FBI agent’s role in investigating the mafia, human trafficking - Tango Alpha Lima

Marine veteran Mark Sewell joined the FBI after his military service, working on cases involving organized crime, human trafficking and more.

In the Atlanta FBI office, he was joined by agents who worked on high-profile mob crime such as the John Gotti case. Sewell wrote “Investigating America’s Most Notorious Strip Club: The FBI, The Gold Club, and the Mafia.”  His next book is about stolen valor. 

Other topics in this Tango Alpha Lima episode include a Reddit post about a survivor of human trafficking; whether bowling is the secret to living to 100; and arrests made in the murder of a Marine veteran.

LINKS

Investigating America's Most Notorious Strip Club

Reddit Rabbit Hole: Survivors of Human Trafficking

American Legion Resolution on Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention and Awareness

New disabled veteran parking rules take effect in Washington

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
We're back alphas. We're coming in hot with
inspiring guests, witty banter and colorful commentary.
Today's veterans and military community.
This is the Tal podcast. Welcome, Alphas.
Thanks for joining us. We have a great show for you
today. Marine Corps veteran and former
FBI Supervisory Special Agent Mark Sewell is here.

(00:22):
And let me tell you, he was in the Atlanta FBI and spent his
career investigating violent criminal organizations like a
badass while simultaneously investigating stolen valor
cases, which is really quite interesting too.
Mark is a published author. His book investigating America's
most notorious strip club, the FBI, the Gold Club and the

(00:44):
Mafia. You're going to want to get a
copy of that. But before we get Mark on the
show, I'm, I'm interested, Joe, you're right there in the
Atlanta area. Did you know that the mob was
like so close to your backyard? You know, I'll be honest with
you. You know how hard it was to stay
out of that guy's radar while hewas doing all this stuff?

(01:05):
I was. Under investigation, Joe.
I mean, I mean, if he doesn't bring me up, if he's not here to
confront me, I'm winning. You know, that's the way I see
it. Am I?
Let me ask you, when you think of the mob, what kind of accent
comes to mind? Goodfellas.
Yeah, like a Long Island, New York kind.
Of grand. Yoda walking walking through the

(01:28):
the scene where he walks throughthe restaurant.
But it's not a southern twang, right?
It's not like I got let me go get these guns.
Yeah, that's right. I got all these drugs.
Maine. Maine never got.
A mob down here. I don't know.
It just doesn't add up to be, well, we'll have to ask Mark all

(01:48):
about that. I'm no what's your what's your
favorite mob movie go. My Cousin Vinny.
Joe Pesci. No, honestly, no joke.
And it's it's kind of a guilty pleasure and it's not even a
movie. I am thoroughly enjoying Tulsa

(02:10):
Kings. What Tulsa Kings is that?
What? Tulsa King Sylvester Stallone.
Yeah, So Sylvester. Stallone, I keep thinking and
look, Sylvester, for some reasonyou're ever listening to this.
Please forgive me. You keep proving me wrong.
I keep thinking, the guy's done,you know?
And he comes out with another Rambo movie and I'm like, bro,
hang it up. And then you watch it and you're
like, that's exactly what I wantout of an aging Rambo movie.

(02:33):
Like you are just you continue to impress me every single time.
Like I could not have said that any better.
Like the Rocky, like, come on, are we really going to do?
Gosh, the you were great in in. Balboa he just gets.
Better and better and better. How does he do it?
I don't know man, I don't know. He probably some he's some sort
of performance enhancing acting thing.

(02:57):
I don't know. So that if you're listening, I
swear you, I'm a huge fan. Wait, what was huge is you but.
What was the Denzel Washington flick that came out not not too
many years ago where he helped this young girl who was
trafficked? She was Russian.
Regularizer. Yeah, those.
Are all good too. That's might.

(03:17):
That might be one of my favorite.
Favorite from him is Book of Elithough.
Book of Eli. Yeah, that reveal at the end is
like woof. Yeah, big time.
But once you see the reveal, then you're like, can I ever
watch this again? Because the suspend is.
Over. Yeah, it's a one off.
He did all those good roles and then he finally played like the
villain in Training Day, like, you know, the bad guy.
And then I think he ended up like winning the Oscar for for

(03:38):
that. Your all your other works.
And they're, they're extraordinary.
But oh, great. Well, remember the Titans.
Yeah. Remember.
Yeah. So good.
So good. So far from the mob movies, but,
you know, good movies. I think any role he steps into,
he really commits. And you know, he, he suspends my

(03:58):
disbelief for an hour and a half, two hours.
I think he's a great actor. You know, because he still
sounded so much like Enzo Washington in the In the
Gladiator 2 movie. But he still won me over.
You know, I I was, I was still, you know, I thought it was an
odd choice, but I go into that stuff really open minded.
You know, I thought that Heath Ledger was an odd choice for for

(04:20):
the Joker. But I think we all we want, you
know, I'm not going to be like one of the people.
Oh, I knew he was. No, I was like anybody else.
I was like, you know, he's, you know, Knight's tale.
How do you go? From Knight From Knight's Tale.
My bad. Also, by the way, Knight's Tale.
Great movie. Very good movie, good model.
Wait what was the other like? What was the ROM com one where
he played the? Oh, 10 Things I hate about you.

(04:42):
Yeah, that. Was good.
Yeah. That was great.
Joseph Gordon Levitt. Yeah, Yep.
Who's a dreamboat? I mean, you know, if I like guys
like that or guys, sorry. I like guys, but mainly my
husband. Mainly about a 8020 split.
I like you, Joe. Thanks buddy, I can't wait to
see you. Yeah, we'll do a high 5.

(05:04):
Jumping slow motion. I can't jump.
You at M Con at M Con Las Vegas.That's right baby, that's where
all the cool kids. Celebration does culture, yeah.
All right. Well, Alphas, please stick
around. We'll be back with Mark Sewell
right after the BRIAC. Hey there Legionnaires and

(05:25):
sports fans. This is Joe Worley, American
Legion member and Navy veteran, and I am so excited that the
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history. That's right, the greatest

(05:45):
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we're shining a spotlight on ourprimary mission.
Be the one, our fight to end veteran suicide.

(06:06):
So mark your calendars. Tune into CBS on December 13th
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Legions involvement and our mission, visit legion.org. back
slash Army. Navy Game.
Let's cheer on our team, Supportour mission.
Show the world what it means to be a Legionnaire.

(06:26):
Go Navy. All right, Alphas, today we're
joined by Marine veteran, formerFBI agent and author Mark
Sewell. Mark, welcome to the Tango Awful
Lima podcast. Well, thank you.
I I consider it a honor to talk to you guys and talk to veteran.
So thank you very much. Mark, thank you for your service

(06:48):
and I appreciate you coming on the show.
Of course, I really, really enjoyed diving into your
extraordinary, not only militaryhistory, but your your FBI
experience. It's mind boggling.
But I want to start by getting to know you pre military, pre
FBII think you're from Texas originally.

(07:09):
Is that right? That's right.
I'm listed in the Marines out ofthe Houston area.
So yeah, I grew up in the Houston area, a town called
LaPorte, which is South of the city on the water down on the
Galveston Bay, and recruited into the Marines out of that
area. Now, did you come from a family
of military? What brought you to the Marine

(07:31):
Corps Recruiter? Yeah, good question.
I do have some family members. I lost an uncle that I never
knew in Vietnam and his one of his brothers served in Santa
Domingo in the Navy and as a member of the VFW because of
that and a little known conflictdown in South America.

