Real Deployment vs Pop Culture

If you have worked a job and there was a movie or tv show that was made about that job, we guarantee you would find something that was misleading, inaccurate or possibly spot on about it. There's no shortage of military movies that feature service members deployed overseas, but how much of what is portrayed is accurate? Well that is exactly what Cam and Izzy are going to talk about today: real deployment vs. what you see in pop culture! Based on their experiences overseas, Izzy and Cam are going to discuss some great and not so great portrayals of deployment life.

This episode's game is called "How Long Was The War?" and it's, not to be too vulgar, a real ball buster.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/pop-culture-field-manual--5956105/support.

Episode Transcript

(00:08):
In time, in time, there'sa got to follow to make it through
culture. I guess I can startus off if you want, get and
do it. Okay, I'm ready. Don't think I'm not ready. I'm
ready. Are you ready? I'mready? Okay, Well are you ready?

(00:32):
PCFM Army. Welcome to another episodeof the Pop Culture Field Manual Podcast.
Sitting right at that intersection of weaponsaction, the military end pop culture,
we have a very accurate and funfilled episode in store for you,
folks. And uh, if you'veworked the job where there was a movie

(00:55):
or a TV show that was featuredin this piece of them or pop culture,
I guarantee you that you would findsomething that was misleading, inaccurate,
or possibly spot on about it.And there is no shortage of military movies
or TV that feature our service membersdeployed overseas. But how much of what

(01:18):
is portrayed is actually accurate? Andthat is exactly what we're going to talk
about today, And based on ourown experiences Israel and eyes experiences overseas,
we're going to discuss some great andnot so great portrayals of deployment. Yes,
yes, that is what is goingto happen this is one of those.

(01:40):
This is kind of like a classicquestion. I think that you and
I have gotten what's the past?Yeah, what's deployment? Like, Yeah,
what's it like in your deployment?What was the what was the best,
what was the worst, what wasthe scariest, what was the you
know whatever? Whatever? And thenof course, for if you don't know
when movies are released, if youdon't know, now you know, person,

(02:04):
great opportunity there. But you,Siri, the more and I'm sure
we're gonna see more movies come outas you know now that kind of our
major involvement in our major involvements aroundthe world have kind of wound down,
even though we're always everywhere. Ifeel like, sure, but like is

(02:25):
it real? Like is that whatit's like? Sure? I think it's
a great question. But I thinkit's worth noting that a lot of these
pieces of pop culture, like Imean, great representations of combat. You
know, we have Saving Private Ryan, we have black Hawk Down, et
cetera, et cetera, right onthe Western Front. Yeah. Yeah,

(02:49):
like all these movies that are portrayinglike harsh and accurate combat are typically involving
one event or like you know,Hamburger Hill was like one of the most
violent movies I've ever seen that portrayyou know, military army in Vietnam or
Marines in Vietnam, and like thatwas one event. You know, there

(03:09):
are some people that deployed the Vietnamthat didn't see anything right, and there's
some people that deployed and got tosee it all. You know. So
like when when I feel like civiliansgo to the movies and watch these movies
portrayed about you know, very veryspecific events in a very very large conflict,

(03:30):
you know, sometimes they get thewrong message because you know, I've
been quote unquote deployed, and like, you know, I got to spend
a little bit of time in Iraq, and Iraq was like a vacation to
me, and I know, Ibarely talk about it because I spent like
two weeks there and to me,that doesn't count. That doesn't count at
all, you know, because wewere literally staying in Urbel and like Rbel

(03:52):
is its own city. You know, the military base is so big that
you get you know, I heardthe little rocket all alarm go off,
but like that's if there's a rocketlanding, like you know, maybe two
miles away, they still play it, and it's like they have burger kings,
they have shopping malls, they havebazaars, they have all this stuff.
They have bars on the base,like you're so sick. It's like

(04:15):
vacation. It's like going to Kuwait. Yeah. But like a lot of
people, you know, they hearthe word deployment and then they think like,
oh, you were in the shit, which sometimes you are and sometimes
you're not. And it really dependson where you're going and who you're going
with. Yeah, especially with somethinglike Iraq and Afghanistan, especially Afghanistan,
because we were there for twenty plusyears, which about twenty years, Like

(04:36):
yeah, yeah, I was deployedto Afghanistan. Was deployed to Afghanistan in
two thousand and one versus twenty seventeen, you know, and I was with
this unit versus that unit. Iwas out there with special forces, or
I was on the base with mechanicsor truck drivers. You know, I
was a private contractor all those kindsof things. All that stuff factors into

(04:59):
into your what kind of deployment you'regoing to have. And then also we
can talk about this. You andI have both had chill deployments. I'll
go to Korea for a couple ofweeks for and it's almost a calling.
Yeah right, yeah, yeah.It says on your you pull out your
military document, it says deployment andit says like, you know, Korea
four months. But like, personallyand I think this is just a mental

(05:24):
bias that was like programmed in mymind where it was like, you know,
especially for an infantryman, it's likeyou are not deployed unless you are
in a combat zone. That isthat is the military bias. And when
you call, like you know,in twenty sixteen, twenty sixteen, twenty
sixteen, I think it was twentysixteen, twenty sixteen, got the call

(05:46):
You're going to South Korea, youknow, for a for a quote unquote
deployment. I was like, thisisn't a deployment, Yeah, like this
is. We started making up wordsand names for it because it's it's not
a deployment, it's overseas training rotation, you know. But it happened to
be the same duration of a deployment. And I was like, okay,
well what do you call this?So you know, when people ask me

(06:06):
how many times I deployed, Isay only once because I went to combat
zone. You know, I wentto combat zone one time, but I
went to Korea, I went toGermany, I went to you know,
I went to all these different countries. I just didn't count it. Yeah,
that was something I don't know.You tell me if this was a
conversation that you heard or something thatthe leadership was trying to curve. But

(06:27):
there was a problem I think maybecoming into the time when I was in
the military. But they called itmilitary tourism. You know, where you
would do something like, oh,we got to deploy, we got to
go to Cambodia for six weeks todo some tanty stuff when fifty percent of
the time you're not you're not doinganything. You're out at the bars,
you're hanging out, you know,you're saying yeah, yeah, exactly.

(06:48):
And the brass was like, no, we're not going to that's fraud,
wasted abuse. We don't want todo that kind of stuff. Military tourism.
Yeah, no, I never heardthat term, but it is one
hundre true. It's like you haveto justify it. I mean literally,
what we did in Korea and thenI spent like a month in Germany and
like what we did in these countrieswe could have easily did back at base,

(07:13):
just like we did during our trainingcycles. Yeah, I think they
just you know, I started seeingthe war slowly coming to an end,
and you know, I got solucky. And I say lucky, some
people are like, well, you'recalling me, looky, I got so
lucky to catch the ass end ofthe gy to like get a little action,
right. Yes, not the actionthat I wanted, not the action

(07:34):
I saw on the movies, Notthe shit that I wanted to be in,
you know that I prepared myself for. But I still, you know,
looking back on it, and Itell these stories and I'm like,
oh, I didn't get to dowhat I wanted to do, but I
got to do. You know,I got to sell arms off and you
know, I got to shoot mortarsat people, and you know that's cool,
and you know, telling a normalperson that was like whoa. But
you know, hearing me hearing that, I'm like, what a bitch?

