July 29, 2025 • 50 mins
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In this powerful episode of the Security Halt! Podcast, host Deny Caballero sits down with Brandon Strand, a former infantryman, to explore the deep bonds of brotherhood forged through military service. Brandon reflects on his journey through the infantry, sharing raw insights into deployment life, leadership lessons, and the emotional toll of loss.
This candid conversation dives into the importance of staying connected to your community, embracing personal growth after service, and developing mental and physical resilience during life’s most difficult transitions. Brandon’s story is a reminder that strength comes not only from combat—but from vulnerability, connection, and healing.
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Background
02:16 Military Journey and Experiences
05:04 Transitioning into Military Life
07:39 Challenges and Growth in the Infantry
10:22 Roles and Responsibilities in Deployment
12:56 Reflections on Leadership and Team Dynamics
15:28 Memorable Characters and Their Impact
17:56 Loss and Legacy in the Military Community
21:22 The Importance of Brotherhood and Connection
23:16 The Legacy of Fred C and His Impact
24:39 Transitioning from Military to Civilian Life
26:51 The Value of Young Soldiers and Their Resilience
28:14 Learning from Negative Experiences
29:18 The Journey of Personal Growth and Responsibility
32:09 The Role of Social Media in Military Life
33:52 Reconnecting with the Past and Building Community
35:59 Creating a Supportive Network for Veterans
38:17 Endurance Challenges and Personal Development
41:17 Navigating Life After Service
43:13 The Need for Connection and Support Among Veterans
Instagram: @securityhalt
Tik Tok: @security.halt.pod
LinkedIn: Deny Caballero
Follow Strand on Social media!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandon.strand.5/friends
Email: brandon_140@hotmail.com
Produced by Security Halt Media
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Brandon Strand.
Welcome to the Secureio podcast.
How's it going, man?
I'm doing well and yourself alot better.
Dude, it is, uh, it is a busy,freaking day and it's like I'm
in Alabama now.
So, like every afternoon, it'slike insane thunderstorm.
So I'm like I'm like watchingthe wind outside like rattle
fences.
I'm like, all right, just uh,let's not lose power.
Lost power during an interviewthe other day.
(00:28):
I was like sitting theretalking and then like everything
cuts out.
I'm like motherfucker.
So hopefully the weather gotcold.
That would be brandon and I.
We go way back, way, way, way,way, way, way back to those
listening back in the 82nd days2504, always proud and very
happy to have anotherparatrooper.
And today, man, like I want todive into your story.
(00:50):
Take us all the way back, dude.
I want to, just for a spoileralert, we're going to cover
everything, specifically yourtransition, dude, when you got
out.
But first, what got you?
What was what made you want toserve in the almighty 82nd
airborne?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
so I wanted to serve in the almighty 82nd Airborne.
So I wanted to serve in themilitary my whole life.
But when I was 17, my momwouldn't sign off on the
paperwork, so I had to go tocollege, met a girl, got a house
settled down, so I didn't endup joining until I was 24 when
things kind of just started tofall apart.
But it fell apart in a way thatallowed me to be free to leave
(01:25):
and follow the dreams that I'dhad prior.
So when I got to the unit I wasone of the old guys.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I was just going to say that, like 24, looking back
seems like so wise and olderwhen the average private is like
18, 19.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Absolutely yeah, and actually when I started out,
special forces went throughSOPSI and everything.
I ended up having a couple ofknee surgeries and after I got
med dropped I ended up over at504.
And you were actually the veryfirst NCO.
I don't know if you remember,but you're the one who picked me
up from head to toe.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, dude.
Oh, my God, that's like foreverago.
God, I was such an asshole backin those days.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Forgive me days, Forgive me.
No, and that's where I was alittle bit nervous.
You know, I had just left SWCCairborne school in processing
basic training, everything else,so I was just expected to be
yelled at and everything elsehad three duffel bags and a
rolling tote bag and you're like, hey, give me one of those
things.
I'm just like, oh my God, likethey're, they're helping me.
(02:20):
For once they're not yelling atme.
This is different.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
It was not everybody got that experience, mind you.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
No, no, yeah.
Well, that's where even Huttonwas saying I like to go pick up
the new guys because we like tofuck with them.
But then when I was as old asyou and you're like, well, how
old are you?
And I'm like 25 now and you'relike, well, what did you do
beforehand?
I'm like I've been with mybusiness company now for eight
years and you know, I got abunch of money in the bank and
(02:48):
owned a home and so forth and soon.
And you were like, well, fuck,I think we want to keep this guy
.
I remember you bringing me intothe first platoon office and
you're like we're going to keephim if he can answer this
question.
You're like, which platoon isthe best platoon?
I don't know, I'm just a newguy who showed up.
And you're like it's easy.
And I'm like, well, obviouslyfirst is the best right.
And you're like, see, smart guy, let's keep them.
But the bear had other plans,so I went over to first the bear
(03:11):
, timothy Jordan.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Oh my gosh.
We'll reflect on that guy lateron.
Yeah, man, people forget thatyou can come in the military at
all sorts of different ages andyou were one of the many
wonderful additions to BCO thatdidn't fit the rank and file and
the mold of being a brand newlike what behind the ears?
18-year-old kid.
(03:32):
Like you had time, you exploredlife before you went in and
that made you a valuable assetdude.
Like you weren't just anotheryoung guy, you had information,
you had life experience and Ithink that's something that I
want to dive into.
What was like getting the thirdand then realizing that, like
you, had some characters in thatplatoon?
(03:53):
I'll let you introduce whatlife was like, because it's very
different when you were able tocome in and be like yeah, I can
sort of help you with life.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yes, yeah, and one thing I wasn't really good at is
the sarcasm and the thick skinstuff.
You know I was before I joinedthe military.
I was much more of a beta typeof person Just follow directions
.
You tell me what to do and I doit.
The military really brought outmuch more of an assertive and I
can do pretty much any goddamnthing that I want to and I need
to do.
So I got a lot of really goodskills like that.
(04:22):
But I remember Mignone was mysquad leader and Hal was in the
team and Hal cracked a joke.
But I didn't catch it as a joke, I took it as literalism.
So then I repeated it back toMignone and you could just watch
his facial expression drop andjust like what did you say to me
?
I'm just repeating what I wastold by the senior specialist
(04:43):
who told me to tell you and Idon't know what's going on and I
apologize if I'm stepping ontoes so there's a little bit of
a learning curve.
But once I got the hang of it,fell in love with the guys,
still trying to connect more nowthan I wish I would have in the
past.
But as you grow you get wiser,new opportunities open up.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah, it's not the.
It goes by fast time.
In the military especially, Ithink it's different.
A lot of mos is where you havethis sort of like shop mentality
, like 88 mics that working at amotor pool or an s1 shop
function, it can be reallyrelaxed and you kind of get to
do these fun things likecelebrate this sort of day and
(05:26):
like infantry is different, man,it's just like yes, you're not
doing like sexual harassment day, wear blue jeans to work day.
Like no, you're going to area j, you're going to suck and live
in a fucking cesspool becauseit's going to rain non-stop.
Like that's, that's ourexperience, that that's our
lived experience.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
And our op tempo too, like the very.
I think it was the second day Igot to the unit.
We were out at the shoot houseand Bradley Shane if you
remember him he's he'll come uplater in the conversation but
that's the shoot house that youguys got to go do some cool like
spec ops type stuff, cause theguy was a former I don't know
what he was, I was too new.
I made dumb you know day oneprivate mistakes type thing that
(06:07):
he shook his head at and he wasjust like well, you did exactly
as I said.
It was wrong, but it wasexactly as I said, so go over
there.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah, those are everybody's like.
Everybody has to go throughthat.
That's the amateur experience.
You gotta be a novicebeginner's mind.
That's the um, the inventoryexperience.
You gotta be a novicebeginner's mind.
And sometimes it's painful, man, sometimes it's brutally
fucking painful.
Like what was it like showingup, like being older, being
wiser in certain regards, butthen having you know your, your
(06:37):
senior, the guys in charge youis a little younger than you.
What was that like?
For me it wasn't too difficult.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
I've always gravitated towards older persons
.
Most of my friends groups tendsto be a little bit older than
myself.
I tend to fall in line withsubject matter experts.
If you're an expert, I don'tcare.
If you're five years old, 50years old, I'm going to do what
you say because you have thetrained, learned experience.
I think that was just somethingthat came along a little bit
more with me being a 24-year-oldadult.
(07:04):
That was just something thatcame along a little bit more
with me being a 24-year-oldadult.
I have the answer to all oflife's problems.
If you do it this way,everything in the world will be
better.
I've been around the block nowfor a few years.
I'm starting to realize I don'tknow everything, and when I
don't know everything, go tosomebody who does so.
In that respect I was able toget along with a lot of my
leadership really well.
For me it was awkward and stillis.
(07:27):
I see everybody as peers, soyou know, eventually I ended up
having to have surgeries andstuff and I was working
operations.
And when I was in there I wasjust an E4.
They tried to promote me and Ideclined promotion because be no
do.
If I'm an infantryman and Ican't do an infantryman's job, I
shouldn't be an NCO leadingother infantrymen.
But I'm reading the firstsergeant's emails.
(07:50):
I'm writing OERs for theofficers.
I'm calling Lieutenant Kearnsbut I'm not calling him
lieutenant.
I'm like, hey, Kearns, I needto see you in my office.
You got like 45 minutes.
Make sure you bring your OERand everything else.
We've got to get this shittaken care of.
Even at one time I went up tothe battalion headquarters.
I was dropping off some awardsand the sergeant major stood at
(08:10):
ease and he went oh, don't youknow who that is?
That's sergeant major strand.
You.
You go to parade rest.
When he walked by and I know hewas just fucking around, type
of a thing- I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I didn't know you turned down promotion.
I knew I knew, coming out ofdeployment you had issues.
You had some knee issues, but Ididn't know how bad it was.
I didn't know how bad it was.
Did you know that sort of yourtime was coming to an end and it
was just like I'm not going tobe able to continue this?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Not so much but also a little bit.
So before we had even deployedto Iraq, I was actually on
medical discharge paperwork fromwas it Womack or whoever
whatever hospitals there BecauseI had blown my knee out, had
surgery, went to selection.
They found out I had blown myknee out.
My physicality started to godownhill.
I went from the front of theroad marches to the middle, to
(09:01):
the back.
Eventually, they ended uphaving to cut my pants off me
because my knee had swelled upto the point where I couldn't
even get my pants off anymore.
But you know, with our op tempothat we had on going on during
G1 and everything the bear andCaptain Miller are like sorry,
we need to every body, everyhands on deck you're deploying
with us and after we get backthen, you know, have your
(09:22):
surgeries and med board you.
But, after I had deployed, Istarted out doing Intel work.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
We built that like company.
Like fuck, I forgot yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
COIS Company.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Intelligence Support Team.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah, yep, so and that's where then I was working
up at battalion.
So you know, as an E3 privateI'm brushing elbows with
lieutenant colonels and majorsand staff sergeants and sergeant
first classes, which also ledto me being more of a seeing
everybody as my peer, notnecessarily.
The rank kind of got me introuble a couple of times.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
But yeah, I think they made the right choice
selecting you.
Did you go into that deployment?
Did you feel sort of like fuck,dude, I'm getting like I I got
here should be doing this jobwith my infantry brothers, but
now they got me doing thisfucking.
Did you feel any sort of like aheartache?
Or did you feel like now, this,this can be a cool fucking
mission too?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
it was a lot of different things.
So first I felt like a failure,having blown my knee out, not
being able to make it throughselection, you know.
So that was tough.
And then, getting to the line,I'm like, okay, well, at least I
get to be an infantryman,they're like, actually you're
not, well, you're you're aninfantryman, but you were going
to task you with another taskand purpose.
So then I felt sidelined andkind of useless.
(10:39):
And then, once I started doingthe job the type of person I am
you give me a mission and I'mgoing to do everything I can.
You know, you're only as strongas your weakest link and I'm
going to make sure that I am notthe weak link here, so I'm
going to do everything Ipossibly can.
