Tyler Grogg of INERT Mugs

TripWire and the KGRA family are honored to have Tyler Grogg, USMC EOD Combat Veteran and Owner of INERT Mugs Drinkware. Join us for discussions about time in service, separation, addiction, the VA, and new beginnings as a Vetpreneur Business Owner. 
https://www.inertmugs.com/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/FBombDesignsLV
https://www.crabzone.com/
Video references:
https://youtu.be/vaVOX72cBSQ?si=rGGRlkzEQZ8iareq

Episode Transcript

(00:39):
Good afternoon everybody. We are backafter the fourth of July. Welcome to
Tripwired. Is July tenth, Wednesday, afternoon, three pm. We have
a phenomenal show going or getting readyto kick off today. I have tea
paying Grog Tyler Grog in the house, owner of Inert Mugs, fellow brother

(01:00):
and fellow marine as well. Tyler. Great to have you, brother,
God bless you, and I appreciateyou joining us. We are honored to
have you on on Tripwire, andthe kg r A family is is very
happy to have you here as well. Well. I'm humbled to be here
because I've been playing catch up andbinging some of your older episodes, and

(01:23):
amongst all the giants that you've interviewedpreviously, I feel I feel like a
lonely little minion. So I'm humbledto be here. Thank you for having
me. Man. It's all good, brother, It's all good. So
without further ado, let's dive intothis interview. Fantastic to have you on
here, and I will I wantto throw this out there for the audience.

(01:44):
You and I have been in businessventures with our own companies for i'd
say about three years. I masterblaster coffee and nert mugs. You had
a prior company prior to that witha business partner. I just want to
set that tone for our audience,because this is gonna be epic, it's
going to be energized, and we'regonna drive forward. Absolutely. Yeah.

(02:08):
It's it's crazy to think that it'sbeen that long already. It doesn't to
me. It doesn't feel like thishas been a three year relationship. But
man, happy anniversary. You know, we'll just got three years on the
dot. Happy anniversary. I'll getyour president. It'll be something pretty I
promise, I got you. This. This is this is my present to
you. Actually, I guess thisis this is your present to me.

(02:29):
I should say, well, thankyou very much. I appreciate that.
So let's let's get into it talk. Let's let's share with our our audience.
Where where did you, where'd youcome from? Where you originally from?
Uh? And what led you tojoin the Marine Corps? Fantastic questions.
So originally born and raised in Ohiosuburbs of Columbus. Was my lived

(02:53):
with my mom in a small littlesuburb called Worthington, and then my dad
had a acreage out in the Booniesin West Jefferson, Ohio. Good luck
finding that on a map. Ifeel like one person knows where it's at.
So I'm I'm kind of like halfcity slicker, half hillbilly, which
I think is pretty cool. Andthat kind of played into my life choices

(03:13):
when it came to the military.But fast forward to high school years.
So I was a freshman in almosta college, a freshman in high school
when the Twin Towers fell, andthat had a pretty substantial impact on my
decision to join the military. Ihad always known I wanted to join the
military in some capacity, And whenI really think about it, I think,

(03:36):
I mean, everything goes back tochildhood, right, like something you
saw or something you did as akid. My neighbor was my babysitter,
and she had she had a sonwho was a marine. I remember seeing
his picture on the mantle, andI remember seeing like news clips of Kuwait,
and you know, I wrote thoselittle notes to like dear soldier,
thank you for killing that guys youknow, sent that stuff overseas. So
I think that's kind of what initiallyinstilled this like treatism. So the initial

(04:01):
idea was like just just do myfour years see where it goes, and
actually want to join the Navy.So don't hate me too hard, and
whatever branch as long as you servethese days man, sure absolutely, I'd
just like to take my shots atany other branch when I can, because
we're both former jarhead so and it'swhat we it's what we do. Nobody

(04:24):
else gets to make fun of us, but we can make fun of each
other. So the the Twin Towersfell and that basically just solidified it for
me. It was like, allright, like this isn't maybe anymore,
this is this is what I'm goingto do. So senior year, Like
the very beginning of senior year,all my friends are freaking out about you
know, SATs and college essays andall this other stuff. And I took

(04:45):
a drive down to the local recruitingstation. I remember they had all the
branches in a strip mall, andyou know, I be lined straight into
the Navy recruiting office and I satdown and I talked to him, and
I remember this dude's face like Iif he fight ransom tomorrow and be like,
you're the guy that didn't want toenlist me. And he was sitting
there and it's like, hey,like what what can I help you with?
And I was like, hey,man, I want to join the
Navy. Let's do this. Andhe's like, what do you want to
do? Like I don't know,but this is what I want to do

(05:08):
with my life. And he wasjust very, I don't know, hesitant
to really do anything. So Ileft the office and I was like,
like, well, that didn't golike I expected, and no, it
was crazy. And then my futureMarine Corps recruiter he's standing at there and
he's smoking and he was a littlebit shorter than me, but this dude
was like yoked and scary and likehis uniform was like you could like see

(05:31):
all his little muscle fibers. Andhe was like, he was like they
might join the Navy. And Iwas like petrified. I'm like, I
don't know who you are. Don'teat me. I just want to I
just want to leave, you know, like I need an adult. And
so he was like, why don'tyou come in and talk to me?
So I did and he was greatat his job. He definitely recruited me

(05:51):
because I left that office and like, that's what I wanted to do.
Yeah, he eventually ended up callingto kind of ghost to him for a
little bit, let me think aboutit. End up calling the house.
My mom picked up the phone upstairs. I'm in the basement. She's yells
down at me, Hey, pickup the phone. I talked to him,
and I was like, yeah,yeah, I haven't talked to my
parents yet. You know, i''lltell you what. I'll figure it out.

