Ep. 222 | Daniel Rodriquez | Battle of Kamdesh - Former Action Guys Podcast

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it was everybody. Welcome to the former GUS podcast.
Before we get started, I want to let you know
that you could support the show by going over to
Jcremergraphics dot com and picking up an item. We also
do discounts for group orders. So if you're looking at
your unit, your business, whatever, is looking to do a
large purchase, reach out and I'll send you a discount
code that allows you to also let everyone order individually.
That way you're not stuck like collecting money making rosters

(00:22):
for sizes, colors and all the other stuff. You know,
that's the worst part about it. I remember doing it
when I was in Also, we offer free shipping on
orders of seventy five dollars or more. And as always,
if you're looking for a custom design for your unit,
then reach out and we can facilitate that as well.
So again, support the show. Go over to Jcramergraphics dot
com and let's get to it.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
I appreciate you reaching out, and like you said, the
video got traction, so you know, I think it'll be
cool for your audience to you know, kind of seem
like they were into it. And I mean I got
I do. I woke up to like eight hundred new followers.
What the fuck happened? That shit don't happen to me.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Oh nice, So.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
You're you posting it? Sent me like a thousand new followers.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
So oh, I'm glad, dude, I'm glad to hear that. Well,
let's let's go ahead and officially kick this often h
Daniel Rodriguez. We were just saying that video I posted it.
I found it on I think I found it on
Twitter or somewhere, and I posted it up on my
Instagram and someone tagged you in it, so I made
sure to give you, you know, a tag that's your video.
And it's crazy because that's I looked at your YouTube

(01:22):
channel and you have some of the probably like wildest
videos of the war in Afghanistan, just because of the
unfortunate place that you guys were were stationed at. And
what I'll do is I'll throw in a clip here
that was on Instagram for the people that haven't seen
it yet.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Not forak like fork. Have we got a target? What wrong.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Do?

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Let's go alright, alright, what your back up?

Speaker 1 (02:32):
We got it?

Speaker 3 (02:32):
We got it.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
So if you just watch that, that's what I'm talking about.
You can follow me over on former Action guys and
former Action News. What's your Instagram Danny del Ray? Danny
del Ray check his page out, make sure to give
him a follow. So, yeah, man us soldier, you know,
did the war in Afghanistan, did the war in Iraq.
Out decided to you know, fulfill a promise and play
some college football, which is awesome. And now you're into

(03:06):
the arts, you know, doing some doing some music and
doing some acting. Man, I really appreciate you taking the
time to come on the show.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Appreciate you justin for one, tagging me in that video
and uh, you know, following up and having this interview.
So thank you.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, dude, So you said you were you were raised
in Stafford, Virginia, right there by where the museum, the
Marine Corps Museum is at, you know. And your you
said your dad was he worked on base in Quantico.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
My father was infantry as well. He was a former
infantryman and then he was the athletic director at Quantica
when he got out the army. So my dad is
actually buried at Quantico National Cemetery. And I was born
in Woodbridge, Virginia, which is Stafford, the next county down
to Stafford. But yeah, I was born and raised there.
But but my father, both my uncles are Vietnam veterans.

(03:52):
My father's a Vietnam veteran. I'm from a long line
of infantryman.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
That's awesome, dude. Yeah, I was gonna ask if he
was army or marine, So that makes sense. Would was
that something that you always felt the calling to do
was join the military.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
In a in a very uh subtle way, because my
father would always be like, if you ever joined the military,
don't be like me and go infantry, like get a
trade out of uh. He you know, he thought he
was gonna get drafted. So he joined the first day
of his senior year and then he got sent off
to Germany and then did recovery, like a recovery tour
in Vietnam. But he would always tell me like, don't

(04:28):
don't do what I did. But I was infatuated with it.
He was very much a fan of movies, of war
movies in Western so as a kid, I was, you know,
at the Army surplus store next to Quantico, buying my
camels to guilly out my suits, and I gillied out
my BB guns. I've had rifles under my bed since
I was six, so to me, it was all just
stalking and shooting squirrels and birds and hunting my whole life.

(04:50):
So it was always embedded in me that I had
a soldier, a father who was a soldier, and I
think the US in general romanticizes warfare in combat and
our veteran community. So it was just something that always
kind of played in my head. And if you were
to walk around my neighborhood as a kid, literally every
single neighbor of mine we're all veterans, you know of

(05:11):
some regards to the DC areas just kind of you know,
just this ecosystem of every single branch from Homeland Security
to Marine Corps. So yeah, it was something that it
was always in the back of my head. And I
think it's also a sale US like a what is
it like a safe proof? Is what do they call it?
Like a fail safe? A fail safe? Because I didn't

(05:34):
really apply myself in high school, and I would think
to myself, well, if all hell goes loose, I can
just join the army and they'll pay for my college.
So I used to it. So it was always kind
of like my scapegoat if I didn't have any other opportunities,
I figured i'd join the military.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah, it's definitely. I mean, the military in general is
a good backup plan for a lot of people, and
it's I mean, I hate that like that. It gets
a stigma that it's like, well, you couldn't do anything else,
so you joined the military kind of deal. There are
people that do that, and that is kind of an option,
but there's a ton of people that join it just
for the love of country, you know, they want to
do it, and like, you know, I remember my first

(06:12):
platoon sergeant was an infantry guy and he came in
and he had a bachelor He was an infantry enlisted dude,
and he had a bachelor's degree in electric electric engineering,
you know. And I was like, why, you know why
he was joined the Marine Corps And He's like, I
got bored, man. I was working in a cubicle doing
fucking office bullshit and there's a war going on. So
I was like, hey, you know what, I'm gonna give

(06:33):
this a go, and then when I get out, I'll
use my gi bill to go back and get my
master's degree and hang out with college chicks. And I'm like,
all right, dude, you know that's cool. But it's like,
it's funny because you have it's such a spectrum of people,
you know, it's definitely a reflection of society of people
that joined the military, and like you. I also, you know,
my dad was in the army as well, and growing up,
I actually had a gilly suit that I made and

(06:55):
everything from like an old set of camis and all.
That is exactly what you're talking about. So that's pretty funny.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah. No, I played all the time and inter reiterate.
You know, I know that there are tons of people
who join out of patriotism and love of country, but
I you know, I stand. I don't like to give
that perception like I joined because I was a lost kid.
My dad died right out of four days after graduation,
and two weeks later I was sent off to Fort Benning,
Georgia after failing after telling my recruiter that I wanted to.

(07:27):
I scored high on the ASDAB. I could have got
any job I wanted to in the military. So I
was going to do satellite communications, go to Fort Wachuka,
be stationed for Watchuka Moonlight. On the side, I had
like options for my gi Bill admitted to smoking lead
one time within six months, and they took my security
clearance and told me the only jobs I had left
were a truck driver or cook. I said, well, the
hell with that, Like, I'm not going back to my hometown.

(07:50):
So I literally told the lady right there Fort Lee,
Virginia MEPs that I wanted to go infantry, and she
looked at me and she goes, you do realize we're
at a time of war, don't you. I say yes,
ma'am him, and uh, She's like, can you leave tomorrow?
I said, yeah, that'll work. So I went home, told
my mom and sister, and next day I was shipped
off to four Ben in Georgia. And six months later
I was in Iraq after Basic. So I was very

(08:12):
like anomaly in the soldier community because I was a
replacement soldier coming out of out of basic. You know.
I went in, lied to my recruiter, helped me pass
a drug test, and I got in there and all
the jobs were ripped away, and it was just like, well,
I guess I can follow my father's footsteps, but yeah,
you know, I think he was always in my DNA
that it was going to come across. I was going

(08:32):
to come across the battlefield somewhere or another. Both my
mother's sides are Native American apache so we just have
warrior mentality and warrior blood and uh in my DNA.
But yeah, No, my best friend in the military, his
uncle was the founder of the Smurfs. He was a
trust fund maybe he had over like six million or
something like this that he was in. He was one

(08:53):
semester away from graduating college and his best friend was
killed overseas and he dropped out of college joined the military,
and his uncle cut them off because he was so livid.
So I do have people that have fought for the
ultimate sacrifice and love of country and the patriotism aspect.
But yeah, so everybody has a wide there's a wide spectrum,
like you said, of people who joined and who were

(09:13):
part of the part of the veteran community.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah, man, that's crazy. What was it like going from
you know, living in Stafford. I mean, when you're around
that kind of military, you're around military people, a lot
veterans and stuff like that, I think it gives you
a better idea of what you're getting yourself into. No
one ever really knows until they get there, you know.
But there's some guys that join and have no idea
what they're getting themselves into don't realize that, like, dude,

(09:37):
the government owns you, now, you know, like that's the
end of the day. You know, the government owns you.
If they tell you to be here at this time,
at this date, you're going to be there. And so
I think that's probably a good thing that you had
that background. Did it? Did that help make it a
little easier to join and like transition into that military
lifestyle I had.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
I didn't come from like my father was military, like
high and tight, no tech. There was no earrings. Bro,
I'm tatted out, pierced, like as soon as he died,
I fell far as hell I could from that tree.
But no, not at all. I had nobody telling me
what I was doing. I didn't grow up in a
household where it was like I had education. My father
was a Vietnam VET. So like when I joined, I
was like surrounding. I was like surrounded by all these

(10:17):
ROTC kids coming in and everybody who had like prepped
for this stuff. And I literally walked into the recruiter
station three days before this, and I was gonna go
Air Force because I heard they had better benefits, but
they're on lunch break. So I walked across the hall,
went into the army, and within two days I was
on a bus to Fort Benning, Georgia. So I like
singing like all these songs like we were like people

(10:40):
were like on the bus prepared, like like prepping themselves,
and I'm sitting here like I get to thirtieth AG
I think is what it's called down in Benning. I
had a pisso bad. I just walked up the first
first guy's like, man, man, where's where's the bathroom? You
just standing at parade rest when you we're fucking talking
to a NC. I'm like, god, damn, bro, Like I
fucked up, Like I don't know what. Yeah, I just
fucking did. I had to take a piss man. But yeah,

(11:01):
I didn't really have any idea or I have like
this this flashback when I was in high school, like
two thousand. I graduated two thousand and six. So the
war in Afghanistan nine to eleven happened when I was
in eighth grade, so I'm eleven. Then obviously after that
the wars kicked off, but coming home and just seeing
like oh Fox News Warren I RAT, And it was

(11:21):
just always like this little asterisk for thistle, like this
little message I would always hear, like, oh, warn, I rat.
But I never divulged time or really went to study
it or understood the concept or why we were even
over there. So, like fast forward, when I joined the military,
like I really was aloof I was a kid. I
was eighteen years old. You know, I was smoking weed

(11:43):
and chasing girls and forging report cards to graduate. So yeah,
like I didn't really think big term or what I
was really dedicating my life to. Again, like I kind
of told you, it was just like that fail safe
plan that I felt would give me a a step
up in my life, but also like an honorable outlet.