(08:01):
You want to do your job ona basic level for those Yeah, anybody
out there thinking that Cameron's like apsychopath. You we train rangers and special
forces, We train to do acertain kind of job. And you want
to do your job. Man,you want to do what you train to
do, what you get pumped upto do, and what you you and
your buddies, you become this molded, this formation and this this uh you

(08:22):
get that, you get the synergy, right, You're with your buddies,
you're training, and you want todo that for real? Yeah? No,
I put myself you know, what'sthe point of putting yourself through literal
hell, like going through selections,you know, putting yourself through the torment
that is being a private in theseventy fifth three regimen to not be able
to get and do what they're tellingyou you're gonna do. That's that to

(08:46):
me, breed. That's psychopath.That will breed a psychopath. Yeah.
Yeah, It's like basically putting apit bull on a cage and just poking
it with a stick and telling ityou're gonna let it out, and then
you never let it out. Yeahyeah, but uh but yeah, no,
it's it's you know, I'm veryfortunate to catch the ass end because
nowadays you typically don't. There's nota lot of guys left with a lot

(09:09):
of experience. You know, you'reI'm starting to see it dwindling, and
you know you saw it dwindling,Like I was so lucky to you know,
to me, you know, inthe ranger regiment, when you see
like a seasoned guy, they haveyou know, they have deployment, they
have they have a deployment and theyhave their combat Action badge and that's like
everybody had that and if you don't, if you didn't have that, it

(09:31):
was kind of like you were anoutlier. And I was so lucky to
get that. Like people were goingon deployment and coming back without a combat
Action badge and that literally just meansyou were engaged in combat and you fired
back or you were fired at.Like there's criteria to get that. So
even if you're you know, yougo overseas and the mortar lands way far
away from you, you're not goingto get that. You know, some

(09:52):
people get it if it's a littlecloser. I got it from just shooting
mortars at the enemy, Like youknow, that wasn't to me. It
was and like being in a fullfudge firefight. But that's the reason I
got mine. But like coming backwith that was just such a relief because
I feel like I was complete,you know, I have completed the circle.
I found all the five pieces ofexodia. But nowadays, you know,

(10:15):
there's rangers that don't have them,and it's you know, I feel
really bad because that's what they Theyprobably want that, Yeah, they like,
you know, they want that sobad because that's what all the leaders
have in it. You know,that's what all the older guys have,
so they want that. And thennot to mention, like you know,
when I'm on Instagram and I youknow, sometimes on my Explore page pops
up like the recent graduation classes ofthe new drill sergeants, you know that

(10:39):
are going to be taking over thebasic training and training the next generation of
war fighters. And you know,I would argue eighty percent of these people
don't even have a deployment, youknow, eighty percent of them don't have
actual operational experience. Yeah. Yeah, that's an interesting conversation to have right

(11:01):
now, especially because it's a weirdkind of thing, you because you want
to have leadership that has the thathave those experiences. Yeah, and yet
at the same time, what doesthat say. It's like, well,
we've got to have a war inorder for those experiences to be available to
be had and We're coming into atime right now where it's nobody uh,

(11:24):
you know, nobody wants it's peacetime, yeah, and nobody wants to
have like a massive war going on. Like I'm sure the Ukrainians and the
Russians are not having a good timewith all this stuff. But uh,
but for America specifically, it's likeit's like working out. You have to
keep working out in order to stayfit. And how are we going to

(11:46):
keep America's army, America's military fitand ready? Because it's gonna happen again,
right, War is inevitable. It'sthe It's the one thing that we
have had throughout entire human history sinceKing killed they in fight each other.
Yeah, so it's gonna happen again, obviously, you know. Well,

(12:07):
yeah, how are we gonna getready? Man? Because we got to
stay ready because if we get complacent, man, I'm telling you, as
hard as it would be once awar starts with a ready force, it's
gonna be that much harder. Ifa war starts with an unready force,
We're gonna be caught off guard andthen more soldiers are gonna die and as
a result, because we're not readyfor it. And so it's really interesting.

(12:28):
You talk about the drill sergeants andand you know, we we know
that there's principles, right, weknow that there's military principles that we can
still train and still keep sharp.But it's it's just gonna be different because
there's not gonna be like listen,you guys, you got to pay attention
to your training because in six monthsyou're gonna be in Iraq. In six
months you're gonna be Anistan. Yeah, I know. I just you know,

(12:50):
I compare it to my experiences,just like when I went through,
you know, in the ACU days, just like you did. No,
you're the I'm sorry you were theWoodland days. I mean Woodland transitioning into
ACUS. I was the last Woodlanduh or do we have eight? No?
We did. We got Woodland inbasic training, yep. And I
was the last last to get issuedblack boots that you had to clean and

(13:15):
shine everyday. That's crazy. That'sgreat, oh man. But no,
I remember, like you know,on the day, having daily conversations or
I'm sorry, not conversations, Iwould say, more dialogue with my drill
sergeants, who were all combat experiencedinfantrymen, like not a single one of

(13:35):
them didn't have a deploy like everysingle one deployed, every single one had
a CIB. So they were trainingyou for what to expect because of their
experiences. So now I don't youknow, I don't know how it's going
to work with the new generation andnot getting that. But that's a conversation
for a little different episode because we'rehere talking about employments. Actual deployments.

(13:56):
Yeah, they actual deployments. Butuh, you know, I feel like
everyone, especially in the movies Ihaven't seen, you know, maybe a
lot of these deployments have these guysroughing it, and you know, you
know what, sometimes they do.Sometimes they don't, right right when you

(14:16):
talk about like like just the mostrecent one that you and I have seen
because we did our Patreon livestream acouple of months ago with this one.
But the outpost, right, yeah, that was like, that's roughing it
to me. Not only is thatroughing it in terms of accommodations, your
circumstances, but the fact that theywere in such a strategically stupid position to
be in and kind of stress thatthat would put on somebody. That was

(14:41):
never my experience when I was ondeployment to Iraq. Yeah, no,
in my experience, you know,I would say the level of roughing it
as they did was what we weredoing. Yeah, But like as far
as the strategic positioning, I mean, we were pretty damn close to the
flat. Like I could literally seethe ISIS headquarters from our from our building,

(15:07):
like we so that that was reallyinteresting because we'd sit on the rooftop
and like, you know, theenemies right there, they're less than like
a kawa, and like you wouldhear gunfire, you would see the bombs
being dropped. You would like literallyif you had a sniperscope or any type
of glass. There was a soccerstadium in the distance, like a huge

(15:30):
stadium that you could see and youwould look at you know how usually stadiums
have like ginormous flags, and theyhad this like eighty by fifty foot ISIS
flag and it would you could seeit through your scope. Actually, really
story, really cool story about thattoo. Was at the end of our
deployment there, like we were gettingready to move over to I think it

(15:54):
was Hasaka, which was on theother side of the country by a defend
and we were right outside of Rokka, a Roka and one day like we
cleared Isis out like we did it. It was like there were celebration in
the streets. I remember we thoughtwe were about to get invaded by the
Mongolian Horde because like one day wewere all sitting and I forgot what movie

(16:18):
we were watching, but we wereall like sitting there watching this movie and
we just hear like a barrage ofgunfire, like like a shocking amount from
this appointment. So everyone, youknow, classic, we run up.
I'm in ranger panties and a tanktop with a plate carrier and a helmet
on, and all I remember isour rooftop had like we had two Mark

(16:41):
nineteen's, We had two fifty cows. We had all of our two forties.
We had low rockets like lined upagainst just to be ready to We
had like three buckets full of fraggrenades just like at each point, like
each corner, like we had everysingle gun like up there. So we
all run up to the rooftop andI get on a fifty count I like
basically set it up and we haveall the fancy fifty cows. So it