(06:13):
Let me call you back and we'llset up a meeting. So as
soon as I got the phone,She's naturally like, who who's on the
phone. I told her some MarineCorps recruiter and she lost her mind.
Yep, Now she was she wastoo too young to be like drapped.
She was old enough when Vietnam wasgoing on to remember seeing all the news
stories about the Marines and just Marinesgetting hammered in Vietnam. So that's that's

(06:34):
her impression of the rink warps,you know. Sure, So, so
that's what she spassed out about andwas like, not my son. And
then, of course, being seventeenand like a senior, I'm like,
well, you're no, I'm almosta grown man. You can't exactly.
So uh. Luckily this was freshmanyear. This is the beginning of freshman
year. So you know, hecame over to the house and honestly took

(06:57):
it. Took a couple of monthsfor me to sign the paperwork, but
it really boiled down. I waslike, Mom, this is what I
want to do, so you canhelp me and we can get started on
this delayed entry program or I'm justgoing to do it when I graduate and
turn eighteen. Anyway, Yeah,and so so that's that's that long drawn
out story of how I joined theMarine Corps. Initially, I signed my
contract as a computer special or acomputer network specialist, computer NERD, got

(07:21):
it. Okay, So we'll getback to that in a second. But
I want to share two things withyou and also our audience. It's amazing
how you sit there and you sayI was in high school when the Twin
Towers fell, because I mean Iwas. I was retiring. No,

(07:42):
shut up, my first my firstdeployment. I was thirty years old for
my first deployment in two thousand andthree. Okay, I know the point
was. What point I'm getting atthough, is is that I had conversations
with my mom growing up, andwe remember she remembered where she was as
a kid. For the uh youknow, the assassination of Kennedy. Sure,

(08:07):
as far as in school, right, and I remember where I was
at school, when I was inschool, when Reagan was shot, and
when the shuttle blew up, theSpace shuttle blew up, you know.
So it's all these different types ofmoments, these uh, defining moments in
history of things that they remember.So I was trying to make the connection

(08:30):
there and now I totally lost Imean, going back to the historical actually
yeah, yeah, so going backto but there was the second point that
I was trying to bring up.My recruiter. I still talked to him
till this day. I mean wespent obviously, that's pretty cool. Yeah,
I mean, so he recruited mein nineteen ninety, late eighty nine,

(08:52):
early ninety you know, it's I'mfifty years old now, so there
was some time lost, but Istill found him and we still talk and
we matter of fact, he wasthe first text message I got last week
for Happy Fourth of July, youknow, happy to Day. Yeah,
he was the first one that hitme up for a texta and that was
I thought that was awesome. JohnNum Ship brick house of a mortarman I

(09:16):
mean literally just as as wide andstocked as he was tall, because he
was just built, you know whatI'm saying. And there was there were
ten of us that I was thefirst, I think one of the first
ones or the first one out ofthe school, out of our school to
join. We had other guys fromdifferent schools that we all got to understand

(09:37):
or know each other during the delayedentry program. Ten of us joined the
Marine Corps out of a graduating classof one hundred and forty back in nineteen
ninety one man not to be thatone upper but I graduated fifty. I
graduated five fifty. I'm only awareof two Marines and one Army guy out
of my whole class that initially joinedthe military. Per Now, there were

(10:01):
I did catch wind of other graduatesthat wind up, you know, they
tried the school thing and it didn'twork out. But yeah, it was
just with you know. I meanagain, I graduated in four. Yeah,
like Iraq is a full swing andeveryone's like I think the majority of
for whatever reason, I'm just likenow, like we want to graduating four
You're going to your twenty three reunionnow or what what are we doing here?

(10:22):
No? God, no, no, no, no, But it's
funny you mentioned that. I gottaI got a Facebook message about that,
like the planning has begun and I'mlike, plane tickets are too expensive nowadays.
All right, Well, so youwent to the Marine Corps uh out
of Ohio. So did you goto Paris Island? Hell? Yeah,
did where real marines are raided misterHollywood over there. You know, I

(10:50):
had Neil Colin on Conlin on uh, several weeks ago. Uh. I'm
part of the fifth Marine Corps.I think it was a Marine Corps recruiting
district several states east of the Mississippi. They sent all their men to to
s Yeah, they sent us toSan Diego. So yeah, I think,
I think, and hopefully hopefully someone'slistening that knows that can like validate

(11:15):
it. But I'm pretty sure theOhio Indiana border is the cutoff because the
Ohio River flows into the Mississippi.So I think once you cross from Ohio,
Indiandia, so Indiana goes San Diego, Ohio, we go parasigl Yeah.
I think I think we're the leftthe right left lateral limit. Fair
enough, fair enough, it's allgood. So where did you go to
school for for computer what'd you say? Computer? Computer network specialist was my

(11:39):
official title. So I went toa good old twenty nine Paulms, California,
which, as I know as astudent, no car, you know,
I mean there's nothing out there todo. Period of the switch the
Satan's taint, which is which yeah, it's it was coming from a culture
shock. For the temperature, itwas nuts. It was nuts. I

(12:03):
mean just a different like like whyis there a town here? Like why
do people live here? This isinsane? It's now actually one of my
favorite places. Like if I couldpick up a UXO contract and they say
where do you want to go,I'd be like, I want to go
to Towning Palms, just phenomenal UXAwhere anyways, But that's jumping ahead.
So I went to the school intwenty eine Palms. I ended up taking

(12:24):
like ninety percent of my classmates.Got picked up for a fallow On Ms
school, which was pretty dope.And then after that I was shipped off
to Okinawa, which I didn't evenknow that was the place. They said
you're going to Okinawa And I said, did you mispronounced Lejune? You know,
because being an East coast guy,I was trying to go back to
North Carolina, like that was nodrive home over long weekends, and like

(12:46):
no, no, Okinahawa. I'mlike, I don't English. No,
I don't understand the words that you'retrying to tell me right now. As
far as duty stations go, though, I think for a first duty station
it was it was awesome. Youknow. There was that underage partying.
I mean, there's no statute oflimitations for mjping right then JP me,

(13:07):
now okay. And on top ofthat, foreign country is foreign country,
so do okay, yeah is whatit is? Sure sure so that the
Okinawas didn't care. They don't checkyour license. Man, as long as
you're slinging money, they'll I'll serveyou drinks. So it was great.
So lived up that, you know, like, but eventually I kind of

(13:28):
realized. I was like, allright, like I'm wasting all this money.
I had this great opportunity. Let'snot squander it. So I became
I kind of kind of threw myselfinto their culture, you know, just
to embrace I did a lot ofsight seeing. I had my dad mailed
me on my scuba gear. Idid a lot of scuba diving out there.
So I tried to Like the firsthalf of my Oakie tour was just

(13:50):
like you know, frat boy party, and then it was like, okay,
I need to grow up a littlebit now and uh actually make something
of it. So it was prettycool, awesome. Where was the where
was the additional school that you wentto after twenty M poems at? Oh
it's still in twenty N palms.I literally just migrated went from one like
this side of the hallway, Likenow you're on this side of the hallway.