And then I started to realizehow important each and every
single other role is.
And you know, I was sittingwith I think it was McKenzie
(11:04):
staff sergeant type type secondplatoon and I sat and I gave
them a brief before they wentout on most likely course of
action, most deadly course ofaction roads, terrain, weather,
so forth and so on.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
He's like, holy fuck, I feel like I'm the lieutenant
colonel and you just told me theentire battlefield AO Like well
that's perspective going lateron in my career, going into
special operations, going andbecoming a Green Beret,
understanding like how vital itis to have this information and
(11:34):
then, looking back, 90% of thetime nobody knew what the fuck
was going on.
You're just yes.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
You're going on a patrol.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Cool.
Are they bad guys?
Maybe Are there IADs Certainly.
How dangerous?
Yes, pretty dangerous A lot.
What do you want us to do?
I don't fucking know, just go.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
React to contact Battle drill one alpha, you know
.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Oh my gosh, who was in that COISO with you?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
So, sergeant Burbank was the leader burbank navy guy,
navy guy, right yes I don'tremember what he was prior, but
he was a reclass.
He came from, yeah, recruiterand a bunch of other stuff.
Yeah, that came in as an e5expecting.
You know, I'm an e5 infantrymannow, so you'll respect me, even
(12:24):
though this e2 private.
Whoever has more line time thanI do.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Burbank.
I remember that there was acouple other cats in there.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Yep, we had.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Fish Ronald Wilson.
Oh my gosh, yeah, ronnie, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Yep.
And then we had our NBC guystarts with the name S s drawn a
blank.
He always did the night shift,though, so he was just, like you
know, tracking where people areon the battlefield and who's
here and who's not here I'mtracking, I'm tracking, yeah,
yeah, uh, halo, yeah and then wehad, uh, specialist wilson,
(12:58):
fireball wilson, I think, didn't.
He come from first platoon, sohe, he was the White Wilson.
You know, the Hadouken shootsfireballs.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
He was my contribution.
Gotcha, yeah, and that's whereyou know everybody has their
place.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yes, he as an infantryman, he doesn't have the
mentality I think to be youknow, but he was wicked smart I
knew he was smart.
Incredibly smart, and that'swhere he was sitting and making
diagrams and he's like, well,this guy's linked to this guy
and this guy's linked to thisguy, and this guy was spotted in
this ao and this guy'svehicle's this one, and we just
apprehended this person.
So the network says thatthere's something going on over
(13:36):
here.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Sure is right, there's something going on it
just goes to show you that 90 ofthe time we allocate, we need
to do a better job of figuringout where people are properly
fit for it and see the potentialfor people.
I stumbled yeah, it's notbecause I was a smart, great
leader, no, I was.
I was an asshole.
And wilson didn't fit thementality of our team or our
(13:59):
squad.
Uh, he was definitely, and itwas one of those jobs where
you're just like, oh fuck, dude,it's gonna to be a job for
Intel.
What am I going to do now?
I'm going to be hamstrung bythis guy and then you pass him
off in there and if only I wouldhave been able, I could have
done the same thing.
But recognize the potential inhis intelligence and who knows
what he's doing right now, thatmotherfucker could be working
for Andrew developing fuckingdrones.
(14:20):
One of the greatest moments oflike being able to reflect and
realizing how much of a fuckingidiot you were as a leader.
But you missed.
Your fuck up actually helped.
It actually did like just beingan asshole.
Put the right person in theright place because, looking
back, he was absolutelyintelligent.
Not the type of intelligenceyou need on a fire team arguably
(14:42):
, arguably, uh, but the type ofguy you need doing analysis work
.
And man, I really hope yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
There's even a couple other examples too.
I was last night.
We'll get to a little bit later.
What I've been working on I gotin touch with, when I met him,
specialist Shadmani.
Now he's going to the SergeantMajor Board, he's on the blotter
, he's going to the SergeantMajor's Academy and he still has
that because he's still in.
He still has that mentality.
I said you know, hey, nagy'sgetting together with us and
he's like holy shit, you know,that guy was a fuck-up Because
(15:12):
he still has that thoughtprocess.
And then Bradley, who's beenout for a while I was talking
about Boone.
You know, gangly little littleguy everything else.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Have you seen him on facebook?
Dude's a ripped jackmotherfucker.
I've worried about him for somany years because of nobody's
more brutal than infantrymaninfantryman and yeah, that boy,
that man now like whether heever admits it.
You know he went through someshit in his life, absolutely.
And when he showed up to usbecause of the palate deformity,
(15:49):
holy shit, dude.
I mean, yeah, warriors are thehardest fucking people on each
other and it's just like, oh man, I hope that he's been able to
find the strength and thecourage to friggin' move forward
, because we were fucking brutal.
I remember I won't say theguy's name, but man, we were
(16:10):
hard on old Boone.
It's not a but dude, theWarriors were a different breed
but he was always brought intothe fold, never excommunicated
or pushed aside like Rose,because Rose was a piece of shit
.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
That was before I had gotten there.
I recognize.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Yeah, if you don't shower and you sleep with dip in
and you do weird things, you'reexcommunicated from the platoon
.
But yeah, dude Boone, great kid, and at the testimony to what a
hard worker he was.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
And that's even coming back to like you're
saying, you have to start new togrow up.
There was another.
He was a free.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
O-Rock, O-Rock yes.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Absolutely yeah.
He's now a drill and he's a DI.
Get out of here.
Training new recruits andeverything.
But the very first time that Ihad met him he was under Staff
Sergeant Edwards, not the Larrytype, the shorter blonde haired.
Yes.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yes, staff Sergeant Ranger Ranger, ranger, eddie.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Yes, yep, and you know we're doing simulated
contact type of a thing, and hegets down on, you know, distance
, direction, description, soforth, so on, gets down and
there's a tree like two feet tohis front right and he just lays
there for like 10 minutes Alldone it, all done it, yep.
Front right and he just laysthere for like 10 minutes.
(17:28):
All done it, yep.
Yes, and that's where the staffsergeant runs over there and
just starts kicking him in thehelmet.
These are fucking bullets.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
I couldn't kick you if you were behind the goddamn
tree, but I'm sure it's stuck inthere and I will tell you you
know he's passing that knowledgeon.
Staff sergeant ranger qualifiededwards was one of the most
high energy pit bulls you couldever be and a great leader,
great, great, freaking leader.
He's one of the few that everstood up to the bear and one of
(17:55):
the few that ever oh yeah, oh,fuck you him and okay, I'm gonna
fucking butcher this.
Was it martinez.
He was second platoon.
I can't fucking remember hisname, but Edwards stood up to
the bear many a times, many afucking time.
I'm surprised he fucking and Ithink the reality is Timothy
(18:16):
Jordan.
I have a hard time forgettingand ever forgiving this man for
what he's done.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, but he also brought us together, we all
coales like around hating himbecause how awful he was.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yes, but eddie stood up to him in a big show of force
because there was a lot of guyslike with with eddie, a lot of
people were like, oh man, he'srough like that dude, he knew
his shit, he wanted you whetheryou like it or not, the dude
wanted you to come back home andhe, he did the job the best of
his fucking ability.
He was a firecracker man.
That motherfucker was always onfire, ready to go.
(18:49):
But you couldn't want a betterleader next to you, or for a
second.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
I think it was second platoon, yeah, second platoon
or third was he a really bigwhite guy, did a deployment with
you guys he had the babyincident that kind of screwed
with me mentally and, but okay,it started with an.
It was like mix.
No, no, no, that's different,that was a different guy, uh.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
But yeah, it was one of the things that, uh, for me
it was like always stood out tome.
It's like when everybody elseshied away from fucking going
directly at the bear's throatand he had no problem, he did it
.
I think I witnessed it severaltimes and I was like dude, dude,
all right, that's a dude.
I mean my guy's ass chewed atthe end of the day by the
platoon sergeant, but he did itin front of the entire fucking
(19:31):
company and that's my dude.
Hell, yeah, always, always agood dude.
Yeah, there's some great guysin that fucking company, man,
great fucking dudes, yes.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah well, and that's where everybody's coming from a
different background, adifferent experience.
Everyone's got different skillsthat they can bring to the
table.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
That's why I'm always like you know, we talk about
Rangers, Navy SEALs.
Fucking man, A paratrooper thatsigns up to just fucking get
kicked in the dick and go afterthe enemy day in and day out,
that's a dude.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
We need to coalesce and that's the main effort, man,
that's the main effort and it'sfunny because they don't
necessarily fit the mold.
Two of the best guys that Iremember is Eisman and Cohen.
(20:23):
E know Eisman, you'd give him a.240 and I don't even know
god-awful amounts of ammunition,and he was fat-bodied, whatever
that is, and we're trying toget him chaptered out and he
smoked, dope once or twice orsomething, but he couldn't quit.
He didn't know how to quit.
You know, if you fell down hewould pick you and your weapon
(20:43):
up with the 240 and the ammo andcontinue to drive on and you
wouldn't even hear him there'stwo or anything same thing with
cohen.
We did one one joax, and hejumped out, bad landing.
You know, winds are holding atthree knots, we're good to jump
and he burned in, hit the groundhard enough that he bounced.
And when he finally woke up,all he kept saying is where's my
(21:06):
rifle up?
All he kept saying is where'smy rifle?
Where's my nods?
I need my SI.
Where's my rifle?
We had taken all of that fromhim.
That's what he was even sayinga day later after the fact.
You know just that.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Not give up person, and that's where you get most of
your TBI not service related do.
I know that.
That's why the infantry andparatroopers are so fucking
phenomenal.
Man like just eisman himselfman, a character larger than
life to impact, and not just hisown platoon.
But everybody, dude, everybodywent out.
(21:36):
Everybody has a story of goingout with ice, everybody has a
story of his kindness, his jokes, yeah, and I mean his friend to
this day.
I see it on facebook.
He still missed the dude went onto become police officer, sadly
passed away.
And that's the thing that wedon't focus enough.
Man, like when a when a dudedies in combat, like that's
(21:58):
fucking hard, horrible, but when?
But when we lose guys asthey're just getting to like
that prime of their life, likefiguring things out after
service, that fucking sucks justas much.
Dude, that's just like becauseyou see guys struggle all the
fucking time, it's when you havethe victory.
When you see somebody that'slike fuck your police officer,
(22:18):
you're, you're plugged into yourcommunity, you're doing great
things for others, fuck, you'rea police officer, you're plugged
into your community, you'redoing great things for others,
and then drop of a hat, they'regone.
And I know it's life.
It's nothing guaranteed.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
It's everything.
We're all going to go through it, and for me it's even harder.
So you know, like Fred Steed, Istill remember the exact phone
call that came through McDevittwas the one who called and it
killed me, but you know, untilValhalla and dying a warrior's
death and everything else,whereas, like Eisman, he's now
getting it together but hedoesn't have everybody around
(22:51):
him.
He doesn't, you know, val, hisgal, natalie, only had like
three soldiers, whereas, likefor Sarah Fredste, she had an
entire company of people thatwere there helping to support
her.
And that's where it almosthurts more when it happens after
the fact, because the networkand the connection isn't there.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
That's a sad reality about how shitty we are at
connecting.
It's important to embrace thebrotherhood.
When you get out, make thatbrotherhood wider, cast your net
far out.
Reach out to Marines.
Don't look at just yes, thebrothers you serve with are
important, but continue buildingrelationships with other
veterans.
Help each other out, be therefor each other, because that is
(23:32):
that is heartbreaking to havethat service and not be
represented by your owncommunity but your own warrior
tribe losing fretsi was friggin.
That's a difficult one man likethat dude.
Having watched his, I don'tknow if you were privy to this,
but you know he got sent up touh headquarters for a while yes,
and he when he was brigade andthen division and he said in a
(23:55):
month I'm gonna be, yeah, I'mgonna be demoted, yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And sure enough, he was he fell.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
He fell apart, and that's a testament to almost God
.
Jack Carr couldn't have writtena better fucking novel about
Fred C, Because he called it Allhe ever knew.
All he ever knew was Biko.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Even before that last deployment he was sitting at CQ
with me Every single day.
