how long?

Speaker 2 (22:50):
Can I ask you how long that was from the
time that you left the job till you got your paycheck?

Speaker 4 (22:54):
Oh, it just came like a normal patient. I'm technically
in the position administrative, I see.

Speaker 5 (23:01):
So you're still getting your amatically for me. So just
every two weeks, Patrick supposed to.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
Come and then it'll stop on that fifth most at
that time frame.

Speaker 5 (23:08):
The thirtieth at the start of the next year, or
will it checks in there And I can say anyway,
you know, it's.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
Like three ninety nine, right, I'll take it.

Speaker 5 (23:19):
Take it enough, taken enough.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
So let me tell you, I'd rather you have an
extra paycheck than that money goes someplace else.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
Yeah, okay, come on.

Speaker 4 (23:28):
I just looked at all the times when you're and
we used to calculate more overseas, and you know we
worked twenty four hours a day.

Speaker 5 (23:34):
You know, carry it the math. Carry the one we're
making Like two dollars and twenty four cents an hour
is most.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
No, that's funny. That's funny. You say that.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
My dad would stay up at and would talk to
my mom and I'd sit around the table when I
was younger, and my Dad's like, I make two dollars
and twelve cents an hour, twenty four to seven a day,
you know, like as a Green Beret. He's like, when
you break down, well, these guys get paid hourly twenty
four hours a day.

Speaker 5 (23:56):
Now. On the flip side, you know, I'm like a complaint.

Speaker 4 (23:59):
When I was back home, would be like maybe show
up the office around ten, work out, maybe go meeting
the briefing, maybe go shoot at the range two and
then go home. And so you know, we also had
the perks of when you're in between missions and in
between training, it was like, if you got nothing to do,
open here, you know, take care of your family and
do your do what you need to do.

Speaker 5 (24:19):
So I got to I can't be too flipping on that.
We did get a lot of time off.

Speaker 3 (24:23):
That's funny, that's funny, but still two something an hour.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
I want my listener out there and my viewer to
know that our men and women that volunteer to serve
are really you know, especially active duty, that it's a
twenty four hour, seven day a week gig that sometimes
I think, right now, I think E one's going into
boot camp get like one thousand or eleven hundred dollars
a month.

Speaker 4 (24:47):
Yeah, I don't know if the currents pay scilles, even
the you're senior. So when I was in when I
got up to be a star major, I worked at
the op shop. I mean yeah, I mean I was
twenty four seven. Means that could be called any time
mission going on Friday night overseas I have to be
in the in the talk, monitoring or cases or anything that.

Speaker 5 (25:05):
Was Like Jesus, this is a blot.

Speaker 4 (25:08):
So a lot of those senior staff, I mean, even
at the Pentagon, they don't leave.

Speaker 5 (25:12):
I think they just lived there.

Speaker 4 (25:13):
I secretly think there's some barracks nowhere that most of
the military just stays there. But that's why they only
do a couple of year stints normally there and then
back up to the units.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
Well, I mean, like you know, I would, I mean,
if you are, because traffic's not the easiest to navigate
around the Pentagon, right, It's a pretty tough place to
get to.

Speaker 5 (25:32):
You know, it is, and it isn't. I never drop it.

Speaker 4 (25:35):
I either could have a parking spot or the government
would pay up to a certain amount for public transportation.

Speaker 5 (25:41):
The bus goes right into by the front door of
the Penny.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
The front door.

Speaker 4 (25:46):
Why I canna walk up one flight of step. I mean,
I get on the bus forty five minutes, I'm at
the Pentagon and it's all covered. I don't even get
rained on, you know, I forget my rangeer days. I
don't want to get rained down anymore. And I just
walk right into the building. I mean the same thing
with the Metro. The Metro stops at the Pentagon, So
they really try to get everybody to use as much
public the transportation as possible.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
And they when I was called during that parking lot
system that goes all the way around the whole place.

Speaker 5 (26:09):
You'll get lost in there. You'll be out there for hours. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (26:13):
I've driven with a friend there once or twice, and
it's like, this is miserable. Why are we you know,
won the traffic to get there? Yeah, why would I
want to do. I'd have to drive almost two hours
to get there and then park and walk, you know,
walk of days across.

Speaker 5 (26:27):
The parking line.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
You're trying to get there, and the bus is like okay,
parks right in front. They have like parking permit to
get through there and drop you off and then you're
on time.

Speaker 5 (26:37):
Yeah, yeah, no exactly. So no, I never drive. Every
now and then I'd take.

Speaker 4 (26:42):
My motorcycle because I could jump in the h OV
lane and it's straight for motorcycles and there's freight from
a cycle parking near the.

Speaker 5 (26:48):
Front every now and then. But halftime, I had to
have a suit.

Speaker 4 (26:50):
I mean I was like, then I got to pack
a bag and I got a wrinkled suit, or I
gonna wear the suit now.

Speaker 3 (26:55):
Or you're like John Wick rolling down the street with
your suit.

Speaker 5 (27:00):
That's not real. Stuff like bird craft and bugs on me.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah, I didn't think about the bugs splattered all over
the suit.

Speaker 5 (27:07):
Bro just be a mess. So I rarely did it
unless it was a day like I didn't have to
have a suit.

Speaker 4 (27:13):
I could be like, there's a collar shirt and maybe
slacks or the jeans, and you know, I just.

Speaker 5 (27:17):
Gonna be tuckle in the office all day and not
see anybody. Then I do it. But it was rare,
not the greatest.