(07:55):
And then my father tried to serve but my father only had one
eye, but he was very patriotic and so those things rubbed off
on me. Both of my, my grandfather and
great uncle served in World War 21, was in the Solomon Islands
and so got to hear some of thosestories growing up second hand
and the like. But after graduating from high

(08:15):
school, I went straight into thechemical plants, which is what
everybody in South Houston does.Oil, Oil is king in Houston,
right? And everybody in Pennsylvania
goes to work in the steel and coal business.
Everybody in the Houston area goes to work in oil.
And I did that for almost 2 years and decided I didn't want

(08:35):
to do this for the next 30 years.
It's a great living and it's great money.
Frankly, it's, it's probably that one of the best blue collar
jobs you can get. But I wanted to see the world
and the Marines will let me do that.
And so I didn't know a lot aboutthe services.
I didn't have anybody in my family that had been a Marine
that I knew. I had a cousin, second cousin

(08:59):
that was also killed in Vietnam that had been in the Marines.
In fact, I just recently got hisNational Archives back and I'm
looking at this. That's really a neat, neat read,
but no one personally to tell meabout the Marines.
So it was just kind of a blind stab and I went for it.
That's pretty awesome. How shocked were you getting

(09:21):
into basic training? Was it kind of an eye opener?
Was how jarring was it for the jarhead?
Yeah. So, so it was in 1987, the
summer of 87, and I went to San Diego.
So I was a Hollywood Marine, as we like to say.
I don't know where Joe went to, to boot camp or well, and the

(09:41):
Navy didn't have San Diego probably going when you went
through, right? Correct.
I so I went through Great Lakes for core school, yeah and basic.
And then I went over actually I went Hollywood over at Camp
Pendleton in in Horneck. That's right for.
My. Medical Service.
Yeah, yeah. When I went to boot camp in 87,

(10:02):
the Marines and the Navy were both sharing San Diego as a boot
camp and it was only separated by a chain link fence.
So the Marine, we could see the Navy, the Navy could see us, and
that created. No gallivanting whatsoever.
I was in the stage. I pictured a marine and a sailor
on either side of the chain linkfence.
Like no touching like. To answer your question, yeah,

(10:25):
it was an eye opener. You know, I don't recall the
recruiter ever telling me, you know, what to expect.
So, and I was 19 and almost 20 and I was married and had a
newborn. So I was a little bit more
mature probably than the average1718 year old.
So that one or two to three-yeardifference was noticeable.

(10:47):
But it was, to answer your question, it was, it was a
welcome to the Marine Corps. For sure, yeah.
Nice. Yeah.
Did they, did you take that experience with you when you
transition out of the core into the FBI?
Yeah, Boot camp will stay with you forever, especially Marine
boot camp. The things that we learn, their
teamwork, you know, respecting, once you respect your leaders,

(11:13):
kind of like that. Blind obedience to orders
without asking questions as longas you know in your gut it's the
right thing to do. That might be an
oversimplification, but just those type of things go with you
forever and I'm I'm, I'm glad I got those under my belt for
sure. So I, I think on, on my end, you

(11:38):
know, I, there's a special bond,you know, between every Marine
and every corpsman ever. It just sort of happens.
There's kind of, you know, Corpsman are a lot like Marines
in that there are no OK Marines.There's either good Marines or
bad Marines and Corpsman I thinkare very similar.
You know, and, and, and I alwaysjoke around that what won my
Marines over wasn't my, my cool head under pressure.

(12:01):
It was the fact that when they filled sandbags, I filled
sandbags. That's all it took.
Yeah. For it to win those guys over is
when work was needed to be done.I didn't run off to the to the
the the to hide anywhere with the with the other corpsman.
I I did I did work so. You didn't need to inventory
your Med bag. Yeah, no.
No, right, I carried a tiny Med bag.

(12:22):
So when it took me too long, I tried to at least I had a big
bag, but luckily I didn't have to use that one too much.
But but I I do want to say going, you know, you've had
quite an adventure because you do all this stuff in the
military. You you get in involved in, you
know, the, the Bureau, you startinvestigating the the mafia, the
in and earlier they asked me what my my favorite mob movie

(12:45):
was and I said it was my cousin Vinny.
How about this? But how similar in a lot of
ways, do you think those worlds of, of deception and motivations
behind like the Bureau and, and the mob and these like I, you
know, how does all this stuff tie in?
Because I feel like we tend to, whether we mean to or not, lean

(13:06):
into similar themes in our lives.
And I'm curious how that played out for you.
Yeah, similar theme, definitely.There's a connection between the
Marine Corps and the FBI. Percentage wise, the Marine
Corps is the the, the, the service that's most represented
in the FBI, even though the Marine Corps is the smallest.

(13:28):
Then the Army, Yeah, yeah. And then Army would be second,
and probably Navy and then maybeAir Force after that.
But, you know, maybe as much as 1/4 of the FBI, if not a third
is probably or probably veteranswould be My, my, my experience
and my guess. So I think that there's a reason

(13:54):
for that is because veterans want to continue to serve even
if they're leaving the service. So that's why you see so many
veterans going to law enforcement and 1st responders
and, and in this case, federal law enforcement.
So yeah, there's definitely a connection there.
Now related to the MOP. Remember, I grew up in Houston,
TX area. The only mobster I knew was a

(14:17):
guy that I used to see on the front page of newspapers and
maybe on 60 Minutes, and that was John Gotti.
And that was it. Beyond that, I couldn't tell you
anybody anything. So when I got assigned to the
organized crime squad out of theAcademy, I got assigned to
Atlanta 1st. And then they told me, OK,

(14:37):
you're going to be on our newly formed organized crime squad to
tackle some mob issues that the city of Atlanta is happening.
I could not have been the least,the least qualified person to to
take that position coming from Houston, right?
But the advantage I had was I had two guys already on that
squad that had been in New York and it worked.

(15:00):
Wise guys there. One had worked specifically the
Donnie Brasco case. So if you watch the movies like
you're talking about My Cousin Vinny, you know Donnie Brasco.
And then the other one had worked John Gotti Senior that
case directly as well. So I learned from the fire hose
that those guys brought with them of knowledge.

(15:24):
Well, Mark I, I grew up in, in, in Texas as well.
Dallas, Fort Worth, OK, I spent a little bit of time in 1st and
2nd grade. We lived in Roswell in Atlanta,
just north of Atlanta and then Ilive in southeast Alabama now,
but before that we were living in the Willis, Conroe area.
So definitely been through Beaumont and I-10, you know,

(15:46):
several times. I.
Know where Conroe is for sure. That's right.
So I wanted I want to focus on amindset a little bit and and
really kind of talking about some of the things that you just
started to highlight with respect to your early career,
kind of mid career and then moving over to the the FBI.
So enlisted Marine to then leader of Marines and then FBI

(16:11):
agent serving at home. And I want to take a quick
little detour on this mindset, which is I was looking at your
background and saw that you had a tour as an FBI agent in
Afghanistan. So I was going to ask you, how
does that work? Because I didn't, I didn't even
know agents deployed in support of, you know, maybe if I was

(16:31):
paying attention a little bit more.
But as an attack pilot, you know, we just had to have our,
our head in the dash 10 so we could, you know, deliver what we
needed to. So can you share a little bit
about your your Afghan and what was the FB is role in that?
And then really you know that larger question.
Yeah, really the larger questionis the mindset set shifts that

(16:52):
you needed and how one prepared you for the next.
Yeah, good question. Concerning Afghanistan, I went
twice actually I went in O 8 andthere I was assigned to J Sock
as an enabler support. There was a decision made in the

(17:12):
late Bush early Obama administration that we might
want to bring back some of thesebad guys to the to America and
try them in the US court system,especially if we had connections
to direct attacks on the homeland 911 being the obvious.
So then the question was asked, well, if we bring them back and

(17:34):
we put them on trial like we didwith the 20th hijacker Zarqawi
and not Zarqawi, his name escapes me, but we, that's an
example of putting someone on trial.
Who are we going to put up on the witness stand to say I

(17:55):
seized this evidence? I, I received this statement.
Do we want to put sales Rangers,cream berets up on the witness
stand to say, yeah, he told me this when I went into his house
and captured him? Probably not, right?
So the decision was made that we're going to take FBI agents
and attach them to these units that are going to capture these

(18:19):
high value targets. And let the let the agents do
the searches of the houses to collect the evidence and which
is commonly known as SSE sensitive site exploitation.
And then let the agents also do the quick interrogation that you
get on the battlefield. And any of those statements that
might be admissible if you did go to trial.

