Finding Purpose After Combat: Eric Corbett's Military Odyssey

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So today is Tuesday, May 13th 2025.
We're talking with Eric Corbett, who served the United States
Army.
So, Eric, great to see you thisafternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Likewise.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
I know it was a little bit of a surprise, but
here we are.
Yeah, it's good, we're gonnarock and roll this thing.
So we'll start out prettysimple when and where were you
born?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
So I was born in Orange Park, Florida, which is
in Jacksonville, on September,September 21st 1986.
Okay, so you grew up in Florida, then yeah, I was there for a
couple months, I think it wasuntil I was like three months
old, and then we moved toOrlando.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
And I grew up over in Oak Ridge area of Orlando.
Here Went to WeingartElementary, walker Middle School
, okay, cypress Creek HighSchool and then graduated from
Boone High School in 2005.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
All right Brothers and sisters.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
I have one.
I have two sisters, oldersisters my full sister, jennifer
.
She's a year and six monthsolder than me, or three months
older than my oldest sister,melissa.
She's my half-sister from thesame dad.
She's I don't know too much.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, so yeah, older sister, dad um she's, I don't
know too much.
Yeah, yeah, so yeah, oldersister.
Yeah, they older sisters yeah,older sisters, I guess, yeah
yeah, so tell me a little bitabout, like what you remember
growing up.
What was it like, uh, growingup in in florida and being a kid
?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
man, it was a lot different than it is now.
Uh, no phones, so you wereoutside a lot.
You know I was a latchkey kidso it was very independent.
You know I was always out.
You know mom just said be homewhen the street lights come on
and that's it.
So I was pushing thoseboundaries.
But you know we'd walk milesfrom the house.
You know, just wandering, doingstuff and getting into mischief

(01:37):
and doing a lot being a kidbeing a kid man?

Speaker 1 (01:42):
yeah, not like today yeah, so did you guys drink from
the hose too?
We did.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
We drank from the hose, yeah, so when it was
winter, you got cold water.
When it was summer, you got hotwater.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Perfect, yeah, yeah, and I know, when I was a kid, we
didn't let it run either.
We just drank whatever was inthe hose.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, yep, you taste that.
You never forget that taste.
No no, you don't.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
So how was school for you?
What was it like?

Speaker 2 (02:06):
So elementary school, I remember bits and pieces of
that there.
It was fun.
I was never really a bigacademic person, believe it or
not.
My sister, though, very smart,yeah, very smart.
So it was tough following hershoes.
I used to get a lot of herteachers you know those two

(02:27):
grades behind her.
I was like, oh, you're jennifercorbett's brother.
And I was like, yeah, so theythought they had another genius
on their hands and they're like,okay, good job, buddy.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
So nice try right.
Yeah, you gave it a for effort,you know was that a lot of
pressure for you, though, as a?

Speaker 2 (02:43):
kid.
Sometimes it was when they knewwho I was like right off the
bat.
They asked that question.
So it was like, ah shit, but no, she was cool.
She was always that way.
You know Was never good withkids when we were growing up,
you know, but she'd always makeus play school.
She was miserable Me and myfriends.

(03:03):
And now she's a teacher,believe it or not.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Sounds like she knew what she wanted to do pretty
early on.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, exactly, moving to high school was a big change
.
We moved halfway through mysophomore year so I went to a
school where I barely knewanybody, so it was kind of a
shock.
But you know I have very socialbutterfly battery, so you know

(03:34):
it's pretty easy for me to makefriends, get along and meet new
people.
Um, you know, blended well, butschool was definitely not my
strong suit.
Graduated in 2005.
There's some stories about that.
Went to start a college atValencia Community College.
It was working full-time, goingto school, had moved out on my

(03:55):
own, like right at 18.
You know, did that for a while.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
So is there a reason why, like you moved, you move
right out?
Just curious, because I see alot, of, a lot of people like
your age, maybe a little bityounger yeah for some reason,
like right when they turned 18,it's gone.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
So I remember my you know I'm a stepdad.
I always said that to you know,right, when you're, when you're
18, you're gone, uh.
So I heard that from a youngage.
So it was always his instinctlike, well, I gotta go.
You know, it was kind of likegraduation's coming up, uh, and
then a bunch of my buddies hadgotten a house.
So I was like say less, let'sdo this.
You know I was like so that wasfun.
Um, you know, I moved out acouple, like two month or two,

(04:37):
after um graduation and uh yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Any good stories about the uh uh, about the frat
house?

Speaker 2 (04:47):
oh, man, it was what, if funny, you ask.
So it started.
Yeah, it was exactly what itwas.
It was a frat house.
Um, it was my buddy's parentshad bought it and uh, it was
over there off econ and 50.
We're all going to school.
There's some years gone by,well times.
I got tough and you know.
So we started dabbling ways tomake money, and this leads into

(05:10):
why I had to join the militaryokay um, so obviously you know,
everyone was smoking pot ice incollege, you know, and that's so
we started selling pot.
And uh, then the dea raided ourhouse one time, and so then I
moved to Gainesville, florida.
You were selling a lot of potsat the DEA.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah well, it got better.
It gets better.
Hang on one second.
I'm going to close this.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, talk up.
Hey, buddy, Curious old man.
There you go, we're good.
I'm just going to try and getin it.
I might want to lock it becauseyou'll figure out how to open
it.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
There you go.
It's a Pelican case for areason.
All right, one second here,okay.
So the DEA shows up and you endup moving.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah.
So then I kind of split theband up, me and two buddies
moved to Gainesville.
A couple buddies stayed downhere.
That's why I moved toGainesville, started at Santa Fe
Community College and oldhabits die hard, trying to make
money, you know, pay rent, makethis and so we started just

(06:20):
doing the same thing up thereagain, because everyone was
trying to go the legit way.
You know, yeah, make some moneyand go to school.
And those were tough whenyou're 18, 19,.
You know, I think at this pointI was, yeah, I was 21.
I turned 21 up there inGainesville, blast of a night.
You know, everyone's 21birthday is always something, oh

(06:43):
, yeah.
And so that was a time, my mom,we're just.
Things were getting real out ofcontrol up there and my mom and
sister came up to the apartmenton a saturday unannounced and we
were living at the time.
We had a condo on the golfcourse, so things were, life was
good at that age and, uh, youknow, my mom found some things

(07:04):
and we had a little falling outthere and she, you know, made me
make a decision, and so I sawthe writing on the wall again
with, you know the way thingswere going, and so I woke up one
day and called her mom and saidmeet me at the recruiting
station.
And it took me about two and ahalf months to get clean from

(07:25):
smoking weed without smokingweed.
And I remember sleeping on mysister's floor in her apartment
and I got up and just left thatold life behind and was trying
to join the Army.
That's all I wanted to do wasinfantry.
So I went to the Marines first.

(07:46):
They couldn't get me out forlike six months and this was
right at the surge of the war,yeah.
And so the army was like we cantake you next week, but I
couldn't pass the drug test.
And so the day he took me toMEPS, like they were, I remember
drinking a gallon, like ahandle gallon of water.
He's like you, you know, youbetter hope and I mean it took

(08:08):
forever and but luckily, youknow, I passed and the rest was
history and on uh july 16 2008,I was off to fort benning ge,
georgia.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Oh nice, Nice, cool place to go in the middle of
summer.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
It's a great place to go in the summer.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
So that was a culture shock, you know, because I was
21.
I think I turned 22 in basictraining.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
So walk me through that.
Like you get to basic training,you get off the bus.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, so we get off the bus, walk me through that.
So now I'm getting ready to turn22.
And I'm with a bunch of18-year-olds 17, 18-year-olds
and it's like, wow, what thefuck am I doing here?
And when you first get there,you're just going to
in-processing and it's not thatbad.
Someone's trying to be toughand let's go, go, go.

(09:03):
But that's just the beginningof you know what's to come.
It's like you're you're gettingall your medical done, you're
getting you're issued your stuffand you know they shave your
head right off the bat and youstart getting, like you know
your pts and uniforms right andthen go go into your first like
basic training unit.
You know what's that shark?
It's called shark attack.

(09:24):
That was.
You know that was a.
It was like, it was a shock.
Like what am I doing here?
You know, because you roll upand it's just you know they got
machine guns going there's, youknow, frags going, there's smoke
everywhere, there's musicblaring, that's everyone's just
yelling at you.
So you're trying to like whatyou know.
It's just it's overloading yoursenses, like you're in it right

(09:46):
.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
You know right well, and you were used to being on
your own, so this is a bigchange.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
Yeah, so you know I was, you know I was getting
ready to turn 22, and so I waskind of like, wow, this is.
You know, what did I sign upfor here?
What is this man?
And uh yeah then it went rightto basic training, you know so
what are?

Speaker 1 (10:05):
so what are some of the like?
I don't know if highlights isthe right word, but when you
think about basic training, whatare some of the things that
like pop into your head?
What are, oh man?

Speaker 2 (10:13):
so they, when you first got your issue gear and
everything, they gave you astencil and they were like all
right, put your name on thestencil on the bag.
And I was like, oh okay, so Ionly did it on one bag because I
didn't think we were gonna need.
I was like I'll just carry thisbag.
Well, you know, right, when youget off the the bus you know
they're like all right, you havea minute to grab your duffel
bags.
At this point I knew I fuckedup because only one of my bags

(10:36):
had my name on it.
Oh shit, yeah.
I was like, oh shit, this ain'tgood.
And so obviously no one foundtheir bags and I'm under a
minute because you know it'syou're meant to fail, right.
But when they came to, everyonefound their bag and I only had
one bag.
You know, I just brought alittle more attention on myself,
remember that.
And then, like the first coupledays, like we're filling out

(10:57):
paperwork, laying on the floorin the bay of the barracks room,
and they were just, they justforce hydrate, you right, it's
like, well, you can only drinkso much water before it has to
come out, right.
And um, I'm laying there and Iwas like I'm about to piss all
myself here on the floor and Iwas like I'm a grown man, I am
not doing that.
And so I stood up and I waslike real sorry, you know, I got

(11:18):
a pain.
He's like probably you need tohold it.
I was like just we're past thatpoint, there's no more holding
it right, like I am going to peemyself right now.
I was like I can't hold it,like it was.
You know, trying to pinch thetip right doesn't work, man.
You know it's not like thecartoons.
And so you know he's everybodyup, you know he's a restroom and

(11:39):
so there's like five guys tolike a you know one urinal
trying to pee and all you knowit's a big mess yeah and uh,
that sticks out.
You know there's a, so theydon't let you eat.
You eat when you eat, right,and it's.
You don't sneak.
You're not allowed to have foodor anything, and you know they
deprive you of food.
They're probably asleep andit's just.

(11:59):
You're in fort benning, georgia, in the summertime, coming from
july august, so you know howhot that gets.
It's terrible, it's miserable.
We were doing a field problem.
One day.
I had snuck an apple in mycargo pocket, of course.
Now, as we were sitting therewaiting at the range in a fall
asleep, just like half the otherplatoon does, because you're
sleep deprived, you're hot,sweaty, we're getting smoked,

(12:23):
we're low, crawling down thishill and as I'm low crawling,
this apple comes rolling by me.
I was like, oh fuck.
I was like that's my apple.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
That's not going to be a good thing.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yeah, I was like that's not going to be good.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
And I look up and there's a drill sergeant looking
at me and he's like private,private.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
What is this and that'd?
Be an apple drill sergeant, I'msure you know.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
Oh yeah, there was repercussions for that, yeah,
but so you kind of stood out inbasic training a couple times,
yeah, but I was.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
You know, everybody does, yeah everybody does a
little bit here and there.
Um, you know I, luckily,luckily for me I have a lot of
common sense, street smarts, soI can put you know two and two
together and figure it out.
I can read the room you know,realize quick, it's a game, you
know, blend in, fit in where youget in kind of gray man in the
shadows.
Everyone has their fuck ups.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
So yeah, did that.
Graduated on Halloween night,halloween day of 2008.
Uh-huhhuh, yeah, from aftergraduation turning and then our
turning blue ceremony.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
And how did your family show up.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
Yeah, yep, yep, yeah.
My mom showed up.
My uh, my dad, my stepdad andall that my uh, my dad's new
girlfriend at the time, whowould then later become my new
stepmother.
First time meeting her that was.
That was wow, that was a joyyeah, man, so she looks.
She looks like a witch.
Right, she was just a littlelady and we're standing there

(13:57):
and this lady's just takingpictures of me to my side here.
I thought she was snapping theguy to my left yeah you know,
and she was just me.
I was like who is this?
My mom walks up, she's likemeet your dad's new girlfriend.
And she acted like you know,she had known me since day two,
oh of life.
You know, she was like I'm soproud and I was like who the?