He would finish his job atBattalion and Division, he came
back to the company and he wouldsit there.
But he even said you know, thisis my last deployment, I'm not
coming.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Yeah, I think I was reading the synopsis from forget
the name, I think it's McLeod,who's our PAO guy.
He wrote a book and he piecedtogether the last moments of
Fred C's life, the movement ashe was maneuvering his guys
through the firefight, and itreads exactly like somebody that
(24:50):
knew exactly what they weredoing, not only trying to take
the fight to the enemy, butknowing that, like I'm gonna put
myself out in the mostridiculous situation, so my guys
have the best advantage overthe enemy and if something
happens something fuckinghappens I'm going, I'm taking
the fight to them.
He wasn't the type of guy to belike I'm gonna tiptoe in this
danger.
He's like fuck, no, follow me,we're going in this shit that's
(25:13):
literally how I read likefucking follow me, we're going
into this and I'm like fuck dude, like like that was fred c.
The fact that he kept comingback to the company like a
wayward dog, that was it.
That's all he knew.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
That's all he knew.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Through every different, you know, and it's
like the last, the lastconnective tissue that I had to,
that like first platoon familythat I had, which started with
Mac as our platoon sergeant.
You know, michael mckenzie okay, you know, yep, joy fucking
sours flemly demon.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
No, no, it wasn't semen.
Oh, the pirate sea graves.
So grab it sea graves.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
There we go, yeah sea graves mcclymon, stro, strobel,
those guys seeing that lastafter come back from that
deployment and seeing how fastlike it dissipated, it was
definitely far easier to go toselection after that second
deployment because I realizedlike yeah, your family's been
(26:16):
split up.
There was a little bit in methat was like man, like I don't
want Van Arshtel to go downthere, they're going to
Afghanistan.
This is a real fight.
I don't want Van Arshtel to go.
I don't want Salgado to go.
There's a new dynamic in theplatoon.
I don't want to miss out onthis.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
I didn't even realize that those were your guys,
because I am super close withboth of them.
I actually just got off thephone with both of them.
I actually just got off thephone with both of them
yesterday for the first time inlike 12 years of talking to them
.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
I will tell you I have had some great soldiers,
some great paratroopers, myabsolute heart of the best
soldiers I ever had a chance todirectly work with, directly
lead Salgado, van Arsdale andParacas 100%, 100%.
Those guys could have been ifthey would have chose to stay in
like I honestly think that wewould have been seeing them on
(27:06):
company command post, uh postersand all.
They were just phenomenalsoldiers and I'm biased.
I'm biased because I spent timewith them, but they were
remarkable, fucking dudes and Iam so happy that my journey
ended there with those guys.
As the last soldiers I Idirectly coached a mentor.
Special forces is a littledifferent.
You have, yeah, had juniors,have been able to like, provide
(27:28):
guidance, but it's not the sameas being able to have your own
paratroopers.
It's like the last time youwere directly 100%.
I mean, besides my uplift Love,you Shout out to you dogs
Because, as a chief, you know mylast trip to Afghanistan, I got
.
Shout out to you dogs Because,as a chief, you know my last
trip to Afghanistan, I got to.
(27:48):
You know, work, have my littleuplift kids and not the same,
but you still get close to thoseguys because they're still.
It's amazing to see how goodyoung paratroopers are.
That's the thing.
Like everybody wants to be.
Like man fucking specialoperations, the middle of night
dude, that's all cool.
Give me an 18 year old, 19 yearold paratrooper from fucking
(28:11):
the 82nd, I will show you someamerica's finest, because they
will, bro, they will figure itout.
They they don't.
They don't know.
Quit man.
Like it's just amazing to seethat.
Like it's.
I've seen some dudes that arelike fuck man, I don't know if
we don't have this.
Like they, first of all, theygo out there.
They don't have air assets likewe do.
Awt, awt isn't coming onstation like they do for us.
(28:32):
These motherfuckers like, yeah,we're gonna be here all day.
Fuck yeah, awesome, do it againtomorrow.
It's like fuck yeah, they'rehungry kids.
And I look back at our time andit's like man, like I'm so glad
I got to experience that, versuscoming in through the X and
missing that.
I'm glad I experienced it, thegood and the bad, because you
know not to spend too much timeon Timothy Jordan, so I
(28:56):
absolutely think he's the mostdog shit individual I've ever
met.
If this ever gets to him, Ihope you're having a miserable
day.
I hope that you stub your toetwice today and three times on
Sunday.
I hope that you get chargedwith tax evasion.
I hope your mail never gets toyou on time.
I hope that you don't qualifyAmazon Prime and that you can't
get Netflix wherever you're at.
You're that much of a horribleperson.
(29:16):
And I'm just trying to play itlightly because I'm trying to be
nice, because I'm trying toenjoy my time with Strand today,
but it's like fuck it.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
See, and that's where I always try to think of it too
, as a quarter You've got thedouble sides.
Even though he was horrible,you get just as much knowledge
from a horrible person if youproceed correctly with it.
I learned what not to do, hownot to act, how not to speak to
people, how not to treatindividuals.
You know, I learned a lot offof all of his mistakes Well, his
(29:45):
entire, in my opinion, career,but it was so bad.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
It was so bad that even the PLs rallied around him
and ultimately there were hisundoing Come to find out he had
he had pinned on some awardsthat he did not earn.
Yeah, did you know this story,gotcha?
Speaker 2 (30:03):
No, I did not.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Allow me to tell you the story, the ballad of Timothy
Jordan.
You see, timothy Jordan wasalso reclassed infantry.
He didn't earn a CIB and he hadfalsely put on a CIB for all
his, all his, all his stuff hada cib on it and it was uh, I
(30:25):
won't say, I won't say exactlywhich one of our um pls I
believe it was brantley uhstarted looking into it and
figured out that yeah, you havesome, you have some
discrepancies in your servicerecord dog.
And then that was the finalthing that did him in.
They figured out that yeah, hewas.
Uh, I think him and ong wereinvolved in that deep, deep uh
(30:46):
search through his records.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
But yeah, oh, those guys so much dude.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Oh my gosh, it's so funny because like we think
about like a band of brothersand how everybody coalesced
around hating uh sobel and it'sjust like, wow, like we did the
same thing.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Absolutely, but it made us that much tighter,
better, stronger.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Dude, when you were, when you came back from that
trip, like what led you to makethat decision, or was it
ultimately made for you to getout?
Speaker 2 (31:15):
I ended up staying in and I did my entire contract.
So after I had gotten back,after Jordan was gone, I got
moved into operations.
I felt more integral to theteam.
I took on more than most of theop guys do.
Like I said, I was answeringthe first sergeant's emails,
responding for the CO, all thesergeant major taskings, the bub
updates, everybody's records,everybody's awards.
(31:39):
You know, when you were outprocessing, I was out processing
you handling new in processing,pretty much every single aspect
.
So I felt important and neededat least.
And then, just day and today,you know you blink.
And all of a sudden a year haspassed and I really wanted to be
on the line and do my infantrystuff and I actually tried to
follow captain rick jones, ifyou remember him, he took over
(32:02):
for Captain Miller.
He went to like some helicoptergroup or something like that
and they were slotted to go toAfghanistan.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
And I tried to transfer.
Yeah, it's a Pathfinder company, is that?
Yeah, yep.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
That's what it was, yep.
But I ended up getting shotdown by Sergeant Major Burzak
and First Sergeant True, no Bird, and I was so pissed at them at
the time but I didn't know it.
But coming down the blotters wewere slotted to go to
Afghanistan and once I foundthat out I got to go out.
And I didn't get to go out onevery mission but I volunteered
(32:35):
every single opportunity I had.
I tried to throw my chip inwith the group.
Bird was fucking everybody.
One day they had to fillsandbags and they didn't get
enough of them filled.
So the whole company got calledover there and I remember
mckelvey saw me over therefilling sandbags and he's like
what the fuck are you doing overhere?
Like well, first sergeant saidthe whole company, I'm part of
(32:55):
this company, ain't I?
He's like yeah, but you're ops,what shouldn't you be in the
talk?
Like no, I'm just gonna be therunner.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
I left the other guy in there fuck yeah, man, I
didn't know you made it on thatdeployment.
I thought you'd gotten rightbefore.
Fuck yeah no, yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
so and that's where I actually turned into a little
bit of a fight and I still havea little bit of missed feelings
about a couple of guys, but I'mtrying to communicate with them
and let it down because maybeOPSEC related we got into a big
firefight and I put on Facebookoh my God, I'm so excited.
Finally, after four years I'vegot to be an infantryman, I've
(33:31):
earned my CIB and a couple ofthe guys' wives had saw that and
they started freaking out withtheir husbands and stuff.
And now, being older, I can seethat.
But it was just.
I've never felt so much joy asI did in that moment when I got
to return fire and actuallypeople understand that and it's
um bro, we've all been there.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
And if you say you haven't, you're fucking lying.
It's bro, you get your gun outas a green beret.
You think you're gonna put iton instagram and your team
sergeant finds it.
Fuck, let me tell you, dog,you're not gonna have a good
fucking time.
You're not.
You're gonna get fuckingroasted.
You're gonna get fuckingclowned by your boys and it's
(34:13):
gonna be sad, sad boy hour.
It sucks.
You get excited.
You've trained for how long todo this job.
You finally get to do somethingcool.
You want to throw it out in thegram and, yeah, you get your pp
slap.
That should be it, though.
You learn, you grow and youadapt.
Didn't fucking do that again.
I'm not gonna get fuckingslammed down by my dick, down by
(34:35):
my fucking team.
Start or the team don't want todo that shit again.
So you don't do it.
You got to be able to moveforward, be able to have grace.
Man, like shit happens.
Dude, I intimately know whatthat feels like and I know how
shitty it can feel like whenyour peers say the fuck are you
doing, dog?
Like yank you back into theinto existence.
Like, oh, I did something bad,but you shouldn't have to.
(34:58):
You know, carry that on forever, man, it's.
It's how many years it was 2012, 2013.
, yeah, 2012.
Yeah, we all make mistakes.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, 13 years ago.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
It sucks, but people should forgive, people should
forget and understand.
Like dude, I got excited, man.
I've been fucking sitting herein ops for how many fucking get
to go out there with you guys?
Yeah, I, I hope they canunderstand, man, it's every
young man goes to war and theywant to have that moment and
when you finally get a chance tohave it, and with the world of
social media, yeah, wasn't rightmove, but we can forgive it
(35:33):
probably not, yeah yeah, we onlylive once.
Damn it yellow, send that selfieto mid firefight.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Absolutely, yeah, I've seen guys get away with
worse.
But yeah, and then bullshit.
And then after, uh, I ended upuh etsing.
Shortly thereafter that was myfive years.
I had to extend a little bit todo that deployment and then I
got out, did some nasty girltime.
I really yeah yep.
So I ended up doing eight yearstotal five with the 82nd and
then three with the nasty girlsand it was nice the first unit I
(36:03):
got to, then three with thenasty girls and it was nice.
The first unit I got to.
They were on the longdeployment.
I guess it was MinnesotaNational Guard.
They were deployed for 23months consecutively at the
beginning of the war.
So these guys really knew theirshit.
But it was nice because our optempo was slower as a National
Guard.
You know, when we were active Ionly got eight jumps in the
whole time in my five years inthe 82nd airborne five at
(36:24):
airborne school, one when I gotto the unit, one when we got
back from iraq and a toy droppedtechnically the day after I got
out of the army.
What?
Speaker 1 (36:36):
yeah, dog, we were jumping.
We were jumping every otherfucking week it's miserable.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Yeah, yeah, but when I got there, though, you know I
got there.
We're in the field, we go toJRTC, we go to Iraq, we get back
.
We go on to leave.
So it was just, we never haddowntime.
You know, even when I took overops, I was like, okay, well,
you're a times three, so youhave to jump.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
I'm taking you off.
Whatever detail you'reprioritizing, it hurts placing
you because, yeah, exactly I, Iwill never, no, I can't say
never.
