January 15, 2025 • 54 mins
It's TripWire Time. Today Staci and I are joined by US Navy Veteran, Josh Warner. Listen in as we discuss joining the military from Detroit, MI. Naval boot camp at Great Lakes, time at NAS Millington and Mediterranean Float. And his appointment as Jr. Vice Commander at the Naperville, IL VFW.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
H good afternoon, everybody. It is trip Wire time. We
(00:42):
got the lovely Stacey in the in the in the
studio with us Today co hosts.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
How are you dear? It's good to see it.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
It's Wednesday, Wednesday fifteenth, twenty twenty five. Uh, and we're
in that period of time where everybody's going to mess
that date up and screw up, you know, whenever they're
signing a document.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
So that's always fun, like the first month and a half.
But we got a great show for you.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
We're going to bring in your junior vice commander, correct,
Josh jeh Corner.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Yes, he's my junior advice Yep.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
That's awesome Navy veteran.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
And we're going to show some clips later about when
I finally showed back up at your VFW and was
able to spend some time with some great some great veterans.
So definitely looking forward to this. And Okay, so how
are the holidays? Real quick, We'll just get that out
of the way real quick. How are the holidays?
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Oh gosh, very good, very busy. Lots of family stuff.
We did a hilarious JC Penny nineteen eighties family photos
shoot remake where we all wore the same flannel.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
And posted it all over Facebook.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
It's it's absolutely ridiculous, Like I mean, I don't even
know a better word, but it is.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
It's hilarious, and it was really a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
That's awesome. That's awesome.
Speaker 5 (02:01):
Yeah, that's uh.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Well, So it's been great to get back. I'm I'm
not in Virginia anymore. I'm back up in mckenry, north
of Chicago. Was able to spend time at my uh
my sister on the north sides her place with her
family and extended family for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, went
to my other sister's place, saw my dad. Uh there
was even a in the in the last couple of
(02:24):
weeks between today in New.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Year's there was I think it was early last week.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
I was able to you know, everything's good with dad
at the senior assistant living area that he, uh he
lives in.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
But it was it was Operation.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Leprechaun breakout, and I got him out of the out
of there for a day and had a great time
hanging out with him and stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
So that's it.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, yeah, we had a great time. Looking forward to
doing it again before I had to Ohio. So but
without further ado, how about we bring in Josh and uh, sir,
how are you great to see you Josh?
Speaker 5 (02:56):
Not too bad, not too bad.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
So I really really appreciate you joining us today.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
I know everybody's busy after after the New Year and
the holidays, the holiday craziness.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
Well, yeah, getting getting busy. It's you know, you get
that lull and then all of a sudden, it's like, okay,
real life has to set in now.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Yeah, there's always that like little like that little space
between Christmas and New Year's They always have these memes.
It's like I have no idea what day it is,
and I'm just feel like I'm full of cheese, you know. Yeah,
it's like you're just sort of like in this weird
twilight zone waiting for the new Year to happen and
like full of like the crap food that you ate.
Speaker 5 (03:40):
Yeah, you got to wait until the second week of
January to be able to take a proper dump.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yes, we're talking about everybody's personal hygiene now and then
dietary dietary habits for the holidays.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
That's awesome. That's awesome.
Speaker 5 (03:58):
A whole nother so.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Well, it was great, Senior.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Last Thursday, Josh, and thank you for accepting our invitation
to join us on the on the podcast today.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
We very interested in hearing your story.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Uh why don't you, un will you kick it off
from where you grew up and then uh what what
took you into the military and uh and all the
fun stuff you did while you're on active duty?
Speaker 5 (04:22):
Well that was uh it's kind of on a dare.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Good.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
I mean it's I was working so like I'm from Michigan,
were born and raised in Detroit. In my high school years,
moved out to Holly and uh, Holly, Michigan, and I
had it was after after high school. I had a
job where I was working in this uh this campground right,
(04:58):
and it was h it was a Jewish campground and
it was it was kind of cool because they had
all these old cabins and stuff where it was like
a summer camp for Jewish kids. And we would I
would work. I was like the kind of like the
delivery guy slash dishwasher. Uh there. And what we would
(05:21):
do is they had two kitchens, you know, because it
was all.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
Oh gosh, it was all it was a kosher kitchen, right,
So we had like two different dishwashers for the dairy
and the meats, and all the containers for you know,
all that stuff was separate and had to be kept separate,
which was it was.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
It was a very interesting, you know setup. But I
would like, you know, person, you know, for all the meals,
I would take these basically these big thermoses filled with
all this food, you know, and drop them off at
each thing. So I worked through the summer of that
and that was about out when things started kind of
kicking up with the invasion of Kuwait and uh, you know,
(06:09):
some of the some of the guys that were working
there there was like, you know, because I mean, this
is keep in mind, this is our first like this
would have been our first major combat role since Vietnam.
So you still had that Vietnam mentality where it's like
you get that you get drafted and you get sent
off by Uncle Sam and so on and so forth.
(06:32):
And it was like, well, I was like, well, you
know what I think I'm going to join. I mean,
it's like literally delivering food in a campground, you know,
I mean, it's like, really, you know, that's that's crazy.
I'm like whatever, It's like, you know, I bet you
I'll do it kind of thing. I'll take that bet, dude,
(06:55):
still mean like ten bucks. So you know, there was that,
and then of course the regular life stuff that was,
you know, I don't have money for college, you know,
to continue your education, so on and so forth. So
I mean it's all the benefits that kind of came
along with it just kind of seemed to make sense.
(07:17):
Not to mention it's like you're seventeen years old and
you have no direction whatsoever. You know, it's almost like
you you need a minute to kind of figure out
what you're going to do, where you're going to go,
how you're going to you know, survive kind of thing. Right,
So instead of going to doing the you know, going
(07:38):
to college route, which I clearly had no money to
do anyways, it seemed like a good place to kind
of hang out for a bit and see what happens,
see what where where that takes me. You know. It
was funny that, you know, after I got out, it
was you know, you get you know, either the high
(08:01):
school reunions or whatever. It was like the five year
reunion and come back and I go that was the
only high school reunion I've ever been to. Was a
five year reunion and you walk in there or you know,
it was it was at a metro park. We go
there and it's like everybody blew up about like forty
(08:24):
fifty pounds, and like it was just frat boys and
you know, gals had already pumped out babies kind of
like right right, So it was like it was that
was that was a bit of a culture shock in general,
being like, you know, and I walked in and nobody
(08:46):
even recognized me. They had no idea, who the hell
was this guy? Do we actually go to school with him?
Because I mean I was a scrony kid when I
when I got out of high school, I was like
one hundred and twelve pounds, okay, yeah, and I you know,
I walk in on one hundred and fifty pounds, just
lean and cut and you know, kind of squared away
and stuff. And you got all the frat boys that
(09:08):
you know, are like twenty two years old, have a
beer belly and all that kind of thing. So it
was it was pretty interesting.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah, And where did so where did you when you
ended up joining? Where did you go to? Uh?
Speaker 1 (09:22):
I assumed you joined the uh the maps out of Detroit?
Is that correct?
Speaker 5 (09:26):
Oh yeah, yeah, it was Detroit maps and I went
in on the the late entry program.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Where did you Where'd you go to the boot camp?
Speaker 5 (09:35):
Great Lakes in the middle of February the best time
to go, by the way.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Literally sent you to the other side of the lake.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
Oh yeah, no, I mean it was, it was, it was.
It was nice and balmy.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah, I bet, I bet. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
We had we had black Flag days, so it was yeah,
it was. That was pretty brutal.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
February of ninety one.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
That was in ninety one, okay, February of ninety one. Uh,
you know, obviously the war kicked off already at that
at that point, and there were there were funny things
that you know, you know, with going to boot camp
during the during the war, and it's not necessarily I think,
(10:22):
I don't want to you know, I don't want to
speak for you know, the you know, the government, so
to speak. But it was one of those things where
it didn't seem like we were on solid footing going
into that thing. It was just kind of a pull trigger,
you know. It was kind of a shoot and shoot first,
aim later kind of a situation. And what was funny
(10:47):
was like they yeah, I never when I was in
boot camp, I never had any firearms training, right, very right,
because it was like, well, you know, normally you would
do this, you would do it, but it's for some
reason they had to save Ammo or whatever, so we
never I never shot a firearm in boot camp.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Okay, so okay.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
Yeah, no, it was. It was And that's I mean,
of all the things that you kind of look forward to.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Well, you know, Stacey was in Great Leakes before you,
so maybe her classes in the one, yeah, and a
couple of classes.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
No way, because back then it was the the gals
all went to Orlando.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Yeah, I was in Orlando, I was, I think, but for.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Yeah, yeah, Hospital.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Corps school was at Great Lakes. But we yeah we
shot in Orlando.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah right, well there I was going to create a joke,
but never mind.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I was out on the comfort when he was in boot.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Camp, gotcha, got you right?
Speaker 5 (11:54):
So it was, I mean, it was I had I
had an absolutely last in boot camp.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
You know.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
I mean most people they turn around and say, oh,
that was that was so much fun. I like good
just in the sense that you know, it was like, yeah,
I mean we're the we're of the generation where we
grew up watching Full Metal Jacket. Yeah, arly enemy just
(12:23):
beating the hell out of you know, recruits. Sure, so
you naturally assume that that's what's going to happen, Right,
It wasn't quite to that degree obvious.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
No, maybe maybe in the Marine Corps, not not in the.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Navy, but it was way too I can honestly say
it was tuned down even then when I went to
the Marine Corps, uh in September, just uh, the same
year in September is when I went to boot camp,
and it was toned down. Mothers of America were trying
to change the way the military handled their their recruits
going into military, going into boot camp.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
So, Josh, were you an officer at all in boot camp?
