Will Yeske | War Stories, Humor, and the Accountability of Leadership - Security Halt!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Security Odd Podcast.
Let's go.
The only podcast that'spurpose-built from the ground up
to support you Not just you,but the wider audience,
everybody.
Authentic, impactful andinsightful conversations that
serve a purpose to help you.
And the quality has gone up.
It's decent.

(00:21):
It's hosted by me, dannyCaballero.
It's decent, it's hosted by me,danny Caballero.
You have no idea how often ourtype of people that can make fun
of us.
It's our group, our community.
We've survived because we knowhow to joke with each other.
So I always tell people man,like I don't do it because, like
I'm some, some fucking like, oh, I need you to book this link

(00:42):
Because I don't have thecapacity to like remember, and
things come in and go like look,cognitive science basic.
There's a chain of action thatgoes in to effect when you
receive information and it'sprocessed, it's stored up here
for a short time before it movesin.
And you can go through rehab,you can go through all sorts of

(01:02):
great, great therapy to like,try to help and and you can
coach and you can work onmindset and being present.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
but if your brain's fucked at some point, it's true,
it's just something that you'renot gonna remember this whole
thing with, uh, you know, I, Idid notice, like, if you go back
and you set those backstops andyou look at, hey, when were you
most productive or when did yousee a spike in how things were
going in your life?
And you, all right, what habits, what foundation did I have in

(01:33):
place at that point?
And you start looking and yougo, oh, I was getting up earlier
, I was taking a cold shower inthe morning, I was meditating,
you know, for 15 minutes a dayor something like that, before
everything started, and you comeback and you start putting
those habits back in place andyou're going to notice like, ok,
hey, this one's good, I shouldhave held on to this one.
Why did I let that slide?

(01:54):
And you know, that's, that'sjust, that's just part of it.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, man, I got to use every tool at your disposal
to make things work for you.
That's how I did it immediately.
Use every tool at your disposalto make things work for you,
that's how I like to do itimmediately.
Immediately, I'm always likejust please make a google alert,
make or let me send you acannelly link and lock this date
in.
Otherwise, no, a lot of stuff.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Uh, if it's not in the calendar, like that's
actually, I'm talking with oneof the guys, uh, today one of
the reporters and, um, our firstmeeting you know we've talked
since then, but our firstmeeting together you know we've
talked since then, but our firstmeeting together it wasn't in
the calendar, it was kind ofunofficial, so it just didn't
happen.
I'm like hey man, like are westill?
And he's like, oh crap, Icompletely forgot, man, I'm
sorry.
And I was like, hey, this nextone, let's put this one in the

(02:36):
calendar, cause I do the samething.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
You know that's what we did.
What happened to me the otherday?
You know it just wasn't solidin the calendar for that time
block.
What are you gonna do?
Yeah, man, yeah, it's, it'slife dude.
Happy little accidents, man,just move on, move along.
Yeah, no big deal, man will uhexcited to have you on here, man
, it was a pleasure being onyour show and to get you to come
back and talk about um, yourbook and your life and
experiences.
Uh, name the book is damn thevalley.
Um, proud member of the finestdivision, 82nd airborne.

(03:08):
Having a fellow paratrooper onthe show is awesome because
that's um, that's a proudlineage that we both belong to.
And um, you know, we we tend tohyper focus on, like the elites
, the warriors to find us andit's like right along there.
There's something to be saidabout the 18 year old, the 19
year old kid that goes in for ayear long deployment during the

(03:32):
early years of the GWAT and cutshis teeth and is right there
alongside I'm looking at a, youknow, a 20 or mid twenties NCO
that's supposed to be leadinghim and that that needs to be
highlighted more.
Those fine individuals thatmentor and develop us, those
chosen few that go to selectionand move on.

(03:52):
We didn't get there byourselves.
I mean, we made it throughselection on our own.
But behind and in every one ofthose NCOs, every one of those
soldiers, is a long line ofindividuals that mentored, coach
, coached and took that rawfucking product and turned it
into something that could be apurpose and go forward.
So, even though we make itthere and end up somewhere by

(04:16):
ourselves no, no that there's along history of ncos that poured
into us and developed us andthere there's a long, long
historic history of individualsthat come from division.
Those are arguably some of thebest dudes I worked with.
Uh, I have to be, you know it's, it's biased, I get it, I know
it, but I happen to be veryproud of I've served in the 82nd
and, uh, my two, five and fourPR individuals, especially cause

(04:39):
.
Uh, those guys, they're legends, man.
Uh, the stories that I grew uplistening, uh, just like in your
book, they're larger than life,man.
Yes, there's something moreimpactful about a young man that
finds himself.
He doesn't have fucking all thehigh speed gear, he doesn't
have the ability to go out thereand kid up himself with like

(05:01):
the finest.
No, he's out there doing thebest he can and we need to.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
He's been through the suck yeah, been through the
suck and that is that's.
That's literally.
You know we talked about that.
Uh, man, I think I think we'vetalked about that on that end
with you know what happened thefirst time around.
You know selection is only.
You know that's the gate, butyou're always people don't
realize that when they go thereand it's it's once the veil has

(05:25):
been lifted and you startrealizing like, okay, selection
just means like, you have thepossibility of becoming an
operator.
And then from there you know,okay, you got it, you got your
tab, but you're still onconstant blast.
You know it, it.
You're constantly beingselected to be on that, that
team or that.
All right, you're going to beon B team for now.
Uh, before you move up to alphateam, you know, um, or maybe

(05:49):
you get right into an ODA, buthey, you know you better be shit
hot because you're in for it.
You're in for it.
I actually think that in in thebook I did a good job.
Uh, especially just from someof the reviews.
I looked through the reviewsrecently and there was someone
who said on there, this means Idid it, perfect.
Um, because it said you know,oh, fucking private thinks he

(06:11):
knows better kind of thing, andI'm like money, all right, cool,
cause the way that the book waswritten in there was like from
the perspective of the lowerenlisted, like if you think that
I continue to think that wayafterwards and stuff, no, I've
learned since then and it'sapparent in the later chapters.
And then in the ending, theclosing of the book, kind of
comes this full circle of likehey, like I've been on this

(06:34):
journey, in this path, but I'mfortunate to have been able to
present this story and presentit in this way.
And really one of the mostvaluable things, too, is
reconnecting with all those guysduring building this thing.
You know, it's one thing to belike, hey, I'm going to, I'm
going to do this story.
And the reason why I did it,from my perspective too, is
there was a, there was a fewreasons, um, but one of them was

(06:57):
all right, I'm going to takethe heat.
Uh, you, you can't boil it downinto all these guys.
And so you could literally belike well, he screwed the story
up, you know, and I'm like fine,I'll take it.
Man, I'll take it.
No, it's, it's, it's true, andthere was actually from that too
, just due to some of the thingsgoing on within the veteran
community that um, no-transcriptdown.