Speaker 1 (14:18):
is this right?

Speaker 2 (14:20):
you know and uh talk about reading the room yeah, she
could not, she was, she wasn't,she was one of those.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
She basically parked her broom out front.
She did yeah, I got you, youknow gotcha.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
It's.
I'm here for a little bit.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
She was an odd one, Very odd, but uh how was that
feeling, though Graduating andmaking it through basic it?

Speaker 2 (14:40):
was cool, man, cause it was the first time of
something that I really everfelt a part of something right
Like finish something throughcompletely.
You know, obviously you knowyou got high school and all that
, but I never finished college,right?
So it was like I was 20, Iturned 22 at this time, so it
was like it was anaccomplishment.
I was like, all right, this iscool dude.

(15:00):
And so I was proud.
You know, I was like this, thisis something I've, you know.
I remember when the war kickedoff, you know, back in the iraq
war 2003, I was like you know, Iwas like I want to serve my
country one day.
Yeah, and you know, then I gotthat chance too and from there I
went, came home on two weeksleave for hometown recruiting,

(15:24):
and then I went to Fort Riley,kansas.
It was cold there.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yeah, you weren't in Georgia anymore.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
No, I was not in Georgia anymore.
And then I got off the planethere in Kansas, because
November here is.
You know, shorts and a t-shirtweather.
Oh yeah, kansas, it was.
Uh, it's like 32 degrees.
That's gore-tex yeah, and I hadjust on shorts, flip-flops and
a long thermal, I was like I'mdid it again here I am with my

(15:59):
one bag, yeah, exactly, and myapple yep, so I had.
I had a suitcase this time,luckily, so I was able to like
go inside and change tosomething warmer, and so I spent
that that first thanksgivingaway there, fort raleigh, kansas
, at in processing, I mean, acouple other infantry soldiers.

(16:20):
Actually, we spent ourthanksgiving dinner in a strip
club oh it was lovely nice.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah, that's a memorable experience it was did
they have a buffet?

Speaker 2 (16:28):
no, it was a.
It was a potluck oh, that's ohgross.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah, I did not eat.
Yeah, no, thank you in the room.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
You know it was a junction city, kansas, so it was
not your finest establishmentsfor food, and the women were
questionable at best.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
So yeah, do they have a nice club like that right
outside of Fort Leonard Wood?

Speaker 2 (16:46):
They always do yeah, yeah, that was a bring your own
bottle thing too.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
You had to pay like 15 bucks for ice.
You had to bring your ownalcohol.
Yeah, it was very strange.
So, yeah, so you spentThanksgiving in a strip club.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yeah, my first one there, 2008.
Yeah, and so what unit were youwith at Riley?
So I was with the first entrydivision, but I was in the two
16 Ranger division.
Okay, so I was there from 2008to 2011 or the end of 2010,

(17:19):
going into 11 ish.
I did my first deployment withthem when I first got into the
unit.
I got into so I remembershowing up.
Everyone got picked up bybrigade and we were at our
companies and all the platoonsergeants were coming in because
there was like a mat.
It was like they just got backfrom a deployment a couple
months before that and we weregearing up to leave again in a

(17:41):
couple months.
Everyone was trying to picktheir guys.
This guy comes in in.
He was like, who wants to be asniper?
And I was like, oh, that soundscool.
I was like I'll try that.
You know like who's got a, youknow who has a 300 pt score, and
I, you know, at the time I was,you know, pretty fit still
pretty fit now but I could runlike the wind and you know
push-ups and everything frombasic training.
So I had that and uh, so I got,I went and tried out with them,

(18:06):
got selected by them and thenjust became hell, because I was
the new private right.
You know, this group of smallguys already selected, you know.
So I didn't go to a regularline platoon, I went to a recon
platoon, um, so I had a lot toprove.
You know, they just got backfrom deployment so you got all
these young guns that are fullof testosterone, that are like
what have you done?
you know, and yeah I'm likeobviously nothing, I just

(18:28):
fucking got here you're lowerthan amoeba shit.
Yeah, man, I was like you know,and uh, it's a culture shock
because you got these guys thatyou know constantly have
something to prove and it's justlike all right, you know.
And it's like we buddy you'renot you're not better than me,
you know I got, I got, you know,always had that drive in me
like I'm better than you, buddy,like you just do this, you know

(18:51):
, yeah, and uh, yeah, so it wasfun.
And then I, so I ended upcompeting, uh, so all you do is
like I, you know, quicklylearning, if I don't want to do
push-ups, I gotta have my facein a book right studying.
And so I had this cherry it'scalled cherry get smart book and
, uh, I just studied, that's allI did.

(19:11):
So I ended up going to likesoldier of the month board and I
won soldier of the month and Iwas like, oh, okay, cool.
Then they were like, oh, yeah,you know, eric, you did good.
So I'm like, yes, yes, good,good, eric you know, right, good
for me.
They pat you on the head yeahall that fun stuff so then I
went to, uh, I ended upcompeting for soldier of the
brigade and I won that.
And uh, I was like, oh man.

(19:33):
So then I started getting a lotmore attention.
Right, I was like I don't wantthe attention, but people
started I was like, oh, we gotthis kid, so soldier of the year
was coming up.
This was all within like a spanof five months of me being even
being in the army before Ideployed, because I was, you
know, I got there.
I got there.
I want to say you know it wasobviously november, the end of
thanksgiving, and then wedeployed in august.

(19:55):
So between like, field prep andall that, you know, ntc, there
wasn't a lot of time for allthis to be happening, you know.
So I was like a kid who's onlybeen in the Army for six months.
You know, I went to compete forSoldier of the Year I was a PV2
, and they were like what thefuck is this guy doing here?

Speaker 1 (20:12):
So you were like the definition, you were like poster
boy for stud, like here's whata stud is.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
Yeah, that's what they thought.
And I was like, no, uh, I didthat.
And then I competed.
You know, it was a whole thing.
It was pt, test, land nav, uh,weapons, qual, kazevac lanes, um
, there's like comms.

(20:38):
It was like you know, you hadto set comms up with all this
stuff, and you know, then therewas a board.
I remember the board.
It was like all like sergeantmajors and like lieutenant
colonels, that were yourquestions, because you were like
it was soldier of the year, soit was from like fort riley.
It was, uh, fort linderberg.
It was like all of them in thefirst entry division, that's
what we're competing for.

(20:58):
And I remember sitting thereand like, so I had gotten a
notice by all these people.
They were like where's this pv2?
And so everybody was competingwith like all e4s that were like
four-year e4s and whatnot, and,like you know, the people that
had been in the army for longerthan a day.
Yeah and uh, I was like me, youknow, and I had the army bcgs

(21:19):
at the time.
So that was, you know, shaped,stupid, shaped yeah man look
like a goof and uh, they're likethis guy.
You know I was, I was a soakingwet at the time.
You know six to 175 pounds, youknow it was like beanstalk yeah

(21:40):
, maybe 175 pounds.
And um, I got I got fourth outof that out of like 15 people
and so they were like damn, thatwas cool pretty cool and for
that, for doing that, I got togo to this school in fort
benning.
It was, uh, the raven school, soit was before drones.

(22:01):
It was like the first set ofdrones, remember ravens were.
It was like the, it was a spy.
It was like the first set ofdrones, remember.

Speaker 1 (22:06):
Ravens were.
It was like the.
It was a spy plane, oh yeah,but you launch it Right.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
So I got to go to Fort Benning for that and that
was cool.
And then we, you know I got assoon as I got back from that we
geared up for my firstdeployment and that was to Beji,
iraq, northern Iraq.
Uh-huh Beji Iraq northern Iraqin 2009.
So obviously, it was comingright out of the surge and we're
up on the Beji oil refinery andit was like this oil refinery

(22:31):
was like one of the largest onesin the country at the time and
they were producing a lot of,but the Taliban owned it, you
know, back in ISIS, right, sothey were getting a lot of money
off this oil refinery.
So the unit before us out ofHawaii I think they were the
Wolfhounds.
They took a lot of casualtiesfor it, like getting that back,
and so we maintained it, for,you know, I think we were there

(22:53):
for nine and a half months.
You know, you saw a lot of wildstuff.
Yeah, it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
Yeah, so where?
Like what were you near innorthern Iraq?
So I was in Mosul.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
Yeah, so we would have been more north of that.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
Almost up to Erbil area.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So you patrol all the mountainsand everything.
So I boarded up with Syria.
There was a lot of Syrianfighters were coming through
there and so we had to go checkout these mountains and
everything.
It was lack lack.
Remember Fobb Summerall?
Yes, it was lack-lack.
Remember FOB Summerall.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
That was our battalion FOB.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
And so we were like our battalion had a nice little
outpost and so we had a nicelittle base.
We were our own little outpost.
We didn't have a chow hall, soyou were more of a cop than a.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
FOB yeah, we were a cop, it was in the military.
Yeah, we were a cop, it was inthe military.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, wehad a surgeon.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
We had a mortar team, we had our recon unit and then
we had two intel guys.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
A bunch of Haskell barriers and that's pretty much
it.
That was it, man Guard towers.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
So it was getting off , running and gunning all day
and then getting back and it waslike three months in, it was
like three in the morning I gotoff, shout like off tower dude,
and I was like I'm gonna take ashower and uh, you know, we

(24:16):
didn't have incoming alarms oranything.
Right, we're just our ownlittle cop and then we start.
But we're always like it wasjust, you know, something like
that.
They were always trying toattack this thing, to blow the
pipelines and getting closer,closer, and I was like I'm I'm
not gonna get caught like a pig,all lathered up it's a pile of
rubble here.
You know I was trying to enjoylike feeling clean for the first

(24:37):
time in a long time, you knowthey just weren't having it they
just weren't.
They were just they were hatingman, they hate us because they
ain't us, you know, they justweren't having it.
They just weren't, they werejust they were hating man, they
hate us because they ain't us,you know.
Yeah, but it was, it was anexperience, man, it was crazy.
It's a lot.
Um, you know it's, it's, Ithink you know it was the first

(24:58):
time I learned that a lot ofpeople over here take for
granted you know the fact thatthey have running water or power
and you know this.
There's laws, that peoplefollow the laws and they don't
realize what it's.
you know, how could you have ittill?
You don't?

Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah, I think a friend of mine uh, when we were
there, he uh, his cure was if wejust showed him how to use
toilet paper, they wouldn't bemad at each other all the time.
He had this whole theory aboutthat.
But you're right, because untilyou've had to take a crap and a
hole in the ground and that'sthe toilet, you don't get it.
You don't get it.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
Or you haven't had a shower or you have to poke holes
in bottles and like that.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
And, by the way, the water was typically yellow or
brown and it tasted like dieselto me yeah, yeah, it wasn't
filtered water at all.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
You couldn't drink it .