Speaker 4 (13:04):
I was a yeoman, Yeah I was.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I was.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
No. They wanted well, you know, because they do uh,
they they make this, they do it arbitrary. Well it's
not arbitrarrily, but they basically say, oh god, this was
so funny. This is like right after few days kind
of thing where you start marching around and you gotta
(13:30):
call cadence and stuff. Right, so you get the uh
was it the uh ar pocket? Yes, arpak right.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Whatever.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Yeah, So that's the guy that that's the guy that
basically calls the Cadence right. And you know, and we
all know that when you go into boot camp, never
volunteer for anything, right, Yeah, just don't you know, keep
your head down, and and I do. And this is
a this is a funny story. So they turned around,
(14:07):
they said, hey, Warner, you're gonna you're gonna call Cadence right.
I swear to god it I was the worst Cadence
guy ever.
Speaker 7 (14:16):
It was literally left right, left right, left right left.
Speaker 5 (14:21):
That was it. That was all I did.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
You didn't have any little song to sing or anything.
I love, I love.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
This is just left and right. That was it. And
it's like I did him for like a day.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
So many guy, the guy, the guy from Motown has
no rhythm whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
It's just ridiculous.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
I am the whitest dude on the planet.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
It's all good man, just mess.
Speaker 5 (14:49):
So we go through it. And now my last name
is Warner.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
So but there was one.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
Guy that was was a Z was his last name,
and he ended up being Arpak. And the guy who
was the first in the alphabet ended up being the
apoc right, So it's uh so, then they go through
the thing where they name all the officers and stuff.
They get that guy's you know, the ARPAK. The other
(15:17):
guy's the APOC. They go through the thing they go
and I'm like, whoo, I made it right, didn't get
called for anything.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
You know.
Speaker 5 (15:24):
You got some guy that's like a big you know, athlete,
you know, guy like big exercise guy like Stacy. He
ends up being the uh whatever the hell it was
the you know, the the health and nutrition guy you
know in boot camp, and it was uh, you know,
and the yeoman guy was he was pretty funny. But
(15:46):
then they turn around and they then they go to
the divisional roles and they say, Warner, you're the divisional
yeoman And I'm like, oh, and he can never volunteer
for anything. And I immediately go in after you know,
they go back into their office. You know, you knock
on the thing. It's permission nurser blah blah blah, and
(16:09):
I stand at attention. I'm sitting there telling them with
this straight face saying, uh, you know, uh company comtter.
I don't think that I'm you know, the right guy
for this job. I really want to, uh you know,
uh do what I can for the company and you know,
really be more involved here in house kind of thing.
(16:32):
And it's like, you know, I'm gonna want the extra
time to study for all these classes and this, that
and the other. They already had my file on their
desk before I even walked up to the door, and
they said they opened it up and they said, you
scored such and such on your as bab, You're a
god damn genius. You don't need to study. You're going
(16:56):
to be a divisional yellman. Right, I guess I'm a
divisional yeoman.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Now.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
What was funny about that about that assignment was I
don't I don't even know what I did in the
office really. You know. It was basically you collect the
mustard sheets and so it's boot camp. I mean, what
do you got to what somebody's a won't you know?
I mean, that wasn't a thing, right, So, but when
(17:25):
somebody got in trouble, you had to take them to restriction.
You had to actually march them across base. And then
they had I don't know, Stacey, if you if you
guys had that down in Orlando. But I don't remember
what the extra training was. But it was a thing
where they put you in the box that's like two
feet by two feet. You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Yeah, when you were in trouble. Is that what you're
talking about?
Speaker 5 (17:50):
When you were in Yeah, I mean you get in trouble,
like you get caught trying to climb the fence and
escape kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Yeah, so you.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
Or you were like just a bad seed, so to speak,
they would send you to this extra training where you
would go.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
I got caught, I got in trouble.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
I got caught sneak in a note to a boy
in a cereal box. I had to do a lot
of extra push ups. I kind of smarted off a lot.
Speaker 5 (18:20):
Even though they sent these guys off to a different division.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yeah, they dropped them premier class and put them somewhere else.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
Yeah, they a different division for And then what they
would do is you they'd have this taped off or
painted out box. It was two feet by two feet,
and they would have to do exercises with an M
fourteen mm okay, And it was like, you know, obviously
it's kind of like you know, holding out like an
(18:49):
encyclopedia on your you know, arms and stuff like that.
Stuff like that, and if you stepped out of that,
but you had company commanders just surrounding you, and if
you stepped that box, that's considered assault with a deadly weapon.
So the company commanders were allowed to beat the ship
(19:11):
out of you until you got back into that box.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
That Yeah, it probably doesn't happen nowadays, but that was
old maybe.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
So those there's a lot of people out there they
need the ship beat out of them.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Yeah, you're good. Well, I think everybody's on the same
shoot music with that one.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
Well, I mean, it was. It was one of those
things where it's like, okay, you've got basically, I mean
it's to a seventeen year old, that's the equivalent of like, dude,
I have to escort convicted felons.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
The new cell block kind of a cell block, So
it was it was terrified. It's like, what if these
guys jumped me, you know, yeah, screwed. I'm again, I'm
like one hundred and twelve pounds, right, you know, and
I'm in charge of these guys, you know. So that
was that was That was that was fun. I mean,
(20:17):
there was one time I came back and it's like
it was during service week and uh, which is like
that week where everybody goes sent off for KP duty
and you redo the barracks and rewax the floors and
you know, everybody does goes off to their t a
d kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
So I'm down and working in the division office, you know,
as a yeoman, and a company commander from another company
comes down and asked me a question and I said, yeah, oh,
(21:00):
and he just goes off. He's like, God, damn, I
am so sick and tire of these damn seamen recruits,
saying yeah, where's this. I was like, yeah, sir, you
know kind of a thing, right, and he goes drop
and you know, push ups forever. Sure, So I'm doing
(21:23):
I'm I'm there on the quarterdeck doing push ups and
one of my company commanders comes down, Uh Petty officer
Catherine m M two or m M one sorry at
the time, Uh comes on. He looks down at me
doing the push ups and he goes, warrant you getting
in trouble again. I go sir, yes, sir, and he
(21:48):
goes good recover. So you know that was that? Was that?
That that moment. Now, like right at the end of
service week, this was probably my favorite moment. In all
of boot camp. Well that and swimming, but that's not
safe for work. The at the end of service week,
(22:13):
we get back and you know, everybody's been off doing everything,
and so you need to you know, the company commander
has got to whip you back into shape because you've
been dealing with other people that were probably a little
more humane with you and so on and so forth.
So they come they come in and then you know,
somebody screws something up whatever, and you know they just
(22:36):
they're looking for a reason to mash you. Right, so
we add a full on thunderstorm. You guys know what
thunderstorming is.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Obviously, it's a it's it's where they I'm assuming it's
where they tear up the barracks and they tear up
your squad bay or whatever.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
You guys are no, no, no.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
No, it's it's it's Actually what's funny is that what
they do is that when they go to mass you,
they crank up the heat like to eleven. Yeah, right,
and then they just make you do push ups, sit ups,
you know, uh eight a count bodybuilders, so on and
so forth for al And then what happens is is
(23:20):
that the you know, all the sweat becomes humidity in
in the barracks, and then all that gets into the
fluorescent lighting, so the lights start flickering like lightning. You
actually have condensation on the ceiling and it starts raining
(23:41):
in lords.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
Now, so everybody's sweating, everybody's you know, it's raining in there,
so on and so forth, and we're doing push ups.
And during service week, the Master at Arms and his
crew which were supposed to they were supposed to strip
and rewax the floor. They never finished. There was still
(24:05):
stripper on the floor and they never rewaxed it or anything. Right,
So what was happening was as you were sweating doing
your push ups, the stripper and the wax would mix
with all your sweat, and as you're doing push ups,
your hands would slip out from beneath you, and guys
(24:25):
were just you know, face planning right into the deck. Yeah,
And it was like looking around watching these guys just
a face plant, you know, every time.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
It was larious.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
Probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen. So
I start laughing in the middle of this thing. And
we had been going for like an hour and a
half at this point, and the same company commander petty officer.
Katheraman walks by, and now in boot camp, they'd got
the good cap, good cop, bad cop. Right, yeah, Pettioffer
(25:03):
Green was the bad cop. Pettiofficer Katha Man was a
good cop. So Katherine walks by and he looks at
me and he goes Warner. He sees me laughing and
smiling and just having a grand old time. He goes, Warner,
do you find something funny? I go, yes, sir, I
(25:23):
think this mashing is a fucking joke, sir. And he
turns around gives me a little smirk, laughs Kyler, and
he goes, whoa company seems it? Se crew Warner thinks
this mashing is a fucking joke. He just added thirty
(25:46):
minutes to this thing.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Oh my god, Lord, did everybody beat the shit out
of you? Oh no, no, Well that's the blank blanket
party at night.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
The APOC next to me, he was in the bump
right now, right, and he looks over to me and
he goes, I'm going to kick your ass. I was like,
how the hell are you going to kick my ass
when you can't kick out another fricking push up? Yeah,
And I and I just started blasting him out. So
I was like, dude, you know what bring it? You know,
(26:19):
but I but it was like, but I enjoyed that.
I thought it was I thought it was hilarious.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
So so you went into the navy. What rate did
you go in as for your for your MLS?
Speaker 5 (26:30):
Oh, well, that's that's where those recruiters get really tricky. No, no,
you don't know that you can actually turn around and say,
you know what, I'll join, but I want to start
as knee three.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
No, I started as knee one, right, But you're right,
you went in as any one.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
And then what job did you end up with?
Speaker 5 (26:49):
Oh? I was an air cruise to probably equipment equipment.
Then uh, parachute rigger.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Okay, nice.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
Now, now what's funny is that when I was in NAPS,
you know, they started throwing out as soon as they
see her as that score. Back then, it was like, oh,
would you be interested in nuke? No? I don't want
my boss to shrivel woods. No. Yeah, I mean, of course,
this is in the nineties, right, you know, it's like
I want to have kids someday, you know, at least
(27:17):
one with one head. So that was so I was like, yeah, no,
And then they turned around and said, okay, well what
about Corman?
Speaker 2 (27:27):
All right?
