Ep. 234 | Dave James | Force Recon Marine

Dave James is a former Force Recon Marine who served with 1st and 3rd Reconnaissance Battalions. Check out our other interviews on Eps. 063 and 065.

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00:00:00 J Cramer Graphics Ad
00:00:21 Texas Floods
00:04:19 Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer
00:08:00 Tim Kennedy Drama
00:21:29 Ranger School
00:24:36 3rd Recon Battalion
00:26:35 SFARTAETC
00:31:39 Force Recon Weapons | Teams
00:36:23 From Army Engineer to Marine Recon
00:44:45 Filming of Heartbreak Ridge
01:07:57 Insights from the Qualification Course

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the show. If you're over on Apple Podcasts

(00:02):
or Spotify, please make sure to leave a review. We
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If your unit needs a refresh, you got some stinky
Peat shirts out there, hit me up and let's set
something up. Enjoy the show. So, Dave James, Welcome to

(00:23):
the show.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Man.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Like we were talking before, you know, you were on
a couple of years ago, at least at least two
maybe three years ago. Early on Former Recon Guy kind
of did a lot of stuff and I was really
interested in hearing. You know, we just had these floods
in Texas with this flash flooding, and I think a
lot of people that you know, us being in the

(00:44):
military and people that live in the Southwest, you kind
of generally get used to like understanding flash floods and
what could happen. But this situation where the water rose
like twenty six feet I think it was twenty six
feet and forty five minutes at like six in the morning,
and that's why it caught so many people off guard.

(01:07):
I wanted to bring it up just because I know
you were at First Recon Battalion, I believe when Camp
Pendleton had flash flooding, and it's like one of those
things that you just don't you just don't expect, but
you have to react, right, And that's what you guys
ended up doing, is reacting. Can you kind of describe

(01:27):
that feeling of getting like finding out that this there's
a flash flood coming and then jumping into action to
try to make a difference in what's happening.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
So I was serving at First Force at the time
at the Dives Scuba Locker don in delmar on Camp Pendleton,
and I just happened. It was a Saturday night and
I just so happened. I didn't go out in town
at night, and so the duty knew that I was
in the barracks. Dudey got a phone call. We'd already
had three days of torrential rains at that time at

(01:58):
that point, and you know, living in California, where does
that water go? So when we got the call, he
contacted I was a sergeant Sartant James at the time.
The duty got hold, gave me the a pertinent information.
I immediately went down to the dive blocker, started putting

(02:19):
together some boats, some rescue equipment, and the duty at
that time, as you know, being a marine, he was
calling other personnel from the the company command or so
on and so forth to get as much help down
there as we could get.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
So, yeah, this was nodding. We went, this was unexpected, right,
It just kind of happened, and you guys got the
call and like had to jump in action there.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
And jump right into action perfectly, said. So yeah, everything,
as you know, the training and especially being you know,
part of the dive blocker and being the boat and
CEO at that time, I knew what to prepare, what
gear needed to be brought.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
Immediately team came down. I went, got a humby driver.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
We got to the to the to where the Marines
were stranded on their POV they're privately owned vehicle and
a trapped vehicle that was caught up when the dam
broke up beyond where the general.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Branch the dam broke, I forgot that's what caused it.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Right, So when that dam broke, all of that water
built up just pushed right down through the helicopter airstrip,
put all those helicopters you know, up to their doors underwater,
maybe more, took contics, boxes, vehicles, pov anything in its path, trees,
and pushed it.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
Right out into the Pacific Bras. So it was definitely.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
I'll see I used to have I used to have
that foot I found some footage from that after our
last interview when you talked about it. I'll see if
I can find that footage, and if I can, I'll
overlay it while while you're talking about so people can understand,
and especially people that have been to Camp Pendleton, like
the entire airfield, that whole area was underwater. It's like crazy,
you know, like it was a it's a wild video

(04:08):
to see you taken from one of the helicopter's perspective.
Did you hear about I know you, I know we
were talking before. You said you hadn't really read too
much news about the situation, But did you hear about
that coast Guard guy that saved like one hundred and
sixty five dudes or one hundred and sixty five people?

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Wow? Yeah, yeah, man, his yeah, big saluted.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
I gotta look his name up. It's not even that man.
He was a rescue swimmer. He's a rescue swimmer. This
was his first duty station and this was the first
mission that he got called on after his schooling. He's
been in the Coast Guard for less than a year
and his first mission he got called on was his
flooding and he went out and rescued one hundred and

(04:52):
sixty five people. He was doing like the triage and
stuff like that. I'm trying to find his name real quick.
I don't know if I can find not only I mean,
you know in an incident like that that the heroics
come out right, you know, you hear about these people.
There was a young lady, I don't remember if she's
an adult or not. She saved twenty people, twenty kids.

(05:14):
And then also something that was awesome to hear was
that the you know, they had like the girls camp
and the boys camp, and in the boys camp, there's
video on my news page, Former Action News where you
see a video or you see one of the kids,
one of the boys. What do they call those freaking

(05:37):
where they're sleeping in the huts not a hut, but
you know what I'm talking about. They're where they're sleeping
in and it's like floating down the river with the
dudes inside of it. You can hear the kids inside
of it talking and stuff while it's like floating down
this river. And I guess all those kids were rescued.
What had happened was the Eagle Scouts inside those cabins.
That's why cabins. I don't know. I couldn't remember that.

(05:59):
The Eagle Scouts and those cabins started grabbing the little
kids and putting them up in the rafters, like lifting
them up into the rafters and like saved all these kids.
Like you know, that's the kind of stuff that you
hear about. It's on It's horrible to hear about the tragedy,
you know, I think right now, at last I read
was like one hundred and twenty people dead and then
like one hundred and sixty people are missing. That's obviously tragic,

(06:23):
and you know, there's nothing that you can do for
those families and stuff. That's just that's a horrible burden
to be under. But it's also a reminder of are
you know, like humanity's good When you hear these stories
of like ordinary people stepping up and making things happen
and rescuing people and saving stuff. You know what I'm saying.
They're not marines on duty with professional training. Some of

(06:47):
these people, you know, they're they're just regular people that
got put into that situation and acted. Even the camp
director died actually saving kids, which is crazy, you know.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
So yeah, and that's what it is, you know, just
taking action, doing something, figuring it out. Other people will
come and assist, and together you'll formulate a team to
go out and save.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
To save people.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
So yeah, I didn't hear about that, but that's.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Yeah, it's pretty crazy. The the other thing, I imagine
you're not on social media too much, so I wanted
to bring this up as a recon guy, you know,
recon guy, Special Operations guys, Special Forces guys, and sw guys.
All those dudes are on another level. Go to all
these different schools, there's different kinds of training and and

(07:38):
to like the average person, that's amazing, Like you can't
believe like some of the stuff that these guys do.
And and even within those ranks, you know, there's people
that shine themselves even brighter by doing next level stuff.
And I feel like I gotta I want to bring
it up because it's such a hot topic. And I
don't know how much you're on social media, but h

(08:01):
have you seen this stuff about Tim Kennedy and him
with his stolen valor and from you know, all this
stuff coming about about stolen valor and him unintentionally misstating
what he did in the military.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
I have read it, and I actually met Tim Kennedy
at a gala at Soldiers Angels when Patty Patton later
was there, which was she was the grand niece of
Georgia's Patten and Soldiers Angels. I worked there with with
another Marine who was the CEO, and he'd done it.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
All in the marine.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Corys retired out of major But I actually met him
just kind of a brief meet and greet, spoke to
him briefly. But really, you don't that's that's that's a
heavy question. It really is because I don't know all
of the details, and I don't know you know the why.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Well, I think the why is financial game.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
I get that, I understand that, but I want to
I want to tread lightly because I don't know all
the details. I'm not in his brain. Why, yeah, you
would do that?