Speaker 1 (25:46):
No.
You know, so Even the waterthey manufactured was.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
No good.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah, yeah, it's only been a matter of time before we
all have something from that.
That kills us off early, butyou know.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
Yeah, microplastics.
Microplastics you know, yeah,microplastics, microplastics.
I'm with you.
So when you were there, did youguys um, this is a tough
question, did you?

Speaker 2 (26:09):
bring everybody home from that.
We did, we luckily we did.
Yeah, the unit that replaced us, they lost.
Uh, I was like four guys in thefirst, like two weeks, yeah.
So it's it's about your postureand how you guys carry yourself
.
You know, and it's, if youbecome a soft, if you present as
a soft target, you're going tobe a target, they're gonna
target, they're gonna hit youguys and you're not gonna what
you do.
So you know it really fallsback to your training and you

(26:30):
know your guys and it's.
You know, even when, yearslater, I was running teams, you
know, for the Department ofState, it's you have to train
with your guys.
You know it's a constantturnover, but it's.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
You know, what's interesting is we were so we
ripped with an MP unit out ofHawaii.
They might have been infantryactually, but I mean we made it
through our deployment.
We didn't bring everybody homethe same way they showed up.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:59):
But we brought everybody home alive and I know
that like right after they gotthere they took casualties and I
never understood that like it'syour posture.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
Yeah, so like our, like now our platoon.
We brought everybody back.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
Our our battalion did not right right, yeah, oh yeah,
we lost in fact I, I lostsoldiers who were part of my
unit but had had deployed withother units to fill slots.
Yeah and so, no, I totally gotit.
Yeah, but you guys all cameback from that.
What was it like for you tocome back?
You know, somebody listening tothis may not understand that

(27:35):
24-7 combat.
And then coming home likethat's almost harder than going.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
So the hardest part was I had to come home with R&R
Uh-huh, and that was hard.
Me and my buddy Jesse were thelast ones to go.
I didn't want to go becausegoing back, I was only going to
be back for like two months.
I was like I don't want to dothis, but I also was like I want

(28:03):
to go home.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
And that was tough.
Well, that whole thing like inthe back of your head when
you're on R&R, like don't wantto go back.
Yeah, you know.
You know I'll be honest withyou as, even as a company
commander, I came home for mytwo weeks.
I saw Aaron graduate from highschool but I didn't know what
was happening.
But I started having panicattacks and like I thought I was
dying and I'm like what isgoing on and I can't not go back

(28:33):
.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
I mean, these people depend on you.
You have to go back.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
So what the hell do you do?

Speaker 2 (28:40):
So I get it Like that two weeks is good, but it's not
good, but it just because yousee, you know everything that
you see in the first time you'rethere.
It's like I made it homealready.
Yeah, I'm home, like I don't,like I might not get to come
home again if I go back.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
Right.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yeah, I remember, you know, like when I first came
home, it was tough, it was tough.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
Well, and sleeping in a bed, yeah, taking a shower on
a regular basis.
You know, it's uh somebody.
Some guy told me and I've usedthe quote a million times like
the the only thing moredifficult than deploying is
coming home.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
You know especially that two week break.
But you, but you did, you camehome, you did your two weeks at
home.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah, you survived it , yeah, and then went back, went
back out with the boys again,you know to kind of you kind of
get back in the groove of thingspretty quick boys again.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
You know kind of, you kind of get back in the groove
of things pretty quick, wasthere that?

Speaker 2 (29:33):
weird, like it's good to be back, kind of feeling.
Almost it was because you knowyou, you got such a bond with
that.
You've been through wartogether, right, and it's
something that nobody else thathas gone through that will
understand.
You know it's like you meetlike-minded people.
You have that bond of someoneyou know has been through it.
It's like me and erin, you knowit's like you know we never
deployed together.
You, it's like me and Aaron,yeah, it's like, even though we
never deployed together.
You know it's like abrotherhood that me and him have
.
That, you know, nobody elsewould understand.

(29:53):
A lot of people don'tunderstand it's a shared
experience.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
Yeah exactly.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
And so it was good to be back with the boys because,
you know, you're literally blood, sweat and tears and you see
everybody, this and this, andyou're like damn.

(30:17):
And then, uh, then we startedgearing up to go home and I
remember we were like the nightbefore we were supposed to leave
, uh, one of the heli we're at adifferent base and we're like
downloading our guns, our ammoand everything and a helicopter
got shot down and we were at abig I can't remember what base
we're at that time.
We're at a big base and uh'tremember what base we were at
that time.
We were at a big base and theysaw our major comes, like I need
the recon unit.
You guys got to gear back upand go back out and, luckily,
like we were just like what youknow, it was just deflating and

(30:40):
they're like they told us on theballot, you're going to be out
there for three days.
You know a he was like no, andhe's like we're done.
So they, you know it was kindof like deflated.
We wanted to do it, you know,because, like those are our boys
, those are like you know, thoseare barricades out there, right

(31:00):
, but at the same time it's alsolike we we don't even have ammo
and we turned, you know, wedumped off everything off, and
so it was crazy.
I remember, uh, when we'resleeping there and we're
sleeping and like the, all theincoming rockets started, the
alarm started going off, and wewere just so used to we didn't
even have alarms, right yeah,and so we were just used to like

(31:21):
, does that thing stop?
You know, no one got, none ofus got out of the beds.
You know, it was like dude, youguys don't understand.
Man, if it's your time, it'syour time, like yeah especially
in the middle of the night, likeif it's gonna hit you, like you
just better hunker in place andjust hope to god that's it.
And uh, you know we weresitting that same thing.
We're at the.

(31:42):
We're at the.
We came to a fob, like to thebattalion, some fob, fob
summerall, and we in the chowhall, and these arms started
going off.
None of us stopped eating.
Just like what are you guysdoing?
They're like you got to getunder the tables, you know.
And we're like, what are wedoing down here?

Speaker 1 (31:59):
Like what are you hiding?
We're still eating.
What's this going to do?

Speaker 2 (32:01):
Yeah, like you don't understand, this isn't going to
do anything, right, right, anduh, that was.
You know, that was aneye-opener for a lot of people
too.
And like, one time we tried toget on to that same chow hall
and we didn't have.
We didn't have real food, right, like we had a little pop-up
kitchen tent but the cook we hadwe only got a food supply, like
every other week, if that'slike maybe once a month, where

(32:23):
they bring a conics out to us,and that was it.
You know, we threw all of ourtrash into this one.
Constantly take it.
We had to burn it, you know,and so we, like I remember my
mom would send me like tunapackets, you know, and taking a
month to get there to me, butyeah, and so we, finally we went
to try and get the child onetime, you know, we were filthy,
we didn't have showers and sothey wouldn't let us in.

(32:45):
Remember, you have to scan yourcar, your cat car, to get, and
even though you're in a combatzone, you know, and the guy at
the door is like you guys can'tcome in, and we're like what the
fuck are you talking about?
Like we're coming in whetheryou like it or not, and this guy
is sergeant, you know, and he'sjust chewing us out.
We're all still privates atthis time.
There's a PSC still, so I waslike you know, it was young and

(33:07):
hungry.
It's like motherfucker, I mean,you don't understand.
And luckily, one way or theother, you're getting yeah, yeah
and so, luckily, uh, so ourmajor came walking by and like
ripped them a new one.
It was like these get like,because it was a cook, but they
didn't do the cooking anymorebecause they had all the
contractors that did the cooking, right.
So they had to make these jobsfor these guys to justify while

(33:28):
they were there.
And so he was like these guysare out here in the fighting a
war where you're sitting hereeating fat and happy every night
.
You know, they don't understandhow good they had it on this
fob.
No, they had a full.
They going in there.
It was like disneyland.
You had anything you couldchoose to eat from.
You had desserts, you had sodas, you had drinks, like dude, we

(33:49):
had a little hut that was, youknow, like a 12 by 12 that was
made out of plywood and we had,like you know, we had the
essentials hot honey, buns, poptarts, you know, muffins, that
was it cool bars yeah, thelittle, uh, cereal jugs remember
that.
But the milk was the powdered.

(34:10):
The milk would come out clumpy.
You ever eaten clumpy?

Speaker 1 (34:14):
You do what you got to do.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
You do what you got to do it's funny.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
We were at the store at the hotel and they have the
little plastic things of cerealand I was explaining to my wife
that I lived on that.
Absolutely no, I'm not going tolie.
The fob I was on was huge.
Yeah, it was a city.
Yeah, right, we were outsidethe wire every day, yeah, but
you went back, you went back andyou slept kind of comfortably

(34:39):
and you had a chow hall.
Yeah, a lot of our sister unitsdid not have that.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
Yeah, exactly, man, even, even people, you know,
experiences may differ, right,you know and uh, I wouldn't
change it, though.
You know it was.
It was.
I had some of the best timeswith my guys.
You know, some that aren't hereanymore.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
Um, you know, and you make those memories and bonds
and it's you know, it'sbrotherhood well, and then when
you get back together, right,it's like you were never apart,
you never apart it just fitsright back in.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, yeah, but but back to the coming home.
Yeah, so you're part man, uh.
So I came remember, so I I'dgone home two months prior or
two, two and a half, threemonths prior.
And uh, so my and we werecoming home for like two weeks
before we went on r?
R, and so I, you know, I toldhim it's like you know, you
don't need to come out there.
So like it was kind of surreal,though, coming home to like no

(35:30):
one.
Yeah, but it was, you know.
But I knew, because I knew Iwas coming home anyways.
But it hits you when you're,you know, everyone comes out
together and you know, you walkout and there's like a whole
room of people just likeaccepting Like welcome home.
So it was pretty cool, mm-hmm,accepting like welcome home, so

(35:53):
it's pretty cool.
And then it just turned intoyou know, we got, you know you
get opportunity infantry boysand you get home.
It's a whole different ballgame.
You got a little bit of money inyour pocket and it's, it's
watch out, you know.
And so we, uh, I remember thatfirst night we got back to the
barracks and everyone got theirrooms and we got trashed Right.
You know, it was just a party,it was like that, for you know a

(36:15):
minute.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
It becomes a habit.
It's what you do, right.
It's what you do.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
Yeah, because we were getting ready for the, you know
, to go home on our families forthe two weeks, and so it was
just you know chaos and everyoneknew it.
You know chaos and everyoneknew it.
You know the commanders, theyall you guys know it is.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
It's like welcome home boys, and you just don't do
anything stupid.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I spent my first 16 yearsenlisted yeah, so I get it,
yeah, exactly no, you gotta, letyou gotta, especially the
infantry, yell at the boys yougotta let the boys yell and put
their hair down.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
Man, yeah, you know, it's you, kate.
People don't understand thatbecause, like it's you cage us
up for so long.
That's all we do is we?
You practice and prepare andyou train to.
Just you know.
Violence, violence, violenceviolence violence and it's like
you know what do you think'sgonna happen?
We drink sometimes.
Things get violent.

Speaker 1 (36:59):
Well, I think the other thing, too, that people
don't get is that um infantry,especially like even the
military police.
We had guys that were just anightmare in garrison.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
Yeah, but they're great overseas.
But those are the guys I wantwith me.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
That's the guy I want next to me when the shit hits
the fan right.
Yeah, yeah.
So yes, we want to put you in abox and say break glass in case
of emergency.
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (37:30):
But until then you come home on your two weeks
after deployment.
How was that?
It was wild, it was good.
Then the integration was kindof weird.
You wake up and you're likewhere am I at?
It changes, it changes scenery.
It takes a while to let yourhair down for the hairs in the
back of your neck to stopstanding.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
To quit freaking out because you don't have your,
your m4 yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
So I did that on rnr.
My mom's got a story about thatbecause, uh, you know, like the
first night there and shepopped the door open to my
bedroom I was staying in and Ifreaked out because I didn't
know where I was at.
You know, it was just that andit was out of instinct and I
freaked out and I was like mygun and I couldn't find it,
didn't know where it was at, soI was like finger gunning her,
you know, and it was a panicattack.

