November 10, 2025 • 42 mins
We open on a quiet patrol that turns into an IED ambush on Route Nova and follow the split-second decisions that shape a platoon’s fate. Felix opens up about loss, leadership, near misses, and the broken path home—and what real support can look like.
• LCpl Savage wounded during a concrete-layered IED blast on Route Nova
• Doc freezing then snapping into care under pressure
• Night ops chaos with live power lines and concussion injuries
• Training river escape drills for up-armored Humvees
• QRF firefight, restraint under fire, and controlling chaos
• Interpreters’ risks, “Wilbur,” and the cost of allegiance
• Siloed platoons, downtime rituals, clippers and call centers
• Abrupt transition to civilian life, alcohol, and drift
• Then vs now: poor debriefs versus robust modern support
• Responsibility to those who served with us and to ourselves
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:34):
This is part two of our conversation with Felix
Garcia from Rainmaker Platoon.
And then that ambush was rightbefore Savage got hit, or no, so
Savage.
SPEAKER_00 (00:47):
Um so we were, and I think I just saw a date
somewhere.
It was May May 12th.
SPEAKER_02 (00:57):
May 12th is when Savage got hit.
SPEAKER_00 (00:59):
Yeah, May 12th.
So uh it was after the Aprilshenanigans, and the book said
we were delivering a generator.
Um okay, but I remember usplaying soccer with the kids um
in some school or something, youknow, it was pretty fun.
(01:19):
It was a cool, you know, quietday, essentially.
And I remember talking to theteam that to always be alert of
your surroundings in referenceto finding rock piles piled up.
Like if you ever saw rock pilespiled up on a corner, then
mostly more than likely you'reending up in a in some type of
(01:40):
kill zone or right, and uh wenever did a real good job if you
know uh identifying those.
But it was always a topic ofconversation for me to the team,
and so we're on and what's thatroad closest to the Euphrates
River?
So, like if you're heading backto to Ramadi, it's on the right
side.
SPEAKER_02 (02:00):
Nova?
That was Nova, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (02:02):
So we're on route Nova, but we're we're not like
close towards the camp, so we'repretty far out there.
And uh I'm on truck, I'm intruck number three, and so the
the first Humvee makes it left,the second Humvee makes it left,
and I see, and as and as thethird truck is making the less,
(02:22):
I I see this rock pile.
And as I see this rock pile, Ilook to the left, and that pot
can be boom, the the largestexplosion I had seen to that
date.
And the whole sky was gray.
Uh, because they ended upputting uh concrete bags over
the ID.
(02:43):
Yeah.
So when it exploded, everythingwas just gray, like the whole
sky, as as as high as you can,you know, see, and you know,
mass chaos on the radio, right?
We're trying to figure out whogot hit, you know, who who's
doing what.
Um I think my driver wasCorporal Fox at the time.
(03:04):
And uh, I jumped off thevehicle.
We're gonna push through thiskill zone, right?
Because and you couldn't seeanything, right?
So I jump off the vehicle, andthe reason I jumped off the
vehicle is because to the rightwas a very steep embankment, you
know, and I was scared that uhwe were gonna miss the road and
go into the embankment.
Oh, sure.
(03:24):
So I so I'm walking in front ofthe vehicle, and we kind of
clear this you know, cementsmoke thing that's going on, and
I see a vehicle to the farright, and it's the second
vehicle, and it's it drove off,flew off.
It was still right up, uh, butit was it was down that steep
20-foot embankment or whatever.
(03:46):
Uh the the first vehicle drovepast the kill zone, and uh so I
I run down the hill, andeverybody in the back of the of
uh that truck was still you knowconcussion shocked.
Regal Spurger, Lieutenant Dobb,uh Savage, and uh I don't
(04:13):
remember who else was backthere.
But uh so as I get there, Savagehas leaned over, and there's
this huge gash to the bottomleft of his back.
And uh I was like, oh, you know,it's this ain't looking good,
you know.
This is this is oh.
And uh our first sergeant, firstsergeant Mac was there.
Uh and everybody was in shellshock still, you know, nobody
(04:36):
was reacting to us.
So we had a a severe casualty inthe back of the truck.
Uh the only doc that we hadavailable was Doc Contreras, and
you know, he was shell shocked,you know, he was out of the
tooth.
And uh I'm telling the savage,I'm like, Savage, you gotta get
up, savage, you gotta get up,savage, you gotta get up.
And his his mouth, I guess hehad hit his face or something
because his mouth was all slowedup.
(04:57):
Um, so I'm telling I'm I'mgrabbing Doc.
I was like, Doc, you gotta fuckDoc, you gotta get to work, Doc,
you gotta get and get to work.
And Doc wasn't responding uh forobvious reasons.
And uh I started pulling stuffout of his first aid kit, you
know, finding you know whateverI needed to find.
And uh, so I I found some guys,I unwrapped it or whatever, and
I put it on Savage's womb, andDoc snapped out of it, he you
(05:21):
know, whatever he was goingthrough at the time for the snap
straight into doc mode.
I have uh huge admiration forthat man, but uh so I asked
Savage to stand up twice, and hehe he fought the stand-up twice,
and then after the second timehe passed out.
Um so Fuentes and Rose.
(05:48):
And this was a bonehead, likethis, you know, some
afterthought, right?
Like he was thinking through it,but uh somebody calls a hilo, so
there's a hilo in a route, butwe gotta get him back onto the
roadside, right?
And just 20 foot and back.
And at the time I didn't realizethat he had shrapnel stuck in
his body, right?
Like ripping through cutting,you would imagine, I would
think, with every movement thatwe're asking him to do.
(06:10):
Um so and at that time we hadstretchers on the vehicles.
Remember that?
SPEAKER_02 (06:17):
We had yeah, flexible, uh unfoldable
stretchers, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (06:21):
Yeah, yeah, we had stretchers, and my bonehead, my
bonehead self just reacting,instructed Sefuntes and Rose to
drag them up this hill.
So they they drug savage up thishill.
Um, and then put them, you know,put them on a hilo and ended up
passing away on the hilo.
SPEAKER_02 (06:36):
You got a Medivac uh roadside out there?
Uh uh Hilo.
Yeah, the Hilo landed there.
Yeah, I don't think I knew that.
SPEAKER_00 (06:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (06:48):
Because by the time we had got there, because we
responded, by the time we hadgot there, he was gone.
He would already left.
I didn't know if if he had gonein a vehicle or how he had gone,
but he was already gone.
SPEAKER_00 (06:58):
Yep.
Yep, and then you know RegalSperger was ate up pretty good.
Yeah.
Um, and tenant Dodd, you know,had concussion thing pretty
good.
SPEAKER_03 (07:08):
Was that the one that Holmes also got wounded at?
SPEAKER_00 (07:12):
No, Holmes Holmes was a night, a night operation.
Uh, we were by Snake Pit areaback there on that and uh we
were driving away from HurricanePoint and uh uh an ID hit and
tore Holmes's left thumb, Ibelieve.
SPEAKER_01 (07:32):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (07:34):
That and that was a very panicky, very panicky, very
chaotic, you know, one of thoseyou know, unprofitable moments
for me.
Like, you know, my team didn'treact as good as they should
have at that time.
SPEAKER_04 (07:44):
Uh getting blown, yeah, it's it's hard.
Don't be so hard on yourself.
You get it, getting blown up isa is a very disorienting thing.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (08:00):
Uh I don't know.
I just you know, at the end ofthe day, you know, there's as a
leader, you kind of take takeresponsibility for what uh
those, you know, what and thosethat that was not a very
prideful moment for me as aleader.
But uh you know, best casescenarios happened though,
right?
You know, just still with us andyeah, he's doing fast fantastic
(08:22):
things and working through hisPTSD on however he's doing it.
Uh so very proud of performanceis also yeah, he seems to be
doing quite well.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (08:32):
I remember responding to the home ID as
well.
Apparently, uh it just is theway the rotation went.
I guess we were your reactionforce.
Reaction force you guys got hitand we would come because uh I
came to that one too.
And I remember coming to thevehicle and Doc was finishing
bandaging home, and he had hewas peppered, he had all kinds
of bleeding on his face andstuff too.
(08:53):
But the biggest thing I rememberthat made me nervous about
Marines moving around becausethey weren't paying attention is
it had blown through and brokemultiple power lines, and they
were hanging down and sparkingbecause there's no transformers
or anything like that in Iraq.
They're all live power lines,and and things were some of
those were high voltage and somewere low voltage, and the high
(09:14):
voltage lines were cracklingback and forth.
And I was like, somebody's gonnawalk into that and die.
And I was trying to push peopleaway from that.
And then how are we gonna towthis vehicle out?
And there was a power lineliterally right down right next
to it, and and it was yeah, thatwas a shit show, unfortunately.
Um, and somehow we got everybodyout, and no one no one got
further hurt impressively.
SPEAKER_00 (09:36):
No, yeah, it was uh it was a one-off type situation,
uh, which was a blessing becauselike I said, we weren't you know
act acting or you know,responding our you know our best
that day.
That was uh and when did Holmesget uh get hurt?
You guys have a date to that?
SPEAKER_04 (09:52):
I don't know.
Holmes, I don't have an exactdate, but that would have been
June.
SPEAKER_02 (09:57):
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't have that on my on mylist of dates, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_00 (10:02):
Yeah, I think that's you know, and when you know I
started to fight, we you know,um that mental you know
headspace of you know self- youknow, preservation versus
keeping your head in the game.
Hodges was very you knowinstrumental and pivotal to
keeping a lot of guys attacked,you know, head head, you know,
(10:24):
you know, hot you know Hodges,but yeah.
Yeah, he's an asset sometimes.
Uh especially in combat.