(14:13):
Yeah, nothing crazy. So okay, so you're in Okinawa. Uh
you came back from Okinawa. It'sstill as a network specialist. No,
so you did you volunteer for EOD at that point in time? Here
we go Bingo. I was inKorea on a training mission. And the
cool kind of the cool thing aboutbeing a computer guys, you bust your

(14:35):
butt for a couple of days torun the cables, make sure everyone's computer
and honestly look as long as thegeneral can check his email and make his
phone calls, and then everything wasgreat. You know, General's happy,
the colonel's happy, were great.Some captain's pissed. Off at whatever,
sir, You're not not concerned.You're not high enough on my radar,
you know, and there's just timeto basically just sit and twiddle your thumb.

(14:56):
So the network was up and running. Everything was great, green lights
and and my gunny at the timewas like, hey, eod's out on
the range. You want to goout there with them? And I was
like, I don't even know whatthat is. And he said, hither
do I? But do you wantto not be here? And I said,
yeah, I actually would love tonot be here right now. So
I went out there and you knowagain rewind so my rewind time telling you

(15:16):
my dad grown my dad at ahouse when I grew up in West Jefferson,
Ohio. My little brother and Iwe made potato guns, bottle rocket
launchers and shoot bottle rockets at eachother. We you know, play with
fireworks. We'd literally steal gas,you know that was meant for the tractor,
and we just earned stuff. Anduh So the moment that I saw

(15:37):
these these American heroes, because that'sabout the only appropriate word for EOD text,
So these American heroes, they're gettingpaid to blow stuff up. And
once I like bridge and I waslike money and explosives, and I realized
that there's a bridge between those twoworlds. I was like, where do
I sign up? So I wasa lance I was a lance Quoto at
the time, so I had towait. I did a MEW float.

(15:58):
I really got to know the guythe EOD team that was on the MEW
and really, like you know,rub doubles with him, asked a lot
of questions, told him I wasinterested. So when I got off the
MEU, I think it was likeroughly six months, doesn't really matter how
much time it is. But onceI got off the U called him up
and I said, Yo, rememberme from the boat. I want to
screen, and pretty much the restis history. So when did you go

(16:22):
to school down at so I checkedin in I can't remember. It's either
October November two thousand and eight.And then I graduated. Yeah, I
graduated September of nine. Nice.Yeah, that's a relatively relatively quick I
did have two little hiccups which arepetrifying, so rockets. Initially it was

(16:44):
rockets and pro Joe's that got me. I ground got me. So I
rolled past my do or die?Uh and then uh Dispenser's and Payloads got
me again, and luckily the youknow, the bomb gods had mercy on
me, saw something in me andallowed me to continue. And then after
that it was smooth sailing. That'sit's interesting, you see that because UH

(17:07):
academic role was ground for me andthen going back to UH getting back into
the system I had. I failedthe test in Air two and they were
debating whether or not back then thisis this is UH two thousand, so
back then they were debating whether ornot to allow me to have a second

(17:30):
chance at a test or just toboot me. And thank god they gave
me a second chance at that testbecause I aced it and then boomed February
two thousand and one. I've beena badge wear since then. So it's
been crazy, man. Oh,I mean, tell me about it.

(17:51):
I and you know, and therewere guys that rolled once and were never
even given a second chance. Soyeah, the fact that they I don't
know what I did, right,I don't know who I impressed, but
you know I did enjoy I enjoyedmy time in Destin. Don't get me
wrong. I had a great time. But I went there with the mindset
of like you will graduate. Yeah, Like like I'm not there to you
know, Everyone's like, oh man, you're gonna there for spring break,

(18:12):
summer break, go here, gohere, go do this, you know,
college chicks, blah blah. Iwas like, that's all great,
but you know, like like,can I study while I'm hanging out with
this college shit? Does it workthat way or no? They're like no.
So I went down there with themindset of like, hey, I
want to graduate. I had nointentions of going back to I was over
computers by then. I was overpeople complaining about their emails and I was

(18:34):
like, this is not what Iwant to do. So, okay,
so you graduated. Does the MarineCorps have an additional training venue if you
will after you graduate or you justgo straight to your freaking your your your
company? Yeah at the top.I mean now, I don't know.
I assume it's the same, butuh, you dropped to So we did

(18:57):
by orders groups. So they lookedat everyone that was graduating I think approximately
within like a two month window,and they said, okay, cool.
Within those two months we got tenguys, I need ten sets of orders,
and then it went in GPA order. So the smartest guy I got
to pick his first, and thedumbest guy was stuck with last. And
then so look, I wasn't thesmartest, but luckily I wasn't the dumbest

(19:22):
there was. There was five stateside spots, and I think my orders
group was like nine. There wastwo Camp Penaltons, two Lajunes, and
like I think a wing team somewhere, and then everything else was Okie.
And I was like freaking out.I'm like, I don't want to go
back to Okie and I'm like andI'm like, I'm like, Matt,
I'm like this, this is illegal. I just came from there. You

(19:44):
can't legally send me back, youknow what, an idiot. The Marine
Corps does what the Marine Corps does. We're Jesty Buller's son, sir.
They'll send you wherever the hell youwant exactly. So luckily, luckily I
did. I was like number five, and one of the guys in front
of me managed to pick the wingteam. I think it was wing Team
Penalton or I'm sorry Miramar, whichis in California. So uh, I

(20:08):
was lucky enough to go to CampbellJune. So interesting story about Miramar.
I was active duty in the MarineCorps when Miramar was still a naval station
instead of a Marine Corps air base. Interesting, glad we overran that.
You watched the first top gun,which was probably made before you were born.
You'll get it because that's where it'sat. That's where it's at.