Speaker 3 (27:26):
Oh yeah right.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
And a friend of mine was riding his motorcycle and
he's like, yeah, you know when rocks come at you
and you got to take it. And I was like,
what's the worst thing that ever hits you? He's like
a tire, like a blown out tire. Yeah, whipped him
across the chest while he was riding. And he has
like a bigger eight bars. I'm reaching up if you're
not if you're listening, I'm reaching up like motorcycle bars.
But it like whapped him across the chest doing like

(27:47):
sixty seventy miles an hour. I'm like, what, why did
you not die? And he's like, because I stayed on
my bike.

Speaker 5 (27:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (27:52):
I had the same thing, but I actually ducked it
and went over my head. But yeah, just class the
top of my helmet. I was like, oh my god.
So every time I'm on the most like and when
I come up to an eight, I got it right.
I don't even care if it's a family. I'm not
riding next to a truck because no, really blow all
the time.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
All the time.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
Yeah, And he said it just totally blew and it
slapped him across the chest.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
I was like, how did you not die? He's like,
I just held on, dude. You can't like just ra
could die even further. So not to stray.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
Thanks listener for listening about us talking about and then
my buddy Danny getting hit in the chest with a
tire while he's riding his motorcycle and he lived. Holy cow.
Now with Cabal, do you already have you know, a
secondary or third book in the work since you're a

(28:45):
non starving actor.

Speaker 5 (28:46):
Yeah, I've got about five or six chapters done.

Speaker 4 (28:48):
I put it away for the last couple of weeks
because I'm really concentrated on social media, going add some books,
setting a book signing, to the podcast. So that's been
my main focus is to get to June sixth. We
just have everything on the hold of a huge launch party,
catering at the event of a lot of family and
friends coming in town, were open into the public. So

(29:09):
I'm really putting kind of all the eggs in the
basket for this launch and then into the festival, really
try to get some momentum and get going.

Speaker 5 (29:17):
And good question.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
What I was going to say is, Sean, is I'm
going to read a little bit about Jones's point right
here straight off of your site, a little breakdown about
the book. So you know, folks that are hearing us
have these conversations can understand a little bit about what
you're going to get into. So Jones's point. As a
special Operations soldier, Dane Cooper was trained and tested to
handle the most strenuous and dangerous situations around the world.

(29:40):
He was, not, however, prepared for the abduction of his daughter.
This life changing event sends him into a downward spiral,
the depths of which are unknown even to Dane. But
a lifeline, a purpose, and a path to redemption is
offered to him by a mysterious cabal where his skills
are paramount to helping others. Now investigating other grieving parents' cases,
dan us to conceal his efforts from the zeal of

(30:02):
an FBI agent, convinced that a vigilanti cabal exists, a
dedicated Virginia Bureau of Investigations team working parallel crimes against children,
and an elusive network of monsters at the center of
it all punishing the wicked. While searching for his little angel,
Dame must overcome the struggle with his internal demons for
retention and for retention of his soul. Yeah, I mean,

(30:26):
it's gonna just pick up, dude. So now he's helping others.

Speaker 5 (30:29):
So yeah, book.

Speaker 4 (30:31):
So the second book that picked up from there, and
what's kind of second book to me was a lot.

Speaker 5 (30:36):
More fun to write. I always say that Jones Point
was my original.

Speaker 4 (30:39):
Superman, right, not always the most fun, but you have
to do so much background and build and kind of
build the storyline out and all the backstory.

Speaker 5 (30:48):
Then Cabal you get just an explosion of this group.

Speaker 4 (30:53):
New memory, some of their backstories and what brought them
together to do this well.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
Let me go, let me go, let me go through
that real quick. Let me break that down.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
Since I introduced everyone to Jones Point right, which is
a great book, go buy that book, and let's let's
talk about cabal. So Dan Cooper continues his mission from
Jones Point to find his missing daughter Angela, his involvement
in the mysterious group of grieving parents, and testifies and
intensifies as the Cabal becomes bolder and more brazen, from
a high profile assault upon sex traffickers in Savannah, Georgia,
to a clandestine military operation in Barbara, Somaliland Smile, Smile,

(31:28):
Land Okay, Barbara, Somaliland to assassinate a ruthless terrorist. Dane
continues to bring the fight to those that would harm children.
At every turn, they must stay out of the crosshairs
of Carl Blanchard's new FBI task Force and avoid being
cornered by Virginia Bureau of BCI Bureau of Criminal Investigation
special agents Patterson and Stills. But this time the Keeper

(31:50):
and his disciples are fighting back. The hunters have become
the prey as the Cabal is viciously attacked by an
unknown assailant, the Savage Killer is a ghost touring and
murdering them one by one as he moves his way
up the hierarchy. Dane, Sam and Jack race against time
to find his ghosts, to find this ghost and protect
their members before the club is completely eradicated.

Speaker 3 (32:11):
Nobody is safe.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
Now investigating other grieving parents' cases, Dane must conceal his
efforts from the zeal of an FBI agent convinced that
a vigilanti cabal exists, a dedicated VBI team working parallel
crimes against children, and an elusive network of monsters at
the center of it all punishing the wicked. While searching
for his little angel, Dane must overcome the struggle with
his internal demons. Okay again, that's the Jones that goes

(32:33):
into Jones Point. So I mean, dude, and I love
the covers, right. The first cover is a swing set
of Jones Point, so empty.

Speaker 4 (32:43):
The second one actually, that was taken by my good
friend Robin mckew. She's a photographer in Barcelon and Copan, Oklahoma,
and we actually that's from lake.