SPEAKER_02 (10:31):
He's a force and not so much, but he's a force of
nature by far.
SPEAKER_00 (10:37):
Uh he's fantastic.
He's a fantastic person to be incombat with.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (10:45):
Do you have any do you have many memories of uh
doing any of the bug hunts orwere you did you guys as
rainmaker, did you guys end updoing a lot of door kicks?
SPEAKER_00 (10:56):
Uh we ended up on some night mission uh towards
towards the back end, I believe.
And do you remember we had agroup of Marines that stayed
with us, transferred back andwent and served with 2-4 uh for
like three to four or fivemonths, and then they they EAS
the PCS out EAS, right?
(11:18):
They EAS back into but off butfrom that.
SPEAKER_04 (11:21):
Um yeah, so so what happened with them if you're if
you're talking about the samething, is is that when when 2-5
got tasked to come, just becausethe Marine Corps knows how to
squeeze every last drop out ofeverybody, they looked at
everybody's service records andsaid to a bunch of Marines that
were supposed to EAS while theywould have been deployed, that
(11:45):
they had the option of going tocombat with 2.4 and getting out
at their normal time, or if theydeployed with 2-5, they would be
forced to uh you know beinvoluntarily extended until
they got until they returned.
And so a big portion of them.
So we had for me, I don't knowwho Rainmaker had, but I had
(12:07):
like uh Adams, Martinez, andClark came from that group, but
I don't know who Rainmaker had.
SPEAKER_00 (12:14):
Yeah, we had uh we had Brian Fox, uh Corporal Fox.
He and he he ended up being mydriver and Asami board for me,
like very instrumental and uhkeeping my head spaced to where
it was.
Very funny guy, very, verypositive guy.
You know, we didn't have I Idon't know him from Adam, you
know.
Uh so that was nice to not haveuh like a previous relationship,
(12:36):
right?
It's just you know another NCO.
Um fantastic driver, fantastic.
So anyway, so so he ended upleaving, right?
So I guess his contract wasdone, and we went back
stateside, probably like halfwayfor deployment.
And ended up uh I ended uppicking up another driver.
We're Facebook friends, but Idon't remember his name.
Uh and this this guy could notdrive.
(13:01):
So uh and I guess he had likesome night vision issues issues
that nobody really knew aboutit, you know.
He's probably 18, 19 years old,you know, 22, 23 at the time.
I think it was 22 at the time.
And uh yeah, he had some nightvision issues, and at the at the
at this time we had the uparmored hubbies, right?
(13:22):
Like yeah, and I was like, fuckthis.
So we started doing drills.
Uh and I made the whole sectiondo drills that if the vehicle
slid into the Euphrates River,this is the order that we're
gonna get out, this is how we'regonna cut our straps, is you
know, the driver goes out first,or the turret guy goes out
(13:42):
first, the driver, and then soon and so forth.
And you know, I'm I'm the lastguy, right?
I'm thinking, I ain't gonna makeit.
You know, you guys gas is gonnaget stuck on a turret, you know.
The you know, the power is gonnastick on a turret.
And I'm like, I really hope wedon't fall in this roof radius
because if we if we fall, youknow, the panic and the
adrenaline, and you know, you'regonna consume oxygen a lot
(14:03):
faster than you would normallydon't think that you can hold
your breath for a minute and ahalf.
That shit ain't gonna happenwith you.
It's bad.
You need to pray about it.
So, and we would do drills, andI had the guys do drills, right?
So we would do drills.
Okay, hey, boom, we're in thewater, right?
So then we're working on tryingto get out the turd and stuff
like that.
So we're on this bug hunt thing,it's how this memory comes
about, and uh huge convoy.
(14:24):
I don't know.
And it might be a hyperbole, butlike 30, 40 vehicles.
I mean, this thing was freakinghuge, right?
And we're we got the cat eyes orblack, black, you know, whatever
it is, right?
Blackout lights at all.
What is it?
SPEAKER_04 (14:37):
Blackout lights, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (14:39):
Cat eyes, yeah, blackout lights, either one.
Yep, trying to drive with nightvision, you can't see shit.
SPEAKER_00 (14:44):
Yep, and uh here go here comes my driver drifting.
I'm like stainless in the road,stay stainless of the road,
stainless in the road, and he'sdown and keeps drifting right to
the right is the EuphratesRiver, right?
I'm like, stay stay in the lane,stay in the lane, stay in the
lane, and uh, and we're all it'ssilent, it's a silent raid,
right?
So no radio communication, nonothing.
(15:05):
And he keeps drifting, he keepsdrifting, he keeps drifting.
And as he's drifting on him, I'mscreaming at him at this point.
I'm like, stay in the freakingwhat the fuck are you staying?
And uh the the back right tirecomes off the road, right?
And it starts to slide becauseit's a heavy, it's you know,
just things four times moreweight than a normal Humvee
(15:26):
because all that damn armor.
And it starts to slide.
I can feel it slide, and myheart just like comes out of my
throat, and I'm I'm trying tokick the gas, uh, press the gas,
press the back, all right.
And he's he's out there, andthis is supposed to be a silent
raid, and we're out here makingall this commotion uh back
there.
You know, there's however manyHumvees behind me, and uh so you
(15:47):
know, so I'm telling him, Gunit, gun it, got it, gun it, gun
it.
So he guns it, and that oh thankgod that tire catches the edge
of the road, and we get back umback on the road.
And uh man, you know how whenyou're so nervous, you know, and
you're drilling and hyper focuskicks in at your cotton mouth
kicks in as well.
Yes, yeah.
Oh man, I I I could almostswallow my tongue, is how it
(16:10):
drives my mouth.
Uh and uh anyway, so we we endedup uh trying to get a hold of
somebody because at this pointthey took a left turn, right
turn somewhere, you know,they're they're far, you know.
Uh but we were able to you knowcatch up, and then we just
provided security for whateverthat bug hunt was for.
But uh one one prideful momentthat I'll speak about the team
(16:38):
is that uh we ended up um QRF,we ended up being called, and
there was a seven-ton pinned upsomewhere.
Uh it was a it was a daylightoperation, and everybody was
pinned up.
So so Rainmaker gets there, wewe uh jump off the vehicles,
(17:00):
we're pulling up points, we'rewe got people uh as angel
watches up top.
Um and we're taking we're takingfire down this road.
And this is in the book too, butit doesn't it doesn't talk about
this, and I'm and I'm gonna talkabout it.
SPEAKER_02 (17:17):
Uh and anyways, so there's actually a whole lot of
that, and that's uh it just realas a quick aside, I don't want
to derail you.
There's so many moments in thatbook that are beautiful for golf
and echo, and I truly think itis the pivotal work that tells
the story of golf and echo.
But there are so many thingsthat it's like, hey, there were
(17:40):
two or three weapons companyplatoons right involved in all
of this, and you did not mentionany of them, you didn't even say
they were there.
And so I I again, this is I'mreally glad you're sharing this
story because it's it's missing.
Yes, yeah.
Go ahead anyway.
What you were taking fire downthe road.
SPEAKER_00 (17:58):
I'm sorry to and I I even think the N Lion S was part
of this group too.
We got there and and the Lion Swas already there.
Um, but uh, so we're we'repinned up in this intersection.
There's this huge seven-tonvehicle there.
Um, we go to you know, navigatetowards one area, and you can
actually see the rounds, youknow, the way the sun was
(18:20):
hitting, you can see the roundscoming down, you know, it was
very crazy.
Surreal, yeah, yeah.
Um, and uh, I'm like, no, we'renot, and we're not doing that,
we're not going down this road,it's not happening.
So we backtrack a little bit andwe did something else.
And there's this guy, right?
We're we're we're taking RPGfire down this road, and there's
this guy hooting and hollering,oh come on, motherfuckers.
(18:42):
You know, it's why it's a pieceof me, let's go, let's do it,
rah, rah, rah, rah.
And I had just come back up tothe scene, and uh, it annoyed
me.
And I got in this quick, quickthing of rage, and I ended up
grabbing this guy's flag jacket.
I I leg sweeped him, I threw himon the ground, I got to the
prone and I waited for this guyto come back out.
And when we did, I shot him withone shot.
(19:05):
And uh unbeknownst to me at thetime, I didn't realize that I
had leg sweeped an officer, anduh and uh right, so you know,
and I didn't know until after wegot back, like everybody in the
section was telling me it'slike, hey, did you know that you
just fucking I was like, No, I II didn't even know it was him.
(19:27):
I just I saw some some guy overhere, you know, acting like a
clown at the moment, and uh, youknow, let's engage and ended up
engaging.
And uh so that threat waseliminated.
So we were able to do someforward progress.
We did some forward progress andended up seeing bloodstains on
(19:47):
the ground.
Uh, so we walked walked in thereand uh ended up being another
bad guy uh on the ground.
And this was covered in a booktwo where uh Lieutenant Dobb um
had his weapon, you know, hismuzzle.
And the guy guy fought prettyhard asking asking Lieutenant
Wheeler to uh to finish hislife, but that never happened.
(20:11):
So we checked the rest of thehouse.
I ended up we ended up findingmoney and maybe like you know,
some you know, bad guyperipheria type stuff, and we we
pushed through.
We ended up in this huge field,uh, and I guess it was a rice
field or something.
And we're all online and we'repushing through.
And I didn't think we were gonnafind anything, you know, we're
(20:34):
just going through the motions,right?
We're we're clearing through youknow, houses, we're clearing
roads, and no shit.
There was like two or three badguys with like weapons, like in
the prone.
Oh wow, yeah, and uh you know,so we start reacting and we're
all you know taking a knee,we're in the prone, and I see
this guy with a rifle.
(20:55):
Um, and but they're not beingaggressive, you know, they're
not, you know, they're nottaking action, you know, they're
just in the prone.