Speaker 3 (09:18):
And then everybody you know.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
Questioning it, especially somebody that's so accomplished Green Beret Ranger sniper.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
That's what I'm saying. Incredible, Yeah, UFC fighter, Like what
do you It blows my mind when you hear about
people that have done like crazy stuff and they still
inflate what they did, and it's like, bro, you've done
more than like ninety nine point ninety nine percent of humans,
Like why do you feel the need to Okay, and

(09:50):
let me back up, because some people may not they're
not on social media and they probably don't know what
I'm talking about. Tim Kennedy, if you don't know who
he is, he's a he's a special Force of Soul.
He's also a former UFC fighter. He's been on a
million shows. He's associated I think he's associated with Black
Rifle Coffee. I could be wrong about that. I think

(10:11):
he is, though. He's just like one of those military
influencer guys. And again, he's done a lot of stuff
and should be very proud of the things that he's
done in his time. But there's been a few people
come out. I think it was Anti Hero podcast was one,
and then I know there was I Dank, David Hookstead,
and maybe someone else started looking into these claims that

(10:35):
he's been making on shows and interviews, and then he
wrote a book and they started looking at these claims
and they're like, this is fabricated, And honestly, some of
the stuff he's talking about. He's like, all, I spent
the day shooting women and kids because that was my job,
you know, as a sniper. And people are like, what
the fuck, Like, you're making yourself sound like a war criminal.

(10:57):
So anyways, if you want to hear more like specific details,
go over to the Anti Hero podcast. They do a
full interview, not with him, but they bring on his
teammates and they break down his book that he wrote
and some of the outrageous stuff. I think they actually
only go over like one or two chapters and it
takes like almost two hours from to go over it.

(11:17):
But the reason I wanted to bring it up is
because One, it's in the news obviously, so I think
we need to discuss it. Two is something like I
said previously, when you're at that level, when you're like,
to me, like, just being a marine is fucking badass,
and most people would you know, and and most most
civilians don't know the difference. You know, you get out

(11:40):
and they think they have no idea what the difference
different marines, different jobs, Like, they have no idea to
if I was to go in and flate what I did,
especially if I like record it in a book and
an interview and stuff like, of course people are gonna
fact check you. You know what I'm saying, because you're
you know, especially someone like that. I just don't get it, man,

(12:01):
And I think people need to This is at all
levels because we've all seen people with stolen valor inflated stories.
You know, someone's telling a story and you're like, that's
kind of bullshit. I don't think it happened like that.
I think you need to be Everyone needs to come
to grips with their own service. Be proud of what
you did. Everyone did more than someone else, you know

(12:23):
what I'm saying. There's always a bigger badass out on
the block. There's always somebody that's done more deployments. It's
done more training, it's done, more missions, it's done. You know,
you're never going to be the biggest badass, So stop
trying to inflate yourself, because when you run into someone
that's done more than you and you're lying about shit,
this is what happens. And I don't know, it's just

(12:46):
an unfortunate situation. And just so people know that people
calling them out that anti hero podcast, a host of
that as a delta operator, a former delta operator. So
it's not like you said, Joe Schmo, you know, but yeah,
I wanted to get your take on it as someone
that's done a lot of schools and stuff like that.
And I know Recon is one of those like stolen
valor job, but like to you know, people like to

(13:08):
say they were in the seals or they were with Recon.
They don't think anbody's going to call him out on it,
you know.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Right, so you know, just to talk a little bit
about it. I was talking to a Force sweet Co
Marine yesterday about it because we both met him in
San Antonio there at Soldiers Angels and I spoke to
I spoke to him about it, and he said, once
you get it the very tip of the tip of
the spear, especially if you write a book and podcasting

(13:38):
and you get yourself out there and you work for
the you know, administration, you know in DC, and you
rise through the ranks, you know, because of what you've done.
They want to people want to hear your story. They
want to hear your opinion on certain things. You get
a hovering up there at the top. I think that
there's unfornately and I'm only speaking from my perspective, nobody else's,

(14:05):
but I think that you get in a room with
a bunch of cior warriors that you know, really been
out there and done some things, it kind of becomes
a little bit I want to say, and I don't
know if this is a rare word, but like a dustostrone,
you know, like I did this, and then it compares
to I did this, and you're in a room with

(14:27):
these gladiators, and it just kind of pushes it to
the next level.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
That's just a little bit of.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
What I spoke to another Fourthweek on Marine yesterday. You know,
this is a good segue. And I want to mention something.
I am on social media quite a bit. I do
promote my book, and I'm good about taking incentitive because
I know it's marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing with a good product.
So I am on there and I've been putting videos

(14:57):
out of my book coming and I'm explaining just giving
a glimpse of specific chapters about my Seal Brothers, Jim
the Body burns the punisher, you know, and tributing them
and then going into helping our youth. But I put
out some videos and my books should be out in

(15:19):
about two weeks. Not to go into this right away,
but just because it relates to what you just brought
up and making my point.

Speaker 3 (15:26):
Is that.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
I've been putting the videos out, but the publishing company
has been doing social media pages.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
Now I have been.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
Viewing and going through everything and sifting through what they
want to put out because I have to be it's
a delicate typewire. It's a balancing act to not send
anything that's embellishing or stolen balord, especially putting myself out
there with.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
A book that's a big deal. But real quick, the
book is about mentoring. It's not about the battlefield. That's
not what it's about.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
It's about my experiences what special operators I you know,
more of my brothers gave me.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
The tools to continue for leadership.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
But so what happened was I got a call yesterday
by by a Force reconnaissance marine and said that they
that there was something that was put out by the
publisher that said war or battlefield coming back, which isn't correct,
and I have shared that with the publisher to ensure

(16:36):
that there was no embellishment ever that anybody could take
anything out of text. Now doing these videos obviously me talking,
I'm not going to put out anything that's not true, honest.
But because it was a publishing company they put it out,
I didn't get to view it. I didn't get to
see it.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
Yeah, that's completely different, and you're right. I know the
danger of that is you're working with civilians at understand
the military, and it's very easy for them to assume
something or to miss, like misdescribed something because they don't
really understand what they're talking about. That's a danger when
you're working with I would if that was me, and

(17:15):
I don't know how it works. I've never written a book,
but I would be like, I want approval of every
social media post that you create because of this kind
of situation and Tim Kennedy's case, that's not it. He's
on his own, going on video and alluding to receiving
a Bronze Star with a V and then not correcting
anyone when they bring up his Bronze Star for Valor

(17:37):
also alluded to receiving purple hearts. It's like crazy stuff.
And like you said, you know when you put something
out like that, dude, the military people are the most
nitpicky people out there. I put a post out one
time describing a howitzer that blew up in Fort Bragg.
We were doing some training and there was a round

(17:59):
that blew up in the or and I said on
the post, I like rid out. I wrote out a
uh kind of a short story format of what happened
with dialogue, and I said in it that I said
check fire, or that the battery called check fire and
da da da da dah whatever. And someone commented, They're like,

(18:20):
it's check firing. I don't believe. This makes me question
that you were even in artillery that you put check
fire there. And I'm like, shut the fuck up, dude,
I've been out for years. Like that's the nitpicky stuff
that military people are. You know that we deal with.
So the fact that you think you could come out
and lie about something and someone, especially when you're that

(18:40):
big of a persona like tons of people know Tim Kennedy.
He's he's exceeded just the military circle, you know, social media,
like every day people know who Tim Kennedy is, and
when you get to that fame and people start scrutinizing
everything you started to say, it's like, bro, man, it
would have been a lot better had he just come
out and admitted to it, because they've been pushing this