I would suck fucking golf ballthrough a garden hose to get a
jump into normandy.
After watching that, I was justthere.
That was fucking awesome.
But yeah, the sag line in aikenat least was not fun.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Yeah, no.
So and that brings me to youknow, what I've tried to do is
reconnect with some of the guysand open up a network and
everything the awesome thing,like we're talking about Elgop.
On Father's Day night I startedsending out just a shotgun
blast to old phone numbers thatI had Yours was one of them and
by what Father's Day was Sundayby Tuesday afternoon I sent 34
(37:45):
text messages out.
I had 35 people responding.
Somebody else had contactedsomebody else who I didn't even
have their number and wascalling to check on me because
it was just a hey, I don't knowif this number is still good,
I'm just reaching out andthey're like well, you know
what's going on, let me know.
Know what's going on and to tryto bring some of that back.
Everybody's got differentexperiences, skills and
(38:06):
everything else.
I can actually get you a reallyinto normandy I.
I jumped into normandy in the81st anniversary, the 80th
anniversary, no 80th, 79th, 20th, 75th.
I've jumped into mount douce,saint michelle, off that, okay
yeah.
So I'll send you a couplephotos.
I'm in one of the chutes,jumping out over that castle.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
How do we get to jump together?
And how do I do it keeping mylong hair?
Because I'm not cutting thisshit for anybody.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Yeah.
So the great thing is there's areally good community out there
called Round Canopy ParachuteTeam.
They've got 12 chapters acrossthe world and I think we have a
second chapter.
We're working in the UnitedStates on the West Coast, but
they're down in Palatka, florida.
They take all persons.
Most of us are all militarytype people, but there are a few
people like Dick Winters, theBand of Brothers guy.
(38:58):
His nephew is on our team.
He never served, but he waslike hey, you know, I want to do
this because I want to honorExactly Yep, but it's a really
really tight group and corepeople.
I found out about it in 2018when I was over in the
Netherlands.
I watched some guys jumping.
It was Doc Wilson's his name.
He was a special operatormedical.
He has a history.
(39:20):
Supposedly, if you say his name, everybody knows it and, sure
enough, a lot of the guys thatare out you say his name,
they're like, oh fuck, yeah, docWilson, we know him.
But he was walking off the DZ.
He's got his aviator kickbag inhis reserve and I'm like, hey,
what unit are you with?
You're a little bit old, aren'tyou?
He's like yeah, I am a littlebit old.
I'm like 73 years old, are younot retired?
(39:41):
He's like I'm a civilian now.
Here's our business card.
You should join and jump withus and we all do it as a
remembrance in everything espritde corps, love of it, remember
heritage, history, everythingelse, but everybody.
There's so many avenues,there's so many different things
.
I didn't know about your show.
I listened to one episode.
(40:02):
It was a guy talking about AI.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Yeah, josh Otero, shout out to you.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
Super interesting.
Yeah, it was super interesting.
I'm like this has really goodpotential and it would be great
to see how this could develop.
But I didn't know about that.
You knew about that.
But by us reconnecting I'm ableto gain that knowledge.
You know, I have knowledge ofjumping still.
You know jumping aroundparachutes.
We jump conneaut, uh wings overmichigan, thunder or something.
A whole bunch of differentstuff.
But now that you and I havereconnected, I've given you one
(40:33):
more tool that you can holy shit.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Yeah, that's fucking badass man, dude, are you?
Uh?
Are you also free fall rated?
Speaker 2 (40:40):
I am not.
I started it back in 2020 and.
Covid knocked it down and thenI started it again in 2022.
And me and Larkin were no, Idon't think Larkin was running
with me.
I was running a marathonbecause I decided that that was
going to be a good idea.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Are you into endurance running?
Speaker 2 (40:57):
I am yes.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Well, allow me to pitch to you the Security Halt
Misogi Challenge, threeendurance events throughout the
year, all so that we can focusour perspective on the greatness
we have in life Because, as youcan remember intimately,
there's nothing greater thandoing something horrible and
looking back on it and saying,wow, no matter how shitty today
is, I just got done doing thisreally shitty event.
(41:20):
Doing hard things gave usperspective as infantrymen, as
special operators, as guys inthe military.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
And one thing and it puts life into perspective.
If you hit a hard speed bump,you're like.
I know I can do this.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
Yes, the other thing is, I realized, as veterans, we
all fall victim to couchsyndrome, and what better thing
to do than to train and havesomething on the calendar to
look forward to?
So a shameless plug.
If you're looking to join ateam, the first event for the
year is going to be it's goingto always be the Savage Loop in
Destin, Florida.
The part of the benefit ofbeing part of our Misogi
(41:53):
Challenge is you don't have tocover up the entrance fee all by
yourself.
We're going to help you coverthat fee and you get to hang out
with some cool dudes.
No big deal.
We did the first one three ofus and we're looking to build a
team, Starting out hoping to getsix dudes.
Wanna be surrounded with hardmen, Hard, hard men, so hard
they can't get soft.
Wait, sound gay?
(42:14):
Not like that, not like that.
Just really really strong, hard, endurance freaks Oiled up
muscular.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Even the bear said.
Even the bear said man the bear.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
What a fucking loser.
But yeah, dude, we gotta talksome more because I gotta get
you on this team.
Man, we had, uh, we had somegood, good, awesome times last
event.
But uh, like I said, floridawould be the first event.
The memorial day weekend, theycontinue doing it.
Uh, the benavides ultra in fortcampbell, kentucky, because you
get a sweet belt buckle and whodoesn't want to collect belt
(42:49):
buckles and, right now, soft 10plated?
My good friend, liam coganshout out to you.
He's got an event that he'sputting on out in nevada area.
This one's kind of fuckingballer.
It's running I think it's 200miles.
This one's gonna be like insane.
He's doing it here in a coupleweeks.
He'll test it out.
Maybe we'll do that in a coupleyears, but we'll see how this
(43:10):
first one.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
It's mountain elevation gains and shit.
We'll let him buff it out.
Liam, do this first one, we'llsee how it goes.
That's a bit more than I canchew, but I can definitely
promise you two for next yearand we're still trying to figure
out that third one.
Just have to see if to do it.
But Liam, he's a fucking beast.
He's a fucking beast.
(43:31):
And yeah, shout out to you guys, he's coming back on the show
so we can promote it.
But what else are you up tothese days, strand?
What?
Speaker 2 (43:41):
was your transition like?
Transition was pretty good.
I've been with the BrownDelivery Company for quite a few
years.
They actually treat me worsethan the insurgents that we
fought in Afghanistan.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
I'm going to blur it from your uniform.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Don't worry.
Yeah, no, I thought I had itcovered up, it'll be blurred.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
How did you?
Speaker 2 (44:00):
find yourself.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
I've heard from a lot of people that go this route
that there's really goodbenefits, really good benefits.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Money and benefits.
I mean the medical I have, andthat's where networking and
connecting.
When I was in the army theywere going to med board me, they
were going to drop me, I'm abroke dick, so forth, and so on.
I'm now running fuckingmarathons.
Me and Larkin are going to begoing out to Wyoming to do an
elk harvest and just this lastweekend I did a-foot elevation
(44:29):
road march with 50 pounds ofgear for six miles.
41 years old, I don't have timeto train.
But if you have proper PT, ifyou have proper attention, if
you do things the correct waythrough science, you can do
anything still, no matter howbad something is.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
Pain is going to always be a factor.
Pain is going to always be afactor.
Just by getting out there andliving life, man.
That's what people need tounderstand.
Bad something Pain is going toalways be a factor.
Pain is going to always be afactor.
Just by getting out there andliving life, man.
That's what people need tounderstand.
You don't have to relegateyourself to the couch just
because you had injuries.
All of us are going to get outof the military.
If you serve with some sort ofcoded issue, some sort of
disability, don't let thatdefine you.
Push yourself, push your limits, heal, be willing to advocate
(45:09):
for yourself, to get bettertreatment modalities, be willing
to push yourself to do things.
Look, I'm no fucking strangerto pain and conditions or
doctors are going to tell youyou're not going to be able to
walk anymore without pain,you're not going to be able to
run again, you're not nevergoing to be able to do any of
the things you used to.
And then I started saying fuckthat, and I got rid of the
(45:30):
orthopedic shoes and I startedwalking and I started pushing
myself to go barefoot and nextthing you know you're running
again.
Look, lower back pain, upperback pain, fused neck, whatever
you got, challenge yourself toget outside and reconnect man.
That's oftentimes one of thebest things you can do to stay
connected with your friends,with your families, and get out
(45:50):
there and start living again.
Man, before we go, brent, tellus about your efforts to, kind
of like, get our BCO familytogether.
What were you going on?
Speaker 2 (45:59):
Yeah, so in 2020, people with no Sarn first class
Cromartie, I had connected withhim a little bit, but we all get
busy with our lives.
You know, I saw on Facebookhe's a mile away from my house
hey, we should get together, andwe just never pulled the
trigger on it.
And unfortunately, it eats atme a little bit because it feels
like if I would have put just alittle bit more effort or just
(46:20):
showing up, maybe I could havehelped in his moment of need and
prevented you know what heended up choosing to do.
But with that event, hislongtime partner at the time,
heather, she was doing a 50thbirthday for him and I connected
with her through Facebook media, social media, all of those
apps, ai stuff it's great, butit only works if you use it.
(46:42):
And he reached out to me andshe's like, hey, could you get a
couple of the guys together?
And it was me, bradley,hitchens, nagy and Larkin and we
got together and I was evengoing through a rough point at
that time in my life At least.
I sought out some help, sometherapy and everything else and
everything started to get alittle bit better at that point
(47:02):
in time.
But in that weekend that wewere together.
There was no problems, likeeverything, all of the demons
that I had following me, all thedark thoughts, all the suicidal
ideations, everything was justgone and it was just.
It was so liberating and sogreat.
And that's where me and one ofthe other guys you know he was
struggling with his own demonsas well and he's like you know
(47:24):
it would be great if we gottogether, not just when people
passed, but what if we just gottogether occasionally all the
time and we got a BCO gettogether?
I hosted last year was our firstyear after Cromartie.
We're doing it again thisweekend or in a few weekends,
august 8th weekend.
Right now we've got about adozen and a half or so guys.
(47:45):
Super simple, super basic.
You know guys are flying out.
If they drive up, I pick themup from the airport.
They're not far from my place.
Keep it inexpensive.
We go to Sam's Club and justpick up burgers and patties and
eggs and bacon.
We just sit and shoot the shitat my house.
Do some type of small,inexpensive bonding event.
Last year we went clay pigeonshooting, some skeet shooting.
(48:06):
This year we're going to floatdown the river and just
reminisce and talk and it's nicebecause everybody has a
different perspective.
I didn't know about this newultra marathon stuff that was
going on, but by us reconnecting, I now have another goal and
something that I can lookforward to, and it doesn't just
have to be hanging out at myplace.
Larkin and Milligan gottogether over a hunt, just
(48:28):
reconnect and throw it out there.
Hey, I'm going to be doing thisat this point in time.
Maybe someone lives nearby.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
Absolutely, man.
That's the type of initiativethat we all need to take.
If you're a BCO 2504 alumnifrom the years 2007, 2008, 2009,
2010, or going into 2013, 2014,.
Hit up Strand.
His contact information will bein the episode description.
(48:55):
Throw me the email, I'll put iton there.
Or if you want to let theviewers know what it is, no
problem.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
My email is the same one that I've had since I was a
kid old man, so brandoB-R-A-N-D-O, underscore 1-4-0-0,
at hotmailcom.
Otherwise, on Facebook, I thinkmy link is brandonstrandfi.
Speaker 1 (49:16):
I'll put all those links in the episode description
.
Feel free to connect.
And even if you're not a BCOindividual and you just want to
get with some veterans and hangout, fuck it, let's ball, let's
connect.
Let me tell you something weall need human connection and we
all need to find our tribe.
So, come on, let's all hang out.
Let's keep it respectful,please, let's.
(49:37):
Let's be mindful of people'ssituations.
Let's not go crazy this weekendcoming up, let's have some fun.