And so I'm in the prone, and youknow, we're all screaming to
this guy, you know, get up, getup, stand up, hands up, hands
up, get up, you know, let me seeyour hands up, not reacting.
And we weren't sure if they hadlike IDs, you know, you know,
(21:15):
waiting, like we didn't know.
And uh, so I took sight.
I took sight, I lined a line ofsights, and I'm like, well, I
don't want to kill him, youknow, because I we don't know
the situation, but the worstcase scenario can happen.
So I take uh I take an aim tohis legs, like to his foot, you
(21:36):
know, and I shoot.
Guy doesn't flinch, guy doesn'tmove, and I'm like, I guess I
missed him.
Then I'm screaming, and we'reall screaming.
Like, put your hands up, putyour hands up, put your hands
up, put your hands up.
Still, not nothing, no, noreaction.
I shoot two, two or three, two,two or three more times, maybe
three times total.
No grunt, no scream, no nothing.
(21:58):
Uh so we finally decided that weget up, and when we get up, his
his leg is like ate up.
And this whole time I thought Iwas missing, and I was just
demolishing this guy's leg.
And uh no reaction.
I'm like, this guy's high as akite, it has to be high as a
kite.
And it was just insane.
(22:19):
So uh, you know, I'll rememberwho it was, but uh, you know, we
did the whole, hey, let's get onhis back, hey, on account of
three, we're gonna roll over,you know, to check to check to
see how an ID or something, youknow, the whole night.
Nothing, nothing.
And it was just crazy.
Ended up calling, uh, you know,that was scary too.
You know, oh, this is it.
I'm about to drop a flak jacketon his ass or something.
(22:42):
And you know, the army came withuh with uh another net of ac
whatever it was, like art, youknow, light art armored vehicle.
SPEAKER_02 (22:50):
Yeah, they're Bradleys.
Yeah, well, they had well, itdepends on who came out.
They had two Bradleys, they alsohad M113s, and they brought out
both, depending it depending onwhat day it was.
Uh, I think if I remembercorrectly from the book, that
was that was during I don'tknow.
I don't remember.
I I think that was probablyApril like 8th, 7th, something
(23:12):
like that.
It was during the April timeframe.
SPEAKER_01 (23:14):
Sure.
SPEAKER_02 (23:15):
And so it was probably the 113s because the
Bradleys didn't, they went outnorth uh out on Nova.
SPEAKER_00 (23:21):
So we heard um as a debrief from the army uh that he
was you know under the influenceand um ended up you know
speaking badly about the theAmericans and you know budget,
positive Baja Had.
So I didn't feel too bad afterthe fact.
During it, I was like, man, Ijust blew those guys like that.
(23:42):
Uh yeah, you know, the team dida fan fantastic, got everybody
cleared out, nobody got hurtthat day.
Uh to get to the team.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (23:55):
I want to know how you managed to keep girlfriends
too, because I had a hard enoughtime keeping one wife.
SPEAKER_00 (24:06):
Girlfriend, yeah, yeah, it was uh so um I was
dating while we were in Okinawa,my girlfriend at the time gave
birth uh to our son in March of2003.
And uh we were on ship when ithappened, but um so we were
(24:29):
dating, you know, and I prayedto God, I was like, God, you
know, help me help me, you know,love this woman and commit to
this woman and so on and soforth, and really tried to you
know to make it happen.
And during during the Ramadiphase, you know, I'll call her
and uh you know, we chat andstuff, and uh she kept keep she
kept pressing on marriage.
And I was like, you know, I'mnot really committed, I'm not
(24:51):
ready to get married, I'm not ina position to get married right
now.
And she took exception to it,uh, as she should.
Um, you know, we have a childand we've been dating on and off
for a couple, two, three years,and uh, you know, she was
expecting something from me thatI couldn't give her.
Uh, so she ended up breaking outwith me while I was in
Romantica.
So uh, you know, that was andit's hurtful, right?
(25:13):
Um, it's warranted.
SPEAKER_02 (25:16):
I'm not saying well, maybe so.
Yeah, but still, you can't doanything, and also those damn
phone senders that you werecalling her from, you could get
15-30 minutes at best beforethey'd cut off anyway.
So, I you know, how muchrelationship could you even get
in?
SPEAKER_00 (25:31):
Right, right.
Um, no, because you know, shewas my outlet, you know, at that
time.
So when that happened, I waslike, well, I gotta fix this, I
gotta I gotta pivot and checkand adjust.
So ended up pulling up my blackbook and calling every female I
knew, right?
Just going through just goingthrough the road.
SPEAKER_02 (25:47):
That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (25:48):
Yeah, and uh this one this one girl that uh
answered, her name was Charlene,and she's my wife.
Um, so she answered, um and wewent and we had a messed up
breakup, so she was hesitant toanswer.
Uh so she answered and she waslike, Oh, hey, I heard I heard
(26:10):
you're you're in combat.
And you know, she was just beingnice and reciprocal.
I'm like, Yeah, she's like,Well, do you need anything?
I was like, Yeah, as a matter offact, I do.
Can you send me some underwearsand some socks?
And you know, her her side ofthe story, and she was like,
This mother effort, you know,after all this time, you know,
ask me for some you know,underwear and socks.
And when her mom and her dadfinds out that she's sending
(26:33):
Felix, you know, and they'relike, You're doing what?
You're not sending him freakingno, there's no way.
They're like, Oh, yeah, but he'sin combat.
By the way, so that that was thethe girlfriend's plural ended up
uh getting you know hooking uptogether and getting married uh
after that.
SPEAKER_02 (26:50):
Um dude, that's that's a crazy year.
Start of start of a marriagestory right there.
SPEAKER_00 (26:57):
December will be 20 years.
SPEAKER_02 (26:59):
That's amazing, dude.
Congrats.
That's really funny.
SPEAKER_04 (27:06):
You talking about the call center made me remember
that uh I was in there once whenuh a mortar round hit like while
I was trying to talk to people.
Oh, yeah.
I think everybody has having tolike explain and be like, what
was that?
And it's like uh don't worryabout it.
SPEAKER_02 (27:23):
I think one time I lied and told my wife that a
truck hit the the trailer.
SPEAKER_00 (27:28):
That's funny.
I I didn't use the call centervery much.
I had access to the GPS phone.
SPEAKER_02 (27:33):
Oh yeah, the iridium.
Yeah, yeah.
But sat phone was nice.
I had access to that too, butyou know, you still you're only
supposed to use it for you knowan hour or so or whatever, but I
use both.
SPEAKER_00 (27:42):
Yeah.
Yeah, it would be like late atnight, you know, one o'clock in
the morning or something, andit's more weird.
SPEAKER_04 (27:49):
See, and I the my biggest and what I've realized
talking to uh the guys here alittle bit more is is kind of
how intensely siloed we werebecause you know you were
Rainmaker out with Sledgehammer,you know, technically, you know,
same platoon, um, but we weresplit at that time, and so we
(28:10):
were functionally running as twoseparate platoons.
Right.
But I would argue like I havealmost no idea what you guys
did.
Like, I mean, like there wouldbe a few conversations here and
there, but you know, the due totempo, and sometimes you know,
if you were on day and then wewere on nights, and you know,
like it just the conversationsjust didn't just didn't happen.
SPEAKER_00 (28:33):
And so yeah, it's always like uh almost like a
drive-by high.
And I mean, and we lived rightright next to the yeah, no,
yeah, exactly.
Well, it was good.
SPEAKER_04 (28:45):
It was and I think the only time that I really got
to see people a little bit moreis um there's a couple of guys
that liked the way I gavehaircuts, and so they would come
over to the hooch when we had todo it, and they liked the way
that I cut hair.
So I cut a lot of hair overthere.
SPEAKER_01 (29:00):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (29:03):
But uh I I liked there's only so much card
playing you can play in thehooch, you know.
And you know, I listen to a lotof a lot of my music.
I I watched you know DVDs alsohaving a personal DVD player and
stuff like that, but there'sonly so much you can do.
(29:23):
Um I mean when you're not whenyou're not on mission, man, like
war's boring, you know.
SPEAKER_00 (29:37):
Going through clippers.
Like at least a clipper day,then things would get so hot.
SPEAKER_04 (29:42):
Yep, yeah.
Well, that's because that'spartially because I didn't have
it wired correctly.
There was too much juice flowingthrough the damn clippers.
SPEAKER_02 (29:51):
Yep.
Yeah, even with the inverters wedid have, you still would get a
bunch of power surges.
It was awful.
SPEAKER_00 (29:57):
That's interesting.
I don't know that.
SPEAKER_04 (29:59):
Did you uh I don't know why this made me think of
it, but um so there's a wholelong story you could have with
uh the absolute debacle thathappened with uh the
interpreters and stuff likethat.
But but just to kind of the theones that we ended with, we
ended up running around with uhwell his real name was Chasm,
(30:20):
but we uh we uh he his Americanname was Wilbur.
Um did you guys run?
Run with an inter and with aninterp much going out or I don't
remember his name either.
SPEAKER_00 (30:33):
And to your point, I think we we went through two.
The second one was like he washardcore.
He was, you know, very uh hisEnglish was was you know great,
uh spectacular.
And it's uh he was gone gonehome.
And I and I remember him datingsomebody and went through this
(30:53):
whole you know process oftelling us that the problem is
is that he doesn't have enoughto provide for his family, you
know, to I think you're talkingyou're talking about the same
one then.
SPEAKER_04 (31:03):
Yeah, it was Wil it was Wilbur, yeah.
Wilbur?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
He was a cool cat.
I I I kept I kept in contactwith him up until Did you
really?
Yeah.
How did you get it?
Yeah, we traded like letters,letters.
Oh, okay.