(19:01):
for probably at least six months, the Anti Hero podcast
and Tim Kennedy even came out with a video a
few months ago calling him saying that it was wasn't true,
and he actually was like, fuck you, fuck you for
assuming that I would do this because some of the
stories in his book are him making himself sounding like

(19:21):
a hero while making guys on his team that died
sound like they were incompetent or did something wrong which
ended up not being the case. And I think that's
what was kind of the final straw for a lot
of these guys to come out and start speaking out
against it. But anyways, I wanted.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
Well, yeah, I just want to say that I'm not
the judge.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
Sure, No, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
I don't know the reason I don't, So I don't
want to sit and talk about another service member when
I you know, I don't want to put anything out
that's not true.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
And yeah, no, I get you, so I just want
to Yeah, I don't want you. I'm not I'm not
like asking you to dog on them or anything. I'm
just saying. I guess my point is like the fact
that this even happens with guys at his level is crazy.
You know what I'm saying. I get humbled by so
many guests I have on this podcast, you know what

(20:16):
I'm saying, Like, I feel like I did a pretty
decent career. I got some you know, I did five deployments,
I did some stuff, and you should not compare your
service to other people, and I don't, but I also
recognize some of these guys I have on this show
are fucking on next level and have done so much

(20:36):
more than me. And to try to like lie and
say that I attempted to do anything like that would
be I don't know, it would be crazy. And I think,
like I said before, you need to come to terms
with your own service. You know, you did more than
some people, and you did less than others. We all did.
And if you are the top dog, most badass war

(20:58):
you know, weary, freaking trained out guy, that probably comes
with some baggage. I guarantee that person probably doesn't have
very good marital status, you know, or like that. There's
a lot of issues that come with stuff like that.
So quit trying to sound like badasses and lie about
stuff that you've done. People. Just be honest and be
okay with your service because it's all honorable, you know.

(21:20):
So yeah, Dave Uh, let's talk about you were we
wanted we were. We were going to go over your
ranger school time. Is that what we're going to talk about?

Speaker 3 (21:33):
All right?

Speaker 2 (21:33):
Well, went to ranger school. So, first of all, I
was at First Reconnaissance Battalion on Camp Pendleton, got orders.
I went over to Third Reconnaissance Battalion they're at Camp Schwab,
and went to Bravo one. I went to the Shooter
Batoon HRT Direct Action CQB unit with UH with so

(21:53):
OTG in charge. So but as soon as I got
over there, they said, Repack, you're going on a milk
run with fifty one marines over to Fort Benning, Georgia,
and you're going to ranger school. But actually before I
got on that milk run, they did put me in
a couple of five other marines through like an end

(22:14):
dock to see if we were prepared, you know, from
a run. Yeah, walking some of the Army conditioning times
that you got to have to make sure we didn't
embarrass you know, it's Marine Corps because it is our
Army Ranger school.

Speaker 3 (22:27):
And from everything I know and being Airborne.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
Ranger qualified, it's the second hardest school you can go
to in the arsenal of you know, special operations.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
I only hear good things from guys that have gone
to Ranger School. You know, they're like, it's hard as shit,
but you learn stuff. And you know, I've only and
I've heard a lot of people's. Most people I talked
to you say, if it's not there the best school
they've ever been to, it's one of the top schools
that they've ever been to.

Speaker 2 (22:56):
Well, it's the leadership school. Yes, that's what it is.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
And being with.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Duke six, Lieutenant Colonel Forrester at the Helm at third
Reconnaissance Battalion, he was priorly the liaison at Betting. He
went to Ranger School at thirty seven years old and
was distinguished autograph. So when he came back, if you
were an E five and NCO pack your gear, you're going.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
To Ranger School. And if you don't get.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
The Covenant gold and black tab. Don't even bother coming
back because I'm ripping the page out that says, O
three twenty one, you're not coming back, just go to
the infant damp.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
So that's some incentive, right, But it's a mindset too.
That's the incentive, right, that's the incentive.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
You know.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
I I I wear it.

Speaker 2 (23:40):
I got it on my watch right here. Ranger.

Speaker 3 (23:43):
I got my gold wings because of my new mold
borax and my.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
Gold Don't you wear your Did you wear your Ranger
tab under your pocket like a lot of guys did
while they were.

Speaker 3 (23:52):
In under the pocket under the.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Yeah, left pocket, okay.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
Because Marines only only put on well they got the
Marshak badge, goal wings and at my time it was
gold wings and silver bubble which had a MUSTI cool.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
With the scuba bubble. Yeah, and then you.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
Are a triple threat if you had a Ranger tab
on top of that.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
Did you say that fifty one Marines went to that class?

Speaker 3 (24:18):
No?

Speaker 2 (24:19):
Uh, only five of us did, but the rest went
to either path.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
Oh okay. I was like, wow, that's a huge amount
of Marines and one Ranger class.

Speaker 3 (24:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
Yeah, man, that's pretty awesome. I'd like to know, because
I never made it out to ok while I was
in third Recom Battalion. Because they're in Okinawa, because they're
in Asia, do they do they have a different mission
set than like first or second or how I mean?
Is it pretty transferable back and forth? Or because they're

(24:51):
in that area, are they doing specialized training like more
jungle training and stuff like that?

Speaker 2 (24:57):
Absolutely geographically you know the deal. Oh, they're they're in
charge of a specific area, you know, down to whatever country,
country whatever. But yes, we have nta there, so you
got the jungle. So we're more specialized reconnaissance surveillance.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
With the jungle.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
But when I got there, because I got put into
Bravo one, the shoot of a tune, uh, which that's
all we did was called MP five tooled up you know,
Mars Musak pistols forty five colts. We had more of
a special specialized We didn't do reconnaissance. We we did
we were the you know, uh fatal drill hammers uh

(25:41):
enter the building, you know with the flow?

Speaker 1 (25:42):
Was this mostly? Was this mostly like go platt boat
takedowns like VBSS stuff or are you talking about just general?

Speaker 3 (25:50):
And I was in that tune.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
Uh, it was more direct action. It was going through rooms,
blowing the breach, doing stuff for collapsing the room. Like
I said, we had p fives, but yeah we didn't.
We weren't doing gold plaques at that time. I think
that was first Force was doing more for that.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
And yeah go for those that don't know, go Platz
is gas and oil platform takedowns.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Yeah right, But for for when I was over there,
if I wasn't going to school because I went to
Ranger school, came back, it was with the batoon tooling
up for whatever was you know down the pike, which
hired new some things actually were. But uh, but then
I went to uh Sephardic and I went to Nick

(26:40):
Rose pow s F.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
That's a that's an Army qualification course, correct it is.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
So I'm gonna tread lightly again, you know, because I'm
I'm on the area here and my book was coming
out and I I have nothing but integrity, and I
you know, you gotta before.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
Don't think that the opening of the podcast is me
accusing you of lying about it. Get don't feel so
nervous about it.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
No, no, no, but I'm just saying, you know, I
want to watch and think about what.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
Now everybody on the podcast are like, wait, I don't
want to talk about anything now. Now I get it, man, No,
I totally get it.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
But you know, there's just there's there's some things that
are left quiet, that quiet proficients and those specific units.
But I can tell you that I did get to
go to Saparta Special Forces Target Analysis and Explosive Tech course.
It's very very privileged and honor, but I earned it.

(27:38):
It took me five and a half years to get
an opportune and now I found myself at four brag
attending the school which is CAG it's dealt the Force
to your little one course and I got to attend
that incredible course of professionalism that I've never experienced in
been around in the military in my life, and it

(27:58):
really gave me some in being a better operator, more
of a professional being around that caliper of tier level
one guys.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
But as far as I'm not.