(17:03):
had like an eotech mounted on it. It had slack rounds, which are
rounds that literally explode when they hit, and like we see this like convoy
coming down this main MSR, whichis like a couple hundred meters away from
our rooftop, and an MSR forthose of you that aren't military acronym savvy
is the main supply route, andlike it's pretty much just like a pretty

(17:26):
notable road and pretty much we justsee like this convoy vehicles with guys in
the back, like with all aksand everything, and they're too far to
like confirm, but like we wereabout to unleash. Like that was it.
That was the moment where we're alllike, this is where you can.
We're gonna write books about it.If we were an it'd be like

(17:47):
if we were Navy seals, thisis what we're gonna write. And like
I remember, I'm just like trackingthis vehicle my fifty cow and like my
safety's off and my thumbs are onthe little paddles and I'm like, here
we go. This is what youwanted, CAM, You're about to get
it. We're about to get it. And then all of a sudden,
like because they're firing, they're fuckingshooting, and we had a guy run
up and he's like, no,no, no, no, don't hit

(18:08):
them. Those are our guys.They're just celebrating because they defeated ISIS,
and we're like, oh my god, like dude, those guys will never
know how close they came. Yeah, how close they came to death,
absolute death. We're talking hundreds ofguys. But so we had that happen,
and so they're celebrating, and youknow, the next couple of days,

(18:30):
they're like basically kind of scrubbing thecity, and they had this van
pull up beside our compound and likewe could look down and like see the
street, and like this van bultand started like pushing out potato sacks kind
of looking things like burlap sex andthen they throw out this giant one and
we're like what the heck is that. We're all like looking down and seeing

(18:53):
what it is. And he opensit and starts pulling out this like black
curtain, like huge black, andall of a sudden, he like pulls
out a big piece of it,opens it and it's the flag that they've
been flying at this soccer stadium,that that ginormous ISIS flag, their HQ

(19:15):
flag. He just pulls it outand I see it, and my squad
leader sees it, and we lookat each other and we're like, that's
ours. So we literally we're sprintingdown the stairs like flip flops, fucking
you know, everywhere, and wejust sprint outside. I I grab my
glock because like we're trying to getthis flag and we're going outside the gate

(19:37):
to get this thing. Somehow wenegotiated it from him and we traded him
some stuff, and like, nowthat Iceis flag is hanging above my platoons
like cage in Washington. So thatwas super cool. But like, I
mean, but moments like that,you know, you're talking, you're talking
about him and like that, thoseare cool moments. Yeah, except for

(20:00):
them, you know, but Iwanted the combat. But now I'm perfectly
okay with that deployment. Yeah,well then that seems a lot. Like
I feel like everybody can relate tojar Head. Like you've seen a jar
Head, right, of course it'saccurate military deployment movies. Ever it is
it's the feeling of training up todo something and almost but not quite ever

(20:22):
getting a chance to do it,and like also like the boredom that can
set in when you are out ondeployment, and you know, we've all
experienced it to some extent, thoseof us that have been deployed of like
just hanging out. I was luckybecause I had very nice accommodations up in
Mosul. I had my own room, we had our own internet, we

(20:45):
had a gym right down the hallway, and when we weren't doing operations,
we were just working out and eatingand then I was like watching I was
watching DVDs on my on my lapmy little JANKI laptop, and that's it.
Man, reading books, chilling out. There was no schedule unless you
had to pull radio duty. Wehad a rotating schedule for that for the

(21:06):
jock or exactly. Yeah, Soso that that was it. You go
down to the little our headquarters.We had a compound within the Mozel base.
So we had our own compound withina compound, which was awesome.
You go over you that we hada table right in the entrance of the
hallway to our headquarters that had everythingthat people would send to us. So

(21:29):
we you'd go and check out acouple of letters from some elementary school kids
in Iowa. You could get someGirl Scout cookies, you get some candy.
They send care packages. If youneeded an extra tooth bush and a
bar of soap, you could godown And I'm telling you, we get
that stuff when you're over there.So if you ever oversteas, we all
we all get that stuff. Soso yeah, that was what it was
like when we weren't doing anything.But I can't imagine being in like a

(21:52):
regular infantry line unit or some otherjob where your your job is dependent upon
maybe somebody else making a decision andyou can't move until they move. A
lot of times. UH, inSF, we would be putting our own
stuff together. We get we hadour own intel resources, we had our
own people feeding this stuff and UH, and then we could put together packages

(22:15):
ourselves, and and then there'd bethe odd UH, there'd be the odd
job to do. Like I gotto do a quick round about UH in
a Blackhawk, just me and thepilots and the gunner. But I had
to go and give the UH thenew crypto to everybody. When we're doing
a switchover, I had to goand they they're there, their echo would
meet me on the pad and I'dhook up to their guy. We'd transfer

(22:37):
the crypto and I then i'd leave, so that was like all night.
That was like a couple hours I'dfly to everywhere, so that was kind
of fun and cool and just cookingout at the night sky. So I
can't say that there were many partswhere I was like boardboard, but there
is celing. You're always yeah,you're always doing it, yeah, right,
And of course if you're in agood unit, there's always something to
do. There's training to do,uh a specially we'd go out to the

(23:00):
range and stuff. But when itcomes to the jar head type of boredom.
I felt that right in like themiddle of my deployment because we were
out in Iraq for nine months,and right around June, July, August,
you'd feel it. It's it's likeyou're not you're you're settled in,
but you're not leaving. You're notgetting ready to leave yet because everything takes
time to settle in and then toget ready to leave. All takes time.

(23:22):
So there's this energy that you feelwhen you're coming into the country and
then when you're getting ready to leave, that's like, all right, we're
getting ready to get out of here. But there's that middle period where if
you're not doing something you like andI and I I'll be honest, Cam
you you've spoken about it, andso I feel the freedom to speak about
my you know, like my desires. It's like I I got a c

(23:42):
IB too, man, But thatwas I was driving in the convoy when
we got attacked, you know,and so I never actually technically fired back.
I never fired my weapon in acombat situation while I was in Iraq,
and and I and something about thatbond is man, I really wanted
to do the thing, man,Yeah, because I did it so much

(24:03):
in training. And it's like,I just wish I would have just just
capitalists, like one one insurgent,you know, one just when Iran something
like that, just to make youross grow a little bit. So I
appreciate that you you talk about that, because I had no place better to
do your job, to do thatkind of job where it's permissible and morally
right to do so than in acommon and I missed out. Absolutely,

(24:27):
No, you're not. I feellike you're not alone because there's a lot
of guys I talked to that youknow, have that same experience, and
you know, like it's to me, it's I can say, getting lucky
because there are like the amount ofpeople that have actually gotten that like you
know, kicking a door and shootpeople in the face. Experience that even

(24:48):
in the Rangers is slim, youknow, because only one person takes that
shot. You know, even ifyou're on the on the ground with them,
you'll get that CID. But likeonly one person in that group of
thirty six guys actually took that shot, you know what I'm saying. So
like, you know, it's youknow, there's a lot of guys that
do, just because Rangers were sobusy, but like there's a lot of

(25:11):
guys that don't. And I struggledwith that coming home because like in my
experience, like even though I wasshooting mortars, like allegedly quote unquote,
like you know, allegedly I gotyou know, my mortars hit where they
were supposed to, and like becausewe had a raven getting like live bda
battle damage assessment feedback, so likemy mortars hit worth exactly where they were

(25:34):
supposed to. And you know,when I brought that up to my squad
leader, he's like I was prettyjazzed about it because I was like,
oh dude, but it was itwas weird because, like you don't see
it. You know, you're justlike if someone presents you a button,
a stranger comes up to you andhas like one of those that was easy
buttons. Yeah, he's like,hey, press this button and somebody dies

(25:56):
and you just start smashing the buttonlike you don't know where, you know,
you know, it's just like youdon't know where. So like I
was pretty jazz, but my squadleader was like, it doesn't fucking count
unless you get to play with thedead body. And I'm like, well,
you just ruined my day. Butso like for me, it's like

(26:17):
those that experience since I didn't getto see it with my own eyes,
it's kind of like like I didn'tdo it, but you know, it
took a lot of counseling, alot of therapy to get over that.
That's what you had to go totherapy for. Yeah, I like it.
Yeah, I took another human lifeand I don't know what to do.