(20:33):
Miramar was where top gun, theschool top gun was for the longest time
in the in the eighties and earlynineties. So not to get it on,
I'm totally dating myself. But that'sokay, it doesn't matter. I
mean, it's at this point I'mdating myself too. It's you know,
to backtrack to the world trades.So today at work, I was teaching,
was teaching a class. Uh,we were doing some case studies on

(20:56):
aviation threats against aviation and and Iwas like, hey, by show hands,
who who who actually remembers nine toeleven? And out of the nine,
like three people raise their hands,and I was like, wait,
when were you born? And like, oh, ninety nine, two thousand
and two thousand and one, twothousand and two, And I'm like,
oh god, it's been that longalready. They were born then, yeah,
born then, Like so I'm givingit, but they're like one or

(21:18):
two or three. How the helldo they remember that? No, they
don't, That's what That's what I'msaying. Like for me, it's like
it's now I'm now officially like pastthat that hurdle in history to where it's
like, oh you remember nine eleven. You're fucking old, bro, Yeah
you're old. We're getting there.Yeah yeah. Okay, so you mentioned

(21:44):
it, but I told you spacelybecause we were busy bantering back and forth.
What station did you go to outof school? Campbell June, North
Carolina? Okay? And so,uh you're at Lejune. How long were
you? How long were you activeduty Marine EOD? So? I was?
I was active duty for eleven yearsand of those seven of those was
as an EOD tech. Okay,and what year did you get out?

(22:07):
Twenty fifteen, July of twenty fifteen? Okay, how did do so?
Then? I this is the nextquestion, brother, how many deployments did
you do? Uh? So,now that's a great question. What are
we talking about as a deployment becausethere's very people tell you what the Marine
Corps says are deployments. So howa tours? Vice? How many deployments?

(22:33):
So for any Marines out there,I did. I did two deployments.
I did two deployments to Afghanistan.I first was in twenty eleven and
Sanging. I was at FOB Inkermanand in twenty thirteen I was at actually
jumped all over, so I startedat Dwyer. They were shutting bases down,
and then ultimately I was only aDwyer for a couple months, and

(22:55):
then ultimately I finished that deployment atCamp Leatherneck. Okay, fair enough.
Yeah, Ben eleven I was at. I was up in herat at Sotathwest
and ten eleven and twelve, Soyeah, yeah, you contracted over there
for a while that time. Yes, yeah, so third Battalion, first
SF Group. I was with themthe first seven months, came back for

(23:18):
twenty eight days and then you know, you do your thing as a contractor.
And then I went back and thenI was with and I'm gonna call
it second m SOB. It wasthe it was Marsak out of Pendleton.
I'm not sure if I've got theacronym proper or not based on the timeline,
but it was. It was Marsakout of Pendleton. They were the
battalion that was in charge in Arotmy second seven eight months that I was

(23:41):
there in eleven and twelve so orten and eleven. Sorry, So yeah,
I don't know the lingo they've they'vemigrated. So initially I remember when
they were forming because so they werethey were standing up. They were just
operators. I don't even know ifthey weren't raiders at the time. I
don't even think they were m SOBor Marstock. I think they were just

(24:03):
I don't even know what we callthem and be honest, but so they're
standing up, you know, thisMarine Socom detachment and trying to pull EOD
text over and it was basically like, you know, hey, do you
have combat experience and do you havea pulse? You know, because we
need guys and I know a lotof guys that jumped on it. It's
a totally different EOD emission. Andthen they've had some great times. I
think, like I think, Ithink every marine tech at some point thought

(24:26):
like, oh man, I shouldgo Mars Sock. I know, and
I got I know, great guysthat that loved it, and then you
know, did the mission. I'mglad I stayed conventional side, you know.
I just I like blowing ship upUh, stuff up. Sorry,
I already sitting down like I likeblowing up, putting you in time out?
Hell talk about this is true?Uh yeah, just I like it's

(24:51):
just a different mission. So ultimately, man, I'm I'm very happy with
with how everything with with with theunits I was attached to. I got
you. Okay. So it's twentyfifteen. You said when you got off
what month was July twenty fifteen?July July? Okay? Well, hell,

(25:12):
it's almost twenty fifteen years, fifteenyears since or ten years since you've
been off active duty? Now,yeah, July nine years today, this
month next year, it will beten years for you. That's right.
July nineteenth of two thousand and fouris when I stepped on the yellow foot
prints, and it was almost thirtyIt was almost eleven years exactly. It
was July thirtieth of twenty fifteen whenI exited, okay, and you were

(25:37):
still a lesion. So you gotoff active duty out of le June.
Yep, how was how was transition? Talk to me about Talk to me
about how that looked for you comingoff active duty? Is you know?
And when when did you get backfrom your last deployment compared to when you
got off active duty. So Ifor both twenty eleven and twenty thirteen,

(26:00):
and I was on the first rotation. So for anyone unfamiliar with that,
the way that the Marine Corps breaksup your deployments is you're either attack one
or you're a tacktoo guy. SoI was eleven tack one, which was
March to November, and then thetacktoo guys. November bled into the next
year obviously, so I came backin November of twenty thirteen. So then

(26:22):
about we're looking at what a yearand a half ish later? Yeah,
maybe closer to two years exiting theMarine Corps. Oh excuse me, those
gross So as far as transition goes, So it's been all fun and jokes
up to this point. But youknow, buckle up and grab your tissue
box because because it's gonna get realfor a second. So I actually did

(26:44):
not I did not exit the MarineCorps the way that I initially had intended
to I was actually it wasn't courtmartialed, it was a peer review board.
And then below the no see it'sit's I mean, I guess I'm
not really familiar with like what thatis, but essentially so just not even

(27:07):
trying to sugarcoat it. I wasbooted out my initially my two I did.
I got in trouble. Yes,my initial d D two fourteen said
drug abuse and that was what wason my d D two fourteen for a
couple of years. That has sincebeen changed. I did. I did
get some legal help. I didplead my case to the board, and

(27:27):
the Navy has since officially apologized saidwe're we're sorry that this happened, and
uh, here's here's a full SoI do have a full honorable now,
which very proud of. We couldliterally spend like three more episodes just talking
about that particular incident. So I'lltry to hit the highlights of it if