(38:12):
It was a full-blown freakout.
Yeah, yeah, but yeah, even youknow.
Still then, a couple times,coming home, you know where's my
gun, shit.

Speaker 1 (38:23):
Sitting down at dinner right.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
You're like oh, my, somewhere, you know, yeah, yeah
it goes away after a while.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
Yeah, it does.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
You know it takes some time and so from there, I
uh, I got, I got stationed atfort benning, georgia uh-huh and
so I moved there at what's thethird id, uh.
Third id, uh.
First of the entry division.
I started out in uh of theentry division.

(38:53):
I started out in uh alphacompany.
That was baker company.
Yeah, I was a baker boy.
I was there for a while leadingup to our first deployment, or
just to my first point with them.
And uh, I was at e5 at the time.
I got, you know, I promoted e5,I was getting ready to go to
the e6 board.
I was, you know, I was ridingthis wave of everything.
I was doing good, and then itdidn't change and I got a little

(39:14):
bit of trouble.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
Yeah, so what happened?

Speaker 2 (39:16):
I'll tell you.
So a bunch of the guys hadgotten promoted and you know
we're a couple weeks out fromdeploying.
You know all of our stuff is inthe connexes, it's waiting
there.
So we're t-minus days, you know, and it was cinco de mayo
weekend and uh, arriba, yeahright yeah, a few margaritas

(39:43):
yeah we had.
We had a bunch of margaritas,you know, and unfortunately that
was the problem back then was,you know, once you start, you
can't stop.
You know, it's just keepinggoing.
And so we went out and a bunchof us, we got a van back on the
post and the time was when theyou know before you could get
ubers and all that.
And you know, credit paying,credit cards was still a thing,
but they wanted cash becausethey were scamming you.
You know, they were, yeah,ringing you up for this much,

(40:06):
saying, hey, that's, that's $20extra.
You're like what the fuck?
But you couldn't pay it or youhad to pay it Stop.
But you had to pay it.
And so we get back on the postand we're at the barracks and he
wouldn't take credit card.
He's like no cash, only it waspayday weekends.
We all spend money at the barsand everything Going to four-day

(40:26):
weekends.
They at the bars and everythinggoing to four-day weekends.
They get a mile right.
So we I was like, all right,I'll go, I'll go with him to get
the atm, the money at the atm.
We go to the first atm andthere's no money.
It's like atm out.
It was kelly hill atm, so itwas the only one up there
everyone's using everyone'susing it.
So we go to another atm and it'snot working.

(40:47):
I think I was partially, Ithink I can't remember it was
like that was, it just wasn'tworking and how much I was like
like entering my pin numbercorrectly, right.
And so I remember I was likeman, I'm gonna run from this guy
and the cab driver.
Before I did that, like I wastrying to pay with my credit
card, I was like here, just takethis pay, I'm gonna pay with
the credit card, pay the creditcard.
He's like.
He's like no, no, no cash cash.

(41:09):
I was like no.
So I was like I'm going to callyour company, I'm going to pay
this.
And so then he got violent,right.
So we got in a little scufflein the van.
So I grabbed my card and I waslike, after I was talking to

(41:36):
some buddies in the middle ofour quad bay and you know I used
to smoke at this time I used tosmoke and I'd see this
spotlight hit me.
It's like hey, you.
I was like oh shit, you know, Isee it's this.
It's a cab driver and it's acop.
He's like stop right there.
I was like not tonight.
Then I threw my cigarette downand I went on a foot, a little
foot run, oh boy, oh yeah.
So it's obviously a footpursuit and suit uh ensues.
And next thing, I know it wasbig, there's cops everywhere and

(42:01):
it was like I remember runningthrough the woods and luckily,
on kelly hill, I knew thosewoods like the back of my hand.
I knew all the goat trails wecould just run.
And yeah, you know, back then Iwas, you know, at that time it
was probably one 180, 190, 180190.
That was, you know, lean run, itwas 26, 20, yeah, 26, probably.
You know it's prime, yeah, anduh, I'm not gonna cut you, no,

(42:23):
never.
And so, uh, I can't, I make it.
You know, I had a, had acollared shirt and a hat on, I
had an undershirt.
So I ditched the collared shirtand the hat and some bushes.
I was like I'll come back anddo this another day.
I was walking up in my barracksand I was like I made it and
this cop in this Staff, 3dnco,pops up and they're like you.

(42:45):
I was like, oh, hey, and like,hey, what's your name?
I made up some fake name, youknow, and yeah, that's a great
idea you know it gets you better.
Yeah and uh.
So I told them they're likewhat are you doing?
I was like oh, I was trying toget my charger out of my truck.
I got in a fight with mygirlfriends, I'm deploying again
.
I made this whole story up anduh, he's like oh, you have a

(43:08):
good night, good luck.
And I was like you too, officer, because he asked me if I knew
a sergeant corver.
I was like I don't and youdidn't.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
I didn't, that wasn't a lie, right, I didn't I told
no lie, yeah, but it's just myname.

Speaker 2 (43:21):
and uh, so the next morning I wake up and I hear
this on my thump, thump, thumpon my barracks door and I was
like fuck, that happened.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
This was not a dream.
It was like.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
Friday morning I was like fuck, fuck, fuck, and so I
instantly text my platoonsergeant.
I was like you're going to begetting a phone call from the MP
station and I'm sorry.
And so our barracks rooms wereon the outside the hall was on
the outside, you know and so Ipeeped through there and it was

(43:53):
a whole MP unit and they were infull battle rattle.
They were in their SWAT gear,their riot gear, and so I
latched the door and they'relike come out, sergeant Corbett,
and I was like I'm coming.
I was like I need to use thebathroom and put some clothes on
.
And so as soon as I opened thedoor, they just hogged, they

(44:14):
bum-rushed me, beat the shit outof me, hog-tied me, you know
cuffed and stuffed me.
So they carried me out, you know, like a pig and it was like a
parade, you know, down the hall,down the outside corridor to
the cop cars.
You know, yeah, you werebecoming a cautionary tale.

(44:34):
That's your boy, yeah.
And so, yeah, I go to the MPstation and of course I knew not
to talk.
I was like I know nothing ofwhat you speak of.
I wanted to know my lawyer yeah, because they were trying to
charge me with criminal charges,and so I went them.
I wanted my lawyer yeah,because they were trying to
charge me with criminal charges,and so I went back, they
released me and then, becausethey had nothing on me yet, and

(44:57):
so that night I was in mybarracks room and I get called
to come back.
You know, like you need to getin uniform and come back to the
MP station.
And so I walk into the MPstation and that cop that I
first encountered that asked meif I knew sergeant corber was

(45:18):
the one that was waiting toreceive me.
Oh, yeah, he was probably nothappy.
He said you're sergeant corbett, huh, and unfortunately, I said
that's what the name tape saysand he was not happy with that
and he threw me up against thewall and like me down of my
blouse and everything.
And he was like I want you tounblouse your boots and pants
and take them off.
And I was like I knew I wasfucked.
Everyone that was in the cabwas there.

(45:40):
They all gave statements,couldn't get out of this one.
So I look at this guy and heactually told me to unblast my
pants and boots and take themoff and I was like well, buddy,
I'm not wearing any underwear.
And he's like well, what doesthat have to do with anything?
And I was like I don't want tomake you feel inadequate.

Speaker 1 (45:57):
Well, you're just scoring targets.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
Dig in my hole with this guy, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
Yeah, you've hit bottom and continued to dig.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
Oh man, that's me like yeah, it's one of my
downfalls, not anymore if you'regonna do it.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
You're gonna do it.
Right, you gotta go out bigyeah and so I got thrown in jail
.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
You know it wasn't my first time going to jail.
You know I've been.
I got arrested in gainesville,you know, there a couple times
before.
But, uh, I digress.
You know, um, you know I wasn'tperfect growing up, yeah, but
I'm doing right now, but uh,yeah, so I spent.

(46:34):
You know, I spent four days injail there, which was it was
like a little vacation.
You know, I've been way worse.

Speaker 1 (46:42):
You know, like this ain't nothing, yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
So got out of that, got deployed and while we were
on deployment I had to bring acopy of my packet and they asked
me if it's like two weeks inand I thought it had gone away.
I was like I'm going to ridethis out, man, yeah you figure
out.

Speaker 1 (47:03):
Deployment saved me, right yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
And I get called from , a little runner comes in.
He's like BC wants you in hisoffice now.
I was like, oh, oh, fuck.
And then they're like do youhave a pack?
You have a copy of your packet.
And I was like, yeah, like weneed it because they didn't have
one.
So I ripped out a bunch ofpages.
Right, this is all I had.
This is what I brought with me.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
Sorry, right, sorry, there's pages, what they gave me
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
so I give them that and I'm standing in his office
and they're all up in there andI was like shit, what am I going
to do?
I'm in my head, I'm thinkingI've got to get out of this.
I've got to get out of this.
And so, as you know, I'm sureyou've done many of Article 15s.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
Yes, and he goes.
You know I've been a victim ofa couple of them.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
And he goes would you like?
You know you have a right to anopen trial or a trial by
court-martial.
And he expected me to just opentrial with everybody there.
And I said I want trial bycourt-martial, knowing that if I
went trial by court-martialthey would have to send me home
to an actual court Right, but atthat same time they would have

(48:07):
to send everybody home that wasinvolved, including the chain of
command.
Yeah, and so I played my lastcard.
Did they call your bluff?
He said get the fuck out of myoffice.
So I went back to my bunk.

Speaker 1 (48:23):
Uh-huh.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
And I was sitting there and I was like, oh, you
did it this time, eric, and 10minutes go by and this, this
runner comes and he comes, he'slike he wants you back in his
office.
I was like fuck.
And he, I walk in there, youknow, and did the whole position
of attention right reportinghis word, sir.
Yep, yeah, the whole thing yep,because you think you're fucking

(48:46):
slick, don't you?
I was like no, sir, and he goesthis is what you're gonna do,
because you're gonna accept this, this court or this article 15,
and you're gonna go onprobation.
He's like you're gonna movecompanies.
You're gonna go from someonefrom baker company to alf
company.
You're not gonna get adeployment award, you're not
gonna get a badge for this, soyou're gonna to get nothing.

(49:08):
If you can go six monthswithout getting in trouble, he's
like this whole thing will goaway.
So I took that deal.
So I didn't lose any pay.
I did no extra duty.
All I did was I couldn't get Ididn't get a deployment award,
whatever.
I had a couple of those already.

(49:29):
So I was like yeah, inshallah,and I had to had a couple of
those already.
So I was like yeah, inshallah,and uh, I had to do a bunch of
extra duty details, like, like,I wasn't on extra duty, but like
that, like they had this event.
It was like a battalion fobevent.
So I helped set that up right,which is it, but that was the
only thing I did.
I changed companies, couldn'tget in trouble, which was easy
because I was on deployment, sothere's nothing there I had to
go to go to.
So when this whole thing firstkicked off before deployment I

(49:52):
had to go to ASAP AlcoholSolicits Abuse Program.
I checked in for it Did onemeet.
We were getting ready to deployright.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
So when I got there I had to introduce myself and it
was like a celebrity.
They were like that was you.

Speaker 1 (50:06):
It made post, so everyone knew your, everyone
knew the whole post knew whathad happened and I was like that
was me.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
It's kind of hard to call that a fuck-up, isn't it?
Yeah, so I, yeah, yeah, exactly.
I was like success right and sowhen I got back I was an ASAP
failure labeled ASAP failure,because I didn't show up to any
more ASAP appointments when Iwas deployed.
So then I had to complete ASAPagain.
I was successful at graduate atthat, awesome Made that.