(12:04):
When when I came back home, people wouldn't be like, Oh,
what the fuck have you been doing with your life? No,
they'd be like, they'd give me some respect because I
had a uniform on and that's what I saw and
that's what I adapted to. So yeah, man, I'd had
twenty seven months of combat in a four year contract.
So I was stop loss. Yeah, I was the infantry.
I was stop loss. I did a fifteen month torn

(12:24):
Iraq during the surge Insider City in Baghdad during the
hottest years, and then I went obviously to Afghanistan and
survived what is known as the Bloody's Battle in Afghanistan
cop Keating, So you know, two Purple Hearts, Bronze Star,
Medal of Hour. Later, after my four year stop loss
was up, I said the hell with this. I had
to get out.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
But that's just I got what I needed out of this.
This is good for me. So were you a Were
you eleven Bravo?

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Then hell no? I joined thinking I was gonna be
eleven Bravo. And then I get to basic training at
for Benning and my platoon was it's my company's four platoons. Yeah,
one was eighteen X rays they called him SF babies,
the other two or eleven Bravos. And they had one
platoon of Charlie's And so I had no idea that
you had to ask for that on your contract. My

(13:09):
my bro, I was like a standout athlete, like super
I was like fit, I could shoot, bro. My shoe.
I was a soldier bro. And I went there and
I would talk to my recruiter and that one day
I was like, Hey, I want a sniper contract. I
want to go SF all this. He said, Oh yeah, Bro,
you just got to be a pet stud and they'll
pick you out and basic trading. That did not happen. Bro,

(13:29):
I got sent to eleven Charlie platoon. I didn't even
know what the Charlie was and so I'm just sitting
there like, man, I thought I was gonna be infantry
and told my recruiter told my plat. I was like, hey, man, like,
when are you all going to start recruiting for ranger?
For ripping all this? Like my recruiter told me I
could stand out, like I was the best PTE in
my platoon. He just starts laughing at me. He's liked,

(13:50):
motherfucker lied to you, dumb ass. No shit, I get
back from my rack. Bro. I was an E four promotable.
I made my five in three years because I on
awards in one wartime. So I got back from Iraq
on my thirty days lead. I went right back to
that recruiter station about to give that E seven a
piece of my fucking mind. I was like, where's that
little redhead motherfucker at? And sure shit, he got out

(14:13):
the army. I was like just another number to push
to meet his quota and he had I was, you know,
it was it was a rude awakening after I came
back as a combat vet and I want to go
because that dude had no combat patch, no nothing, you know,
and just lied to my ass as a kid. But
at least told me like how was gonna be? But
he didn't, So, you.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
Know, that's crazy. It's not on common I guess. I
think now it's harder probably for recruiters to lie to
kids because there's so much information out there. Like it
used to be like when I joined. I joined in
two thousand and six as well, it used to be
like if you wanted to know something, you had to
like find a book, you had to go to the library,
you know, or you had to find a documentary or

(14:52):
something like that. Like the Internet. Like the information on
the Internet was pretty sparse. The Internet was still pretty new,
you know, newish for most consumers at the time. So
but now there's so many like Instagram pages, YouTube channels, podcasts,
you know, you can. I think some people go into
the military knowing the exact job they want to do,
and like the exact unit they want to be in.

(15:14):
You know what I'm saying. They this unit has a
storied history. They they follow the Instagram history page or whatever,
you know pages like there's a page called Goon's Up.
You know, they do a really good job of showing
like all the different like infantry jobs and different units
and stuff that do that. There's one I don't know,
but you know what I'm saying, Like there's just so
much information out there that I think guys walk in

(15:37):
to recruiter and or like, hey, this is the job.
I want, you know, I want to see the contract.
I've seen enough videos on podcasts and stuff of guys
saying they got screwed over by the recruiter. I want
to see it in writing. This is what I'm getting.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
So you know, my took me to a write aid
to buy a blocker for my drug test. Like during
the during this time, they were just letting everybody in apparently,
so like, yeah, it was. It was. When I go
across the country and speak I've spoken at over forty universities,
fortune five hundred companies, I always get asked is and

(16:09):
I'm like, do your research, Like if it's something you
want to if you're going to commit your life into
this craft, into this field, make sure you're going with
the plan. Like I didn't go in with the plan,
and they saw me coming from a mile away. So
it's good to know. And I mean, you just enlightened
me on how much more information is out there to
attain for you know, this the next generation coming up
to be soldiers, and I hope people are utilizing the

(16:31):
assets that are out there because I didn't have any.
I was a young kid, went in. Next thing. I know,
I'm six months later in bagdad jumping from roof to
top to rooftop.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
So it's crazy, man, you know, it's it's it's it's
interesting to take a gamble like that when you're young,
and I think it's something that more kids ought to do,
not necessarily like not going not knowing anything, but you know,
seek out in an adventure, seek out something outside of
like your hometown. Even like the good thing about the
military is, you know, you could do four years and

(17:02):
then go back home and do whatever it is that
you want to do, and but just get away and
see something different for a little bit and come back,
you know, rather than I'm sure you know, I mean,
I know people that have never really left up my hometown,
you know, they've never gone anywhere. They occasionally go to
like Florida or something on vacation, but outside of that,
they where have they've been? What have they seen? And
I've been lucky enough to have been over I think

(17:24):
over fifteen countries, you know, like just getting to see
these different cultures and different aspects of life and and
just you know, I don't know, life, life experiences that
the military gives you pretty unique and you're getting paid
to do it. Obviously there's downsides to the military, but
you know, that is what it is, you know. So
what's talk about? How was the you know you're talking

(17:47):
about you went from starting basic training to six months
later you're in Iraq. How was the the mortarman training
and stuff that you did prior to deploying, Like how
did you feel like you were ready? And did you
roll into Iraq as like a individual augment, like you
went by yourself and attached to a unit and you
were there, or did you get attached to a unit

(18:09):
and then right as they were deploying, you guys left together.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
They're already there. So I replaced Literally, it's man weird
as shit, because like I replaced a soldier that was killed.
So I mean I got to the unit a month
into their deployment and I was sleeping in the same
kid's bed that had just been killed.

Speaker 3 (18:25):
Alan B.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
James from Texas. He was twenty one when he got killed.
I never met him, obviously, but yeah, I had orders
to go to Hawaii, and then two days before I
graduated Basic, they sent me and two other kids to
Fort Carson where we went for one week to get
our issuing degree, and then we went straight to our
rack to me our platoon that was already sticks at
FOB Rustama and Baghdad. So yeah, it was like really

(18:47):
really quick for me. I mean, really ait is fourteen
weeks or basic trainings nine weeks and then do like
five weeks a T or something like this. I think
I did five weeks of the mortar training FTX. You know,
it's like whatever, like just standard infantry shit, like you
can only learn so much in infantry school. But I
didn't even touch a mortar. When I got to Iraq, bro,

(19:08):
I was all dismounted. I was light infantry, so I
mean we were rolling around in humbies. We would stayed
at JSS, which is a Joint Security site for a
week at a time. So I lived inside a soider
city at a police joint station with two other platoons,
and we would stay out there for a week at
time and we'd get rotated out. So the only time
I solid mortar in Iraq was when we do our context,

(19:29):
we clean our connext is out shit, like do inventory
one hundred percent inventory. That's the only time I ever
saw a mortar tube in Iraq. And that being said,
I wasn't prepared to clear houses like I was clearing
Like I mean, my day one, they put me in
a gunner turret and I was like, what, you know,
Like I've only been to the range on a fifty
col I'm, you know, still trying to figure out how
headspace and timing type shit. The next thing I know,

(19:52):
day one in country, my section Sergeant Burrella, he's like
has a piece of paper. He's like, look man, and
literally his other soldier was just killed. He's like, look, man,
you got to tell me something about you, bro, because
I don't know, I don't know ship and if you die,
I gotta tell your family something. So literally, for the country,
I was on mission, so I didn't even have any
any chance to like really get my feet wet, as

(20:14):
they say, or go to a unit and get coached
up or trained or anything like that. Like I was
literally at E two, graduated basic as at E three,
and then shipped off the so Iraq and came home
and E four E four with prom on the verge
of being promoted, like I had enough points. So yeah,
I really was not prepared for the combat that I

(20:36):
saw in Iraq, And it was really it was it
was like city warfare like in Baghdad, bro Like we
were like high value targets. We'd roll around with j
Tex with us at the security site, dismounting the city
all at night time. So yeah, I mean I was
I was a grunt man, like uh yeah, I mean
it was cool. I mean I did a lot of
cool stuff and and got a lot of saw a
lot of things, and you know, also a lot of

(20:58):
scary stuff. I lost like twelve people in our deployment
that unit, so yeah, you know, you're exposed to a
lot of stuff early on. And I came home at
nineteen and a half. I wasn't even twenty years old
when I came home, and so like, you know, I
was scared for my life coming back. I wanted a handgun,
so I bought an illegal handgun kind of stuff. Like
it just really for me coming back, man, like, because

(21:22):
you feel some type of way that you're fighting for
people's freedoms and you can't even legally have a beer
or whatever kind of shit, right you have that or
society you know that they call you a hero, like,
but I don't feel like I was a hero like, so, yeah,
it was difficult. It was a difficult time. Like come
being in the military at a young age and like
being able to, you know, fight and then come home

(21:43):
and feel restricted or scared for your own safety like that.
That's a whole other journey man is like my unit
in Fort Carson, Colorado, forth ID we were like, we're
one of the most like battered, Like we had I
think like four or five domestic violences, drive bys. My
bunkmate in Iraq slit a girl's throat. He's doing life

(22:06):
right now in prison in Michigan. Yeah, man, we were
all messed up, and why oh well, let's send these
boys on a fifteenth month deployment and see what the
fuck happened. Like we were part of a hectic time
where they were just like pushing soldiers out man and
we were just myself included. It was just a replacement soldier.
So you know, I had a very different optic in
perspective when I was after my time, in going through

(22:28):
my time, especially talking to other people, I was like, damn, Bro,
I was literally just a little political pond in some
regard like this. You know, all right, we need you
a here. Ago. I already had orders to go to
Afghanistan before we even got back from a fifteen month
tour in Iraq. So when I got home, I did
sniper school the airsol more Lock m lock type shit.

(22:48):
But within twelve months we were already sent back to Afghanistan.
So I was literally back to back deployments.