(26:37):
I didn't get the fun. Yeah, not to say that people don't
need it. Hey, if yougot to go see somebody, but go
talk to people. There are therest of us that relished the opportunities exactly.
But yeah, man, I meanexperiences like that or you know,
made me who I am today.But uh yeah, just thinking about that
deployment though, like comparing it toyou know, you said you had your

(27:00):
own camp within in Mosul, right, yeah, Rangers in Bath. I'm
pretty sure they have Camp Alpha,which is like fenced off from the rest
too, and that's where they operateout of. But like the differences between
like special operation deployments and like conventionalforces, I think it's hugely it's largely
leadership dependent. I feel like,oh man, yeah, what those guys

(27:23):
are allowed to do, how they'reallowed to dress, how they're allowed to
act, they feel is all leadershipdependent. I don't know, because I
have a story for you from mine, go for it, like pretty much
I felt. So we were there, We were in al Raka. We
call it a fire based Rokka,and it was essentially just a three story

(27:44):
abandoned schoolhouse. It wasn't an actualbase. It was just a school that
we seized from ISIS and like itwas super small, had like a tiny
wall that surrounded it. It waslike maybe four hundred meters all the way
around owned and it was like atrack. It was like literally a track
from a football field and essentially,we you know, we had a bunch

(28:07):
of forces with us, and abouttwo and a half months into that deployment,
a platoon from tenth Mountain Division,a regular infantry platoon just showed up
out of nowhere, and like wewere the seventy fifth Ranger Regiment was the
lowest on the totem pool while wewere there. That's how, that's how,
that's how special, that's how manyspecial units were here, like,

(28:32):
and we were tier two, soeverybody else was Tier one except for an
SF group. So it was USSF Delta, French French like French Special
Reconnaissance, which is their tier one, and then like and then a platoon
of sas guys, and like wewere the lowest on the tote pole.
So like we pulled security for theplace and kept that place running. And
so out of nowhere, this groupfrom tenth Mountain Division shows up and we're

(28:57):
like, who the fuck are you? Guys? You didn't know they were
coming, No, no, oneday they just showed up, and like
we had full beards, like wewere walking around and in like ranger panties
and you know, tank tops andflip flops and shit, and like these
guys showed up and there was justa platoon in their first I felt so
bad for them because like we hadwe were pretty much all free, you

(29:19):
know, and we were doing everything, and like we had outside showers from
the school, so you had towalk down the walk down the stairs and
then you had to go outside andthere was just this mud hut that had
a tank on top that was likenot heated, and it just would run
down and you would have this hosethat came into a shower head. And
like if you showered in the middleof the day, you were good because

(29:41):
it was hot, but at nighttimeit was fucking cold, and there was
no lights in there too, soyou had the shower with a head lamp
on. So so like I wouldsee these guys, poor bastards. They
had to dress. They couldn't wearcivilian clothes like the rest of us.
They did dress in army pet uniforms. And they weren't allowed to walk.
And this is all from their firstsergeant. You know, No, not

(30:04):
that bad, but they had toThey weren't allowed to walk to the restrooms
in flip flops or shower shoes.They had to wear running shoes into the
bathroom change into their shower shoes,shower, and then when they wanted to
walk back up, they had toput their peet and said, like,
we would walk up in towels,you know. Yeah, there was a
couple of women, but they wereyou know, the women on deployment.

(30:26):
They don't give a shit, youknow, So we'd walk up shirtless with
like you know, towels on andflip flops. And these guys, poor
bastards, had to like, youknow, change into full pet's again wet,
put running sneakers on and walk upto their room and then you know,
change And I'm like, dude,just because one guy, you know,
is like, we got to dothis. Yeah, yeah, some

(30:47):
officer has it into his head,whether it's a power trip or they have
some old notion of what is proper, just like it's not practical, it's
not circumstantially appropriate. Yeah, it'sjust no, we have to do it
because because I say we have todo it. Yeah. That's why Generation
Kill, the TV series from HBO, Yeah, brings me so much joy

(31:11):
because, like you know, wetalk about pieces of pop culture that are
accurate to actual deployment life, andI think Generation Kill is like spot on
because you have that one first,you have that one stargeant major or you
know or gunny that literally just goesaround and he has no job. You
know, he has no job whatsoeverother than to reinforce grooming standards when there's

(31:33):
a literal war happening around him.You know, the one thing he's worried
about is mustaches, you know,police that moustache Roman standards. That's all
he worries about. And uh,that's that's it. Like there you reach
a point of rank that like,you know, we all make jokes about
like once you become a stargeant major, like what you what is your job?

(31:56):
Essentially? Yeah, it's just tokeep people off your grass. And
like to an extent, there's youknow, there's truth in some humor,
you know humors. There was anabsolute truth in all this world. But
uh, but yeah, that's tome, it's one hundred percent truth because
I remember, like I was talkingto one guy at shot show actually he

(32:16):
was a former seal, and theywere talking about, you know, they
used to deploy to the Philippines andthey got a I think they got a
platoon from the eighty second airbord cometo support them, and like you know
seals are super relaxed. That wasone thing, even the reserve seals.
Like I worked at the reserve guysin Korea and like looking at them,
dude, like no discipline, youknow, and that's what they're That's what

(32:38):
they're not. They could do whateverthey want, yeah, and like they'd
wear whatever they want. They couldlook however they want. So like I
was talking to this guy and hewas like big guy, big fucking seal
guy, and uh, you knowhe's they're all full bearded, like literally
Viking beard and you know, jackedand wearing whatever. And this platoon shows
up and like they're you know,actively going out on mission in the Philippines

(33:00):
and there he's like, yeah,they were really good guys. And one
day like they had, you know, their first sergeant like fly in and
talk to us, and he's like, hey, how are my guys?
How a my guys doing with you? Guys? Are they are they?
And instead of like wondering like howoperationally they're doing, like are they actually
supporting the sealed team the way theyshould be? The one question he asked

(33:23):
is are they shaving? He's likeare they are they maintaining their grooming standards,
not are they you know, beingan asset to your you know,
actual operation. He's like, arethey shaving? And the guy, you
know, the guy's like, whatthe what. The chief was like,
what the fuck? So he goesout and he's like he talks to the

(33:44):
rest of the eighty second guys andhe's like, they're like, how did
it go? And he's like,well, you want to know what he
asked and they're like yeah, andhe's like, he asked if you guys
were all shaving when you're supposed to. And he's like, I'll let you
know right now. I don't givea fuck about that. He's like,
you guys can grow beards, youguys can dress wherever you want, as

