Joshua Mills - Retired Army EOD Technician

Another exciting interview today. TripWire is honored to have Joshua Mills, Retired US Army EOD Technician, on our show.  Join us as we discuss Army life, combat, EOD, family and transition. 
4pm Eastern time. See you there!!!

Episode Transcript

(00:38):
Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome toanother episode the trip Wire. We have
a great show planned for us today. It is Wednesday, July twenty fourth,
four pm. It is time toget into it, start talking about
time and service. Honored to haveJoshua Mills, retired Army EO D brother
of mine for a very long time. We'll get it into more that as

(01:00):
as the show opens up. AndJosh great to see you. Thank you
for joining us today. This isa it's for me. It's an honor.
You're my brother, and you knowI the show, the family,
the kg R family. We lovehaving you know, all veterans on here
and this is gonna be fantastic.So thanks for joining us. Well,
thank you very much. Odie.Happy hump day, everyone happy. There

(01:26):
we go and that that starts itoff right there. So let's dive into
this. So let's talk about youknow, and by the way, for
the audience watching, I have relocated. I'm on the East coast. That's
where the shows are being uh arebeing filmed from now instead of north of
Chicago, I took a job incentral Virginia now called Fort Greg Adams used

(01:51):
to be Fort Lee. So I'mexcited to be out here and excited to
start this new adventure and really gladthat everybody joined us today. Thank you
for that. So uh, Josh, where let's let's let's open it up
for everybody that's watching. Where areyou from and what led you originally and
what led you to h to jointhe army? So Reginally, I was

(02:15):
an army brat. Both parents werein the army during the later stages of
the Cold War. Both met inGermany, and I was born in nineteen
eighty three. My dad stayed in. My mom got out and she went
back to Massachusetts. And from Massachusettsor from the time she got back to

(02:37):
Massachusetts to the time I joined themilitary in two thousand and two, that's
where it was. That's where Iresided. Dad stayed in, wasn't done
having fun, and so he traveledall over, did some time in Korea,

(02:58):
did some time in Kuwait. Waspart of the whole thing that happened
down in Grenada. So yeah,nice, a little bit of history.
There a lot of history of afamily members that have served, So yeah,
that's awesome. So it's it's interestingbecause like I have to go home

(03:21):
and be around where I grew upin Chicago around my family from Chicago before
the accident starts coming out and you'refor mass and those people are known for
their accents and because of all yourtravel and then all your time that you
served in the military. You know, I barely we barely hear an accent
at all, if any. Yeah, not, it never stuck, thank

(03:46):
god, thank god. Oh youdidn't. You didn't want to sound like
a southeas from Boston, right,which I got no problem. You know,
still got friends up there, greatpeople. But I like the fact
that I never picked it up.Let's just leave that. I got you.
I got you. So you jointhe army from Massachusetts. Correct,

(04:10):
that's where you went into layed entryprogram. Where did you do? What
was the job? And then whatyour first job? And then where did
you where'd you go to boot camp? And kind of walk us through what
happened in your time frame? Isyou so you did twenty years or twenty
plus twenty twenty years one week,three days, so yeah, counts.

(04:31):
It's funny how we as veterans rememberedthose numbers like it's a sentence that we
were in prison. Yep. Yeah. But as me, when I was
married or what my son's birthday is, and you know, yeah, I
got got to look at my notes. So I I'm from the generation of

(04:56):
like nine to eleven where it reallyimpacted us. And I still remember being
junior year and I was in mycomputer science class, and that class was
pretty cool. It was relaxed,you know, took it for the credits.
Go in, teach your hands toyour three ring binder. You sit
down at your computer, and youdo the work that's in the three year

(05:18):
ring binder. When you're done,you're done, and you can pretty much
do whatever the heck you want.But she would always have the news on,
so she had CNN and Fox Newson both TVs and they're muted.
So sitting in class and looking upfrom my computer and seeing you know,

(05:41):
Tower one on fire, and going, what the heck just happened? Like
is this like some TV show likecommercial? Or is this a new trailer
for a movie? What the heck'sgoing on? And as we were trying
to figure it out, and shemuted the TV so we could listen to
one of the news networks, wewatched the second plane hit the towers,

(06:03):
and I immediately turned to my friendin class, and I was like,
We're going to war and he lookedat me and he's like, no way,
that's that's not happening. And yougot to remember where I grew up,
right, I'm in Massachusetts, veryright leaning state, and at that

(06:27):
moment I knew deep down that thiscountry was going to a conflict and that
this the idea of what my futurewas just completely changed. Yeah, So
fast forward turned eighteen that summer andor sorry that April. Went immediately to

(06:51):
the recruiter while my parents were offon a vacation home and talked to the
recruiter and I was like, Iwant to join. They asked, what
do you want to do. Iwas like, I want to go into
aviation. I want to work onhelicopters. By that time, I for
two summers, two seasons. I'vealready been working for a helicopter company,