(50:42):
And then they made me thecompany UPL Idiots.

Speaker 1 (50:49):
What were they thinking?
What were they thinking?
What were they?

Speaker 2 (50:51):
thinking right yeah, any of whom did that deployment
came home.
That's when I met aaron, so Imet your boy yeah yeah, we
didn't like him at first, andthen we, then we hit it off.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Those are the best friends, yeah I think of the
ones you don't like when youlisten yeah it.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
Yeah, it was kind of like he was this guy, yeah.
And then we you know what wasthat?
13 years later how many yearsis it now?
Yeah, so then me and him got anapartment together.
We moved out of the barracks,that was fun.
It's probably where the lesbiancouple name comes from.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
So yes, we did that for a while.
Used to race home to scare eachother oh, tell me about this.
I don't know about this oh man,I remember one time I I was
hiding behind the couch and Ipopped up and he, like, his
ankles broke and he hit theground.
I used to hide behind the doorsI'm like when you wait for him

(51:47):
to walk in, to hop out and scarehim.
I ask him about it sometimes.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
yeah, I'm going to.
In fact, when I leave here,I'll probably be on the phone
with him.
If he's not calling you again,we'll see what happens.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
Yeah, so we did that for a while.
Then we had we bought all ofour furniture warehouse a
scratch and dinch warehouse, youknow, down the street from us,
uh-huh, it's all hodgepodgestuff done together, you know,
but we were in our 20s, you know.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
Right, yeah, you buy where you can.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
Yeah.
So we bought this bar that wefound on like Craigslist so we
had this little.
We had like a little sunroom inour apartment but then there
was a we found like this cornerbar that we ended up putting in
there.
It was a blast and we had, youknow, saw Snow in Georgia for
the first time.
With him there we were livingat that apartment.
Uh-huh, that was cool.

(52:39):
And then he, aaron, moved inwith Mark and Mike and all of
them out to the house, and thenBuddy Gessner ended up moving
with me.
For a while Him and his wifewere splitting.
His wife slashed my tiresbecause affiliation, I was away
so I had gotten called out.
Here we go.
So I had gotten selected to gobe an OC out at NTC.

(53:03):
So I had to go for 30 days,right, because at this time I
was a staff sergeant, right.
So, with all these mess-ups,you did something right.
I did something right.

Speaker 1 (53:13):
Staff sergeant and you're an OC at NTC.
That's not nothing.

Speaker 2 (53:18):
That's not nothing, man.
I had some clout, I was good.
I was a good leader.
I like to think I am.
I've been told there's alwaysroom to improve and be better.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
The funny thing is I've met a lot of people in the
military and some of the bestleaders were like privates three
times.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
Yeah, you gotta fuck up the move up, man right and so
you just never had that parthappen I got lucky yeah, I got
lucky I.
I got arrested one time in in uh, manhattan, kansas, when I was
in the first ID and I'd gottendetained because I got in a
fight at the bar and I'd gottendetained and luckily the cop
that arrested me recognized meand he was like who knew my

(54:01):
squad leader?
And this guy was like fresh outof the academy and he's like
you're Dearden's private.
And I was like fuck.
I was like why does this guyknow my squad leader?
Right?
And he's like I'm going to letyou go.
He's like but I'm going to tellyour boy.
I was like do whatever the fuckyou want, as long as I'm not
going to jail, man, I'll do thepush-ups, thanks.

(54:22):
Yeah, of course I got smoked fordays after that.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
the funny thing is, like you never you've never
flown under the radar, I thinkas much as you probably tried
yeah, you've never done it, butit's never really harmed you
yeah that's crazy.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
Yeah, man, I think you know you've had some
experiences they made upstairsis, you know, saved me a lot.
Yeah, he's, you know, he's myguardian angel looking out for
me every day.
And uh, so where was it wherewe're at?
So aaron had moved out, aaronmoved out, you're, yeah.
So I was at ntc.
I was a guest, I see, at ntc,right, and so that was real.
You know that was aninteresting time.
Um, so my stepdad started goingthrough some you know a bunch

(54:57):
of things at home.
So you know, home life was notdoing so well with the family.
You know trouble in the homefront and uh, you know, I was
drinking heavy and I waspartying a lot but, you know,
was crushing life.
I was in E6.
I was in my prime, I was havinga blast, I was hanging out with
women, I made friendseverywhere.
So NTC was different.

(55:20):
It was cool, but it's crazybeing an OC, because you're by
yourself in the middle of theMojave Desert, which is huge.
It's easy to get lost out thereand you don't have a lot.
It's like you gotta use yourinstincts a lot to travel
throughout there and find placesand you have to be competent,
right, you have to make your wayaround, cause there's no road
like there's goat trails for youto drive on, but it's there's a

(55:41):
thousand that lead everywhere.
So you have to be able're going, because you'd like you'd go
out for a 24-hour period andthen you'd come home.
You get two days off.
That's how they run their ocs,you know it's it's was it 21
days straight, though, and thereare 14 days, 14 days straight,
you know, but it's just like aweek week lead up and breakdown,
and so we did that, and so whenwe got done, we had a week.

(56:10):
They messed up our flight, sothe unit out of 3rd ID got to go
home, but we all the OCs had anextra week there.
So me and two buddies were likewell, let's go to Vegas.
What could go wrong?
What could go wrong?
Right, okay, vegas.

Speaker 1 (56:24):
Vegas, okay Vegas.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
Vegas.
So we make it out of Fort Irwin.
Fort Irwin's in the middle ofnowhere.
The only town right outside ofthere is called Barstow.

Speaker 1 (56:41):
Yeah, I'm familiar with that.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
And it's just a dump.
And so we got this taxi cabdriver to Well, when we decided
we're all E6s, right, so there'sonly there's like a couple E7s,
there's not anything reallyanybody can say to us right,
Like there was no restrictions.
We had a week left.
So it's not like you can't, no,you must stay here.
It's like you're a grown assman.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
Go do what you want.

Speaker 2 (57:03):
Go do what you want.

Speaker 1 (57:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
Exactly.
So we catch a cab to Barstowand we're at this truck stop and
we're trying to figure out whatto do, how to get to Vegas, and
we're looking for cabs andeverything and not a lot of cabs
there at this truck stop, right, right.
And so this Greyhound driveroverhears me talking inside the
store and he's like, oh, I'mheading to Vegas if you guys

(57:26):
need a ride.
And I was like absolutely.
And he's like, oh, I'm headingto Vegas if you guys need a ride
.
And I was like absolutely.
So he was cool as shit and wecould clearly tell we were in
the military.
We all had high and tights andeverything.
And he's like if you guys want,you can grab some alcohol.
You just got to stay behindthis line on the bus and you can
drink.
Why not Shucks?
So we roll up to Vegas.

(57:48):
The one of the guys that wentwith this he had been there uh,
marco, he'd been there a coupletimes, so he's familiar.
So he's, you know.
He got us a hotel where he goeslike all right, we're gonna
stay here using points andeverything.
And so we pull up to the hoteland it's a greyhound and all
these foreigners come up andthey're like waiting to see who
gets off the bus.
You know they thought we werecelebrities or something.
Nope.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
It's me, your boy.
Did they take your picture?

Speaker 2 (58:12):
Surprise, so they were a little let down, but
Vegas.

Speaker 1 (58:21):
Yeah, how long were you in Vegas?

Speaker 2 (58:23):
Like four days.
Wow, Four days too.
Two days too long.
You do a lot of damage in fourdays.
It was.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
It was fun.
Yeah, give me some of thehighlights.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
Oh, I find there's some stories there.
Night one we get there and Iwas like, oh, you know, it was
like a candy shop.
It's like this is so cool, thisis God.
What year was this?
This was 2000, 14 or 15.
Maybe the end of 14 going into15.
I have to look at a picture onFacebook and go to this strip

(59:03):
club, you know, and it's likekid in a candy shop and the
women out there, gorgeous right.

Speaker 1 (59:08):
Yeah, this is not.
You know, this is not the stripclub outside of Fort Leonard
Wood.

Speaker 2 (59:12):
Exactly, I wasn't in Kansas anymore.
Right, wasn't at theThanksgiving strip club anymore.
Yeah, we ended up gettingtossed out of that strip club,
not because of me this timebecause of my buddy, marco.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
He was doing things he shouldn't have been doing
doing things.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
You know, he you know there's no sex in the champagne
room right you know, oh man, itwas just a, a drunken blur like
the whole time.
Like clubs, the bars, therooftop pool bars, the casinos,
like yeah, and you're notmarried at this time.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
I'm not married at this time.
No, so you're plenty of women.

Speaker 2 (59:55):
Yeah, you know met other women there and, having a
good time, met my buddy, mattthere.
Uh-huh, this goes back to myfirst matt lost his legs.
Right at the time when matt gotblown up, we didn't know he
lost his legs right.
Matt got airlifted out.
He was my roommate then, right.
So I knew matt well.
We were privates together.

(01:00:15):
We can't you know me, matt,jesse and zach.
We were like we're four boys,you know tight and uh, matt
drove from utah and met me invegas.
It was the first time I'd seenmatt since you know his legs,
since got blown up, and uh, whenhe took his legs off and it

(01:00:35):
freaked me out, lost it, yeah,because it was like my boy.
And then he took his legs offlike lieutenant dan and he
fucking chased me around thefloor and I was like I was like
you know, that's my boy and uh,well, you didn't know yeah well,
I knew I didn't.
I knew I didn't know how bad itwas, I didn't see him right like
I'm you know man, matt wentthrough it.

(01:00:56):
His wife at the time had lefthim.
He was, you know, because hewas having reconstructive.
He went through so manysurgeries and uh, when we
finally realized it shatteredall the bones in his feet when
it happened, so vibrations hewas, he was a gunner and shot
all the bones at his feet and heuh, so he lost both legs.
And seeing him then it was likefuck man.

(01:01:17):
And so when we went out, hewent out with us and we were at
the bars and uh, I remembersomebody said something and I
fucking like somebody was likebecause he so he was wearing
jeans at first, he was realself-conscious, he was fresh but
had his legs right, so hecouldn't walk right and
everything.
And so somebody said somethingto him and uh, I remember I

(01:01:38):
almost lost my shit in in thisbar, vegas, and this guy was
like you know, he fucking losthis legs and just.
And the guy was like I'm sosorry, I didn't know.
And so, matt, or he went backto the hotel room and he changed
into shorts and he like cause,I was like that's my fucking boy
, yeah, you know.
And I was like fuck you, dude.
And like I mean, the bar waspretty empty at this time.
It was still early for a Vegasbar, but it was like you know.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
You see, I was like that he's right like this man
lost.

Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
He gave his, you know he gave so much of his country
and you know, but it was a blast.
I'm pretty sure matt went homewith a girl that night too, like
I was just man, because I, oncethis initial shock had gotten
over, you know it was just likewe're back together.
Yeah, and so he was.
He needed that because hehadn't had.
He went through.
You know, his wife left him,took all his money left, took

(01:02:28):
the dog.
He was in Walter Reed.
It was a horrible story.
I was like he's going tofucking kill himself.
There's no doubt.
Now he's married, he has abeautiful baby.

Speaker 1 (01:02:41):
It's amazing what can happen.
You survived Vegas.

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
I survived Vegas.
I remember the last day it wasjust so hung over and we had to
get back to post.
We made it like just at thenick of time to like get our
flight.
We met them at the airportuh-huh and, uh, I remember
sitting there on the on theplane, finally, and we're just
like I need to go home.

(01:03:07):
You know, just like shrivelingup was like your body's going.
Yeah, I need to go home you know, and that's just, that's all we
did.
We just drank, yeah.
And uh, yeah, I went back tofort benning and then I I ended
up getting this loft downtownfort benning.
Single e had this old loft.