Let's keep it PG, all right, wedon't have to get crazy.
We don't have to party Like weused to party at Patty's or
Charlie.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
Mike's, I'm not 24 anymore, 41.
I need a couple of bottles ofwater and some ivy.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
Let's not get too carried away now.
All right, brandon, it's been apleasure getting you on the
show.
Man, thank you for coming onand for sharing your story.
I can't wait to have you backon.
Let's talk about what you do,stay healthy and stay active.
And yeah, man, it's an absolutepleasure to reconnect.
So let's not be strangers.
Let's continue this connectionand growing this fucking
community of brothers.
Man, we need to have a signalthread or a telegram thread.
(50:20):
I know Everybody has a thread,even our own.
Sec def can't get off signal.
That's neither here nor there.
I'm Denny Caballero.
Thank you for joining me, andI'll see you all next time.
Till then, take care.
Brandon Strand.
Welcome to the Secureio podcast.
How's it going, man?
I'm doing well and yourself alot better.
Dude, it is, uh, it is a busy,freaking day and it's like I'm
in Alabama now.
So, like every afternoon, it'slike insane thunderstorm.
So I'm like I'm like watchingthe wind outside like rattle
fences.
I'm like, all right, just uh,let's not lose power.
Lost power during an interviewthe other day.
(00:28):
I was like sitting theretalking and then like everything
cuts out.
I'm like motherfucker.
So hopefully the weather gotcold.
That would be brandon and I.
We go way back, way, way, way,way, way, way back to those
listening back in the 82nd days2504, always proud and very
happy to have anotherparatrooper.
And today, man, like I want todive into your story.
(00:50):
Take us all the way back, dude.
I want to, just for a spoileralert, we're going to cover
everything, specifically yourtransition, dude, when you got
out.
But first, what got you?
What was what made you want toserve in the almighty 82nd
airborne?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
so I wanted to serve in the almighty 82nd Airborne.
So I wanted to serve in themilitary my whole life.
But when I was 17, my momwouldn't sign off on the
paperwork, so I had to go tocollege, met a girl, got a house
settled down, so I didn't endup joining until I was 24 when
things kind of just started tofall apart.
But it fell apart in a way thatallowed me to be free to leave
(01:25):
and follow the dreams that I'dhad prior.
So when I got to the unit I wasone of the old guys.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I was just going to say that, like 24, looking back
seems like so wise and olderwhen the average private is like
18, 19.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Absolutely yeah, and actually when I started out,
special forces went throughSOPSI and everything.
I ended up having a couple ofknee surgeries and after I got
med dropped I ended up over at504.
And you were actually the veryfirst NCO.
I don't know if you remember,but you're the one who picked me
up from head to toe.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, dude.
Oh, my God, that's like foreverago.
God, I was such an asshole backin those days.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Forgive me days, Forgive me.
No, and that's where I was alittle bit nervous.
You know, I had just left SWCCairborne school in processing
basic training, everything else,so I was just expected to be
yelled at and everything elsehad three duffel bags and a
rolling tote bag and you're like, hey, give me one of those
things.
I'm just like, oh my God, likethey're, they're helping me.
(02:20):
For once they're not yelling atme.
This is different.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
It was not everybody got that experience, mind you.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
No, no, yeah.
Well, that's where even Huttonwas saying I like to go pick up
the new guys because we like tofuck with them.
But then when I was as old asyou and you're like, well, how
old are you?
And I'm like 25 now and you'relike, well, what did you do
beforehand?
I'm like I've been with mybusiness company now for eight
years and you know, I got abunch of money in the bank and
(02:48):
owned a home and so forth and soon.
And you were like, well, fuck,I think we want to keep this guy
.
I remember you bringing me intothe first platoon office and
you're like we're going to keephim if he can answer this
question.
You're like, which platoon isthe best platoon?
I don't know, I'm just a newguy who showed up.
And you're like it's easy.
And I'm like, well, obviouslyfirst is the best right.
And you're like, see, smart guy, let's keep them.
But the bear had other plans,so I went over to first the bear
(03:11):
, timothy Jordan.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Oh my gosh.
We'll reflect on that guy lateron.
Yeah, man, people forget thatyou can come in the military at
all sorts of different ages andyou were one of the many
wonderful additions to BCO thatdidn't fit the rank and file and
the mold of being a brand newlike what behind the ears?
18-year-old kid.
(03:32):
Like you had time, you exploredlife before you went in and
that made you a valuable assetdude.
Like you weren't just anotheryoung guy, you had information,
you had life experience and Ithink that's something that I
want to dive into.
What was like getting the thirdand then realizing that, like
you, had some characters in thatplatoon?
(03:53):
I'll let you introduce whatlife was like, because it's very
different when you were able tocome in and be like yeah, I can
sort of help you with life.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yes, yeah, and one thing I wasn't really good at is
the sarcasm and the thick skinstuff.
You know I was before I joinedthe military.
I was much more of a beta typeof person Just follow directions
.
You tell me what to do and I doit.
The military really brought outmuch more of an assertive and I
can do pretty much any goddamnthing that I want to and I need
to do.
So I got a lot of really goodskills like that.
(04:22):
But I remember Mignone was mysquad leader and Hal was in the
team and Hal cracked a joke.
But I didn't catch it as a joke, I took it as literalism.
So then I repeated it back toMignone and you could just watch
his facial expression drop andjust like what did you say to me
?
I'm just repeating what I wastold by the senior specialist
(04:43):
who told me to tell you and Idon't know what's going on and I
apologize if I'm stepping ontoes so there's a little bit of
a learning curve.
But once I got the hang of it,fell in love with the guys,
still trying to connect more nowthan I wish I would have in the
past.
But as you grow you get wiser,new opportunities open up.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah, it's not the.
It goes by fast time.
In the military especially, Ithink it's different.
A lot of mos is where you havethis sort of like shop mentality
, like 88 mics that working at amotor pool or an s1 shop
function, it can be reallyrelaxed and you kind of get to
do these fun things likecelebrate this sort of day and
(05:26):
like infantry is different, man,it's just like yes, you're not
doing like sexual harassment day, wear blue jeans to work day.
Like no, you're going to area j, you're going to suck and live
in a fucking cesspool becauseit's going to rain non-stop.
Like that's, that's ourexperience, that that's our
lived experience.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
And our op tempo too, like the very.
I think it was the second day Igot to the unit.
We were out at the shoot houseand Bradley Shane if you
remember him he's he'll come uplater in the conversation but
that's the shoot house that youguys got to go do some cool like
spec ops type stuff, cause theguy was a former I don't know
what he was, I was too new.
I made dumb you know day oneprivate mistakes type thing that
(06:07):
he shook his head at and he wasjust like well, you did exactly
as I said.
It was wrong, but it wasexactly as I said, so go over
there.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah, those are everybody's like.
Everybody has to go throughthat.
That's the amateur experience.
You gotta be a novicebeginner's mind.
That's the um, the inventoryexperience.
You gotta be a novicebeginner's mind.
And sometimes it's painful, man, sometimes it's brutally
fucking painful.
Like what was it like showingup, like being older, being
wiser in certain regards, butthen having you know your, your
(06:37):
senior, the guys in charge youis a little younger than you.
What was that like?
For me it wasn't too difficult.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
I've always gravitated towards older persons
.
Most of my friends groups tendsto be a little bit older than
myself.
I tend to fall in line withsubject matter experts.
If you're an expert, I don'tcare.
If you're five years old, 50years old, I'm going to do what
you say because you have thetrained, learned experience.
I think that was just somethingthat came along a little bit
more with me being a 24-year-oldadult.
(07:04):
That was just something thatcame along a little bit more
with me being a 24-year-oldadult.
I have the answer to all oflife's problems.
If you do it this way,everything in the world will be
better.
I've been around the block nowfor a few years.
I'm starting to realize I don'tknow everything, and when I
don't know everything, go tosomebody who does so.
In that respect I was able toget along with a lot of my
leadership really well.
For me it was awkward and stillis.
(07:27):
I see everybody as peers, soyou know, eventually I ended up
having to have surgeries andstuff and I was working
operations.
And when I was in there I wasjust an E4.
They tried to promote me and Ideclined promotion because be no
do.
If I'm an infantryman and Ican't do an infantryman's job, I
shouldn't be an NCO leadingother infantrymen.
But I'm reading the firstsergeant's emails.
(07:50):
I'm writing OERs for theofficers.
I'm calling Lieutenant Kearnsbut I'm not calling him
lieutenant.
I'm like, hey, Kearns, I needto see you in my office.
You got like 45 minutes.
Make sure you bring your OERand everything else.
We've got to get this shittaken care of.
Even at one time I went up tothe battalion headquarters.
I was dropping off some awardsand the sergeant major stood at
(08:10):
ease and he went oh, don't youknow who that is?
That's sergeant major strand.
You.
You go to parade rest.
When he walked by and I know hewas just fucking around, type
of a thing- I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I didn't know you turned down promotion.
I knew I knew, coming out ofdeployment you had issues.
You had some knee issues, but Ididn't know how bad it was.
I didn't know how bad it was.
Did you know that sort of yourtime was coming to an end and it
was just like I'm not going tobe able to continue this?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Not so much but also a little bit.
So before we had even deployedto Iraq, I was actually on
medical discharge paperwork fromwas it Womack or whoever
whatever hospitals there BecauseI had blown my knee out, had
surgery, went to selection.
They found out I had blown myknee out.
My physicality started to godownhill.
I went from the front of theroad marches to the middle, to
(09:01):
the back.
Eventually, they ended uphaving to cut my pants off me
because my knee had swelled upto the point where I couldn't
even get my pants off anymore.
But you know, with our op tempothat we had on going on during
G1 and everything the bear andCaptain Miller are like sorry,
we need to every body, everyhands on deck you're deploying
with us and after we get backthen, you know, have your
(09:22):
surgeries and med board you.
But, after I had deployed, Istarted out doing Intel work.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
We built that like company.
Like fuck, I forgot yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
COIS Company.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Intelligence Support Team.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah, yep, so and that's where then I was working
up at battalion.
So you know, as an E3 privateI'm brushing elbows with
lieutenant colonels and majorsand staff sergeants and sergeant
first classes, which also ledto me being more of a seeing
everybody as my peer, notnecessarily.
The rank kind of got me introuble a couple of times.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
But yeah, I think they made the right choice
selecting you.
Did you go into that deployment?
Did you feel sort of like fuck,dude, I'm getting like I I got
here should be doing this jobwith my infantry brothers, but
now they got me doing thisfucking.
Did you feel any sort of like aheartache?
Or did you feel like now, this,this can be a cool fucking
mission too?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
it was a lot of different things.
So first I felt like a failure,having blown my knee out, not
being able to make it throughselection, you know.
So that was tough.
And then, getting to the line,I'm like, okay, well, at least I
get to be an infantryman,they're like, actually you're
not, well, you're you're aninfantryman, but you were going
to task you with another taskand purpose.
So then I felt sidelined andkind of useless.
(10:39):
And then, once I started doingthe job the type of person I am
you give me a mission and I'mgoing to do everything I can.
You know, you're only as strongas your weakest link and I'm
going to make sure that I am notthe weak link here, so I'm
going to do everything Ipossibly can.
And then I started to realizehow important each and every
single other role is.
And you know, I was sittingwith I think it was McKenzie
(11:04):
staff sergeant type type secondplatoon and I sat and I gave
them a brief before they wentout on most likely course of
action, most deadly course ofaction roads, terrain, weather,
so forth and so on.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
He's like, holy fuck, I feel like I'm the lieutenant
colonel and you just told me theentire battlefield AO Like well
that's perspective going lateron in my career, going into
special operations, going andbecoming a Green Beret,
understanding like how vital itis to have this information and
(11:34):
then, looking back, 90% of thetime nobody knew what the fuck
was going on.
You're just yes.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
You're going on a patrol.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Cool.
Are they bad guys?
Maybe Are there IADs Certainly.
How dangerous?
Yes, pretty dangerous A lot.
What do you want us to do?