Speaker 5 (27:29):
And again hindsight being CALIFORNI hindsight, that's.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
The way I gotta work with her. You gotta work
with her. You're arguing with her at the VFW.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
No. No, But I mean it's the thing is that
I wanted to go into BUDS and I was looking
at rates that qualified, because back then you had to
have a certain rating in order to qualify to go
to BUDS. Corman was one of them. But and this
was my this is what I told the guy at
(28:01):
the map station. It was like that sounds pretty cool now,
minds you Back then, uh, you know, you get out.
It's not like you're em t you know, not like
it is now, right, And I was like, I hate
I hate needles. I can't you know. It just preached
(28:22):
me out. So I was like, no, I don't know
if I can do that. Then they were like and
one of the one of the rates that were available
was PR and they said, you know, oh, well there's
parachute rigor you get to jump out of a plane
in a school. Well that seems appropriate right for you know,
(28:44):
if you want to go into BUDS.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
So I go.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
Yeah, I'll go, I'll do uh, I'll do Rigor. So yeah,
I guess that's I guess that's it. So I went,
I went, I went.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
I mean the question was what was the rating?
Speaker 2 (29:03):
So yeah, so you went to Rigger school. Where did
you jump?
Speaker 5 (29:10):
Well, much like in boot camp where you didn't shoot,
in a school, you didn't jump. Now, it used to
be like the A school used to be in Lakehurst,
New Jersey, and they would actually make you pack your
own shoot and then you'd have to jump with it.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Right.
Speaker 5 (29:27):
And when I went in, they had moved to school.
They had recently moved the school from Millington, Tennessee, Okay,
just outside of Memphis, and then they So I did
a school there and we never jumped. I got my orders.
(29:47):
I went through a school, got my orders.
Speaker 7 (29:50):
For for buds, took the test, the fit rep and
and uh the.
Speaker 5 (30:03):
I ended up passing everything with like flying colors, except
for the run, because you got to do like a
mile and a half. I believe it was a mile
and a half in eleven minutes thirty seconds wearing dungleries
and boots. Yeah, now you put me in TENN shoes.
I could, I could have crushed it. I mean I
(30:25):
would have crushed the EOD test wearing dungleries and boots.
I had no idea how hard it is running dungleries.
I mean, bell bottoms are not running gear by an.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Especially, what's that. I was asking my co hosts if
she's all right over there? Yeah, just chegging, just chegging.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
Yeah, No, it's it's it's brutal. And I think in
that test because it's it's all consecutive, right, So it's
like I think at the time, I don't know what
the requirements are now, but at the time, I think
it was five hundred yards side stroke or breaststroke and
or breaststroke in thirteen minutes fifty seconds. Then it was
(31:16):
then immediately after that you get you get dressed, and
then you got to do fifty push ups within two
minutes and one hundred sit ups within two minutes and
a minimum of eight pull ups, and then you run
the mile and a half. And it was funny because
I'm doing the I'm doing the I'm taking this test,
and I you know, I I did the you know,
(31:38):
because I had taken the test a couple of times.
I had failed to swim prior but got it the
second time. And then we go to do chin ups
and everybody's like kind of just you know and barely
making it. Some guys didn't didn't.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Make you know.
Speaker 5 (31:52):
For uh, for bugs it was eight. For EOD it
was six, and I think for divers it was four
chin ups. And the guys that were like the guys
that were like the super gung Ho guys were the
EOD guys, and they were just they were barely being
able to you know, push these things out right right.
(32:15):
And so we get up and it was like before
my turn, and I was the last guy to go,
and the guy that was administrating the test was a
seal and he goes, he goes, I'm he goes, if
anybody can no, maybe I wasn't the last one. He goes, Hey,
he was like just disgusted with the performance of these guys.
(32:38):
So he goes, I'm going to do any up. I'm
going to do what did you say, something along the
lines of like anybody, you know, you have to do
as many chin ups as I or something. He did
like fifteen or no, it was like ten. He did ten,
(33:00):
and he's like, anybody that can hit that automatically passes,
and again me being the asshole than I am, I
turned around. He's like, Warner, your next and I gotta do.
I gotta do eight.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
So I do. Yeah, I go.
Speaker 5 (33:15):
I go through the motions and I got and it's
like six.
Speaker 8 (33:21):
Seven, yeah, ay, nine or and then it's like ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
And it was at the time when I was doing it,
the instructor said, Warner, if you beat my number, I'm
going to kick your ass. This is a seal to
telling me this.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (33:50):
So I get to like his number, which is ten.
I was like ten, and then I'm like eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen,
and I look over them. Then I go, I don't
want to do any more to embarrass you.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Yeah. So was it now you did all these tests
at at any s Millington or did you go that was?
Speaker 5 (34:10):
That was at Millington?
Speaker 2 (34:12):
And then where did you get where'd you get stationed
after Millington?
Speaker 5 (34:15):
Well here's the thing. Well again, dude, so many crazy stories.
So we're down. And so I'm down in Millington and
I actually got orders to buds, right, But me being
again the idiot I am, I go out you know
(34:37):
this is you know, a little bit later, I turn
around and we go down. Me and a bunch of
friends go downtown Memphis on Beal Street, you know, during
the weekend and stuff for the little party they shut
down Beal Street and it's just like a block party, right,
And might have had a couple of ginger ales. And
(34:57):
there was a gal that I liked that was, uh,
you know, also in the pr school and at the
girls barracks and stuff, and you know, I really liked her,
and she apparently did not reciprocate, uh said like likeness.
(35:17):
So I had a couple of few too many ginger ails,
and I got into a fight with a parking gator.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (35:26):
Actually, I think change actually fell out of it. I
hit it so hard.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (35:31):
Well, woke up the next morning a little hungover and
my hand was just swollen like a balloon.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Oh yeah, So.
Speaker 5 (35:41):
I go into medical. They check and they say, oh, yeah,
you've got a boxer's fracture. We're going to have to
reset this. But they want a story. Well, I'm at
this point, I'm let me think about this. Yeah, I
mean I'm still seven. No, at this point, I'm eighteen.
(36:05):
I can't turn around and say, I got ship face
downtown Memphis and you know, beat up a parking meter.
So I made up the story. Of course, the doc
is I mean, he's not an idiot. He knows exactly
what happened. You got ship face and you did something stupid, right,
So I made up some story about how, you know, yeah,
(36:26):
I got into a fight with some you know, some
guy some city down there and blah blah blah this
and the other, and you know, of course, you know,
my knuckles all busted up and stuff like that. He goes, yeah, okay,
yeah right, He goes, the X rays come back. He goes, well,
you can kiss your you can kiss your orders to
buds goodbye kind of thing, just because you know, by
(36:50):
the time, it wouldn't have healed enough for me to
you know, enter the class that I was supposed to
go into. So uh that sucks. But he turns around.
He goes, he goes, oh, well, I'm going to reset it.
Of course, you know, no pain killers or anything like that.
He resets it. Yep, brutal. There may have been a
(37:11):
tear involved. And then he goes, well, since you you know,
since you got into a fight and you probably hit
him in the face. I'm going to have to give
you a Tetnis shot. So it was just kind of
that little, yeah, little thing. It's like, okay, find out
kind of a thing, right, So I get the Tetani shot.
(37:33):
I didn't, you know, I get the cast. I didn't
even let it fully heal got, you know, just hanging
out of the barracks, goofing around, finishing off you know,
a school playing volleyball, and you know, playing volleyball with
the cast, with a plaster cast, it just blew the
cast apart. So I just ripped it off and just
went with it. And uh so then so my orders
(37:58):
got canceled, and and I'm sitting there at a school
just in limbo. I've already graduated. So like everybody gets
up at Reveley, they march off to school, so on
and so forth. I'm still kidding. I'm I'm cashed out
in my rack and the barracks, and nobody even knows
I'm there.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
So where did you end up? Where did you end
up going?
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (38:22):
Oh, it gets better. So finally somebody I understand I'm
trying to.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Get I'm trying to get into other parts of the story. Brothers.
Speaker 5 (38:29):
So where did you end up going? Oh my goodness. Anyways,
they finally figure out that I'm there, they send me
new or they give me new orders. So then I
get orders to Virginia Beach Oceana, U to VF eleven
right on the east coast and U. When I get there,
(38:52):
my squadron is already deployed out in the Mediterranean, so
I got stuck with UH with the air wing and
they have me painting uh parking blocks blue, you know
in the parking lot. I was, I was, I was
birthing with VF forty one black aces. Yeah, and that
(39:18):
was that was that was pretty cool. But I was
still kind of like, you know, I was an outsider there,
you know, I was still kind of just you know,
my own person doing stuff. And then finally orders came
in for me to go go meet meet up with
the with the deployment. So they fly me out to Cotana, Italy,
(39:40):
and I remember and it was like, so I'm hanging
out in Sicily right going to the E Club. That's like,
that's when I first saw what Robin Hood, Prince of Thebes,
you know, with the music blasting and whatever and just
chilling out and hanging out with like Italian women and whatever.
(40:01):
And then but like every morning I'd have to get
up at zero five hundred and show up at the
terminal because a cod would show up to take me
out to the boat. And this happened for like maybe
five days. Never showed up, Never showed up. Now mind,
the only thing that I got to watch was news
(40:21):
footage of Magic Johnson talking about how he is aide
and the UH was at Mount Vesuvio watching watching the
snow melt from the snow cap. That's all I did
all day long. And then I'd go to the club
at night. Okay, so that was for five days. Finally
(40:42):
they they you know, cod comes in and I get on.
I get on the bird and you know, stow your stuff,
and of course the seats are sitting backwards, facing backwards.
We're flying in. There's like a bunch of love UH
contractors on board, other you know, new recruits, things like that,
(41:04):
going out to the ship and we get on there,
we get going and we're flying along. It seemed like
it was forever, but we finally get there and get
like kind of a call. Guy comes back and says, hey,
we're getting ready to make our approach. We're going to
land on the on the deck and so on and
so forth, so just be ready. Right, Well, the pilot
(41:27):
does one of these maneuvers where it's almost like a
whoo right, So it's like, you know, it's a very intense,
like elevator ride kind of thing. Right, we're you know,
kind of like this. Right as soon as we level out,
I'm sitting there, I smell spaghetti and I'm like, man,
(41:48):
that and I haven't eaten all day, and I'm like
that mess hall is cranking. I could I could just
shovel down some spaghetti right now. Right, So it's like, man,
I'm getting more and more hungry. We finally hit the wire,
bird comes to stop. Crewmember comes back and says, all right,
grab all your stuff. We're gonna pull your stuff and
(42:10):
we're gonna put it out on the flight deck. You
get up, you know, go get it and then follow
this line into the into the island. So then and
then he goes and whoever where did he say? Whoever
he said? Whoever blue chunks, here's a box of canopy wipes.