(01:03:30):
You know it was like 900 squarefeet, it was badass.
It had like 20-foot ceilings.
You know, it was like100-year-old floors.

Speaker 1 (01:03:38):
It was cool man.
It was a model movie.

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
Yeah, yeah, it was cool, and I had the bar that me
and Aaron had in there with it,you know, oh so you kept the bar
.
Oh yeah, yeah, I got the barand the divorce when we split.
Yeah, so he would still comeover, obviously on weekends and
stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
He had visitation of the bar he had visitation rights
.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
Yeah, so living in that loft, I lived there for a
year before I got out and thatwas cool man.
It was like my last year in theArmy and I just went all out.
Man was new.
I was getting ready to get likeI was getting ready to get out
and I remember my last sixmonths.
I came down on drillers and Icame down on drillers before,

(01:04:16):
but I was able to get out ofthem for an extension like I did
a year extension.
I'm how the contract worked.
I got out of them and I camedown on them again.
I was coming up on reenlistingand I was like I'm not fucking
doing this.
I'm like I had buddies thatwere drills and this was like
hearing the horror stories.
It just got horrible, yeah Iwas like I'm not doing.
They were working, you know, 15,16 hour days, sometimes 20 hour
days, like consistently.

(01:04:38):
I was like, because there was ashortage, I was like I'm not
doing this and so I signed adeck.
I knew I wanted to get out.
I was done, right, there's nomore wars going on, done.
I was like I'm not a kid, Iwasn't, I wasn't a garrison
soldier, no right.
And uh, I got, I got us intosome shit, you know, I got to be
.
That wasn't fun, you know rightand so I remember we had to go

(01:05:00):
to the sergeant major's officeand he was a new sergeant major.
He came from regiment and hethought he was his top dog.
He was fucking overweight,right.
So I think I was 29, right, soI had some years on me, right,
but I wasn't, so it wasn't justa nobody, I was, you know, I was
a full-grown man you've beenaround been around the block and

(01:05:20):
, uh, I remember sitting in hisoffice and he's like, because I
had signed the dex thing, he waspissed.
I was getting out.
Oh yeah, pissed yeah.
And uh, except like I wasgetting out, oh yeah, pissed,
yeah, I was coming up with myfirst look for E7, and they're
like you're going to get it,look at your thing, you're going
to get picked up.
And I was like I'm done, I didmy obligation, man.

(01:05:44):
I was like what do you wantfrom me?
And I had buddies that werecontracting already.
I'd seen that they were makingthe money and I was like, yes,
bingo, that's what I want.
And so, sitting in his office,and he's just ripping me a new
one, and I was just, it was liketwo hour long, just session.
Because his first thing youknow you're gonna be begging me

(01:06:05):
to get back into my army.
You know this is all.
You're not going to be nothingout there and I'm going to do
everything to prevent you fromcoming back into this.
And he said what are you goingto do when you get out?
And I said I'm going to go be avalet.
And he said, excuse me, I heardmy platoon sergeant behind me.
He goes oh fuck, here we go Yep.

(01:06:31):
I was like'm gonna go park carsin orlando, sir, because when I
was in college, the first time Iused to park cars, I knew I
wasn't gonna go park cars right,yeah, he didn't even know you
exactly.
He's like I don't know, youjacked from shit and uh, that
ensued to where.
It was just a beratement, youknow, and I was like I was like
further validating my reasons ofwhy I'm done.
Yeah, you know, I was like I'ma grown man and you're talking

(01:06:52):
to me like that and I was likefurther validating my reasons of
why I'm done.

Speaker 1 (01:06:54):
I was like I'm a grown man and you're talking to
me like that and I was like Icould come over there and just
beat the shit out of you.
How would you like that, or you?

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
could just shake my hand and wish me well, and so he
stripped me from my platoon.
He put me in the S shops, buteveryone knew who I was.
I'm a nice guy, right, I getalong.
People make you know I don'tburn bridges until it's time to
burn bridges, and then I blowthat bitch yeah and uh yeah.
So the platoon sergeant I had ishe's like dude, is like Just

(01:07:22):
text me in the morning, let meknow you're alive.
I was like, right, thank you,but I did have to do staff duty
a lot, right.
So I was always on staff likeonce or twice a week, but that
was it.
I didn't show up to work likethey didn't.
No one fucking cared.
So I was like I'll take thisdeal.
It's like, yeah, man, so like Iliterally did nothing the last
six months, you know.

(01:07:42):
And so I was on staff duty oneSunday night it was football
season and it's MP stationpstation like we need you to get
a hold.
It's like three, it wasmidnight or something before
that, like right after yeah, itmust have been like like right
after football's games weregetting over, so probably like
11 ish, right, right, I get aphone call and they're like we
need you to get a hold of your,your battalion commander.

(01:08:04):
And I was like, oh, okay, I waslike why?
They're like we can't, you justneed to get a little battalion
commander.
I was like, okay, call him, noanswer.
And so I called them back and Iwas like, hey, this, you know,
he's not answering.
Like we need you to get a holdof your brigade sergeant major.
And I was like, fuck, I'm notcalling that guy.
So I call brigade staff duty,you know, and I'm like like, hey

(01:08:25):
, you guys need to get brigades,our major, to call the ap
station.
And they're like why?
I was like I don't know theywon't tell me, you know.
So they no one could get like.
No, the brigade couldn't get ahold of anybody right.
And so what had happened wasour same battalion starter major

(01:08:46):
had gotten picked up on adomestic abuse of his kid, and
who did he see come pick him upfrom the mp station staff.
Sergeant corbett picked thisguy up and I was like well, well
, well who's gonna be beggingwho for what?
yeah, and so it was just thehumiliation on his face and I

(01:09:10):
was just like, yeah, and we'regetting back on post that.
So they were like, all right,we need you to come pick him up
and uh, because they couldn'tget a hold of anybody, right?

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
so I had to go pick him up.

Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
So when I got back to uh staff duty post you the next
morning, the BC, a commander,everyone comes to me he's like
do not say a word and I was likeokay maybe too late yeah.
So, yeah, I was like yeah, yeah,sure, I didn't, I was already
done.
What can you do to me?
There's nothing you do.

(01:09:42):
So as soon as I got off, Iwalked right over to the company
, to my boys, and I was like,guess what?
I was like yo, how's it feel tobe a piece huh yeah, yeah,
who's parking cars?
yeah, right, so that was the,that was the chapter of that,
and uh, I never even got.

(01:10:03):
I never got an ets award.
I never even got.
I never got an ETS award youjust sort of they just I got
nothing wow yeah, one of the oneof the one of my, one of my
buddies had a plaque made.
But the army, they're like S1,they yeah fuck it.

Speaker 1 (01:10:27):
I know they did you know, you want to know the
secret about an ets award meansnothing well, usually the person
who got it wrote it.
I'm just gonna be honest that'show that works, yeah I was an
hhc commander before I retiredexactly, so no, I, a lot of them
are, uh, are written by theperson who received them.
Yeah so, yeah, so, yeah, so youget out and then, so, then I

(01:10:49):
got out.

Speaker 2 (01:10:49):
So you're still not married.

Speaker 1 (01:10:50):
No, not married.
You made it through a wholelike military career and didn't
get married.

Speaker 2 (01:10:56):
I vowed to never marry anybody in the military.
Uh-huh.
I made a vow to myself that Ieventually ended up breaking
that.
If I didn't love this woman, Iwould not marry her.
Breaking that.
If I didn't love this woman, Iwould not marry her.
Uh-huh.
So then I went to Conrad.

Speaker 1 (01:11:12):
I've got to ask another question, though.
Did you buy a car at 37%interest and 100,000?

Speaker 2 (01:11:16):
miles an hour.

Speaker 1 (01:11:17):
No, no, no Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:11:19):
I did buy a truck, uh-huh, I bought a truck after
my first deployment.
When I moved to Fort Benning,georgia, I bought my first truck
, okay, for $.
I bought a truck after my firstdeployment, when I moved to
Fort Benning, georgia.
I bought my first truck for$24,000.
But I had my deployment moneyand I put a big chunk down from
that.
Yeah, and I think my momco-signed for me, but I had it.
I think my payments were like$350 a month or something.

Speaker 1 (01:11:39):
So you didn't do any of the typical stupid stuff?

Speaker 2 (01:11:42):
No, Financially, for the most part I was good.
Yeah, for the most part, I wasgood For the most part.
I know a deal and I know a dealand I know not to sign at 37%
interest, but I had plenty ofsoldiers that did that.
Oh yeah, it was like takingthem back in there.
So then I got out.

Speaker 1 (01:11:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:11:59):
And then I went and tried out the selection process
for contract.
I had a lot riding on that.
Our class group started with 54people people and only 22 of us
graduated right, so you gotit's not back.
Then.
It was a lot harder, right.
You start off with like your PTtests, your weapons, quals, and

(01:12:20):
then all your tactics andeverything and learning how to
do.
It's a 45-day school.
You know you could drop you atany day.
45-day school, they could dropyou at any day.
And so I passed that.
And then I had to wait like twono, a couple months.
I was waiting on my securityclearance and by this time I'd

(01:12:42):
gotten my clearance but I had togo back to recall, so it was
like another month.
I had to go back for a month ofrecall and I did that.
And this was at Christmas time,cause my mom yeah, my mom and
stepdad came up to see me beforeI left again, cause then it was
Christmas, so that was prettycool for her to do that.
Yeah, she's been there.
My mom's been there a lot.
She's definitely my.

(01:13:03):
She's there for you, yeah, sogo to recall.
Then it comes to contract andwe're flying.
It's christmas.
This guy that I'm with hisname's jeremy, he uh.
We go out to this bar and hegets fucking roofie right.

(01:13:25):
This dude gets hammered I thinkhe is I don't know, but it's
like we're.
We didn have any drinks, butthis guy gets cranked.

Speaker 1 (01:13:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:13:33):
I'm like Jesus Christ dude.
I had to get him back to hisroom.
This is my first bit ofcontracting.
Then we go to Amsterdam.
We had a layover from VirginiaBeach to Amsterdam.
Spent Christmas Day inAmsterdam walking around there
that was pretty cool seeing thatand then showed up to Iraq

(01:13:53):
again and then got acclimated tothe teams, Got on my furthest
on the ambassador's protectionteam.
So I stayed the whole time.
Started off as a boot, againAll over, had to prove yourself
all over again.

Speaker 1 (01:14:07):
Had to prove yourself all over again, had to prove
yourself all over again.

Speaker 2 (01:14:10):
And I rose up pretty quick there which you know,
luckily and so I became the 13alpha shift leader.
So I was like an advanced shiftleader for the ambassador's
production detail.
So that was.
I started making some realmoney.
You know, I had my firstsix-figure income job and I was
like hell, yeah, you know myfirst six-figure income job and
I was like hell, yeah, I had myfirst deployment.
I was like I had more money todo with at the time and I was

(01:14:33):
getting ready to come home onleave.
I knew it was coming up soon,like 30 days out, and I had
nowhere to live to come home to.
Right Before I left, I had putall my stuff in a storage unit
and so that's how I bought.
This house was online, sightunseen.
You got real lucky.
It didn't look like this oh,okay.
Yeah, I did all this and I,sight unseen, bought it the day

(01:15:01):
I got home it wasn't signed andthen moved in, you know it was
all closed off.
In here it was.

Speaker 1 (01:15:09):
You know, it was my first, my first house, yeah, and
I, you know, I bought it beforethe covid, so I got it for
really cheap and um so what wasit like as a contractor going
into theater, and you know, Iknow what it's like going in
with the full force of unitedstates Army behind you, but you
don't have that necessarily as acontractor.