I don't fucking know, just go.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
React to contact Battle drill one alpha, you know
.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Oh my gosh, who was in that COISO with you?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
So, sergeant Burbank was the leader burbank navy guy,
navy guy, right yes I don'tremember what he was prior, but
he was a reclass.
He came from, yeah, recruiterand a bunch of other stuff.
Yeah, that came in as an e5expecting.
You know, I'm an e5 infantrymannow, so you'll respect me, even
(12:24):
though this e2 private.
Whoever has more line time thanI do.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Burbank.
I remember that there was acouple other cats in there.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Yep, we had.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Fish Ronald Wilson.
Oh my gosh, yeah, ronnie, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Yep.
And then we had our NBC guystarts with the name S s drawn a
blank.
He always did the night shift,though, so he was just, like you
know, tracking where people areon the battlefield and who's
here and who's not here I'mtracking, I'm tracking, yeah,
yeah, uh, halo, yeah and then wehad, uh, specialist wilson,
(12:58):
fireball wilson, I think, didn't.
He come from first platoon, sohe, he was the White Wilson.
You know, the Hadouken shootsfireballs.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
He was my contribution.
Gotcha, yeah, and that's whereyou know everybody has their
place.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yes, he as an infantryman, he doesn't have the
mentality I think to be youknow, but he was wicked smart I
knew he was smart.
Incredibly smart, and that'swhere he was sitting and making
diagrams and he's like, well,this guy's linked to this guy
and this guy's linked to thisguy, and this guy was spotted in
this ao and this guy'svehicle's this one, and we just
apprehended this person.
So the network says thatthere's something going on over
(13:36):
here.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Sure is right, there's something going on it
just goes to show you that 90 ofthe time we allocate, we need
to do a better job of figuringout where people are properly
fit for it and see the potentialfor people.
I stumbled yeah, it's notbecause I was a smart, great
leader, no, I was.
I was an asshole.
And wilson didn't fit thementality of our team or our
(13:59):
squad.
Uh, he was definitely, and itwas one of those jobs where
you're just like, oh fuck, dude,it's gonna to be a job for
Intel.
What am I going to do now?
I'm going to be hamstrung bythis guy and then you pass him
off in there and if only I wouldhave been able, I could have
done the same thing.
But recognize the potential inhis intelligence and who knows
what he's doing right now, thatmotherfucker could be working
for Andrew developing fuckingdrones.
(14:20):
One of the greatest moments oflike being able to reflect and
realizing how much of a fuckingidiot you were as a leader.
But you missed.
Your fuck up actually helped.
It actually did like just beingan asshole.
Put the right person in theright place because, looking
back, he was absolutelyintelligent.
Not the type of intelligenceyou need on a fire team arguably
(14:42):
, arguably, uh, but the type ofguy you need doing analysis work
.
And man, I really hope yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
There's even a couple other examples too.
I was last night.
We'll get to a little bit later.
What I've been working on I gotin touch with, when I met him,
specialist Shadmani.
Now he's going to the SergeantMajor Board, he's on the blotter
, he's going to the SergeantMajor's Academy and he still has
that because he's still in.
He still has that mentality.
I said you know, hey, nagy'sgetting together with us and
he's like holy shit, you know,that guy was a fuck-up Because
(15:12):
he still has that thoughtprocess.
And then Bradley, who's beenout for a while I was talking
about Boone.
You know, gangly little littleguy everything else.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Have you seen him on facebook?
Dude's a ripped jackmotherfucker.
I've worried about him for somany years because of nobody's
more brutal than infantrymaninfantryman and yeah, that boy,
that man now like whether heever admits it.
You know he went through someshit in his life, absolutely.
And when he showed up to usbecause of the palate deformity,
(15:49):
holy shit, dude.
I mean, yeah, warriors are thehardest fucking people on each
other and it's just like, oh man, I hope that he's been able to
find the strength and thecourage to friggin' move forward
, because we were fucking brutal.
I remember I won't say theguy's name, but man, we were
(16:10):
hard on old Boone.
It's not a but dude, theWarriors were a different breed
but he was always brought intothe fold, never excommunicated
or pushed aside like Rose,because Rose was a piece of shit
.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
That was before I had gotten there.
I recognize.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Yeah, if you don't shower and you sleep with dip in
and you do weird things, you'reexcommunicated from the platoon
.
But yeah, dude Boone, great kid, and at the testimony to what a
hard worker he was.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
And that's even coming back to like you're
saying, you have to start new togrow up.
There was another.
He was a free.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
O-Rock, O-Rock yes.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Absolutely yeah.
He's now a drill and he's a DI.
Get out of here.
Training new recruits andeverything.
But the very first time that Ihad met him he was under Staff
Sergeant Edwards, not the Larrytype, the shorter blonde haired.
Yes.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yes, staff Sergeant Ranger Ranger, ranger, eddie.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Yes, yep, and you know we're doing simulated
contact type of a thing, and hegets down on, you know, distance
, direction, description, soforth, so on, gets down and
there's a tree like two feet tohis front right and he just lays
there for like 10 minutes Alldone it, all done it, yep.
Front right and he just laysthere for like 10 minutes.
(17:28):
All done it, yep.
Yes, and that's where the staffsergeant runs over there and
just starts kicking him in thehelmet.
These are fucking bullets.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
I couldn't kick you if you were behind the goddamn
tree, but I'm sure it's stuck inthere and I will tell you you
know he's passing that knowledgeon.
Staff sergeant ranger qualifiededwards was one of the most
high energy pit bulls you couldever be and a great leader,
great, great, freaking leader.
He's one of the few that everstood up to the bear and one of
(17:55):
the few that ever oh yeah, oh,fuck you him and okay, I'm gonna
fucking butcher this.
Was it martinez.
He was second platoon.
I can't fucking remember hisname, but Edwards stood up to
the bear many a times, many afucking time.
I'm surprised he fucking and Ithink the reality is Timothy
(18:16):
Jordan.
I have a hard time forgettingand ever forgiving this man for
what he's done.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, but he also brought us together, we all
coales like around hating himbecause how awful he was.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yes, but eddie stood up to him in a big show of force
because there was a lot of guyslike with with eddie, a lot of
people were like, oh man, he'srough like that dude, he knew
his shit, he wanted you whetheryou like it or not, the dude
wanted you to come back home andhe, he did the job the best of
his fucking ability.
He was a firecracker man.
That motherfucker was always onfire, ready to go.
(18:49):
But you couldn't want a betterleader next to you, or for a
second.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
I think it was second platoon, yeah, second platoon
or third was he a really bigwhite guy, did a deployment with
you guys he had the babyincident that kind of screwed
with me mentally and, but okay,it started with an.
It was like mix.
No, no, no, that's different,that was a different guy, uh.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
But yeah, it was one of the things that, uh, for me
it was like always stood out tome.
It's like when everybody elseshied away from fucking going
directly at the bear's throatand he had no problem, he did it
.
I think I witnessed it severaltimes and I was like dude, dude,
all right, that's a dude.
I mean my guy's ass chewed atthe end of the day by the
platoon sergeant, but he did itin front of the entire fucking
(19:31):
company and that's my dude.
Hell, yeah, always, always agood dude.
Yeah, there's some great guysin that fucking company, man,
great fucking dudes, yes.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah well, and that's where everybody's coming from a
different background, adifferent experience.
Everyone's got different skillsthat they can bring to the
table.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
That's why I'm always like you know, we talk about
Rangers, Navy SEALs.
Fucking man, A paratrooper thatsigns up to just fucking get
kicked in the dick and go afterthe enemy day in and day out,
that's a dude.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
We need to coalesce and that's the main effort, man,
that's the main effort and it'sfunny because they don't
necessarily fit the mold.
Two of the best guys that Iremember is Eisman and Cohen.
(20:23):
E know Eisman, you'd give him a.240 and I don't even know
god-awful amounts of ammunition,and he was fat-bodied, whatever
that is, and we're trying toget him chaptered out and he
smoked, dope once or twice orsomething, but he couldn't quit.
He didn't know how to quit.
You know, if you fell down hewould pick you and your weapon
(20:43):
up with the 240 and the ammo andcontinue to drive on and you
wouldn't even hear him there'stwo or anything same thing with
cohen.
We did one one joax, and hejumped out, bad landing.
You know, winds are holding atthree knots, we're good to jump
and he burned in, hit the groundhard enough that he bounced.
And when he finally woke up,all he kept saying is where's my
(21:06):
rifle up?
All he kept saying is where'smy rifle?
Where's my nods?
I need my SI.
Where's my rifle?
We had taken all of that fromhim.
That's what he was even sayinga day later after the fact.
You know just that.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Not give up person, and that's where you get most of
your TBI not service related do.
I know that.
That's why the infantry andparatroopers are so fucking
phenomenal.
Man like just eisman himselfman, a character larger than
life to impact, and not just hisown platoon.
But everybody, dude, everybodywent out.
(21:36):
Everybody has a story of goingout with ice, everybody has a
story of his kindness, his jokes, yeah, and I mean his friend to
this day.
I see it on facebook.
He still missed the dude went onto become police officer, sadly
passed away.
And that's the thing that wedon't focus enough.
Man, like when a when a dudedies in combat, like that's
(21:58):
fucking hard, horrible, but when?
But when we lose guys asthey're just getting to like
that prime of their life, likefiguring things out after
service, that fucking sucks justas much.
Dude, that's just like becauseyou see guys struggle all the
fucking time, it's when you havethe victory.
When you see somebody that'slike fuck your police officer,
(22:18):
you're, you're plugged into yourcommunity, you're doing great
things for others, fuck, you'rea police officer, you're plugged
into your community, you'redoing great things for others,
and then drop of a hat, they'regone.
And I know it's life.
It's nothing guaranteed.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
It's everything.
We're all going to go through it, and for me it's even harder.
So you know, like Fred Steed, Istill remember the exact phone
call that came through McDevittwas the one who called and it
killed me, but you know, untilValhalla and dying a warrior's
death and everything else,whereas, like Eisman, he's now
getting it together but hedoesn't have everybody around
(22:51):
him.
He doesn't, you know, val, hisgal, natalie, only had like
three soldiers, whereas, likefor Sarah Fredste, she had an
entire company of people thatwere there helping to support
her.
And that's where it almosthurts more when it happens after
the fact, because the networkand the connection isn't there.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
That's a sad reality about how shitty we are at
connecting.
It's important to embrace thebrotherhood.
When you get out, make thatbrotherhood wider, cast your net
far out.
Reach out to Marines.
Don't look at just yes, thebrothers you serve with are
important, but continue buildingrelationships with other
veterans.
Help each other out, be therefor each other, because that is
(23:32):
that is heartbreaking to havethat service and not be
represented by your owncommunity but your own warrior
tribe losing fretsi was friggin.
That's a difficult one man likethat dude.
Having watched his, I don'tknow if you were privy to this,
but you know he got sent up touh headquarters for a while yes,
and he when he was brigade andthen division and he said in a
(23:55):
month I'm gonna be, yeah, I'mgonna be demoted, yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And sure enough, he was he fell.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
He fell apart, and that's a testament to almost God
.
Jack Carr couldn't have writtena better fucking novel about
Fred C, Because he called it Allhe ever knew.
All he ever knew was Biko.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Even before that last deployment he was sitting at CQ
with me Every single day.
He would finish his job atBattalion and Division, he came
back to the company and he wouldsit there.
But he even said you know, thisis my last deployment, I'm not
coming.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Yeah, I think I was reading the synopsis from forget
the name, I think it's McLeod,who's our PAO guy.
He wrote a book and he piecedtogether the last moments of
Fred C's life, the movement ashe was maneuvering his guys
through the firefight, and itreads exactly like somebody that
(24:50):
knew exactly what they weredoing, not only trying to take
the fight to the enemy, butknowing that, like I'm gonna put
myself out in the mostridiculous situation, so my guys
have the best advantage overthe enemy and if something
happens something fuckinghappens I'm going, I'm taking
the fight to them.
He wasn't the type of guy to belike I'm gonna tiptoe in this
danger.