And um up until 2000 and whendid uh when did this when did
stuff really kick off with theuh the Syrian revolution?
(31:26):
Like when did that really startsliding?
Like anyways, it I lost track ofhim in during kind of the era
the during that larger Arabuprising.
I lost track of him, andunfortunately, I think he might
not be with us anymore.
But um this is just because hehe stayed pretty close with the
Americans, and uh one of hislast letters was trying to get
(31:46):
me to help see if I could helpget him in contact with like
like America to get him, youknow, like pulled out because he
was not safe.
And there was I I didn't havethe resources.
Like I didn't know what I didn'tknow who to call.
I don't have the uh thepresident on speed dial.
SPEAKER_02 (32:04):
So, you know, like I I I tried, but I think that's a
very common narrative too, withyou saw with Afghanistan with
when we pulled out there, therewas so many people, they're
private organizations going overto try to evacuate the because
they were like, Hey, we're wewere helping you, and when they
come back, we're all gonna bedead.
And I assume that's probablywhat happened with him too.
(32:24):
You know, yep.
If your family's not safe, whatare you gonna do?
SPEAKER_00 (32:28):
Yeah, yeah.
He took off.
How many tours are these guysdo?
SPEAKER_04 (32:33):
Oh, well, both Nylan and I, uh, we you know, you were
faster, but we weren't we were,I mean, literally, uh, we we
caught the breeze of the doorshutting for you for us.
We got out December 28th.
Uh, so we were right rightbehind you.
SPEAKER_02 (32:49):
I went back later as a uh private contractor, but I
didn't as with the Marine Corps,just the one time.
SPEAKER_00 (32:56):
How was that uh that period of being back in the
States and what did you guys endup doing?
SPEAKER_04 (33:02):
A month of leave, and then yeah, it was a month
for for me, it was a month ofleave, and then uh I think I
think it's probably similar forNyland that we had already
started getting clued into thatthere was such that it was
called a school cut, and youcould get out early from your
EAS to be able to start thesemester on time.
And our EAS was in March, and sowe both took an up we took that
(33:25):
as an opportunity, and so we gotout technically early on a
school cut.
And so I I didn't we didn't takeany more leave after the our
October leave.
So we were around the barracksfor Thanksgiving and and
Christmas and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_02 (33:42):
It was a weird you was it was it was not good.
You didn't miss much, but it wasweird.
Um I obviously, as you canimagine, barracks life, a lot of
people drinking and stuff likethat.
I lived out in town, but I stillwas privy to it.
And then the transition of whereall the officers were going and
the senior staff were all, Imean, similar to yourself.
(34:02):
Everybody was catching B-billetsor going to new units, and so we
lost leadership fast.
And the new people that came inthat were trying to negotiate
and wrangle a bunch ofessentially kids who just got
out of combat was impossible.
It was the level ofinsubordination was really high
as well.
(34:23):
So there ended up being a lotof, you know, a lot of barracks
cleaning games and a lot ofmotor pool games to try to get
people back to remember, hey,you know, there's this other
thing that you do in the MarineCorps, and there's still a rank
structure, and you don't get tojust say whatever you want no
matter what you did.
That's interesting.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (34:38):
Yeah.
unknown (34:39):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (34:39):
But there's a whole conversation you can have about
how difficult the or difficult,that's the wrong word, that the
military did not have a systemin place at that point of how to
transition combat vets.
Oh, the you know, the the waythat they well, the way that
they transitioned us was wouldbe fine if you just got back
(35:02):
from a normal deployment from alike Oki, like a 30, you know,
like you just got back from the31st Mew in September, you're
out by October, you know,December, you know, so what, you
know, it doesn't matter.
But you know, we were in, youknow, like less than you know,
like a little over three monthsafter we had our last firefight,
where a civilian with zerosupport, um, thank God Nylon had
(35:27):
me help him put his floor intothis condo at the time and gave
me a little bit of a of alanding place for like just
something to do because I wascompletely I was not in a good
headspace.
And then I went back, then Iwent to college, obviously,
because I was on the school cut.
But I was I was uh definitely aliability.
(35:48):
I I have we don't need to tellthose stories.
Uh that's not that's the purposeof this podcast, but but I have
a couple stories from uh 2005that uh doesn't does not cast me
in the best light.
SPEAKER_02 (36:02):
I think just like what Felix was saying, I mean, I
did the same thing.
I I have a picture somewhere ofme standing next to the barbecue
grill uh on the house thatyou're talking about where you
helped me put in the floor.
And I'm 20, 30 poundsoverweight.
I was easily drinking every day.
My wife was in the throes of amaster's degree program, and so
(36:23):
she was doing homework 20 hoursa day.
So she, I mean, we weresupporting each other, but
supporting each other by passingeach other in the hall.
SPEAKER_01 (36:32):
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (36:33):
And I definitely did the same thing.
Like I would come home fromschool, and you know, schoolwork
was not difficult compared towhat I had just been through,
and and easily consume enoughalcohol to kill myself.
And then I do the same thing.
I would wake up and I'd go rightto school because my alarm went
off, but there was no it was allbad choices.
It was all bad choices, therewas no recovery.
SPEAKER_00 (36:54):
Yeah, those it's it was all check-in-a-box
activities because we'resupposed to do them, but no, but
yeah, just just going throughthe motions.
SPEAKER_02 (37:02):
And the transition that we I mean, I don't know
what you guys got.
Well, clearly, Felix, you gotnothing.
Um, we had a check-in with thebattalion surgeon who he said,
Are you having trouble sleeping?
You can take a little Benadryl,it'll help you.
Uh, any other issues, anyphysical problems?
Yes, no.
(37:22):
And I I didn't have anysignificant physical problem.
I mean, I had pain from gettingthrown around and blown up and
running for four years,everything, you know, all the
normal stuff that you get as agrunt.
Yeah, but nothing that I wouldcomplain about.
I was like, no, there's nothingto report.
He's like, How are your teethdoing?
Go see the dentist.
That was it.
You know, like I think I got afeeling.
And then we went to thattransition course where we there
(37:45):
was a forklift company that waslike, hey, you can come build
forklifts.
And then Lowe's was like, youcould be a cashier at Lowe's.
And that was the two job offerswe got.
And a person who had probablynever actually written a resume
tried to teach us how to write aresume, and then we were out.
That was it.
No, nothing about any aboutstress, about support, about
(38:05):
community, about faith, aboutanything, literally anything
that could have helped you getthrough this transition zero.
I mean, we never even talked tothe chaplain, which that's
crazy.
SPEAKER_00 (38:16):
Yeah.
Yeah, it was uh essentially thesame for me.
So I EES um out of uh DI um2007, and it was just a very
rushed process, you know, like ajust a whirlwind of activities
of a package this and you know,transitioning to that, you know,
(38:36):
but nothing that really sticks,you know, and nothing that was
very heart heartfelt.
And it's funny that we're inthis conversation because um so
I'm an entrepreneur, I'mself-employed, and I do a lot of
things.
And one of the things I do is II sell roofs, I inspect roofs
and you know, for a roofingcompany.
And uh I'm on the roof with theadjuster, and uh I see that he
(38:58):
has boots on, you know, likemilitary-style boots.
And I'm like, uh are you in aservice?
He's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm uh Air Force.
I'm like, I appreciate service.
I'm like, Oh, you're welcome.
I'm like, so uh so how does thiswork?
He's like, Well, uh, I got 20years with the Air Force, and
the uh there's this programwhere I do a civilian job and
(39:20):
it's like an OJT type scenario.
So he's an adjuster for aninsurance company and the the
Air Force pays him for it.
A three, six month program.
And I and I didn't tell him thatI was a Marine or anything like
that.
I'm thinking, wow, you know howtimes have changed, you know,
yeah, where there's actualprograms now, you know, looking
(39:41):
for for the betterment of youknow people that that are
getting out versus you know,forklift driving, you know,
cashier and go figure it out.
SPEAKER_02 (39:50):
My close friend of mine who uh just left the Navy
SEAL teams uh has the mostamazing support network.
They first sent him to a retreatto decompress where he learned
how to work with horses and hedidn't know anything about
horses, but he learned how tolike pet and clean horses, and
then they had like therapycircles.
They then signed him up fortherapy where he got free
(40:12):
therapy, which he didn'tnecessarily felt like he needed
it, but he got free therapy.
And then he had four differentdoctors, a generalist, and then
several specialists who lookedin every hole and looked him up
and down, and they put him in anMRI machine, even if he didn't
want it, and said, Hey, no,you've got problems here and
there.
These are the things you shouldfollow up on.
(40:33):
And then a specialist wrote allof his disability paperwork and
told him everything to follow upwith his either private medical
insurance or the VA.
And I was like, I got a thankyou for your service in a
Snickers bar, and they kicked meout.
Like I it was the uh completeopposite.
You got a Snickers bar?
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yeah, I think I bought theSnickers bar.
SPEAKER_04 (40:54):
I got a butterfinger.
SPEAKER_00 (40:57):
Yeah, it's crazy.
Yeah, and I've yet to check inwith the VA, uh, to talk about
to-do list, but I mean, it justgoes to show how you know
disassociated we were fromsomething new from you know in
all aspects, you know, top down.
SPEAKER_02 (41:12):
Well, dude, this has been great.
Do you want to continue?
SPEAKER_00 (41:18):
Uh I I really appreciate this platform and
what you guys are doing.
You know, a lot of people talk,talk to talk, but you know,
actually doing the walk.
Just getting started, obviously.
I mean any any adventure you dois the first step, and you guys
are rocking it.
I felt very comfortable.
Uh very safe space, so thank youfor providing me the space to
(41:39):
talk through some things.
SPEAKER_02 (41:41):
Okay.