Speaker 1 (22:53):
That's such a disservice that the Army does to the
people like that, to take a guy and within like
like you said, six months, you're in combat, you know,
straight off the street into combat in six months, Like Bro,
the army is so huge, How are they shorthanded at
that point to that where they have to send a
guy like you that knows nothing off to a deployment

(23:16):
for fifteen months? You know, Like the Marine Corps, a
lot of people, a lot of people shit on the
Marine Corps. And you know, obviously everyone hates you know,
when you're in the Marine Corps in the military, you
hate your unit, you hate your higher ups and stuff
like that kind of deal a lot of times. But
one thing I will always say that they did right
was that we only did seven month deployments. You know,
if you were there with a like higher headquarters like

(23:38):
regimental headquarters or division headquarters, you did a year deployment.
But if you were like a lower level, like if
you were an infantry battalion, you were only there for
seven months. It couldn't get extended, yeah, but most of
the time it didn't. And I always saw that the
Army was sending guys out for a year to fifteen months,
and I'm like, that is so fucked up, man, Like,
that's such a long time to be away from home

(24:00):
and be away from everything, you know, and especially when
you look at so the average infantrymen right does twelve
to fifteen months in the Army, But when the rangers
go on a deployment, they do like three month deployments
because yeah, because they know, like, hey, this is hardcore
stuff that they're doing. This is an intense you know
they're in warfare. This is like not good for them
mentally to be here and be doing this constantly. I

(24:23):
don't know how they can justify sending a straight lake
infantryman that is in combat. That is you know, you
said you lost like twelve guys on that deployment for
a year, for fifteen months, you know, and I know
you get like a two week R and R or
some shit like that, but that's just it. That is
such a disservice to everybody. There's no reason why a
guy should come off the street and be in combat

(24:45):
within six months. He should be come off the street,
go to or go to boot camp, go to his
MLS training, and then get to a unit and kind
of spun up on things because you know as well
as I do. When you're in MS school, you're learning
like the basics of your job, but there's so much
more to the job that you don't learn until you
get to your unit and these guys that have been
doing it for a while teach you. And it's just

(25:06):
such a disservice.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
One hundred percent. Bro. Even furthermore, you just reminded me
I didn't even take leave on my so it was
a thirteen and a half month deployment for me. I
didn't take any leave, so I had to go a
straight year in the Baghdad because what happened was when
I came out of base, they just put put in perspective.
When I graduated, everybody goes to university. I joined the army,
and by the time Christmas came around that Christmas two thousand,

(25:29):
what it would be two thousand and six. Yeah, yeah,
graduated two thousand and six. So Christmas two thousand and six,
all my friends are coming home from their first semester
of college. I'm deployed. So I was already where my
friends were getting done with their first semester of school,
and then on top of that, they sent me. So
what happens is basic training, Like you come out of
basic with like a week of leave or something like this.

(25:50):
It's something like very petty, but in a perfect scenario,
you go to your unit train like you said, and
then you go deploy. Well, since I was a replacement soldier,
I got sent to and sent off so fast. Right away,
they sent me home for a week before I deployed.
They're like, no, you have to go home. It put
me in the hole. I had no leave, and they
made me take leave before I deployed, and so I

(26:10):
literally went to Iraq with negative seven days of leave
and I declined leave. I didn't have any leave to take.
So I had to do a thirteen month deployment and
I didn't take any leave. I did a full year
straight in combat every single day. Fucked me up, man,
it really did. Yeah, But like you said, it's unfortunate
that a lot of these soldiers we have the assets
and capability or what have you. Maybe we didn't have

(26:32):
a lot of infantry soldiers back then. But uh yeah,
I mean my boys, my platoon was stationed in Korea,
and they went from Korea to Ramadi and then they
Adi straight didn't go back to Korea. They went straight
to Carson, back to Fort Carson, Colorado, and then deployed
back to Baghdad. And that's when I met him, and
then we went back to Afghanistan. So that three six
one bro those boys went through hell. Man, like we really,

(26:55):
we lost a lot of people in all of our
deployments that unit. So it's unfortunate that, you know, and
now the psychological effect that has compounded years later. I mean,
I have another seven or eight friends that have killed
themselves since I've been out eight Oh, Jacob shot him.
He killed himself. That was fuck. That was pretty fucked up. Yeah.

(27:16):
So it's like I was on a ten year case
study with the Army when I got out. They did
a ten year evaluation study to see how it'd be ended,
like two years ago. So it's like, you know, like
I was definitely in a unique position and sent into
a lot of combat at a very young age. Unfortunate.
I'm thirty six now, so fortunate to still be still
be here.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
Bro, you don't look thirty six at all. You look
at you're in your twenties. You look so young. Man,
it didn't wear on you at all.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
Oh man, I hope not. I mean it did. It's
I'm chasing these younger women now, is what it is.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
That's trouble too. Yeah. So dude, it's just so crazy. Man.
I can't believe again, the size of the army, the
amount of money that goes into the army. I don't
know if maybe it's like we have too many supports
people or what, but there is no reason for you
guys to be deploying like that. I know it was
at the height of the war and the surge and
and everything. But when you look at the overall size

(28:10):
of the military and to send you right out the
bat into combat and then turn around and send you
a year later for another year long deployment, you know,
a year plus because it could be twelve to fifteen months.
And I don't know, I'm from what I've heard a
lot of times. It was never just a year. It
was always extended, you know. It always seemed like it

(28:31):
was getting extended at least a month or two on
top of that year. So it's just mind blowing for
me to hear that and to have seen it happen.
I was so glad my dad was in the army
and he wanted me to join the army when I
said I was going to join the military, and I
decided to join the Marines, you know, just to do
something different. And I'm so glad I joined the Marines,
because I will say, there are there are cases of

(28:55):
what you're of, the same thing kind of happening where
guys get to a unit, they deploy pretty quickly after that.
But for the most part, there was a decent amount
of dwell time. Certain jobs. I was a jaytack in
the Marines, and I knew other j tacks that were
It was basically the group of guys before me. They
would deploy, and when they would be getting ready to

(29:17):
come home from that seven month deployment, they would be
notified of when their next deployment was. You know, it
was such a high it was such a high demand
mos that it was like, hey, this guy is going
to deploy a bunch. You know, he's just kind of
known within that job field. So it wasn't uncommon for
guys in my job job field to like get to
eight years or twelve years and be like, I'm good,

(29:38):
I'm done. That was cool because it's such a high tempo,
but you kind of know that. But that wasn't the norm.
You know, that wasn't like the norm for a unit
to deploy and then be back for six months or
a year and then deploy right again. You know, Like
I don't know. I mean again, I know it happened,
but not to the same extent that it happened to
the Army. And it doesn't surprise me. That causes issues

(30:01):
like I don't know, man, it's so fucked up, it's
so fucked up.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
I'm a four year windows slot bro. Half of my
platoon that I met up with had a deployment before
me in a year after me. So I have buddies
that were in this unit for five years, six years
and deployed four times in five years, like like some
rue and a lot of them are suffering from a
lot of mental cases post traumatic stress issues with the VA. Now,
like there's just this whole like you know, like I said,

(30:29):
just this compound that that has happened and in the
generations after that, like I've I walked with called taps
out of DC, which puts veterans like myself into into
relationships with kids who have lost their father and so
man like that. I thought that was going to be
like really good for me, but shit, it just like
restruck the cord. That was like, damn, all the all

(30:49):
my buddies who were killed now their sons are like
grown ass men, and they all want vengeance. Most of
them want vengeance. It's like very very few and far
between that any of them are like, oh, whatever it
might be, you know, it's just it's it's both. I'm
sure it's the same of all the people I've killed
in Iraq, and Afghanistan. You know, the next generation coming up.
One's revenge. It's the same. You know, I've seen It's

(31:12):
it sucks man like. You know one of the songs
I wrote that, it's on my YouTube. It's just like
it talks about it's right. It's like, you know, the
older I get, the more difficult it is to live
sometimes because it's like, man like, life is beautiful and precious.
But I lost so many friends at such a young age.
In total, I have twenty eighteen bulls on the belt

(31:32):
fed tattoos. I have eighteen friends that were killed in combat,
not including the ones that were committed suicide or died
there after. So like, you know, it just it's a
heavy it's a it's a heavy uh, a heavy world
to be in. So, you know, so I'm thankful that
I'm still here and kicking on. But yeah, man, it
was it was a rough road and the army really
didn't give a shit. I didn't feel like they're just

(31:53):
pushing people out, like like come en list. If you
make it, you make it. And here's another crazy thing too.
Between my deployments from Iraq in Afghanistan, I went through
the RIP program finally, so I went through RIP program
top of my class. I wanted to go to Ranger school.
Sar Majors like, sure things, short thing, go to Ranger School.

(32:15):
I supposed to leave. We have three months before our deployment.
I have sixty one days a hell to go to
Ranger school.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
Now, hold on, real quick, real quick? Was this rip
for to go to Ranger Battalion or just Ranger School
the basic Ranger School RIP?

Speaker 2 (32:29):
So I had to qualify the RIP to go through
Ranger school, and then I was going to leave to
go to a battalion like I wanted. I wanted to
get it. I wanted to be I want to go
SP I want to go through Ranger School and the
s and uh, bro, I do all the RIP qualifications,
get my things in order. I'm like squared away, ready
to go. My Starge Major pools my papers and gives
him to an officer, an incoming officer out of West

(32:50):
Point makes me. He's like rodriz, you know, we just
don't want you to have to recycle or reclass and
you might have to miss some of this deployment, so
we need you. So you got me fucked up, bro,
So they pulled my Ranger contract and sent me on
this deployment, couldn't. I was e for promotable, but I
couldn't get to a board because I was stationed in
at combat Outpost Keating, which is in the middle of
fucking nowhere, and put me in field promotion. Bro I

(33:11):
was putting for a battlefield promotion, like that shit doesn't exist.
Got my ranger contract, pool put him for battlefield promotion
and ended up getting shot in Afghanistan. I was when
I got when I after that deployment, I went to
my to my starm major and I was getting out
and he's like, Rodriguez, you know you'd be a really
really good soldier. You'd help out a lot of you know,

(33:32):
you have a lot of experience. I looked at this
dude right in his eyes. I said, all due respect,
you've been in twenty years. I've been in less than
four and I've been deployed more times than you have.
I was like, you gotta me fucked up if you
think I'm staying in here longer. He was like, you know,
all the power too, man, which best. I was done
after that, y'all. I was like, y'all fucked me on
leave ranger contract all this other bullshit and like, Nah,

(33:54):
I'm done, I'm cool with this. I'm gonna get out.
And I just turned twenty one, so I was like, yeah,
I'm ready to get out.

Speaker 1 (33:59):
That's some great dude. It's like, you know, everybody reaches
a breaking point, you know what I'm saying. And when
something like that happens, like it's like when you go
in and you are you feel like you're giving your
best and you're trying, and you know, and like and
you're asking for something like going to a school. I
had the same kind of situation I asked to go to.