(18:43):
Now the agent can testify to those.
And they were taking agents thathad obviously military
experience. So you could fit in and speak
the lingo and understand and then also agents that had SWAT
experience from a tactical perspective.
So from early O8 to it was a 90 day tour with JSOC.

(19:04):
So for those three months was myfirst one.
Then I came back in late O 9 andagain in 2010 to do it again.
But by that time a decision was made by FBI headquarters that
that program was going to go away.
And primarily the reason was is that, well, frankly, we don't
think there's anybody left on the battlefield that is a direct

(19:27):
threat to the US mostly Taliban,mostly Pakistan.
That was that district, guys. Yeah.
Yeah. That's a whole another podcast,
right? Yeah, that sounds like typical
government like. Yeah.
So, so we were we were taken outof that.
That program ran from O1 to towards the end.

(19:51):
I was one of the last so about O9, but I I was already on a
plane ready to go back again andI got re diverted to Kabul and
there I was assigned to the Major Crimes Task force.
So we were teaching the FBI, theDEA and the US Marshals were
teaching the law enforcement agencies in Afghanistan the

(20:15):
skills to tackle major, Major Crimes.
And what we called Major Crimes were drug trafficking,
kidnappings and public corruption.
Which were the big Three in Afghanistan?
So we took officers out of the Moi, the Afghan Moi, Ministry of
Interior in the NDS, which was their version of the CIA, and we

(20:37):
combined them into a joint task force.
These are not street cops. These are all plainclothes
investigators, so to say, their version of the FBI, their
version of the agency that had really been created under the
Soviets. And then they they had continued
to exist. They had their Soviet training
and now they were taking on our training.

(20:58):
And I did that for five months. I was assigned to the embassy in
Kabul, but it didn't live in theembassy.
We lived in another compound where we could train better
north of the airport there in Kabul.
So that was my two tours. And you know, for if you if you
were to walk into an FBI, FBI office, Adam, we have a wall of

(21:22):
honor where we recognize all theagents that have died in the
line of duty. And there are, I know of there
are two agents that were killed in World War 2, for example,
that were on planes in South America when the planes went
down for whatever reason. But the question is why were
agents on planes in South America during World War 2?

(21:43):
And it's all in support of the war effort, chasing spies,
whatever it might be. So actually the Bureau has been
doing these type of missions in support of the war effort all
the way back to World War 2. Quite frankly, it's not well
known. Like you said, you were
surprised to see that, but it but it does have a long history.
The mindset is just, I think kind of like what I already

(22:06):
said, being enlisted, being an officer, being an agent, being a
SWAT guy, all of those is a logical step that builds on the
previous to get you ready to do the next thing.
So the mindset is you relying onyour experience that you've got

(22:28):
to get you there. One, it 1, it gets your foot in
the door and then two, to execute.
So I, I was well served at my Marine time and my SWAT time on
the FBI team served me well in Afghanistan and, and the, the
military was very happy to have the Bureau enablers in, in

(22:49):
hindsight, we, we, we built longand lasting relationships.
Mark, I want to shift gears for a second because I think I was
really intrigued by with the thewith your book.
And you talked about the mafia and the strip club, but there
was also an element of human trafficking.

(23:10):
And I'm curious, you know, I, I see listen in the ladies room
never, never ceases to exist a poster on the back of the door
that says, if you feel like you're being human trafficked
or, you know, somebody who's being human trafficked, here's a
number to contact. I've seen Psas on different hand
signals women can use that are that are in distress or just to
watch out for, you know, those signals that are maybe out when

(23:34):
you're out in public. And you know, for you as someone
who's dealt with human trafficking in your career, can
you share with, with Alphas and myself with how women end up
trafficked in a traffic situation, perhaps what lay
people need to look out for? Who do we report to if we

(23:58):
suspect somebody's being somebody's in danger or at risk,
you know, things like that? Can you cover that for us?
Yeah, sure. My experience with trafficking
was certainly the first time there was on that organized
crime squad, but it wasn't related to the mob side of the
house, what we call My Cousin Vinny.
It was on that squad we worked the LCN, Locosa Nostra, the

(24:22):
Italian mob. We worked Asian organized crime
and we worked Russian organized crime.
And where I was first introducedto human trafficking was on the
Asian organized crime. And what they were doing in the
late 90s is exactly what they'redoing today.
It hasn't changed. And that's a visa fraud.
And, and, and that's really partof the impetus in the Trump

(24:46):
administration to crack down on a lot of this, these visas is
because what you write on paper to get your visa isn't always
what happens when you get off the airplane and start trying to
fulfill that mission. And a lot of times that fraud is
from the very beginning, it's, it's it's intentional.

(25:06):
And then often that fraud secondly would be, well, now
that I'm here, I think I want I've changed my mind.
I don't want to fulfill the reason that my visa says that
I'm here. But to back to your question
directly is we allow through ourstate Department a certain

(25:27):
amount of employees to come in, in different industries as you
well know from tech all the way down to custodial, you know
house cleaning and whatever it might be, rudimentary home care
and so on. And in the Asian community, a
number of females to the tunes of 10s of thousands come over

(25:48):
under the visa program that saysthey're going to be domestic
house workers or they're going to provide some type of care in
that, let's just say in that vein, you know, cleaning and and
so forth. Not it's not a skilled labor and
it's and the people that are sponsoring them.
And it's all a facade. It's all it's, it's a, it's a
phony corporation. As soon as they get here, those

(26:12):
girls are then put into houses of prostitution or massage
parlors. And the only recourse for the
girl is to either run. But when you're in a foreign
country and don't speak the language, that's, that's easy
for you and I to say run, you know, run to the nearest police
officer. It doesn't work like that.

(26:32):
And let me tell you why, becauseI learned real quickly, a lot of
the the girls and the guys too are scared of American law
enforcement because or don't trust American law enforcement
because it's corrupt in the, in the country that they came from.
All right. So organized crime in Vietnam,

(26:53):
for example, has a strong Nexus with law enforcement.
So we, we trust our law enforcement.
We, we tell those PSA's that yousee on the back of those doors,
notify law enforcement, go to the first guy you see in a
uniform with a badge and a gun and tell them you're being
trafficked. It's not like that in those

(27:14):
countries. For whatever reason.
It's not, you know, that's a whole other podcast in itself.
So I, I saw girls that would getoff the plane, their passports
would be taken. So that's, that strips them of
any empowerment that they think they have.
They don't speak the language and then their, their traffic in
that regard. And on our Asian side of that

(27:36):
squad, we, we made a number of cases where we went to houses of
prostitution where the girls were literally locked inside the
house. They weren't allowed the door
kick, window bars on the windowsand a guard at the front door to
to a less extreme of working in a massage parlor.

(27:57):
But the girl can actually make alittle money.
So now it's kind of enticing to a certain extent, but they still
can't run away from it because the bad guys got their visas,
got their passport, and they would be lost without that.
And they they're, they fear they'll be sent back.
And quite frankly, the threat ofbeing sent back is more scary to

(28:19):
them than the consequences of staying.
And, you know, and it's hard forus to get our, our, our heads
around that, right? We take so much for granted
being American citizens that we can do this and we can do that.
And we have, we have this governmental structure that's
going to support us. It's the complete opposite in
many of these third world Asian countries.

(28:40):
So that was my first introduction.
We saw a little bit on the Russian side, but it was really
on the Asian side. And we also saw it in when we
started working black street gangs.
We saw it within the black community in the inner city.
There was some significant pimping cases that were made in
Atlanta from that squad that I'mtelling you about.