(34:05):
long as you're good and doing yourjob well. And I'll let you know
when this cock sucker comes back,and I'll give you you know, I'll
give you like a two day aday notifications. You guys can shave and
look right for him. And he'slike yeah, but like dudes like that,
yeah, you know, Yeah,that's that's that's important too, man.
To have those kinds of guys thatunderstand the difference between what it takes

(34:29):
to do the job and kind ofat least in deployments, superfluous kind of
disciplinary, but like in the rearbattalion type stuff. Our I gotta hand
it to our our sort of majorwhen I was there up in Mosl was
he would he would cut it.He'd had it both ways. So if
you were in the headquarters Helme andI was on the B team at the

(34:49):
time, Yeah, you're in MOSL, it's a major base. We're sharing,
you know, work, going outand representing ourselves to other units.
His rationale was, Hey, wegot to be clean shaven, got to
be standard, you know, likewe could wear civilians out when we went
to the chow hall as long aswe had a side arm. We could
be relaxed in that. But ifyou went to go do something official with

(35:09):
another unit, like you had toget some paperwork done or whatever, you
wear a uniform, you go andtalk to him and all that kind of
stuff. Now, if you wereaway from Mosel and you were out in
one of our little satellite fobs,then you could do what you want.
Yeah yeah, And if yeah,he came in, it was understood,
like he's not gonna get on youfor having a beard and having it grown
out or wearing relaxed uniforms. Butif you go out on a mission,

(35:35):
obviously then it's there's a certain standardthat he wanted you to hear too.
But he was pretty cool. Theonly thing I resented him for was that
we weren't allowed to wear boonty caps. He's like, booty caps are for
Panama Canal. That's it, likethat, the booty caps are for the
jungle. And so it was.Because it gets hot, man, you
want that three and sixty degree shade, we were never allowed to wear it.
So in resentment, in defiance ofhim, I wore it after where

(35:58):
I got out of the military fora long time, and then I had
to retire it because the see oh, man, I will tell you a
story though based on that, liketrying to get away with something. Uh.
When I was in Syria. Iremember when we first got there,
like all the SF guys, allthe Delta guys, everybody had a beard,
and like rangers, the only peoplethat like Rangers, can grow beard,

(36:19):
but it has to be very specialcase. And actually Rangers are.
Ranger Regiment was one of the mostdisciplined units I've ever seen, Like you
will shave every day, you willbe the standard. They were like,
this is you are the standard,so you will make it so like you
typically you shave on deployment unless you'repart of like REKI or you're going on
an Omega deployment which is like attachedto CIA, like you were not allowed

(36:42):
to share or you are not allowedto grow beards. So we got there
and everybody had beards and we werelike super well shaven. I was like,
well, I want a fucking beard, Like I'm not gonna be the
only guy out here like looking likelooking like a regular army guy, you
know, no offense. So Iremember, I remember, it's like there
were is. I formulated this wholeplot to let myself allow myself to grow

(37:04):
a beard, and like I wantedone so bad because A I've never grown
one before, so I wanted tosee if I could. And I wanted
to blend in because like if we'reworking with these guys, we're working with
the SDF, like we should looklike one of them. We should look
like the h Yeah. So likelike five days before the actual order came
down, like we were, theywanted us shaving every day, like our
first sergeant and COO would drive downto ours, our little fob, because

(37:29):
they were staying at something called thel CMR, which was like this concrete
factory which you know, which laterwe found out was funding ISIS. But
that's a different story. Yeah,you can look that up. The concrete
factory, French concrete factory in Syriaof funds ISIS. But we were staying
there. They were like letting usstay there. But we were at the
fob and like they'd come down tomake sure we were shaving two standards,

(37:52):
and I was just like, youknow, fuck this. We I was
like, we're out here, weshould look like the locals. We should
blend in. We shouldn't, youknow, show our ass. Just in
your head. This is just I'mnot gonna I'm not telling that. I
really respect the guy, but uhI was always kind of known to kind
of do like you know, Ialways walked to the beat of my own

(38:13):
drum. But uh but uh yeah, I went to the I went to
the med station and I'm like,hey, I'm not fucking shaving with this
water because the water's gross. LikeI'm like, dude, I'm not shaving
with this water. It's gonna giveme a skin infection and The last thing
I need out here is to youknow, is to be combat ineffective because
there's holes in my fucking face becauseof the you know, bacteria. Yeah,

(38:34):
and they gave me a shaving profile. They're like, okay, you
don't have to shave, and Ilike what. I just remember I walked
in and I handed it to mysquad leader because he was he was shaving
and they were all shaving and Ihanded it to my squad leader and he
just looked at me and he's like, fuck you. And I was like,
I was like, dude, don'tdon't hate me because you hate me.

(38:55):
Two days two days after that,they came down. They're like,
you, I don't have to shapeAnd I was like, I went through,
I went through all this trouble.I made enemies. You don't think
you broke the damn? Do youthink you broke the damn? Do you
think you got the league? Okay, they just did it anyway. Yeah,
yeah I might have. I might. I don't know. They didn't
tell me if I did, butthey wouldn't. Yeah, no, I'll

(39:19):
take if I'll take that credit.You know. Yeah, they're kind of
like this guy. You know,they're like this guy trying to grow beards.
But yeah, we all got togrow beards. And then then I
looked Middle Eastern and so that wascool. But yeah, I just wanted
to I I just wanted to Ifull disclosure, I haven't seen War Machine

(39:43):
with Brad Pitt, but I wantto talk about it. Just just okay,
good, just a little bit,because I know we give a lot
of we give a lot of ourofficers a hard time, but especially when
it came to Afghanistan, I canunderstand the idea of trying to get things
done at a leadership level and justall of the politicking and the glad handing

(40:05):
and all the just the I don'tknow, just the layers and layers of
bs that you have to go throughjust to try to get something done,
to get something implemented that you knowthat tactically might be correct, but you
are under civilian leadership and so youhave to know. Yeah, they don't
know, and they don't understand.They have their own interests that they're trying
to fulfill. So anyway, Ijust wanted to kind of give give a

(40:27):
shout out to the officers and thehigher ups and stuff, because I know
that you know, a lot ofthem are you know, aren't worth the
uniforms they wear. But some ofyou know, a lot a lot of
them are. They've been there andthey know. And I think Stanley McCrystal,
I think is kind of who thiswas loosely based off of. It
was, Yeah, yeah, whatdo you think about that? Hard?
Yeah, it's it's super hard becauseyou know, the higher Like I said,

(40:50):
I think the officers have the samekind of rep as like you know,
of enlisted. Once they reach thatlevel, you know, it's like,
I guess to the point where you'relike yours your word goes, but
then like does it actually like right, like the only way to be really
in charge is to be the president. Yeah, yeah, because he's the

(41:13):
commander in chief and like that's thereis so watching that movie. I mean,
I think, you know, BradPitt plays a really good example like
McCrystal, all these giant leaders thatwe hear about, like Merrill and the
Crystal and all these you know legendsthey have they're infamous. You know,
his routine, his you know,prowess, his military discipline, how he

(41:35):
conducts himself like they are they arelegends, Like there is no uh,
you know, legend is an earnedtitle for these guys, but at the
end of the day, they're still, you know, directed by some political
power that has no experience in war, that has no tactical uh no tactical
perception or understanding. So like it'syou can see the frustration in the movie.