Speaker 2 (28:11):
Going to say of anything that was taught or did.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
Or no, that's cool. It's just I understand if I remember,
if I understand correctly from what I've read about it,
I think Sefardic was a course that any special Forces
team deploying had to go through to be qualified for
direct action missions during the Global War on Terror, which
is obviously before or after when you were there, so

(28:35):
it's probably changed them anyways. But did it surprise you, like,
I mean, Force recon and recon marines shoot quite a
bit themselves. Did it surprise you about how much farther
you could take your shooting ability when you go to
a course like that, or you meet these top you know,
these tier one shooters and start.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
We were already up. Yeah, you know, just that.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
That's interesting that you bring up a great point because
the unit I was in that we shot six days
a week. We dry fired for forty forty five minutes.
We wouldn't even put a round down range. We shot
so many rounds that I actually created a scar from
putting so many rounds in then Wilson Wilson Roster magazines

(29:18):
actually scarred me permanently putting so many rounds in. Well,
But we shot three hours a day, six days a week.
Depending we didn't have something else that was on the schedule,
there overrolled that, but mostly that nothing did override that,
because that was our was our meat and potatoes and
our skill set. So we shot a lot. We shot hammers,

(29:40):
we shot fatal drills, two to the head, four to
the chest. I mean, shooting and moving off and you
name it, we did it. And it's a perishable skill.
You got to shoot to be a great marksman, and
especially trance, you know, transforming into your your long rifle
into your pistol. You know, so all of that takes

(30:01):
repetition over repetition over repetition. So when we went to
SAPHARTI I went with with another Marine who was from
the Smoky mountains up there and was around weaponry and
shooting his whole life ever since he was small, so
he could really shoot. I could really shoot the pistol.
I was always in the A zone. Nothing left that

(30:23):
A zone. So when we got to Sapart it we
could hang, we could shoot. We were marines, Marines are marksmen,
and we could take it to the next nth of
with extra training for sure. So yeah, when we were there,
we were already we were already shooting at.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
A high high And you know, you have to write
because you guys are advertised as surgical shooters, like that's
a that's one of those like no failed kind of
things like you can't go in and just start blasting
people that aren't supposed to get blasted. You know how
many people would love to have that job where you
get paid to just go shoot? Which hilarious because when
I've talked to guys that have been in force recon

(31:03):
and have gone and you know, even when I was
the guys I was on my on my MEW with
on ship, I asked them, I was like, how much
you guys shoot? And they were saying, like over six
hundred rounds a week generally, And I was and they're like,
you know, it's enough where you just kind of get
tired of it. They're like, you know, even if you're
like an avid shooter, like you're talking about just reloading

(31:24):
mags and like all the other stuff, Like shooting's fun,
but you know it's a job.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
Well, we had to we had to pick.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
Up Yeah, brass calls got to be crazy.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
But luckily we pick up the brass and wait.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
Yeah, what all were you shooting? You know when you're
you know, you talked about the MP five, What else was?
What year was this and what kind of yeah, what
were you you know, training on?

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Yeah, so I was over in Okinawa on the Rock
for two years, but I spent a lot of time
back in the States going to schools. But when we
were there, we were mostly in the Philippines, like on
Green Beach doing demo there, and and but the weaponry
at the time was MP five. You know a lot

(32:11):
of swat la swat units they use that because it's
not shooting through a bunch of walls and wounding or
killing other other.

Speaker 3 (32:20):
People in rooms, even your teammates going room to room
in the room.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
So but when we I went to Safarti, we had
M four's.

Speaker 3 (32:28):
We had long.

Speaker 2 (32:29):
Rifles because you want to reach out and touch somebody
when you come out of the room, down the road,
down the street. So that that changed. But the best weapon,
you know, we shot burretta nine milli leaders for a
while too, you know, double action. But that primary cult
nineteen eleven, that that is that's the man's stopper right there.

(32:51):
That's you get good with, you know what is it?
Seven and eight in the mag and one in the stove,
you know, and you learn how to do you know,
combat reloads on and so forth.

Speaker 3 (33:02):
So you got plenty on your vest.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
But yeah, so weaponry I the barretta nine millimeter, the
Colt Saw forty five nineteen eleven, and the MP five
Novembers we had kiloshoot.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
What's the difference between a November and Akilo?

Speaker 2 (33:21):
So the November is a longer version and the Kilo
is that little one.

Speaker 3 (33:26):
Okay with the double handles?

Speaker 1 (33:28):
That's man? Do they Does anyone use MP five's? I
know they were super popular for a while. I don't
know if anybody really uses those anymore.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
Yeah, A yeah, I'm not really sure of that because
I'm obviously out of the loop military out of the loop.
But I would imagine, you know, as you know, the
armor and the armory has got everything that you would
possibly do, you know, so I'm sure they still exist.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yeah. Man, that's pretty awesome. Though, again, that would be
such a cool job just to go and sit there
and shoot, get paid to shoot.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
You know.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
There's a lot more to it than that, obviously, but
you know, that's a good perk of the job, especially
now when you look at amo prices and I'm in California,
so it's not as accessible for for going shooting. Yeah,
you know, I mean that's just what's really cool is
that in the recon community. There's all these different even

(34:21):
within the recon community, there's all these different jobs that
you can get tasked to do. You know, getting sent
to a unit like that is much different, or a
team a DA team like that is much different than
if you're on like a reconnaissance team. You know, if
you're on one of the like deep reconnaissance teams, or
if you're on like a jump team, or if you're

(34:41):
on like a boat team. You know, those like those
specialties within within the recon community, it's like a really
awesome opportunity just to kind of I don't know, like
see different things and like do I don't know, you
guys have a really cool job field where there's a
lot of opportunity there. I remember we used to help
out with the jay tax that were with the recon guys. Unfortunately,

(35:03):
the bad part about being the recon community is you
are you know, you have like eight jobs, so you
know you have to be a master of you know, jump, dive, reconnaissance, shooting,
then throw in maybe breacher throw in, maybe sniper throwing,
maybe jaytack. You know, it becomes hard for guys to
be great at every one of those. And it was

(35:25):
good for us to work with the recon guys because they,
you know, trained us on some stuff of their capabilities,
and then we cross trained with them and brought their
jay tax up to speed because that's all we would
do when I was with Anglico is TCP stuff, close
air support and artillery. These guys are certified jay tax,
but they don't get to do it every day because

(35:45):
there's so many other requirements in the recon community. But yeah, man,
you guys get like really good exposure to a lot
of different jobs.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
Well it's called the Jack of all trades and masters
or none, but we are the masters too, so but
that that was a quote that was Yeah, no, it
still is Jack of altrade. He's got the you got
the swimmer, you got the you know, you got the
pathfinder on top of the shoot, you got the quins
going out the other direction.

Speaker 3 (36:14):
So jack of all.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
Trade, Jack of all trades. Man, it's a cool job.
I mean, you know, did we I have to think
back to our original interview, but when you came in
the Marine Corps, were you aware of the recon community
or what point did you want to you know, try
out for recon.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
Yeah, that's an interesting question because I come from the
US Army. I was a combat engineer for three years
and when.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
I got over to Europe to Echo Company over there,
twelfth Engineers, Sorry about that, eighth Engineers. My first arden
was from tenth Group. He was first arden, green beret.
He he did three tours in Vietnam. We called him
God because we were just engineers, and he his halo

(37:00):
and he diver. He's combat SF diver, I mean, and
you could just he was just that guy.

Speaker 3 (37:09):
So he really liked me. He was also from Minnesota.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
I was from Minnesota, so he kind of sort of
kind of put me under his wing. He would like
give me direction, you know, like say hey, there's other
opportunities in the army that he could possibly think about.
So he was kind of doing a little recruiting with me.
He knew I was in shape, he knew I was focused,
he knew I was gun hole and I was looking

(37:34):
for something more.