(34:20):
I wanted to go to WTI. I was a Jtack
evaluator and the next step was to go to WTI
and that's like the highest level jaytack in the Marines.
And I was like, you know, if I get that school,
then that's cool. I can be a jatack for the
rest of my career. And I got to a unit
that was getting ready to deploy and I asked them,
I was like, hey, can I go to a WTI?
You know, I know you guys have a seat right

(34:41):
And they're like, I don't know, and I'm like, well,
you do, I know you do because I've been tracking
it and they they told me, They're like, it's an
officer's course. I'm like, no, it's not. And then they
ended up just not sending anybody, you know. I was
like the fact that you guys are that you did that,
that was like the breaking point for me. I was like,
fuck this, I'm done. Like I give so much back
to you guys, like I've done. This will be my
fifth deployment. I've done so many field ups. I've done

(35:03):
so many favors to go on field ops to help
out a unit for training or you know, evaluating their
dudes whatever, And you guys can't do me, like throw
me a solid, like fucking send me to this one
school that I've asked to go to, Like I don't
ask to go to any schools, like this is the
one school that I've asked to go to, and you
guys can't do that, Like fuck this man, Like it's
it's got to be a give and take relationship. You
can't just sit here and take my fucking time, take

(35:25):
my fucking sanity and not give anything back. You know, Yeah,
go ahead, right, no, go ahead, go ahead.

Speaker 2 (35:33):
The same way, he was stationed in Berlin, German. My
sister was born in Bamberg in Berlin Checkpoint Charlie, and
he didn't want to come back to the States, and uh,
They're like, no, hell with that, You're going back to
Fort Bliss. He's like, fuck you, I ain't. So he
got out too. It's like the same thing, and it's
just like you only can take so much, like of
like what you want to do, where you want to be.
And for me it was the same. It was the
same thing. Man, Like I just was like I can't

(35:54):
do this anymore. Bro, Like I'm over it. And I
really felt like I was gonna I the Army needed me.
I really felt that way. Like I was like, I'm
a good ass soldier, Like I'm squared away, I got
any issues, I'm pt stud like I want to do
this Bravo four bro, I'm like, I am a soldier.
It's like it's like and I just kept seeing I

(36:16):
had dumb asses ahead of me.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:18):
I was just like putting up with dumb asses that
were fucking not as squared away as me, or not
as well I don't want to say elite, but just
not weren't in the same like frame as me. And
then they were they were the gatekeepers to where I
wanted to go, and I was just like, fuck out
of here, man, Like you know, I'm max out on
my awards, I'm square the fuck away, like I'm the

(36:38):
only mortar with a sniper rifle, Like get the Like
what else do you want me to do? I have
twenty seven months of combat, made my E five and
three years, like I don't want to be here anymore,
and they still get get kevin. I was like, I'm good.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
I remember my last deployment. We had this fucking guy
who who was a complete moron. He was a staff sergeant,
and I'm like, how did this guy make it the
staff sergeant? You know, he's just a small mos. I'm
not gonna call out his mos or his name or
anything because I'd be fucked up. But he had a
small mos. So he was continuing to get promoted. And
it's like nobody is putting on his paperwork that he's
an idiot. You know what I'm saying. They're just continuing

(37:11):
to promote this moron, and now he's in charge of people.
And I remember he was such an idiot. They wouldn't
let him answer the phone because they were afraid of
what he would say just answering the phone in the office,
and then on that deployment at the same time, they
wouldn't let him answer the phone. He got selected to
get promoted a gunnery sergeant, and I'm like, how is
his fucking idiot in charge? You know what I'm saying.

(37:32):
And he would walk around and be like, I'm a gunny,
you're a staff And it's like, fuck you, dude, You're
a fucking idiot, you know what I'm saying. It's just
when you see that kind of shit, You're like, how
does the incompetence keep getting promoted? And now this guy
is somehow in charge of me or something has some
kind of sway over my life, like, you know, like
fuck it, it's not worth it anymore, you know. And

(37:52):
it's like I think if the military would come around
and start stop promoting these morons and you know, give
a little bit back to the guys that are putting
in their time, that want to be good of their job.
That you know, I enjoyed my job. I love doing it.
I love being around the guys, I love going to
the field, I love doing all the stuff. But it's
like it's it became not worth it. I had a kid,

(38:13):
it became not worth it for me to not I mean,
you're telling me you want me to deploy on ship
for seven months when I've this is my fifth deployment
in like six years, seven years or whatever. It was, like,
get the fuck out of here, man, Like I need
to spend some time with my kid. Give me something back,
you know. If I'm giving you all this of my
time and my you know, all this, like what wear
something back? And it's the military loses so many good

(38:35):
people because they don't want to give anything back to
these people like you. They should have let you go
to this school. They let some officer that hasn't done
anything yet come in and take that seat, Like what
the fuck man? You know, why what is that fifteen
months in Iraq? Was it not worth anything?

Speaker 3 (38:50):
You know?

Speaker 1 (38:50):
Did I not you know, prove that I'm willing to
be here and I just you're trying to better yourself,
you know, and it's like and bettering yourself better is
the organization. And and they just ripped that away and go, sorry, Bud,
we need you to deploy again, Like fuck it. Send
the officer man, you know, like I don't know, man,
it's so frustrating to hear these stories.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
Nah it is, it is, and like, yeah, yeah, that's
why I got out. I just looked at it. I
was like, you know what I can use my giv Oh.
I was gonna say, did you ever see the movie
The Outpost?

Speaker 1 (39:19):
I did. I read the book and then I saw
the movie a few years ago. It's been a little bit,
but yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
I played myself in that movie. Yeah, Jake Tapper is
a good friend of mine, but that that our our
c O. His name, ain't they Bowers is what they
think they have him in the movie, but something else.
I won't call his name out either in real life.
But same shit, man, he's a pt he. He was
on profile for the entire year we were back in Garrison.

(39:46):
Never saw those dude exercise ones. Never saw him go
out to the range with us. We get to keating
me and Roma Cheer, trying to put Claymore's out, and
he won't let us shoot. Willie p won't shoot. We're
just like I was like, I'm just singing to myself,
like I should not fucking be here here, Like yeah,
and now I'm stuck with this fucking guy who's never
seen combat, who has been pushed along and checked off

(40:07):
every single box to get his you know, to get
on his whatever. He was tracking towards major. He's a
captain at the time, and I was just sitting there
like fuck this, like this guy, these people are gonna
get me killed and old. I was put in an undefensible.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
Location like that shit's crazy, dude.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
My way out. So it was just like yeah, yeah,
I was just like when I got back from that deployment, man,
it just it was it was it couldn't be clear
for me, like this is not, this was not it
was good. I've learned a lot, you know, there's a lot.
You know, I'm thankful for what I had, the opportunities,
the people I met, the experiences I had. But yeah,
I'm not going to be in this business for twenty years.

(40:47):
That is for damn sure.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
Yeah, I mean, I mean one last example and then
I'll quit, bitch. And like I remember, I got back
from my deployment. I went on my last deployment. I
didn't want to go on that deployment. I told him.
I was like, if you send me on this, I'm
getting out. They sent me on it, and I tried
to do the whole WTI thing, and I was like, well,
maybe I'll I'll make the best of the situation and
try to go to WTI and then whatever, I'll do
the deployment and then come back and I'll just go

(41:11):
be a j tech forever. And that got ripped away
from me. And that was like, I said, the final straw.
And then I remember I came back and within like
three days of coming back from deployment, my old ops
chief at Anglico called me and was like, hey, man,
you want to come back to Anglico, come back to
your old team. And I'm like, fuck, yeah, dude, that'd
be awesome, you know. And he's like, cool, well, if
you do, you're deploying next week. I'm like, dude, I

(41:34):
just got off ship. I've been home for three days.
Like fuck that man. And it was like that was
the kind of thing. It was like, you guys are
just fucking using me, like you're trying to make it
sound like you're hooking me up. Like, hey, you want
to come back and be the team chief again? Sure, okay,
Well you're going to deploy in like three days to
go to Iraq or go to you know, I'm like, dude, O, man,
fuck this, man, like quit using me. I'm on my
way out. Then, you know, like it's just it gets old. Man,

(41:57):
It's like fucking take care of the dudes, you know,
the guys that put in the time and want to
be there and are trying to be good at their
job and trying to you know, just be all around good.
You know, like quit fucking them and they'll probably stick
around and the whole force will probably end up being better.
But like I said, I'll quit bitching about my stuff.
Let's talk about that. You know, you get word you're
going to Afghanistan. What kind of training did you guys

(42:20):
do to prep for Afghanistan? And then tell us how
the training was to get ready for it? And then
what were you were you shocked by how much different
than Iraq? It was?

Speaker 2 (42:30):
God, yeah, I was, so it was so different. Well, firstly,
we were in Carson, so we were able to train
in the mountains, which was nice because we actually went
and the Hindu Kush Mountains was actually the lower elevation,
so that was a really good adjustment. But we weren't
prepared for where we were at, Like, you know, we
were on this desolate outpost like outside of our one

(42:52):
five to five howitzers. And then even like I went
to like I said, I went to Mlock, which is
a mortar leader course school I think is also in Bending. Yeah,
I was in Ben for that too, So like you
come out like I went on deployment like weapons expert
on every single mortar system. I'd hung hundreds and thousands
of a rounds training. But then when we got to
our base, we were the bottom of like a valley

(43:15):
with like three mountains around on either side of it
actually really all sides of us, but one was like
a valley out But yeah, we had like I think
normal aiming post sites for a mortar is like fifty
yards and then one hundred yards is the second one.
Something like this. I might be blanking on it. But
our mortar pit was no bigger than showed you my

(43:37):
studio apartment here. But it's like it was small, man,
not not even it was smaller than half a basketball
court kind of thing and a circular kind of thing.
And that's including a one twenty millimeters system where we
had our stuff and then where we slept all in
this like cut it was caved out, carved out in
the side of this mountain, like we slept in like
a hooch, like a cave essentially, and our aiming poles

(43:58):
were ten feet fifteen feet in front of us, like
stuck in sandbags, and we had two on either side.
So what I had trained for and what I had
saw and what I thought I was gonna observe was
not what it was. Like. I mean, my first day
in country, you flying at night. So we took the
chinook in and I laid literally bro literally I had
such such fortunate enough to be in the shit of

(44:21):
the shit. But we land in country in Afghanistan. We
take a bird to a place called five Bostick and
we're gonna be at Bostic, like doing the ride in
ride out for one seven cav I think they were
out of Fort Bliss something like this. So we we
thought we were gonna be there for like a month.
They come to me like, hey, you're on the first
bird out tonight. What the fuck? Like I literally just