We're not cleaning up you are. At that moment, I
(42:34):
felt a warmth in my boondocker and I looked down
and my boot is completely filled with spaghetti and vomit.
Oh and I'm like and I look at the guy
next to me, and I go, dude, seriously, Yeah, damn.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
So you were you did the pump and then you
guys came. Did you guys come back to Oceania?
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (43:07):
We uh we the boat pulled into Mayport. This is
the USS Forestall we pulled into Mayport ended up being
her last, her last cruise. We did go through, uh
what was that the Perfect storm? You know the movie?
Speaker 1 (43:27):
We went through that on the way back coming home?
Speaker 5 (43:30):
Yeah, yeah, coming home. So and that was that was
that was that was aggressive. I mean aircraft carriers were
and Stacey can attest. You know how wide the the
uhuays are on the most deck.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 5 (43:51):
I would walk down a straight line down the mess
deck and as the boat healed, I would walk up
each bulkhead. It was just that's how much the boat
was moving.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (44:06):
Yeah, aircraft carrier. Yeah, it was pretty violent.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
See when when you got out, what brought you? What
brought you back to Naperville? Mm?
Speaker 5 (44:17):
Easy, a girl. I mean, I'm I'm from Detroit. When
I got out you know, as a rigger, there's not
really a whole lot of transitioning you know jobs there. Right,
So my dad suggested, you know, he was big into sailing.
He suggested, well, why don't you become a sail maker,
(44:40):
make sales for sailboats. I was like, okay, yeah, I
can run a sewing machine.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
Sure.
Speaker 5 (44:46):
So I got into that and I did that for gosh,
that was from two thousand by to oh no, ninety five, sorry,
n two thousand and six ish. Yeah, when that's when
we started, you know, we were expecting and it was
(45:08):
one of those things where we looked at how much
money I made and how much stake care costs and said, well,
I'll just be a sale dad. So the uh so,
my one of my customers back in Detroit needed somebody
to uh covered because he had a couple of uh
(45:28):
people bail out on him for the Macinaw race. So
he needed a crew and I was like, I could
do it. So I went and uh put all my
stuff on his boat up in Port here on Michigan
and was walking up and down the dock with a
friend of mine and got an offer to go on
a cooler boat, you know, faster boat just good, you know,
(45:52):
like it was a big dick thing, right, So I go,
oh yeah, So I ran back because I left the
note saying hey, you know, nobody knew I was coming. Hey,
you know, I'll sail with you, so on and so forth.
I run back to grab the note and the bag
and bail. I was going to go right on this
other boat. Right, they needed a boy guy, so they go.
(46:17):
I get back in the boat owners there and he's like,
oooh cool, we got we got you know, Josh is
coming on. He's a sail maker, he knows how you know,
what's going on, so on and so forth, and I'm like, now,
the dock is literally like one person can go down it,
you know, it's a one way kind of thing. And
(46:39):
so like he's coming off the dock first and he
sees me. He's like, oh, Josh's great. I'm glad you're
you know, sailing with us. And I'm like, yeah, this
is all right cool, you know now, I'm like all
right whatever. Well, as he peels off the dock, behind
him is his daughter, and I'm like, okay, I can
get on board with this little race. So we do.
(47:06):
We do the Macanon Race and now she actually lived
in Naperville time just you know, came home to do
the race with her family. You know, it's like her
entire family's on the boat. So we get up to
the island and you know, get the kind of flirting
and stuff may have been you know, busted by the
cops for too much PDA, so to speak. And then
(47:33):
the boat owner says, well, hey, next week we're doing
uh you know, another regatta up in Sheboygan, Michigan. Do
you want to go? And this is at dinner at
that point in time, it's like, you know, cats sitting
next to me and she just ever so gently puts
her hand on my thigh and says, oh, I think
(47:56):
he'd be great. Yeah, it'd be great.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Well, then.
Speaker 5 (48:04):
Let's go cool.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
So when, uh, when did you guys get married?
Speaker 5 (48:09):
Uh? So we got married in two thousand and two, uh,
July July twenty seventh. Uh, and that was it. That
was only because that was the only weekend that I
could get off from sailing. Yeah, I got sailing like
all summer long kind of thing. And of course, you know,
the all wedding photos had to be uh had to
(48:32):
be photoshopped because like from here down, I was like
super tan, but from here up I was as white
as a ghost. Yeah and hats yeah, yeah, I got you.
Speaker 1 (48:45):
So then, so you have been Neighborville and uh when
did you guys? Did you guys both be Were you
both appointed at the same time commander junior vice or.
Speaker 2 (48:56):
Were those on? Were those at two different times?
Speaker 4 (48:59):
No, it was at the same time. Okay, and I
came on as commander. We brought him on his junior vice.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
Yeah, that's awesome, awesome, So you guys want to share
that experience with the audience real quick?
Speaker 2 (49:18):
It's laughing.
Speaker 5 (49:20):
Well, there's there's probably two different versions.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
Talk.
Speaker 4 (49:30):
I mean, it's it's it's uh, we're all growing within
our within our roles. And you know, He's Josh has
got a lot of great ideas, which I love. It
was one of my very favorite things about him when
I first met him is that he's got a lot
of ideas, Like I have a lot of ideas, you know,
And it's a process, as you know, in any organization,
(49:53):
and especially one like the VFW that's got so many
people that have been there for so long, uh like that,
that have experiences and past commanders and so no matter
how excited Josh and I might be and Jennifer about
doing new things.
Speaker 3 (50:09):
It's like we have to go.
Speaker 4 (50:10):
Through the powers that be, the old boys Club, and
you know, so it's it's it's been, it's been. It's
been a lot of fun and it's been there's been
a lot of challenges.
Speaker 3 (50:22):
Uh, it's a lot of hard work.
Speaker 4 (50:24):
We have a very big post that's got a lot
of responsibilities and we do a lot in the community
and there's a lot going on, you know. So he's
he's he's getting more and more comfortable with my expectations.
Speaker 5 (50:45):
I'm getting I'm getting more and more comfortable with failure.
Speaker 4 (50:48):
Now, listen, when you're when you're volunteering, there's no failure
when you're volunteering.
Speaker 3 (50:54):
Every time you show up.
Speaker 4 (50:55):
Every time you show up, you're giving of yourself because
for free, you know, because you care about the veteran
community and I value that in you. There's just there's
just a lot, you know, there's a lot you can
only outline and structure, you know, like we put together
this s op of of the minimum the minimum expectations
(51:16):
of the roles that we all have, but there's so
much more that goes goes into it, you know, and
and we're all learning as we go, and we all
really care about what we do, and it's I mean,
I enjoy it. I mean I enjoy working for them,
you know, I know, we've got a lot of years
and a lot of stuff to do.
Speaker 5 (51:34):
Yeah, I got.
Speaker 1 (51:38):
Stacy, send me that group, Josh, just a second, Stacy,
send me that message in chat real quick, because I'm
getting stuff from Bill here. But continuing what you're saying,
you text me something stay centered it to me in
chat and then Josh what sorry, Josh?
Speaker 2 (51:56):
Oh yeah, go ahead, sir, Yes, sir, my aqualities.
Speaker 5 (52:02):
No. What was what was funny is I think what
quote unquote got me into trouble was. I was vocal about,
you know, the whole you know, what we could do
kind of thing. And it gained the attention when every
time I made some kind of a statement like that,
it gained Stacy's detention, It gained Leo's attention, our past commander,
(52:26):
it gained Pablo's attention, who was a previous commander. Everybody's like, hmm,
this guy could be you know, leadership material, which was
not at all what I was going for. I was
saying I can, I can implement this stuff.
Speaker 3 (52:43):
To keep your mouth shut, man, never.
Speaker 5 (52:47):
Volunteer for anything. I see that.
Speaker 4 (52:50):
You just that, you said that a whole bunch. I'm like, well,
here we are, and here we are.
Speaker 5 (52:55):
But that's the thing is that I have diarrhea of
the mouth and it's like pops into my head and
it's like, you know, what would be a cool idea,
you know kind of thing, and then all of a
sudden everybody runs with it. You know, it's like that
is a good you know what, you know, your management material,
you know it?
Speaker 2 (53:14):
What is it?
Speaker 5 (53:14):
The you know, lead follower, Get out of the way.
Speaker 3 (53:17):
One of my favorite things.
Speaker 4 (53:19):
I'm not gonna I'm sorry, I'm going to interrupt you
because we're gonna have to finish this up pretty soon, Josh.
But one of my favorite things about Josh is his
knowledge of history and his ability to put a really
cool story together chronologically about really important historical facts.
Speaker 3 (53:34):
And he does such a fantastic job.
Speaker 4 (53:36):
In our Kendlegram every month in his in his piece,
I read it every time.
Speaker 3 (53:41):
I really enjoy how you put that together. Yep, yeah,
that's very historical facts. It's awesome.
Speaker 5 (53:48):
Yeah, next month's is going to be kind of fun,
but I got to really do some research on it
because it's, uh yeah, it's it's that's an interesting story.
Speaker 2 (53:57):
So well, we look forward to reading it.
Speaker 1 (54:00):
And Josh, I want to thank you for your time today,
and uh, we'll check in with you in a couple.
Speaker 2 (54:04):
Of months and maybe get you back out here. And
here's some other stories that we didn't get you today.
Speaker 5 (54:10):
I want to thank you this. I could have done
this for like three hours.
Speaker 3 (54:14):
Yeah, we don't have three hours.
