Ep 508: Blackwater: The World’s Most Infamous PMC with Morgan Lerette

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Ones Ready sits down with Morgan Lerette —author of Guns, Girls, and Greed—to talk about life as a Blackwater mercenary during the chaos of Iraq and Afghanistan. From getting recruited as a broke Air Guard kid, to standing on flight lines wondering if forklifts win Bronze Stars, to suddenly pulling convoys through Route Irish with Navy SEALs and Rangers, Morgan lays it all out: the absurd, the grim, and the downright sketchy. We dive into the wild days of unarmored Peugeots with body armor for window panels, hooker stories from Jordan, and the not-so-fun reality of PMCs running missions with zero backup. And just when you’re laughing at zebra-striped POW underwear, Morgan drops the hammer on the modern PMC industry moving kids across the border. Buckle up—this one goes from hilarious to horrifying in record time. Part two is going to be even spicier.

Best place to get the book: 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0D5JMPTMY/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0

⏱️ Timestamps:
00:00 – Welcome back to Ones Ready
02:00 – Blackwater mercenary origins and pipeline discounts
05:00 – Morgan’s “construction worker” to Air Guard journey
09:00 – Forklift heroes and Bronze Stars
13:00 – How a Security Forces guy landed at Blackwater
18:00 – Fallujah, no backup, and calling Bragg from a Nokia brick
22:00 – Corkscrew flights, Peugeots with steel plates, and sweaty armor
27:00 – Protecting diplomats with “creative” ROE
32:00 – Contractors vs State Department nerds
38:00 – QRF reality: escort service and car bomb season
42:00 – The flashbang fail and Iraqi cell-jammer pranks
44:00 – Guns, Girls, Greed—why Morgan’s book pissed off Blackwater
47:00 – Hooker tales and Harvard economics majors
49:00 – Custer’s Battles and the Wild West of PMCs
53:00 – The ugly truth: PMCs moving kids at the border
58:00 – Durable goods, cartels, and why trafficking beats drugs
1:02:00 – Why foreign-funded PMCs are a ticking time bomb
1:04:00 – Zebra-striped underwear POW story to close it out

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