(44:42):
got in country like not even eight hours ago, and
within twelve hours I was on a bird to keating
and uh, we go at night. Nods a wrong. I'm
looking down at like this pudding green like just little
putting grain on either side is like rug like flow,
like river flowing. We got this sling load, and I'm like,
where the fuck are we even at sleeping this suit's
next morning sun comes up completely surround by three sides,

(45:03):
and not even ten minutes later we get attacked. I
was in flip flops my very first firefight. I was
in flip flops and PT shorts, didn't have any I
had my M four, my twenty one, the sniper rifle
I come out with that I had, I hadn't even
been given like a combat that love for magazines or
anything that shit. I had to go to the ambal
point at the base that morning to get my shit.
So I literally came out and PT shorts, flip flops

(45:25):
and a sniper rifle with like fifteen rounds on me
for my first firefight day one. I was like fucking
hell like and then the second question, how different different
was it from my Iraq? But I was mounted in Iraq, Like, yeah,
we did a lot of clearing, but I was My
friends that were killed were killed at Humbies by eds
and EFPs and fucking Snell was killed by a sniper.
But like real urban type shit. And then I get

(45:47):
to Afghanistan. It's like, Bro, these dudes are fighting U
toe to toe, Like my first firefight. I damn near
killed in Ana guy. I didn't realize we had an
a infiltrated with us on our base, and I just
saw this clearly an American guy with a AK forty
seven barrel melting and Bro, I damn near shot his
face off. Bro, He's lucky I didn't. I didn't have

(46:08):
time to shoot a second one because the first one
missed him, and then they started yelling no friendly, friendly friendly.
Damn bro, because he actually duck behind a rock. I
could see he's peeping up and up, so I tried
to I couldn't really get a good shot out, so
I tried to ricochet it off the rock he was on,
like hit it down, and he came up with his hands.
I'm like, oh shit, Like that's ana. I was like, well,
y'all need to give people heads up, fucking tell not

(46:31):
to get a firefight. Bro, I'm out in the middle
of that Ghanistan Like, dude looks like he's one of them.

Speaker 1 (46:35):
I'm sorry, sorry, Bro, you've been there for twelve hours.
What are you supposed to do you know.

Speaker 2 (46:40):
Really, sound has just come up? I'm getting shot at. Yeah,
And that was like the that was the precursor because actually,
rewind before we even stepped foot in Afghanistan coming home
from Iraq, we had we had been told a story
that our sister platoon Fritchie, they had killed like six
guys of the wire with hand grenades, and We're like,
who the fuck is still throwing hand grenades? Like what

(47:02):
the fuck? Like where are we going? And so there
then we get attacked and I'm just sitting there fighting.
And then on October third, I threw like over fifty
hand grenades. I had a Mark nineteen barrel full of
hand grenades and I was literally throwing out of my window,
like out of my hooch, cooking them as well, like
cooking them one one thousand and two, one thousand and three,
then throwing them like so it was like, okay, yeah,
they're right, we were throwing some hand grenades. But yeah,

(47:24):
keating and Afghanistan was so much different, Like it was
just you couldn't fight a fair fight. Everything was uphill.
The mortar systems. We had a sixty in a one
to twenty, so I could handheld and shoot the sixties
within you know, three hundred and sixty radio seven seventy
seven thousand four armre MIL. But I could easily defend
and shoot the mountains that we could see. But man,

(47:46):
it was it's not how you train. It's not you
don't even shoot mortars that way, Like like everything was
so unorthodox of how we fought, how we would we
would do our carpet lining as well, like traverse and
search missions with white phosphors, so we'd shoot white foster
for us, first do a whole line of white fosters
and then come in and hit it with three to
six three to six meter air burst of HD. It

(48:07):
just disperse all the hi or all the white fosterhors
and we just burn a side of the mountain at
a time. Because it's just like can't really it's just
hard to explain how much fire we would come upon,
or how much they would suppress us or just hit
us in the morning or hit us at night, or
there'd be you know, a team of guys over there,
team of guys over there. So it's like you only
have three mortarmen in this pit trying to cover three

(48:28):
hundred and sixty degree terrain and you're at the bottom
of three mountains, so it was really hard to like
even That's why a lot of the videos you see
is I'm on the two forty first, Bro, I didn't
have time. Bro. I had several times with the mortars.
Tube was shot, was hit, was pink, They were dialing,
so I couldn't even get to my gun until I
put down suppressive fire. And then Thompson would come running

(48:50):
out and my other guys would come running out and
get to the sixty. But I held down that two
forty just to make sure that we could get the
guns up into fire where we needed to, just for suppression,
which you don't fucking have a machine gun and an
ortar pit ever like that. You know, it just doesn't
it doesn't work like that is the fact that I
had a mounted two forty with two steads. It was
like two like ah like posts like fence posts. So

(49:14):
it's like if you look at like if you can
imagine like looking down at a fence posts to the
outline as like you know, like a little like a
little guy like this, but we put two of them together,
so it like made like this little square you can
kind of picture like two posts together and the square
and then the two forty mount fit in that. So
it wasn't even a military issued stand like, No, it

(49:35):
was just two ammal bags, a six foot pull, two
six foot posts hammered into ammal cans and wired together
to make a little square up top where we could
put the the mount, the two forty mount, and that
was our that was our protection. And we were outside
of where everybody else was on the base, so even
our l raz again like military one on one, you

(49:58):
put your your indirect fire, your mortars, your howitzers in
the middle kind of thing to give everybody else suppressive
fire and cover and range. And we were on the outskirts.
So when we got overrun bro, That's why I was
throwing hand grenades because they were literally coming down around us.
We could hear them laughing and walking on a roofstep
on our rooftop. So I'd come out and shoot, come out,

(50:19):
throw grenades. It was hectic, man, But uh yeah, it
was not anything I had trained for, prepared for, or
was taught this is how you're supposed to fight combat.

Speaker 3 (50:29):
Nah.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
We were in an indefensible location in the low ground.
I mean, what else, what else do I need? To
say to clearly put we were fucked.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
Yeah, they fucked you.

Speaker 2 (50:44):
And back to the point of like I got out
because of these dumbasses in charge of gatekeepers. Not only
was my my ce my CEO, my commander at that time,
but bro I then had to register that somebody above
him put my ass there. And we've been in this
warm for like seven years now and this is still
a fucking operating base. Like how the who the fuck
is making decisions up there? Like all of them are dumb.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
I read something that I read something that some of
the officers got reprimanded for the but it's like what
they get a letter of whatever, you know, It's like
multiple dudes got killed, tons of guys got injured, like
in a situation. I can't imagine what it was like
walking out that first morning and looking up and being
like what the fuck? Like where are we at in
this valley? Like literally the exact opposite of every doctrine

(51:29):
of every like known military tactic, like you don't ever
take the low ground. You take the high ground, and
you cover the low ground. Not saying that there couldn't
be a patrol base or something in low ground, but
only if it's supported by the main element on the
high ground. You know what I'm saying, Like, that's just
so crazy that that was even looked at and go, yeah,

(51:52):
let's do it now. Yeah, it's so crazy you're talking
about you know, you guys are getting attacked pretty regularly.
How how good was your resupplies? Because I imagine if
you're shooting mortars constantly, then they had to have been
bringing in like tons and tons of stuff. Were you
getting pretty resupplied pretty regularly?

Speaker 2 (52:13):
Once a week, once a week man maybe sometimes more,
sometimes more. We didn't get mail or anything. It would
take over a month to get mail, and we would
only get resupplies on Ammo. That was the only day night.
So all the only resupplies we got at Keating were
Ammo and food. That was it. And then we'd before
we'd be be like every one and a half months,
we'd get like a back order like a male slung

(52:35):
and then like you know, they'd drop one off and
we'd have like goodies or you know, finally get some
toothpast or pop tarts. But other than that, man only
ammunition and only and only food, and the food was
MRI's so it wasn't like anything good. But no, we
had resupply. We had an ammal point with I mean
we shot over two thousand rounds and I was only
there for four months. We had an ammal point that
had I think we probably had an additional like two

(52:57):
thousand rounds ago the sixties had about a thousand, but yeah,
we had I mean, yeah, it was That's all we
got dropped now that I think about.

Speaker 1 (53:07):
It was fun just AMMO.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
They're like, you're every single it was either weapons, food,
or we are. One time they brought in a water
supplier guy, like he dropped off like a big old
like you know, whatever the big machine is to purify
the water kind of thing. And that was the only
other sling that I ever saw come in. I only
got mailed one time, two times and five months at heating.
Everything else was AMMO. Everything was always.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
Am That's crazy. How often were you guys, Now, let's
talk about like the tactical Obviously, the situation was you
guys were in a shitty spot. You got to make
the best of it. How often were you guys sending
out like foot patrols and stuff like that, Like, how
well were you guys trying? I mean, was it even
possible to secure. Was it possible to secure the area

(53:50):
where where the fighters were they attacking from the same places.
I know you make as a as a fellow fire
support guy. I know you're out there making like plan
targets and stuff like that, you know, pre pre plan
targets and things like that. Were the fighters that you
were fighting against Taliban guys, were they always using the
same fighting positions or was it varied or you know,
give us like a picture of kind of what the

(54:12):
like daily battle rhythm look like.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
Yeah. No, So now that I've been able to like
reflect back and all this stuff, but we got hit
from everywhere. And so the first few months, like if
I would take you through like a chronological like rotation
of my camera points, is we would get attacked from,
say from the north right. We get attacked in the morning,
and then and then we would fight boom boom, have

(54:36):
like pre plot missions. And then the next day they'd
hit us from like the east, and then the next
day they hit from the south, and then the week
later they hit us from the north. So it would
get like dialed in like three to four days at
a time there, and we'd fight these these groups of
Taliban and then they'd shift on us. And what really
come to find out is they were getting our standard
operating procedures. They're seeing how we reacted. So all of

(54:57):
this fighting was just like to set us up for
Ober third. They were taking pop shots at us, They
were hitting us from different locations, seeing how we reacted,
seeing where our range of fires were. And so for
the first three months there, I mean, we got it attacked.
I don't like to say every day like because it's like, oh,
it's just like what I mean, in like one way
or another. We were in like three to four firefights

(55:19):
a week, so it really felt like every day every
other day. We were getting shot at, taking pop shots.
People were hitting us, taking mortar rounds. B ten was big,
My buddy, Jacob's well, I mean, he was my buddy.
He killed himself out let not too long ago, but
hit with a B ten round, split his face open. Bro.
We were taking so much indirect fire from like just