(07:47):
That that's his hobby.
He does this investigativething on the back end.
He investigates Stolen Valor,and he looked through everything
and he just came back and hewas like dude, some of this
stuff I know you've downplayedJust thank you for not being
that guy.
It's not all sensational.
You presented it in this way of.
This is what happened and Ididn't present it in any sort of

(08:08):
glorious way or whatnot.
Some of it is downright gritty.
Um, you have stuff in there towhere some of these reviews and
stuff are starting to come out.
Like there was one of them Uh,I think the latest said if you
have PTSD, just be careful, man,this book's going to trigger.
You said if you have PTSD, justbe careful, man, this book's
going to trigger you.
And that was also intentionaland it was something that I

(08:32):
worried about in making it andactually even sending the stuff
out to the guys.
I had one of the guys contactme back and say, dude, I'm here
on my couch reading the chaptersthat I was involved in that you
sent me and I'm getting thesmells of the shit river.
I'm getting the smells of theshit river.
You know I'm getting the smellsof the Argon Dob and I'm like
looking around like what, what'sgoing on here?
Man Like and it's his olfactorynerves are bringing that back

(08:56):
and that's one of the you.
You probably know a little bitmore about that and things where
that's telling you, hey,there's trauma here and it's
being triggered right now.
But the way also that it waswritten, was it?
The book ebbs and flows like adeployment does, like right.
When it hits some of theextreme points, like it either
goes off in a boring story or itthrows like a funny anecdote

(09:19):
out there.
Um, so sometimes some guys did,they had to take it in in small
doses.
Uh, here and there guys youknow anybody that I know who's
been to combat overseas andstuff has been like every single
one of them I've had to putthat book down for a period of
time, like whether it's been aweek, a month, you know a day
just hey, I need to put it downat that point and then come back

(09:41):
to it.
That's a conscious decision topick it back up and reface those
traumas and that's been some ofthe beauty behind all.
I honestly think I didn't even.
It wasn't until after it waswritten that I started realizing
that that's what was happeningthere, and it was in some of the
talks with psychologistsbecause I was worried.
I'm like, is this going tocause someone to go off the end,

(10:06):
you know, and do somethingregrettable by reading this?
And that was a, and still is, a, major concern of mine.
Just because it does it, itforces you to look at things
that you might have forgottenabout during your deployment,
cause I know some of that stuffafter I wrote it down and that's
another beauty within withinwriting and stuff.
And that was, um, aconversation I had with, uh, the

(10:28):
editor in chief of of lethalminds, russell Worth Parker.
Um, you matter of fact, youshould talk to him at some point
.
He's just phenomenal guy, buthe works with writing therapy
within, uh, the state of NorthCarolina, but it's he does zoom
calls on it, so it's open, opento everybody, and he talks about
on how you're actuallyprocessing, like your brain is

(10:50):
thinking about it differentlywhen you're writing this stuff
down and it's slowing it downenough to actually process
everything that happens.
And there's portions in there towhere someone's like, hey, I
love the way you wrote aboutthis in your book and I was like
, huh, I wrote that in, I kindof forgot about that, and it
literally was just like my brainafterwards was just at peace

(11:10):
with that moment and said, hey,okay, now you understand what
happened here and it's all right, it's going to be fine.
It's been interesting to seeand it's been really cool to see
the whole thing progress and tosee where it's at now and
continues to go.
It's been extremely rewarding,one of the most rewarding things
I've done, and I encouragepeople all over like tell your

(11:32):
story, don't hang your laurelson that story, but tell your
story and remember yourfoundation, where you came from,
because you should be proud ofthat.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
Yeah, you hit on a lot of things there and a lot of
people don't understand.
No, it's, it's good.
This is what we do hereSecurity hall, doing the right
thing, the um, the.
The way we process memories andwhy things become trapped is
when you start getting thatrecall that you're smelling the
JPA, you're maybe feeling yourheart rate's increasing, you're

(12:06):
starting to sweat, you'restarting to get amped up.
You're still living that as ifit's happening.
You've got to process it so itgoes into the memory, so it's no
longer trapped in you, as ifsomething like boom, you're back
in that place and there's tonsof therapies out there that can
help you do that.
Em, emdr is something that Irecommend a lot.
But you're not going to getthat by yourself sitting at home

(12:29):
dealing with it.
You have to find somevulnerability, find some courage
, ask for help.
It's simple, man.
We're people that go into theunknown.
We're men of courage anddetermination.
If you're struggling with that,go get help.
Man, hit me up, I'll point youin the right direction.
Right now I'm going to give youone for free, 22 to zero.
Hit up Dr Pamela Arnell, today,not tomorrow.

(12:53):
If you're dealing with some ofthis stuff and you want to put
it behind you right now, freechicken.
I get no benefit from it.
I just know they're an amazingorganization and I know Dr
Arnell, an amazing woman, shoutout to you big mama, great,
great resource, please do notwait.
Don't wait any longer.
You'll see a flash right here22-0, hit them up today.
Um, yeah, we need you.

(13:15):
I can't afford to lose any moreof you.
Stay in the fight with us.
We need you right now, yeah,but all these things can happen
to us when we're watching.
Right now, there's a, there's a,a, a really amazing movie.
Uh, what is it?
Uh, war, warfare, warfare.
Um, and a lot of guys arereporting the same thing.
Uh, our, our generation of guysyou know our age that have been

(13:37):
there and they're all talkingabout it and they're they're
sharing the same stories.
Wow, man, I'm fucking amped up.
Man, let's explore that likeand for us, for anybody
listening.
You can start going through thisjourney of exploring these
things, and they don't have tohaunt you, they don't have to be
an extra 25, 30 pound weight inyour back.
You can just start writing thestuff out, start processing it,

(13:59):
get to the point where you canwrite about it, talk about it,
discuss it and then, if you'recomfortable enough, share it,
because one thing that will.
That your book has done is notonly it's helped you reconnect
with the men that you serve with, but it's helped all of you
look at this thing from a pointof reference that it's no longer
here.
It happened, we went throughthis, we all made it.

(14:21):
We got on the other side of itand now we can look at this
project that our brother madefor us as a testimony to his
love and dedication to us.
And he didn't put his faceforward in it.
He didn't make it about him, hemade it about us.
Now, imagine if every you knowmight not be everybody, it might

(14:43):
not be all of us, but imaginejust some of us, a fraction of
us that served in the GWAT.
We're willing to explore that,especially if you find yourself
having a passion for this, ifyou're willing to explore it for
a little bit and write it downand process it, maybe turn it
into an art piece, maybe turn itinto a play Shout out to Scott
Mann Turn it into a movie Holyshit.

(15:03):
And now you're helping othersgo through it.
Because we talked aboutrepresentation, that's a big
thing.
Today we need representationtoo, every last one of us and if
you serve in that time period,if you serve in these units, if

(15:23):
you're a part of the individualsin that book, how great does it
?