Literally anytime, on oroffline.
You know how to get a hold ofme.
SPEAKER_00 (41:46):
100%.
Likewatch.
Same, same.
All right, gents.
Well, appreciate you until ournext adventure.
SPEAKER_04 (41:52):
Absolutely.
Take it easy, buddy.
Yes, sir.
Likewise.
If you like what you heard, makesure you subscribe for future
episodes on your favoritepodcast service.
This is part two of our conversation with Felix
Garcia from Rainmaker Platoon.
And then that ambush was rightbefore Savage got hit, or no, so
Savage.
SPEAKER_00 (00:47):
Um so we were, and I think I just saw a date
somewhere.
It was May May 12th.
SPEAKER_02 (00:57):
May 12th is when Savage got hit.
SPEAKER_00 (00:59):
Yeah, May 12th.
So uh it was after the Aprilshenanigans, and the book said
we were delivering a generator.
Um okay, but I remember usplaying soccer with the kids um
in some school or something, youknow, it was pretty fun.
(01:19):
It was a cool, you know, quietday, essentially.
And I remember talking to theteam that to always be alert of
your surroundings in referenceto finding rock piles piled up.
Like if you ever saw rock pilespiled up on a corner, then
mostly more than likely you'reending up in a in some type of
(01:40):
kill zone or right, and uh wenever did a real good job if you
know uh identifying those.
But it was always a topic ofconversation for me to the team,
and so we're on and what's thatroad closest to the Euphrates
River?
So, like if you're heading backto to Ramadi, it's on the right
side.
SPEAKER_02 (02:00):
Nova?
That was Nova, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (02:02):
So we're on route Nova, but we're we're not like
close towards the camp, so we'repretty far out there.
And uh I'm on truck, I'm intruck number three, and so the
the first Humvee makes it left,the second Humvee makes it left,
and I see, and as and as thethird truck is making the less,
(02:22):
I I see this rock pile.
And as I see this rock pile, Ilook to the left, and that pot
can be boom, the the largestexplosion I had seen to that
date.
And the whole sky was gray.
Uh, because they ended upputting uh concrete bags over
the ID.
(02:43):
Yeah.
So when it exploded, everythingwas just gray, like the whole
sky, as as as high as you can,you know, see, and you know,
mass chaos on the radio, right?
We're trying to figure out whogot hit, you know, who who's
doing what.
Um I think my driver wasCorporal Fox at the time.
(03:04):
And uh, I jumped off thevehicle.
We're gonna push through thiskill zone, right?
Because and you couldn't seeanything, right?
So I jump off the vehicle, andthe reason I jumped off the
vehicle is because to the rightwas a very steep embankment, you
know, and I was scared that uhwe were gonna miss the road and
go into the embankment.
Oh, sure.
(03:24):
So I so I'm walking in front ofthe vehicle, and we kind of
clear this you know, cementsmoke thing that's going on, and
I see a vehicle to the farright, and it's the second
vehicle, and it's it drove off,flew off.
It was still right up, uh, butit was it was down that steep
20-foot embankment or whatever.
(03:46):
Uh the the first vehicle drovepast the kill zone, and uh so I
I run down the hill, andeverybody in the back of the of
uh that truck was still you knowconcussion shocked.
Regal Spurger, Lieutenant Dobb,uh Savage, and uh I don't
(04:13):
remember who else was backthere.
But uh so as I get there, Savagehas leaned over, and there's
this huge gash to the bottomleft of his back.
And uh I was like, oh, you know,it's this ain't looking good,
you know.
This is this is oh.
And uh our first sergeant, firstsergeant Mac was there.
Uh and everybody was in shellshock still, you know, nobody
(04:36):
was reacting to us.
So we had a a severe casualty inthe back of the truck.
Uh the only doc that we hadavailable was Doc Contreras, and
you know, he was shell shocked,you know, he was out of the
tooth.
And uh I'm telling the savage,I'm like, Savage, you gotta get
up, savage, you gotta get up,savage, you gotta get up.
And his his mouth, I guess hehad hit his face or something
because his mouth was all slowedup.
(04:57):
Um, so I'm telling I'm I'mgrabbing Doc.
I was like, Doc, you gotta fuckDoc, you gotta get to work, Doc,
you gotta get and get to work.
And Doc wasn't responding uh forobvious reasons.
And uh I started pulling stuffout of his first aid kit, you
know, finding you know whateverI needed to find.
And uh, so I I found some guys,I unwrapped it or whatever, and
I put it on Savage's womb, andDoc snapped out of it, he you
(05:21):
know, whatever he was goingthrough at the time for the snap
straight into doc mode.
I have uh huge admiration forthat man, but uh so I asked
Savage to stand up twice, and hehe he fought the stand-up twice,
and then after the second timehe passed out.
Um so Fuentes and Rose.
(05:48):
And this was a bonehead, likethis, you know, some
afterthought, right?
Like he was thinking through it,but uh somebody calls a hilo, so
there's a hilo in a route, butwe gotta get him back onto the
roadside, right?
And just 20 foot and back.
And at the time I didn't realizethat he had shrapnel stuck in
his body, right?
Like ripping through cutting,you would imagine, I would
think, with every movement thatwe're asking him to do.
(06:10):
Um so and at that time we hadstretchers on the vehicles.
Remember that?
SPEAKER_02 (06:17):
We had yeah, flexible, uh unfoldable
stretchers, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (06:21):
Yeah, yeah, we had stretchers, and my bonehead, my
bonehead self just reacting,instructed Sefuntes and Rose to
drag them up this hill.
So they they drug savage up thishill.
Um, and then put them, you know,put them on a hilo and ended up
passing away on the hilo.
SPEAKER_02 (06:36):
You got a Medivac uh roadside out there?
Uh uh Hilo.
Yeah, the Hilo landed there.
Yeah, I don't think I knew that.
SPEAKER_00 (06:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (06:48):
Because by the time we had got there, because we
responded, by the time we hadgot there, he was gone.
He would already left.
I didn't know if if he had gonein a vehicle or how he had gone,
but he was already gone.
SPEAKER_00 (06:58):
Yep.
Yep, and then you know RegalSperger was ate up pretty good.
Yeah.
Um, and tenant Dodd, you know,had concussion thing pretty
good.
SPEAKER_03 (07:08):
Was that the one that Holmes also got wounded at?
SPEAKER_00 (07:12):
No, Holmes Holmes was a night, a night operation.
Uh, we were by Snake Pit areaback there on that and uh we
were driving away from HurricanePoint and uh uh an ID hit and
tore Holmes's left thumb, Ibelieve.
SPEAKER_01 (07:32):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (07:34):
That and that was a very panicky, very panicky, very
chaotic, you know, one of thoseyou know, unprofitable moments
for me.
Like, you know, my team didn'treact as good as they should
have at that time.
SPEAKER_04 (07:44):
Uh getting blown, yeah, it's it's hard.
Don't be so hard on yourself.
You get it, getting blown up isa is a very disorienting thing.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (08:00):
Uh I don't know.
I just you know, at the end ofthe day, you know, there's as a
leader, you kind of take takeresponsibility for what uh
those, you know, what and thosethat that was not a very
prideful moment for me as aleader.
But uh you know, best casescenarios happened though,
right?
You know, just still with us andyeah, he's doing fast fantastic
(08:22):
things and working through hisPTSD on however he's doing it.
Uh so very proud of performanceis also yeah, he seems to be
doing quite well.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (08:32):
I remember responding to the home ID as
well.
Apparently, uh it just is theway the rotation went.
I guess we were your reactionforce.
Reaction force you guys got hitand we would come because uh I
came to that one too.
And I remember coming to thevehicle and Doc was finishing
bandaging home, and he had hewas peppered, he had all kinds
of bleeding on his face andstuff too.
(08:53):
But the biggest thing I rememberthat made me nervous about
Marines moving around becausethey weren't paying attention is
it had blown through and brokemultiple power lines, and they
were hanging down and sparkingbecause there's no transformers
or anything like that in Iraq.
They're all live power lines,and and things were some of
those were high voltage and somewere low voltage, and the high
(09:14):
voltage lines were cracklingback and forth.
And I was like, somebody's gonnawalk into that and die.
And I was trying to push peopleaway from that.
And then how are we gonna towthis vehicle out?
And there was a power lineliterally right down right next
to it, and and it was yeah, thatwas a shit show, unfortunately.
Um, and somehow we got everybodyout, and no one no one got
further hurt impressively.
SPEAKER_00 (09:36):
No, yeah, it was uh it was a one-off type situation,
uh, which was a blessing becauselike I said, we weren't you know
act acting or you know,responding our you know our best
that day.
That was uh and when did Holmesget uh get hurt?
You guys have a date to that?
SPEAKER_04 (09:52):
I don't know.
Holmes, I don't have an exactdate, but that would have been
June.
SPEAKER_02 (09:57):
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't have that on my on mylist of dates, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_00 (10:02):
Yeah, I think that's you know, and when you know I
started to fight, we you know,um that mental you know
headspace of you know self- youknow, preservation versus
keeping your head in the game.
Hodges was very you knowinstrumental and pivotal to
keeping a lot of guys attacked,you know, head head, you know,
(10:24):
you know, hot you know Hodges,but yeah.
Yeah, he's an asset sometimes.
Uh especially in combat.
SPEAKER_02 (10:31):
He's a force and not so much, but he's a force of
nature by far.
SPEAKER_00 (10:37):
Uh he's fantastic.
He's a fantastic person to be incombat with.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (10:45):
Do you have any do you have many memories of uh
doing any of the bug hunts orwere you did you guys as
rainmaker, did you guys end updoing a lot of door kicks?
SPEAKER_00 (10:56):
Uh we ended up on some night mission uh towards
towards the back end, I believe.