(29:03):
This may shock you, but in 1990790899 time frame, it was
still a misdemeanor in the stateof Georgia to traffic a 16 year
old. OK.
And I think, in fact, I think itwas 15 and 16 year old.
It was a felony for 14 and below, but it was a misdemeanor

(29:25):
from 15 and 16. And the reason for that, I was
told it was an archaic law that was still on the books that
basically in the Deep South, people got married at a young
age. So if you're going to traffic,
which means you're going to include sex, well, is it real
sex or is it marital sex? Is it trafficking in that

(29:45):
regard? It's complicated.
So they made it a misdemeanor and it's, and it's the craziest
thing ever. Well, we, the feds were able to
apply federal felony laws to those 15 and 16 year old cases.
And so we made some, my squad and, and, and an agent by the
name of Barbara Brown made some just fantastic cases cleaning up

(30:07):
inner city where we took pimps and put them in prison for these
felonies that they were committing by trafficking and,
and pimping these girls at that age when previously they'd have
been arrested 20 times and released because it was a
misdemeanor over and over and over.
Now today that's no longer the case.
It's a felony. But at the time in the late 90s,

(30:27):
it was not. And that was another one of my
first introductions to trafficking.
And then of course, the last part of what you said is it,
it's, and I've already mentionedit, it's, it's, it's really as
simple as it, as I said, is go to law enforcement, any guy with
a badge, any guy with a gun, anyguy with a uniform and tell them
what's happening. And they know now, because this

(30:49):
is such a big issue, they know how to handle that, whether it's
within their own agency or who to inform, who to pick up the
phone and call, whether it's theFBI or HSI.
Mark, I have a follow up question.
I wondered, wondered for the women or and men as you kind of
I heard you say there, who are brought in from other countries

(31:10):
under the pretense that they're going to be having legitimate
work visas and work, you know, work here in the US and end up
in these sad situations when they're liberated from
captivity. Are they deported or do we
support them here in the US by offering them citizenship or a
path to citizenship? How does what does that future

(31:32):
look like for these for these folks?
Yeah, it's a great question. And the answer is they are
offered a path to citizenship. That might be a little bit of an
over exaggeration, but certainlya visa that allows them to stay,
whether it's green card and, andthe way we, the way we can do
that is the easy way to do that is there is a, there's a number

(31:54):
of visas. There's probably from my limited
experience, well over 20 different types of visas, maybe
closer to 30 and each. And one of the types of visas is
it's a reward for providing assistance to law enforcement or
to the US government. So it's an easy fix for law
enforcement. It's not like we're manipulating

(32:16):
it. We're taking advantage of what's
there, work with us, testify, put this guy in jail and I can
get you this visa under this cooperation addendum that
already exists. And then that visa can turn
into, you know, those are multi year visas and then they can
turn into permanent residents. They can turn into green cards,

(32:37):
maybe not citizenship, but permanent residency and and so
on. So their future brightens and
and it's through that visa pro, one of those visas that I told
you about. Well, that's great.
Do we offer them and use, I meanfrom mental health therapies or
anything like that from their traumas?
Yeah, we, we work with the, whatwe'd call the NGOs or the non

(32:58):
government agencies, the nonprofit's Barbara Brown, the
girl I was telling you about, I remember she used to bring these
agencies in all the time into our office space.
And when she would interview a girl, she would have one of
these, mostly a female from another nonprofit that would
come in and provide some assistance and then be able to
take her and give her housing and food and and so on.

(33:20):
And this was all work through the court system.
This was all work through the FBI.
So these were vetted and trustedpeople that could, yeah, provide
them assistance. Wow.
Thanks. You know, on, on, on my end of
things here. I, I, I, I originally was going
to ask you about the, the stolenvalor thing, but I, I can't if

(33:41):
I, if I've only got one questionleft.
What I really want to ask you isall this stuff is heavy.
You've been through some things,brother.
And, and, and in this small group of people that you're in
right now, we know there's a weight.
What, what do you do for peace? What do you do to back off from,
from some of the things that you've seen and, and done?

(34:03):
How do you find, how do you recenter yourself with, with all
these heavy things that you've seen in your life?
Because I think that those coping mechanisms are, are what
keeps us rolling sometimes and refills our battery so we can
continue to do work like what you're doing, like you're
bringing light to these things that are so important.
So how? How do you how do you recharge?

(34:26):
Yeah, good question. Because I I was kind of
oblivious to that at a certain till a certain part of my career
and it was made aware to me. Yeah, yeah.
We love you man, so we know. Well, Speaking of, yeah,
Speaking of the Marines, you know, the, the, the institution
of physical fitness is driven into you, right?
So that is A, to this very day, you know, I'm active in the

(34:49):
CrossFit community, I compete and, you know, in the masters
community, just going to the gymand working out every single day
makes a difference for me. So that physical exercise to be
able to get rid of stress, mentally, emotionally
disconnect. And, and that's, that's
invaluable since retirement, youknow, now that when you, you hit

(35:12):
the brakes and you start thinking about everything.
And to me, riding has become the, the, the way out.
So I wrote the first book and I have a stolen valor book.
Hopefully that'll be published next summer.
The book has been written. It's with the publisher now.
And I try and tell these stories, even though it may not

(35:35):
be the focus of the book. I try and interject.
The human trafficking that Stacywas just talking about, I try
and represent deaths on the battlefield in the in my stolen
valor book, even though it's notthe focus of the story, because
that's a way to vent those things as well and talk about
them. So those would be the two

(35:56):
answers I think is exercise, physical fitness.
And for me, it's writing. Nice.
We're very similar in that regard.
OK, things too. Stacey does writing too.
Well, well, Joe's not saying that, but he, he has a book out
and he's, he just finished writing book #2 so.
Awesome. And it's, it's, it's with your

(36:16):
time with the Marines, I would assume, or something to that
effect. No, it's sci-fi fantasy.
I went the other direction. I, I've always had people tell
me that I should write my story,but I've never, it took me a
long time to realize that my story, you know, cuz my whole
thing is, is like everyone likesto think your story is special,
but it's not. I can tell you 30 people that
have a story that are way more interesting than mine, but my

(36:39):
story is unique. And I think what makes my story
special is, is what I've done with it.
And, and the same thing with you.
I mean, career wise, there's probably, you probably know a
few people have similar career paths, but your impact is unique
to you. And and that's all we have is,
is that that is that impact and the uniqueness of what we do

(36:59):
with what we've been through. Yeah, so.
All right. Well, Mark, you, you talked a
little bit about your books and I'd like to kind of hear, you
know, when you're when you're writing those, what what you
hope, you know, the reader takesaway from those.
But you also really have just piqued my interest on on a lot
of things. And I really feel like we could

(37:19):
we could go for a long time here, maybe maybe have you back
on to be able to unpack some more of these things.
I think for me, you know, personally, I just kind of want
to scale out a little bit into the macro of, you know, what's
going on in in the US right now from your perspective, you have
such, you know, rich perspective.
What's, what's the greatest threat that you think that

(37:42):
you're seeing or that, you know,that we're kind of facing, you
know, right now as Americans andwhat is, you know, kind of the
FB is role in that? Is there maybe any kind of
misconceptions about what's going on right now or things,
you know, that that aren't beingilluminated, you know, that the
FBI is doing in the background? I'm interested in that because,

(38:04):
you know, I think what's going on in in the nation is important
to understand because like Stacey was saying, you know, all
the way down to to trafficking. There's so much that I've
learned today and you know, in, in the lead up to a little bit
of this that, you know, it's just something I don't spend a
lot of time with just being ableto, to know that and, and be
aware, right. And I have young children, you

(38:25):
know, 1413, you know, 8. How can we be more vigilant?
How can we, you know, protect them better?
So some of these things that aregoing on to be able to, to help
support us, you know, don't evenrealize that.
So I would just be interested whatever you feel, you know,
like sharing what your perspective might be on that.
Well, you remember, you rememberearlier in our conversation, I
mentioned my uncle that served in Santa Domingo.