(07:14):
so I already had some experience workingon aircraft and I wanted to keep going
in that direction. So took myads. Bab had an opening for the
time of sixty eight Juliette. Thenit turned into fifteen Juliet which is Evionyx
Electrical and Armor repair for the ChiroWarrior helicopter. Nice, Like, that's

(07:34):
it, that's the one I want. So signed down the dotted line.
Because I was eighteen without my parents'permission, and you know, parents came
home two weeks later like what areyou up to? And I, well,
joined the military. So that waslike complete dead silence for about three

(07:58):
weeks while they settled with that.When they finally came around, I asked.
They asked me, what did Idecide to do? And I told
him and my reasoning behind it,you know, because everything my dad used
to tell me, my mom usedto tell me, all the family members
that have served, is like thearm the military is going to take everything

(08:18):
they can out of you, somake sure you get something in return.
So I was like, well,I'll learn how to be aircraft mechanic,
get that skill under my belt,and hopefully someday can transfer to the civilian
world if I decide to get out. So summer of August two thousand and
two, I went off to UHboot camp and because it was the you

(08:43):
know, summer search wasn't relaxing Jacksonfor me. It was Fort Knox relaxing
Jackson. Yeah, I ended upgoing to like Scout boot camp. You
know, so had you know,a senior CAF scout drill instructor with tanker

(09:05):
drill instructors, and it was funand I wouldn't change it for the world.
It definitely opened your eyes to likewhat the rest of the Army was
like and somewhat and even though likeI had no freaking clue what the hell
of wrest of army did, butit sort of drove it in that like,

(09:26):
you know, yeah, your aviation, but there's guys that are doing
the Connecticut co operations and this isthe training somewhat what they're getting into.
Like it wasn't a no set.You weren't going through like you know,
infantry school there or anything like that. But those guys, those instructors didn't
take it easy on us because wewere a low density amos. They were
like, no, you came tofour Knocks, Congratulations, you're you're gonna

(09:50):
get a real boot camp. Sodid that, then went to Fort Eusta's,
Virginia for nine months. Pissed myinstructors off, you know, because
I've been doing aviation work for youknow, two seasons. Sure we're getting
out. And also, by theway I went, my high school was

(10:11):
a Votech High School and I wastaking electronics and computer software at that time.
So the first like two months ofschool it was just like a refresher
and sleeps for me. And theywere like, you don't pay attention,
you fall asleep in class and you'reacing all the tests. What the hell's
going on? So I finally likefest up because they're like, if you

(10:33):
don't tell us, we're going toput you in for like, you know,
demerits because we think you're cheating.I was like, no, I'm
not cheating. This is what I'vebeen doing. Like, oh Jesus,
you know, you could have toldyour recruiter this and we could have like
put you in the class later on. And I was like, no one
told me that. I'm sorry,you know. Yeah. So I really

(10:54):
loved that A T and a schoolprogram like the Phenomenal Job, and it
wasn't just like I mean the jobitself, you're turned your glorified, you
know, Jiffy Lou. You're justswapping parts the aircraft and the stot.
But while you're in school, theyat least taught teach you the theory behind

(11:15):
it, how to read the diagramsand how to do proper like diagnostics and
all that stuff. And that wasreally cool because you know, my little
tism is that I love that kindof stuff. I love, you know,
the whole technical deal. So Ijust to share with you. We

(11:37):
don't talk much about other than thefact that I was a Marine, but
we don't talk much about my timein the Marine Corps. Went in as
an infantry guy, a grunt,through Marine combat training marchers were breaking down,
got reclassed to aviation side, wentthrough ground support equipment, then went
advanced to cryogenics UH at Cherry Point, and then first study station was out

(12:03):
in Hawaii at County Oy Bay.So I'm familiar with what you're talking about
as far as the air wing sideof or avation side of what you know,
what you're talking about as far asthe school and everything else. And
uh yeah, right there with you. I understand. That's great. That
explained a lot. And then letme add to add to that. When

(12:24):
I got out of the Marine Corps, that breaking service that I had for
three years, and then I wentand played rugby at college and did that
way too much and then decided collegewasn't the thing for me. And when
the Army, I went to FortJackson for twelve days worth of processing because
I had already done Marine Corps bootcamp. Here's your paperwork, here's your
you know, here's your your uniformsand as our you know. I'm sure

(12:46):
the audience who's listened to other podcastsUH and maybe you remember from when you
were listening to UH. They sentme to Huntsville at Redstone and I was
a wall for an entire freaking fourday weekend because I wasn't supposed to go
there. They were supposed to sendme directly to Heglund. So Jackson's got
it going on, baby, Theythey got that. They got that process

(13:09):
down perfect, exactly exactly. Yeah, So I did that. For the
first six years of my career wasaviation. UH. Two tours to Iraq,
one directly after the push, theinitial evasion. We got over there
in like the end of two thousandand three, beginning of two thousand and