Speaker 5 (32:54):
The town is called Charlevoyd on Lake Michigan up in Michigan.

Speaker 4 (32:59):
And yeah, went out one morning and she just starts
snapping some photos of like empty different things on the playground,
and that one with the slide in the whitehouse in
the background really really captured the eye of the publisher.
She's got the picture on the back covers her photo.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
Also, it makes you think like the kids should be playing.
There should be kids on the beach. It should be
you know, some some activity. Yet the kids are not there.
Where are the kids? And and also maybe a tetanus shot.

Speaker 5 (33:27):
Yeah, those are the those are the slides of our youth.
They don't Yes, it's hard to find those anymore. They're
all plastic and any really low in the ground, so
no one gets.

Speaker 3 (33:36):
Hurt ardour metal slides. Dude, that was.

Speaker 5 (33:40):
The way to do it, if you didn't burn, get
them the way down?

Speaker 3 (33:43):
What was I mean? Really?

Speaker 2 (33:45):
And it seems so close that it was almost to
the water, that at one point might have been close
enough to the water. But yeah, what a great captivating,
uh photo, So props to your photographer for taking that,
you know, and it does go along. Let me just
about this. I know it's kind of tough. I'm on
my phone, but if you look here, you can see
that there's like the barren swing sets. Uh, I almost

(34:06):
want to see your covers here are very like Chernobyl, like.

Speaker 4 (34:11):
Yeah, yeah, Actually, it's just they're supposed to be I
mean anything with it, Like any product, you want to
be visually appealing, right, you don't want to have toyself.
And again, the public and the publisher is the one
who you know, I get like thoughts and ideas, and
then they're the ones that's really put it all together
and make the proofs and negotiated and it's pretty easy
and boom.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
Now do you foresee this ever getting picked up as
a series on Netflix or something like that?

Speaker 4 (34:37):
Would love it, would love it, And I will definitely
pursue that in the future. Like I said, everything right
now is just getting through this last two weeks, And
I said, I've got about five books signings lined up.

Speaker 5 (34:49):
I'm trying to get in back down to Fort Bragg
because I did a signing there before, trying to get.

Speaker 4 (34:53):
Already on Fort Belvoir, so I'm trying to hit some
of the military installations as well.

Speaker 5 (34:58):
One it's a lot of my target audience too.

Speaker 4 (35:01):
It's uh, it's great because I go on these different
posts and I see people I haven't seen for years
and didn't know where they were stationed, you know, so yeah,
you know, kind of rekindle his old friends.

Speaker 3 (35:11):
Yeah, nothing like going on base and doing fifteen miles
an hour.

Speaker 4 (35:14):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah exactly.

Speaker 5 (35:17):
Well, well I do. I don't think too. I just
got back on last month.

Speaker 4 (35:20):
I was down in Saint Augustine for the hard Rock
Charlie one seven five reunion, which we do every year.

Speaker 5 (35:26):
So I was down there for that and my livers
just starting to heal. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:32):
I did not.

Speaker 4 (35:32):
So they do a jump every year. I jumped last year.
I did not jump this year. I'm having some cyanic
issues talking to him some docs about that. I didn't
want to make it worse, but yeah, they all those
old timers and everybody, they jump, jump right out of
the right out of the plains of the river there
in Saint Augustine.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
Now have you hit fifty yet? Are you a fifty year.

Speaker 5 (35:50):
Old almost fifty two?

Speaker 3 (35:52):
Fifty two? Yeah, yeah, Well you seem like you're holding
it pretty well. I'm just going to tell you that.

Speaker 5 (35:57):
Well, thank you. I try to.

Speaker 4 (35:58):
I try to do the best I can not to
feel fifty two.

Speaker 5 (36:02):
I get up for the money.

Speaker 3 (36:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:05):
Times you mentioned in the sciatic. You probably feel fifty two.

Speaker 3 (36:09):
Yeah, yeah, because the reason.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
Why I said that is because you called them all
old timers, and I'm like, but you're there.

Speaker 4 (36:16):
I was one of the younger. There's some old timers there.
There's there's guys in their sixties seventies. Yeah, when they
were jumping guy's amputees. You got one my one buddy,
Chris Corbyn, he's double amputee and he jumps his working dogs.

Speaker 5 (36:30):
Melt Long jumped. He jumped up Juliet. Juliet jumped her. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (36:36):
Yeah, I think it was last year. There was a
guy he only had one arm and we were jumping
into a lake in Florida.

Speaker 5 (36:43):
Alligators. Of course, everyone's getting ship and he's like.

Speaker 4 (36:45):
If I lose my last dependive, I was furious. The
great stuff to you.

Speaker 3 (36:53):
That's funny.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
But yeah, I think you say an old timer at
the one seventy fifth is like me going to the
cheap trick on certain the other day.

Speaker 3 (37:01):
I'm forty seven, and I think I was the youngest
one there. My wife and I are like.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
Well, it's nice to be the youngest ones here, you know,
And it's like we're looking around.

Speaker 3 (37:08):
Everyone's all dancing and having a good time, you.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
Know, and uh yeah, that's just kind of funny going.

Speaker 5 (37:14):
On certain cruise ships.

Speaker 4 (37:15):
Right, You're you're the youngest one there, like Jason, I'm
going a lot of water.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
That's so funny. Oh that's great. That's great.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Now now your junkke at circuit. You got a bunch
of things like myself lined up. I'd imagine everybody wants
to kind of get you on their shows or what.