Speaker 3 (37:34):
He knew that. So his name was Robert P.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
Mos and he passed away a couple of years ago,
and I was heartfelt because he was a warrior's warrior.

Speaker 1 (37:46):
You have three tours a green brand Vietnam, that's crazy.

Speaker 3 (37:49):
He was mac beat too, mac sax, So yeah, no
real deal.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
So when when his obituary came out, had all that
in there, but I already knew that. I already knew that,
but he got wheels turning for me, like, Okay, you know,
wait a minute, Maybe I am capable of these things.
And obviously I'm interested out because he's been recruiting me,
kind of pulling me in. So when I got out

(38:16):
of the United States Army, I was out for one year,
and I knew that was a big power negative. I
needed to get back in the military. Joined the United
States Marine Corps because I was looking for something more.
Went to a United States Marine Corps boot camp, stood
on those yellow prints and did really good in the

(38:37):
boot camp because I was super fait. I got a
three hundredth on everything, and my drill needed some work,
but I was gun hole.

Speaker 3 (38:44):
There was no doubt about it. So I did well there.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
And then you go to ITS at the time Infanty
Training School SI. Now I went there. I excelled again.
They maybe a squad leader. I get out PT pretty much.
I graduated third out of one hundred and some that
graduated ITS. So there was at that time they didn't

(39:11):
run the indock for Recon. Every class, they just randomly
would come out with the startant Major Daniels and some
of the recon operator personnel and they would run an
in doc. But that could be like its classes down
the road, so not everybody got that opportunity. But what

(39:32):
happened there was a corporal who was a troop leader
at ITS that saw something in myself at two others
that said, hey, you got to try out. They're coming
this class. No, I take that back, they're coming the
next class. So what we're going to do, because I
spoke to higher, is that we're going to make you
assisted troop leaders for the next class. You could take

(39:55):
the indock for recon and then out of that class.
There there was nineteen of us that took that indoc
and they took three of us. It's what they took
ar Hopson and the couple and one of them. So
we did the uh, we did the pet test, we
did the oh course, we did the rock we you know,

(40:19):
getting getting the weapon from the bottom of the pool,
you know, the whole nine yards and then getting the
oral interview with Sergeant Major Daniels and anybody that watches
this and knows recon or. The United States Marine Corps
is going to know that name. He is the like
poster United States Marine and uh known legend in the

(40:43):
reconnaissance community.

Speaker 3 (40:45):
So I passed that.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
Orders came while I was an assistant troop leader there
at ITS, and I was like, wow, I'm going to
first recon battalion went down there, went through the gates,
through the castles, and that's where the what I was
looking for was going to be met with the challenge
and the training and.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Yeah, yeah, man, no, that's awesome. Well, you know, once
you finally got to the fleet, how much different was
your daily life, you know, in a Marine Corps unit
compared to what you were used to experiencing in an
Army unit.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
Yeah, you know, because the first the first startant was
a Green Beret and the Army as a combat engineer.
And we were in Europe, so we were already you know,
out towards you know, protecting that border. And we did
our training on the Ryan River. So that Ryan River
is pretty tech, treacherous and it's a big river. It's
a real it's a live river for sure, and we

(41:50):
would do our bridges on there. We did the Ribbon
Bridge on there. If anybody knows what the combat engineers
well understand that. But because of our first art, we trained, trained, trained, trained,
Europe gets cold, cold out on that water, the dangers
of those barges coming down and knowing your skillshep. So really, honestly,

(42:14):
I got really blessed in the US Army to have
a great command, a really good mos job that we
trained a lot, so I knew what it was to
be in a specific unit, to have a training temple
at that level. And so when I joined the Marine Corps,
I understand the Marine Corps takes the other levels. And

(42:37):
I think that's kind of the question you're asking, you know,
between the Army and the Marine Corps. Yes, the Marine
Corps they bring more intensity, more focus, and more attention
to the mission and the temple that you're talking about.
But when I got to Telaga sixty four area down there,

(42:59):
first recomb Italian with those warriors, those Spartans, it was
on a much higher level because at that time I
was a basic reconnaissance marine and we lived in the
bush twelve to sixteen to thirty days a month. We
were in the bush if it wasn't in the desert

(43:20):
down at twenty nine Palms if it wasn't a big bear,
or at Bridgeport, you know, for the winter package, which
we did all of that. We patrolled, patrol, patrolled. We
were the eyes and ears for the infantry commanders, battalion
commanders to disseminate that information down to their subordinates and

(43:42):
their batuon so on and so forth.

Speaker 3 (43:43):
As you know.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
So one thing about being a reco marine at Tellega
is its game on, even in your liberty time and
your off time, living in those old gormo pile.

Speaker 3 (43:59):
Counting us.

Speaker 2 (44:02):
Being around that level of warrior ethos in spirit, you
are on your game even when you're not on duty.
You're pt in, you're the intensity. Because we were so
small at that time, I think between Alpha Company, Bravo Company,
and Charlie Company and headquarters Man, I'd only.

Speaker 3 (44:24):
Say there was two hundred marines on that camp. That's it.
You know.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
We were we were We come off float and they
were asking immediately are you prepared and ready to go
on the next float. You know, it switched to companies,
but even if they had to switch, he grew another
company because.

Speaker 3 (44:42):
We were just that small of a reconnaissance unit.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
Was this before or after Heartbreak Reads came out?

Speaker 3 (44:50):
Why got there? They were still filming?

Speaker 2 (44:53):
Oh I know some yes, because his equipment, his trailers
were still all there. I I never did get to
see Clint Eastwood. I would have loved you, to be honest.
I'm a big Clint Eastwood John Wayne fan, and that.

Speaker 3 (45:08):
Would have really been neat.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
I heard all of Marie spoke really highly of him,
that were stand ins for the movie that he, you know, would.

Speaker 3 (45:15):
Get them pizzas.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
He'd talk to them sit on one on one because it
was just a solid, really great guy. But yeah, like
I said, I didn't get that opportunity to see and
meet Clint Eastwood.

Speaker 3 (45:29):
Definitely an icon.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
Was it weird when that movie came out and you're like,
this is and it's funny because they say it's a
camp lella June with all the mountains and stuff in
the background.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
It's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (45:39):
Yeah, but I don't know if you know the backstory.
That story is actually second Rebuk recomping.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
No, no, no, that story is actually an army story.
So this was about the Yeah, this was about the
This was supposed to be about the eighty second going
into fuck? Is it Panama and I can't remember which
country it was, but it was about I think it
was just cause. I think it was operations, just cause
I think that's the one that it covers. And it

(46:05):
was supposed to be about the eighty second or something
like that. But the Army read the script and saw
the plans, and I think they had started filming and
they're like, hey, we don't like the way this is
going to portray the Army, so we're we're kanking our
support for it. And the Marine Corps was like, hey, okay,
like we'll take the you know. And now it's an

(46:27):
iconic movie, one for being ridiculous, but also for being
just like.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
I don't know any awesome justin I don't know. I
don't know any of the real origin. I don't know,
but I can tell you this, when when that movie
came out, all Reco Marines filled the thing Carls or
wherever we were, and I got We sat there and

(46:52):
I remember thinking, this is a little comical, but it's true.

Speaker 3 (46:58):
Ah, that's how how we act, you know, not taking anything.
We're professionals.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
Reco Marine is a professional all day on and off really,
but we're marines.

Speaker 3 (47:09):
We have fun.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
We go off to some of those bars that were
at San Capistrano Swallows that we're in the movie. So
a lot of us were like, you know what, that's
pretty good movie. And he nailed a lot of things
of similarities that we lived out there.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
To the exaggeration of the truth.