(01:15:31):
When I was there, they did somepretty terrible things to
contractors when they caughtthem.

Speaker 2 (01:15:35):
Yes, yeah, exactly the shit I saw there.
Man with that fucking wild, I'vesat in the meeting, in the
living rooms of the talibanleaders and, like jay shaladi,
and like I've been in, like bymyself, uh, arranging these

(01:15:56):
meetings for the ambassador, andyou're sitting there reading
these thought reports and theywant to, you know, chop, they
want to chop your head off.
And here you are.
You know, little eric, yeah,it's just me, a medic, because
at the time when I was runningthe advanced team, I'd have to
get there x amount of timebefore the ambassador go clear
everything up, check out who I'msupposed to be checking with.
And I mean, they could haveeasily snatched me up, rolled me

(01:16:18):
up, and at the time all I hadwas, you know, I keep a glock in
my, uh, my waistline.
I had my, my low pro plates on,I had an ear pro, you know, and
I had a had my radio tourniqueton my on my side, little med
pouch on my back, you know yeahbut if something kicked off, I'd
have to fight like all I haveis my clock, my glock 9.

(01:16:39):
You know it's not much, no, it'san ak-47.
So you have to fight your wayback to your car.
You know which could be a ways.
And it's scary, it's fuckingterrifying sometimes.

Speaker 1 (01:16:53):
Well, I think what people don't understand too is
when you get your head cut offon the internet, they don't just
chop your head off.
They saw your head off becauseit hurts more.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:17:00):
It's not one quick swoop, it's a saw.
It's terrifying.

Speaker 1 (01:17:03):
I remember spending my whole deployment.
That's what I didn't want tohave happen to me.

Speaker 2 (01:17:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:17:08):
So I can't imagine as a contractor.

Speaker 2 (01:17:09):
Yeah, you don't have the force of the Army, you know,
because you're there on yourown, your own free will, so
you're it's.
You know you can't give a bugout bag and you know like the
constant always taking rockets.

(01:17:31):
Um, you know, and it was, therewas a.
The year 2017.
When I was there, 2017 and 27and 20 2018 was a really fun
year.
It was a party.
There was just a blast, right,it was like a college frat
campus.
You go out and you do your workall day.
The contractors though.

(01:17:52):
We weren't allowed to drink.
Obviously, there's ways aroundthat.

Speaker 1 (01:17:56):
Rules are made to be broken.
Right Rules are made to bebroken.

Speaker 2 (01:18:00):
It was just a party man.
I bet everybody was doing it.
It was a blast.
Money was great.
You could like making killermoney.
It was girls.
I was dating this girl outthere.
You know a little blonde hairedgirl, and so it couldn't
anything, couldn't?
Life was good.
I had the house I come home for, you know, 35 days at a time,
and I had roommates.
I'll just go party.

(01:18:21):
And you know, I had going outto downtown and just was living
a great life.
Man, um and me and uh, the meand me and four buddies three
buddies, four was totaled.
We're contracting, was thatit's 2019?
We went to, uh, the 75thanniversary of normandy, uh-huh,

(01:18:44):
right.
So my buddy, so it was me, mybuddy nick, my buddy scott, my
buddy emilio two weeks in franceand I thought vegas was a shit
show.
This was a shit show.
Yeah, it was.

(01:19:05):
I mean, it was just a blast,right, we met.
We made so many good peoplelook going into the uh, as soon
as we fly it like we'd fly in.
So it's me and emilio.
We meet up in the uk and wewent on this bar crawl.
It's punk crawl in the uk andit's classic eric fashion.
But I remember waking up thenext morning and the phone just

(01:19:29):
ringing right, I'm like what thefuck is going on here?
I thought I was still in baghdad, I will yeah that's how drunk I
was still that's pretty drunk,pretty drunk, and what's my
buddy emilio calling the roomphone?
He's like dude, we gotta go,man, we gotta go.
I was like, oh shit.
So I hop up and I go down thereand he, he's like he doesn't
remember much either.

(01:19:49):
So we start going through ourphones and there's videos and
pictures.

Speaker 1 (01:19:52):
Oh no.

Speaker 2 (01:19:53):
And it's like the Hangover.

Speaker 1 (01:19:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:19:56):
At one point I had a Mamba line behind me going down
the street of like 30 people barhopping and I'm like I got a
whistle.
I was like what the fuck you?
I was like what the fuck.

Speaker 1 (01:20:07):
You have no recollection of this None.

Speaker 2 (01:20:09):
Wow, and there's so many.
There were so many pictures andvideos.
I don't remember a thing fromthat were in there and it was
just like Jesus Christ Doingshots with girls, you know like
it's like, oh, buddy, andthey're all on different bars.
It was like time stamped, timestamped.

(01:20:35):
So then we get to.
We took the channel from the ukover to france.
Yeah, the tunnel, undergroundtunnel, it's pretty cool.
So they had, they servedalcohol on the channel.

Speaker 1 (01:20:42):
So winning room, yeah who are you not to have a
couple of days?

Speaker 2 (01:20:47):
so we start started drinking again.
So me and him get there, wemeet up.
We took the train into Parisand it was cool.
I was seeing differentcountries, I was showing around,
it was cool to see and thearchitecture there is amazing.
So we meet up with our buddyScott, and then our buddy Nick
meets up later and we meet himup and the party ensues.

(01:21:09):
It carries on right.
So now all four of us aretogether.
We went out and got hammered.
We went to the Roland Garrostournament, the tennis match
over there, okay.
The French Open, yeah.
So we got to see Andre Agassiand Pete Sampras.
It was cool, right, we did alot of stuff when we were in
there.

Speaker 1 (01:21:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:21:30):
Then we went out to Normandy for the actual
anniversary.
Right, it was just wild to see,but it's a party.
It is just a freaking party.
They fly in all these USsoldiers in the city of Tafir I
can't remember the name of thecity it's just a drunk fest.
Everyone is just hammered forlike four days, and it was nuts.

Speaker 1 (01:21:53):
And you're already coming off of them.
Oh, they didn't come off ofanything, I just kept it going
for two weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:21:57):
Right, right and.

Speaker 1 (01:22:04):
How are you not dead?

Speaker 2 (01:22:05):
Correct, correct.
I don't know man, big manupstairs, he's got some plans,
big plans.

Speaker 1 (01:22:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:22:13):
But so we did.
So Normandy was over.
We went to two Women's WorldCup soccer games.
When we were there, got nakedin front of the Eiffel Tower.

Speaker 1 (01:22:28):
Because why not?

Speaker 2 (01:22:28):
Why not?

Speaker 1 (01:22:29):
It's the Eiffel Tower .
Because, why not?
Why not?
It's the.

Speaker 2 (01:22:31):
Eiffel Tower.
That's where people get naked.
Yeah, why not yeah.
It was a blast, though.
We had so much fun the besttrip I've ever been on with the
boys.
We still talk about itsometimes.

Speaker 1 (01:22:41):
It's like you're like oh fuck, don't think you could
do it again.
No, no, no no, you definitelywouldn't change it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:47):
I remember when I was trying to leave Paris.
Charles de Gaulle Airport ishorrible, so I hate that airport
.
Yeah, I've been there and I'mcoming like I'm still hammered.
I got the bubble guts.
I remember sitting in line,like in this cubicle line.
I'm like there's no, I'm aboutto shit my pants because the
beer shits and I was like gosh,damn it.

(01:23:08):
I'm like trying to hold ittogether.
I'm sweating.
Finally make it throughsecurity.
I run to the bathroom but I getto my gate and I'm like I need
to upgrade my ticket like it's1200 dollars, sir to first class
.
I was like I don't fucking care, it's like I need to lay down,
I need water.

Speaker 1 (01:23:27):
Please accommodate my request, I will pay you
handsomely, I will pay youhandsomely, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:23:33):
And I could see just the sheer shame in my eyes of
like, please, please.
They granted it and ah, manyeah.
It's good the trip was over.
I came home Mm-hmm, oh man,yeah, it's good the trip is over

(01:23:53):
.
Came home, and then, december31st 2019, I was back in baghdad
, iraq.
It was a typical morning.
It was my buddy, scott'sbirthday that day and we're like
talking about we're gonna dothis for his birthday that night
.
You know, not like we could goanywhere, but we had, you know,
the us embassy compound.
Everybody had like sda, it'slike small apartments, yeah and
uh.
So I'm back in my room, youknow, and I just got done from

(01:24:15):
like getting all my papersubmitted for the day for my
team and everything.
And the alarm starts going off.
And it wasn't an incoming alarm, it was like the like secure in
place alarm.

Speaker 1 (01:24:24):
I was like what the fuck?

Speaker 2 (01:24:25):
is this it?
It was like nine, nine, 30 inthe morning, 10 in the morning
or something.
And uh, so I turned my radio on.
I'm like, is this a drill orsomething?
You know it wasn't a drill.
This is when they attacked.
They tried to overrun theembassy in 2019.
And uh, so it got real it.
You know.
They were burning down thegates and everything.

(01:24:45):
They're burning everything.
They're catching our fuelpoints on fire.
It was crazy, you know.
It lasted for three days and weevacuated everybody off the
compound except for, like,essential personnel.
So all the contractors wereleft, you know, and that was it.
And it was long nights, longdays, and it was, you know, the

(01:25:06):
rockets after rockets, justconsistently rockets coming in,
and I remember we were like thisis the beginning stages and
they killed solomony.
Day three.
That's when it ended.
And when we killed solomony,the reason solomony was coming
was he was coming to see thefinal stages and they were going
to kill.

Speaker 1 (01:25:24):
They were supposed to overrun the embassy yeah, they
killed him right on the tarmac,didn't they?
Yeah, they did.

Speaker 2 (01:25:29):
Yeah, it was pretty cool, but they were supposed to
overrun the embassy and, likethat was supposed to be, it,
kill everyone in the embassy,and so we had something better
for him, yeah, and, but it was,you know.
So, just like that it endedLike they all dispersed, but

(01:25:50):
then it was just the threat.
So we used to have to pullguard on the ambassador to like
24 7 and my team were guardingthrough the night, you know.
And uh, we did shifts and sowe're on shift and I get a.
I get a call from the eoc, themvops it was the operation
center and they call my state,my, my state phone, like that,
because you get issued a, youknow, secure phone, everything,
like you need to get theambassador awake now, like it's
their white house.

(01:26:10):
I was like fuck.
So I went and got the agent.
You know we had a statedepartment agent.
I was like, uh, hey, marcus,it's the eoc, we need to get the
ambassador up now, you know.
So we get down.
We had to go into his kitchenand that was like his secure
room that we had, because theydidn't have any safe room like
real hard safe room.
Their buildings were hard room,like the whole construction of

(01:26:31):
it were designed for rock, liketo take impacts and stuff.
And uh, after benghazi theylearned that you know, big
lesson yeah, I was deployed forthat.
I got spun up for that to go tobenghazi, but we got.
We got called off at the lastminute for that too, shucks.
So we wake him up.

(01:26:53):
We're in the kitchen and we'retaking notes and he looks at me
and he's like can you write?
I was like what the fuck isthis guy?

Speaker 1 (01:27:01):
He's like yeah, I can write.
I'm not a fine animal Write, Iwas like, can you write, not a
caveman yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:27:15):
Write strong.
I'm like taking notes from thescribe and they were gonna.
That's when they were gonna hitthe embassy with ballistic
missiles for retaliation.
And there's a White House.
They're like you guys are goingto get hit with ballistic
missiles tonight.
And I was like holy fuck.
And that's when it hit.

Speaker 1 (01:27:32):
I was like it's not a game, it's not a game.