He's like fuck, no, follow me,we're going in this shit that's
(25:13):
literally how I read likefucking follow me, we're going
into this and I'm like fuck dude, like like that was fred c.
The fact that he kept comingback to the company like a
wayward dog, that was it.
That's all he knew.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
That's all he knew.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Through every different, you know, and it's
like the last, the lastconnective tissue that I had to,
that like first platoon familythat I had, which started with
Mac as our platoon sergeant.
You know, michael mckenzie okay, you know, yep, joy fucking
sours flemly demon.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
No, no, it wasn't semen.
Oh, the pirate sea graves.
So grab it sea graves.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
There we go, yeah sea graves mcclymon, stro, strobel,
those guys seeing that lastafter come back from that
deployment and seeing how fastlike it dissipated, it was
definitely far easier to go toselection after that second
deployment because I realizedlike yeah, your family's been
(26:16):
split up.
There was a little bit in methat was like man, like I don't
want Van Arshtel to go downthere, they're going to
Afghanistan.
This is a real fight.
I don't want Van Arshtel to go.
I don't want Salgado to go.
There's a new dynamic in theplatoon.
I don't want to miss out onthis.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
I didn't even realize that those were your guys,
because I am super close withboth of them.
I actually just got off thephone with both of them.
I actually just got off thephone with both of them
yesterday for the first time inlike 12 years of talking to them
.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
I will tell you I have had some great soldiers,
some great paratroopers, myabsolute heart of the best
soldiers I ever had a chance todirectly work with, directly
lead Salgado, van Arsdale andParacas 100%, 100%.
Those guys could have been ifthey would have chose to stay in
like I honestly think that wewould have been seeing them on
(27:06):
company command post, uh postersand all.
They were just phenomenalsoldiers and I'm biased.
I'm biased because I spent timewith them, but they were
remarkable, fucking dudes and Iam so happy that my journey
ended there with those guys.
As the last soldiers I Idirectly coached a mentor.
Special forces is a littledifferent.
You have, yeah, had juniors,have been able to like, provide
(27:28):
guidance, but it's not the sameas being able to have your own
paratroopers.
It's like the last time youwere directly 100%.
I mean, besides my uplift Love,you Shout out to you dogs
Because, as a chief, you know mylast trip to Afghanistan, I got
.
Shout out to you dogs Because,as a chief, you know my last
trip to Afghanistan, I got to.
(27:48):
You know, work, have my littleuplift kids and not the same,
but you still get close to thoseguys because they're still.
It's amazing to see how goodyoung paratroopers are.
That's the thing.
Like everybody wants to be.
Like man fucking specialoperations, the middle of night
dude, that's all cool.
Give me an 18 year old, 19 yearold paratrooper from fucking
(28:11):
the 82nd, I will show you someamerica's finest, because they
will, bro, they will figure itout.
They they don't.
They don't know.
Quit man.
Like it's just amazing to seethat.
Like it's.
I've seen some dudes that arelike fuck man, I don't know if
we don't have this.
Like they, first of all, theygo out there.
They don't have air assets likewe do.
Awt, awt isn't coming onstation like they do for us.
(28:32):
These motherfuckers like, yeah,we're gonna be here all day.
Fuck yeah, awesome, do it againtomorrow.
It's like fuck yeah, they'rehungry kids.
And I look back at our time andit's like man, like I'm so glad
I got to experience that, versuscoming in through the X and
missing that.
I'm glad I experienced it, thegood and the bad, because you
know not to spend too much timeon Timothy Jordan, so I
(28:56):
absolutely think he's the mostdog shit individual I've ever
met.
If this ever gets to him, Ihope you're having a miserable
day.
I hope that you stub your toetwice today and three times on
Sunday.
I hope that you get chargedwith tax evasion.
I hope your mail never gets toyou on time.
I hope that you don't qualifyAmazon Prime and that you can't
get Netflix wherever you're at.
You're that much of a horribleperson.
(29:16):
And I'm just trying to play itlightly because I'm trying to be
nice, because I'm trying toenjoy my time with Strand today,
but it's like fuck it.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
See, and that's where I always try to think of it too
, as a quarter You've got thedouble sides.
Even though he was horrible,you get just as much knowledge
from a horrible person if youproceed correctly with it.
I learned what not to do, hownot to act, how not to speak to
people, how not to treatindividuals.
You know, I learned a lot offof all of his mistakes Well, his
(29:45):
entire, in my opinion, career,but it was so bad.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
It was so bad that even the PLs rallied around him
and ultimately there were hisundoing Come to find out he had
he had pinned on some awardsthat he did not earn.
Yeah, did you know this story,gotcha?
Speaker 2 (30:03):
No, I did not.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Allow me to tell you the story, the ballad of Timothy
Jordan.
You see, timothy Jordan wasalso reclassed infantry.
He didn't earn a CIB and he hadfalsely put on a CIB for all
his, all his, all his stuff hada cib on it and it was uh, I
(30:25):
won't say, I won't say exactlywhich one of our um pls I
believe it was brantley uhstarted looking into it and
figured out that yeah, you havesome, you have some
discrepancies in your servicerecord dog.
And then that was the finalthing that did him in.
They figured out that yeah, hewas.
Uh, I think him and ong wereinvolved in that deep, deep uh
(30:46):
search through his records.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
But yeah, oh, those guys so much dude.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Oh my gosh, it's so funny because like we think
about like a band of brothersand how everybody coalesced
around hating uh sobel and it'sjust like, wow, like we did the
same thing.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Absolutely, but it made us that much tighter,
better, stronger.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Dude, when you were, when you came back from that
trip, like what led you to makethat decision, or was it
ultimately made for you to getout?
Speaker 2 (31:15):
I ended up staying in and I did my entire contract.
So after I had gotten back,after Jordan was gone, I got
moved into operations.
I felt more integral to theteam.
I took on more than most of theop guys do.
Like I said, I was answeringthe first sergeant's emails,
responding for the CO, all thesergeant major taskings, the bub
updates, everybody's records,everybody's awards.
(31:39):
You know, when you were outprocessing, I was out processing
you handling new in processing,pretty much every single aspect
.
So I felt important and neededat least.
And then, just day and today,you know you blink.
And all of a sudden a year haspassed and I really wanted to be
on the line and do my infantrystuff and I actually tried to
follow captain rick jones, ifyou remember him, he took over
(32:02):
for Captain Miller.
He went to like some helicoptergroup or something like that
and they were slotted to go toAfghanistan.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
And I tried to transfer.
Yeah, it's a Pathfinder company, is that?
Yeah, yep.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
That's what it was, yep.
But I ended up getting shotdown by Sergeant Major Burzak
and First Sergeant True, no Bird, and I was so pissed at them at
the time but I didn't know it.
But coming down the blotters wewere slotted to go to
Afghanistan and once I foundthat out I got to go out.
And I didn't get to go out onevery mission but I volunteered
(32:35):
every single opportunity I had.
I tried to throw my chip inwith the group.
Bird was fucking everybody.
One day they had to fillsandbags and they didn't get
enough of them filled.
So the whole company got calledover there and I remember
mckelvey saw me over therefilling sandbags and he's like
what the fuck are you doing overhere?
Like well, first sergeant saidthe whole company, I'm part of
(32:55):
this company, ain't I?
He's like yeah, but you're ops,what shouldn't you be in the
talk?
Like no, I'm just gonna be therunner.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
I left the other guy in there fuck yeah, man, I
didn't know you made it on thatdeployment.
I thought you'd gotten rightbefore.
Fuck yeah no, yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
so and that's where I actually turned into a little
bit of a fight and I still havea little bit of missed feelings
about a couple of guys, but I'mtrying to communicate with them
and let it down because maybeOPSEC related we got into a big
firefight and I put on Facebookoh my God, I'm so excited.
Finally, after four years I'vegot to be an infantryman, I've
(33:31):
earned my CIB and a couple ofthe guys' wives had saw that and
they started freaking out withtheir husbands and stuff.
And now, being older, I can seethat.
But it was just.
I've never felt so much joy asI did in that moment when I got
to return fire and actuallypeople understand that and it's
um bro, we've all been there.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
And if you say you haven't, you're fucking lying.
It's bro, you get your gun outas a green beret.
You think you're gonna put iton instagram and your team
sergeant finds it.
Fuck, let me tell you, dog,you're not gonna have a good
fucking time.
You're not.
You're gonna get fuckingroasted.
You're gonna get fuckingclowned by your boys and it's
(34:13):
gonna be sad, sad boy hour.
It sucks.
You get excited.
You've trained for how long todo this job.
You finally get to do somethingcool.
You want to throw it out in thegram and, yeah, you get your pp
slap.
That should be it, though.
You learn, you grow and youadapt.
Didn't fucking do that again.
I'm not gonna get fuckingslammed down by my dick, down by
(34:35):
my fucking team.
Start or the team don't want todo that shit again.
So you don't do it.
You got to be able to moveforward, be able to have grace.
Man, like shit happens.
Dude, I intimately know whatthat feels like and I know how
shitty it can feel like whenyour peers say the fuck are you
doing, dog?
Like yank you back into theinto existence.
Like, oh, I did something bad,but you shouldn't have to.
(34:58):
You know, carry that on forever, man, it's.
It's how many years it was 2012, 2013.
, yeah, 2012.
Yeah, we all make mistakes.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, 13 years ago.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
It sucks, but people should forgive, people should
forget and understand.
Like dude, I got excited, man.
I've been fucking sitting herein ops for how many fucking get
to go out there with you guys?
Yeah, I, I hope they canunderstand, man, it's every
young man goes to war and theywant to have that moment and
when you finally get a chance tohave it, and with the world of
social media, yeah, wasn't rightmove, but we can forgive it
(35:33):
probably not, yeah yeah, we onlylive once.
Damn it yellow, send that selfieto mid firefight.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Absolutely, yeah, I've seen guys get away with
worse.
But yeah, and then bullshit.
And then after, uh, I ended upuh etsing.
Shortly thereafter that was myfive years.
I had to extend a little bit todo that deployment and then I
got out, did some nasty girltime.
I really yeah yep.
So I ended up doing eight yearstotal five with the 82nd and
then three with the nasty girlsand it was nice the first unit I
(36:03):
got to, then three with thenasty girls and it was nice.
The first unit I got to.
They were on the longdeployment.
I guess it was MinnesotaNational Guard.
They were deployed for 23months consecutively at the
beginning of the war.
So these guys really knew theirshit.
But it was nice because our optempo was slower as a National
Guard.
You know, when we were active Ionly got eight jumps in the
whole time in my five years inthe 82nd airborne five at
(36:24):
airborne school, one when I gotto the unit, one when we got
back from iraq and a toy droppedtechnically the day after I got
out of the army.
What?
Speaker 1 (36:36):
yeah, dog, we were jumping.
We were jumping every otherfucking week it's miserable.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Yeah, yeah, but when I got there, though, you know I
got there.
We're in the field, we go toJRTC, we go to Iraq, we get back
.
We go on to leave.
So it was just, we never haddowntime.
You know, even when I took overops, I was like, okay, well,
you're a times three, so youhave to jump.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
I'm taking you off.
Whatever detail you'reprioritizing, it hurts placing
you because, yeah, exactly I, Iwill never, no, I can't say
never.
I would suck fucking golf ballthrough a garden hose to get a
jump into normandy.
After watching that, I was justthere.
That was fucking awesome.
But yeah, the sag line in aikenat least was not fun.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Yeah, no.
So and that brings me to youknow, what I've tried to do is
reconnect with some of the guysand open up a network and
everything the awesome thing,like we're talking about Elgop.
On Father's Day night I startedsending out just a shotgun
blast to old phone numbers thatI had Yours was one of them and
by what Father's Day was Sundayby Tuesday afternoon I sent 34
(37:45):
text messages out.
I had 35 people responding.
Somebody else had contactedsomebody else who I didn't even
have their number and wascalling to check on me because
it was just a hey, I don't knowif this number is still good,
I'm just reaching out andthey're like well, you know
what's going on, let me know.
Know what's going on and to tryto bring some of that back.
Everybody's got differentexperiences, skills and
(38:06):
everything else.