(13:31):
four, so we took over theuh Bogram Airfield and uh Taji, Iraq
is where we've filled in. Sothat was a pretty good deployment, good

(13:56):
way to get my feet wet init. UH. Learned a lot drinking
from the fire hose per se.Yeah, and sort of went, you
know, full tilt into it.Came back from that deployment heard through the
grape vine that they were gonna retirethe OH fifty eight and they were going

(14:20):
to replace it with a UAB andI at that time, I was like,
there's no way I'm not working onsome freaking remote aircraft, Like I
gotta find another job. And forsome reason, like I think I got
one of those chain emails, youknow, blast across the service like,

(14:41):
uh, spam email, you know, come see what EOD is all about,
like recruiting email. And I waslike, screw it. Whatever,
sure, let's see where this goes. So I did the workup and everything,
and then we weren't even a homesix months and they put us they
put a fence on the unit causewe're we were rotating back in six So

(15:03):
I had to do another deployment asaviation, and the entire time like I'm
trying to get my packet done,I'm trying to talk the command into like
sending me to different bases so Icould get my suit test and my interview
done with the unit that was incountry, and it kept coming back denying,
and I'm like, well, screwit. We got a Navy team

(15:24):
here. Why can't I just domy suit test with them? And they're
like, now, it doesn't workthat way, we need an army team
to sign you off. So Icome home from leave to Massachusetts and I'm
like, all right, let's startlooking. And I look all around and
I'm finally fine. I'm like,okay, the fifty fifth they're out of

(15:46):
where Andrews Air Force Base. Thisis when they're still at Andrews Air Force
Base. That's that's it. That'swhere I'm going call them up cold call.
Hey, I'm so and so I'mhome from my Iraq. I'm on
my two weeks leave. I'm tryingto get my EU packet done. Is
there any way I can come downand do a suit test? They're like,
uh yeah, sure, when canyou be down here? It's like

(16:07):
I can be down Monday, youknow, And this was a Friday.
So I end up driving down doingmy suit test, what from Massachusetts down
down to Andrews Air Force Base,doing my suit test with them, and
then end up, you know,they give me the go ahead, sign

(16:29):
the letter, all that stuff,put it in my packet, end up
going back to countries submitting my packetlike my command at that time. I
don't know what it is about themilitary in general, if it's like if
you're trying to go do something elsebesides the job that you signed up for,
like your command, they they saythey support you and stuff, but

(16:53):
it's not always that way, youknow what I'm trying From the commander side
of it, they don't want tolose them numbers they've got, you know,
they've got a certain metal that theyhave to follow. They have to
have a certain amount of manpower.And then you know, especially if they
like you and you're good at yourjob, they're like, we don't need
to lose we don't want to losethis guy. So then they drag your
feet right hoping that you'll lose interestin whatever adventure you want to go off

(17:18):
on. The star major called meinto the carpet with my platoons ardent because
I sort of did all this underthe radar and left the command out of
it, and was like, youknow, you didn't keep us informed in
this, and I'm going to justblock you. I'm like, star Major,
with all the respect, you can'tyou know, they're they're a critical

(17:40):
MS they're they're hurting on people likethis is a volunteer statement, like there's
nothing you can do to stop this. So my punishment for doing that was
like getting shunned out of aviation andsent to the q RF team for the
base that I was on. Sosix months of my deployment out of fifteen

(18:02):
month deployment, I was tasked tothe QRF team to guard the base we're
on, which I was like,which base was that? Spiker Iraq?
So I ended up going to theQREF team because I decided to go EUD,
which hindsight, I was like,in my mind, I'm like,
this is great. I'm gonna learn, you know, infantry tactics from these

(18:23):
guys, to learn some of thebasics of like how to communicate and work
outside the wire, because this iswhere I'm going, you know, you
know by the way they're pulling,they're the security detail for our EOD team,
even though they're Navy EOD team.But at least I get to see
them operate and see what I'm goingto get into. So it was a

(18:45):
huge blessing in disguise, but atthe time I was like, man,
I really pissed this guy off.So we ended up coming back from that
deployment, I had to wait mynine months of downtime or whatever reiteration or
re integration time whatever the Army enactedbefore I could go to the school.

(19:11):
And then February of eight is whenI went to school. So I ended
up going to Redstone Arsenal, doingmy Phase one there and then going down
to the schoolhouse, you know,going through the nine months there, and
then well a little bit more thannine months, I medically rolled ruptured my

(19:33):
eardrum diving recreational diving, so Ihad a medical role for that. But
finally graduated in May of two thousandand nine and ended up being stationed in
New York. So go to FortDrum, remember, graduated May two thousand
and nine. September two thousand andnine, I end up on the staff's

(19:56):
ardent list automatical emotion because that timewe were hurting bad. Oh dudes left
and right, and you had somuch time as a team member. Oh
yeah, yeah yeah. So becauseof my time and grade and time and
service like arm, big armyes,like fuck it, here's the staff sergeant