Speaker 2 (15:26):
feel to know you go to Barnes and Noble and be like
fuck, that's us.
You went through that.
So, danny, this is.
You know, this is actuallysomething that you were just
saying, like hopefully morepeople are getting involved in
stuff, and that was that wasactually and has been.
One of the most rewardingthings is seeing the ripple
effect, and you know we have.
You know, back here there's damnthe valley, but during, during,
during that, during the buildupto the release, and then I

(15:49):
think it was actually rightafter it was either right before
or right after to wheresomebody reached out from one of
the other platoons and Imentioned them in the book
hearing gunfights every otherday over there.
And we're like man, we're herewalking through these minefields
, like sure we have theseone-off incidents.
Uh, it was mainly bombs, it wasmainly bombs and suicide

(16:10):
bombers and they tried a few,they probed a few assaults on us
or, but anytime they gotkinetic, we just stomped them.
I mean, stomped them hard, andthey were just like there's,
there's no way we're going totake these guys down.
So like let, and they were justlike there's no way we're going

(16:47):
to take these guys down, solet't even know this until much
later, until I started doing thebook research, that they
breached the wall and this issomething that we ran.
People think out there duringtraining, when the drill
sergeants or whatever, you do arun or something, and then
there's like a uh, an obstacleor whatever they got to do

(17:08):
additional stuff.
And then they're like, okay,now we're going on a follow-on
mission and guys are like whatthe hell Like?
And it's like, no, we're justtrying to figure out number one,
you, to see where your, whereyour end is, you know, and then
how much further you can pass,go past that, because I had just
done a four-hour it was a shortpatrol, but it was a four-hour

(17:30):
combat patrol into one of thetowns and we were back at the
ECP doing our AAR.
So, going back and talkingabout everything that happened,
what we saw, did anybody elsesee anything?
What could we have done better?
And the freaking sky lights upand it's just kaboom, you get
hit with the concussion andwe're like what was that?
And we knew it wasn't us, butit was there's conjecture that

(17:56):
it was actually meant for us.
Uh, at one point we had inteland we had pushed out our c wire
and closed off one of the roadsthat came alongside the outpost
and we pushed them to go aroundthe whole field.
And we're like, hey, you know,it takes an extra five minutes
for the Afghans to run around.
But you know, whatever that'stheir safety versus our or their
convenience versus our safety,like that's what we're going

(18:18):
with.
And there was a donkey cart,you know, basically on the
motorcycle.
They came up and the one of thetowers I heard it because I had
the other, I was the RTO and Ihad one of the Motorola's and
stuff too and like, hey, there'sa, there's a little cart over
here and they hit it with agreen laser, you know, and it's
sitting there looking at the Cwire because we just moved it

(18:40):
out the day earlier, so theydidn't know it was there.
And they're like you could seethem like hesitate, like what
the heck am I doing?
And they turn around and it waslike an hour or so after that
they decided to hit.
It was, uh, afghan.
I think it was an Afghan prisonat one time, but it was an
ANCOP facility to where our guysfrom 1508 were staying with HHC

(19:02):
and some of the scouts.
And they did exactly that.
I mean, they ran this donkeycart right up against the wall,
detonated, you know, breachedthe wall and they literally had.
And we thought it was RPGs andgrenades and stuff.
No, it was people, it wasliterally suicide bombers
strapped up running into thiscompound and lighting themselves

(19:22):
off.
Like that's terrifying, that'slike world war ii zombies call
of duty moment, like that'sinsane.
You know, yeah, and we come upto this afterwards.
It's actually like the best wayit really is.
It's just like you have thisfull-on berserker coming at you

(19:43):
and all of a sudden it explodesand the air is full of ball
bearings and you know, nails andpieces of metal and stuff.
Like what are you going to do?
Like, how do you, how do youstop that?
And we had, up to then, runacross a few of them.
We actually ran across at onepoint.
The guys were, um, were shavinganother dude in order to throw
a vest on them.
You, you know, we found thevest.

(20:05):
They laid out some tarps andstuff.
It was a HME producing facilitykind of thing.
They had the tarps laid out andshaven and we kind of just came
across it and they were justlike, oh, they picked up AKs,
sprayed at us and then startedrunning off.
Once we returned fire.
And you know, we found, I thinkthink it was something like 40

(20:25):
or 50 or some odd detonatorsstuffed into a freaking tree.
But they had these cacheseverywhere.
No, it was crazy, absolutelywild.
But getting back to the rippleeffect of this, and through
these stories and throughtelling this stuff, this other
guy reaches out to me and he'slike hey, I have someone from
Charlie Company the guys acrossthe river from you, second

(20:47):
platoon, charlie company writinga book and he's been traveling
the country reconnecting withthe guys like in person sitting
down doing recordings, doinginterviews about everything that
we've been doing, but we can'tseem to find anybody who wants
to publish it.
Can you help us, can you coachus through this?
And I'm like, are you kiddingme?
Absolutely.
And then you know, within twoweeks he's got a deal, he's got

(21:11):
a call back from Casemate andyou know, a year after that,
here you go, devil's Playground,it goes right alongside Damn
the Valley and since then he'scoached somebody else and they
have a book coming from the101st that's going to be hitting
the shelves, I think inmid-June, of the incredible to
to no number one.

(21:32):
You the hell you went through.

(21:53):
But then you see the effects.
But then you still see whenthese guys get together those
bonds they don't, they don'tleave, and through that and
through connecting, I mean I'vefound I didn't know these guys
from Adam beforehand andafterwards we've talked.
I think it's really been likeonce a week since we started

(22:13):
talking and since they got thatto where you know, I've built in
stuff with social with them orwe've done stuff collaboratively
.
He's come on the podcast show.
That's actually what startedthe efforts of the Veteran
Success Story podcast.
Was that whole deal.
He was like I don't have enoughSEO or enough episodes out
there.
I'm like let's do it, let'sjust put a track down.

(22:36):
And it was goofy but I was likeyou know what?
There's something with this.
There's something with sittingdown, talking with someone whose
heart is in the right place and, you know, I kind of fell in
love with that aspect of it, orthe aspect of, hey, let's push
each other through this or let'sperpetuate this positive
information out there in what'shelped us out in some of the

(22:59):
things that we've done, likecause other people.
This is a lasting format.
Once you put that track outthere and it's uploaded to the
cloud, if you will, it's outthere forever so somebody can
reach out and be like I wonderif he's got a topic on this.
You know, and I'm really goingthrough this, and now it's just
like let's lay these tracks downfor other guys to glean that

(23:19):
knowledge.
And why aren't we doing this inthe veteran space?
The self-improvement space ishuge out there.
Who's specifically doing it forveterans with their hearts in
the right place, and that iswhat it's turned into and that's
how meeting guys like you,danny man, it's been really
rewarding on that end, too, isjust expanding that network and
finding the other guys out therewho are truly trying to elevate

(23:43):
the others around them.
It's not.
We've talked before about this.
The arrow of responsibility,you know, was something that our
command preached to usreligiously.
But when I went back to thatlesson and started boiling down,
like, who do you want to betalking to, or who do you want
to, who do you want to associatewith, who do you want in your

(24:06):
bubble or in your circle?
And is the arrow pointedtowards them, or is the arrow
pointed towards below them?
And what I mean by that is notso much below them, but the
people around them.
Are they trying to elevate themthrough their efforts or is it?
Hey, look at me, look at me,look at me Like.
And once you do that and yousee, like, how, what's behind

(24:30):
the charge of that person, what,what are they constantly
talking about?
What are they putting out there?
Is it elevating those aroundthem?
Is it elevating the mission oris it about them?