Speaker 4 (37:33):
Yeah, I'm just just starting to talk to some different
people doing a couple of different I said, this is
you know, I got a couple of these guys that
like all last year we did it was great. So
that's why I kind of get you guys up first,
you know, kind of get the word out there.

Speaker 5 (37:47):
And like I said, I'm really trying to get out
there as the book signs because that's where.

Speaker 4 (37:51):
I feel like I can really reach a lot of people,
especially you know, I've got these big, tall banners with
the book covers on them. He's six foot tall banners
and usually kind of attracts people over so at least
I can start the conversation. It's like any product, you
think you have the greatest thing, but I'm not a salesman.
They told me how to stab something as a banet.

Speaker 5 (38:11):
How to sell a book? Yeah, exactly, that's what I'm
kind of learning. How do I sell a book?

Speaker 3 (38:15):
How do I They tell me how to stab with
a bayonet? Not sell a book? That should be a quote, No,
maybe a shirt.

Speaker 5 (38:22):
No business learn interest?

Speaker 2 (38:25):
So that well, it's cool that you got your thoughts
out onto paper slash. Remarkable because you know a lot
of guys just will harbor those you know, instincts to
want to write inside themselves and feel like, oh no,
it's not my thing. I shouldn't do it. I shouldn't
try today. I shouldn't try now, I'm too old, or
I've I've hit it, you know. But I think you

(38:45):
want to tell people, Hey, you're doing it.

Speaker 4 (38:47):
You've I actually talked to probably one to two new
authors every week, So I've got friends who are now
writing books.

Speaker 5 (38:56):
I better read for them.

Speaker 4 (38:57):
Again, I don't know everything about that's always up front. Hey,
I'll tell you what I did, I'll tell you what
worked for me. I'll tell you where I screwed up.

Speaker 5 (39:03):
Don't do that.

Speaker 4 (39:05):
And if you want, I'm not a line editor by
any means, watch me spell but if you want development
or developmental day, I think you need to fix this.
Put a little bit more in here, put a little
bit more in here. Hey, that was a little bit
too long. As a reader, I always tell them I'm
not a professional. I'm still an amateuram and unpublished. But
I'll give it to you from a reader, because I've
always been a here a reader's point of view that

(39:26):
I like and just like in certain genres. Again, I
don't read across all genres, but so I do. I
do work a lot of people. I gotta call tomorrow
with a guy. I've said to everybody, they want to
reach out, they want to talk.

Speaker 5 (39:40):
I won't say no. I just have to.

Speaker 4 (39:43):
You know, when I'm here during the day, you can
kind of jokes, oh, you're not working now.

Speaker 5 (39:48):
I'm at seven o'clock in the morning. I worked till
about nine, and I took the dogs for a quick walk.

Speaker 4 (39:54):
I flipped laundry, and then I worked again until we
had the different ball. And then when we're done, I've
got to go mail a couple of books. Then I
gonna drop a check off at the venue for whatever,
and then I gotta come back and do a few
more ads.

Speaker 5 (40:04):
On Facebook.

Speaker 4 (40:04):
So I'm working seven to five every day, but I
do try to make time.

Speaker 5 (40:08):
Anybody wants time, I'll make time.

Speaker 2 (40:11):
Man, you should be doing like signings at rock shows,
like because you kind of are a rock star. So
like what I'm thinking is, like, you know, like the
Welcome to Rockville that's coming up with like all of
the big bands and like all these places. There's like
a show coming up in North Carolina and they're festivals.

Speaker 5 (40:26):
Yeah, I'm trying to do as many festivals. Again.

Speaker 4 (40:28):
I've got, like I said, the SOCCA one one is
really big, and then I've got another one that's foodie,
and I think that one's in National Harbor, Maryland.

Speaker 5 (40:37):
That's until October. So yeah, that's another thing again.

Speaker 4 (40:40):
Man, so many hours of the day because I do,
I do try to do a hard stop at five,
you know, unless I'm like right in the middle of
stone because I got to keep work life gone.

Speaker 5 (40:47):
I'll work at ten eleven o'clock at night and I.

Speaker 4 (40:49):
Won't even know my watch here, so I gotta I
gotta kind of stop, hard stop and say, hey, what's
the point of doing this if you don't enjoy your
life outside, you know.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
Like Ranger games, right or Best Ranger. Yeah, you should
be set up there with your books, right. I mean
that's like a thing that I would think would go.

Speaker 4 (41:07):
I think some of those things you gotta be careful
because so even like the military signings and publishers like, hey,
make sure you get pretty pictures.

Speaker 5 (41:13):
You can't.

Speaker 4 (41:14):
This person me in uniform takes a picture of me
in the book that looks like uniforms endorse the book,
endorsing same thing on the USS limits.

Speaker 5 (41:23):
I didn't bring any books because I can't. I can.
I can say I went to it and I got videos.

Speaker 4 (41:27):
I played it on deck with the FA teams taken
off and was awesome, and I wrote on the book
I didn't advertise anything because of that. That's conflict. And
I was there as a feed so I didn't really careful.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
Wait did you say a conflict of interest and you
were aware of it? Yes, you a conflict of interest?