(38:48):
He was a Navy vet and he is the uncle.
My father died when I was young.So he's the one uncle that I've
always stayed in touch with frommy father's family because of
proximity. He's still in that Arkansas,
Louisiana area. So we were able to stay in

(39:08):
touch. And he loves politics.
He loves all things law enforcement, military.
He's a great conversationalist and well read.
He once told me not too long ago, he said, hey, Mark, it's
1969 all over again. And if you go back and look at
1969, the rioting in the streets, the political

(39:31):
assassinations of Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King
Junior, and it goes on and on, the Vietnam conflict, the riots
that came from that, the, the, the, what's the word I'm looking
for? You know the this the the folks
that disagreed and they had to voice their disagreements.

(39:54):
Civil unrest that was going on then, yeah.
Civil unrest? Maybe that's a better answer
that was specifically about Vietnam.
And and there is so many unique comparisons between 1969 and the
present day, even though that iswell over 50 years ago.
You ask about the FBI and what what's their challenges are in

(40:17):
this world. That might be 1969 Part 2 all
over again. Some of the things are still the
same in 1969. Extreme leftist, the Black
Panthers and other anti government agencies were blowing
up government buildings, quite frankly, that extended all the
way into the Indian reservations.

(40:39):
And we had Wounded Knee and there were FBI agents killed at
Wounded Knee. We've had law enforcement
officers killed in post, officers that were blown up,
police departments that were blown up.
And this is 1969 and these same things are happening again in
the modern era, you know, Seattle or Portland, for
example, law enforcement and government buildings are being

(40:59):
targeted. So that is a responsibility of
the FBI to investigate. But at the same time, never
forget about the Timothy and Mcveigh's of the world.
They go far to the right. And how many people he killed in
Oklahoma City in 1990? Four, 1995.
So now we're we're pushing far to the right.

(41:19):
And a lot of times these two arein response to each other,
right. The left is responding to the
right on these far, far spectrums, and the Bureau,
again, is responsible for that investigation as well.
So the domestic terrorism can bethe leftist who wants to destroy
the power grid because it's about Mother Earth, or it's the

(41:42):
it's the extreme right who wantsto blow up a government building
because of everything that they think that represents.
OK, so those are the responsibilities of the FBI in
that world. And but what's changed from 1969
is because I guess of technologyand innovation is now bad guys
from around the world can reach America better and easier than

(42:05):
they could in 1969. So not only do we have this
internal threat that their FBI is responsible for
investigating, now you have guysfrom third world country or from
not third world, but other countries that come into America
with evil intent, right? And now that's a responsibility
of the FBI as well. And that didn't exist

(42:27):
necessarily in 1969. There was no extreme radical
Islam terrorism in America in 1969.
OK, We saw that in the 1972 Olympics.
When you know it when in Germanywhen the Israeli athletes were
taken hostage, but it never cameto America.

(42:48):
Now it's here. So that's another responsibility
that the FBI has and now let's not forget gangs and drugs.
You know every day gang members are shooting each other in the
streets of Chicago, Houston, anybig city in America, right.
That's another responsibility ofthe FBI is a violent crime St.
gangs, drug trafficking and thenwe of course you can add up all

(43:11):
the Oklahoma City bombings, all the post office bombings, you
can add up all of the gang shootings in Chicago and they
still do not reach the thresholdof the deaths due to drugs,
right. The drug overdose of the drug
epidemic in America. That's another responsibility of

(43:32):
the FBI. The DEA was created in the Nixon
administration to help the FBI target drugs because the, and we
saw that it was becoming overwhelming for the FBI to
work. And the DEA shared that burden.
But it hasn't stopped. It's only gotten worse, frankly,
right. So these are all of the burdens

(43:53):
that the FBI is carrying today and I think, frankly, has
carried for the last 20-30 yearsof my career.
And it's it's it's tough. It's a lot of work.
It can be demoralizing in the fact that you sometimes don't
think you're winning. You can lock a guy up and
there's someone else to take hisplace, right?
Not not unlike a battlefield scenario that we would see in

(44:16):
Iraq or Afghanistan. You kill a bad guy and there's
someone else to take his place. So that's where the FBI is
today. And that's kind of my take on
that. Is there.
A lot of things have not changed, but some have.
But it's still all of the responsibility of the FBI.
Man, Mark, can I just say that was like the most kind of

(44:37):
comprehended, comprehensive, toplevel kind of breakdown of what
the FBI faced, you know, 50 years ago, what they're
currently facing today. I got so, so many follow-ups.
I think I would just want to sayhow appreciative I am for you
coming on here today and sharingthat.
And I think it would be great tohave you back on, you know, in

(44:57):
the future to maybe go down and you have such a great
intersection of your lived experience with military service
and, you know, first responder what it's like to to do that,
you know, outside of the countryand then also inside the
country. And I think that, you know,
there's a lot of sound bites, you know, in the media and what,

(45:21):
you know, alphas and Legionnaires and and veterans
deserve is to maybe better understand, you know, some of
those things that are happening like you so well laid out.
So really appreciate you for that.
Thank you, Mark. You're welcome.
I'd love to come back that. That'd be fun, yeah.
I second that you got to come back, Mark.
OK, that, that'd be fun. Stolen valor is kind of my

(45:42):
passion right now. Yeah.
And you know, we could talk about that And, and for sure,
and I know your audience would, would, would be interested in
that as well. Definitely, definitely.
You said you have a book on thatcoming out.
When is that coming, Mark? Yeah, I was able to work some
really high profile cases. We're hoping to have it
published next summer. Great.
Well, we definitely want to get you when that when that book is

(46:04):
ready to drop, we want you back.Let's talk about that.
And alphas, in the meantime, don't forget to get your copy of
Mark's book that's currently published investigating
America's most notorious strip club.
You can get on Amazon. I'll have that Amazon link in in
the show notes. I'm sure that it's it's
available on other platforms, but Amazon's pretty easy.
And like I said, I'll have that in the show notes along with

(46:26):
Mark's social media handles so you can stay abreast as to the
next book. But we're going to have him on
the show. It's it's a done deal.
Mark, we really appreciate the time you spent with us today.
You are such an interesting individual to talk to.
And of course, talking to another veteran is always easy.
It just seems easy. Before we sign off, is there
anything that we didn't discuss that you want to share with the

(46:47):
office? No, thank you for the questions
and and we'll, we'll do it againfor sure.
Thank you. Appreciate you brother.
You're a rock star. If you know when we get a chance
to bring you back in, we're definitely going to have to dive
into the book. But I, I do want to thank you so
much for for joining us today, and I want to let our alphas

(47:08):
know to stick around for some scuttlebutt after the break.
My name is Dan Wiley, national commander of the American
Legion. This year, the American Legion
family is honoring our nation's 250th birthday with the USA 250
Challenge. Participants can choose 1/2.
Or all three. Categories, but I want to talk
about the one that means the most to me, Mental Wellness.

(47:32):
Like many of you, I know first hand the struggles veterans deal
with when it comes to our own mental Wellness.
I am so proud of how the American Legion makes mental
Wellness a priority. Our Be the One mission is
designed to increase mental health awareness and decrease
the number of veterans lost to suicide.
Our Buddy Check program is designed to ensure that no

(47:54):
veteran is left behind. These are worthwhile missions
that change lives and save lives.
You can improve the lives of ourfellow veterans when you join
the American Legion Family USA 250 Challenge and complete the
Mental Wellness category. Visit legion.org/USA 2:50 to get

(48:15):
registered today. All right, Alphas, we hope you
had a great break. Now it's time for some
scuttlebutt. Stace, what you got for us?
OK, well I figured since our guest was combating human
trafficking, I wanted to focus my skuttle butt on that topic

(48:37):
particularly. And I found a compelling Reddit
thread titled I'm a survivor of childhood human trafficking and
I and I thought I'd share it with all the alphas and
especially for all you alphas out there with tweens and teens
that you look after, listen up closely.
This thread is definitely insightful.
So the person who posted this, their call sign is at

(48:58):
Bunsenburner, which is a really great tagline.
And they went on to say I was trafficked from ages 15 to 21,
primarily in American Midwest and South.
So, you know, it's interesting what, what drew me into this
post was not only were they thatyoung, but they were from what
you would not a, not a inner city, not a highly populated.