Speaker 1 (24:40):
It's very plain to see, once you do that down at
that basic level, wheresomeone's uh, where someone's
heart truly is, yeah, man, Igotta, I gotta say like it's, uh
, it's amazing to see theeffects like this book has, and
I have to imagine going throughputting this all together, like

(25:04):
how did you keep yourself, a ina good state of mind and, b
being able to go back to it andapproach it with present moment
clarity, rather than gettingpulled in to relive episodes
within your own lived experienceor to feel like you're taking

(25:26):
on the weight of a lot of thesubject Cause you had to do a
lot of research?
You have to dive in and be aninvestigative journalist pretty
much, and that's hard, man.
That's hard when you're fromthe community or from that
culture.
You understand it and having toyou know understand it and
having to you know make surethat you were approaching it

(25:48):
from the right angle, being anhonest broker how difficult was
that?

Speaker 2 (25:57):
Honestly for someone and I'm not trying to toot my
own horn here at all but I hadto take a good look at character
beforehand and say like, okay,this is not about you, this is
about the guys and reallyhonestly, that's.
I even put that charge outthere to them from the very
beginning, when I was tossing itaround, and I said look, guys,

(26:20):
if I start to go by thewaysideside or if I start to
appear to just be talking aboutyou know, if it's just about me,
pull me aside and be like youknow.
So I literally put it out tothem first and I put that
backstop in and I said you knowI'm not always the best judge of
it, but I know you guys arealways going to be looking

(26:40):
because this story is about youand this is truly about you guys
and I don't want to be a turdrepresentation of that.
You know it's, it's true.
You know what?

Speaker 1 (26:50):
I mean.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
Like, why that right there, whether it's I think it
was the.
So the book launch down inFayetteville at the airborne and
special operations museum andwe'll get into in a minute why
why that was the location.
But uh, for that book launchthere was just, it was

(27:11):
historical, it was the guyswanted it to be something that
was putting this history, youknow, and solidifying it and
it's.
But from that visceral level ofsomebody on the ground, they
didn't want it to come fromreports from a commander
somewhere else.
They didn't.
You know, there was anotherbook that was written from a
Marine journalist and it was agreat book, you know.

(27:32):
I honestly I think he got a lotof the feel right.
He talked to a few people andeverything.
But something about it didn'tsit right with the guys and I
think a lot of it just weighedalong with.
It wasn't someone that wasthere and they really felt
protective of that story.
Cause there's, there's so manystories out there that infantry
guys and stuff could tell thatthey're just quiet about it

(27:54):
because they're like there'snothing that comes from telling
these stories.
And I think they're starting torealize that there is actually
something that comes from thesestories.
But it's got to be done right.
It can't just be, uh, you know,glorifying any one person or
any one action.
It's, it's a team effort, youknow, and it's through that man,
I think, for two years I postedon social media for two years,

(28:18):
daily pictures that were fromthere.
I would have never been able todo that if it weren't for the
guys.
I initially reached out in thebeginning and I was like, hey,
the publisher asked for 30photos and I just said yes,
right off the bat, but I gotnothing.
I got five grainy photos fromFacebook, like I'm going to need

(28:39):
your guys' help, man.
And they responded, but indroves, I mean the drive that I
have on there and the amount ofvideos and the amount of
pictures is incredible and itwould not have happened without
those guys backing it as well.
And that's I always.
Anything that's attributed to,to anything with this book, I

(29:01):
mean, really goes to that.
But at that museum thing, theysaid afterwards and I didn't
even know, you know, they werelike hey, well, what's your
speaking fee?
And I just kind of looked atthem like what do you mean
speaking fee?
Like, like, you guys held theevent for us, like thank you,
you know.
And they're like well, normallypeople get a speaking fee down
here.
I'm like, if I take a dime ofthat, like it's got to go back

(29:24):
to the guy.
So if you guys feel like youwant to pay for something, like
the guys that came out here forthe event that were from that
deployment, like pay for theirdinner tonight, like that's all,
that's cool, yeah, that werefrom that deployment, like pay
for their dinner tonight.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
Like that's all, that's cool.
Yeah, you know there's.
There's something to be saidabout that.
Right, like you, you have towalk a fine line.
The book is a collective yeah,but, man, there's a lot that
goes into that it is.
It is something that is atribute and for everybody.
But at the end of the day, youwrote it, you put it together.

(29:58):
So there is something to besaid about finding a way to
ethically be able to say likehey, like there's got to be, I
got to be able to eat, I got tobe able to put food on the table
, I got to be able to take careof myself table.
I gotta be able to, like, takecare of myself.
So I don't think you should be,you should feel guilty for
taking, uh, being able to makerevenue.

(30:20):
Uh, because this isn't like auh, a book that's highlighting
you.
I'm fucking number oneparatrooper behind enemy lines,
the only man able to save the,the pair have you read?

Speaker 2 (30:32):
read the Mexican standoff chapter.
I mean, we're talking aboutliterally where I created an
international incident, you know, and I put it in there, that's
life.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
That's a reality, man .
It is.
The more often than not youfind yourself making mistakes in
theater.
I don't care who the fuck youare, I don't care, you've made
mistakes, you've messed up,you've let infill and got lost
in orchards trying to go to yourprimary koi.
Yep, yes, yeah, like that shithappens.

(31:06):
Like that shit happens.
Yeah, but you adjust and youlearn from it.
Man, no one's a fucking tombrady every single fucking day
there are a few individuals thatare Captain America.
Yeah, like shit happens, man.
Like you got to fucking getthere, you have to figure a way
through it, you got to fuckingtake it.
Like all right, like that'slife, man.
Like there are going to besituations where there's a

(31:28):
Mexican standoff and it's likefuck dude, like what, what the
fuck's going on.
People lose their shit, peopleget so frustrated they threaten
to kill uh, a freaking, uh,third third nation national
working like it's, it's, it's,it's a crazy situation.

(31:50):
You find yourself, as a youngman, in a conflict that is just
insane, absolutely fuckinginsane.
When we look back and see whatwe accomplished, see where we
were at with the, the limitedguidance, the absence of
complete there was, there was nofucking strategy to afghanistan
.
There wasn't, uh, petraeus, maddog, all of them.

(32:12):
They should all be recalled andthey should be facing the
judgment for leading a war andnot having a strategy, not
having a fucking final,definitive strategy, and it goes
.
It trickles all the way down tothe point where you're just
like, why are we going on thismovement?

Speaker 2 (32:30):
nobody fucking knows some of them, yeah yeah no, no,
that was actually one of the oneof the concerns.
In writing the forward, I hadreached out to, uh, general ben
hodges, who was the rc, uh, rcsouth commander at the time, and
you know he actually knewexactly who we were.
Uh, he had flown in and donethe assessment on, um, what had

(32:54):
happened over at the incident Italked about earlier with the
donkey cart.
Uh, so I mean, he was there andhe knew exactly who we were.
Um, when I started talking withhim.
But that first forward that hesent out, I mean it was, I was
just like Whoa, this is like acomplete teardown of the entire
war of Afghanistan and I kind ofhad to pull him aside and be

(33:15):
like he's sir, like look, you'renot wrong.
But this book, the focus isabout the stuff the guys did on
the ground and we got to find agood middle ground here and I
feel that we did with theforward.
I feel like what was put outwas spot on.
You know, and maybe at sometime and I'll have to talk to
him about it, you know maybe atsome time I will just publish
the original forward out there,you know and that's whether or

(33:39):
not he wants to do.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
So.
I think that's something thatwe have to go back and like,
really like, understand and it'sa benefit to us in a way that
we can finally have some closureand knowing that the burden of
that failure is not on theshoulders of the guy on the
ground, it's on the leadership,senior leadership, the guys that

(34:03):
were constantly high-fiving andbe like yes, now I get my sweet
defense contracting job.
Guys like Millie.
Guys like Millie, individualsthat served for decades and knew

(34:23):
there was no actual plan ofaction to win.
We have to hold thoseindividuals accountable and
nobody's talking about itanymore, nobody's.
We have to make this a thingwhere it's like known and it's
not going to like.
I have no, no assumption thatanybody's going to ever be held
liable for this, that nobody isgoing to be brought back.
I understand that.
What I would like is to make ita common discussion so that the

(34:47):
young man or young woman whogrows up reading history,
understanding, goes to WestPoint, goes to these military
academies and then is in charge,they understand the blunder
that has continued to hot tohappen since vietnam.
Yeah well, fuck it, we justpull out.
We didn't have a strategy we,we needed a fucking strategy.