Speaker 4 (41:45):
And you're like, no, because I'm a peon and we
would get prosecuted. Yeah, other like politicians or all the
other people that can do whatever the hell they want,
you know, yeahelling secrets. I make one mistake, I'm gonna
get punished. So no, I'm not to take that hit.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
Well, thanks for holding that that that gives me faith.
So thank you for saying that you didn't advertise it.
Even if you said you did, I'd be like oblivious
to it. But then the fact that you mentioned that
it makes total sense, right. And so I'm just thinking, like,
where would it be good at, you know, to have
these shows? And I see I see other authors and
they're like, Hey, hit me up at at BUCkies, or

(42:24):
hit me up at this place, or hit me up
at this place. I'm gonna be there during this time.
If you're traveling through BUCkies, would be cool, right? I
think they do author book signings.

Speaker 5 (42:32):
Yeah, good god, that places in that house. I've stopped
there once.

Speaker 4 (42:36):
Oh my, oh my lord. I'm telling you what. I
I'm used to large crowds. I have no problem with that.
Even I was like, we gotta get the hell out
of here, get in the bathroom. I got and then
got the hell out.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
And you bought some of the Bucky teeth and then
you bought the ears and then you left.

Speaker 5 (42:53):
Maybe m.

Speaker 4 (42:56):
Yeah, but that's that's exactly what I'm doing right now,
is because I have the time.

Speaker 5 (43:00):
Even before with Jones point I was working full time,
so I was.

Speaker 4 (43:04):
Either using PTO or scheduled off on weekends where I
try not to schedule too much on weekends because I
want to see the kids and grandkids.

Speaker 5 (43:11):
And I'm just, like I said, trying to find that.
I'm trying to find my.

Speaker 4 (43:14):
Groove right now and I've got four and a half
more months to figure it out.

Speaker 5 (43:17):
And that's what I'm doing.

Speaker 4 (43:18):
So that's the festival. Research is on my list of
ongoing and things I'm doing.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
That's just me talking brainstorm, just thinking of a thought
for you.

Speaker 5 (43:26):
You know, that's just like, oh, that's a great thought.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
And if you're out there listening and you have a
place that you think he'd make a good fit, as
you know, a book signing, reach out to my man
here Sean at author Sean Haggerty dot com and just say, hey,
we have a place in where you know you're in Virginia.

Speaker 5 (43:44):
Right I'm in Virginia, but I travel every yeah, exactly,
from Nashville. I'm going to New Orleans September.

Speaker 4 (43:50):
I I have no problem throwing books in the back
of the Forerunner and drive across the country.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
No problem with boy, I kind I say this all
the time to authors that are up and coming. But
I heard a trick from a very famous author. Or
let's say it's a well established author who has a
lot of books and they trend and you know, the
whole nine yards, and he has them in the airport's
gift shop, right, his books are there, and he's like,
but I always carry one with me just in case

(44:18):
my book's not there. I'm like why, He's like, well,
I'll pull it out of my bag and I'll buy it.
I'm like, what are you talking about. He's like, well,
my book's not on the shelf. I'll buy my book
from the person. It'll scan because it's in their UPC system.
It'll say last one or whatever out of stock, and
it'll make them rework. So just you know, food for

(44:42):
thought there, right, And I was like, oh wow. So
typically they're in the store and he'll sign one, but
if it's not, he'll pull his out and say I'd
like to get this book please, and then they'll scan it.

Speaker 3 (44:53):
Yeah, just a little all right. I like that.

Speaker 5 (44:56):
I like that.

Speaker 4 (44:57):
Yeah right, I'm definitely going to steal that trick and
maybe other places.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
Yeah, Gorilla Marketing, and if it doesn't ring up and
say oh weird, okay, cool.

Speaker 3 (45:05):
Well they're like, well, I'll just.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
Buy it anyway, so you keep it.

Speaker 5 (45:11):
I like it.

Speaker 3 (45:11):
I like it yet, right, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
The guy that writes his books, he's all red celled out.
He's a red cell guy, so he's all that's his book,
thriller books.

Speaker 3 (45:20):
You know. I want to say, his name is so bad,
I'm gonna stop, stop, stop, stop, per se.

Speaker 4 (45:28):
I'm definitely gonna do that. But I don't think I'm
gonna get in trouble over fifteen dollars.

Speaker 3 (45:36):
Let me just explain.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
I just took a big drink of my water right
when you said something funny, and I just about spat
it all over my entire PC.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
I just have to say, that's what that's what's just happened.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
If you're listening, well, listen, I think that you're going
to have a very successful book.

Speaker 3 (45:54):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
I just everybody that comes on the show totally successful.
This is just gonna be the biggest part of your
career right here, is being on the show and talking
about your cabal.

Speaker 5 (46:03):
I hope, so, I hope, so I appreciate you bring
me on.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
Yeah, dude, Dank Cooper A right, that's the name of
your d Yeah, the Dane Cooper series. I was just
looking at my notes here. See I write things down to.

Speaker 3 (46:15):
But I don't have a remarkable I just.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
Oh, let me just and before we started talking, I
couldn't find my pencil sharpeners, so I had to go
to my dad's mentality of where's my knife. I don't write, No,
obviously I don't write. I mean, obviously I have corrections, Okay,

(46:45):
my erasers like how funny. Yeah, if you saw a
stack of my papers next to my office here, I
have everybody's interviews all like, just your papers here, but
the other one was Peter Linquist. And then it just
goes on and on, generals, bear grills. Oh hey, look

(47:05):
at this one. Shut the front door, Sean Haggerty. Okay,
I just pulled it out from the middle of my stack.
Listen is see first seventy fifth, twenty five years. This
was the Jones point Dank Cooper notes that what's up, dude,
And then I have then I have your new one
here the cabal right there. I'm just saying, make sure

(47:27):
reach out.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
Yeah, please do that.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
And you know I've had you for a good forty
five minutes to an hour of time. We've been listening
and going back and forth and just having a great
conversation talking about being an author, being special operations, being
a husband, being someone who is probably.