Speaker 2 (54:17):
Yeah. I want to thank everybody for showing up today,
and uh.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
Just remember that the remember that the path to freedom
is paved, and courage
Speaker 3 (54:28):
And honor is the wire that we never trip.
H good afternoon, everybody. It is trip Wire time. We
(00:42):
got the lovely Stacey in the in the in the
studio with us Today co hosts.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
How are you dear? It's good to see it.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
It's Wednesday, Wednesday fifteenth, twenty twenty five. Uh, and we're
in that period of time where everybody's going to mess
that date up and screw up, you know, whenever they're
signing a document.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
So that's always fun, like the first month and a half.
But we got a great show for you.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
We're going to bring in your junior vice commander, correct,
Josh jeh Corner.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Yes, he's my junior advice Yep.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
That's awesome Navy veteran.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
And we're going to show some clips later about when
I finally showed back up at your VFW and was
able to spend some time with some great some great veterans.
So definitely looking forward to this. And Okay, so how
are the holidays? Real quick, We'll just get that out
of the way real quick. How are the holidays?
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Oh gosh, very good, very busy. Lots of family stuff.
We did a hilarious JC Penny nineteen eighties family photos
shoot remake where we all wore the same flannel.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
And posted it all over Facebook.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
It's it's absolutely ridiculous, Like I mean, I don't even
know a better word, but it is.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
It's hilarious, and it was really a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
That's awesome. That's awesome.
Speaker 5 (02:01):
Yeah, that's uh.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Well, So it's been great to get back. I'm I'm
not in Virginia anymore. I'm back up in mckenry, north
of Chicago. Was able to spend time at my uh
my sister on the north sides her place with her
family and extended family for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, went
to my other sister's place, saw my dad. Uh there
was even a in the in the last couple of
(02:24):
weeks between today in New.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Year's there was I think it was early last week.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
I was able to you know, everything's good with dad
at the senior assistant living area that he, uh he
lives in.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
But it was it was Operation.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Leprechaun breakout, and I got him out of the out
of there for a day and had a great time
hanging out with him and stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
So that's it.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, yeah, we had a great time. Looking forward to
doing it again before I had to Ohio. So but
without further ado, how about we bring in Josh and uh, sir,
how are you great to see you Josh?
Speaker 5 (02:56):
Not too bad, not too bad.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
So I really really appreciate you joining us today.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
I know everybody's busy after after the New Year and
the holidays, the holiday craziness.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
Well, yeah, getting getting busy. It's you know, you get
that lull and then all of a sudden, it's like, okay,
real life has to set in now.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Yeah, there's always that like little like that little space
between Christmas and New Year's They always have these memes.
It's like I have no idea what day it is,
and I'm just feel like I'm full of cheese, you know. Yeah,
it's like you're just sort of like in this weird
twilight zone waiting for the new Year to happen and
like full of like the crap food that you ate.
Speaker 5 (03:40):
Yeah, you got to wait until the second week of
January to be able to take a proper dump.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yes, we're talking about everybody's personal hygiene now and then
dietary dietary habits for the holidays.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
That's awesome. That's awesome.
Speaker 5 (03:58):
A whole nother so.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Well, it was great, Senior.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Last Thursday, Josh, and thank you for accepting our invitation
to join us on the on the podcast today.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
We very interested in hearing your story.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Uh why don't you, un will you kick it off
from where you grew up and then uh what what
took you into the military and uh and all the
fun stuff you did while you're on active duty?
Speaker 5 (04:22):
Well that was uh it's kind of on a dare.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Good.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
I mean it's I was working so like I'm from Michigan,
were born and raised in Detroit. In my high school years,
moved out to Holly and uh, Holly, Michigan, and I
had it was after after high school. I had a
job where I was working in this uh this campground right,
(04:58):
and it was h it was a Jewish campground and
it was it was kind of cool because they had
all these old cabins and stuff where it was like
a summer camp for Jewish kids. And we would I
would work. I was like the kind of like the
delivery guy slash dishwasher. Uh there. And what we would
(05:21):
do is they had two kitchens, you know, because it
was all.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
Oh gosh, it was all it was a kosher kitchen, right,
So we had like two different dishwashers for the dairy
and the meats, and all the containers for you know,
all that stuff was separate and had to be kept separate,
which was it was.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
It was a very interesting, you know setup. But I
would like, you know, person, you know, for all the meals,
I would take these basically these big thermoses filled with
all this food, you know, and drop them off at
each thing. So I worked through the summer of that
and that was about out when things started kind of
kicking up with the invasion of Kuwait and uh, you know,
(06:09):
some of the some of the guys that were working
there there was like, you know, because I mean, this
is keep in mind, this is our first like this
would have been our first major combat role since Vietnam.
So you still had that Vietnam mentality where it's like
you get that you get drafted and you get sent
off by Uncle Sam and so on and so forth.
(06:32):
And it was like, well, I was like, well, you
know what I think I'm going to join. I mean,
it's like literally delivering food in a campground, you know,
I mean, it's like, really, you know, that's that's crazy.
I'm like whatever, It's like, you know, I bet you
I'll do it kind of thing. I'll take that bet, dude,
(06:55):
still mean like ten bucks. So you know, there was that,
and then of course the regular life stuff that was,
you know, I don't have money for college, you know,
to continue your education, so on and so forth. So
I mean it's all the benefits that kind of came
along with it just kind of seemed to make sense.
(07:17):
Not to mention it's like you're seventeen years old and
you have no direction whatsoever. You know, it's almost like
you you need a minute to kind of figure out
what you're going to do, where you're going to go,
how you're going to you know, survive kind of thing. Right,
So instead of going to doing the you know, going
(07:38):
to college route, which I clearly had no money to
do anyways, it seemed like a good place to kind
of hang out for a bit and see what happens,
see what where where that takes me. You know. It
was funny that, you know, after I got out, it
was you know, you get you know, either the high
(08:01):
school reunions or whatever. It was like the five year
reunion and come back and I go that was the
only high school reunion I've ever been to. Was a
five year reunion and you walk in there or you know,
it was it was at a metro park. We go
there and it's like everybody blew up about like forty
(08:24):
fifty pounds, and like it was just frat boys and
you know, gals had already pumped out babies kind of
like right right, So it was like it was that
was that was a bit of a culture shock in general,
being like, you know, and I walked in and nobody
(08:46):
even recognized me. They had no idea, who the hell
was this guy? Do we actually go to school with him?
Because I mean I was a scrony kid when I
when I got out of high school, I was like
one hundred and twelve pounds, okay, yeah, and I you know,
I walk in on one hundred and fifty pounds, just
lean and cut and you know, kind of squared away
and stuff. And you got all the frat boys that
(09:08):
you know, are like twenty two years old, have a
beer belly and all that kind of thing. So it
was it was pretty interesting.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah, And where did so where did you when you
ended up joining? Where did you go to? Uh?
Speaker 1 (09:22):
I assumed you joined the uh the maps out of Detroit?
Is that correct?
Speaker 5 (09:26):
Oh yeah, yeah, it was Detroit maps and I went
in on the the late entry program.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Where did you Where'd you go to the boot camp?
Speaker 5 (09:35):
Great Lakes in the middle of February the best time
to go, by the way.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Literally sent you to the other side of the lake.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
Oh yeah, no, I mean it was, it was, it was.
It was nice and balmy.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah, I bet, I bet. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
We had we had black Flag days, so it was yeah,
it was. That was pretty brutal.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
February of ninety one.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
That was in ninety one, okay, February of ninety one. Uh,
you know, obviously the war kicked off already at that
at that point, and there were there were funny things
that you know, you know, with going to boot camp
during the during the war, and it's not necessarily I think,
(10:22):
I don't want to you know, I don't want to
speak for you know, the you know, the government, so
to speak. But it was one of those things where
it didn't seem like we were on solid footing going
into that thing. It was just kind of a pull trigger,
you know. It was kind of a shoot and shoot first,
aim later kind of a situation. And what was funny
(10:47):
was like they yeah, I never when I was in
boot camp, I never had any firearms training, right, very right,
because it was like, well, you know, normally you would
do this, you would do it, but it's for some
reason they had to save Ammo or whatever, so we
never I never shot a firearm in boot camp.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Okay, so okay.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
Yeah, no, it was. It was And that's I mean,
of all the things that you kind of look forward to.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Well, you know, Stacey was in Great Leakes before you,
so maybe her classes in the one, yeah, and a
couple of classes.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
No way, because back then it was the the gals
all went to Orlando.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Yeah, I was in Orlando, I was, I think, but for.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Yeah, yeah, Hospital.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Corps school was at Great Lakes. But we yeah we
shot in Orlando.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah right, well there I was going to create a joke,
but never mind.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I was out on the comfort when he was in boot.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Camp, gotcha, got you right?
Speaker 5 (11:54):
So it was, I mean, it was I had I
had an absolutely last in boot camp.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
You know.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
I mean most people they turn around and say, oh,
that was that was so much fun. I like good
just in the sense that you know, it was like, yeah,
I mean we're the we're of the generation where we
grew up watching Full Metal Jacket. Yeah, arly enemy just
(12:23):
beating the hell out of you know, recruits. Sure, so
you naturally assume that that's what's going to happen, Right,
It wasn't quite to that degree obvious.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
No, maybe maybe in the Marine Corps, not not in the.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Navy, but it was way too I can honestly say
it was tuned down even then when I went to
the Marine Corps, uh in September, just uh, the same
year in September is when I went to boot camp,
and it was toned down. Mothers of America were trying
to change the way the military handled their their recruits
going into military, going into boot camp.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
So, Josh, were you an officer at all in boot camp?
Speaker 4 (13:04):
I was a yeoman, Yeah I was.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I was.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
No. They wanted well, you know, because they do uh,
they they make this, they do it arbitrary. Well it's
not arbitrarrily, but they basically say, oh god, this was
so funny. This is like right after few days kind
of thing where you start marching around and you gotta
(13:30):
call cadence and stuff. Right, so you get the uh
was it the uh ar pocket? Yes, arpak right.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Whatever.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Yeah, So that's the guy that that's the guy that
basically calls the Cadence right. And you know, and we
all know that when you go into boot camp, never
volunteer for anything, right, Yeah, just don't you know, keep
your head down, and and I do. And this is
a this is a funny story. So they turned around,
(14:07):
they said, hey, Warner, you're gonna you're gonna call Cadence right.