(49:21):
They were from rural Midwest andSouthern states.
Anyway, they went on to say I managed to escape and have led a
compare, you know, a comparatively relatively normal
life. Since I'm now a social worker
and a researcher working on youth, queer youth and young
adults. And, and let me tell you this as
well, teens and tweens and thosewho may be non binary and queer

(49:48):
are the highest risk for human trafficking.
You think like it's going to be someone in their 20s or
whatever, but no, it's, it's these kids that are the most at
risk. And anyway, they, they are
focusing on helping children in rural environments.
So they, they asked the public on Reddit to weigh in with any
questions and some of them are very insightful.

(50:09):
So let me share with you those solid fact 3761 asked how are
you trafficked? And Bunsen Berner responded, I
was introduced to my trafficker by the boy I was dating at the
time. He was also, unbeknownst to me,
being trafficked as well. So Jenny Von D asked, looking

(50:31):
back, were there any warning signs that you think other teen
youth should look out for and steer clear of to prevent the
same thing from happening to them?
The answer was do not trust adults who think you're quote,
mature and make advances. You're not.
They're trying to abuse you. Have adults in your life you can

(50:52):
trust to discuss sensitive subjects with.
At tape Flip 187 asked what madeyou realize the reality of what
was happening? Did someone point something out
to you or did you start making connections?
What did escaping entail? Bunsen Berner said.
My parents kicked me out of their house when I was about 18
and the threat of homelessness was a huge wake up call for me.

(51:15):
Although I didn't connect it to my trafficking at the time, I
moved across the country to livewith other family and it was at
least for then ended my experience with my primary
trafficker. It was not a clean break, and
when I moved back to the Midwestafter a year or so, he continued
to traffic me. It wasn't until a few years
after that that I started to realize the nature of my

(51:36):
relationship with him and pulledaway fairly sharply At Am I
outside the box asked, why did you continue to engage in the
activity? If you were allowed to go home
every night, why not refuse to go again until your parents?
I think often we, those uneducated of us, assume someone

(52:00):
being trafficked is trapped, like under constant surveillance
of their traffickers, or kept hostage, abducted and so on.
Oh, Stacey, let me interject here.
I think that this is a really good point.
And this is actually a question that, you know, I kind of had
because I'm not super, you know,familiar with this.
And so I'm anxious to hear what they have to say because that's

(52:22):
kind of the impression that I got as well was it's almost like
you're confined, you're like being kept prisoner somewhere.
It's like some kind of underground, you know, network
of, you know, kind of trafficking.
So this is this is illuminating.Yeah.
And so they went on to say I canonly speak to my personal
experience, but the answer is obviously complex.
I was not a particularly athletic or thin kid.

(52:43):
I was just a normal looking freshman in high school.
I was obviously queer so girls didn't pursue me.
I was raised in a very rural farming community.
I certainly didn't have an adultI could look up to or talk to
you about my sexuality or other normal teenager experiences.
I was raised in a religious homewhere sex was generally taboo,
largely a sin, and only to be engaged in as an adult with a

(53:05):
person I was married to. Then all of a sudden there was
an adult man who thought I was cool there.
Here he was, an adult who listened to me, so I thought he
cared about me. All all of my dumb teenager
stuff. I had an other adults to talk to
about and he said I was attractive, something that
particularly no one else in my life had ever said to me.
He told me that my feelings about my body and sex were not

(53:27):
only fine but were great, and that he was also into it.
After that, I think it's pretty obvious.
Being socially isolated, receiving poor messaging about
my body and my identity, an absence of trusted adults, all
were a profound risk to my childhood abuse and trafficking
and speak to the need of proactive and preventive

(53:48):
approach to trafficking rather than a reactive 1.
I. I remember also reading that
throws fairly long so I had to abbreviate it but the parents
were disengaged and they even hehe even told his parents about

(54:08):
being sexually intimate with an adult and their parents thought
it was a gay thing and so they brushed it off and didn't drill
down further. They instead punished, punish
them instead of talking to them and and looking into it further.

(54:29):
And so it was more of a brush off in terms of the being held
hostage thing. They were coerced.
So it was coercion. And while they would go home at
night, there became this codependency on this adult who
they they thought cared truly about them and went back and was
allowing this adult to use and abuse them.

(54:52):
And, and ultimately a lot of trafficking looks like this
where it is, it is sexual exploitation through coercion.
And it's not not forced in in the sense of physical force so
much as mental and. Is it is it trafficking if it's
just that one adult in in her? I mean, I understand the abuse

(55:15):
there, but my understanding was trafficking is like he helps to
direct. They did.
Like oh, OK. Yeah, that was that they did.
I think that they would take them to a truck stop.
And, you know, it was just, it'spretty graphic.
I'm going to have the link in the show notes if you really

(55:37):
want to get in the weeds with the story because it's really
quite compelling. But I think what I wanted to
kind of impart with all the alphas who are listening is that
your child is vulnerable and it's going to get scary.
Let me just carry on with us a little bit more miserable.
Drawer 556 asked. Granted the heaviness of the
work that you do in connection with your real lived
experiences, what does restoration or self-care look

(55:59):
like for you? Bunsen Burner said that they
believe in an integrative and community based model that
emphasizes the need for care by and for other people in your
friend, family and broader community.
It's worth mentioning that having other sorts of dense
communities of all ages are an excellent preventive and

(56:19):
protective factor against trafficking.
It's hard to groom someone who has 20 people deep integrated
into their life who care for them profoundly.
And here's here's where it gets scary and probably the most
ghastly, Pearl clutching part. Jenny Vaughn asked, Did you ever
report your abuser? Were they ever written texts or

(56:41):
evidence you could use to put them away?
Bunsenberner responded. I have reported my main
trafficker to the police, but itnever went anywhere.
It was more than a decade after it happened and there was very
little evidence to provide. Gut wrenchingly, though, I've
done my own research and learnedthat he currently works at
Disney World. This.

(57:04):
This again, dear listeners, is proof that kids, grandkids,
nieces, nephews, all of them need to be protected and there
are predators everywhere. Be vigilant.
Have thoughtful conversations with the youth in your life.
Perhaps consider hosting your local PD to provide a
presentation on human trafficking at your Legion Post.

(57:25):
You know American Legion Post 368 in Newport News, VA did and
BZ to to them. This is.
This is a super tough topic. And you know, even that last
part that you talked about, you know, just being vigilant.
I mean, I got a 14 year old, almost 15 year old, a 13 year
old son, you know, female, male and then an 8 year old daughter.