Speaker 3 (47:43):
Counted on more than they know it.

Speaker 2 (47:46):
Yeah, yeah, right, and uh, you know, becoming an artist,
pulling that out of yourself, which obviously has always been there.
You just decided to go into the military and federal
but you've always had that in You.

Speaker 5 (48:01):
Just went a totally different direction.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
Totally different directions, right. So and a grandpa, grandpa sergeant major.

Speaker 4 (48:08):
Yeah, yeah, that's what the gray is coming from.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
I got gray, but I'm not a grandpa. But I
like little humans. I don't really like big humans, but
I like little humans.

Speaker 5 (48:19):
Yeah, I like.

Speaker 4 (48:20):
I like when they're little. Then everyone's like, oh, there's
so much fun. When they start to walk. I'm like,
now they're get in so much trouble when they start
to walk. When they're mobile, they can't get into stuff.

Speaker 3 (48:29):
No, and they just look at you like you're everything.

Speaker 5 (48:31):
Like yeah, because now they just run around like madmen and.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
Like, where's my license, where's my car, where's my phone?

Speaker 3 (48:40):
PayPal? Me some money there yet? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (48:44):
And one so I want to go to University of Oregon.
I don't want to go in state. That's to my
daughter Sidney, she's in organ right now, go ducks. I
don't know if you can see back here, I got
like ducks, shoes, the ducks.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
Yeah. Yeah, so now I'm a duck. I'm a uh.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
And that's a creeper up there, the Minecraft creeper right there.

Speaker 5 (49:03):
That guy Minecraft, And it's familiar that I just don't
know it.

Speaker 2 (49:07):
Oh yeah, no, that's he's always overlooking. See the creeper
in Minecraft is like always like creeping. Ah okay, I'm
just saying, that's all. I like all your books you
have that tells me that you read.

Speaker 4 (49:19):
Yeah, it's actually this is actually only a portion. There's
a ton of boxes at my old house. I just
had bookshelves and bookshelves and bookshelves in here because then
just only have so much. So most like my favorite books,
and then to some of my history books and stuff,
because I still I did a lot of studying and
history as I went through college and my master's party.

(49:40):
So I use a lot of the way historical researching,
like techniques. So when I go back to the old
books and you know, it's for you know, maintaining accuracy. Again,
both books are almost eighty five percent written in this
Virginia and the nww era and I went to every
single place. Now, the couple that bopt in New York
and Jones Point bought the Savannah in Cabal. My wife

(50:01):
and I went to Savannah on the trip floor and
I went through because I had a sniper position all
picked out, and damn it if they had knocked that
building down. There was an old cement factory across the
river from Savannah. I walked, I walked in down and
we looked right up went. I got to put him
in a different location.

Speaker 5 (50:16):
Now that's gone. So I do go research the places.

Speaker 3 (50:20):
Yeah, as much as cool. That's cool because if it
did become a show, there's the places.

Speaker 4 (50:25):
Hello, I'm doing short clips now. I'm trying to expand
social media presence. So I've been going around the last
couple of weeks to areas where Jones Point, Burke Lake Park,
four Huntly Park, where a murder was in Jones Point,
you know some things in Kabal and there doing short
little clips. People see hey this is and I'll read

(50:46):
either a chapter or two or I'll put it in
the in the rite up is Hey, this is what
I was talking about.

Speaker 5 (50:52):
You know, I do the whole abduction that one a
couple of days ago. It was like five or six
short clips. I walked through Burke Lake Park.

Speaker 4 (50:59):
Here's where here's the street she was on, Here's how
she entered the path, here's the damn she crossed before
she came around the volleyball courts.

Speaker 5 (51:06):
And I gave you the kidnappers perspective.

Speaker 4 (51:08):
This is where he was waiting, this is where he
left the tainted food for, and then this.

Speaker 5 (51:12):
Is where she came.

Speaker 4 (51:13):
So things like that they're corny, but I feel like
he gives nice little short clips, give people like a
little bit of visual.

Speaker 5 (51:20):
But oh that's what he was talking about.

Speaker 4 (51:21):
Oh okay, I can really or people can relate to
it because it's Area's day now.

Speaker 5 (51:26):
You know. I went to a.

Speaker 4 (51:28):
Picnic like three years ago and I was just finalizing
Jones Point and I was explaining to one of my
wife's colleagues. He asked me about the book, and I
explained the street of where Angel was kidnapped from. You know,
I didn't say the name. I didn't don't do that
in the books. I don't want God knows that the
suit for something. But the guy I explained that. The
guy's like, that's my street. I live on that street.

(51:51):
He's the guy know exactly what you're talking about, exactly
where the path cuts into the park.

Speaker 5 (51:54):
I'm like, oh, sorry about that. There might be a
kidnapping and they were to go me soon.

Speaker 3 (52:00):
So I love that. I like that.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
That's that's great relations I like that knowing that your
book has those little tidbits of technicalities in there, right,
very Tom clancy of.

Speaker 5 (52:11):
You, right right. I'm but I'm trying.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
No, no, I'm saying because like you know, my dad
would read those books all the time when we were younger,
and it was like and the wire was read, but
inside of the wire was copper, and that copper was
made from this and then that linked into the battery
hard drive and it was just like so detailed of
a submarine, you know, just like yeah, see I.