Speaker 3 (47:30):
Yeah, if you watched and I enjoyed a listen to it.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's And if you watch the movie,
if you if you're not familiar with the army mission
in the background, when you see towards the end of
the movie there's a guy that's calling in either naval
gunfire or artillery support over the telephone. That actually happened.
That's that's a true part of that mission. That actually
I think the person that actually did that received a

(47:56):
high metal for that. I don't remember exactly, but you'd
have to look it up. But yeah, dude, I didn't know.
I mean, that's funny because you know, anytime someone makes
a movie about your job or your unit or something
like that. So I have a buddy who wanted me
to watch some show called Lioness. Right, it's this TV show.

(48:17):
I don't know, it's about the military. Some chick is
like supposed to be some super badass and everything like that.
And he keeps telling me it's a good show and
all this stuff, and I gotta watch it. So I
was like, all right, dude, I'll give it a chance.
And I'm watching the first episode and she's doing all
this ridiculous stuff like doing close air support, like calling

(48:38):
in an airstrike, and it's just absolutely ridiculous how she
does it, how the whole thing goes. And I'm like,
I can't watch this man. And my buddy was like, oh,
you can't watch it, Like what do you mean, blah
blah blah. I'm like, bro, it'd be like he's a civilian.
I'm like, it'd be like me making a movie about
your job and getting almost everything about it incorrect. You

(48:59):
wouldn't want to sit there and watch it. You'd be like,
this is dumb, you know what I'm saying. So it's
funny when someone when there's a movie or a show
about your job that's out there, or like the military,
it could either go one way or another, Like Stripes
is classic. You know, that's another one where they make
light of military service. Not light of military service, but

(49:22):
they make it. You know, they see the comedy in
it and the same and I think the same with
Heartbreak Ridge. It doesn't have to be completely accurate, but
there's some comedy in it. Other shows where it's just
completely wrong and there's nothing like I just can't do it,
you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
Well, I can tell you when the movie The Navy
Seals with Charlie Sten came out, we were in the
Upper Meth Camp over in Subic Bay and the Philippines,
so and we were training because we eventually got into
Jaysawk with the Seal Team there Seal Team five l
for two. But I'll never get it came out in
the theater in the Upper Camp there, and that you

(50:04):
could have lit up La with the energy that was
in that theater because it was us. Wee Camarines and
seals filled that theater to watch Charlie Sheen and see
what that was all about. But it was, it was entertaining,
it was funny. I think I don't remember anybody chewing
it up. I don't remember that vibe at all good.
I think they looked at it as what it was

(50:25):
and there were some cool parts, kind of exciting things
they did that we laid and you know, was what
we did and what they did.

Speaker 3 (50:35):
But yeah, you know, it had.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
It had humor in it had a couple of serious parts,
and especially the part God he's a sniper with the
Barrett life, you know, and he's got the thermal and
he said this is God when they're calling him.

Speaker 3 (50:49):
I mean, that's that's a pretty pretty moto part, you know.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
And whoever those snipers out there that that have that
Barrett prior thinking, man, that's pretty cool, you know that
that's my job. And that's the part I loved, is
that those moments like that.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
Yeah, yeah, I can. I can excuse some of it.
It just depends on the setting, I guess, kind of
like what was that one movie Transformer? I think it
was the Original Transformer. They have a Jatach and Nat
and he's like lazing stuff and it's completely ridiculous. But
it's like, okay, you know, like the whole movie it's
about fucking transforming robots. Like it's not gonna be you know, accurate.

(51:24):
So yeah, that's funny. Though, Heartbreak Ridge is a classic
if people haven't seen it in stripes as well. I
talked to I think it was It wasn't Tom Sadderley.
It was another one of the Delta guys. I think
it was Dave Keller, David Keller. I think I'm pretty

(51:44):
sure it was Keller. He was a uh, he was
a Robert Keller. Excuse me, I said, Dave Keller. Uh,
he was a Delta guy. But before that, he was
a tanker. And his tank that he was first issued
when he got to his unit was the tank and stripes.
And we were talking about that when we did an interview.

(52:06):
So it's always funny when you have like those military
like Hollywood crossovers, you know.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
Yeah, I would just like to put out to your
audience real quick that I wear these glasses because I
have to. I lost fifty percent of my eyesight and
my eyes are like sensitive now from the motorcycle crash
when I hit that steel guardrail. Took that Lifeline helicopter
to chattan ugutrauma in one hospital with the priest the pod.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
We weird my last rites. That's why I wear these.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
I don't necessarily wear them to be cool, even though
they are five square oak leaves.

Speaker 3 (52:41):
And they are cool. But sponsor why I wear these glasses?
What's that the.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
Rage is looking for an Oakley sponsor. If anybody's out there.

Speaker 3 (52:51):
Except he will, he will.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
He will sport your prescription glasses on the daily. Now
that's cool, man. Uh yeah, I mean, well, accident's not cool.
But yeah, I understand.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
I just you know, you know, it's because even even
where I work now and that people are like, why
does he get those sunglasses on the on the inside.
I went to bank one time with them on, and
they came up and they're like, you got to take
them off, and I said, power negative. I can't see
without them. I can't even do the chance action.

Speaker 3 (53:22):
Yeah. So it's kind of my signature that.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
I'm sure, I'm sure you're rolling around during COVID with
sunglasses and a mask on. Was really comforting for people to,
you know, just all the time. Yeah, well, let's talk
about so let's talk about what you're doing now. So
you got out of the military and now you're working
with at risk youth in Wisconsin, and you know, you
can get more into this, but I think a good overview, basically,

(53:48):
a good explanation is this is like a last chance
effort before these kids get sent to prison. And for
people that have seen you know, grew up in the
nineties like I did watching like Ricky Lake and.

Speaker 3 (54:01):
Yeah, I really don't want to.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
I don't want to. I don't want to. I'm not
going to put out where I work. I'm not gonna
do that work for the state. And I gotta again,
you know, just because of due respect and where I work.
I I'm not going to elaborate on on where I

(54:23):
work the name of where I.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
Oh, yeah, yeah, I don't need you to put you
don't have to put.

Speaker 3 (54:27):
Any I'm not going to unveil No, that's fine.

Speaker 1 (54:29):
I just want but you explain. But but what I'm
my description of it is pretty accurate. Right. This is
kind of like a boot camp setting for at risk youth.

Speaker 3 (54:38):
It's it's a military quasi.

Speaker 1 (54:40):
Okay, So how is that?

Speaker 3 (54:41):
Man?

Speaker 1 (54:42):
I've you know, as again as a kid that as
someone that grew up in the nineties, I remember seeing
like scared straight and and again, like you know, if
you watch daytime TV in the nineties, like Ricky Lake
and stuff, they'd bring on these parents with crazy kids
and they'd send them off to some of these places
like that it's supposed to help them out. What what

(55:02):
would you say? I guess one, how did you get
into this and two, what would you say the main
your main purpose is in this field?

Speaker 3 (55:14):
Okay, yeah, we can, we can leave it.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
I'm gonna leave it more general, but more specific on
how I got here, and you know where I picked
up the leadership traits and principles and and all the
insight that I need to help this young youth out.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
So I've been on a long journey h since I
got out of the United States Marine Corps. Some ups
and downs and upside down stuff. But but I got
gravitated and pulled by by the Good Lord.

Speaker 3 (55:47):
I think it's a divine intervention.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
Uh, truly, he has brought me to where I am
at this moment talking on this podcast. But uh, there's
there's a lot that goes in and I'm not a parent,
so I don't have children of my own, So I
don't want to speak out of the line or out
of turn there. But I can tell you I have
been mentoring view for twenty five years. I mentored for

(56:12):
Navy and Marine Corps de late Entry programs special operations
from both the Navy and the United States Marine Corps
for twenty years and went to go rock the Green
Beret Organization off of Fort Bragg. That's a civilian organization
that gives people a taste of you know, going through

(56:33):
the en doctor, be Green Beret Q course and all
of these other specific units get a taste of leadership
that they can bring into their arsenal as being CEOs
of their own company, high management entrepreneurs. But yes, so
for twenty years, that's what I did, specifically to help

(56:55):
ones that want to be force ricon Marsak Navy Seals,
US Army Rangers.