And do you remember we had agroup of Marines that stayed
with us, transferred back andwent and served with 2-4 uh for
like three to four or fivemonths, and then they they EAS
the PCS out EAS, right?
(11:18):
They EAS back into but off butfrom that.
SPEAKER_04 (11:21):
Um yeah, so so what happened with them if you're if
you're talking about the samething, is is that when when 2-5
got tasked to come, just becausethe Marine Corps knows how to
squeeze every last drop out ofeverybody, they looked at
everybody's service records andsaid to a bunch of Marines that
were supposed to EAS while theywould have been deployed, that
(11:45):
they had the option of going tocombat with 2.4 and getting out
at their normal time, or if theydeployed with 2-5, they would be
forced to uh you know beinvoluntarily extended until
they got until they returned.
And so a big portion of them.
So we had for me, I don't knowwho Rainmaker had, but I had
(12:07):
like uh Adams, Martinez, andClark came from that group, but
I don't know who Rainmaker had.
SPEAKER_00 (12:14):
Yeah, we had uh we had Brian Fox, uh Corporal Fox.
He and he he ended up being mydriver and Asami board for me,
like very instrumental and uhkeeping my head spaced to where
it was.
Very funny guy, very, verypositive guy.
You know, we didn't have I Idon't know him from Adam, you
know.
Uh so that was nice to not haveuh like a previous relationship,
(12:36):
right?
It's just you know another NCO.
Um fantastic driver, fantastic.
So anyway, so so he ended upleaving, right?
So I guess his contract wasdone, and we went back
stateside, probably like halfwayfor deployment.
And ended up uh I ended uppicking up another driver.
We're Facebook friends, but Idon't remember his name.
Uh and this this guy could notdrive.
(13:01):
So uh and I guess he had likesome night vision issues issues
that nobody really knew aboutit, you know.
He's probably 18, 19 years old,you know, 22, 23 at the time.
I think it was 22 at the time.
And uh yeah, he had some nightvision issues, and at the at the
at this time we had the uparmored hubbies, right?
(13:22):
Like yeah, and I was like, fuckthis.
So we started doing drills.
Uh and I made the whole sectiondo drills that if the vehicle
slid into the Euphrates River,this is the order that we're
gonna get out, this is how we'regonna cut our straps, is you
know, the driver goes out first,or the turret guy goes out
(13:42):
first, the driver, and then soon and so forth.
And you know, I'm I'm the lastguy, right?
I'm thinking, I ain't gonna makeit.
You know, you guys gas is gonnaget stuck on a turret, you know.
The you know, the power is gonnastick on a turret.
And I'm like, I really hope wedon't fall in this roof radius
because if we if we fall, youknow, the panic and the
adrenaline, and you know, you'regonna consume oxygen a lot
(14:03):
faster than you would normallydon't think that you can hold
your breath for a minute and ahalf.
That shit ain't gonna happenwith you.
It's bad.
You need to pray about it.
So, and we would do drills, andI had the guys do drills, right?
So we would do drills.
Okay, hey, boom, we're in thewater, right?
So then we're working on tryingto get out the turd and stuff
like that.
So we're on this bug hunt thing,it's how this memory comes
about, and uh huge convoy.
(14:24):
I don't know.
And it might be a hyperbole, butlike 30, 40 vehicles.
I mean, this thing was freakinghuge, right?
And we're we got the cat eyes orblack, black, you know, whatever
it is, right?
Blackout lights at all.
What is it?
SPEAKER_04 (14:37):
Blackout lights, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (14:39):
Cat eyes, yeah, blackout lights, either one.
Yep, trying to drive with nightvision, you can't see shit.
SPEAKER_00 (14:44):
Yep, and uh here go here comes my driver drifting.
I'm like stainless in the road,stay stainless of the road,
stainless in the road, and he'sdown and keeps drifting right to
the right is the EuphratesRiver, right?
I'm like, stay stay in the lane,stay in the lane, stay in the
lane, and uh, and we're all it'ssilent, it's a silent raid,
right?
So no radio communication, nonothing.
(15:05):
And he keeps drifting, he keepsdrifting, he keeps drifting.
And as he's drifting on him, I'mscreaming at him at this point.
I'm like, stay in the freakingwhat the fuck are you staying?
And uh the the back right tirecomes off the road, right?
And it starts to slide becauseit's a heavy, it's you know,
just things four times moreweight than a normal Humvee
(15:26):
because all that damn armor.
And it starts to slide.
I can feel it slide, and myheart just like comes out of my
throat, and I'm I'm trying tokick the gas, uh, press the gas,
press the back, all right.
And he's he's out there, andthis is supposed to be a silent
raid, and we're out here makingall this commotion uh back
there.
You know, there's however manyHumvees behind me, and uh so you
(15:47):
know, so I'm telling him, Gunit, gun it, got it, gun it, gun
it.
So he guns it, and that oh thankgod that tire catches the edge
of the road, and we get back umback on the road.
And uh man, you know how whenyou're so nervous, you know, and
you're drilling and hyper focuskicks in at your cotton mouth
kicks in as well.
Yes, yeah.
Oh man, I I I could almostswallow my tongue, is how it
(16:10):
drives my mouth.
Uh and uh anyway, so we we endedup uh trying to get a hold of
somebody because at this pointthey took a left turn, right
turn somewhere, you know,they're they're far, you know.
Uh but we were able to you knowcatch up, and then we just
provided security for whateverthat bug hunt was for.
But uh one one prideful momentthat I'll speak about the team
(16:38):
is that uh we ended up um QRF,we ended up being called, and
there was a seven-ton pinned upsomewhere.
Uh it was a it was a daylightoperation, and everybody was
pinned up.
So so Rainmaker gets there, wewe uh jump off the vehicles,
(17:00):
we're pulling up points, we'rewe got people uh as angel
watches up top.
Um and we're taking we're takingfire down this road.
And this is in the book too, butit doesn't it doesn't talk about
this, and I'm and I'm gonna talkabout it.
SPEAKER_02 (17:17):
Uh and anyways, so there's actually a whole lot of
that, and that's uh it just realas a quick aside, I don't want
to derail you.
There's so many moments in thatbook that are beautiful for golf
and echo, and I truly think itis the pivotal work that tells
the story of golf and echo.
But there are so many thingsthat it's like, hey, there were
(17:40):
two or three weapons companyplatoons right involved in all
of this, and you did not mentionany of them, you didn't even say
they were there.
And so I I again, this is I'mreally glad you're sharing this
story because it's it's missing.
Yes, yeah.
Go ahead anyway.
What you were taking fire downthe road.
SPEAKER_00 (17:58):
I'm sorry to and I I even think the N Lion S was part
of this group too.
We got there and and the Lion Swas already there.
Um, but uh, so we're we'repinned up in this intersection.
There's this huge seven-tonvehicle there.
Um, we go to you know, navigatetowards one area, and you can
actually see the rounds, youknow, the way the sun was
(18:20):
hitting, you can see the roundscoming down, you know, it was
very crazy.
Surreal, yeah, yeah.
Um, and uh, I'm like, no, we'renot, and we're not doing that,
we're not going down this road,it's not happening.
So we backtrack a little bit andwe did something else.
And there's this guy, right?
We're we're we're taking RPGfire down this road, and there's
this guy hooting and hollering,oh come on, motherfuckers.
(18:42):
You know, it's why it's a pieceof me, let's go, let's do it,
rah, rah, rah, rah.
And I had just come back up tothe scene, and uh, it annoyed
me.
And I got in this quick, quickthing of rage, and I ended up
grabbing this guy's flag jacket.
I I leg sweeped him, I threw himon the ground, I got to the
prone and I waited for this guyto come back out.
And when we did, I shot him withone shot.
(19:05):
And uh unbeknownst to me at thetime, I didn't realize that I
had leg sweeped an officer, anduh and uh right, so you know,
and I didn't know until after wegot back, like everybody in the
section was telling me it'slike, hey, did you know that you
just fucking I was like, No, I II didn't even know it was him.
(19:27):
I just I saw some some guy overhere, you know, acting like a
clown at the moment, and uh, youknow, let's engage and ended up
engaging.
And uh so that threat waseliminated.
So we were able to do someforward progress.
We did some forward progress andended up seeing bloodstains on
(19:47):
the ground.
Uh, so we walked walked in thereand uh ended up being another
bad guy uh on the ground.
And this was covered in a booktwo where uh Lieutenant Dobb um
had his weapon, you know, hismuzzle.
And the guy guy fought prettyhard asking asking Lieutenant
Wheeler to uh to finish hislife, but that never happened.
(20:11):
So we checked the rest of thehouse.
I ended up we ended up findingmoney and maybe like you know,
some you know, bad guyperipheria type stuff, and we we
pushed through.
We ended up in this huge field,uh, and I guess it was a rice
field or something.
And we're all online and we'repushing through.
And I didn't think we were gonnafind anything, you know, we're
(20:34):
just going through the motions,right?
We're we're clearing through youknow, houses, we're clearing
roads, and no shit.
There was like two or three badguys with like weapons, like in
the prone.
Oh wow, yeah, and uh you know,so we start reacting and we're
all you know taking a knee,we're in the prone, and I see
this guy with a rifle.
(20:55):
Um, and but they're not beingaggressive, you know, they're
not, you know, they're nottaking action, you know, they're
just in the prone.
And so I'm in the prone, and youknow, we're all screaming to
this guy, you know, get up, getup, stand up, hands up, hands
up, get up, you know, let me seeyour hands up, not reacting.
And we weren't sure if they hadlike IDs, you know, you know,
(21:15):
waiting, like we didn't know.
And uh, so I took sight.
I took sight, I lined a line ofsights, and I'm like, well, I
don't want to kill him, youknow, because I we don't know
the situation, but the worstcase scenario can happen.
