Colonel William Dunn - BOOK - Gunfighters Rule

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In a very happy Tuesday pea, It's time for military
badassery and a book to talk about. My next guy
is William Dunn, President's Strategic Resilience Group, LLC. Started the
company of twenty sixteen after retirement from a thirty three
year career in the United States Military, during which he
rose to the ranks of private through sergeant, second lieutenant
through colonel Tenant Old Dominion University, got a BA from

(00:21):
then Boston University, where he got a master's and A
in business as well as strategic studies. Wants to complete
the Military Basic School in the Infantry Officers Course in Quantico.
He reported to NES Pensacola four Flight Training. Getting to
the subject of the book. To sign is a Marine
Cobra pilot and complete multiple deployments in a seven month
deployment to Iraq as commander of HMLA three sixty nine.

(00:45):
The gun Fighters and support of Operation of Rocky Freedom.
Welcome to the program to talk about your book, Gunfighters Rule,
and thank you for your service. Retired Colonel William Bernard Dunn.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Well, hey, Bryan, thanks for having me. I really appreciate that.
Uh that that update there, so that sounded great.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
It's you, man, it's you. You lived it.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
I appreciate it, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
I gotta asked it before we get to talking about
gunfighters Rule and the story you've got there. Where did
you get Berner from as the as the nickname?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Well, let's let's let's just put it this.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Here we go.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
That's gonna that's gonna cost you a beer to get
that whole all.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Right, I got a I got a stack of challenge coins, Colonel,
so I'll I'll be sure and have one in my
pocket next time we sit down. Catch you off guard. Maybe,
all right, I appreciate that. Now, gunfighters Rule, Obviously, you
lived a life. You were in combat. You flew. What
kind of helicopter did you fly? Was it a viper
or a venom?

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Or it was a whiskey cobra, whisky cobra, the venom
and the vipers. I got some time in the Huey's
and uh, the four belated Cobra came out right as
I was getting ready to retire. I got a bunch
of simulator time, but I never actually got the fly
to four lady cover.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Okay, So you you, obviously, or at least I presumably you
saw combat.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Oh yeah, yeah, I saw combat uh many times, primarily
as a Ford air controller during O A F one
and then as a squadron commander of the Gunfighters in
O F six eight. So I've got got quite a
bit of time on the ground over in Iraq for
four combat deployments to Iraq, uh, And I did a

(02:30):
combat deployment to Mogadishu, but I didn't I didn't return fire.
They shot at us. We never saw whatever it's coming from.
So a little bit of combat all over. But uh,
you know, a lot of a lot of my brothers
and sister did a lot more than me.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
So well, I understand you. Most folks that serve their
country honorably always tell the story of the other guys
and how much more of the other people did. And
I'm certain that's a bit of being humble on your part.
So is this is the gunfighters rule? Is it your
story or is it a work of Is it fictional account?

(03:03):
Because you know, as I read the notes, it tells
the story of a boy destined become the United States Marine,
which sounds like it could be either fact or fiction.
Is this your story?

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Oh, it's my story for sure? All right? Now I
started out a young young lad with my father and
mother were Air Force veterans, and my dad was in
the Air Force, and when I was a young kid,
my dad started talking about how awesome these marines were.
Even though he was in the Air Force, he loved it.
And our neighbor was a marine. I had a cousin

(03:34):
who was a marine, and uh, well, you know, long
story short. My dad passed away when I was very young,
and I talk about that in the book with some
strange things happened during that time. And then when I
turned seventeen, I joined the Marine Corps. That's amazing to
get my mom to sign off, and there's a story

(03:54):
about that in there too, because at first she said,
she said, no, marines are crazy. You're never going to
the Marine Corps.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
That's great. Now I have to ask you you you
mentioned you were shot at, and of course, if you're
in combat in a helicopter, I've always wondered because to me,
that would be a pants soiling experience because you're in
this this obviously visible aircraft overhead. And since we live
in times with modern warfare and heat seeking rockets and

(04:24):
shoulder fire missiles and things like that, how do you
cope with that situation, and what do you do to
avoid getting hit?

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Well, you just fly your tactics. And it's interesting. And
I'll say this for myself and most of the cover
plots I've talked to, no one's worried about themself getting
shot down. You're worried about your women getting shot down
or the guys on the ground. And that's the stress.
And I remember we used to we used to escort
trucks and you're driving, you know, you're flying cobras overhead,

(04:57):
and you're escorting trucks and one time a truck hit
an idea blew up. The feeling of that is insurmountable
because you're helpless. And so one day, and we talk
about this in the book, a truck hits an I
d and we find a guy that we call him
the trigger Man, and we find him and I'm rolling

(05:19):
in to shoot him and I can see him playing
this day from a code bore about three hundred feet.
He surrounds himself with the women and children literally, so
we don't shoot. That was a tough day, and we
talk a little bit. It's called UH It's called Gunfighter
Village in the book. That is UH you know, if
I talked the marines that were with me on that day,

(05:39):
we still get stressed out about it. But but we
got everybody out. Uh nobody, Well, I shouldn't say that.
Nobody on our side. There's two sides of this river.
Nobody on our side of the river got killed. But
on the other side of the our our army brothers,
they took a beatn and lost lost some soldiers pretty