I swear to god it I was the worst Cadence
guy ever.
Speaker 7 (14:16):
It was literally left right, left right, left right left.
Speaker 5 (14:21):
That was it. That was all I did.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
You didn't have any little song to sing or anything.
I love, I love.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
This is just left and right. That was it. And
it's like I did him for like a day.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
So many guy, the guy, the guy from Motown has
no rhythm whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
It's just ridiculous.
Speaker 5 (14:42):
I am the whitest dude on the planet.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
It's all good man, just mess.
Speaker 5 (14:49):
So we go through it. And now my last name
is Warner.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
So but there was one.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
Guy that was was a Z was his last name,
and he ended up being Arpak. And the guy who
was the first in the alphabet ended up being the
apoc right, So it's uh so, then they go through
the thing where they name all the officers and stuff.
They get that guy's you know, the ARPAK. The other
(15:17):
guy's the APOC. They go through the thing they go
and I'm like, whoo, I made it right, didn't get
called for anything.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
You know.
Speaker 5 (15:24):
You got some guy that's like a big you know, athlete,
you know, guy like big exercise guy like Stacy. He
ends up being the uh whatever the hell it was
the you know, the the health and nutrition guy you
know in boot camp, and it was uh, you know,
and the yeoman guy was he was pretty funny. But
(15:46):
then they turn around and they then they go to
the divisional roles and they say, Warner, you're the divisional
yeoman And I'm like, oh, and he can never volunteer
for anything. And I immediately go in after you know,
they go back into their office. You know, you knock
on the thing. It's permission nurser blah blah blah, and
(16:09):
I stand at attention. I'm sitting there telling them with
this straight face saying, uh, you know, uh company comtter.
I don't think that I'm you know, the right guy
for this job. I really want to, uh you know,
uh do what I can for the company and you know,
really be more involved here in house kind of thing.
(16:32):
And it's like, you know, I'm gonna want the extra
time to study for all these classes and this, that
and the other. They already had my file on their
desk before I even walked up to the door, and
they said they opened it up and they said, you
scored such and such on your as bab, You're a
god damn genius. You don't need to study. You're going
(16:56):
to be a divisional yellman. Right, I guess I'm a
divisional yeoman.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Now.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
What was funny about that about that assignment was I
don't I don't even know what I did in the
office really. You know. It was basically you collect the
mustard sheets and so it's boot camp. I mean, what
do you got to what somebody's a won't you know?
I mean, that wasn't a thing, right, So, but when
(17:25):
somebody got in trouble, you had to take them to restriction.
You had to actually march them across base. And then
they had I don't know, Stacey, if you if you
guys had that down in Orlando. But I don't remember
what the extra training was. But it was a thing
where they put you in the box that's like two
feet by two feet. You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Yeah, when you were in trouble. Is that what you're
talking about?
Speaker 5 (17:50):
When you were in Yeah, I mean you get in trouble,
like you get caught trying to climb the fence and
escape kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Yeah, so you.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
Or you were like just a bad seed, so to speak,
they would send you to this extra training where you
would go.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
I got caught, I got in trouble.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
I got caught sneak in a note to a boy
in a cereal box. I had to do a lot
of extra push ups. I kind of smarted off a lot.
Speaker 5 (18:20):
Even though they sent these guys off to a different division.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yeah, they dropped them premier class and put them somewhere else.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
Yeah, they a different division for And then what they
would do is you they'd have this taped off or
painted out box. It was two feet by two feet,
and they would have to do exercises with an M
fourteen mm okay, And it was like, you know, obviously
it's kind of like you know, holding out like an
(18:49):
encyclopedia on your you know, arms and stuff like that.
Stuff like that, and if you stepped out of that,
but you had company commanders just surrounding you, and if
you stepped that box, that's considered assault with a deadly weapon.
So the company commanders were allowed to beat the ship
(19:11):
out of you until you got back into that box.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
That Yeah, it probably doesn't happen nowadays, but that was
old maybe.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
So those there's a lot of people out there they
need the ship beat out of them.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Yeah, you're good. Well, I think everybody's on the same
shoot music with that one.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
Well, I mean, it was. It was one of those
things where it's like, okay, you've got basically, I mean
it's to a seventeen year old, that's the equivalent of like, dude,
I have to escort convicted felons.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
The new cell block kind of a cell block, So
it was it was terrified. It's like, what if these
guys jumped me, you know, yeah, screwed. I'm again, I'm
like one hundred and twelve pounds, right, you know, and
I'm in charge of these guys, you know. So that
was that was That was that was fun. I mean,
(20:17):
there was one time I came back and it's like
it was during service week and uh, which is like
that week where everybody goes sent off for KP duty
and you redo the barracks and rewax the floors and
you know, everybody does goes off to their t a
d kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
So I'm down and working in the division office, you know,
as a yeoman, and a company commander from another company
comes down and asked me a question and I said, yeah, oh,
(21:00):
and he just goes off. He's like, God, damn, I
am so sick and tire of these damn seamen recruits,
saying yeah, where's this. I was like, yeah, sir, you
know kind of a thing, right, and he goes drop
and you know, push ups forever. Sure, So I'm doing
(21:23):
I'm I'm there on the quarterdeck doing push ups and
one of my company commanders comes down, Uh Petty officer
Catherine m M two or m M one sorry at
the time, Uh comes on. He looks down at me
doing the push ups and he goes, warrant you getting
in trouble again. I go sir, yes, sir, and he
(21:48):
goes good recover. So you know that was that? Was that?
That that moment. Now, like right at the end of
service week, this was probably my favorite moment. In all
of boot camp. Well that and swimming, but that's not
safe for work. The at the end of service week,
(22:13):
we get back and you know, everybody's been off doing everything,
and so you need to you know, the company commander
has got to whip you back into shape because you've
been dealing with other people that were probably a little
more humane with you and so on and so forth.
So they come they come in and then you know,
somebody screws something up whatever, and you know they just
(22:36):
they're looking for a reason to mash you. Right, so
we add a full on thunderstorm. You guys know what
thunderstorming is.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Obviously, it's a it's it's where they I'm assuming it's
where they tear up the barracks and they tear up
your squad bay or whatever.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
You guys are no, no, no.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
No, it's it's it's Actually what's funny is that what
they do is that when they go to mass you,
they crank up the heat like to eleven. Yeah, right,
and then they just make you do push ups, sit ups,
you know, uh eight a count bodybuilders, so on and
so forth for al And then what happens is is
(23:20):
that the you know, all the sweat becomes humidity in
in the barracks, and then all that gets into the
fluorescent lighting, so the lights start flickering like lightning. You
actually have condensation on the ceiling and it starts raining
(23:41):
in lords.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
Now, so everybody's sweating, everybody's you know, it's raining in there,
so on and so forth, and we're doing push ups.
And during service week, the Master at Arms and his
crew which were supposed to they were supposed to strip
and rewax the floor. They never finished. There was still
(24:05):
stripper on the floor and they never rewaxed it or anything. Right,
So what was happening was as you were sweating doing
your push ups, the stripper and the wax would mix
with all your sweat, and as you're doing push ups,
your hands would slip out from beneath you, and guys
(24:25):
were just you know, face planning right into the deck. Yeah,
And it was like looking around watching these guys just
a face plant, you know, every time.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
It was larious.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
Probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen. So
I start laughing in the middle of this thing. And
we had been going for like an hour and a
half at this point, and the same company commander petty officer.
Katheraman walks by, and now in boot camp, they'd got
the good cap, good cop, bad cop. Right, yeah, Pettioffer
(25:03):
Green was the bad cop. Pettiofficer Katha Man was a
good cop. So Katherine walks by and he looks at
me and he goes Warner. He sees me laughing and
smiling and just having a grand old time. He goes, Warner,
do you find something funny? I go, yes, sir, I
(25:23):
think this mashing is a fucking joke, sir. And he
turns around gives me a little smirk, laughs Kyler, and
he goes, whoa company seems it? Se crew Warner thinks
this mashing is a fucking joke. He just added thirty
(25:46):
minutes to this thing.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Oh my god, Lord, did everybody beat the shit out
of you? Oh no, no, Well that's the blank blanket
party at night.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
The APOC next to me, he was in the bump
right now, right, and he looks over to me and
he goes, I'm going to kick your ass. I was like,
how the hell are you going to kick my ass
when you can't kick out another fricking push up? Yeah,
And I and I just started blasting him out. So
I was like, dude, you know what bring it? You know,
(26:19):
but I but it was like, but I enjoyed that.
I thought it was I thought it was hilarious.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
So so you went into the navy. What rate did
you go in as for your for your MLS?
Speaker 5 (26:30):
Oh, well, that's that's where those recruiters get really tricky. No, no,
you don't know that you can actually turn around and say,
you know what, I'll join, but I want to start
as knee three.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
No, I started as knee one, right, But you're right,
you went in as any one.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
And then what job did you end up with?
Speaker 5 (26:49):
Oh? I was an air cruise to probably equipment equipment.
Then uh, parachute rigger.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Okay, nice.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
Now, now what's funny is that when I was in NAPS,
you know, they started throwing out as soon as they
see her as that score. Back then, it was like, oh,
would you be interested in nuke? No? I don't want
my boss to shrivel woods. No. Yeah, I mean, of course,
this is in the nineties, right, you know, it's like
I want to have kids someday, you know, at least
(27:17):
one with one head. So that was so I was like, yeah, no,
And then they turned around and said, okay, well what
about Corman?
Speaker 2 (27:27):
All right?
Speaker 5 (27:29):
And again hindsight being CALIFORNI hindsight, that's.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
The way I gotta work with her. You gotta work
with her. You're arguing with her at the VFW.
Speaker 5 (27:40):
No. No, But I mean it's the thing is that
I wanted to go into BUDS and I was looking
at rates that qualified, because back then you had to
have a certain rating in order to qualify to go
to BUDS. Corman was one of them. But and this
was my this is what I told the guy at
(28:01):
the map station. It was like that sounds pretty cool now,
minds you Back then, uh, you know, you get out.