(35:07):
We needed a fucking strategy.
And when you just constantlyjust fucking, just like I don't
know, dude, just keep guys aliveand uh say that we're
eradicating poppy fields, justlike I don't know, dude, just
keep guys alive and uh say thatwe're eradicating poppy fields
this year.
I don't know what.
The fuck.
Figure it out, mitch, I'll seeyou high five.
That's what it felt like.
That's exactly what it feltlike.
But yet guys on our level arelike hey, you're being held to
the fire.

(35:27):
You gotta state this in yourcon op as if, if it's fucked up,
we're gonna fry your ass,captain or platoon sergeant.
If you don't make sure it'sexecuted up, we're going to fry
your ass, captain, our platoonsaren't.
If you don't make sure it'sexecuted properly, you're
fucking done Like all theownership, all the fucking like
detail planning, analysis.
Well, it's not on your con op.
If it's, uh, if you're notmaneuvering properly, it's here
and there, then obviously you'rea no-go.
It's like motherfucker.

(35:49):
Talk to your fucking boss.
Why the fuck are we here Like Iknow what I'm doing, keeping my
dudes alive and going after badguys.
But you got to figure out thegrand scheme.
They never fucking had it.
I never fucking had it.
They briefed green slides allacross the board Afghanistan.
We're perfect A&A best fightingforce out there by and large.
We've got some stories there.

(36:12):
They've got great numbers here.
Meanwhile motherfuckers aren'teven showing up and they're like
dudes are just fucking stillgetting paid like that's a crazy
part.
I hope we get those stories.
I really hope we get theaccountability stories of how
fucked up it was.
Um, there's one book I fuckingread a while back.
I need to find it.
I'll put an episode descriptionbecause it breaks down like

(36:33):
irresponsible spending, theirresponsible leadership.
For decades, just no one knewwhat the fuck was going on.
Yet individuals on the groundwere being held accountable for
their missions, for theirplanning, like, yeah, so some of
the and that's.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
That's actually.
There was some controversythere in the background, not
only like with us, but even thehigher echelons, like that was.
So the year we were there, thatwas the year where uh,
mccrystal was removed okay, andthen, right around that same
time is our battalion commandgot removed.
Both our commander and sergeant, major for Major for 2508 got

(37:15):
removed and the story behindwhat happened there.
I had to ride a fine linebecause, again, I didn't want
that to be the focus.
I knew that I could very easilyhave made that the focus and
you know, every single Fox newsand CNN correspondent and

(37:37):
everyone else would come out indroves being like, oh yeah, like
fuck the military, fuck the man, like look at this, look at
this story here.
And I was like no man.
Like the guys are moreimportant than that.
That story was more important.
Like, will we come around andwrite something about it?
Well, I mean, I actuallyalready have in a way.
I started sending out a fewchapters to guys and, matter of

(37:57):
fact, I spoke with somebody elseabout doing a.
You know I won't let thefreaking cat out of the bag on
that one.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
Yet I was going to ask him, like let's fucking
spill the beans Heard first herewith Denny Caballero.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
But no, I mean, that is like someone else in our
battalion who knows thesituation and can write.
And, uh, we, we talked and webrought it forward to some of
the people at the higherechelons and said, hey, like,
look at this, and was thissomething that?
You know?
We're feeling that this wouldbe a lot of healing for the guys

(38:33):
If we brought it forward.
Look at the truth that wasbrought forward in these.
We didn't sugarcoat it.
You know, we're feeling thatthis would be a lot of healing
for the guys If we brought itforward.
Look at the truth that wasbrought forward in these.
We didn't sugarcoat it.
You know, damn, the Valley andthe devil's playground, those
are not sugarcoated books.
It it points some fingers.
You know I even um spoke withthe battalion commander that
took over, uh, for us.
It was Colonel Jones at thetime, which then, you know, at

(38:54):
the time of me writing the book,became one star general uh
Jones and I.
I spoke to him about it and Iwas like you know, I mean thanks
for taking my call and thanksfor talking.
Um, I do want to hear your side, but I'm not presenting this
story in this way.
I'm presenting it in the guyson the ground but like, help me
find what was happening with youthere, because the guys on the

(39:18):
ground quite honestly took thatand it was almost like turning
the artillery guns.
They were just like all of theanger and all of everything that
was happening to us on theground.
That frustration and angerturned towards him.
Uh, and I spoke to him about itand I'm like a lot of guys
freaking hated you.
Uh, you know, I even put athere was a chapter in there to

(39:42):
where I wrote about it, um,about an instance to where he
came out on a patrol with usafter and like you have my
platoon sergeant yelling back athim in his psd I hope you hit a
fucking landmine.
Yeah, you know, like right outin front of the guys in the open
, we're like whoa, did that justfreaking happen?

(40:02):
Like you gotta be kidding me.
And he was very humble about itand we talked and he talked
about his situation andunderstanding a little bit more
about it.
On that end kind of was likeokay, I, I can kind of see your
end too, I don't.
You know, not everything herejives.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
Um, yeah, I'm not getting the full warm and fuzzy,
but I got it.

Speaker 2 (40:23):
You know, I get it there's more factors than I
could see yeah, uh, it's.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
It's taking a long long.
It takes a long time for guysto reach that point of being
able to understand that, at atthe end of the day, that's
another human being like, and wedon't understand the stressors
the those dudes are are dealingwith a whole bunch of different
factors.
Um, yeah, they're not the endall be all decision makers.

(40:54):
That's not.
That's not the truth.
They're not the one they're.
They're not the end-all, be-alldecision-makers.
That's not the truth.
They're part of the problem.
I'm not trying to excuse them,but we have to kind of be able
to see that they can be somegray.
Yeah, they can be a piece ofshit.
You have to make some bad calls, but they're still a human

(41:16):
being at the end of the day yeahit's uh, it's hard man, it was
also late.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
Well, no, and I'm later.
Later down the road too, thethere was other people, like
someone else that was involved,you know, at the higher echelon
level, not not division, but inbetween there it was someone
else involved to where it cameout down the road that
everything that our battalioncommander was saying was right.

(41:39):
And when this person getsremoved and their wife gets
barred from post and this goesto court and I've seen the
transcripts, yeah, I mean, thisis this is it gets dirty, it
gets dirt.
Yeah, we're not going to gointo it fully in this one, but,

(42:01):
uh, I will say we're addressingit in in the possible next.
So, and it's uh, the the titlefor that one.
Honestly, the fitting title ofwhat it looks like right now
would be Fury, because it is.
It's about what?
Oh yeah, not only is it.
You know that was our, you knowwe were to Fury.