Speaker 4 (52:33):
Can't get that detail. I didn't do it. I just
can't get that that detailed because me, as a reader,
I get wah. Like I like to write too that
you can read the book one way, someone else can
see another story in their head.

Speaker 5 (52:47):
I like that.

Speaker 4 (52:48):
I try to bring the reader in, so I'll explain things,
but then I'll kind of let you envision it.

Speaker 5 (52:54):
That's how I like to read.

Speaker 4 (52:55):
I like to read where I'm following the character through
their daily routine and what they're doing. You know, when
I was writing at Dane's apartment, I have a friend
Ray Hendrick just retired.

Speaker 5 (53:05):
That's right.

Speaker 4 (53:06):
He had a little tiny basement apartment in a DC
walk up and that's where I made Dane live after
his divorce.

Speaker 5 (53:13):
It's like a vision raised place. They see something different.

Speaker 4 (53:16):
They might be thinking, well, I lived in New York
at one time, and the walk ups were different than
the new you know what I mean. But explaining a
DC townhouse with a downstairs basement apartment kind of lets everybody,
whether you're in California in San Francisco, or you're in
New York or townhouses in DC.

Speaker 5 (53:33):
Right, everybody's their own image what it is.

Speaker 4 (53:36):
So I get detailed, but it's not not enough to
that you get it can't be one of those three places.

Speaker 3 (53:41):
Well, and that's the great thing about a book.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
That's what's our imagination that can just take away with
the greatest theatrics ever inside of our own head, you know,
and I think that's great. I like the fact that
your buddy was like, I know that path.

Speaker 4 (53:55):
That was pretty funny. Then I filmed it the other
day and posted it, so I haven't that I haven't
talked to you about two years. And wait, a lot
of hit me back up, they'll see it.

Speaker 5 (54:04):
That's still my path.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
So now you're a social media manager. You're a filming
producing production company to show your shorts that you're putting
out there so that you can entice folks to come into.

Speaker 3 (54:16):
Your to your world. You're an author.

Speaker 4 (54:20):
Because I manage all the money and the taxes. And
thank god it's only two products, two books. Makes it
pretty easy. Yeah, yeah, that's it. I got two books.
I got to track expenses and track sales. That's that's
not too much.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
A pseudo agent too, Probably pseudo manager as well if
you don't have one a little bit.

Speaker 4 (54:38):
But my publishing company does a lot, does a lot
of that. It's a small, small place, Blue Handle.

Speaker 3 (54:43):
But you got to get them right. You had to
chase somehow.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
I mean they didn't did they come to you knocking
on your door, like, hey, Sergeant Major, you write books.

Speaker 4 (54:50):
A friend of mine, his cousin was an author laked
me up with her. She read my original draft. As
your's point, Remember I originally self published that's self published
in November of twenty three.

Speaker 5 (55:03):
In that meantime, the publisher.

Speaker 4 (55:06):
Had a copy of the book, and then by January
they signed me in one and option for two more books,
and then re released it of April twenty four with
that cover. So my original prink you can't get anyone
but my original I did myself and to another author
got me into this publishing for.

Speaker 3 (55:25):
And you're so you're self published as well on that
first book.

Speaker 4 (55:28):
On the first book, first book was all self published
and then second edition was published bo. And that's the
that's the current. That's the one that's on the Amazon,
Barnes and Noble shops. That's that's the one that's album.
The old one we got somewhere. Yeah, you can't see it, sure,
it's off. It's off the shelves.

Speaker 3 (55:45):
That's called brilliant.

Speaker 4 (55:46):
I tell everybody's it's the limited edition. Whoever we've got
that one, keep that one. That's the reason, the original one.

Speaker 2 (55:52):
Maybe they could send it to you through author Sean
Haggerty dot com and maybe get a signed and you'll
send it back to them.

Speaker 5 (55:58):
There you go.

Speaker 4 (55:59):
Yeah, if you go to if you go to the website, yeah,
all my my my contact informations on there for people
to reach out. Plus it's all on my my social media.
I have everything where people can reach out on contact.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
So you've got TikTok too, You use a TikTok now
that you're out of the department.

Speaker 4 (56:13):
Yeah, I'm only using Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn most
of the four.

Speaker 3 (56:18):
Yeah. I think you also have an X as well.

Speaker 5 (56:21):
I do, but I don't know.

Speaker 3 (56:24):
I don't even know.

Speaker 5 (56:25):
Argument for people of a politics, I'm not. I don't
need that.

Speaker 4 (56:30):
I make funny little videos, throw them across the platforms
and then LinkedIn is actually probably my is my strongest
because collaboration and a lot of us my generation and
especially being in the service, we didn't use it.

Speaker 5 (56:43):
I didn't have Facebook get ready to get out of
the military, so.

Speaker 4 (56:45):
I have, right, but I always had LinkedIn, and that's
how we've always stayed in touch around around the country
of the world. So, I mean, I had a buddy
from South Africa hit me out about the book right
because he saw it on LinkedIn, So.

Speaker 5 (56:58):
That's that is my favorite far reaching. Probably not the
way most social media is, all right, but but I'm
throwing it on the other ones. I'm just I'm learning algorithm.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
Well, like Instagram allows you to share two other outlets,
and what I've learned is that if they have, like
you know, a Facebook or another uh TikTok or whatever
it is, I go and make an account there and
then I link it with my Insta and then what
I do is I just make one post and then
I share it to all of them in the one post,
and then it just automatically matches to threads.