(20:22):
do something. Yeah. That immediatelyput like a target on my back from
uh the first sergeant of that unitat the time, and I'm not going
to mention the unit or the firstartist name understood no problem and made my
life pretty freaking hard for no reason, and it made integrating into a new
unit, integrating into a new jobreally hard until I did some bouncing around

(20:51):
on teams and ended up under uhone senior staff sergeant that was about to
pick up E seven. And Iwill mention his name. Staffs aren't bad.
Michael Beatty and anyone that knows himin our community. He is brash.
He is, you know, straightfrom the Bronx, like you know,

(21:11):
deep New Yorker accident, but onehell of a freaking teacher and mentor,
you know, yeah, a Bombeck. Yeah he is. So when
I got on his team, youknow, at that time, I was
pretty beaten down, like, youknow, what the hell did I do
coming this way? All this stuff, and Vidi's like, dude, don't

(21:33):
worry about it. He's like,I don't have time to teach you how
to be a team member, butI have time to teach you how to
be a team leader. You're gonnahave to learn how to be a team
team member on your own. Iwas like, all right, cool,
let's do it. Sure. AndI learned more from that man than anything
else, and I hate to admitit, and if he ever sees this,
he's probably gonna call me up andbe like, ha told you,

(21:56):
you know, But just his mentalityof getting the job done, how to
put stuff down in a way thatsomeone can pick it up and understand it
really quickly and be successful with it. Like all my successes as an EOD

(22:18):
text started with him and the toolsthat he taught me. And I tried
my damned is to do two things. Make sure I never put a soldier
that was under me or I wasresponsible responsible for in the same situation,
and to always pass on those sametools that he taught me, right,
And you know, it served mepretty well. So crazy thing is fast

(22:44):
forward after that deployment with BD,we're at Bob Hammer in Iraq, came
back you know, reset refit time, and then we're scheduled to head out
the door again. We're doing ourwork up to go to Afghanistan, and
the lead instructor for our A techclass was the commander of the fifty fifth

(23:08):
is the one that did my bombsuit test and interview, right, and
so that was pretty cool, Like, yeah, sir, you signed my
paperwork. It's like, shit,responsible you are. That's hilarious. So
but yeah, so like my wholefrom you know, high school through army

(23:32):
aviation to doing EUD work, Likeall that time working with electronics and stuff,
you know, turned me into likeone very potent id tech. And
I'm probably you know, some ofthe older generations in our field, and
you know, they're like, oh, you're not a neod tech. You

(23:52):
don't know anything about UXO's You're anid tech. And it's like, yeah,
damn marda am ser because that's thethreat we went against. You know,
well, sure enough, But there'salso, uh, even during the
timeframe that you were in, I'mstill a firm believer that there were plenty
of IEDs that incorporated UXO's military ordinance. You still have to identify what ordinance

(24:15):
it is as you're dealing with theproblem, you know what I'm saying,
so, uh explosive package. Youknow they Now, granted I understand we've
we phased into that timeframe where weran out of munitions or they ran out
of munitions, i should say,or we're running low on munitions, and
that's when the surge of homemade explosivesand you know, five gallon palm oil

(24:37):
jugs and everything else. Uh,so I get it. And then so
you did, you did two deploymentsand then went to uh your team leaders
certification course? Is that what happened? So I did two deployments as aviation,
went to U D School, cameout of U D School, wh

(25:00):
to went to Drum, went toDRUMK sorry brainfeart, did a deployment as
a team leader our team member slashteam leader in training, went through ALC

(25:22):
and then went back up to Drumto deploy to Afghanistan. So I know
you met me after my deployment.Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I
already done. I had already doneit deployment as a team leader. Yeah,
so similar to what happened with mewhen I was on activeuty bagdad O

(25:45):
three four oh five team leader statusin five and then went to back then
it was called b knock, wentto b knock after being being in a
combat zone as a team leader already. So yeah, a lot of some
hilarities, and then you have theunfortunate circumstances of having to have you know,
be around me as as an instructorout there at the course at at

(26:07):
ap Hill, oh No ALC.Was some fun and learned a lot of
stuff. And that's I really wishit didn't take fifteen years for a doctor
and to change. And I sortof wish that if the military could find

(26:34):
out a way to do more ofa think tank at these higher level courses.
I think our biggest hang up sometimesis the fact that our ability to
dissentimate information that works is lacking.And when you're in a class with thirty

(26:56):
other you know, teamly and aboutto become team leaders, that's like the
perfect time to pass on that knowledgeto each other, you know. So
not only do you learn from thecourse that you're in, but you're learning
from your fellow students. Like,hey, I've done this in the past.
It's worked. No, it hasn'tworked. You know. I'm not
talking about changing the publications. Thepublications are there for a reason, right,