It's not like you're em t you know, not like
it is now, right, And I was like, I hate
I hate needles. I can't you know. It just preached
(28:22):
me out. So I was like, no, I don't know
if I can do that. Then they were like and
one of the one of the rates that were available
was PR and they said, you know, oh, well there's
parachute rigor you get to jump out of a plane
in a school. Well that seems appropriate right for you know,
(28:44):
if you want to go into BUDS.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
So I go.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
Yeah, I'll go, I'll do uh, I'll do Rigor. So yeah,
I guess that's I guess that's it. So I went,
I went, I went.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
I mean the question was what was the rating?
Speaker 2 (29:03):
So yeah, so you went to Rigger school. Where did
you jump?
Speaker 5 (29:10):
Well, much like in boot camp where you didn't shoot,
in a school, you didn't jump. Now, it used to
be like the A school used to be in Lakehurst,
New Jersey, and they would actually make you pack your
own shoot and then you'd have to jump with it.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Right.
Speaker 5 (29:27):
And when I went in, they had moved to school.
They had recently moved the school from Millington, Tennessee, Okay,
just outside of Memphis, and then they So I did
a school there and we never jumped. I got my orders.
(29:47):
I went through a school, got my orders.
Speaker 7 (29:50):
For for buds, took the test, the fit rep and
and uh the.
Speaker 5 (30:03):
I ended up passing everything with like flying colors, except
for the run, because you got to do like a
mile and a half. I believe it was a mile
and a half in eleven minutes thirty seconds wearing dungleries
and boots. Yeah, now you put me in TENN shoes.
I could, I could have crushed it. I mean I
(30:25):
would have crushed the EOD test wearing dungleries and boots.
I had no idea how hard it is running dungleries.
I mean, bell bottoms are not running gear by an.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Especially, what's that. I was asking my co hosts if
she's all right over there? Yeah, just chegging, just chegging.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
Yeah, No, it's it's it's brutal. And I think in
that test because it's it's all consecutive, right, So it's
like I think at the time, I don't know what
the requirements are now, but at the time, I think
it was five hundred yards side stroke or breaststroke and
or breaststroke in thirteen minutes fifty seconds. Then it was
(31:16):
then immediately after that you get you get dressed, and
then you got to do fifty push ups within two
minutes and one hundred sit ups within two minutes and
a minimum of eight pull ups, and then you run
the mile and a half. And it was funny because
I'm doing the I'm doing the I'm taking this test,
and I you know, I I did the you know,
(31:38):
because I had taken the test a couple of times.
I had failed to swim prior but got it the
second time. And then we go to do chin ups
and everybody's like kind of just you know and barely
making it. Some guys didn't didn't.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Make you know.
Speaker 5 (31:52):
For uh, for bugs it was eight. For EOD it
was six, and I think for divers it was four
chin ups. And the guys that were like the guys
that were like the super gung Ho guys were the
EOD guys, and they were just they were barely being
able to you know, push these things out right right.
(32:15):
And so we get up and it was like before
my turn, and I was the last guy to go,
and the guy that was administrating the test was a
seal and he goes, he goes, I'm he goes, if
anybody can no, maybe I wasn't the last one. He goes, Hey,
he was like just disgusted with the performance of these guys.
(32:38):
So he goes, I'm going to do any up. I'm
going to do what did you say, something along the
lines of like anybody, you know, you have to do
as many chin ups as I or something. He did
like fifteen or no, it was like ten. He did ten,
(33:00):
and he's like, anybody that can hit that automatically passes,
and again me being the asshole than I am, I
turned around. He's like, Warner, your next and I gotta do.
I gotta do eight.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
So I do. Yeah, I go.
Speaker 5 (33:15):
I go through the motions and I got and it's
like six.
Speaker 8 (33:21):
Seven, yeah, ay, nine or and then it's like ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
And it was at the time when I was doing it,
the instructor said, Warner, if you beat my number, I'm
going to kick your ass. This is a seal to
telling me this.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (33:50):
So I get to like his number, which is ten.
I was like ten, and then I'm like eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen,
and I look over them. Then I go, I don't
want to do any more to embarrass you.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Yeah. So was it now you did all these tests
at at any s Millington or did you go that was?
Speaker 5 (34:10):
That was at Millington?
Speaker 2 (34:12):
And then where did you get where'd you get stationed
after Millington?
Speaker 5 (34:15):
Well here's the thing. Well again, dude, so many crazy stories.
So we're down. And so I'm down in Millington and
I actually got orders to buds, right, But me being
again the idiot I am, I go out you know
(34:37):
this is you know, a little bit later, I turn
around and we go down. Me and a bunch of
friends go downtown Memphis on Beal Street, you know, during
the weekend and stuff for the little party they shut
down Beal Street and it's just like a block party, right,
And might have had a couple of ginger ales. And
(34:57):
there was a gal that I liked that was, uh,
you know, also in the pr school and at the
girls barracks and stuff, and you know, I really liked her,
and she apparently did not reciprocate, uh said like likeness.
(35:17):
So I had a couple of few too many ginger ails,
and I got into a fight with a parking gator.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (35:26):
Actually, I think change actually fell out of it. I
hit it so hard.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (35:31):
Well, woke up the next morning a little hungover and
my hand was just swollen like a balloon.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Oh yeah, So.
Speaker 5 (35:41):
I go into medical. They check and they say, oh, yeah,
you've got a boxer's fracture. We're going to have to
reset this. But they want a story. Well, I'm at
this point, I'm let me think about this. Yeah, I
mean I'm still seven. No, at this point, I'm eighteen.
(36:05):
I can't turn around and say, I got ship face
downtown Memphis and you know, beat up a parking meter.
So I made up the story. Of course, the doc
is I mean, he's not an idiot. He knows exactly
what happened. You got ship face and you did something stupid, right,
So I made up some story about how, you know, yeah,
(36:26):
I got into a fight with some you know, some
guy some city down there and blah blah blah this
and the other, and you know, of course, you know,
my knuckles all busted up and stuff like that. He goes, yeah, okay,
yeah right, He goes, the X rays come back. He goes, well,
you can kiss your you can kiss your orders to
buds goodbye kind of thing, just because you know, by
(36:50):
the time, it wouldn't have healed enough for me to
you know, enter the class that I was supposed to
go into. So uh that sucks. But he turns around.
He goes, he goes, oh, well, I'm going to reset it.
Of course, you know, no pain killers or anything like that.
He resets it. Yep, brutal. There may have been a
(37:11):
tear involved. And then he goes, well, since you you know,
since you got into a fight and you probably hit
him in the face. I'm going to have to give
you a Tetnis shot. So it was just kind of
that little, yeah, little thing. It's like, okay, find out
kind of a thing, right, So I get the Tetani shot.
(37:33):
I didn't, you know, I get the cast. I didn't
even let it fully heal got, you know, just hanging
out of the barracks, goofing around, finishing off you know,
a school playing volleyball, and you know, playing volleyball with
the cast, with a plaster cast, it just blew the
cast apart. So I just ripped it off and just
went with it. And uh so then so my orders
(37:58):
got canceled, and and I'm sitting there at a school
just in limbo. I've already graduated. So like everybody gets
up at Reveley, they march off to school, so on
and so forth. I'm still kidding. I'm I'm cashed out
in my rack and the barracks, and nobody even knows
I'm there.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
So where did you end up? Where did you end
up going?
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (38:22):
Oh, it gets better. So finally somebody I understand I'm
trying to.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
Get I'm trying to get into other parts of the story. Brothers.
Speaker 5 (38:29):
So where did you end up going? Oh my goodness. Anyways,
they finally figure out that I'm there, they send me
new or they give me new orders. So then I
get orders to Virginia Beach Oceana, U to VF eleven
right on the east coast and U. When I get there,
(38:52):
my squadron is already deployed out in the Mediterranean, so
I got stuck with UH with the air wing and
they have me painting uh parking blocks blue, you know
in the parking lot. I was, I was, I was
birthing with VF forty one black aces. Yeah, and that
(39:18):
was that was that was pretty cool. But I was
still kind of like, you know, I was an outsider there,
you know, I was still kind of just you know,
my own person doing stuff. And then finally orders came
in for me to go go meet meet up with
the with the deployment. So they fly me out to Cotana, Italy,
(39:40):
and I remember and it was like, so I'm hanging
out in Sicily right going to the E Club. That's like,
that's when I first saw what Robin Hood, Prince of Thebes,
you know, with the music blasting and whatever and just
chilling out and hanging out with like Italian women and whatever.
(40:01):
And then but like every morning I'd have to get
up at zero five hundred and show up at the
terminal because a cod would show up to take me
out to the boat. And this happened for like maybe
five days. Never showed up, Never showed up. Now mind,
the only thing that I got to watch was news
(40:21):
footage of Magic Johnson talking about how he is aide
and the UH was at Mount Vesuvio watching watching the
snow melt from the snow cap. That's all I did
all day long. And then I'd go to the club
at night. Okay, so that was for five days. Finally
(40:42):
they they you know, cod comes in and I get on.
I get on the bird and you know, stow your stuff,
and of course the seats are sitting backwards, facing backwards.
We're flying in. There's like a bunch of love UH
contractors on board, other you know, new recruits, things like that,
(41:04):
going out to the ship and we get on there,
we get going and we're flying along. It seemed like
it was forever, but we finally get there and get
like kind of a call. Guy comes back and says, hey,
we're getting ready to make our approach. We're going to
land on the on the deck and so on and
so forth, so just be ready. Right, Well, the pilot
(41:27):
does one of these maneuvers where it's almost like a
whoo right, So it's like, you know, it's a very intense,
like elevator ride kind of thing. Right, we're you know,
kind of like this. Right as soon as we level out,
I'm sitting there, I smell spaghetti and I'm like, man,
(41:48):
that and I haven't eaten all day, and I'm like
that mess hall is cranking. I could I could just
shovel down some spaghetti right now. Right, So it's like, man,
I'm getting more and more hungry. We finally hit the wire,
bird comes to stop. Crewmember comes back and says, all right,
grab all your stuff. We're gonna pull your stuff and
(42:10):
we're gonna put it out on the flight deck. You
get up, you know, go get it and then follow
this line into the into the island. So then and
then he goes and whoever where did he say? Whoever
he said? Whoever blue chunks, here's a box of canopy wipes.