(42:22):
But if people knew the fullextent of everything that
happened in between the politicsside, that happens within the
military, and the repercussionsof everything down the line of
what happened, because it gotpolitical instead of being about
war fighting, uh, would blowtheir freaking mind.
And we're talking.

(42:43):
You know people named whereit's like.
You know they're, uh, retiredas a four-star and working with
Cohen group.
You know, making millions ayear, and it's when you start
putting that on blast.
You got to start worrying aboutlawyer teams, or even are you
just going to disappear?

Speaker 1 (43:00):
Yeah, man it's.
It's kind of gross dude.
The uh, the amount ofindividuals that are that are
one day in uniform, the next aremaking millions of dollars as a
?

Speaker 2 (43:12):
uh corporate uh advisor is fucking insane,
insane.
Yeah, you know, and that'sthat's where the need for this
book, too, was like we're gonnasolidify this, and we're gonna
solidify it now, before thechances of it being taken
advantage of by someone whowants to write their memoirs, or

(43:33):
you you know, and that's theother thing.
Yeah, yep, and we're like we gotto get it down and get it down
now.
And the book worries somepeople out there because it is
emphatically the truth, and thetruth does not always, it's not
always pretty, it's not rosy,and we're talking about the
truth during a wartimeengagement, hence the whole

(43:54):
title.
Damn the Valley, like cominginto it.
You know, that was a saying.
I've got it on a.
You know, I'm going to reach it, cause it's right under the
camera here, but there's a hat.
And they were made up during thedeployment, but it was based
off of a plaque as you entered,cop Johnston, named for
specialist Jason Johnston, whichwas killed on the day after

(44:14):
Christmas, uh, back in 2009.
So December 26th 2009,.
Um, you know, that was theplaque going in there, you know,
and there was a symbol with abunch of symbols of luck on
there and underneath there was ascroll and the scroll read damn
the Valley.
And it became kind of a mantraout there of, you know, damn the

(44:35):
valley, damn this place.
This place is as horrible, youknow, but you ain't stopping us,
we, we, we sit in misery, thatis.
That was too fury, for for sure, like we were pushed hard and
the training leading up to itwas miserable, but at the same
time, the command team that putit put us through that, and I
mentioned this in the book too.
At the same time, the commandteam that put it put us through
that, and I mentioned this inthe book too.

(44:57):
It was one of the only timesthat I saw someone at that level
out there, sucking alongside usalmost as much as we were and
that says a lot yeah, it does.

Speaker 1 (45:10):
Well, dude man, the uh that I mean, have you thought
about going and uh trying toget this made into a movie or a
netflix special?
Because that's something that alot of guys are, um, are
starting to do shout out to uhtriple nickel man like uh I
always talk about doing.
An amazing, amazing group ofdudes shout out to ruben chris

(45:34):
mcphee like you guys are fuckinggiants in my.
In my view, dude, you're.
You're changing the uh, thestereotype of what veterans are
supposed to do after service.
And, dude they're.
They're coming out with theirown freaking uh streaming app.
Dude, they're developing theirown.
I'm not going to ruin or puttoo much out there, but they're

(45:54):
taking black ops into this wholedifferent thing, man, like
highlighting our service membersfrom the special operations
world that are, you know, forgotabout what they're doing for um
roy pivinovich's family byhighlighting his story.
Because, bro, the fact that wedon't have a full length feature
film of this man's likemilitary, like life and what he

(46:16):
did after service beyond me.
But that just it goes to show.
Like man, like books like yoursare powerful and they deserve
to be turned into.
Every like from just going fromprinting a graphic novel into a
freaking netflix special to amovie.
Have you thought about that?
Is there anything in the workstrying to make that happen?

Speaker 2 (46:36):
So I'm kind of agent shopping right now and again.
That's why I actually talkedwith the guy who did Devil's
Playground and we actuallytalked about that end and really
to do it justice and we bothkind of had movie stuff in mind
but it was looking at it andsaying like what do you think?

(46:56):
And it honestly would be like ahonest to God, if you wanted to
do it right, it would have tobe Yellowstone sized.
I'm not kidding, because you'relooking at trying to weave in.
You have, damn, the Valley,which our situation on our end
was much more psychologicallytaxing in the way of you never

(47:18):
knew which step was going to beyour last Charlie Company across
the river from us.
Their situation was landminesbut combined with complex
ambushes and a lot of kineticfreaking.
Oh my God, the amount oficuttype gunfight engagements was
insane over there.
So they have, and even withinour own platoons, like there

(47:40):
just was so many, each platoonhad its own personality that was
different and everything.
So we really, in talking aboutit, we're like, if you want to
get the correct characterdevelopment and stuff, if they
were gonna, if hollywood wasgonna leave this to let us tell
the real story and, honest toGod, like I've talked with the
operators and stuff that havecome back and been like this all
happened in a year.
Like you gotta be kidding me.

(48:02):
And I'm like dude, I'm tellingyou this was a deployment, that
that, and an area that there wasnothing else.
You know, there was similarstuff, but it was set apart as
one of those type of justhotbeds.
Uh, and if you talk to the guysthat were there before us 117

(48:23):
strikers, same thing they had areal rough go of it.
The guys that followed onafterwards, what they did
afterwards it was an artillerybattalion combined with infantry
, with infantry.
Horrible idea, cause what theiridea was is that we pushed out
most of it and that they couldput people in static positions
to kind of hold it and havingour expecting artillery guys to

(48:45):
do the infantry job.
Like we, when they startedcoming in, like we were just
flabbergasted, like these guyswere out of shape.
Um, we were like I talk aboutit in there towards the end, and
I'm not saying anything likedown and on them, but we were
like, if you came out hereexpecting that this was okay,
like you're wrong and it wasreally coming back from a patrol

(49:07):
, uh, and our guys.
This was.
The stark difference right hereis our guys were doing the
right thing.
We got back and we immediatelywent into priorities of work.
Everybody is first things first.
All right, rust and dust yourweapons, get some chow in your
belly.
If you got to do some personalhygiene depending on how long

(49:27):
you've been out got it Freaking,get it done.
Get your gear set up in a wayto where, like, if you are
called for qrf or if we getattacked like it is good to go,
you throw it on and your shit isfreaking lock and load and out
the gate.
You freaking go um.
And that's how we were.
And we got back from this patroland all the guys are like, oh
man, I really gotta freakingrack out.

(49:48):
And we got in.
I flipped one dude off hisfreaking bunk um, big old fat
body and I was just like boom,like I'm like wrong answer dude,
like you guys are going to dieout here if you continue this
way.
And we got into him nasty anduh, brag has the same story on
his like from their platoon andthis other, uh, this other book

(50:10):
the guy that is coming out withit said it in there.
They were fucking assholes tous.
It's like, yeah, because we hadjust spent six plus months in
an area that was just I think itwas right around nine in an
area to where you had to be onit because you gave any little
bit of complacency, it wasexploited and exploited horribly

(50:31):
and exploited horribly.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
Traditionally, that's something that has been talked
about and described even withinour World War II veterans
Replacements that weren'tswitched on.
You know intimately how fastyou can become a victim.
You have to keep the fuck thatmindset of just coming in.