(42:01):
But like also a lot of officersthat I've met with don't have a
level of understanding from the enlisted side. You know, that's a big I
think that's the universal and timeless truthwhen it comes to the military. Yeah.
Yeah, I think some of thebest officers I've worked with and the
ones that you know, I enjoyedhaving as some of my leadership, were

(42:22):
prior enlisted guys, because they getit. They understand. You know.
Some of the officers that just straightup come out of RTC haven't done any
of the grunt work, haven't youknow, had that life experience, just
come by and snap their fingers andthink it can get done, and it's
like, doesn't work like that,sir. You know. So there's that
one scene in a War Machine whenhe comes out and he's talking to the

(42:46):
Marines and he's like, you justgot it. He's trying to give him
like the motivational speech. He's like, you just gotta you just gotta keep
hitting it because you're serving your country, and you know, you get in.
One of the marines was like whyare we here? And he's like,
we're here because there's an enemy outthere. And he's like, yeah,

(43:06):
but what are we doing? Likewe're not even allowed to engage these
guys like the Roe. It's like, what are we We're not fighting the
terrorists, right, why are wehere? And he's like, like,
you know, he gets like supermad because obviously he doesn't have an answer
for him. You know, youcan't. He can't give him an answer
because he's not out there, youknow, kicking in the doors and doing

(43:28):
the work. He just expects itto get done, but he doesn't know
what it requires. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like I think
war machines are really good example ofyou just have you know, you have
brass that really you know, somedo, some don't. Luckily, the
leaders I had were super cool andthey all have prior you know, prior
cool guy. Yeah, little experiences, but uh, you know a lot

(43:52):
of the conventional side. I believeit doesn't Yeah. Yeah, I've even
shout out to the second, Ithink it's the second captain that came in
of an ODA that I was on. Uh uh Phil Cornerchuck, good old
captain Cornerchuck. He was from Canada, and I think he was enlisted up
there or he was. He hewas the most relaxed officer that I ever

(44:15):
had the pleasure of serving with.Yeah, he he knew, he knew
his place within the O. DA and what his responsibilities were. Yeah,
and uh. And then I thinkalso he was just like a chill
dude. I think we had someyou know, common interests and he wasn't
he wasn't all upity about his rankand uh. And so that was that
was the funnest or the you know, the the That was the best time

(44:37):
I had serving with an officer aslong, you know, as long as
I was on the team with him. So right, all right, alright,
alright, all right, all right, nice man. But yeah,
dude, I you know, Iagree with you. The the war machine
and having officers that like kind ofknow where they stand probably the best blessing

(45:00):
you can get as an enlisted guy. That's why I liked ranger regiments so
much, because, like the officerscame in they were studs. They were
absolute stuff. Yeah, yeah,you know, because they're I mean,
there are some that are like yourstuds, but you're hard to work with,
you know. The ego. Egois big thing. But I you
know, I have to you know, the officer world, like we talked

(45:22):
about it, but like it isstressful. Like if you think your team
leaders putting pressure on you as aprivate to perform, Like, no,
the commander is putting pressure on thoseplatoon leaders to perform. Like they talk
to each other way harsher than anybodyI've ever seen. Like that's a rough
life. And like they're all petstuds. They're all expected to be in
shape, to be professional, tobe gentlemen, you know. But like

(45:45):
that's it's you know, it's alot of pressure. But hey, cam,
yeah, let me ask you aquestion. This is like I wanted
to talk about this. I justwanted to throw this out there because it's
something that I don't think you andI can fully answer because who the heck
knows, But here we are,says we're filming this in twenty twenty four,

(46:06):
okay early twenty twenty four, andI got at the question at the
end of the format if you wantto look at it. But we are
as of right now, we're notanywhere majorly right, We're not in Afghanistan
anymore, We're not in Iraq anymore. I'm sure we're around. There's little
you know. I'm sure Stef's stilldoing their relationship to style deployments to different
countries around the world to maintain ourrelationships. I know that's what my guys

(46:29):
would be doing, trying to maintainthat right nows. I'm sure rangers are
doing the same kind of things.But what do you think warfare is going
to look like for America specifically inthe future. Do you have any predictions,
any thoughts on that? Let meconsult my glowing orb of your eight

(46:52):
magic eight ball. Yeah, it'sa great question, man, and I
think it is like the question oneveryone's mind. I by no means am
like a war specialist. You know, I just am a guy that served
and did his time, got outand you know, can't get over it.
But uh, but there. Ithink there's a lot of things that

(47:13):
are going to be changing about warfarebecause we have the technology side. I'm
a firm believer that the military nowadaysare stronger, faster, and smarter than
us than our days, Like theyneed even your days, even just even
my days. I think I thinkthe Rangers nowadays are way smarter and stronger
than I was, you know,so, and I I'm glad. I'm

(47:35):
so glad. I'm not like oneof those salty guys I was, like,
my day was harder than I was, tougher. It's like, no,
I want you to be way smarter, tougher, you know, because
you're how you're gonna have harder warsto fight. Yeah, because I think
like the implications that come with youknow, incorporating technology, new equipments to
understand to combat other technology, Likedid you ever use drones like handheld drunk

(48:02):
Like that's the thing, Like they'redoing that now, Like they have drones
within platoons, and you know,they have all these different technologies. Like
you didn't have the attack right whenthe phones mounted on the chest, Like
that's standard, that's stand yeah.Yeah, so like blue Force tracker,
that's that you need to carry thatin a truck and now you essentially have
that on your chest and like sowe're getting more advanced, but that technology

(48:24):
requires not just one person to knowhow to use it, but it requires
everybody know how to use it,you know. Uh yeah, So like
you're gonna they're gonna have to besmarter, They're gonna have to be stronger
because they're you know, obviously they'regetting equipment to assist them, but it's
all technical base. Plus you knowthat the physical demands of war aren't going
to change. Uh so, andjust and when I say they're going to

(48:46):
be stronger, it's just because thediscoveries of you know, science and you
know, I know when I wasin we had like physical therapists and all
these guys and trading and coaches andyou didn't have that. And like see,
so that's like if I had that, Now, what do they have
now? You know, almost fivesix years Yeah, six years later,

(49:07):
Like I'm sure they have way moreand it's more involved. So they're going
to be stronger, they're going tobe healthier, they're going to be smarter.
So I think, you know,I think it's going to be more
of a technology technology and a datawar, but you're always going to need
boots on the ground. That isnot going to change. Like even if
you find these guys, somebody isgoing to have to get them. Yeah.
The last hundred meters belongs to theinfantry exactly, So I don't think

(49:30):
that's ever going to change. Plus, you know, we're living in twenty
twenty four and we look at RussianUkraine, like you mentioned in the beginning,
like they're fighting in trenches. Yeah, you know, like we didn't
do that since World War One.So war's going to advance and also regress
at the same time. So we'regoing to see a lot of these things
they did back in the day.But like, but yeah, no,
I you know, the world isa very unpredictable place just because nobody.

(49:52):
I mean, obviously we've been forIsrael and Palestine have been fighting for a
millennia since their existence. Middle Eastis alway is going to be the Middle
East. Yeah, And I youknow, as far as America's involvement involvement,
I think we're really close. ButI'm not like a crazy prepper.
I think we're gonna have little sporadicevents that are gonna unfold. But as

(50:13):
far as like full fledged World Warthree, you know, I'm I'm looking
at you, Ran, I gotyour fucking number. Yeah, I don't
know. It's it's a good question. A lot of people are focused on
China. We have a lot ofhouthy terrorist group involvement with you know,
I ran back to proxy cells inthe Mid East and Syria and Iraq.
So, like I said, there'sa little conflicts every now and then.