Speaker 3 (57:01):
And I was.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
Blessed with that, with that journey for twenty years. And
then when I hit the guardrail, I took the Good
Lord into my life and doors just started swinging open.
Now I was at Camp Peniton for five years. I
was training under the you know, the kind of the
spotlight of Marsawk up there, BRC, the battalion you know

(57:25):
who some of them I still had served with were
in at that time. So now I'm picking up on
a learning curve, you know, really understanding the signs and
signals and the methods and what needs to be taught
on the mentality side of fortitude, of resilient and grit
for these youth that were coming to me that wanted

(57:45):
to be in special operations. So that's along twenty years,
and I gave my heart and soul to that. I
even chose specific jobs that would open up more scheduling
time to spend with these youth because it takes a
lot of training, a lot of mental mentality, and a

(58:07):
lot of experiences of mind that I shared with them
that they could they could really go and not be
the attrition but actually be successful in what they were
attempting to try to do. Twenty years of all the
hours spent, all the training spent, all the sacrifice. Wow, yes,

(58:27):
uh it brought me to that level of preparation to
go to go Ruck, to be at that level of Cadre,
Cadre rage at Goruck, you have to be. You have
to be you know, looked at by uh the the
uh OPS chief to you know, the founder Adjason Jason McCarthy.

(58:49):
They they got to know and they get other teammates,
gotta gotta give you a thumbs up, you know, to
go through their indoc and and which they actually have
for Cadre.

Speaker 3 (58:59):
You got to go through it event.

Speaker 2 (59:02):
And then they got to know hands down you are
that operator. You come from units and they can they
can contest that are not contest, but they can say,
hey he's a good guy, he's a good operator, he's
going to do your company well. So that was another
two years to bring me to a higher level of
of you know, being a great leader and really no

(59:24):
signs of signals and bringing forth that that that tool
box of information so they can get a true experience
of a go rout, heavy, tough in light. And then
how it happened from where I worked to now. I
actually got called by a recruiter that I put my

(59:45):
bio resume out there to the unemployment system, and they
have a veteran unemployment system within that system that you
can put your bio resume out and people can get
on there and say, hey, I'd like to talk to
that person, maybe hire them from from the credentials and
experience that they put out there. So somebody has seen

(01:00:08):
my bio resume within that organization and gave me a
call and priorly worked at the organization that they were
asking if I had an interest in and possibly would
want to be you know, hired on his personnel. I said,
I'd never heard of the organization, but if you want to,

(01:00:30):
you know, give me more information, I'll take a look
at it. I was ready to kind of move on
from Go Ruck only because go Ruck is full on,
and because I wasn't married, I didn't have any kids,
because like, rage, can you go again this weekend?

Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
Rage? Can you go over to London? Rage? Can you
go to Cali? So I mean I was just I
was I was moving.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
It felt like I was back, actually a force recount
and that type of level temple. And I was ready
to settle down because I've been living out of my
sea bag. I have been giving everything I've got for
twenty years. I was thinking, you know, I got to
build some roots here and see where the next thing goes.
But it was an opportunity to help our youth, and

(01:01:17):
I'm like, you know what, I'm all in on that
as long as they are a good program, something I
want to be a part of and to help them
with their dreams and.

Speaker 3 (01:01:29):
Be America's next leaders.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
So it's a long process because you work for the
state and you're working with youth. So I went through
the process. I made it on board. I've been here
for four and a half years now. It has been
and the education beyond education unless you walked in those boots.

(01:01:53):
It's even hard to describe what I have experienced, what
I thought when I got there.

Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
It's like, hey, I'm a.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
Former Force RecA Marine Airbowne Ranger, qualified, twenty years of mentoring.

Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
I got this.

Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
This is I'm gonna I gotta handle on this, which
I did, but as things have happened here that it
was like on the spot learning jail.

Speaker 3 (01:02:16):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
Yeah, it's it's brought me to a really really high, very.

Speaker 3 (01:02:25):
In tune.

Speaker 2 (01:02:27):
Reading signs of signals from from.

Speaker 3 (01:02:29):
Youth that really needs some help.

Speaker 2 (01:02:33):
Yeah, you know, so twenty five years of this and
the question you're asking has been quite the journey. But
my toolbag you always learn and every day something else
is gonna I wouldn't say surprise you, but something else
is gonna happen that you're gonna have to go into
that toolbox and maybe even learn something at that moment

(01:02:53):
to implement the next time.

Speaker 1 (01:02:56):
Are these now are you only working with minors? Then
they assume like what's the age range?

Speaker 3 (01:03:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:03:03):
Yeah, yeah, sixteen to eighteen? Okay, And you know what,
I'm really I'm really glad you brought it up, but
you know, I really want to leave it there now.
I really don't want to because I don't want to.
I don't want to say anything that's not going to
be already accepted and filtered by the organization I work, so,

(01:03:26):
you know, yeah, and just being respectful. It's just somewhere
I don't want to go on the air anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:03:33):
What about talking about your current job? Oh okay, all right,
that's yeah, yeah, no, I understand, No, I get it, man,
that's man, that's that's a bummer, because that's really why
I wanted to. I really wanted to talk about it
because I've always been I've always been kind of intrigued

(01:03:54):
by that as a if you look at it by itself, well,
people on the outside looking in, if you go, oh, hey,
we send these kids to this military style, you know place,
then I could see how people wouldn't like that and
how that sounds. But when you add context to it,

(01:04:15):
like these are at risk youth that have been in
serious trouble and they're in danger of risking themselves, of
putting themselves in prison for you know, decades or lifetime,
and this might be one of the last opportunities they get.
So I always thought that was an interesting thing. Again,
Like I said, I grew up. You know, when you're

(01:04:37):
in the summer as a kid in the nineties, there's
nothing on TV except for like Ricky Lake and like
all that. I don't even remember the other one's names,
you know, Jerry Springer, stuff like that, and you hear
about That's where I always first time I ever heard
about something like that, I couldn't. I was like, man,
that's crazy they send kids to these things. But I understand,

(01:04:57):
I understand why. I understand how it gets to that point. Well,
where can I guess We'll go ahead wrap this up? Then? Man,
where can people find your book? Or your book is
coming out? Let's talk about Yeah, where where can people
find it? Is it out yet or is it it's
on pre release?

Speaker 3 (01:05:15):
Well it's not. The publisher right now.

Speaker 2 (01:05:16):
So the publisher's telling me in approximately two weeks that
my book, The Life and Times of Rage about mentorship,
stewardship of our youth and how my journey, you know,
from my youth to the military to military special operations
and bringing me to uh on my journey for the youth.

(01:05:40):
That's what my meat and potatoes of my book is about.
And it's also a tribute to UH, to our brothers
that have passed on. One is a former force recomme
Range Jim the Punisher, the body Burns, and the other
two John Jack Walston, He's the Sark Corman Navy Seal
that UH that that passed away.

Speaker 3 (01:06:03):
And then UH.

Speaker 2 (01:06:04):
Senior Chief Mike Purdue from Seal Team one when I
was on Westpac eighty eight on the uss Ogden with
a basic recompatoon and UH Seal Team one, Senior Chief
Mike Purdue. I was a hell raiser for sure. Anybody
that served with me knows.

Speaker 3 (01:06:22):
I was that guy. I like to play hard, work hard,
play hard.