So I take uh I take an aim tohis legs, like to his foot, you
(21:36):
know, and I shoot.
Guy doesn't flinch, guy doesn'tmove, and I'm like, I guess I
missed him.
Then I'm screaming, and we'reall screaming.
Like, put your hands up, putyour hands up, put your hands
up, put your hands up.
Still, not nothing, no, noreaction.
I shoot two, two or three, two,two or three more times, maybe
three times total.
No grunt, no scream, no nothing.
(21:58):
Uh so we finally decided that weget up, and when we get up, his
his leg is like ate up.
And this whole time I thought Iwas missing, and I was just
demolishing this guy's leg.
And uh no reaction.
I'm like, this guy's high as akite, it has to be high as a
kite.
And it was just insane.
(22:19):
So uh, you know, I'll rememberwho it was, but uh, you know, we
did the whole, hey, let's get onhis back, hey, on account of
three, we're gonna roll over,you know, to check to check to
see how an ID or something, youknow, the whole night.
Nothing, nothing.
And it was just crazy.
Ended up calling, uh, you know,that was scary too.
You know, oh, this is it.
I'm about to drop a flak jacketon his ass or something.
(22:42):
And you know, the army came withuh with uh another net of ac
whatever it was, like art, youknow, light art armored vehicle.
SPEAKER_02 (22:50):
Yeah, they're Bradleys.
Yeah, well, they had well, itdepends on who came out.
They had two Bradleys, they alsohad M113s, and they brought out
both, depending it depending onwhat day it was.
Uh, I think if I remembercorrectly from the book, that
was that was during I don'tknow.
I don't remember.
I I think that was probablyApril like 8th, 7th, something
(23:12):
like that.
It was during the April timeframe.
SPEAKER_01 (23:14):
Sure.
SPEAKER_02 (23:15):
And so it was probably the 113s because the
Bradleys didn't, they went outnorth uh out on Nova.
SPEAKER_00 (23:21):
So we heard um as a debrief from the army uh that he
was you know under the influenceand um ended up you know
speaking badly about the theAmericans and you know budget,
positive Baja Had.
So I didn't feel too bad afterthe fact.
During it, I was like, man, Ijust blew those guys like that.
(23:42):
Uh yeah, you know, the team dida fan fantastic, got everybody
cleared out, nobody got hurtthat day.
Uh to get to the team.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (23:55):
I want to know how you managed to keep girlfriends
too, because I had a hard enoughtime keeping one wife.
SPEAKER_00 (24:06):
Girlfriend, yeah, yeah, it was uh so um I was
dating while we were in Okinawa,my girlfriend at the time gave
birth uh to our son in March of2003.
And uh we were on ship when ithappened, but um so we were
(24:29):
dating, you know, and I prayedto God, I was like, God, you
know, help me help me, you know,love this woman and commit to
this woman and so on and soforth, and really tried to you
know to make it happen.
And during during the Ramadiphase, you know, I'll call her
and uh you know, we chat andstuff, and uh she kept keep she
kept pressing on marriage.
And I was like, you know, I'mnot really committed, I'm not
(24:51):
ready to get married, I'm not ina position to get married right
now.
And she took exception to it,uh, as she should.
Um, you know, we have a childand we've been dating on and off
for a couple, two, three years,and uh, you know, she was
expecting something from me thatI couldn't give her.
Uh, so she ended up breaking outwith me while I was in
Romantica.
So uh, you know, that was andit's hurtful, right?
(25:13):
Um, it's warranted.
SPEAKER_02 (25:16):
I'm not saying well, maybe so.
Yeah, but still, you can't doanything, and also those damn
phone senders that you werecalling her from, you could get
15-30 minutes at best beforethey'd cut off anyway.
So, I you know, how muchrelationship could you even get
in?
SPEAKER_00 (25:31):
Right, right.
Um, no, because you know, shewas my outlet, you know, at that
time.
So when that happened, I waslike, well, I gotta fix this, I
gotta I gotta pivot and checkand adjust.
So ended up pulling up my blackbook and calling every female I
knew, right?
Just going through just goingthrough the road.
SPEAKER_02 (25:47):
That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00 (25:48):
Yeah, and uh this one this one girl that uh
answered, her name was Charlene,and she's my wife.
Um, so she answered, um and wewent and we had a messed up
breakup, so she was hesitant toanswer.
Uh so she answered and she waslike, Oh, hey, I heard I heard
(26:10):
you're you're in combat.
And you know, she was just beingnice and reciprocal.
I'm like, Yeah, she's like,Well, do you need anything?
I was like, Yeah, as a matter offact, I do.
Can you send me some underwearsand some socks?
And you know, her her side ofthe story, and she was like,
This mother effort, you know,after all this time, you know,
ask me for some you know,underwear and socks.
And when her mom and her dadfinds out that she's sending
(26:33):
Felix, you know, and they'relike, You're doing what?
You're not sending him freakingno, there's no way.
They're like, Oh, yeah, but he'sin combat.
By the way, so that that was thethe girlfriend's plural ended up
uh getting you know hooking uptogether and getting married uh
after that.
SPEAKER_02 (26:50):
Um dude, that's that's a crazy year.
Start of start of a marriagestory right there.
SPEAKER_00 (26:57):
December will be 20 years.
SPEAKER_02 (26:59):
That's amazing, dude.
Congrats.
That's really funny.
SPEAKER_04 (27:06):
You talking about the call center made me remember
that uh I was in there once whenuh a mortar round hit like while
I was trying to talk to people.
Oh, yeah.
I think everybody has having tolike explain and be like, what
was that?
And it's like uh don't worryabout it.
SPEAKER_02 (27:23):
I think one time I lied and told my wife that a
truck hit the the trailer.
SPEAKER_00 (27:28):
That's funny.
I I didn't use the call centervery much.
I had access to the GPS phone.
SPEAKER_02 (27:33):
Oh yeah, the iridium.
Yeah, yeah.
But sat phone was nice.
I had access to that too, butyou know, you still you're only
supposed to use it for you knowan hour or so or whatever, but I
use both.
SPEAKER_00 (27:42):
Yeah.
Yeah, it would be like late atnight, you know, one o'clock in
the morning or something, andit's more weird.
SPEAKER_04 (27:49):
See, and I the my biggest and what I've realized
talking to uh the guys here alittle bit more is is kind of
how intensely siloed we werebecause you know you were
Rainmaker out with Sledgehammer,you know, technically, you know,
same platoon, um, but we weresplit at that time, and so we
(28:10):
were functionally running as twoseparate platoons.
Right.
But I would argue like I havealmost no idea what you guys
did.
Like, I mean, like there wouldbe a few conversations here and
there, but you know, the due totempo, and sometimes you know,
if you were on day and then wewere on nights, and you know,
like it just the conversationsjust didn't just didn't happen.
SPEAKER_00 (28:33):
And so yeah, it's always like uh almost like a
drive-by high.
And I mean, and we lived rightright next to the yeah, no,
yeah, exactly.
Well, it was good.
SPEAKER_04 (28:45):
It was and I think the only time that I really got
to see people a little bit moreis um there's a couple of guys
that liked the way I gavehaircuts, and so they would come
over to the hooch when we had todo it, and they liked the way
that I cut hair.
So I cut a lot of hair overthere.
SPEAKER_01 (29:00):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (29:03):
But uh I I liked there's only so much card
playing you can play in thehooch, you know.
And you know, I listen to a lotof a lot of my music.
I I watched you know DVDs alsohaving a personal DVD player and
stuff like that, but there'sonly so much you can do.
(29:23):
Um I mean when you're not whenyou're not on mission, man, like
war's boring, you know.
SPEAKER_00 (29:37):
Going through clippers.
Like at least a clipper day,then things would get so hot.
SPEAKER_04 (29:42):
Yep, yeah.
Well, that's because that'spartially because I didn't have
it wired correctly.
There was too much juice flowingthrough the damn clippers.
SPEAKER_02 (29:51):
Yep.
Yeah, even with the inverters wedid have, you still would get a
bunch of power surges.
It was awful.
SPEAKER_00 (29:57):
That's interesting.
I don't know that.
SPEAKER_04 (29:59):
Did you uh I don't know why this made me think of
it, but um so there's a wholelong story you could have with
uh the absolute debacle thathappened with uh the
interpreters and stuff likethat.
But but just to kind of the theones that we ended with, we
ended up running around with uhwell his real name was Chasm,
(30:20):
but we uh we uh he his Americanname was Wilbur.
Um did you guys run?
Run with an inter and with aninterp much going out or I don't
remember his name either.
SPEAKER_00 (30:33):
And to your point, I think we we went through two.
The second one was like he washardcore.
He was, you know, very uh hisEnglish was was you know great,
uh spectacular.
And it's uh he was gone gonehome.
And I and I remember him datingsomebody and went through this
(30:53):
whole you know process oftelling us that the problem is
is that he doesn't have enoughto provide for his family, you
know, to I think you're talkingyou're talking about the same
one then.
SPEAKER_04 (31:03):
Yeah, it was Wil it was Wilbur, yeah.
Wilbur?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
He was a cool cat.
I I I kept I kept in contactwith him up until Did you
really?
Yeah.
How did you get it?
Yeah, we traded like letters,letters.
Oh, okay.
And um up until 2000 and whendid uh when did this when did
stuff really kick off with theuh the Syrian revolution?
(31:26):
Like when did that really startsliding?
Like anyways, it I lost track ofhim in during kind of the era
the during that larger Arabuprising.
I lost track of him, andunfortunately, I think he might
not be with us anymore.
But um this is just because hehe stayed pretty close with the
Americans, and uh one of hislast letters was trying to get
(31:46):
me to help see if I could helpget him in contact with like
like America to get him, youknow, like pulled out because he
was not safe.