We're not cleaning up you are. At that moment, I
(42:34):
felt a warmth in my boondocker and I looked down
and my boot is completely filled with spaghetti and vomit.
Oh and I'm like and I look at the guy
next to me, and I go, dude, seriously, Yeah, damn.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
So you were you did the pump and then you
guys came. Did you guys come back to Oceania?
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (43:07):
We uh we the boat pulled into Mayport. This is
the USS Forestall we pulled into Mayport ended up being
her last, her last cruise. We did go through, uh
what was that the Perfect storm? You know the movie?
Speaker 1 (43:27):
We went through that on the way back coming home?
Speaker 5 (43:30):
Yeah, yeah, coming home. So and that was that was
that was that was aggressive. I mean aircraft carriers were
and Stacey can attest. You know how wide the the
uhuays are on the most deck.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 5 (43:51):
I would walk down a straight line down the mess
deck and as the boat healed, I would walk up
each bulkhead. It was just that's how much the boat
was moving.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (44:06):
Yeah, aircraft carrier. Yeah, it was pretty violent.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
See when when you got out, what brought you? What
brought you back to Naperville? Mm?
Speaker 5 (44:17):
Easy, a girl. I mean, I'm I'm from Detroit. When
I got out you know, as a rigger, there's not
really a whole lot of transitioning you know jobs there. Right,
So my dad suggested, you know, he was big into sailing.
He suggested, well, why don't you become a sail maker,
(44:40):
make sales for sailboats. I was like, okay, yeah, I
can run a sewing machine.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
Sure.
Speaker 5 (44:46):
So I got into that and I did that for gosh,
that was from two thousand by to oh no, ninety five, sorry,
n two thousand and six ish. Yeah, when that's when
we started, you know, we were expecting and it was
(45:08):
one of those things where we looked at how much
money I made and how much stake care costs and said, well,
I'll just be a sale dad. So the uh so,
my one of my customers back in Detroit needed somebody
to uh covered because he had a couple of uh
(45:28):
people bail out on him for the Macinaw race. So
he needed a crew and I was like, I could
do it. So I went and uh put all my
stuff on his boat up in Port here on Michigan
and was walking up and down the dock with a
friend of mine and got an offer to go on
a cooler boat, you know, faster boat just good, you know,
(45:52):
like it was a big dick thing, right, So I go,
oh yeah, So I ran back because I left the
note saying hey, you know, nobody knew I was coming. Hey,
you know, I'll sail with you, so on and so forth.
I run back to grab the note and the bag
and bail. I was going to go right on this
other boat. Right, they needed a boy guy, so they go.
(46:17):
I get back in the boat owners there and he's like,
oooh cool, we got we got you know, Josh is
coming on. He's a sail maker, he knows how you know,
what's going on, so on and so forth, and I'm like, now,
the dock is literally like one person can go down it,
you know, it's a one way kind of thing. And
(46:39):
so like he's coming off the dock first and he
sees me. He's like, oh, Josh's great. I'm glad you're
you know, sailing with us. And I'm like, yeah, this
is all right cool, you know now, I'm like all
right whatever. Well, as he peels off the dock, behind
him is his daughter, and I'm like, okay, I can
get on board with this little race. So we do.
(47:06):
We do the Macanon Race and now she actually lived
in Naperville time just you know, came home to do
the race with her family. You know, it's like her
entire family's on the boat. So we get up to
the island and you know, get the kind of flirting
and stuff may have been you know, busted by the
cops for too much PDA, so to speak. And then
(47:33):
the boat owner says, well, hey, next week we're doing
uh you know, another regatta up in Sheboygan, Michigan. Do
you want to go? And this is at dinner at
that point in time, it's like, you know, cats sitting
next to me and she just ever so gently puts
her hand on my thigh and says, oh, I think
(47:56):
he'd be great. Yeah, it'd be great.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
Well, then.
Speaker 5 (48:04):
Let's go cool.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
So when, uh, when did you guys get married?
Speaker 5 (48:09):
Uh? So we got married in two thousand and two, uh,
July July twenty seventh. Uh, and that was it. That
was only because that was the only weekend that I
could get off from sailing. Yeah, I got sailing like
all summer long kind of thing. And of course, you know,
the all wedding photos had to be uh had to
(48:32):
be photoshopped because like from here down, I was like
super tan, but from here up I was as white
as a ghost. Yeah and hats yeah, yeah, I got you.
Speaker 1 (48:45):
So then, so you have been Neighborville and uh when
did you guys? Did you guys both be Were you
both appointed at the same time commander junior vice or.
Speaker 2 (48:56):
Were those on? Were those at two different times?
Speaker 4 (48:59):
No, it was at the same time. Okay, and I
came on as commander. We brought him on his junior vice.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
Yeah, that's awesome, awesome, So you guys want to share
that experience with the audience real quick?
Speaker 2 (49:18):
It's laughing.
Speaker 5 (49:20):
Well, there's there's probably two different versions.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
Talk.
Speaker 4 (49:30):
I mean, it's it's it's uh, we're all growing within
our within our roles. And you know, He's Josh has
got a lot of great ideas, which I love. It
was one of my very favorite things about him when
I first met him is that he's got a lot
of ideas, Like I have a lot of ideas, you know,
And it's a process, as you know, in any organization,
(49:53):
and especially one like the VFW that's got so many
people that have been there for so long, uh like that,
that have experiences and past commanders and so no matter
how excited Josh and I might be and Jennifer about
doing new things.
Speaker 3 (50:09):
It's like we have to go.
Speaker 4 (50:10):
Through the powers that be, the old boys Club, and
you know, so it's it's it's been, it's been. It's
been a lot of fun and it's been there's been
a lot of challenges.
Speaker 3 (50:22):
Uh, it's a lot of hard work.
Speaker 4 (50:24):
We have a very big post that's got a lot
of responsibilities and we do a lot in the community
and there's a lot going on, you know. So he's
he's he's getting more and more comfortable with my expectations.
Speaker 5 (50:45):
I'm getting I'm getting more and more comfortable with failure.
Speaker 4 (50:48):
Now, listen, when you're when you're volunteering, there's no failure
when you're volunteering.
Speaker 3 (50:54):
Every time you show up.
Speaker 4 (50:55):
Every time you show up, you're giving of yourself because
for free, you know, because you care about the veteran
community and I value that in you. There's just there's
just a lot, you know, there's a lot you can
only outline and structure, you know, like we put together
this s op of of the minimum the minimum expectations
(51:16):
of the roles that we all have, but there's so
much more that goes goes into it, you know, and
and we're all learning as we go, and we all
really care about what we do, and it's I mean,
I enjoy it. I mean I enjoy working for them,
you know, I know, we've got a lot of years
and a lot of stuff to do.
Speaker 5 (51:34):
Yeah, I got.
Speaker 1 (51:38):
Stacy, send me that group, Josh, just a second, Stacy,
send me that message in chat real quick, because I'm
getting stuff from Bill here. But continuing what you're saying,
you text me something stay centered it to me in
chat and then Josh what sorry, Josh?
Speaker 2 (51:56):
Oh yeah, go ahead, sir, Yes, sir, my aqualities.
Speaker 5 (52:02):
No. What was what was funny is I think what
quote unquote got me into trouble was. I was vocal about,
you know, the whole you know, what we could do
kind of thing. And it gained the attention when every
time I made some kind of a statement like that,
it gained Stacy's detention, It gained Leo's attention, our past commander,
(52:26):
it gained Pablo's attention, who was a previous commander. Everybody's like, hmm,
this guy could be you know, leadership material, which was
not at all what I was going for. I was
saying I can, I can implement this stuff.
Speaker 3 (52:43):
To keep your mouth shut, man, never.
Speaker 5 (52:47):
Volunteer for anything. I see that.
Speaker 4 (52:50):
You just that, you said that a whole bunch. I'm like, well,
here we are, and here we are.
Speaker 5 (52:55):
But that's the thing is that I have diarrhea of
the mouth and it's like pops into my head and
it's like, you know, what would be a cool idea,
you know kind of thing, and then all of a
sudden everybody runs with it. You know, it's like that
is a good you know what, you know, your management material,
you know it?
Speaker 2 (53:14):
What is it?
Speaker 5 (53:14):
The you know, lead follower, Get out of the way.
Speaker 3 (53:17):
One of my favorite things.
Speaker 4 (53:19):
I'm not gonna I'm sorry, I'm going to interrupt you
because we're gonna have to finish this up pretty soon, Josh.
But one of my favorite things about Josh is his
knowledge of history and his ability to put a really
cool story together chronologically about really important historical facts.
Speaker 3 (53:34):
And he does such a fantastic job.
Speaker 4 (53:36):
In our Kendlegram every month in his in his piece,
I read it every time.
Speaker 3 (53:41):
I really enjoy how you put that together. Yep, yeah,
that's very historical facts. It's awesome.
Speaker 5 (53:48):
Yeah, next month's is going to be kind of fun,
but I got to really do some research on it
because it's, uh yeah, it's it's that's an interesting story.
Speaker 2 (53:57):
So well, we look forward to reading it.
Speaker 1 (54:00):
And Josh, I want to thank you for your time today,
and uh, we'll check in with you in a couple.
Speaker 2 (54:04):
Of months and maybe get you back out here. And
here's some other stories that we didn't get you today.
Speaker 5 (54:10):
I want to thank you this. I could have done
this for like three hours.
Speaker 3 (54:14):
Yeah, we don't have three hours.
Speaker 2 (54:17):
Yeah. I want to thank everybody for showing up today,
and uh.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
Just remember that the remember that the path to freedom
is paved, and courage
Speaker 3 (54:28):
And honor is the wire that we never trip.
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