(27:47):
anyone is interested, if you headover to YouTube, and if you find
urban Valor, that that YouTube channelabout an hour and a half of me
being incredibly emotional and unaware of howmany F bombs are coming out of my
mouth. So I apologize, butit was I did do an interview with
Urban Valor where I kind of just, you know, word vomited my whole

(28:07):
story. But so to say yousay word vomited, I think you were
beings as uh as exposed and vulnerableas you possibly could to share your story
with other people so that maybe theycan learn something from or or connect with

(28:29):
your story so they don't make abad decision for themselves, or they can
say, you know, I'm notthe only one that type of thing.
Brother, You've come so far,let's not let's not start downplaying it now.
Man. Well you literally yeah,I don't know if you can see
that. It literally just gave megoosebumps. Thank you. I appreciate that,
and truth be told this whole instance. Look, you know, here

(28:49):
I am almost almost ten years later, I have I have zero complaints,
and honestly, if I if I, if I'm being honest, I can't.
I can't look back in time andI can't regret doing what I did,
because if I go back and alterthat, then I'm not gonna be
here. I'm not gonna be whereI'm at right now and as happy as
I am. And if I goback and I tell myself, hey,

(29:10):
don't do that, I very easilycould have been a statistic. I'm very
easy. I was so close tobeing twenty two, you know, And
so I can't regret it. Butfor the viewers that haven't watched that episode
yet, and if you have anhour and a half and literally nothing else
to do, you know, maybecheck it out. A lot of ups
and downs, so you're gonna you'regonna downplay it. I'm gonna tell our

(29:32):
audience you really need to watch hisepisode. It's it's a very moving Uh
it's an hour and a half outof you're sixty five to eighty years on
this planet. An hour and ahalf. It's not going to be that
bad for you. I highly recommendyou watch his episode. I have a

(29:52):
similar story to to Tyler. However, his story brought me to tears and
I was so out of my brotherby the end of it. I'm absolutely
so proud of it. So thankyou my story. I mean, to
this day, parts of it stillbring me to tears, but well,
thank you and and yes again definitely, and I have had people reach out
to me, and that's that's howI know. I know you said it

(30:15):
with one of the other view Ithink it was. I think it was
big country that you guys were talkingabout. If you can just impact one
person, Yes, it was.And I've already I've already had a handful
of emails and it's just like,oh, thank God, like some good
did come out of this. Soagain we've been being around the bush.
So so let me backtrack. Sotwenty eleven and sang in Afghanistan was a
highly kinetic deployment for me. Iwas attached to first Battalion, fifth Marines,

(30:38):
Bravo Company, and by first monthand a half ish there was very
slow. You know, they werestill harvesting the poppy. They haven't quite
turned it into heroin yet. Andthen like all of a sudden, it
was like a light switch just clicked. And anyone that served at helme and
knows what I'm talking about that,you know, when that's no longer a
flower, like it's become drug.They've sold it, they've got their money,

(31:00):
and they've used it to buy weaponsand explosives. Because every day after
that was just like hell on Earth. You know, it was I I
D call after I D call.It got to the point where we just
straight up patrolled with the grunts andit was it was just past the EOD
tech between infantry units. And Isuffered. I suffered three concussions and four

(31:22):
explosions. So two of those explosionswere actually back to back. They were
they were within I it's the dayI got my purple heart. I don't
fully recall what happened. All Iknow about that day is what the witness
statement said that back up my paperworkfor for that award, And it was
approximately my first explosion about ten minuteslater ish, you know, second explosion,

(31:48):
and I was a walking wounded.So for enemy explosions, not to
mention when you're operating in a kineticenvironment, we weren't always the best about
taking cover and concealment when we hadto dispose, you know, on the
day that we won and disposed ofan ID. So sadly, you know,
I know that some of that damagewas done to myself, but you

(32:12):
know what other choice you have,right exactly, you know, it's just
like, hey, just lay downand just and just put your head towards
it. But you're still doing damageto yourself, whether or not we realize
it. So we ended up losing. We lost two guys from our platoon
directly, two other guys that wereclose personal friends of mine that were actually

(32:35):
attached to Marstock at the time.So you know, for four of our
EOD brothers that I was you know, had very good relationships with that personally
affected me. Their deaths personally affectedme. Steps aren't David Day promoted,
promoted posthumorously, followed by Gunny Pate, followed by Sergeant Patron and then last
but not least sadly, uh sergeant'sprossing off. Uh staff started just prossing

(32:57):
off forgive me rape men, Andso that that played it. So my
head trauma, losing brothers in arms. You know, we had we had
a couple of guys in our platoonthat were amputees and trying to three that
I know of off the top ofmy head. So and my platoon alone
of like twenty guys two ka threeamputees and I'm pretty sure with one gunshot

(33:22):
wound. I'm stretching to think rightnow. Guys, if you're listening and
I apologize, TBI, you getit. Like at least a dozen of
us all got purple hearts. Imean, our platoon was just we were
Yeah, So I here I am, you know, I come home and
and you know, I my wholegoal as an adult, you know,

(33:45):
was I just wanted to be inaddition to being a dad, so a
couple I had a couple of goals, be it, you know, uh,
be an EOD tech crushed it.Then I wanted to be a senior
badge. And I wanted to bea combat team leader. So as far
as the D I set those twogoals myself and and I got them both.
But then I wanted it. Iwanted to be a dad. You
know. So here I am whenI show up the EOD company, all

(34:07):
my peers, they're all married withone, if not two kids. Yeah,
and I see that, and Iand and and I. Initially I
rushed my first marriage, and itled to a lot of problems. So
I come back from my deployment,I've got PTSD, I've got Survivors Guild,
I've got all these issues. Imarried the wrong person. We ended
up trying for, you know,a kid, thinking that a kid's going

(34:29):
to solve all our problems. Uh. She had a miscarriage. And and
again I know I'm rushing this,but this is the shortened version. Hit
get on YouTube, hit Urban Valor. Uh. So we had a miscarriage,
and that that really just put thishuge rift in us. You know,
this one thing that I wanted wastaken away from me, you know.
And I I remember being in thedoctor's office. I remember hearing the