Speaker 2 (01:27:37):
And so they had the whole compound for days after
that was up and down forballistic missile threats.
At this point they were able tostall it for the night and they
didn't know when it was likeimminent threat, right.
And so that's when theyarranged the whole thing with um
, not al-sad, yeah, al-sad, oneof the air bases that they hit,

(01:28:03):
they hit the air base with themissiles but it hit the tarmac
where there's nobody out.
Yeah right, tit for tat, we givea lot of money for that.
And uh, that's when I met myex-wife out there.
She was in the reserves outthere and I should have kept
walking.

Speaker 1 (01:28:22):
I should have kept just didn't have it into you and
you're not too right justdidn't have it in me not to
taught me a lesson.

Speaker 2 (01:28:26):
I wouldn't have it in me not to Taught me a lesson.
I wouldn't change it, though Iwouldn't change that experience.
I'm glad it happened, you know,because we did have some good
times.
But after the embassy gotattacked from there I got stuck
out.
That's when COVID happened andso I got stuck.
I couldn't come back into thecountry.

(01:28:46):
I got stuck out for almost ayear, like 346 days.
I made a lot of money that yearbut, um, yeah, and so we were
together, me and her were out,we were together out there the
whole time.
So it's like a trauma bond,right.
I knew it wasn't a real thing,but it was a trauma bond.
It was like I had protectionfor her and like it was that

(01:29:07):
instinct of protection, right.

Speaker 1 (01:29:08):
It sort of felt real though.

Speaker 2 (01:29:10):
Yeah, it felt, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, and so that
whole year we're out.
Like you know, she obviouslyhad her place.
I had my room in the barracks.
I stayed in.
You know I'd go hang out thereevery now and then, but the
constant rockets that werecoming in and, like the constant
rockets that were coming in andlike the constant threats and
you know things, tensions werehigh in the city, like all the
checkpoints were on fire, likeit was.

(01:29:31):
It was a crazy, crazy time anduh.
So then when we ended up cominghome, that's when we went to my
buddy Tim's wedding, officiatedhis wedding, so I stood up
there for, you know, 150 peopleand one got ordained online.

(01:29:53):
How cool is that?
I married one of my other bestfriends so well married him and
his wife.

Speaker 1 (01:29:55):
Yeah, he didn't actually marry him.

Speaker 2 (01:29:57):
Yeah, he wishes that'd be completely different
yeah, aaron won't let thathappen no, no, not at all but so
then you know, things with meand her started getting a little
serious, more serious, and sheends up moving down here with
the kids.
Her kids had three kids and theyoungest one was my.

(01:30:18):
It was like my, my shadow, mytwin man.
You know we were cool, me andher were thick as thieves.
Yeah, you know, the two othertwo were great as well and we
all had a great relationship.
It just didn't work out.
So we opened the pizza shoptogether UR Pie Pizza.
So that's when we becamefranchise owners.
I quit, so a contract wascoming to an end and this was

(01:30:43):
the next chapter was pizzafranchise.

Speaker 1 (01:30:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:30:48):
And ran that for two and a half years, up until now,
you know.
And so we're at it now, today'smodern day, and it taught me a
lot.
I did a lot with the community,did a lot of great things
around town, met a lot ofamazing people, you know.
Unfortunately, it just didn'twork out the way it was supposed
to work out.

Speaker 1 (01:31:05):
Well, it probably worked out the way it is
supposed to work out.

Speaker 2 (01:31:08):
Well, it probably worked out the way it is
supposed to work out, don't youthink I think it did, man, I
think so.
You know, after the divorcewith me and her, yeah, this is
the next chapter of my life thatneeds to go.
You know, it's like this.
This last year has been my mostdevelopmental years in my adult
life that I can ever have.

(01:31:29):
That I've ever I've had so farI've had yet.
I've learned so much aboutmyself.
I've did a lot of work with,like therapy, you know, ate a
lot of magical mushrooms, foundsome stuff about myself yeah you
know, um, but I've grown as alike, not just human, as a man,

(01:31:49):
right, got rid of a lot of thesehabits I had, you know, through
my marriage and I see that youknow now that it's over the
lessons that it taught me andthe growth that it's allowed me
to do.
You know I learned a lot aboutmyself, about what I want, what
I don't want.
You know it's been this.

Speaker 1 (01:32:08):
Last year has been it's been a blessing and a
heartache at the same time, butit's been a good thing.

Speaker 2 (01:32:15):
Life happens.
My not sweating, the smallstuff is paying off.

Speaker 1 (01:32:24):
A famous guy once said that life is about 2% of
what happens and 98% about howyou deal with it.
Right, yep, and that dictatesit.
So I want to ask a question,though.
Every story that we've talkedabout involved getting hammered
and getting drunk and going outand partying.
Almost every story yeah,they've been great stories.

(01:32:44):
We're sitting here right now.
We're drinking.

Speaker 2 (01:32:47):
Make gold to zero.

Speaker 1 (01:32:48):
Yeah, so when was the last time you drank?

Speaker 2 (01:32:52):
November 13th 2023.
So what happened?
Well, aaron came down to visitme.
Uh-huh, and prior to this,obviously, when Aaron had been
sober for, I think, a year atthis time, and prior to that, I
remember I, I, he, you know howhe was you know he's out of

(01:33:13):
control.
Yeah, I went to see him whenthat time went to see him and it
was just pounding beers smokingup like it was just back to
back.
I was like jesus christ, likewhat is going on, man, and uh, I
said some things to him asbrother, brother yeah and kind
of, and then, as you did, as didas well, that kind of resonated
with him and it was like man,two people I adore in my life

(01:33:36):
are both hitting me withsomething the same thing, like
maybe I should check it out.
So Aaron was here.
He'd been sober now for a yearor some.
Change, right.

Speaker 1 (01:33:45):
Yeah, a year and a couple of months, yep.

Speaker 2 (01:33:47):
And it was the family trip you guys were on and I was
, when he came to meet up withme, I was already drunk, like I
was already like I was workingall day, you know.
I had like, yeah, and he's like, just try it.
And I really, you know mymarriage with my ex-wife, you
know like like the cops had beeninvolved, right, not anything

(01:34:08):
that I've ever done, right, uh,they were.
It wasn't because they werebeing called on me because I was
being the bad boy, you know she, you know she had me swatted.
Uh, you know I got scar on mychest from her, from it's the
whole thing.
And I was like you know,there's a common denominator
with this alcohol.
Now, before her, when I drank,you know I I've lost some great

(01:34:29):
women too due to drinking.
You know, because once the,it's a everything's a story for
me, it's how much, how can Imake this the best story ever
and how far can I push thelimits?
Right, and I don't do thatanymore.
So he said, try it for a week.
I was like I can do a week andI started thinking about it was

(01:34:51):
like what was the last time Iwould drink?
I hadn't drank in a week, right.
So I was like, and uh, I mean,there have been times, you know,
when I was contracting, butthis, at this point, I've been
with my my wife at the time andit was like we were like old in
water and it was.
You know everything.
Every time we'd get drunk, itwas just a fight.

(01:35:12):
You'd be sitting there.
Sky looks pretty today, does itreally?
Though?
Okay, here we go.
Right, you know everything.
And it was just miserable at thetime, and I saw photos of
myself where I just looked like,shit, miserable.
Face was just so fat and puffy,my eyes were drooping.

(01:35:32):
You know, I had skinny fat,just didn't look good.
Yeah, and uh, I went a week andI was like, let me go two weeks
and let me go three weeks.
And you know it's been, youknow it's been ever.
You know it's been ever sincethen.
Now there's been a handful oftimes where, at like a social
event where I've had a drink inmy hand, I can't like, I just

(01:35:53):
can't, like, I don't even wantto finish them anymore.
It's like, you know, if youhave a drink, it's like, ah, I'm
good, it bloats you up rightaway.
Yeah, you know, so it's beengreat, lost a lot of weight,
like we're off the bat, 15pounds without drinking.
You know health issues startgoing away.
Sleeping better there's been.

(01:36:15):
I mean I drink the McUltraZeros.
You know I smoke pot.

Speaker 1 (01:36:18):
Yeah, but I've never seen anybody smoke pot that
became an asshole right away.
You know what I mean Exactly,right, like you become an
asshole when you drink, when youstart drinking, man.

Speaker 2 (01:36:27):
I've never seen anybody blow through a red light
, kill a family of four and notremember it.
Smoking pot, Right, but alcoholcan tell you how many times
I've woken up and been like youidiot.
You drove home last night.
I want to remember that.
How fortunate have you been allthis time I've been fortunate
and I took it for granted, youknow, and now it's like I'm a

(01:36:48):
big advocate.
I see a lot of people that Istill know and I hear them
complain about things and I'mlike, stop drinking.
And they just, oh, I don't evendrink that much.
I'm like all right, I'm justtelling you the keys, Like you
know.

Speaker 1 (01:37:03):
What does that much mean, right?

Speaker 2 (01:37:04):
Yeah, especially it's a lot of buddies that we all
went through the same thing.
You know, it's like I'm tellingyou, if you just cut that, see
mental health therapist, getsome like talk through what
happened man, get some help,your life will change.

Speaker 1 (01:37:18):
Yeah, dramatically.

Speaker 2 (01:37:20):
And I like the last couple of months.
You know I really had a likewith Aaron.
You know, talking with Aaronlike with God, you know like
starting to like really get like.
There's been a lot of thingsthat have happened in my life
that there's been someonehelping me, watching over me
yeah, you know it's kind of thetiming of everything going on
right now.

(01:37:40):
I don't really believe incoincidences anymore.
It's not a coincidence, it'syour plan, set and stunt like
your plan.
It's just your story unfoldingright and it's follow the wave.
You know, listen and ask forguidance and, yeah, things have
been changing for the better forme, man I think your mom said,

(01:38:00):
um, at one time when she waslooking at making a change at
work.

Speaker 1 (01:38:05):
She would talk to somebody and said this isn't how
I saw my life, this isn't myplan.
And they were like, well, maybeyour plan's just messed up,
maybe this is God's plan.
I think that that's true.
I know that something's goingto happen, but how and what

(01:38:27):
aren't necessarily my business,like I got to kind of go with
the flow on that yeah, yeah,it's.

Speaker 2 (01:38:32):
You know, once I've been more acceptance, like the
last month and a half, a lot, of, a lot of crazy things have
happened for the better, youknow yeah I learned like,
especially the last year empathy, compassion.
You know humiliation was a bigone for this year.
You know that was.
It took a lot.
You know announcing.
You know I made that Instagramthe closing of the business.

(01:38:53):
You know the restaurant, and uh, I could have easily taken the
route of just closing the doorsand putting a sign on the window
and saying see you later.
But you know I went.
I had a lot of people thathelped me along the way to get
to where I've been so far, andso I owe it to them to be
transparent and thank everybodyfor what they've done to help.
That was my humiliation.
Part of life, to humble.

(01:39:18):
But with that I guess you askedme earlier to give a piece of
advice everything I've learnedso far.

Speaker 1 (01:39:27):
To kind of set the stage for people listening.
That is, you know, we've talkedabout a lot of stuff, A lot of
stuff that's probably notnecessarily easy to talk about.
But yeah, when we leave thisconversation, what is it you
want people to take away fromthis?
What's the message?

Speaker 2 (01:39:45):
The biggest message I can give is that everything you
do, you got to do it a hundredpercent.
You make mistakes in life.
You don't get the not everyonegets a fair shake, good hand
dealt to them, but it's about.
The decisions you makedetermine the outcome of your
life.
You control your own destiny.

(01:40:06):
So if you sit around and donothing, you're going to have
nothing.
But if you can control youroutcome and what you can do, you
control your destiny.
You can help shape the path ofwhat you truly want.

Speaker 1 (01:40:22):
Alright.
Well, thanks for taking timeout today to talk to me.
I really appreciate it.
Thanks for being such a goodfriend to my son.

Speaker 2 (01:40:29):
Yeah, of course.

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