(27:19):
talking about you know that gray areawe all work in. Right,
what's the old saying the publications areguidelines. They're not you know, written
in stone like there's oals. Sothat's the kind of stuff I'm talking about,
almost, like what advance advancides doesfor you, you know, teaches

(27:40):
you. The greatest thing about advanceidees is it teaches you to think out
of the box very quickly, tolook at a scenario and be like,
Okay, none of the stuff thatI know works, so what else can
I use to get the job done? Kind of stuff. Sure, that's
the biggest thing for advanced IDs andwhy I'm such a big advocate of junior
guys is going through advanced IDs.You know, like not to talk about

(28:06):
what you were taught there, butgoing there to become James Bond is not
what that course needs to be.Knowing there to become a critical thinker is
where that job needs or that courseneeds to become. You know, like
teaching people better thought processes is what'sgoing to do it right. That's that's

(28:30):
what I wish like ALC and SLCbecame instead of just going there and wasting
your freaking time for three months.You know, like, so not everybody's
not everybody's veteran a veteran or militarythat watches this show. So ALC is
advanced leaders course, Sorry, noproblem. I'm just that we throw those

(28:51):
things out there, spells as wealways should before we acronyms at them and
CLS all right, sorry, SLCnot CLS Combat Life Saver Courses CLS or
yep, SLC is senior Leader's course, so right, yeah. But I

(29:15):
think also the Army has done abetter job of making sure individuals aren't getting
into those critical positions before going throughthese courses as well, Like the OP
tempo has definitely slowed down to thepoint where they can be like, okay,
you need to hit these before youmake staffs. Are you know right?

(29:37):
I understand well, And but theop tempo is also slowed down quite
a bit as well. You know, Uh, I got back from Iraq
and O four we jumped straight intoI mean we didn't. We barely had
any hardly any downtime because we jumpedstraight into support for the election with working
with Secret Service. And we'll getinto that stuff, la, because that's

(30:00):
towards the end of your career.And then you know, while I'm while
we're doing VIPs uh with Secret Serviceand running backstop as well for other units,
or helping out with backstop for otherunits. Uh, I'm working on
my team leaders certification so that wayI can become a team leader before I
actually go out the door to Afghanistan. I get it. I understand exactly

(30:22):
what you're saying. It's it's adifferent world now. I mean, I've
been out of it a lot longerthan you have. So, but so
you went to you went back toVirginia for ALC. Yeah. Was it
ALC back then or was it actuallystill ban Oc? No, it was
they changed it to ALC and theymoved it from Red Zone to ap Hill

(30:47):
And that was like the second orthird class through since they changed the iteration
or changed locations. Yeah, becauseI went through, I went through Banoc.
Yeah, at Redstone. So whatelse happened at ALC for you,
sir? I met my wife?Oh you did? Digit yes, Oh

(31:11):
that is a yeah. I canhear her voice in the back of my
head. You know, it's stillcussing me up and down about introducing the
two of you. Here we are, because it's eleven ten years later,
yeah, eleven years eleven years thisyear, yeah, eleven years later,
and the boys and you know,and again, you know, I had

(31:36):
a great time visiting you guys overthe weekend because I'm just down the road
forty five minutes. It was fantasticspending time with you guys, and just
for our viewers, I want tojust share that, you know, when
Uncle Buck comes to visit, withinthe first ten minutes of getting to the
house, it's an all out NERFwar and everybody's shooting everybody. So yes,
it was awesome. Yes, yeah, that's reminding me that she was

(32:00):
looking for a good time, nota long time. Oh well, you
know, so I saw how thatone played out. So yeah, now
that when you went back up toDrum, how many how many more deployments
before you stopped deploying and then uh, and then what was your next assignment

(32:22):
assignment after after for Drum? Thatwas it, believe it or not,
I did. Afghanistan was my lastdeployment. So I've got three Diraq one
to Afghanistan, total of forty fivemonths combat time. Yep. And then

(32:44):
you know we were doing a workup train up to go back over to
Afghanistan. At this time, Ipensar in first class and uh, the
rules had changed and they're like,nope, we can't push your date back
for SLC. You're going you're goingto school. Yeah yeah, And I'm
like, okay, WTF. Sowell it took you out of the It

(33:07):
took you out of the rotation,right, So I ended up going back
down to Virginia, uh Fort Leefor SLC and you know, getting down,
getting down to the nitty gritty.At this time, Christina is pregnant
with our first one. You know, she's right at thirty nine weeks.