Speaker 4 (57:30):
To ye you know, I use I use a buffer,
and then I schedule everything across the platforms and it
just goes out automatically, and then I'm monitor so I
can respond to people.

Speaker 3 (57:43):
Oh I love that, And that's that's buffer.

Speaker 4 (57:45):
Huh, Yeah, it's called yeah buffer. It was like one's comparable,
like one of those things like foot sweet. But I
didn't really want to spend I don't mind spending the money,
but I hate spending the money as something and I
know I can use I don't need this to do
all these analytics and create videos and bill I don't

(58:06):
eat that and I don't need any AI. I don't
touch an AI. That's like to writers, that's that's promoting
yeah at all.

Speaker 5 (58:15):
So this keeps me honest.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
Yeah, And like people want to make art and stuff
and submit to us with AI and I just don't
like it. I like, I like for my company, like hey,
make a logo or something, it's like, oh, it's all
done in AI.

Speaker 3 (58:30):
I can totally tell.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
I think I would rather have somebody spend a little
time and create it versus that there's a look to
it and a taste it seems like. But but again
to digress back to Cabal, which is the book that's
coming out right And I've had you now for a
solid hour and we have loved every single minute of it.
And you're always welcome back, not just to talk about

(58:52):
your books, but any stories that you want to tell
anything like that. You're a welcome participant part of the
soft ret mafia, and we love having you here. And
I just want to let you know thanks again for
regrouping with me to get back on the show today.
It's been such a pleasure to have you.

Speaker 5 (59:08):
Yeah, it was great. I really appreciate it. Fun talk.

Speaker 3 (59:11):
Yeah, Well, thank you. So much.

Speaker 2 (59:12):
And what I like to show folks is that you know, yeah,
we've talked to each other before, but you can have
a casual conversation with somebody without getting at their throat,
without like loaded questions. Like I didn't send you any
questions in advance. We just you're like, what's Rad gonna
talk to me about today? Right, I'm like, what Sean
going to bring up today? And the first morning we

(59:32):
had at the beginning of the show is we got.

Speaker 3 (59:34):
To know what we're gonna say. So that's that's it,
and here we are.

Speaker 2 (59:38):
So I just want you to go around and have
a nice day, and I want people to be kind
to one another and just have a casual conversation with others,
and you don't have to get at each other's throats
over every anything. You can just say, hey, what's up,
how you doing? Smat out nod, Yes, exactly.

Speaker 3 (59:55):
Wow. It's such an honor to have you on the show. Sorry, Major,
I just want to let you know that thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:00:00):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (01:00:01):
And like I said, I'll stay in touch, see where
this thing goes, and if nothing else, at least start book.
I will make sure to hit you up who knows
something may happen to.

Speaker 5 (01:00:10):
Me in the meantime, and I'll definitely let you out.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
Well, there's people out there that listen and watch the
show because I get emails from them. And so if
they're out there and they can help, uh, you know,
guide you in a direction of whatever production or films
or larger scale promotions, then hit up author Sean Haggerty
dot com and tell him, tell him that you saw
him on soft rep and with rad and and that
you'd like to participate or help or ask some questions.

(01:00:36):
And buy his book wherever books are sold locally. If
his books are locally sold, buy it there first. If not,
go online wherever you buy it, leave a review for
it on that platform.

Speaker 3 (01:00:49):
Yes, please, that's what that's.

Speaker 5 (01:00:52):
The hardest people. I love them. Oh, I guess you should,
dang it. I need the reviews. If you don't like it,
he'll review. But what if you do the algorithm?

Speaker 3 (01:01:03):
Right?

Speaker 4 (01:01:03):
I mean, that's how we've been pumped around, And if
it doesn't get the reviews, it's supposed to go anywhere.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
Right, And so I'm just gonna That's why I know
it's so important to say it, right, Go leave a
review for it where you buy it. If you buy
it on the River, leave a review on the River.
If you buy it wherever Barnes and Noble, leave a
review there. Let others know, as well as those companies,
that you appreciate that book.

Speaker 5 (01:01:32):
Yeah, no, thanks, I appreciate you saying that.

Speaker 3 (01:01:35):
You're very welcome.

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
And with that said, I'm going to go ahead and
say thank you again to my awesome guest, which is
grandfather Sergeant Major author Sean Haggerty.

Speaker 3 (01:01:47):
That's what's up.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
I'm going to give a shout out to his lovely
wife Misty, who's also Sergeant Major Misty. And uh, because
I know that my my mom was also SF with
my dad the whole time, so all yeah, all the time. Yeah, exactly.
And myself. My name is Rad. And if you have
any comments, questions or concerns about what I say, why

(01:02:09):
don't you post up down below and see what I
say back to you about it. Go ahead, and if
you want to be on the show as well, you
can reach out to us. Just hit the link on
soft rep and submit say hey, what's going on?

Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
What's the scoop? Is what we look for?

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
And you say, hey, my name is so and so
and I'd like to be on your show and we'll
give it a read over and see if we can
get you on the show, just like Sean. So again,
thank you for being on the show. And Sean, if
you want to recommend anybody in the future to be
on the show, feel free to do so as well.

Speaker 5 (01:02:36):
I definitely will thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:02:38):
And thank you in behalf of softwarep dot com, our
merch store and our book club. Hopefully we'll get Cabal
and Jones point in our book club so you can
get that through SOFTWAREP as well. This is Rad saying peace.

Speaker 1 (01:03:05):
You've been listening to self red, Ladia