(06:00):
pretty terribly.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Oh it's a shame, and you got to live with
that the rest of your life. Now I hear. I'm
reading that you mentioned a family destroyed by tragedies as
well as disillusionment, disillusionment by the institution. Can you put
a little flesh on the bones of that without revealing
too much? It's in the book because I know my
listen is going to just eat this up.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
Well, so you know, think I'm eleven years old. My
dad dies. Right the following year, our house burns.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Down, Oh my god, not all the way down, but.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
It burns up so bad we had to move. That
was coming off my mother, who early on in her
life had had a stroke, a very terrible stroke. So
she had a stroke. My dad died, house burns up
we got to move out, and then my mother ultimately
we end up moving into a great house. We end

(06:57):
up losing that house because she she couldn't afford it.
So a bunch of tragedy there, and you know, some
stuff growing up that we learned. And then you know,
I love the Marine Corps. I love the Marine Corps.
When you read the book, people will understand exactly what
I'm talking about. There are some things that happen within
our beautiful corps that are not great. And like when

(07:20):
I joined the Marine Corps when I was seventeen, I
was going to be a marine recon. That's what I
was promised. And when I'm at boot camping I talk
about this in the book, they call out done supply
and they said, well hold on, hold on, there's a mistake.
And my start and instructor he looks at me in
the eyes a great grace. Svandi goes, your recruiter lied

(07:40):
to you, and and he did. He did. I came back.
I went to see him. He goes, I lied to you.
You're a marine who cares. And he was right. And
so that's the weird thing. But I love the Marine Corps.
You know, It's like I won't allow anyone that's not
a marine to talk bad about the Marine Corps. But

(08:00):
the Marines know what I'm talking about. We are a
cult and we are a tribe, but not everybody in
the tribe is as perfect if you will, and I'm
not perfect, we all all of us. I don't know
a single marine that hasn't made a mistake to where
they could have been, you know, their career could have ended.
I don't know one, including some of my friends that

(08:21):
have risen to very high general officer ranks. Every one
of us have made a mistake that we could have
been fired relieved. You know, you just never know, And.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
I guess from what I've talked. I've talked to many,
many folks who served or actually currently served, and I
have a lot of listeners in my audience who are
part of the broader military family, if I can characterize
it that way. And one of the things that's come
through regularly is that after being discharged from the military,
you go into civilian life, and one of the problems

(08:52):
that retired military face they missed the camaraderie. It sounds
me like you thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie of the Marine,
and how did you adjust to post military life in
the absence of you know, your brothers, if I may
put it that.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Way, Well, that's a great question. So I opened a
company with two other retired Marines and we support Davy,
Marine Corps, Army Air Force all over the world. That's
how I cope with it. But yeah, so I get
to spend some time with Marines. Not every week, but
definitely a couple of times a month. And I will

(09:27):
tell you this, here's the big difference when you transition
in for any veterans out there, you probably will agree.
Anyone getting ready to retire or get out think about
this is that you know, when you're a sergeant in
the Marine Corps or a colonel in the Marine Corps
and you tell us a bordinate to do something, they're
going to do it. Period. They may blow up a

(09:49):
truck to get it done. They may you know, whatever
it takes, they will get it done. It's not necessarily
always that way in the Saveyan world.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Really yeah, right, oh, if it were only that way,
If it were only.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
That way, you know, it's like, you know, I'll ask
somebody to do something, right, which is a big difference.
Right in the Marine Corps. You don't ask, you tell, hey,
devil dog, I need you to go take care of this,
and they do it. And one of the things I
talk about that in the book, and I asked the
Marine lieutenant to go blow something up one day, and

(10:29):
he sure as he did it. Not the way I
was thinking he was going to do it, but he
did it. And I it's funny because I talk about that.
I did a brief one day to a one hundred
and sixty Northrop Grumman executives on how military leadership applies
in the civilian world. And what's interesting about that is

(10:51):
what you know in the civilian world, you may hear
this phrase do whatever it takes, right, you do never
never want to tell a marine there. If you tell
a marine do whatever it takes, they will do whatever
it takes.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
So you got to define parameters.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
You got to put some forivers on it, because you know,
and I look back when I was a young Marine
lance corporal, that was carte blanche, do whatever it takes,
devil dog. I'd be like, yes, sir, I get a
big happy smile on my face and I'd go blow
up the world to get something done. And I tell
you what. Those my brothers and sisters that are still
in We'll do that. They they chomp at the bit

(11:33):
when you say do whatever it takes. That's great.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
Well, and that's what creates the sort of the out
of the box thinking that military members of the military
are known for. That's why I think that's one of
the reasons why they're fully appreciated and recognized by many
employers as great employees. They take charge, they figure things out,
and they do what they're told. You know, maybe within
some defined parameters out here in the in the civilian world,

(11:59):
but they're great at getting things.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
Done well they are. And the other thing that is
beneficial is that I was a Marine Cobra pilot. My
first job in my squadron as a lieutenant was the
legal officer. I have no legal background, but my job
was to advise my commander on legal issues in our squadron.

(12:21):
As a brand new first lieutenant cover pilot. One of
my next jobs was ordnance officer. I had to learn
about all the not I knew all the ordinance on
the aircraft. I had to learn and be with my
Marines and they showed me how to load it and
all the rules and regulations, and then you know that's
so whatever job you get, it doesn't matter. The CEO says, hey,

(12:44):
you are now the logistics officer. That's what you go do.
And so it makes military men and women very, very diverse,
and they have to learn quickly how to be an expert.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
Marine Colonel William Bernard donn get a copy of the
book Gunfighter's Rule. Retired colonel. We put this your book
on my blog page Pitty five Casey dot com and
my listeners is going to love to get a copy
of it. Thank you and God bless you for your
service to our country. My friend, it's been wonderful having
a conversation with you.