(50:35):
I don't see like the US mobilizingin force for one specific place, you
know, anytime soon. But youknow, I could I could be wrong.
Yeah, Yeah, that's pretty Uh, that's a pretty well rounded answer,
man. I appreciate that. II kind of in my short version
is I basically agree with what you'retalking about. Because America, by virtue

(50:59):
of our guys location, are economic, I think, being connected economically.
I don't think it behooves any othercountry, any large power to attack us
directly. I think it's going tobe I think world War three. Maybe
you could even say world War threeis being fought right now. It's being
fought technologically, economically, and culturallyright America. I don't think America is

(51:22):
ever going to get invaded by amassive army kind of red non style.
I think if and if America isbeing attacked, it's going to be attacked
culturally, economically, scientifically, youknow, psychologically, technologically, and all
that kind of stuff. And andlike you say, we may commit troops
to some degree or another in certainareas, I think more so now we're

(51:45):
kind of in supporting. It's we'reback to the Cold War essentially, where
these poor countries are going to bebasically our proxies for other superpowers that are
trying to influence them. But we'retrying to influence them. So we're going
to support these guys. Yeah,those guys. It's a turf war,
Yeah, turf war on a globalscale. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

(52:07):
I mean if we were to bea I mean final thought on that one,
if we were to be attacked,like it wouldn't be full scale invasion
like you said, I think itwould be like smaller attacks within within domestically,
because like the border crisis right now, Yeah, an inordinately large amount
of Chinese military a country. Yeah. Interesting, that's super interesting. Yeah,

(52:28):
and it's like okay, well,you know that's really scary to think
about, Like, like that's abig issue because like you know, if
you can't get into our systems,our technological systems from overseas, you can
you know, if you can getthe Wi Fi connection, I'm sure you
can do a lot Uh so,you know, having that you know,
open border right now and not doinga thing about it is extremely concerning.

(52:52):
But uh yeah, it's I mean, I don't want to say I'm excited
to see what happens, because I'mnot at all, But I am prepared
to see what happens. Interesting timeswe live in Cameron interesting times, indeed,
is he now? That's cool man. By the way, before we
jump into our game, which Ihave right here in front of me,

(53:12):
I want to do a little selfshout out. I did an episode of
The Green Beret Chronicles with uh yeah, yeah, with Jay Dorlas, super
cool dude fromer Green Beret. He'sgot a podcast and a YouTube channels.
You want to go check it out, The Green Beret Chronicles. I got
an episode on there. I didit while we were at shots show before
I got sick. Yeah, buta lot of fun. I talk about

(53:34):
my life, my time in selection, shift fire afterward, you know,
shift firing, gemology afterwards, mycareer as it's been since I left the
Army. So it kind of gothrough like a nice little biographical thing.
It was good. Jay's a gooddude and he has a great vision for
the podcast where he wants to focuson bringing the story of the Green Berets

(53:55):
to the frontline to the popular cultureso that they can inspire the next generation
of people who are thinking about maybedrawing up as well. Nice man,
Yeah, I've seen a couple ofhis stuff pop up on my algorithm.
Uh yeah, so it's whatever you'redoing is working, all right, cool
man. Okay, So now Cameron, we have a game, and I'm
very excited to bring it to you. Chris made this one up. It's

(54:19):
called uh it goes like this deployment. It can be very lengthy. In
honor of that, a very specialand an especially difficult game has been cooked
up for you. This game iscalled How Long was the War? I'll
give you the name of a war, and you tell me how long it
lasted within I'm gonna he gave mea little bit of leeway, So I'm
gonna give you a couple of yearson either side if you get If I

(54:43):
feel like you made a good effortand got pretty close, I'll give it
to you. But yeah, watchhim put thee hundred years war in there,
because I know it didn't last onehundred years. So alright, Oh,
it's only one way to find out. This is your warm up.
So, so, how long didthis war last? You gotta give me
a number of years that it lasted. The American Civil War? Civil War?

(55:07):
Oh, American Civil War? AmericanCivil War, didn't it? It
wasn't that long of a war,the official war. Oh shit, here
we go. Now, I'm justgonna fucking what I always say. I
love history and then I think aboutdates and I get cross eyed. It
lasts like it didn't last that long. I think it lasted like six years,

(55:30):
six years. Finalancer, I'm gonnagive it to you. It lasted
four years, four years, moremonth and two weeks to be exact.
But four years you got within acouple of years. I'll give it to
you. Okay, what was thateighteen oh brother, yeah, oh,
it doesn't have the actual dates.It just yeah, it doesn't not on
here. But obviously you John Johnnygeeked looking up for US eighteen sixty one

(55:57):
to sixty five. There you go. I knew the eighteen sixty five was
in there somewhere. So eighteen sixtyone sixty five. Okay, that was
your warm up. This is yourfirst official question. There we go.
The Vietnam War at least America,America's involvement there specifically. So think about
all the Vietnam wars that are outwar movies that are out there. How
long? So I know the Vietnamwas longer, but I think did we

(56:21):
get there in sixty eight, sixtyeight or sixty nine sixty? I know
we got out. I think itwas like seventy four we got out.
I think it was sixty years long. I'm gonna say sixty eight to seventy
four. Ooh, Camn, Icannot give this one to you because remember
we were soldiers remember that year.So that was nineteen sixty five. That's
ah, fifty five seventy five,okay, twenty seventy years twenty wow.

(56:47):
Okay, Why did I think?Okay? I mean because remember I think
the French were all up in theirarea and then we started getting involved for
whatever reason. Fifty five seventy fivewow, twenty years. Long time,
man, long time, long time. Wow. Okay. It's funny you
watch eighties movies and you you realizehow many people, how many actors or

(57:07):
people in the industry that got outgot into the entertainment industry. You're like,
oh, that guy's are being onVet. That guy's a Vietnam VET.
Twenty years man, that's crazy longtime, just like Afghanis stands.
Yeah literally think about like, youknow, twenty years from now, we're
gonna look back and like, didyou wat it's gonna be like, all
right, that Vietnam right yeah,yeah, yeah, they're gonna be like
that lasted twenty years? Wow?Right, right, next one coming up,

(57:31):
Cameron. The Iraq War. Oh, the Iraq War. That was
like the actual the invasion, theIraqi War. No, No, the
war when we officially kind of likesay, hey, we're going through major
operations or something from when to whenmajor operation? Oh, that this is

(57:55):
I feel like I might be trickingmyself because obviously we've been in Iraq was
part of the g WOP. Butthen we had the invasion of Iraq,
which was two thousand, two thousandand three, Okay was it two thousand
or was it two thousand and six? See, I'm getting my dates backwards
now. Because we had an invasionof Iraq, we had an invasion of
Afghanistan, the first push in Afghanistan, which one came first. I'm blanking,

(58:21):
I think, Oh, I don'tthink it's that long I think it's
a year. Are you. Arewe thinking of the same war, the
Iraq War, the Iraq War,not even the Persian Gulf War or nothing.
Okay, see that was the invasion, is not your head? Yeah?
Persian Golf War is when Kuwait SaddamMusy ninety one, ninety Yeah,

(58:45):
yeah, that was desert storm.Yeah, this is post nine to eleven,
post nine to eleven. So wasthis the two thousand and six one?
I think you might be thinking aboutit a little too hard. I
think I am thinking about it waytoo hard. I don't know. I'm
just gonna throw a number out therethat's probably wrong. Three years that is

(59:07):
incorrect. You are right, andthat is and that it is incorrect.
It's eight years two thousand and threeto twenty eleven. Three we invaded.
I remember I was in Colorado hangingout with my buddy's place. We were
snowed in and so I couldn't goanywhere, so all we did was watch
footage about the Iraq War, invasionor the Iraq invasion in two thousand and
three. But to twenty eleven,that's when we kind of majorly the major

(59:29):
draw down at least, and thenI and then and then Isis came back
and then we had to support youknow them again, So like when did
that? Yeah? When did thatwar officially? Because like my platoon went
to Iraq. I was in rangerschool when they went t Iraq and it
was like, right, when didthis officially end? Put a Sure,
we still have troops in Iraq.I think we do, like advisory,
we have small na support whatever.But yeah, well, anyway, let's

(59:52):
keep moving because you're not doing verywell World War one. World War one
was kind of lengthy, uh,Okay, So I think it's twenties or
thirties. Think of recent movies thathave come out. Yeah, I'm thinking
of it, but I don't rememberthe dates on them. You've give me.