(34:51):
heartbeat, and then and then oneday, a couple of weeks later,
we went back and and there justwas nothing. Uh, And it was
terrible. So all of this playeda factor, and instead of choosing to
get help, I chose to ignoremy problems. And I was like,
well, you know what, letme just be the best Marine that I
can be. I went back ondeployment. I continued to have problems at
home with my marriage. She myex, didn't end up cheating on me

(35:13):
at the time while I was deployed. So I got that, Dear John,
I've got a whole slew of otherissues going on. I got PTSD.
Life is just spiraling out of control. Go back home from twenty thirteen
deployment, and by this time whenI came back home, things are just,
I mean just at an all timelow. I could not have been
any lower. I did sort ofget some help, but it just wasn't

(35:37):
the best. The Navy and MarineCorps answer was here, just take this
pill and you'll be it'll be better. Well, and it wasn't better for
me at all. It was terrible. And I expressed this to my doctor,
and she's like, well, youknow her her magical answer was,
well, you got to get themedication time to work. The VA doesn't
do much better regardless of what you'redoing on an active duty from the you

(36:00):
know, from the corman in thein the naval hospitals and stuff like that,
when you get off active duty.As I'm sure you understand now,
some vas don't do any better eitherbecause they just want to here's a pill,
here's a freaking ziploc bag. Whatever, just let us know what works
make a make a zombie out ofyourself. So never mind one hundred percent

(36:22):
and and and it's and it's andit's sad, and that's uh, that's
that's something I'm trying to combat withwith my company now. But uh,
the the one good thing that Iwill say about my ex, she had
her issues. She she did sufferfrom anxiety, and she was prescribed,
uh medication for her anxiety. Soshe was also good at I'm sorry that

(36:46):
it wasn't good that she was hadanxiety prescribing. Sorry. What was good
was the fact that because she hadanxiety, she understood that and she was
a little bit more sympathetic towards me. And when I would have panic attacks,
she was pretty good at calling me. She was able to kind of
pull me back down to reality.And you know, if anyone listening,
if you've had a panic attack,you know how how irrational you get when

(37:07):
you're in that mind frame and howscary it is. So at this time,
again, our marriage is pretty muchdone, and I don't even know
why we're still legally married. We'rejust just dodging. We're basically just roommates
at this point, which was finebecause we weren't arguing and I wasn't,
you know, being abused. It'staken me many, many years to kind

(37:28):
of come to terms and accept that, yeah, I was emotionally and physically
abused by my spouse, which isweird because you know, at my best,
it was like a solid one ninetyfive, you know, five to
eleven, one ninety five and she'sfive nine buck ten, you know,
and it's like, how does somethinglike that, you know, abuse this
badass marine bomb tech And so,what are the choices did I have?
They're supposed to do? Hit herback? No? So right exactly,

(37:53):
so our mayor again pretty much roommates. Her grandmother was getting sick. She
flew back to Washington to take careof her grandma. I had a panic
attack one night, and in mymind it was like, well, I
had nobody here to take care ofme. I might die, which I
mean, as it's two sane humanbeings right now, we're like, come
on, you're not going to diefrom a panic attack. But in the

(38:14):
moment, it's like whoa. Sothat's what ultimately ended up taking one of
her prescriptions annexes. Fast forward,we had a drug test couple of days
later. I blocked the incident frommy mind and NCIS was like, hey,
like you pop positive. I endedup I ended up being Things got
really weird at company. So whenI when I got back from n CIS

(38:37):
about I was there for like twoor three hours, and they said,
you gotta pack your stuff and getout of company. You can't be here
anymore. So we're going to takethis depressed, you know, and at
that time borderline suicidal marine with PTSDand TBI, and hey, why don't
we just send him home for threedays by himself and not up on him.
Yeah, great idea. So Iwas doing that time where at any

(38:59):
point time, if I was goingto pull the trigger, it would have
been. Then Luckily I just withsuch, you know, I was sane
enough to think of the impact Iwould have had on my family and how
I just I can't put my familythrough that. It was kind of that
moment whereas like I need to allmy problems are out, like it's I
can't hide. I can't hide anymore, you know, it's out there in

(39:20):
the open, right, So Iwant to clarify at that time though you're
talking, when you're talking about yourfamily, you're talking about your parent,
my mother, my father, becauseagain you're at you're almost at you're you're
at the we're roommates type of stancewith your spouse, seem to be ex
spouse. I just want to makesure that everybody understands what you mean by

(39:43):
couldn't do that to my family.So it was, yes, it was
my I grew up with such,you know, we grew up with such
a tight ened family, and everyonewas so supportive of you when I joined
the brine courts, like I can'tdo this to my grandparents, can't do
this to my aunts and uncles,can't do this to my mind's It would
have been easy for me. It'slike boom problem solved, right, but
but the wake of destruction it wouldhave left It's like that's unfair to them,

(40:05):
you know, And then haven't hada single thought since from from that
point on, it is like,this isn't an option. You have to
rebuild and you have to be better. That was how how has your interaction
since you've been off active duty whenyou and then things have gotten cleared up
with the with the department in theNavy so that you have your honorable and
you're moving forward. How things beenwith the VA? How was how was

(40:29):
that integration? Because I mean,you're you're so originally from Ohio, got
off active duty out of La June, and now you're on the West coast
outside of l A. Yeah,yeah, no, I'm in Orange County,
Orange County. Hold on, Idon't want I want to think I
live in l A. All right, I live in Orange County. Okay,

(40:50):
fine, Orange County. But I'mtrying to paint a picture for shows
me audience, so that way theyunderstand that you're all over the United States
since leaving active duty, since goinginto active duty and then leaving active duty,
and now you I mean, you'vegot a great job out in Orange

(41:10):
County. You've got a great jobout there. You have a business that
we'll get into here in a minute, and we uh, I want to
make sure we give us adequate giveourselves adequate time to talk about that.
So, of course, is thathow has the VA helped you get to
where you're at now, where youfeel the way you do and how you're
presenting things now? So oh no, I don't. I don't want to,