And there was I I didn't havethe resources.
Like I didn't know what I didn'tknow who to call.
I don't have the uh thepresident on speed dial.
SPEAKER_02 (32:04):
So, you know, like I I I tried, but I think that's a
very common narrative too, withyou saw with Afghanistan with
when we pulled out there, therewas so many people, they're
private organizations going overto try to evacuate the because
they were like, Hey, we're wewere helping you, and when they
come back, we're all gonna bedead.
And I assume that's probablywhat happened with him too.
(32:24):
You know, yep.
If your family's not safe, whatare you gonna do?
SPEAKER_00 (32:28):
Yeah, yeah.
He took off.
How many tours are these guysdo?
SPEAKER_04 (32:33):
Oh, well, both Nylan and I, uh, we you know, you were
faster, but we weren't we were,I mean, literally, uh, we we
caught the breeze of the doorshutting for you for us.
We got out December 28th.
Uh, so we were right rightbehind you.
SPEAKER_02 (32:49):
I went back later as a uh private contractor, but I
didn't as with the Marine Corps,just the one time.
SPEAKER_00 (32:56):
How was that uh that period of being back in the
States and what did you guys endup doing?
SPEAKER_04 (33:02):
A month of leave, and then yeah, it was a month
for for me, it was a month ofleave, and then uh I think I
think it's probably similar forNyland that we had already
started getting clued into thatthere was such that it was
called a school cut, and youcould get out early from your
EAS to be able to start thesemester on time.
And our EAS was in March, and sowe both took an up we took that
(33:25):
as an opportunity, and so we gotout technically early on a
school cut.
And so I I didn't we didn't takeany more leave after the our
October leave.
So we were around the barracksfor Thanksgiving and and
Christmas and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_02 (33:42):
It was a weird you was it was it was not good.
You didn't miss much, but it wasweird.
Um I obviously, as you canimagine, barracks life, a lot of
people drinking and stuff likethat.
I lived out in town, but I stillwas privy to it.
And then the transition of whereall the officers were going and
the senior staff were all, Imean, similar to yourself.
(34:02):
Everybody was catching B-billetsor going to new units, and so we
lost leadership fast.
And the new people that came inthat were trying to negotiate
and wrangle a bunch ofessentially kids who just got
out of combat was impossible.
It was the level ofinsubordination was really high
as well.
(34:23):
So there ended up being a lotof, you know, a lot of barracks
cleaning games and a lot ofmotor pool games to try to get
people back to remember, hey,you know, there's this other
thing that you do in the MarineCorps, and there's still a rank
structure, and you don't get tojust say whatever you want no
matter what you did.
That's interesting.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (34:38):
Yeah.
unknown (34:39):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (34:39):
But there's a whole conversation you can have about
how difficult the or difficult,that's the wrong word, that the
military did not have a systemin place at that point of how to
transition combat vets.
Oh, the you know, the the waythat they well, the way that
they transitioned us was wouldbe fine if you just got back
(35:02):
from a normal deployment from alike Oki, like a 30, you know,
like you just got back from the31st Mew in September, you're
out by October, you know,December, you know, so what, you
know, it doesn't matter.
But you know, we were in, youknow, like less than you know,
like a little over three monthsafter we had our last firefight,
where a civilian with zerosupport, um, thank God Nylon had
(35:27):
me help him put his floor intothis condo at the time and gave
me a little bit of a of alanding place for like just
something to do because I wascompletely I was not in a good
headspace.
And then I went back, then Iwent to college, obviously,
because I was on the school cut.
But I was I was uh definitely aliability.
(35:48):
I I have we don't need to tellthose stories.
Uh that's not that's the purposeof this podcast, but but I have
a couple stories from uh 2005that uh doesn't does not cast me
in the best light.
SPEAKER_02 (36:02):
I think just like what Felix was saying, I mean, I
did the same thing.
I I have a picture somewhere ofme standing next to the barbecue
grill uh on the house thatyou're talking about where you
helped me put in the floor.
And I'm 20, 30 poundsoverweight.
I was easily drinking every day.
My wife was in the throes of amaster's degree program, and so
(36:23):
she was doing homework 20 hoursa day.
So she, I mean, we weresupporting each other, but
supporting each other by passingeach other in the hall.
SPEAKER_01 (36:32):
Right.
SPEAKER_02 (36:33):
And I definitely did the same thing.
Like I would come home fromschool, and you know, schoolwork
was not difficult compared towhat I had just been through,
and and easily consume enoughalcohol to kill myself.
And then I do the same thing.
I would wake up and I'd go rightto school because my alarm went
off, but there was no it was allbad choices.
It was all bad choices, therewas no recovery.
SPEAKER_00 (36:54):
Yeah, those it's it was all check-in-a-box
activities because we'resupposed to do them, but no, but
yeah, just just going throughthe motions.
SPEAKER_02 (37:02):
And the transition that we I mean, I don't know
what you guys got.
Well, clearly, Felix, you gotnothing.
Um, we had a check-in with thebattalion surgeon who he said,
Are you having trouble sleeping?
You can take a little Benadryl,it'll help you.
Uh, any other issues, anyphysical problems?
Yes, no.
(37:22):
And I I didn't have anysignificant physical problem.
I mean, I had pain from gettingthrown around and blown up and
running for four years,everything, you know, all the
normal stuff that you get as agrunt.
Yeah, but nothing that I wouldcomplain about.
I was like, no, there's nothingto report.
He's like, How are your teethdoing?
Go see the dentist.
That was it.
You know, like I think I got afeeling.
And then we went to thattransition course where we there
(37:45):
was a forklift company that waslike, hey, you can come build
forklifts.
And then Lowe's was like, youcould be a cashier at Lowe's.
And that was the two job offerswe got.
And a person who had probablynever actually written a resume
tried to teach us how to write aresume, and then we were out.
That was it.
No, nothing about any aboutstress, about support, about
(38:05):
community, about faith, aboutanything, literally anything
that could have helped you getthrough this transition zero.
I mean, we never even talked tothe chaplain, which that's
crazy.
SPEAKER_00 (38:16):
Yeah.
Yeah, it was uh essentially thesame for me.
So I EES um out of uh DI um2007, and it was just a very
rushed process, you know, like ajust a whirlwind of activities
of a package this and you know,transitioning to that, you know,
(38:36):
but nothing that really sticks,you know, and nothing that was
very heart heartfelt.
And it's funny that we're inthis conversation because um so
I'm an entrepreneur, I'mself-employed, and I do a lot of
things.
And one of the things I do is II sell roofs, I inspect roofs
and you know, for a roofingcompany.
And uh I'm on the roof with theadjuster, and uh I see that he
(38:58):
has boots on, you know, likemilitary-style boots.
And I'm like, uh are you in aservice?
He's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm uh Air Force.
I'm like, I appreciate service.
I'm like, Oh, you're welcome.
I'm like, so uh so how does thiswork?
He's like, Well, uh, I got 20years with the Air Force, and
the uh there's this programwhere I do a civilian job and
(39:20):
it's like an OJT type scenario.
So he's an adjuster for aninsurance company and the the
Air Force pays him for it.
A three, six month program.
And I and I didn't tell him thatI was a Marine or anything like
that.
I'm thinking, wow, you know howtimes have changed, you know,
yeah, where there's actualprograms now, you know, looking
(39:41):
for for the betterment of youknow people that that are
getting out versus you know,forklift driving, you know,
cashier and go figure it out.
SPEAKER_02 (39:50):
My close friend of mine who uh just left the Navy
SEAL teams uh has the mostamazing support network.
They first sent him to a retreatto decompress where he learned
how to work with horses and hedidn't know anything about
horses, but he learned how tolike pet and clean horses, and
then they had like therapycircles.
They then signed him up fortherapy where he got free
(40:12):
therapy, which he didn'tnecessarily felt like he needed
it, but he got free therapy.
And then he had four differentdoctors, a generalist, and then
several specialists who lookedin every hole and looked him up
and down, and they put him in anMRI machine, even if he didn't
want it, and said, Hey, no,you've got problems here and
there.
These are the things you shouldfollow up on.
(40:33):
And then a specialist wrote allof his disability paperwork and
told him everything to follow upwith his either private medical
insurance or the VA.
And I was like, I got a thankyou for your service in a
Snickers bar, and they kicked meout.
Like I it was the uh completeopposite.
You got a Snickers bar?
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yeah, I think I bought theSnickers bar.
SPEAKER_04 (40:54):
I got a butterfinger.
SPEAKER_00 (40:57):
Yeah, it's crazy.
Yeah, and I've yet to check inwith the VA, uh, to talk about
to-do list, but I mean, it justgoes to show how you know
disassociated we were fromsomething new from you know in
all aspects, you know, top down.
SPEAKER_02 (41:12):
Well, dude, this has been great.
Do you want to continue?
SPEAKER_00 (41:18):
Uh I I really appreciate this platform and
what you guys are doing.
You know, a lot of people talk,talk to talk, but you know,
actually doing the walk.
Just getting started, obviously.
I mean any any adventure you dois the first step, and you guys
are rocking it.
I felt very comfortable.
Uh very safe space, so thank youfor providing me the space to
(41:39):
talk through some things.
SPEAKER_02 (41:41):
Okay.
Literally anytime, on oroffline.
You know how to get a hold ofme.
SPEAKER_00 (41:46):
100%.
Likewatch.
Same, same.
All right, gents.
Well, appreciate you until ournext adventure.
SPEAKER_04 (41:52):
Absolutely.
Take it easy, buddy.
Yes, sir.
Likewise.
If you like what you heard, makesure you subscribe for future
episodes on your favoritepodcast service.
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