(55:39):
different locations. RPGs could cut. You could just literally come
over the ridge of a mountain, shoot an RPG into
our base and then retreat back and you wouldn't even
be seen. So we would literally get just peppered and
pestered for three to five minutes at a time. Every
other day in some small arms battle they'd come up
and we'd had preplots. So a lot of the times
the videos you see, like a lot of times it

(56:00):
come out we were just we were hanging the first
three rounds of the preplot. It's like, hey, that's where
they hit us, because we were pre anticipating and go like, okay,
well they hit us here yesterday, here yesterday. Well let's
leave the gun in between these two spots and we
can if we get hit from there again, we'll just
come out and fire. And so that's what it became
because we were trying to guess where they're gonna hit
us from next. But what really what they were doing
was they were getting our our our timing, our movements,

(56:24):
how we reacted if they hit us here, hit us there,
and then on October third, when they hit us with
the warm of stuff, man, like that's why the mortar pit.
My buddy Thompson was killed first, he was hit by
a sniper in the head, and then we were pinned
down the entire time, like everybody was pinned down, like
they just had to constant barrage making sure that we
could not get any of our guns up, and I
was firing the two forty from my kneecaps. Bro I

(56:44):
would go up, poke my head up, and as soon
as I poked my head up, they're like we I
remember holding down in their weeds actually marijuana too, that
was growing. It grows wild out there, but it would
grow from between the ammal cans and the hes goo
bear like you just have like you know, weeds that
grow in there. And I'm hiding behind this and I
have like this vivid like slow motion memory just like

(57:07):
looking up as I see the fucking the the leaves
of the weeds, like is being mode like just like
mowing like the everything around me. Amimal cams a game
blown up RPG after RPG. That's how I got strapped.
I got strapped on my neck from RPG and both
my legs from another RPG when I ran out to
go get try to keep Grag Thompson back. So we

(57:30):
were just completely just pinned in and dialed on and
so like to your question or like how it was,
it was just really just them like setting us up
to see how we're going to react. And then when
they came with everything they had on October third. They
knew exactly where we're coming from. I mean, they know
exactly we're gonna run to. Even Mace and Guy I
Gosa were killed l RAS two where Carter and larcenore

(57:51):
at I mean that one was every every gun truck,
every mortar system, everything we had was dialed into an
exact to an exact like. Look, they knew where we're
gonna be and so like, he was pretty shitty once
we realized that we were we were overrun. Like, I mean,
I have a vivid memory. I thought everybody was dead

(58:12):
and El RAS two, I'd seen seen one of the
guys get killed. Obviously, Thompson was already dead in a
mortar pit with me, and there's guys walking in with
their weapons slunk like just weapons slunk coming through the
East Valley where our mortal point was. I thought everybody
was dead. I was like, you fucking kidding me? Because
coms were down. They had taken out our generators. We
had no comms internally, we had a missing in action.

(58:32):
They had drugged the body of Heart, took all his
gear off, stripped his clothes off, took his walkie talking
hot liked it, so none of us had internal communications.
So for like four hours, we didn't even I had
no idea where anybody was at until the fixed wing
and apaches came in. And then one of the apaches
got shot and not shot down, but he got shot.
So we had apaches come in. We're all fucking livid

(58:53):
because they're and they did work. Bro. There was a
patrick pilots killed like one hundred dudes, man like, not
even exaggerating, they killed like one hundred men down that
and we're all like jumping for joy, like fuck, yeah,
next thing we hear, sorry, birds got hit and they
fly together. So as soon as they took that out, bro,
we were in another hell for another three hours where
everybody came back out again and the weather was too
bad to fly, so before we got fixed wings and

(59:15):
B fifty two's and all these a ten gun runs. Man,
those first three and a half hours of that fight,
everybody thought everybody was dead, and like you know, we
were fighting from inside of our sleeping quarters, so it
was like a really hectic time to like associate what
was going on or where they're coming from, but it
was from everywhere, and uh yeah, I mean they they

(59:36):
just knew what we were doing there. They had been
planning for a long time. So I'm pretty shitty, pretty
situation to be at the bottom of three mountains when
they're doing that.

Speaker 1 (59:42):
Yeah, I can't even imagine, dude. I mean you see,
like if you if for those that have seen the
Outpost or read the book, like seeing the movie, if
you're not familiar and know that it's a true story,
it almost seems like too much, like Okay, they didn't
happen like that. You know, it's like no way, but no.
Knowing that it actually did happen, and you recorded a

(01:00:02):
lot on your own, you know, of different events that
happened at that patrol base, It's like, man, it's I
just can't imagine what that was like, dude. I mean,
when you thought everybody was dead, were you worried that
you were gonna get taken as a hostage or taken
as like a pow.

Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
I kill myself. I heard no way, and hell, they're
gonna take me a lot. I had a bullet rate
chamber ready to kill myself. I had a shotgun laid
out nine mil my sniper rifle. I had all my
AMMO bucket full of hang gernads. Nope, I was not
getting taken a lot. I was eating oreos off my
dead friend's body, like that's all the food we had
up there, like and his rigor mortse is kicked in,
so I couldn't really drag his body all the wind.

(01:00:41):
I had his body as close as I could to
the hoots with ammo cans and I had oreos on
it and extra magazines on his back, like I was
using his body as support, as fire and cover. They
were not gonna fucking takeke me a lot, that's for
damn sure. I'm sorry, that's really I really did not
think I was gonna live, like I was not. I'm

(01:01:02):
not afraid of him, and now I wasn't scared. No fuck,
I was scared, bro, but I but I didn't think
I wasn't gonna surrender or anything like that. It was
just like fucking fucking kill my best friend man, like
right in front of me, like somebody's got to die
and so they won't be Oh yeah, I was ready
to kill all of them.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
Does it change when you were when you got to
that point where you're like, I'm not making it out
of this, like everyone's dead and I'm just gonna fight
until they kill me. When it happened, what happens to
your psyche, you know, what happens to your own. A
lot of people you hear about people that have said
that kind of said that before and they say, I
like almost a calm comes over them, you know, like, hey,

(01:01:40):
this is it, you know, like let's just do this.
Was it like that for you or I mean, can
you explain like what was going through your mind after
you kind of came to the conclusion like this is
it for me? This is you know, my last day.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
He came down because we didn't really have it was
when the Apaches got taken out of the picture and
we were like, oh shit, like like if the can't
come in, Yeah, gun runs and all be fifty Tuesday
do a lot of things, but it's not like an Apache.
When Apache comes in, bro like people run run for
the tunnels, like you know the A ten gun runs
are big too, like they fuck a lot of shit up,
but the Apaches are like really where like the Talban run.

(01:02:15):
But they had Dishca set up in the mountaintops and
that's what hit them. So they're waiting for him to
come down. The valley and then like just lit them
up right, And so when that happened, that was like
the that was when it like really registered. I was like, okay,
like this isn't gonna be like an average day. And
then Thompson was killed within the first like five minutes
of the battle. I had killed a few dudes around,

(01:02:37):
and so me and my platoons aren't breeding. We had
we had we we didn't. We didn't know what the
fuck was going on, Like we weren't gonna quit, but
we all also thought like we're gonna die. And our
plan was is to wait for the sun to go down,
and we had book packs full of all our AMMO
that we could take, and I was gonna love. I
was debating whether to take the sixty millimeters more. She's like,

(01:02:59):
don't take you, dude. I was like, fuck that, man,
I'm gonna shot all this shit and we're gonna jump
in the river and float down. So like to say
like I was calm, I don't know if I really
was calm, especially when the bomb runs started coming down again,
because they dropped like a ridiculous amount of payloads. It's
like it's called like going Winchester when it like a
B fifty two drops everything. We had that twice in

(01:03:21):
one day, and they'd only done it like twice since
the initial invagement in two thousand and one. And then yeah,
we were having two thousand pounds dump bound, two thousand
pound bombs dropped within on us, like on our base,
and they like and J Tech who tells her like, oh, dude,
six hundred meters is danger close. You don't even practice,
you don't even you just read it that six hundred

(01:03:42):
meters is danger close. You never call on anything less
than a thousand meters or you know, two kilometers out.
We were having bombs dropped on our base, no bigger
than a football field, two thousand pound bombs. So I
was actually almost scared, more scared at times I was
gonna die by like a friendly fire, because I don't
I don't think there are many people out there in

(01:04:03):
the military like yeah, if you're on our side of
the military and you're dropping bombs, you can like feel
the impact or concussion or say like, oh, you saw
it blow up from two kilometers out, But until you've
been under a two thousand pounds or a j damn
bomb blowing up literally fifty yards from where you're sleeping.
That shit, isn't it?

Speaker 3 (01:04:22):
Bro?

Speaker 2 (01:04:22):
I thought I was gonna shit my guts out, like
my my stomach and like I'm like in a hooch
with my oplatoons and were hugging each other and the
doors are blowing open fucking dust and just shit is
flying everywhere. You're like, can't even keep your fucking face on.
And that's one after another after another, after another after another.
I thought I was gonna die more by that. And
then when those would come to a hole and like

(01:04:46):
you know, the the patches are coming back up. We
started fighting more and like getting more ground and comms
were getting back up. I didn't. I wasn't scared anymore.
Like I was cautious, Like you know, I knew that
we were still fighting in a battle, but I wasn't.
I wasn't like I wasn't calm or I wasn't like scared.
I was just I was ready to fight. I had
a game plan that if I if I they came
to get me, I was gonna kill myself or shoot

(01:05:07):
it out, kill as many of them before they killed me.
And if I made it through that night, I was
gonna jump in the river and float down. We knew
it was about I think it was like six or
eight clicks commenters to the next uh American based down
the river, and I was gonna take my chances floating
in the river. Let's see what happened. And uh, you know,
we were able to fight, get back Romache. Some of
these boys got calms back up. The Apaches came back in,

(01:05:31):
Hyoways came in as well. It was another another bird
group that came in. And then by the end of
the night we had Tenth Mountain was our our QRF reinforcements.
They came to the top and worked their way down.
They even got in contact on the way down the hill.
It was QRF they killed, and then they killed like
two or three more guys on the way down. Bodies
of the bodies every body that killed two or three more.

(01:05:53):
And so yeah, I don't know if it was a
calmness over me, but I was definitely it was weird,
even like thinking about shooting shooting at some of the people. Man,
like you know, you just you grow up shooting squirrels
and just like you kind of have this like concentration
that comes before you pull any trigger and it just
kind of like related back to that, just me shooting,

(01:06:14):
just target practice, like sta staying focus, come out, take
the shots I can take. Get my head back down,
like you know, don't don't overthink it, like you just
got it. Just gotta just keep fighting. And I tell
people though too, a lot of Thompson's body being stuck
in the mortar pit and outside of it. I'd attribute
that to why they actually didn't come in and like

(01:06:37):
come into our hooch. I think when they would come down,
they would see his body and they kept just running
down the side of it, like Okay, that's done, keep it.
And so it was really I feel like his body
was riddled by the end of the day, like it
was really bad. But I always say like it was
his body and his his sacrifice that really probably look
like everything in there was already dead and there's only

(01:06:57):
two there was two of us hiding. There's three of
us total. He was killed me and me and breeding
were just fighting. He had one doorway, I had the other.
He had a ship one time, Bro, He's gonna I
say he had a ship. Shooting a shipping in an
order to like it touts your role and like it
smelt so bad, Like, but you got Talvian all around you. Bro,
Like sitting there like eating oreos on my dead frame.