(57:49):
And not that the, the, you know,I think traditionally you would
say that the girls are more vulnerable to the boys.
But then I think there's a misconception probably around
that. However, like I've seen
something that's like a large majority of things that happen
to young girls happen when they spend the night away from the
home, which is a terribly sad thing because, you know, me and

(58:11):
my wife have this. Yeah, we want them to be able to
have fun at their friend's house.
And so then that gets back into the community and knowing them.
And even when you know somebody,you don't really know them.
So that's what it's, I'll say even people that go to our
church, it's hard for me to let the girls like spend the night
because of these things. But also you want like you're

(58:34):
saying, Joe, you want to be ableto allow them to have that, you
know, that bubble of a childhoodexperiencing, you know, the
things that make being a child. And so it's this interesting
thing of being a parent, like protecting them from that world,
while also, as they get older, starting to make them more aware
of those things. I, I think what really is

(58:56):
unfortunate about this whole thing is that it's complex from
top to bottom. And what I mean by that is the
number one risk factor, you know, possibly other than being
female is being isolated. Anyone who's isolated and and
that as a parent finding that balance would be like, can your

(59:17):
kid call you at 1:00 in the morning and say I'm drunk and I
need help without you immediately going into
punishment mode? Can you, can you immediately go
in? How can I help you?
What do you need from me? Because if your kid can't come
to you with that stuff, they will find someone who will, even
if it's the guy who gave them their phone number in the mall a

(59:38):
month ago. I mean, you need to be the most
approachable person in your kidslife.
And, and you know, there's no perfect parenting out there.
But we have a rule in my house is that if I hear it from you,
it's a different ball game than if I hear it from someone else.
If I find out another way, it's a different type of punishment

(59:59):
than if I hear it from you. If you walk in and say I just
drove the, you know, the mule into the back of your truck.
OK, let's work on this. But if I walk out there and see
it and I have to come in and andinterrogate every kid in the
house to figure out what happened, then we're it's a
different situation. So and then and then you go from

(01:00:20):
that, from from the isolation side of things to the punishment
side of things. Well, in my mind, I think that
you should put whoever gets convicted of that type of crime
in a room with a couple of military members and give them
half an hour to do whatever theywant to the poor fella and or

(01:00:40):
not poor fella. But when you do that, you
increase the risk of them killing the people that they're
they're using to keep from getting caught.
So it's like, what is the there's no answer that that fits
every situation. If you make it where, where if
you get caught messing with kids, you die, they're going to
just start killing kids. Like what?
It's for some reason, it doesn'tmake people not do it.

(01:01:02):
It makes people do things worse.I don't, it's just, it doesn't,
it's one of those things that drives me crazy because I, you
know, and it's a good thing, butI cannot wrap my mind around it
in any way. There's no facet of it that
makes me think, well, I could see why somebody would do that.
Like, it just doesn't make sense.
And how do you punish someone like that without making it
worse on their victims? I don't know.

(01:01:27):
Yeah, well, I think there's also, I think Joe, you're
absolutely right. And Adam, yeah, the fear is
real. And I think it's so important
just to have genuine conversations, open
conversations, because I think the more taboo and secretive
things, things are, I think the more children become curious and

(01:01:50):
walk themselves into scary, scarier situations than if you
were to just demystify everything.
And listen, we all have values and every house is going to have
a different approach as to how they apply those values and
their families. And I'm not saying that you that
you lose all your morals and, and values.
I'm, I'm just saying that sometimes education, having

(01:02:14):
education and knowing what is right and wrong and knowing what
that looks like can be really helpful for our young children
to make thoughtful decisions. So anyway, the American Legion
did did do a lot of work for working against human
trafficking. There's also some really good
literature on there too. So don't forget to check out
legion.org for some of that details.

(01:02:35):
Joe, what do you got? Three teenage boys have been
arrested in the killing of a Texas Marine veteran who was
working as a rideshare driver tosupport his mother and sister,
Authority said. The arrests are tied to the
September 4th death of 28 year old Kwok Jake Nuan.
Nuan Nuan. I'm so I'm so bad for this name

(01:02:57):
who was found dead along a roadside after being shot.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said a 15 year old has
been charged with capital murder, while a 14 year old and
a 13 year old face charges of tampering with evidence.
These are straight up children. They're babies.
Straight up children. All three were taken into
custody in recent days and booked into the Harris County

(01:03:17):
Juvenile Detention Center. Gonzalez said investigators
believe the teen shot. When Newan.
Newan, Newan, I'm going to have you voice that.
That line just punch in. Stole his vehicle and property
and fled. Go go ahead, Stacey.
Oh, Nuens. Brother Matthew told local media

(01:03:39):
that his brother had been driving for Uber to help support
their mother and sister. The family immigrated to Houston
from Vietnam several years ago. At the time he was driving at
night. He had a rideshare from Uber.
Matthew, New one, new one. That's it.
New. One new one said he picked up 1
customer and dropped him off downtown.
After that he still had some people in the car.

(01:03:59):
Uber confirmed that that's the last time they heard from him.
On a lighter note, Alphas, grab your balls.
Whiplash. There's been a Mudder.
Grab your balls, your bowling balls.
To clarify, apparently it's the key to a very, very long life.

(01:04:19):
A World War 2 veteran league bowler celebrates his 102nd
birthday. John Priest was born in the
midst of Prohibition era, beforethe Great Depression.
And now we're in the post Great Depression, I guess, after about
five years, I'm sorry. At about five years after the
end of the First World War, he celebrated his 102nd birthday

(01:04:40):
Sunday and continues to enjoy fishing, bowling and golf.
He doesn't really know the secret to longevity, but he has
a theory. A lot of people ask me that and
I just tell them, you just keep moving.
And I've heard that before. I, I, everybody's got that one
person in the family that you expect like you, you suspect
lives off of spite. Well, a body in motion stays in

(01:05:03):
motion though. Exactly, exactly.
And so, you know, you just keep moving, he said with regret.
I don't know what it is. I try to stay active even now.
That's why I'm bowling, he said.Priest of Coeur d'Alene has been
part of the Monday mixed. I'm sorry, Monday senior mixed
singles league. Oh, snap, he's out there.
He's. Out there Wheeling and dealing.
Bowling and trying to make it tosecond base.

(01:05:26):
He's putting all kinds of balls down lanes.
At the Sunset Bowling Center formore than 20 years, Priest was
raised in Georgia, and at 16, hewent into the Civilian
Conservation Corps, a New Deal program of President Franklin D
Roosevelt that worked to counterthe effects of the Do you?
Remember that the New Deal, right?

(01:05:47):
Yeah, I remember the New Deal. This guy's so awesome.
Like he's he's hanging, he's doing stuff well on Roosevelt
programs and now he's bowling, trying to trying to.
Trying to. Pick up his some tail.
God bless him. Heck yeah, man, I I believe it.
You keep moving. Work to counter the effects of

(01:06:09):
the Depression by providing training and work opportunities
for young men. They fought forest fires and
planted trees, built campgrounds, worked on erosion
control and more. To this day, Americans still
benefit from this work. Priest experience in the CCC in
Utah changed his life in more ways than one.
That's where I met my wife, Maureen, he said.
She was just 17 when they met. They rode each other for several

(01:06:31):
years when Priest served in the Army, fighting in the European
theatre in World War Two. I was in five major campaigns
over there. OK, John, that's just showing
off. I know right?
He's such a bad ass. Just do like 2 so that I can
feel like I'm still a, a man, you know, I was in the
artillery, but you were the artillery.

(01:06:51):
He and Maureen married February 21st, 1946 once he returned
stateside, and that was her D-Day.
Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry, so sorry.
They enjoyed nearly 70 years of marriage and countless bowling
sessions, all before her death in 2015.

(01:07:12):
So. 10 years of that has been. 70 years single, That's
incredible. Some people don't live that
long. 70 years. Good for you buddy.
Happy birthday. Heck yeah.
And keep and keep striking thosestrikes and, and going back to
the. Murder.
I kind of moved on, but it was Iwas I, I whiplashed a little
bit. First of all, I have so many

(01:07:33):
questions. You know, I'm so curious why
these young children, you know, turn to violence to steal a car.
Like, OK, you know, people automatically assume, you know
the worst things about these kids, but there has to be an

(01:07:55):
adult in their life or lack of adult adults monitoring them
that this has to be a dire situation.
Like, why, why did they turn to this violence?
And it's sad that this Marine veteran got caught in the
crossfire. And, you know, he was only there
trying to support his mom and brother.
And like, gosh, there's no winners in this.