(33:28):
They in't douce slaver so we canhave the kid before I take off.
And I'm on paternity leave and youknow, sarm Major is calling me trying
to figure out the logistics and uhtalking to him and everything, and he's
like, yeah, so we're gonnatry to get you out and over to

(33:49):
your unit. But to do that, we have to pull two guys out
of out of country. And I'mlike, wait what not? Like yeah,
you know, it's manning requirements.We got to pull two guys out
out to get you over there.And I'm like, so, who's on
the chopping block? You know,because at that time the unit was pretty
green, Like our staffs ergists weresenior, but our junior guys no combat

(34:13):
time nothing, right, Yeah,I get it. Yeah, so our
junior guys, They're gonna pull twoof our junior guys out and I'm thinking
to myself, I'm like, thismakes no sense, especially as that time
is down right and at that time, combat time was getting uh incorporated into

(34:34):
your promotion points. So you're gonnayou're gonna, you know, handicapped you
guys for their next promotion to youover there to yeah, which I've got
forty five months of combat time,Like, I don't need that anymore.
It's my first class. I've workedcompany operations, I've worked platoon operations.
Platoons are company operations n c Olike, and Star Major was like,

(35:01):
nah, I don't like it either. I'd rather pull you up to battalion
and take you on our deployment andwe're going in a year, right,
I was like, absolutely outstanding,Let's make it happen. So I get
pulled up to sixty third to becomethat's three NCO as a starn first class,

(35:23):
and I'm freaking loving it, likelearning all the nuances of strategic planning,
you know, leads on with thebrigades there, like it's it's phenomenal.
We're probably six months out from thedeployment, We're looking pretty good,

(35:44):
and I get the congratulations email frommister Featherman. Oh, yeah, and
it says, congratulations, Star firstClass Mills, You've been selected for a
no fail mission. I'm like,oh, here we go. You were
tasked to go to Soul, Korea, And I'm like, you gotta be

(36:06):
for kidding me. Oh, Itotally forgot about Korea before you went to
vipso. Yeah, so I gotpulled right before they deployed and before the
fence was established around sixty third.Right, you go to Korea to do
more platoons are in time, whichI've already had and did not do anything

(36:28):
for my career progression. Right,and oh, by the way, my
son at this time is five monthsold, and now I have to lead
to go to Korea. Yeah.For a year, Yeah, I was
pretty pissy danced and because of somemedical stuff my oldest was going through,
you know, having the option ofbringing my family. There wasn't a thing

(36:52):
you had to state stateside to getthe treatment. So I end up going
over there here and make the bestof it and got to see some really
cool things, got to do sometraining events that I probably never would have
been able to do if I didnot go to Korea, Right, wouldn't
get that exposure? Yeah? Right, you know you talk about uxos.

(37:15):
Oh god, it's it's it's crazy. It's like a time capsule back to
you know, the Korean War someof the stuff we were dealing with.
So enjoyed it got I was like, all right, this is pretty cool.
All right, So time to rotateback stateside. I had an option

(37:39):
to choose my duty station after Koreabefore I left, so I knew where
I was going. I was like, well, I want to come back
to Fort Drum. We own ahouse up here, Like, we'll just
come back here, make it easy. And fatherman was like, Nope,
absolutely not. You spent six yearsat Drum. We're not sending you back
pick somewhere. Yeah. I waslike, fine, i'll go. I'll

(38:00):
go to Brag. I want tostay on the East Coast. I want
anything to do with the West Coast. I don't want to go to a
different group, right, keep meon the East Coast. So I end
up rotating back to brag In abouttwo months before I left, I got
an email from this SARM major downat one ninety second said congratulations Starn first

(38:22):
Class Midals on your you know,new duty station at Fort Bragg. We're
excited to have you. Oh,by the way, we're standing up to
conventional, beauty airborne companies and you'regonna be one of the airborne platoons,
arens. I said, say whatnow to go back? Yeah, at

(38:46):
this time, fourteen years to whenI initially joined in my contract, I
had airborne written into it. Ipassed Airborne school jumps, never went to
an airborne unit while I was aviationright rights. Matter of fact, my
first duty station as aviation was Hawaii. Five of us with the same MOS

(39:12):
that went through airborne school all wentto Hawaii. We were like, what
the hell's going on? Are theystanding up in the airborne unit. No,
we got deployed Iraq. That's whythey sent us. Yeah, so
fourteen years five, chump, Chumpnever jumped again. Switched over to UTE
at that time, UD doesn't havefreaking airborne so you're never going to jump
again. Congratulations. No. Soat this time, I'm fourteen years in

(39:39):
Starn first class on a permanent profilebecause of my back being jacked up right
right, and you know, shouldersjacked up all the same ailments of every
other freaking Starn first class that's donetime overseas, wearing all the freaking equipment,
driving around trucks, just beating thehell out of your bodies and not
taking care of ourselves, you know, to get put on jump status again.

(40:05):
So go ahead, Yeah, let'sget to it. Come on,
I want to hear it. Endup coming back to brag and into this
just complete like figure it out,yeah chaos. Yeah. So like all

(40:29):
right, well, let's go talkto the people that have actually been doing
this job. You know, twentyeighth is right next door. Let's talk
to them. What are they doing? You know, they they've got a
completely different mission set, but alot of what eighty second airborne mission plays
into what the Ranger Bat's doing.So let's let's see what the thinking is.