(41:32):
like, I want to caveat thisstatement with overall, my experience has
been fine. I know tons ofhorror stories. My experience with the VA
has been fine, all right,So I want to caveat with that.
With that being said, they haven'thelped me, quite and simple. I've
gone in for minor things, butthey've done nothing. I I have realized

(41:53):
that, like you need something fix, you got to do with yourself.
You know, I tried the grouptherapy. I'm one hundred percent anti medication,
I anti pills. I'm still afederal civil employee at work for TSA.
I'm an explosive specialist at LAX soI can't use cannabis, but I
won support its use. I've heardgreat things about Kennemane treatments. But as

(42:16):
far as shoving these pills down yourthroat and looking for the VA to solve
my problems VA from the VA prescriptionprogram that they have. Look and I'm
not trying to come across as ananti VA thing, because there's there's plenty
of VA clinics out there that arereally good and the sure across the board,
you're going to find people that helpyou out regardless of what clinic you

(42:37):
go to. Sure, just Ihighlight the fact that the system's broken and
it doesn't help us out. It'snot standardized eloquently enough across the board,
and it doesn't help us out enoughperiod now that So yes, so I
I I needed to find myself andI need to re I needed to figure

(42:57):
out who I was. But therewas one thing that just never that that
no matter what, no matter myups and my down So I got out
and I got very lucky, caughta great string of UXO contracts that ultimately
landed me out out out this way. But really it was this. It
was this hope of like I Ineed to focus my energy. I still
want a family, I still wantto be a dad, I still want

(43:19):
to to raise my kid not tosay that I was raised bad by any
means, but you know, Iwant I want to I want a stable
family. And know I'm a childof divorce, and it's like her whole
goal from childhood is I don't wantto repeat those mistakes. So really,
my my therapy honestly boiled down toI don't even know if she's in the
city to him, Yeah she canhear me. So so if you see

(43:40):
that back there, I know that'smy therapy, that's my that's my reason
for existence right there. And andthen you can't see the two little rugrats
running around. But I've got I'vegot three ladies in my life that literally
give me, give me a reasonto continue. You know, now that
I finally reconnected with my wife,and now that I've got too amazing children.

(44:00):
Uh, there's no intrusive thoughts,there's no depressive thoughts, there's no
none of that anymore. And Isay reconnected because initially we dated. This
is a whole other long story that, but we dated when I was in
EOD school. Oh wow, wayback when, way back in the day.
Dated when I was in EOD school. She was in nursing school.
I'm training to be a bomb tech. I'm really banking on Penalton. So

(44:23):
we tried to make the distance thingwork and it just didn't. So we
stayed in touch as friends for alittle bit, and then my ex wasn't
really a fan of, you know, me talking to an ex, so
so we broke communication for a while, and then, as luck would have
it, this is just one personthat I couldn't shake, you know,

(44:44):
just one person I just couldn't shakefrom my mind, you know what I
mean. I we do have someemails that we've gone back and looked at
when I was overseas and deployed thatI sent her, And so one day,
just out of the blue, Iwas thinking about her and trying to
see where she's at, see ifI can see her face. But so
remember I don't remember this, butshe'll still give me grap for this,
So I apparently I just sent herlike we're talking. A couple of years

(45:05):
where I didn't email her because Isent her I was like, hey,
look, we just can't talk anymore. And it was heartbreaking, but I
sent her an email and just saidhey, And she still likes to remind
me of that. But turned outto be the best email I could have
sent, because we eventually found ourplace in a position where you know,
we were both single, and we'relike, hey, let's let's see if
there's still anything here, anything thatwe can rekindle. So sure enough,

(45:30):
the sparks were still there, andher and both my daughters one hundred percent
in every single box, fill mytank, what have you? Like?
Literally give me a reason for myexistence, and without them I would be
nothing. And I say that becauseso i work from zero three to fourteen
hundred or three thirty to fourteen hundred. So I'm driving into work every day

(45:53):
at the from Orange County to laxand about forty minute drive. I have
nothing but time to think. Idon't turn the music on. I like
to just be left alone in themorning and kind of read my hand.
So there's been random mornings where I'llgo down rabbit holes and I'll be like,
well, what if I'm at worktoday and like some fifty one fifty
at the hospital like stabs my wife, which there's this is La man,

(46:15):
It's almost people crazy is everywhere.I get it, Like what if I
get a phone call from the hospitaland saying, hey, your wife is
dead and then I've literally, I'veliterally been crying at three fifteen in the
morning thinking about like her not beingthere. You know, That's how I
know that this is the person Iwas meant to be with. Whereas if
you told me that my ex wifedied, was I still in the will

(46:37):
or where were we able to?Yeah, which I know it sounds horrible
to say, but you know,listen to my listen to my urban valor.
You'll understand. You'll take it allright. So I totally stalked you
when you guys went out to eastand went to Florida for your vacation with
you and your time. It wasawesome right time, you guys, it

(47:00):
was fantastic. I know, yougot to meet and sit down with a
lot of a lot of brothers ofours. Yes, it was phenomenal.
Mark Voegel and a whole bunch ofother business uh, you know, opportunists,
and so let's talk about the business. Let's dive into that. So
mister inert mugs and here we go. Then here we go. Go,

(47:23):
There you go, that's my that'smy lovely wife. Modeling o our twenty
ounce Mark eighty two general purpose fivehundred pound bomb mug yes, so so
the business. Yeah, and youknow, I'm glad you I'm glad you
mentioned Mark and Angela been huge supportersfrom from the start. I can't same
thing with f Bomb Designs and onBob they do my apparel for me.