(01:08:16):
These kids, their lives are ruined forever.
Well, it's kind of like the one that you read previously.
I think, you know, it actually it, it comes back to the family,
comes back to the new career family.
It comes back to the parents, comes back to the community.
It comes back to you. You know, every interaction in
that young person's life matters, you know, and every,

(01:08:37):
every choice, you know, that they make.
And, you know, I think what we're you're seeing is, you
know, whether it's, you know, isolationism or whatever, these
kids, you know, experience and endured whatever was promoted,
you know, as the the type of behavior and, and stereotypes.
And you know what, what they don't have, you know, what

(01:08:57):
they're entitled to. You just have the
personification of that taking place, you know, whether in a, a
vulnerable position or, you know, acts of aggression and
violence. And so.
You you grow up in a lake. You learn how to swim.
You're a product of your environment.
I, I think that, you know, same thing in like the healthcare
industry, we look at the symptommasking medication, but then we

(01:09:20):
say, well, did you really go to the root cause?
And I think if you want to go tothe root cause, a lot of these
things like you can go back to, to family life and you know,
that's a whole different discussion.
But like, what can be, how can we, how can you heal from the
generational trauma? And how can you like raise up to
be able to, you know, have the values and standards or be able

(01:09:41):
to have the, the love, you know,and the protection, you know,
that's required for you to grow up in this world?
And I think that's where we're we're challenged right now.
Yeah. Well, I just know that that I do
want to be here when my great grandkids kids are born.
And then if, if bowling is what does it, then maybe I should

(01:10:03):
make my way down to the the lanes.
What, what do they say? What do they say when they're
being super casual about it? I have the, I think people say
bowling alley. I don't know if it gets all
slick like that Joe, but hey, I would I would recommend getting
your own pair of bowling shoes. You don't want to wear the
public ones and get yourself some fungus in the toes.
I just need. One nothing like athlete's foot.

(01:10:25):
Adam, what do you got? Hopefully it's.
Not a human trafficking. My 15 year old or almost 15, she
came home and she said hey, you need to sign out, fill out this
form. I'm trying out for the bowling
team at school. I love that.
I love that boy. Dude, that's great.
I'm all for that. You're gonna have to look
curling. Curling.
That's interesting. OK, attention Washington based

(01:10:48):
alphas. New changes to disabled veteran
parking rules in Washington are now in effect.
As of October 1st, 2025, veterans with a qualifying
discharge of 70% or higher disability rating and a
federally defined service animalcan access special parking
benefits. Eligible veterans can apply for

(01:11:10):
blue placards, veteran parking plates, or a Disabled veteran
tab. It's important to always carry
your Veteran with Disabilities Parking Privilege ID.
To apply, veterans must completethe Disabled Parking Application
for Veterans and include a letter from the US Armed Forces
or the US Department of Veteran Affairs indicating a 70% or

(01:11:32):
higher disability rating. Applications can be submitted at
a vehicle licensing office or mailed to the Department of
Licensing in Olympia. Expect placards, plates or tabs
within 7 to 10 days. Oh, that's pretty quick, I would
think. And the ID card within two to
three weeks. Parking privileges need renewal

(01:11:52):
every five years, while plates and tabs renew annually.
Here in South Carolina, we don'thave anything like this, but we
can get like disabled veteran plates.
And if you're 100% service connected, then you don't pay
taxes on your car. But I think this is really,
really interesting, Joe. So on my end, I, I like OK.

(01:12:17):
I, I think that a lot of veterans, you know, especially
us, we see kind of all steps of this.
Sometimes we're veterans are puton pedestals that that are not
good for them. But I will say I do like the
pedestal of having a nice veteran parking spot when I go
to Home Depot. I mean, it's, it's not bad.
You know, sometimes, you know, you're not feeling like all that
walking and those veteran parking spots are great.

(01:12:40):
The only thing that bothers me about this is that federally
defined service animal, somebody, somebody's going to
mess this up. Somebody is going to have a
Peacock or something or. How do you mini pig?
How do you mean? I someone is going to abuse
this, they're going to I mean, and no one is really going to
read up what is meant by does that mean you know, is is that

(01:13:01):
assistance dogs international? Is that ADI certified?
Like what? What does federally?
No one's going to look it up as my point.
I want to also throw out here aswell, most people with
disabilities that require havinga placard have a disability
that, you know, precludes them from parking that far away.

(01:13:21):
And there's a reason why they have to park up front.
And, you know, there are people with who are 70% disabled who
are still able bodied. My question here is if somebody
who is still able bodied, who can make the a longer trek,
taking a spot with somebody who needs needs a reasonably
shorter, you know, you know, distance to travel, Like is it

(01:13:46):
going to compete with, you know,people with higher, higher
levels of disability? Does that make sense?
I I know it, it does make sense.Yeah.
I, I mean, I imagine that these won't be taking the place of, I
imagine these will be like rightafter handicap spots or
something at, or, you know, kindof like where they normally
would put like pregnancy or, or like the police parking.

(01:14:11):
It. Might be like an extra row away
or something. Are are you aware of the
national level changes that still need to accommodate
veterans with disabilities? No.
No, not not me. But before you do that, I do
want to tell you one quick storyto talk about how far removed
common sense is from this whole process.
I went in, I have an above knee prosthetic.

(01:14:31):
I was in a wheelchair at the time.
I don't always use a wheelchair now but I I went into the DMV to
get a handicap placard and the lady said I'm so sorry I need a
doctor's note saying that your injury is permanent.
Are. You.
I'm not talking. I and she.
She knew how ridiculous it was. That is.
Terrible. That is legit.

(01:14:52):
It was so ridiculous I wasn't even mad.
You know when something. Just so dumb.
You're like one more time you were going to do what?
And she get a handicap. Placard and she and and so
there's permanent handicap placards and then there's the
temporary and in order to get a permanent when you apparently
have to have a letter from a doctor saying that your injury

(01:15:13):
is permanent. I don't know if I looked part
lizard when I came in or what, but you're.
Calling back, I'm going to call you Joe Chia Worley.
In that moment, to be like I witnessed his permanent injury
in person, I have the authority to validate that they should
have that as an option. I.

(01:15:33):
Should not have to. Justify I I agree.
I agree. I I this was early enough on
that I wasn't jaded. It would feel dehumanizing now,
but at the time it was kind of funny.
It was like when the guy stole my wheelchair in the airport to
push his bags in. It was just funny more than
anything. Now it's like it's tiresome.
I don't know how to describe it these things.
Aren't fun? Hold on, I feel like you just

(01:15:55):
glossed that over. Somebody took your wheelchair to
bring their bags in at the airport.
So really early on I had an orange wheelchair with canted
wheels. You'd had to have seen it.
The thing was a beauty and it was as obvious as a low rider
truck that it's not a it wasn't a delta issued.
You. Know I land they pull my

(01:16:17):
wheelchair up to the top and unbeknownst to me, the the the
stewardess said your your wheelchair is up here and I go
out there and it's gone and she said it was just here.
She goes up to the front and says, yeah, an older gentleman

(01:16:40):
just walked by pushing it with his bags in, in in the the seat
of it. And I, I was not even mad.
I just wanted to meet the guy. Like if he, if I, I just want to
look the man in the face with that audacity because like, I
just wanted to see who it was. I wasn't going to yell at him.
I wasn't going to make him like,you know, feel bad.

(01:17:01):
I just wanted to see. Was he?
Remorseful. I don't know.
I never. Got Oh, you didn't I think they.
Thought I was joking, like I, I'm, you know, I, I just wanted
to see the human being that would do that.
Sir, if you were listening, I'm not even mad.
I'm impressed. That's some gall.
All right. Well, for those of you

(01:17:22):
interested in learning more, youcan reference the link in our
show notes for the article aboutthe new disabled veteran parking
rules that take in effect in Washington.
Maybe help share that with some of the folks that you know that
could benefit from that? Yeah.
If there's something happening in your area, let us know too.
We'll make we'll make that announcement so we can get the
word out. Yeah.

(01:17:43):
Alphas, thanks for listening. We.
And a reminder that we are hosted on Spotify.
If you follow us on Spotify, youcan find both the audio and the
video versions of this podcast. So you can see Joe and Adam's
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(01:18:04):
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Stay frosty. See you.