(50:54):
I've seen it Just partying andhaving fun like dude.
These guys have been here.
They've been taking it to theenemy.
They're proactive, they'refucking fighting, they're
they're already a pro team andyou come in here with fucking
varsity or jv attitude likefucking grab ass, happy,
overweight, not being switchedon.

(51:15):
Yeah, you're gonna get yourshit pushed in because they
don't want you to die like itseems brutal and it seems mean
and you're being you're being ameanie.
No, I'm fucking trying to saveyour life, dude.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
Yeah, trying to fucking save your life you're,

(51:47):
you're in la la land, like yeah,it's well, that's why it's
different move 200 meters pasttheir, their static outpost.
Like they started to allow theenemy to to dictate their
movement.
Like, instead of havingwhatever medevac come in and
then continuing mission, theywould just halt mission and,
freaking, come back into the,into the outpost, to medevac

(52:10):
them.
And I'm like well, holy crap,wrong answer man.
Like wrong, freaking answerleft and right.
And I, you know we saw it.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
Let you let the enemy dictate the pace.
You're fucking done, dog.
Like that's done, you're doneit got so bad.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
You can look it up.
Um, look up the uh, coloneldavid flynn, why I bombed three
afghan villages, or why Iflattened three Afghan villages.
And so it was a little areacalled Tara Kalache and they
came in and they leveled threevillages.
They just freaking, bombedcarpet, bombed the whole

(52:44):
freaking place, um, and that'swhat ended up ultimately
quelling the Valley.
It just eradicated everything.
It's like man, I meanrebuilding and stuff that crazy
enough you can go and look at.
Um, it's a tourist destination.
Now would I ever go there?
Like hell?

Speaker 1 (53:03):
no, because I don't know what ordinance is just
talking about this with with mywife last night, the, the and
I'll.
You know I hate to end it onthis part, but I do.
We are not talking about aconflict that ended decades ago.
We're not talking about anation that has progressed and

(53:25):
developed.
People are being brutalized,killed, raped, punished for
merely being women.
The Taliban's new rules like wethought it was bad before we
got involved.
Women can't be if there's womenaren't allowed to be near each

(53:50):
other.
I think one of the rules iswhen it comes to prayer, women
can't be within earshot of otherwomen.
If a woman like the, thecooking spaces for women aren't
allowed to have windows, orplaces where women there's,
there should be windows forwomen to look out of.
Like we talk about advancinghuman rights and equal rights

(54:12):
here in this country and and andpeople are so fucking ready to
like cut each other's throatsfor equal rights and
representation.
I'm like, yeah, you know howgood you have it.
You, you understand that womenare being stoned to death purely
because they step outside oftheir home and they're not with
with an escort, with a malerepresentative of their family.

(54:35):
They don't have rights, theydon't have the ability to have
health care, like I've seen somebrutal, horrible fucking shit
in that country and we justwalked away from it.
And here's the fucked up thingabout it.
What about all the femalesoldiers?
Our lionesses, our cstsdeveloped a program and train

(55:00):
and empowered women to be partof their mission set and those
remarkable little tiny warriorsthat went on every mission with
us to go out there and help usby talking and engaging with the
women in these villages, inthese compounds.
What happened to them?
We weren't able to get all ofthem out and we just fucking
left them there to be brutalized, to be fucking, to experience

(55:27):
what none of us could everfucking imagine.
And that, to me, is one of thegreatest fucking atrocities of
this thing.
And I I cannot understand whywe can't see the importance of
being able to, like, hold peopleaccountable yeah, I know that's
like the horrible thing youdeal on the positive end of
things and stuff.

Speaker 2 (55:47):
But if you wanted to go down that route a little bit
and so you should talk with BethBailey.
She runs a podcast called theAfghanistan Project and she has
a lot of contacts over therethat she's very much in tune
with what's happening over there.
Crazy to hear some of the stuffback and understand that this

(56:09):
is the repercussions of leavingthat vacuum of power and not
properly, you know, having anexit from that country or
supporting our people one of the.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
I tried describing it last night.
Thank you the the amount andthis doesn't.
I know that I'm not the onlyone dealing with this.
To wake up and check your email, because I we talk about this,
we engage about it.
It's out there for people tohear.
I get emails from individualswith team pictures from

(56:37):
Afghanistan.
Hey, I was with ODA XYZ.
I need help.
And they send in all theircertificates of thank you for
supporting us and pictures notfrom one oda team, pictures from
fucking multiple years ofdedicated service.
I need help.
I need help.
And it's just picture afterpicture after picture after

(56:59):
picture and then you recognizesome of the fucking faces you
know like what the fuck denny,I've actually had this to talk
about ripple effect and stufftoo.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
Um, I've had the same thing with with believe it or
not, the book has afghan fansout there to where I've
literally had someone do amotorcycle drive by of where, uh
, cop, where was you know?
Like I noticed the tri-wallsand stuff and you this in.
But he was 10 years old at thetime when we were there.
And to get back that theyremember us and they remembered

(57:33):
us standing tall and doing theright thing.
They weren't frightened of usbecause they knew they had seen
us bleed alongside the Afghancounterparts and stuff and they
understood that these guys arehere and what they're doing and
stuff is something greater thanthemselves and they really
respected that.
It's a warrior culture.
And to say that like here'sthis book that we wrote.

(57:55):
But the ripple effect, not onlywithin guys from our battalion
or other people within the armythat you know, there's ones that
have been like man Argandab,like like I know that name, I
serve there, I know someone whoserved there Like thank you for
writing about this.
But then also having Afghans andstuff reach out and
heartbreaking as well, the samething to where I so bad, to

(58:16):
where I actually had to buildinto on social media bots that
are like here's one, two andthree, and if you are an Afghan
seeking refuge and this, andthat these are some
organizations I can't personallydo anything for you.
I wish I could, oh my God, Iwish I could.
And and still, I still havepeople reaching out and saying,
like you know, sir, can you help?
Here's my credentials, here'sme with these guys, here's this

(58:39):
and that, and it's just likepersonally I can't.
But if you go to thoseorganizations like, that's all I
have right now for you, likewe'll see down the road, but and
it's heartbreaking to hear andto hear about and to see
personally- yeah, it's, it's, um, it's one of the worst things
that has ever happened to our,our, uh, our generation of, of

(59:01):
uh, veterans.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
Yeah, like, it's, like, it's one of the multiple
things we're fucking dealingwith, like our guys are fucking
falling to the wayside with,with uh, suicide, drug addiction
, alcohol addiction, um, andthen we have to worry about the,
the bonds that we'll never know, if our interpreter made it out
, if our you know.
The list goes on and on, um, oh, but to end on a more positive

(59:27):
note, sorry about that, somereal shit.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
These are some of the shit that goes on and on.