(01:00:14):
There's there's a movie that's literally ayear nineteen forty. Yeah, I
know, nineteen thirty. What isit called again? Nineteen? I'm just
nineteen seventeen, is it? Okay? Okay, let's start. Let's start
with that. Okay, nineteen seventeenwe have the troops fleeing Germans invade.

(01:00:38):
God, this is killing me.That wasn't the beginning was nineteen seventeen the
beginning of the war. No,it wasn't the beginning? Was it the
beginning? I'm just gonna say tenyears. Okay, you're wrong. It
was four years, nineteen fourteen tonineteen eighteen. It was one of those

(01:00:58):
World War War was one of thosethings where they didn't think it was gonna
last very long, and then itended up lasting years more after that.
It was kind of a weird kindof thing. But yeah, by nineteen
seventeen we were very well into thethick of it, and then I think
nineteen eighteen was when it finally whenit finally ended. I don't even know.
I don't even know the circumstances surroundingit ending, like what happened,

(01:01:22):
Like do we have a major defeator do we have like a major victory
against the Kaiser treaty, because Iknow I think there was a treaesy.
I think there was a treaty.Was it the Versailles Treaty of Versailles or
was that No, that was thatwas releading up to World War two because
or maybe it was a Versaides treatyanyway, because I know, I think
that World War armistice, the Armisticeof November eighteen, Yeah, because they

(01:01:46):
got Armistice stay over there in theUK, right, Maybe because the events
of World War Two were seeded.The seeds were planted in the aftermath of
World War One because I think therewas a lot of resentment in Germany and
Hitler utilized that and kind of it'slike, we're gonna be a nation again
because they took away territory from Germanyand they like, we're gonna get it

(01:02:08):
back because that's our territory. Anyway. An invasion of Poland, Poland,
there you go. The Verstreet Ithink was when he said peace in our
time and it was totally a lie. Hitler totally backstabbed him. He's like,
no, I'm gonna invade Poland anyway, let's move on. I need
a brush up on my history,that's all right. I mean, years
are hard to do, man,I'm not gonna I'm not gonna ding you

(01:02:28):
for this one. Nobody, nobodyis blaming you. Cameron eight. War
of eighteen twelve, the World ofeighteen twelve, wonderful. This last last,
the War of eighteen twelve. I'massuming this is just one year,
because it is the War of eighteentwelve. I mean literally one, It's
at least at least one the Warof eighteen twelve. This was before the

(01:02:50):
Civil War. I'm gonna say thiswas a three year war. That is
exactly right, Cameron, Good foryou. Nice eighteen twelve, eighteen fifteen,
two years and eight months to beexactly rounded up in some simplicity.
All right, Cameron. Next one, you wanted it, you got it.
One hundred years war. But thequestion is Israel was it shorter?

(01:03:13):
Did be round up or you'd beround down? Yeah? Entitled this war?
Yep, this was a fun fact. We've talked about it before,
but we have a long time ago, a long time ago. I don't
even remember what we talked about becauseI'm looking at the answer and I'm like,
I don't that does not look familiarto me. For some reason,
the number one hundred and fourteen likeit was over one hundred. It was

(01:03:36):
over one hundred years. That's like, well, I'll talk about it afterwards.
It would give it away. I'mjust gonna say, I'm gonna I'm
gonna you know, I'm second guessmyself. I'm gonna say it lasted ninety
two years, so it wasn't likea hundred years. Oh, I can't
quite give it to you because itdid last over one hundred years. It

(01:03:57):
was one hundred and sixteen years fromthirteen three seven fourteen fifty three. That's
I was gonna say. My commentwas, that's three generations worth of people
like you could be born, liveyour life, and die and your country
is still at war. Nothing changed. That's pretty back then too. Back
then it was like what was itlike five generations? Yeah? Yeah,

(01:04:18):
it was like, yeah, that'scrazy. When when did that happen?
The one hundred years that was likein the seventeen hundreds, right, No,
No, thirteen thirty seven to fourteenfifty three. Yeah, yeah,
Oh do we have muskets back then? Do we have the introdution of black
powder? Was in the thirteen hundredsto Europe, So I think they did.
Okay, all right, all right, last one, Cameron, let's

(01:04:39):
finish out this long slog of agame. Yeah. The French Revolution,
French Revolution revolution? How many woulddo that? So the French Revolution was
French Revolution? Was that Napoleon wasin the French Revolution? No, I
mean the Napoleonic Wars would be.That's if we're gonna characterize it like gu

(01:05:00):
Wat style. The Napoleonic Wars wouldbe that. I think that was way
before. I'm not looking at theanswer, but I think I was way
before because Napoleon like that was stilllike royalty years, you know, and
the frenchops were like, we're gonnahave I guess democracy, now I get
it. I don't know. Ohreally, Oh shit, see I know
nothing about France. Apologies to allour French friends. Yeah, all our

(01:05:20):
French friends. I'm sorry, Mike, I'm sorry. I don't know your
history. I just don't care aboutit. I'm gonna say that lasted twelve
years. I'm gonna give it toyou, Cameron. It was ten years,
seven years, seventeen eighty nine toseventeen ninety nine, ten years the
French Revolution, Okay, OK,take it is. Yeah, they're revolting.

(01:05:44):
We got ours done in about whattwo three years? We declared.
Then they came over and it waskind of a it was kind of seventy
six for a long time. Yeah, yeah, and then like seventeen eighty,
say seventeen, well maybe it waslonger than that. Now I have
six until seventy six American Revolution,Uh yeah, seventeen sixty five to seventeen

(01:06:09):
eighty three. Okay, so itwas a build up, all out more
than we finally turned the tide.Okay, explained almost in seventeen seventy five,
seventeen seventy six, we kicked allthe British pretty much out. Yeah.
Well, okay, well that's it, that's the game. You didn't
do it hard? Yeah, learnedI got. When it comes to numbers,
it's hard man who cares about numbers? What are even numbers? I'm

(01:06:30):
a letter guy. Yeah, Iprefer the letters. Become a mathematician.
Okay, exactly, you want numbers? Whatever? Yeah, well, folks,
I hope you did better on thatgame than I did. But I
also hope you had a great timelistening to Izzy and I talk about our
deployment experiences and some pieces of popculture that aligned with them. If you

(01:06:53):
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(01:07:14):
on your grandmother's forehead. Other thanthat, Izzy, you got anything folks,
let us know if you I knowwe're coming to Nobody listens to these,
but hey, you let us knowif you want us to get back
into video game reviews, because Iwould like to and I got a few
ideas up my sleeve. So ifyou think that would be good, you
just let us know. Leave acomment on the YouTube on this episode's channel,
and send us a DM on Instagram. But I'm excited. I'm excited

(01:07:36):
for the future of the channel.Good to see, absolutely Cue music