(40:50):
Right. So got with a lotof guys that are much smarter and
in those positions to know how todo this correctly. You know, we
define identified a lot of issues thatwe had with our equipment, We identified
a lot of issues with the vehicleswe were MP towed, and you know,
did a lot of work to changewhat we're doing, hopefully for the

(41:10):
better right to make the mission work. So did that for about three years.
In ninety days, I did liketwenty five jumps. Wow, just
getting myself and the platoon up sowe could pass over, all right,
you know, Vallex. So you'rethere for three years. When did Featherman

(41:31):
hit you up again? Featherman didnot hit me up at that time.
He had retired and I was gettingfrustrated with what was going on at the
unit, okay and above our units, and I was like, I need
a change of pace, all right, I'm just not going to be able

(41:53):
to keep going, you know.Sure. Yeah. So I found out
through the grape vine that a positionwas opening him by VIPSA, and they
changed it to another volunteer position,so you had to apply for it,
right, So I applied to VIPSA, sent my resume up essentially you know

(42:15):
who I am? All that pissedoff another star major doing that because he
didn't tell him that I was doingit right, did it? And he
tried to put the kaibash on it. And my first startet major or second

(42:37):
star major at sixty third who's nowretired, stepped in on my behalf and
made some phone calls to make surethat the right information was being put up
about me, and he didn't.It wasn't a hook or anything. It
was just my mentor or one ofmy mentors looking out for me and making
sure that the right info was Wouldthat have been to be a Larry Cosh.

(43:01):
No, Cushing was my first.Okay, so he'd already retired by
then. Yeah, so Scott FryI got call and uh he talked to
this arm major up there, whothen called me and we had like a
forty five minute to an hour interview, and then I talked to you the

(43:22):
civilian director up there, and theyliked what I said had to say,
and you know, I ended upgoing up there. And that is an
awesome mission. That is something thatgets overlooked and people are like, oh,
it's just VIPs that Like, no, man, some of the coolest
things I've ever done. Yeah.The amount of responsibility you have in that

(43:43):
office, it's humbling. Yeah,you're storm first class and you're tasking major
combatant commands with missions and they canYeah, I get it, you know.
So it's very humbling. At thesame time, it's really red.
That's where you're retired out of,right. Yeah, yeah, so retired,

(44:06):
ended up taking a When did youretire? You just that was just
a year and a half ago,right, two years ago, twenty twenty
two September twenty twenty two, sojust under two years. Yeah, so
I was I'm sorry. So theyou you took the VIP submission and for

(44:29):
those watching that don't know what theVIP submission is a lot of it from
the east side of the house.Is what we do is we do secret
Service support for very important people.Anybody that Secret Service decides or State Department
decides deserves that level of protection.We assist the teams in clearing the venues
so that everybody's safe whenever they showup or do whatever they're whatever event they're

(44:52):
doing. But so now you're retiredout of there, and then so how
have as How has transition been fromactive duty time? Because you did a
lot of traveling during VIPSA what how'sthat? How's the transition been for you
know, you've got to you gota wife and two sons. How's the

(45:14):
transition been for the family? Brother? The first coming up to about three
months to my separation date. Yeah, like I had to come to Jesus
moment of like what the fuck?Like my world mentally was starting to fall

(45:37):
apart, right I get to Iwas involved in a venture to set up
for me retiring to help. Iwas helping an individual start a company,
and I was investing a lot ofmy time in that. In my head

(45:58):
wasn't right and I was like,I need to get this up, so
I can, you know, havesomething to walk out on sure. And
it got to the point where itwas like, Okay, I need to
take a step back and figure itout. I needed to do some soul
searching and find myself again. Andthere goes my big brother Odie, going,

(46:19):
what the fuck are you doing?So after talking to you and deciding
on a course of action, tooka job overseas doing some uxo work,
which was really beneficial for me becauseit gave me a platform to step away
from the military but still do thejob in some aspect. Yeah, serve

(46:42):
a purpose. So I did thatfor about nine months, talk to the
family every day, came home,visited for Christmas. Definitely helped save my
family and me. Yeah, gotmy head on straight, was able to

(47:04):
come to grips with some of thestuff I was dealing with internally, and
then was able to come home abetter person than I was when I left.
And then one it's I came back, you know, took a job
at load's just what what the helllike, I'm retired and you know,
that's busy work. But it alsoyou know, I talk with the people,

(47:24):
I talked with guests, and it'sthe short term purpose at times,
it just needs to get you frompoint A to point B and fill that
gap, you know. And I'mWe've talked, I've had conversations with other
guests. I'm glad that Guam helpedyou with that transition because and I think
it's it's very important that we sharethat piece with our with the audience because

(47:47):
people are listening a lot of peoplestruggled through transition as you have, or
their own version of it. I'myou know, and it's it's an ataboy
more and it's it's this positive thing. We should talk about, that positiveness
that you came back from Guam andyou're getting your head straight while you're doing