Speaker 1 (59:33):
That's what we deal with too.
The consequences of our serviceare that we intimately get to
know these individuals, and damnit if it doesn't impact us, all
of us and we're not the onlyones.
There's individuals that aredealing with it on the front
lines because they're runningorganizations that all they do
is try to bring resources, aid,to our comrades that are trapped

(59:56):
behind enemy lines.
So by no means are Will and Ithe only individuals.
And if you're dealing with ittoo, reach out, let's get a,
let's get you connected to someresources that you can send to
people or build it into your,your social media, so that it
can be referred automatically tothese individuals so they don't
have to wait around.
Um, so yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
I'll say, too is one of the things that and I've
spoken to I think I spoke tostriker Meyer about it and stuff
but I've also talked to a fewof the oh yeah, oh my gosh, I
know it right.
And then just start seeing ongetting some of the recognition
from the larger shows and stuff,where I'm like you know, this
is awesome, I see that and I'mlike if you could go 30 years
without telling your story, youknow, and and having to wait

(01:00:39):
that long, um, yeah, and justthat guy has so much like energy
and vitality.
But talking with some of thevietnam vets, uh, I've been like
, hey, how did you guys getthrough that end?
Because I I do feel likethere's some parallels on afghan
.
You guys live this.
What worked for you guys?
Because it's not just g y here.
You know, I know world war iiand stuff are starting to.

(01:01:01):
It's a little different of asituation, but some of these
other conflicts and stuff.
I look to those elders and say,hey, man, like what nuggets of
wisdom here and everything doyou have for us?
Cause I'm listening, you know,I'm, I'm someone who my ear, I'm
wide open for suggestions.
This is a problem that we'refacing in our veteran community
today, especially with ourgeneration, to where a lot of

(01:01:23):
them seem almost jaded to notwant to be part of uh
organizations or part ofanything like that has anything
to do with that service.
They've almost removedthemselves from it and it's like
that.
I do think that that's thewrong answer, because one day
that's going to come crashingback in Um, and I think that
establishing these supportnetworks and establishing these

(01:01:44):
reaching out to the people thatyou served with at one point now
and at least having a numberfor someone to call, is it's
important.
It's an important thing to dobecause, you know, why not start
establishing that now, insteadof 20 years from now?
You know, wouldn't it have beengood to know somebody along the
way?
So we're all in it together,and that's kind of the dirty

(01:02:05):
secret that the army never,never tells us is that, hey,
guess what?
You are now tied for life,because that's really what it is
.

Speaker 1 (01:02:12):
Absolutely, brother.
I couldn't think of a betterway to wrap this up.
Man, the brotherhood is largeron the outside than it is in the
team room.
It is true.
You can encompass.
You don't have to just rely onjust 12 guys, man.
You can grow your team and yourcommunity and make it a
powerful thing that you can leanon and then bring others in
into the circle to support them.

(01:02:32):
And big shout out to guys likeVinny Vargas who are doing that.
Man, talk about an amazingthing that he's doing with, like
the fuse and his, hisinitiatives.
Dude, like the fact thatsomebody who's arguably had has
had an amazing career on his ownis willing to dive back into
the void and say, notmotherfuckers, we're all getting

(01:02:54):
at this shit together.
So shout out to you, vinny, andeverything you're putting
together, brother, like that issuch a powerful thing to see.
Uh, it's, it's not lost on me.
And like man just absolutelycannot applaud him enough.
That's why I'm giving him afree plug in Follow his podcast,
everything that he's doing onIronclad Media, his own show and
he just started another onewith the North Group.

(01:03:15):
So check that out, will.
Where can we get your book?

Speaker 2 (01:03:19):
Oh man, so you can get.
I mean, you can either type inWilliam Yasky or Damn the Um.
I got it to the SEO point, towhere that sucker's all the way
up top.
You can get on Amazon.
You can go to damn the Valleybookcom If you want to sign copy
from me.
Um, I was just told the otherday, now it's uh, I actually got
a picture from my old platoonSergeant who is retiring today.

(01:03:41):
Actually, today is his last day.
He's a final stamp.
Today he sent me a picture ofthe book in clothing and sales
and he was like you, freaking,did it like you hit the
milestone, because that was oneof his personal things is.
He was like I want to see it inclothing and sales.
Hell yeah, and it's there now.
So I mean, you can go there,barnes and noble, anywhere where

(01:04:03):
they carry books.
Uh, ask for it, you can can getit on Amazon.
It's on audiobook, matter offact, you can.
Actually, if you're a Spotifypremium user, you can listen to
it for free.
Oh, hell yeah there you go.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
The link will be in the bio.
Check it out.
Do us a favor.
Head on over to Will's podcast.
What's the name of your podcast?

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
Veteran success story .

Speaker 1 (01:04:23):
I know it's a mouthful Give it a like, a
follow, a share, leave a commentor two, say whatever you want
to say, damn the Valley withexclamation mark, or say, hey,
I'm here because Denny said toDo anything you want, put
anything you want in there.
It helps guys like Will andmyself grow.
It helps promote his show onthe algorithm.
But, please, the most importantthing you can do is go to
YouTube, subscribe to thatchannel, leave a comment, share

(01:04:44):
it with your friends and promotegreat veteran content, because
it's not just about fuckingdouchebags like me that went off
to do great things.
We all came from an amazingbackground and I like to think
that the greatest place that Icould have ever stumbled upon
was the fucking 82nd AirborneDivision, because I got to run
into guys like Paul Strobel,greg Baring, david Joy Salgado

(01:05:05):
my man, man, I shouldn't havefavorites as a team leader, but
boy him.
Paracas and Van Arsdale Some ofthe greatest soldiers I had the
privilege of leading.
And then you got guys likeAdrian New York, fucking
fantastic fister.
Michael McKenzie, an amazing,fucking platoon sergeant.
You got old Bartley Kennedy, anamazing officer.

(01:05:27):
Then you have Bedford he was anamazing guy too.
So many great leaders thatpoured into me.
Oh, don't forget the giantredhead McClymon, great dude
David Sowers.
Tons of paratroopers.

Speaker 2 (01:05:38):
Big Hurt Carolyn.

Speaker 1 (01:05:39):
I'm going to keep going Just naming them.
If I forget you, it's because Ilove you and I just don't have
a good memory.
But these individuals pouredinto me and if you look into
every background of a great softguy, there's probably like 75
individuals.
Here's another one.
First, aren't anger.
Great fucking dude, alwaysangry, always ranting, but a
great fucking leader.
I'm always done with my rant.

(01:06:01):
What I want to say, and finishoff with this podcast, is to say
that we don't get to wherewe're going by ourselves.
We get there by those thatpoured into us.
And shout out to the 82nd 2504Parachute Infantry Regiment home
of the finest white devils.
I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:06:16):
Denny Caballero Strikehold right.

Speaker 1 (01:06:18):
That's right.
Thank you for tuning in.
We'll see you all next time.
Until then, take care.
Thanks for tuning in and don'tforget to like, follow, share,
subscribe and review us on yourfavorite podcast platform.
If you want to support us, headon over to buymeacoffeecom,
forward slash SecHawk podcastand buy us a coffee.
Connect with us on Instagram Xor TikTok and share your

(01:06:40):
thoughts or questions abouttoday's episode.
You can also visitsecurityhawkcom for exclusive
content, resources and updates.
And remember we get throughthis together.
If you're still listening, theepisode's over.
Yeah, there's no more Tune intomorrow or next week, thank you
.

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Will Yeske | War Stories, Humor, and the Accountability of Leadership

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Will Yeske | War Stories, Humor, and the Accountability of Leadership