(01:07:19):
Mypptunes aren't just taking a shit behind me. I'm like,
what the fuck is going on? Bro? What the fuck
is happening?

Speaker 1 (01:07:23):
This is not what I signed up for, dude. Yeah,
no ship right, damn man. It's it's just so it's
like it's so hard to even imagine. Like I said,
if like, if you haven't seen the movie and you
watch it, it almost seems like like they took some
kind of I don't know, like they went too much,

(01:07:46):
like it was too dramatic, you know, like they dramatized
it or whatever. But it's like, no, dude, like you know,
you're you're making it sound like that's exactly what happened,
you know, But it's like, I don't know for those
that don't know, I mean, there was two Medals of
Honor awarded from that back, you know, and.

Speaker 2 (01:08:03):
I don't know, a Silver Star Distinguish Service Cross for Guyagos.
He got that after he was postmortem. In two Medal
of Honor recipients, pretty wild, all from the same platoon.
We were the most decorated platoons since Vietna since the
Vietnam War.

Speaker 1 (01:08:16):
I think the pilots, I think I think I read
something too that there were eight pilots got Distinguished Flying
Crosses as well for that.

Speaker 2 (01:08:23):
But uh, I'm gonna take a leak real quick. I
can have a second. Yeah, yeah, now you're right, there's
distinguished service cross. I mean I was putting for a
silver star, Bro, I have two purple hearts. I think
there was like twenty something purple hearts out of my platoon.
Two metal hoonnors disting of service across eight silver stars
I think were rewarded. Yeah, and then not to mention

(01:08:44):
the pilots and the all those guys too, man like.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
Yeah, Now, when when the QRF came in, they came
in on foot. They didn't fly anybody in, and they.

Speaker 2 (01:08:55):
Dropped them off at Fritchie, which is our sister platoons.
They had to drop them off at free because we
couldn't we Bro, we couldn't get any birds in. That's
why Mace, I mean, I mean he died. He a man,
He was one of my best friends.

Speaker 3 (01:09:08):
Bro.

Speaker 2 (01:09:11):
They if they could have got him out sooner, they
probably he probably would have lived. The issue was he
I mean, his guts and lower limbs were all all
shot to hell. He would have lost both his legs,
but they didn't re loose the turn and kits up
to like let the bad blood out, the kind of thing.
That's what ultimately got. But the reason we couldn't get
hit him out is because it was impossible to land

(01:09:32):
anything there. Like That's why none of the fixed wings
would come for QRF because it was just again the
apaches had been hit by the dishes right around, so
they weren't even coming into the valley like that. It
was hell fires A ten runs or B fifty two's
until nightfall, until we literally had could get our mvgs
out and like control night. But even then it's like,
depending on how big night bright the moon is, you

(01:09:56):
can still shoot an RPG at a helicopter coming through
a valley. It's not like the hardest thing to do.
It's obviously more difficult, but you can still make out
to see where the bird is in full darkness. But yeah,
they had to drop them off at Fritzie and walk
down because it was too hectic to get anybody in.
They won't. They lifted our roe for seventy two hours
after that we had the freak green light to shoot

(01:10:16):
anybody picking up any of the bodies outside, in and
around the wire, like for seventy two hours after and
we do show force like every six hours. Let it rip,
because they knew were gonna blow the base, so we
would go go out there with our sniper rifles, see anything,
pick it off, do hell fire, drop twenty fifteen, thirty
more to rounds, just whole mountain. Go back the next day,

(01:10:38):
do it again if they're out there.

Speaker 1 (01:10:40):
How long were you in Aghanistan after this?

Speaker 2 (01:10:43):
Six more months?

Speaker 3 (01:10:44):
Man?

Speaker 1 (01:10:44):
It's so fucking crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:10:46):
Yeah, six months I was. I was at halftime. Fuck man,
how's that halftime? Bro? And I was returning to duty.
I I yeah, I could have went home. I could
have went to German. I think they were trying to
give me to go to Germany for something like this.
I was like, no, fuck you, I'm not leaving like
my guys. Like if a dude, one of my guys

(01:11:08):
dies again while I'm not here, I might kill myself
kind of shit. So I was like, no, I'm not going.
So my medic, my doctor was like, okay, have you
had your wisdom teeth pooled? Like no, he's like, get
your wisdom teeth bowled, Like he's like, get your fucking
wisdom teeth pooled. Get another three weeks of uh like
bed rest, and then if you want to become return

(01:11:30):
to duty after a month week, we'll send you back
out on the line. It's okay, So got my wisdom
tooth pooled. Stick to the percocets for a little bit.
Fucking are we just giving me a blanket over them?
Me and buddies were snorting them type shit, it's fucking
fucked up. And then after that month I was returned
tod I was back. I was back on mission, like

(01:11:50):
not even twenty eight days after I was I was
And that that that actually really fucked me was to
go back out again, like having to survive that because
it's you feel like you did your job, like like yo,
come sub let me get it, Like can I get
a substitute here? Like they're fucked up. But it was like, nah, man,
you got six more months left in this tour. And

(01:12:13):
to our point, like we're talking about about these marines
and all these other guys who do it three to
seven months, like there's a there's a benefit to that.
There's a psychological advantage and just like like a brighter
light at the end of that tunnel, whereas like you
come out where I was at, like unless I was
killed or like wounded more I was, I still had
six months left, and it was like that shit really

(01:12:34):
fucked me.

Speaker 1 (01:12:35):
But if you had taken there, if you had taken
their offer, would you have gone to Germany for the
last six months or how would that have worked or
just for like a couple of weeks and then back out.

Speaker 2 (01:12:45):
Well, I think you would have sent me there for
a couple of weeks. But what I saw come out
of it a few guys they were able to like
weasele their way in out of more time or just
like hey, I don't want to do this anymore from
a mental standpoint, And I'm not trying to call any
anybody out. You know, there are people I served with
that after that they didn't come back, and they could

(01:13:05):
have come back, you know, they weren't they weren't really wounded.
So it was like and again I'm not gonna say
that they weren't mentally struggling, because I know.

Speaker 1 (01:13:13):
Really fucked up situation. Yeah, I mean, how could you
not be right?

Speaker 2 (01:13:18):
But uh, it's the same in Iraq, man, Like we
humbies got blown up. If you weren't killed, you're RTD
the next day. Like sure, if you had a concussion,
then take your bed rest. But bro, we would get
blown up, fucked up, and we were on mission later
that day, so it wasn't any It was like, that's
just not how the Army works. So I would have

(01:13:39):
went to I would have went to launch Launch draw,
I think something like this Germany, and then potentially could
have could have gotten out or whatever. But no, I
wasn't gonna do that. I was gonna finish my tour.
I denied. Ever, it was like, not just leave me here,
I'm not going to leave the country. And then a
month later I was back and back on back on mission,
running missions out of FLA Boston.

Speaker 1 (01:14:00):
That seems like one of those situations where they should
have pulled everybody that was there out together and let
you guys kind of like decompress together. You know what
I'm saying, like, because no one else can relate to that.
No one else can like sit there and talk to
you and be like, oh yeah, totally get it, man.
You know That's what my time was like too. You know,
like it's I can't imagine when you go through something

(01:14:20):
like that, it's got to be hard to even relate
to other other soldiers, right, you know, like when they're
telling a story about their deployment, you're like, dude, Like
I was in a place where I was getting shot
at every couple days, and then I literally thought I
was gonna die, you know, like legitimately, not like oh
there's some rounds landed close to me one time, but
like I hear the voices of the enemy walking above me,

(01:14:42):
like two feet above me, above my head because they're
surrounding us, and like, I mean, that's just such a
out of the box situation that, you know, I feel
like special special care should have been taken and I
don't know, man, it's just it's such a crazy situation.

Speaker 2 (01:14:57):
Dude, really should have inh And it's wild too because
we again, I was part of a ten year case
study and this was after I got home, Like literally
they were like looking at my file and looking at
me like what the fuck, like like how are you
like whatever, and so like they're like would you like
to be part of the ten year time I'm like yeah,
for sure, Like please help me like I'm struggling here.

(01:15:18):
Oh I was gonna say something though, Oh oh damn,
I was gonna make a point because you had a
really good point where they should have just taken this
out and like put us all on like the group there.
Oh we came out, but we didn't have anything on.
Like I lost everything, like every all of our equipment
and stuff, like our personal belongings were in our buy
and our animal points. So when all those got blown
and shit, literally everything I owned was destroyed. So I

(01:15:40):
left keating with just the clothes on my back, just
to clothes on my back and the rifle. I was it.
And so it was like we came back and it
was like I didn't have anything. I didn't have any anything,
and if it wasn't for like the USO and like
you know some of these like organizations they like got
care packages together and sent out to us, but like
I didn't have shit after that, and so it was like, man,

(01:16:00):
I was like I was really I was really struggling
after that one, because it was just like man, like
you know, you just lose eighty your best friends in
one day. And then Faulkner, we always say nine killed
himself because Faulkner went and took his life after and
Faulkner just to give him his his props and credit.
We were together in Iraq. He was shot in Iraq.
He was he was part of the surgeon Iraq, shot,

(01:16:22):
sent home, came back, finished the deployment and they sent
him back over and then he was wounded into Keating
ended up killing himself afterwards. And it's just like, you know,
this is these are the examples of like why it
is a detriment to do this to to soldiers like
that and and stuff. So yeah, no, it was a
pretty pretty well. I was gonna make a point like

(01:16:42):
when people watch my videos on YouTube, I always find
it funny when they're like, oh, this is from the
movie cop Keating, and I'm like, or this is from
the movie The Outpost, And I'll always be like, no,
the Outpost is made, and like you know, I always
correct them and people don't believe me. They're like this
doesn't like this looks like something from a movie. This
doesn't look like it's real. And when I go and
give speeches, I have veterans come up to me like

(01:17:02):
Vietnam mets, I, bro that shit you showed us was like, man,
that brought me back to the jungles of you know,
wherever wherever kind of shit. And it's like, so, you know,
is it anything anything?