(47:45):
They I outsourced my apparel to them. It saves me money, it saves
you guys money, and it alsosupports another veteran on business yea, someone
I intentionally left out in the links. Uh. As more of a shock
is I I have to honestly givespecial credit to Master Blaster Coffee too.
Like you mentioned before, I was, I was involved in another business prior

(48:07):
and and I'm not here to smearnames, so so I'm just gonna say.
I'm gonna say Mike from Expulsive Tumblersmade up name, made up company.
But I was. I had abusiness partner Mike from Explosive Tumblers,
and we tried to make it work. I thought we had a great product,
but uh, you know, therewas some a lot of creative differences
and and you know, we kindof had this falling out and it just

(48:28):
did not work out. So thatwas kind of in a slump because I
was so excited, you know,I mean, I I was, you
know, you and you and Iwere talking about how to make my explosive
tumblers work with Master Blaster. Iwas in in bed crab zone. We
did a couple of events, butI mean, it was it was great.
Everything was going great, and thenwe just then problems started and and

(48:50):
we and we, you know,he and I got into it and uh
so ultimately I let him go hisway and I thought about it, and
I was like, I I wantto do this still, so I hit
up. I had an honest conversationwith my wife, and she's amazing and
so supportive. So we literally justinvested a ton of money into explosive Tumblers.
And then here I am saying,hey, I want to reinvest more

(49:14):
of our personal money into my owncompany, and God bless her, she
kind of just shrugged her shoulders andlooked at me, and she's listening,
she's smiled. She hears me,and I know she thought like, you're
crazy, like why are we doing? I know there's so much she wanted
to say, but God bless her, she didn't, you know, And
and everything with the Nerve Mugs hasbeen great. It's it's had a lot

(49:35):
of ups. It's had some hiccups, don't get me wrong, but I'm
so grateful that that none of thatgets thrown back in my face. You
know, she's not like I toldyou so, or I told you this
was a bad idea. Like it'snever been like that. It's always been
Okay, Well that didn't work out, So let's talk about why. You
know it's not your campaign. LikeI truly, I truly I have a

(49:55):
best friend in my spouse. Anduh and and now I finally and fulfilled
to the point where, like II genuinely feel like she is here to
back me up. Where that wassomething I was that was dramatically lacking in
my in my previous marriage. Youknow, it was just one of arguments,
you know, so I get itmore happy, Well, I I'm
uh I started uh master blaster.You were still with your old partner in

(50:22):
the business. Uh. But Itell you what, brother, it's been.
It's been amazing watching you, watchingyou transform your business, watching you
freaking reach new milestones and and andand uh you know hit those pinnacles that
are just we do we do uh. We continue to support the Youty Warrior

(50:45):
Foundation. We continue to invest inother organizations that are all I mean,
it's not just E O. D. Eccentric, it's all veterans. It's
all veteran businesses. We support them. We we want to we want to
lift them up and and try andbe a part of them, whether we
share knowledge or we sponsor with youknow, gifts here or there, whatever

(51:05):
for raffles, so on and soforth. But man, I, you
have been doing an amazing job withinert Mugs, and I just wanted to.
I wanted to in front of theviewers. I want to give you
that verbal pat on the back andtell you that I'm very proud of you.
You're naked out of the park.You're doing a great job, brother,
absolutely great job. It's such atough line to walk, you know,
as a business owner. And I'msure I'm sure you can you can

(51:29):
understand this. You know, whenyou donate something to a cause that you
believe in, uh, you know, perfect example, I cut a thousand
dollars check to an organization that's runby a Navy corman called Change Unchain.
Please check them out. It's alot of money for me at the time.
A thousand dollars is so much moneyfor me. But I was so
happy to do it, and it'slike, well, how do I let
people know that I look at allthis good that I'm doing, but I'm

(51:51):
sounding like a hole. You know. It's such a fine line we walk,
you know, but you always youalways approach it humbly. Every time
you and I talk about business,and every time I get on social media,
I'm like, he's got another I'mlooking at I'm looking at videos non
stop about it, ther mugs Anddon't get me wrong, I'm ecstatic for
you. I think it's fantastic.You're doing some great marketing out there,

(52:15):
some great branding. Uh. Thefact that you were in a position where
you could cut a thousand dollars checkfor an organization, Uh, that's multiple,
that's that's just one, multiple men, and not to not to cross
the line into to being an arrogantavil you know. And I'm very and
you're right, it's not just theEUDI Foundation. I'm so humbled that some

(52:36):
of these opportunities that have been presentedfor me. You know, I've got
an you know, spoiler, I'vegot another one coming down the pipe.
This is an amazing individual with anamazing stories and Navy cross recipient. I
don't want to spoil it. It'sall i'm gonna say. But uh,
I'm honored that that, you know, he approached me and said, hey,
let's figure something out. And itwas just like whoa, you know,
and hearing his story, I'm like, like, you sure? Are

(52:58):
you sure you want to hang outwith this guy? You know? But
it's awesome. Yeah, And well, and I'm humbled and honored that you've
set up communication between myself and himso that way we can get him.
Want to spoil that secret, I'mspoiling a secret. Well, I'm just
glad. I'm glad that you didthat, and you know it's and I
appreciate it. So brother, wegotta we gotta get another episode going because

(53:24):
we don't. We don't have enoughtime in one episode for us to talk
about all this stuff that's going on. I had, I had a feeling
this is gonna happen. I tried. I tried to do this, you
know, as fast as I could. But there's just there's just so much,
man, there's so much and andI and I see I see the
little the I see them getting readyto pull pull me off all stay by
my neck. But but uh I, I honestly I have to say to

(53:45):
all the viewers, let me patyou on the back for a second,
that I'm humbled and honored to bein business with you, because I think
our business mindset is the same.This isn't a let me get rich quick
and retire on a beach somewhere.This is a we do it for the
passion and for the love of beingable to give back. You know,
I know you and I have hadseveral conversations where perfect example, Hey,

(54:07):
uh I don't want you to beoffended, but I'm kind of talking to
this other coffee company And what wasyour answer? You're like, oh,
han, no big deal, Likethis is what it is, man,
And I was just like, WHOAlike you? You and I are we
have the same mentality and it's awesome. And those are the people that I've
continued to somehow just get connected withand find and it's it's a beautiful thing.
So I'm excited to see what thenext couple of years are going to

(54:28):
bring for both of us. It'sgonna be it's gonna be awesome. Yeah,
well, you're kind of and stuckwith me, Tyler. So going
back to our everybody. Thank youvery much for today's episode. Thanks for
tuning in. We had a greatenergetic episode. We're gonna bring Tyler back,
We're gonna bring INRT Munks back.God bless you. See you next
week, same time, Take careof God bless by. Cheers,