I can actually get you a reallyinto normandy I.
I jumped into normandy in the81st anniversary, the 80th
anniversary, no 80th, 79th, 20th, 75th.
I've jumped into mount douce,saint michelle, off that, okay
yeah.
So I'll send you a couplephotos.
I'm in one of the chutes,jumping out over that castle.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
How do we get to jump together?
And how do I do it keeping mylong hair?
Because I'm not cutting thisshit for anybody.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Yeah.
So the great thing is there's areally good community out there
called Round Canopy ParachuteTeam.
They've got 12 chapters acrossthe world and I think we have a
second chapter.
We're working in the UnitedStates on the West Coast, but
they're down in Palatka, florida.
They take all persons.
Most of us are all militarytype people, but there are a few
people like Dick Winters, theBand of Brothers guy.
(38:58):
His nephew is on our team.
He never served, but he waslike hey, you know, I want to do
this because I want to honorExactly Yep, but it's a really
really tight group and corepeople.
I found out about it in 2018when I was over in the
Netherlands.
I watched some guys jumping.
It was Doc Wilson's his name.
He was a special operatormedical.
He has a history.
(39:20):
Supposedly, if you say his name, everybody knows it and, sure
enough, a lot of the guys thatare out you say his name,
they're like, oh fuck, yeah, docWilson, we know him.
But he was walking off the DZ.
He's got his aviator kickbag inhis reserve and I'm like, hey,
what unit are you with?
You're a little bit old, aren'tyou?
He's like yeah, I am a littlebit old.
I'm like 73 years old, are younot retired?
(39:41):
He's like I'm a civilian now.
Here's our business card.
You should join and jump withus and we all do it as a
remembrance in everything espritde corps, love of it, remember
heritage, history, everythingelse, but everybody.
There's so many avenues,there's so many different things
.
I didn't know about your show.
I listened to one episode.
(40:02):
It was a guy talking about AI.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Yeah, josh Otero, shout out to you.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
Super interesting.
Yeah, it was super interesting.
I'm like this has really goodpotential and it would be great
to see how this could develop.
But I didn't know about that.
You knew about that.
But by us reconnecting I'm ableto gain that knowledge.
You know, I have knowledge ofjumping still.
You know jumping aroundparachutes.
We jump conneaut, uh wings overmichigan, thunder or something.
A whole bunch of differentstuff.
But now that you and I havereconnected, I've given you one
(40:33):
more tool that you can holy shit.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Yeah, that's fucking badass man, dude, are you?
Uh?
Are you also free fall rated?
Speaker 2 (40:40):
I am not.
I started it back in 2020 and.
Covid knocked it down and thenI started it again in 2022.
And me and Larkin were no, Idon't think Larkin was running
with me.
I was running a marathonbecause I decided that that was
going to be a good idea.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Are you into endurance running?
Speaker 2 (40:57):
I am yes.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Well, allow me to pitch to you the Security Halt
Misogi Challenge, threeendurance events throughout the
year, all so that we can focusour perspective on the greatness
we have in life Because, as youcan remember intimately,
there's nothing greater thandoing something horrible and
looking back on it and saying,wow, no matter how shitty today
is, I just got done doing thisreally shitty event.
(41:20):
Doing hard things gave usperspective as infantrymen, as
special operators, as guys inthe military.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
And one thing and it puts life into perspective.
If you hit a hard speed bump,you're like.
I know I can do this.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
Yes, the other thing is, I realized, as veterans, we
all fall victim to couchsyndrome, and what better thing
to do than to train and havesomething on the calendar to
look forward to?
So a shameless plug.
If you're looking to join ateam, the first event for the
year is going to be it's goingto always be the Savage Loop in
Destin, Florida.
The part of the benefit ofbeing part of our Misogi
(41:53):
Challenge is you don't have tocover up the entrance fee all by
yourself.
We're going to help you coverthat fee and you get to hang out
with some cool dudes.
No big deal.
We did the first one three ofus and we're looking to build a
team, Starting out hoping to getsix dudes.
Wanna be surrounded with hardmen, Hard, hard men, so hard
they can't get soft.
Wait, sound gay?
(42:14):
Not like that, not like that.
Just really really strong, hard, endurance freaks Oiled up
muscular.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
Even the bear said.
Even the bear said man the bear.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
What a fucking loser.
But yeah, dude, we gotta talksome more because I gotta get
you on this team.
Man, we had, uh, we had somegood, good, awesome times last
event.
But uh, like I said, floridawould be the first event.
The memorial day weekend, theycontinue doing it.
Uh, the benavides ultra in fortcampbell, kentucky, because you
get a sweet belt buckle and whodoesn't want to collect belt
(42:49):
buckles and, right now, soft 10plated?
My good friend, liam coganshout out to you.
He's got an event that he'sputting on out in nevada area.
This one's kind of fuckingballer.
It's running I think it's 200miles.
This one's gonna be like insane.
He's doing it here in a coupleweeks.
He'll test it out.
Maybe we'll do that in a coupleyears, but we'll see how this
(43:10):
first one.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
It's mountain elevation gains and shit.
We'll let him buff it out.
Liam, do this first one, we'llsee how it goes.
That's a bit more than I canchew, but I can definitely
promise you two for next yearand we're still trying to figure
out that third one.
Just have to see if to do it.
But Liam, he's a fucking beast.
He's a fucking beast.
(43:31):
And yeah, shout out to you guys, he's coming back on the show
so we can promote it.
But what else are you up tothese days, strand?
What?
Speaker 2 (43:41):
was your transition like?
Transition was pretty good.
I've been with the BrownDelivery Company for quite a few
years.
They actually treat me worsethan the insurgents that we
fought in Afghanistan.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
I'm going to blur it from your uniform.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Don't worry.
Yeah, no, I thought I had itcovered up, it'll be blurred.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
How did you?
Speaker 2 (44:00):
find yourself.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
I've heard from a lot of people that go this route
that there's really goodbenefits, really good benefits.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Money and benefits.
I mean the medical I have, andthat's where networking and
connecting.
When I was in the army theywere going to med board me, they
were going to drop me, I'm abroke dick, so forth, and so on.
I'm now running fuckingmarathons.
Me and Larkin are going to begoing out to Wyoming to do an
elk harvest and just this lastweekend I did a-foot elevation
(44:29):
road march with 50 pounds ofgear for six miles.
41 years old, I don't have timeto train.
But if you have proper PT, ifyou have proper attention, if
you do things the correct waythrough science, you can do
anything still, no matter howbad something is.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
Pain is going to always be a factor.
Pain is going to always be afactor.
Just by getting out there andliving life, man.
That's what people need tounderstand.
Bad something Pain is going toalways be a factor.
Pain is going to always be afactor.
Just by getting out there andliving life, man.
That's what people need tounderstand.
You don't have to relegateyourself to the couch just
because you had injuries.
All of us are going to get outof the military.
If you serve with some sort ofcoded issue, some sort of
disability, don't let thatdefine you.
Push yourself, push your limits, heal, be willing to advocate
(45:09):
for yourself, to get bettertreatment modalities, be willing
to push yourself to do things.
Look, I'm no fucking strangerto pain and conditions or
doctors are going to tell youyou're not going to be able to
walk anymore without pain,you're not going to be able to
run again, you're not nevergoing to be able to do any of
the things you used to.
And then I started saying fuckthat, and I got rid of the
(45:30):
orthopedic shoes and I startedwalking and I started pushing
myself to go barefoot and nextthing you know you're running
again.
Look, lower back pain, upperback pain, fused neck, whatever
you got, challenge yourself toget outside and reconnect man.
That's oftentimes one of thebest things you can do to stay
connected with your friends,with your families, and get out
(45:50):
there and start living again.
Man, before we go, brent, tellus about your efforts to, kind
of like, get our BCO familytogether.
What were you going on?
Speaker 2 (45:59):
Yeah, so in 2020, people with no Sarn first class
Cromartie, I had connected withhim a little bit, but we all get
busy with our lives.
You know, I saw on Facebookhe's a mile away from my house
hey, we should get together, andwe just never pulled the
trigger on it.
And unfortunately, it eats atme a little bit because it feels
like if I would have put just alittle bit more effort or just
(46:20):
showing up, maybe I could havehelped in his moment of need and
prevented you know what heended up choosing to do.
But with that event, hislongtime partner at the time,
heather, she was doing a 50thbirthday for him and I connected
with her through Facebook media, social media, all of those
apps, ai stuff it's great, butit only works if you use it.
(46:42):
And he reached out to me andshe's like, hey, could you get a
couple of the guys together?
And it was me, bradley,hitchens, nagy and Larkin and we
got together and I was evengoing through a rough point at
that time in my life At least.
I sought out some help, sometherapy and everything else and
everything started to get alittle bit better at that point
(47:02):
in time.
But in that weekend that wewere together.
There was no problems, likeeverything, all of the demons
that I had following me, all thedark thoughts, all the suicidal
ideations, everything was justgone and it was just.
It was so liberating and sogreat.
And that's where me and one ofthe other guys you know he was
struggling with his own demonsas well and he's like you know
(47:24):
it would be great if we gottogether, not just when people
passed, but what if we just gottogether occasionally all the
time and we got a BCO gettogether?
I hosted last year was our firstyear after Cromartie.
We're doing it again thisweekend or in a few weekends,
august 8th weekend.
Right now we've got about adozen and a half or so guys.
(47:45):
Super simple, super basic.
You know guys are flying out.
If they drive up, I pick themup from the airport.
They're not far from my place.
Keep it inexpensive.
We go to Sam's Club and justpick up burgers and patties and
eggs and bacon.
We just sit and shoot the shitat my house.
Do some type of small,inexpensive bonding event.
Last year we went clay pigeonshooting, some skeet shooting.
(48:06):
This year we're going to floatdown the river and just
reminisce and talk and it's nicebecause everybody has a
different perspective.
I didn't know about this newultra marathon stuff that was
going on, but by us reconnecting, I now have another goal and
something that I can lookforward to, and it doesn't just
have to be hanging out at myplace.
Larkin and Milligan gottogether over a hunt, just
(48:28):
reconnect and throw it out there.
Hey, I'm going to be doing thisat this point in time.
Maybe someone lives nearby.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
Absolutely, man.
That's the type of initiativethat we all need to take.
If you're a BCO 2504 alumnifrom the years 2007, 2008, 2009,
2010, or going into 2013, 2014,.
Hit up Strand.
His contact information will bein the episode description.
(48:55):
Throw me the email, I'll put iton there.
Or if you want to let theviewers know what it is, no
problem.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
My email is the same one that I've had since I was a
kid old man, so brandoB-R-A-N-D-O, underscore 1-4-0-0,
at hotmailcom.
Otherwise, on Facebook, I thinkmy link is brandonstrandfi.
Speaker 1 (49:16):
I'll put all those links in the episode description
.
Feel free to connect.
And even if you're not a BCOindividual and you just want to
get with some veterans and hangout, fuck it, let's ball, let's
connect.
Let me tell you something weall need human connection and we
all need to find our tribe.
So, come on, let's all hang out.
Let's keep it respectful,please, let's.
(49:37):
Let's be mindful of people'ssituations.
Let's not go crazy this weekendcoming up, let's have some fun.
Let's keep it PG, all right, wedon't have to get crazy.
We don't have to party Like weused to party at Patty's or
Charlie.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
Mike's, I'm not 24 anymore, 41.
I need a couple of bottles ofwater and some ivy.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
Let's not get too carried away now.
All right, brandon, it's been apleasure getting you on the
show.
Man, thank you for coming onand for sharing your story.
I can't wait to have you backon.
Let's talk about what you do,stay healthy and stay active.
And yeah, man, it's an absolutepleasure to reconnect.
So let's not be strangers.
Let's continue this connectionand growing this fucking
community of brothers.
Man, we need to have a signalthread or a telegram thread.
(50:20):
I know Everybody has a thread,even our own.
Sec def can't get off signal.
That's neither here nor there.
I'm Denny Caballero.
Thank you for joining me, andI'll see you all next time.
Till then, take care.
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