Speaker 1 (01:17:12):
But is it weird to have a book in a
movie made about that? You know, and you were in
the movie. I mean, what was that like to like,
I don't know. I mean it was such a significant event,
you know that they made a book. They wrote a book,
Jake Tapper wrote a book, and then they ended up
taking that and turning it into a movie and you

(01:17:32):
played yourself in the movie. Was it surreal to play
that role of yourself?

Speaker 2 (01:17:38):
Absolutely? Absolutely? But the reality is I always wanted to act.
My father was very sport oriented military, but my whole
life I wanted to do music and I wanted to
play sports as well. But I wanted to do act
and do music and all this. But that would have
never been That would have never been like encouraged, oh yeah,

(01:17:59):
go follow you, No, No, I would like that wasn't
gonna happen. So it was a bit almost serendipitous when
the opportunity came because before this, I was actually part
of another Netflix docu series called Medal of Honor, which
is like a seven serious scene. Each episode is a
different Medal of Honor recipient, and they do both Ty

(01:18:20):
Carter and Clinton Romache. So I had been a part
of those production sets in California and I played like
a small ciach and from Vietnam and like another episode.
So if you'ry rot said, I'm like in two episodes
giving my accounts as a soldier, and then I'm in
another episode actually acting. And so that was like my
first breakout, like not even breakout. I was like my
first toe in the door, like, hey, I'm like in

(01:18:41):
California trying to act. And then fast forward, Jake Tapper
hits me up because I'd been to the White House.
I've met Jake Tapper several times. I was living in DC.
I'm from that area. So I went up to the
White House while he was still with ABC before it
was a CNN doing interviews while he was writing the Outpost,
so he was getting my accounts of the story. And
so when they were making the film, he called me.

(01:19:02):
He's like, hey, do you mind being an advisor and
giving your pictures et cetera to Rod Lurry and these
guys who are making the Outposts. I was like yeah, sure.
So I ride my bike to the to in La.
I'm in Manhattan Beach, ride my bike to the to
the meeting and I walk in and you know, tank
top saying how old are you? Man? You look good?
And I just thought to myself, I'm gonna play myself

(01:19:23):
in this fucking movie, so go down, give them all
the pictures like talk about it. I was like, hey, man,
who you all have playing me? And thought, oh, we
haven't cast it for you yet. I was like, look, man,
like I would love to do this, like it's something
I'm trying to trying to do with my life. Side
note too, my book deal was just option for Life
Rights by Sony at the time. So my personal autobiography
Rise is I'm the best selling author hit New York

(01:19:44):
Times Bestsellers list out of college. So that's what actually
sparked my speaking career. So my book had been licensed
and purchased, and they were telling me you cannot go
film this movie because in the contract. Hollywood contracts are
fucking verbal like bullshit. They're like you can't play anything,
like you can't essentially anything in this universe that could

(01:20:05):
be correlated to the same output. They're like, you can't
go play yourself in this movie because we have your
life rights for a movie that we might make about
your life and the stories could overlap. I'm like, what
You're gonna tell me what I can and can't do?
So I was like, okay, I won't go got on
the plane Influta, Bulgary to film the movie, and I
texted them as I was boarding the plane like Hey,

(01:20:26):
just so y'all know I'm on my way. Go fuck
yourself like whatever, and so like, I flew over there
to film a movie and same question. It came like, Man,
you sure this isn't going to be traumatic. I'm like,
I'm sure it's going to be traumatic. But I know
I've lived my entire life for this opportunity and if
this is where those two crossroads meet. And I also
had the like the go ahead from all the families

(01:20:48):
that of my friends that were killed, like they wanted
me to be there, like Mace's mom wanted me to
be on set so I could help make sure that
it was authentic and that it was portrayed correctly and
so like, but I will tell you when I got there, man,
like they recreated this base so fucking well, like I
there was two times where I fell asleep on set

(01:21:11):
in between shoots and I woke up to one side
of the base having gunfire filming, and I would wake
up in my same hoots and my same bug met
my M four hanging and everything, and I would like
think I was in Afghanistan. For like I saw like
five to ten seconds and I'd have to like snap
out of it and like go outside and like feel
the dirt Like that was one thing, like super kind

(01:21:31):
of gladiat or feel like feel the dirt just like, Okay,
I'm not in Afghanistan. Like there's a smell and texture
that I know that when I fight, that's what it
feels and fights like, And this wasn't it. So there
were like little cues that really, even when we're filming
Thompson's death, I couldn't look at it all the way.
I had to like close my eyes and like because
I wanted to be I was told him how it was.
But then when they would do hair and makeup, I
would like try to just like look past it because

(01:21:53):
it would haunt me if I would see it again.
So definitely, and there's one other point I wanted to
make to about Quantico about living in that area, if
it prepared me or not. One of the craziest things
people don't realize about that area in Virginia is it's
home to like like an artillery, like a tank division
in Quantico, something like this. I'm not sure the Marine

(01:22:16):
Corps terminology. My whole life they shot like lifeire like
live range. So my whole life growing up within ten
miles of Quantico, you know, you'd be like like every
other day, every week, right, And so that was just
something that was just common. When I got home from
Afghanistan and got out the army, got back in my

(01:22:38):
own bed, there were times where I literally would wake
up like sweats because like my house was shaking and
I was too close to fucking like combat again. Like
and so, like you made a point earlierhen we're talking like, oh,
did they prepare you like being around? I wanted to
say then, but it just made it recur to me now.
But like, yeah, when I got home, I had I
went back straight to my room where I just graduated

(01:23:00):
high school, and everybody's like, oh, You're such a hero,
blah bla blah, like and I'm like everybody's like, oh,
you know you look. So everything inside me was different,
but I was like still in this atmosphere where like
every time my house would shake, he would just like
throw only back to Afghanistan, and I would like I
couldn't sleep. I'd sleep in the basement of my own
house because like the walls wouldn't shake as much in

(01:23:20):
my basement. Really fucked up when I was twenty I
think I just turned twenty one, maybe twenty something like this,
and it was really hard. But from the acting to
go through that, like to recreate it, you know, it
was difficult, but it's what I wanted to do with
my life. Like I've always wanted to be in the arts.
I've always wanted to be an actor, So I knew
that I had to like push through it. And also

(01:23:43):
another point, you need to answer another question, how do
I feel about it? I felt like it was an
opportunity for me to have like the scapegoat. When people
would ask me, or how was it? What was it like?
Or this and that, like do you have to kill anybody?
It was like once the outpost was made, I felt
like here you are, here's my business card. Go you

(01:24:03):
can go check out my website called the outpost movie
kind of thing, right, Like I felt like it kind
of just shedded that uniform off me and like left
something that is going to represent my friends for out
for longer than I'll ever live in a in a
in a good way and in a real way. You
know it's daunting and it's scary, but it's real. And

(01:24:26):
I just felt like it was like like a little
like a release of like pressure like went out, like
when the book in the movie I made because it
was like, oh, now people can have an idea of
what I went through, and I have to have me
relive it every single time they want to. They need
that information. So it was nice, a nice like release,
if you will, of like my trauma, my issues and

(01:24:50):
you know, moving forward in my life, but also just
being like a normal dude man, like you know, like
like I got out of the arm when I made
it all the way to the NFL, so like, you know,
there was more to my life life then a lot
of people knew. So it was nice to have that
chapter kind of crystallized and now it's there for people

(01:25:10):
to understand, educate themselves, and then know the sacrifice that
American soldiers make. It we're at War.

Speaker 1 (01:25:17):
Yeah, man, well, I appreciate you coming on the show
to talk about your story, dude, and to kind of
share it and everything. And I think people if they
haven't read the book or seen the movie, they should do.
So where can they find your book? Give us all
your social media and all that stuff so people can
can find you.

Speaker 2 (01:25:32):
Yeah. Man, my book is super easily eat on Amazon
like anywhere else. It's on Audible, Kindle, Audiobook. It's called Rise.
My music's on all platforms of over forty songs on Spotify,
Apple Music, three two albums out now. My next album
will be acoustic. Do an acoustic album, play guitar? Yeah.

(01:25:53):
And then this next movie that I'm doing with Rod Lerry.
He's the same director from Outposts. It's a Battle of
Boys Stone. It's a true story, so it's Battle of
the Bulge that Scott Eastwood, Colin Hanks, who Tom Hanks
his son. So yeah, it's pretty it's it's gonna be
a legit movie, man, And this will be my biggest
role as an actor. So I'm really excited for this film.

(01:26:13):
And I filmed movie last year with John David Washington
called the Creator as Gareth Edwards. He was the director
of the Last Star Wars and he's doing now the
new three Jurassic Park movies. But yeah, man, I've just
been pursuing this dream and since the Outposts, I've filmed
five movies since then. Yeah, and just trying to stay
positive and create in this space. Yeah, I'm thankful for

(01:26:37):
you to share that video and you know, give me
a chance to talk about myself and you know, expose
the sacrifices that me and my friends went through. And
at the same time, like you know, the veteran community
loves to hear this ship bro, So it's like, you know,
we're in this, We're in this together, We're in this
we're in this fight together, and still on this on
this world. So you know, like Februck can come on

(01:26:58):
and help somebody and maybe make them make a right
decision or think differently about their life than you know,
I'm about it. So I appreciate you giving me the
platform to shy to shit it some positive light.

Speaker 1 (01:27:09):
Yeah, dude, I you know, yeah, anytime I can spread
Like you've been through so much, but you've turned around
and made the most of it, you know what I'm
saying that, And that's not meaning you exploited or anything
like that. Like, you've got a positive mindset, You've gone on.
There's so much that we haven't even talked about. So
later on, if you want to do another episode, we
can definitely do that. I mean, you got out, you

(01:27:30):
went to college, you went you started playing football. You know,
like you said, you made it all the way up
to the NFL. Now you're acting, you're doing music, You're
doing all these positive things, and I think veterans need
to see that and know that, you know, there's more
to them. There's more for them out there besides you know,
reliving any kind of traumatic experiences or just being in

(01:27:51):
the military in general. You know, it's a different lifestyle,
and when people leave that lifestyle, it's a tough transition
for a lot of folks because it's just the real
world is a different world. You know, there's less order
and discipline and stuff like that. So just there's a
lot that you could do to yourself to go wrong.
And I think having a positive story like yours out
there is great and yeah, man, so I hope everybody

(01:28:12):
checks that stuff out. Check out your book, check out
your movies. I look forward to seeing you in your
new role and uh. For those that are interested, check
out my stuff. It's a former Action Guys, Former Action
News on Instagram. My website is jacrimographics dot com. And
that's it. Dude, I really appreciate it.

All Episodes

Ep. 222 | Daniel Rodriquez | Battle of Kamdesh

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

24/7 News: The Latest

Dateline NBC

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 222 | Daniel Rodriquez | Battle of Kamdesh