(48:10):
the job in Guam. You know, it was it's it's almost like a
perfect It ended up being like akind of a perfect balancing match, a
little bit to help you transition toto be to work things out, you
know, and have have a goodspace, a good head new space,
you know, headspace and stuff.So I'm proud of you, man,
I really am. And uh uhyeah that's that. That was good for

(48:36):
you. Yeah for you. Soand now you're now you're back in school.
Yeah now I just today started.It's like, screw it, I
want to go learn how to drivea truck. So let's have a truck.
That's one thing I can always sayis keep busy, find positive things

(48:58):
to focus on. Never stopped learning, because I mean, you know,
I'm forty years old. I'm notdone learning. The day I'm done learning
is the day I'm going to die. And yeah, I get it.
That's just the that's the mentality thatI've had, and it's just something I'm
curious about. Want to tackle,so let's go learn it, you know.

(49:20):
And that was sort of my mentalityof, you know, going to
work at loads. It's like neverworked retail, you know, the last
twenty years known the military, Likewhat what's this retail? What's ninety percent
of the country doing. Let's golearn this. Turns out it's shit.
I would not recommend it, butI learned a lot, you know,

(49:43):
a lot of good stuff I've learnedthere, and you know, especially being
a supervisor and taking some of thethe skill sets that you learn as a
leader in the military and then applyingit to civilians at a more tempered Yeah,
that was gonna say gently, verygently injured exactly. Yeah, you

(50:06):
know, it was a good time. And I learned a lot doing that
job, and hopefully I learned moredoing this job. But it's never never
stop pursuing your passions or goals orwhatever you want to do in life.
Just because you're curious to do something, it's enough to go do it in
my mind, you know, right, as long as it's positive and it's

(50:28):
not illegal or moral, I'm allabout it. Go well. And and
you know, uh, the familyhere at kg R A and Skywatcher,
I mean, look, they puta gorilla in a you know, in
a in a podcast for veterans,so right, anything can happen. It's
you know, it's it's the sky'sthe limit. So but so you've been

(50:49):
in school since Monday, uh,and I've been through the Great Vine.
I've been hearing that you've been gettinggold stars. So congratulations. I'm glad.
I'm very proud of you that you'redoing good school. Brother, trying
to Yeah, and if it's theone thing I learned from going through you
to the school and averaging a testevery three days. It's how to study
and retain information. So I haveit's amazing how you if you implement what

(51:15):
you've learned in your military to thecivilian world, like the sky's the limit,
Like honestly it is. Oh yeah, agreed, agreed. So we're
gonna we're about to wrap this up, but I wanted to I wanted to
ask you, how not how anywords of wisdom that you would like to
share? A quote, something that'sbeen important that keep you keep kind of

(51:38):
resounding in your head as time haspassed, anything that you'd like to share
with the audience, you know,before we uh circle around and finish this
episode and then uh so what doyou got? I tell my kids all
the way, all the time isnot in your vocabulary. So when they're

(52:02):
tired and upset and they're like,Dad, I can't do this, It's
like, no, that's not inyour vocabulary, right. I think we
hinder ourselves a lot when we startusing those negative terms like can't or won't
or that's just not a thing,or you know, my biggest pet peeve

(52:23):
is well that's just not how wedo it. You know. So if
I had to leave any wisdom toanyone, is like, don't let anyone
ever tell you no, just becausethat's the way we've always done it,
like always, yeah, always evolved, push the boundaries. Yeah, I

(52:45):
always look for a better efficient wayto do it. Don't don't, don't
take no the first time. Inmost cases, there's a caveat there,
right, Oh yeah, and alwaysstrives to be better than you woke up,
you know, do something, learnsomething, always get back to your

(53:07):
community, whatever it is, youknow, try to be better than you
wear the day before. Absolutely iswhat I thrive for and what I try
to teach my kids. And that'ssometimes that's the struggle to do. And
sometimes you're like, fuck, Idon't I don't even want to get out
of bed. But yeah, thoseare the days where you have to dig
down deep and make yourself be betterthan the day you work or the better

(53:30):
than the day before. So yeah, you don't have to get it right.
You just have to try and dobetter than yesterday, right exactly,
So I take a step. Ireally appreciate the opportunity to come on.
I think this is awesome, Odie. I'm really proud of you. Man,
this is huge, appreciate better incommunity and for you to like,

(53:53):
we need more positive voices out inthis world, especially this day and age.
So I'm really proud of you,man, and I love you for
it. So love you too,brother, and I'll reach out to you
guys and we'll figure out the nexttime my uncle Buck can come up and
visit the kids. Absolutely then hangout with you guys. So without further
ado, Josh again from the Kgrafamily myself, thank you so much for

(54:16):
joining us. Honored to have youon the show. That wraps up another
episode of trip Wire for us today. Ladies and gentlemen, look for us
next time, same time, ournext week, same time, sixteen hundred
and four pm Eastern, And asalways, stay safe, God bless and
stay proud of America, keep goingon.