Speaker 2 (01:06:26):
Uh. Definitely a hell raiser and got myself in a
scuffle coming you know, out of Cinderella Liberty out of Australia.
Senior Chief Mike Purdue took charge, putting me under the swing,
guided me back into uh, you know, having some balance
with with my wild living hardcore like a reco marine

(01:06:49):
wood and does.

Speaker 3 (01:06:51):
But yeah, So my book, UH, it's uh, it's powerful.

Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
It's got a lot of ingredients just in on what
questions actually asking and more of you know, how how
I learned and developed that level of knowledge to do
what I do today.

Speaker 3 (01:07:10):
It's in that book.

Speaker 2 (01:07:11):
Three three chapters in that book is about what I learned,
what I learned from from the youth, and what I
implement and what people can implement.

Speaker 3 (01:07:23):
Into youth that they're dealing with.

Speaker 1 (01:07:24):
So it's all in there. Where when the and again
I know when the book comes out, where is it
going to be released at? Is it just going to
be on Amazon?

Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
So it's going to be a Barnes and Noble, all
of the all of the major platforms, which are fifteen major.

Speaker 3 (01:07:40):
They're going all the way out.

Speaker 2 (01:07:42):
And you know, I do want to put a plug
in for Marine Recon Foundation.

Speaker 3 (01:07:49):
Uh. They assisted this to happen.

Speaker 2 (01:07:51):
And without them probably wouldn't. So God blessed to them
and the brotherhood everybody in support love.

Speaker 1 (01:07:58):
Yeah for sure. And I think the I've said this
multiple times on the podcast, and I think I think
the Recon and Sniper communities do the best job in
the Marine Corps of maintaining a legacy and kind of
trying to rally everyone around that brotherhood of you know,

(01:08:19):
that brother recon mentality. You know, if you follow, if
anyone follows the Recon Association or the Recon social media pages,
you know how much work they do honoring falling teammates,
helping family members of falling teammates. They do retreats every
year for falling teammates families. There's a lot of stuff

(01:08:42):
that they do. And I know a lot of people
like to donate to organizations and stuff, but I think
if you want to donate to one, that's a really
good one to to look into.

Speaker 3 (01:08:54):
Challenge.

Speaker 1 (01:08:55):
Oh yeah, the Recon Challenge is awesome. I think the
Recon Challenge doesn't get enough press. I think the Ranger
Challenge is awesome, or the Ranger you know, they have
the Ranger Competition, the Best Ranger Competition. I think the
Recon Challenge should get at least half the press that
the Best Ranger Competition gets. The Best Ranger Competition gets.

(01:09:17):
They have so many sponsors. Winners are getting like pistols
and you know, crazy stuff from all these different like manufacturers.
And the Recon Challenge is great, and I think they
do a great job of honoring teammates and stuff like that,
but I don't think it gets the do the fair
due that it deserves because if you've ever looked at

(01:09:37):
what that Recon Challenge is, it's insane. These guys are
out in the surf, They're out there freaking you know,
I mean everything, just the movement, the movements that they
have to do this in the recon challenge is out
of control. And I really think the Marine Corps needs
to step up their marketing efforts and get more people

(01:09:58):
to notice that Recontra challenge, maybe by inviting inviting other
people from other units or something into it or something
like that. But I feel like it needs more recognition,
which will in turn give the people that they're honoring,
because that's the whole point of it is to honor
falling teammates. Give those people more recognition that they deserve.

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
Absolutely, And if you know we're giving a little bit
of a you know, I'll plug in for them, you know,
praise Scott because because yeah, you know, they're they're putting
on their back though the air panels with the names
of the ones that gave the ultimate sacrifice.

Speaker 1 (01:10:35):
Yeah. I've been lucky enough to know multiple guys that
have taken part in the challenge and multiple guys that
have won the challenge. You know, there's some legitimate reconnaissance
marines out there that you don't realize how big of
a badass they are until you hear that they just
got done thinning through you know, torrential surf and then

(01:10:56):
hiking you know, miles upon miles while carrying and you know,
yeah over mountains. Man, it's no joke. People. If you
haven't seen the Recon challenge, you guys got to look
into it again. I think it needs more recognition. I
think the what the Army has done with the Best
Ranger competition is awesome and I think that's a really

(01:11:18):
great way to recognize the guys that really excel within
that community. And I think that the Marine Corps can
have a similar style event. I think that they can
make that event even bigger than what it is, which
the whole point again is to recognize those fallen teammates
of the Recon Marines and stuff. And I don't know,

(01:11:38):
I just I think they need more recognition. So I
really appreciate you bringing that up. What where? What where
can people find you? On social media?

Speaker 2 (01:11:48):
Well, I'm on Facebook, so I'm Dave Ridge James on Facebook.
I'm on Instagram. I think it's my heading is Special
Ops Cigar Time with Rail. Yeah, so I love my cigars,
but uh, those are those are two places. I know
that the publishing company is putting me across the board.

(01:12:10):
I'm trying to self promote by doing some videos stuff
like that, because this is just it's an incredible story
and it's just a tribute and it's it's so important
of the information and the story and the roller coaster. Yeah,
it really roller coaster of life.

Speaker 3 (01:12:30):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:12:31):
Hey, And you know, I just want to really thank you,
justin for this opportunity. You know, this is huge that
you're letting me get on here and speak about a
little bit of my past, you know, which which I've
been blessed and been around the best of the best.
I mean, these operators are just quiet professionals. They're amazing
and I I I, you know, got to stand uh

(01:12:54):
next to them, and uh and and the my mentors, the.

Speaker 3 (01:12:59):
Just of best leaders ever.

Speaker 2 (01:13:02):
And I just I just really wanted to convey to
you to thank you so much for this opportunity and
that we got to talk about the recon challenge and
and and and you know, promote a little bit of
the community, which I'm biased, but the reconnaissance community as
a whole, from from Marsac to the battalions to force,

(01:13:24):
to the reservist. I've been around them all within my mentoring.
They are the best of the best. I love all
of the units, I love all of the military branches,
and I have nothing but respect for all of them.
But I'm biased, and there's just something about that.

Speaker 3 (01:13:42):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:13:43):
I always loved working them with the recon guys, you know,
because it's always different when you're working with guys that
want to be there. You know, there are so many
jobs in the Marine Corps where there's guys that are there,
guys and girls that are there, and you can tell
they really don't want to be there. This is where
they got a signed and they're like, Okay, I'm just
gonna deal with it. Well, everybody in the recon community
volunteered for that, and they want to be there, and

(01:14:04):
they're working hard to be there, and it really shows
through in the professionalism. And I really enjoyed how professional
they were when it was time to work and then
how relaxed they were when it was time to go
out and have a good time. So no, man, I
think it's good stuff. Like I said, people need to
go out and check out those communities. I think you
guys do a good job of promoting the brotherhood and

(01:14:27):
supporting those fallen Marines and sailors families and stuff like that.
I think that's great and yeah, so everyone go check
out Dave's book. Also, if you haven't heard our previous episodes,
I just I took a look here a second ago.
You actually were on twice before I was thinking it
was only once for some reason, Episode sixty three and
sixty five, way back in double digit episodes. That's crazy

(01:14:48):
Episode sixty three and sixty five where we talk more
about Dave's career in the recon community and stuff like that.
And then, as always, you guys can check out my
page Former Action Guys, Former Action News. Both of those
are on Instagram, and then go over to Yeah, you
can go over to Apple Podcasts and Spotify leave a
review if you will. I really I would really appreciate

(01:15:09):
some fresh reviews on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. And uh, Dave,
I think that's it, man, I really appreciate Oh yeah, well,
real quick, make sure to check out my website, jacrimographics
dot com. It's where my new T shirt style we
got here. Go check that out. And Dave again, thank you, man,
I really appreciate you coming on today

Speaker 2 (01:15:27):
Yeah, super Ferdillas, thanks a lot again really yeah for
sure