Lima Charlie, Episode 20 with Byron Rodgers

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
H m.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hmm.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
I've got no reason the cheek of a killing a
scene with a need to blease you. Where the light
goes Grek, Let's believe him in the zone to be
from a end of a kom aane.

Speaker 4 (00:31):
De sease good agree.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
I'm as said when you call the meat, because I'll weird.
I'm a one of a kind, and I'll bring death
to the glacier about.

Speaker 4 (00:38):
To meet another river of blood running.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Under my feet, orsing a violet long ago. Stand next
to me, You'll never stand alone. I'm last to leave,
but the first to go.

Speaker 4 (00:48):
The Lord, make me.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Dead before you make me old a feet on the
fear of the devil inside of the enemy faces in
my sight, being with a hand.

Speaker 4 (00:57):
Or shoe, with a mind, cure with a heart like
r James Brice, Soldier Martin. I am a worrior and

(01:17):
this is my so the goal, the race to the
ground of an enemy.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Sure, I read you, Lima, Charlie, loud and clear, Welcome
to another episode of Steward the Non Present. Lima, Charlie,
We're here with special guests Byron Rogers. Byron, welcome to
the show.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Boom brother. It's an honor to be here man, Thanks
so much for having me. Yeah, just just excited about
this episode. So tell it.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yeah, so Byron Rogers. You know, United States Marine Corps
Infantry three point fifty one, lame the company Weapons Patune
for those you like to do your homework. Two deployments
to Iraq. Try to be a man of God, a
man of faith. Father. I run an international executive protection

(02:12):
organization called Bravo Research Group. We handle security related, high
end security related equations all over the world. We've eperated
in O rated countries since twenty seventeen. I've been in
this industry since two thousand and eight. So really the
only thing I've done for my life is Marine Corps
and protect people. Have a master's in forensic psychology. You

(02:35):
just got an honorary doctorate in Christian business leadership. You know,
I'm a Knight of Malta. And also the other half
of what I do is all about training and helping
people become professional protectors if they're getting out of military
law enforcement or even if they're civilians. And then I
have another training company that's about making civilians into effective protectors.

(02:59):
Published a book called Finding Meaning after the military. You
can see behind me and other than that, man, God
is good, you know. Boom. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
So so you mentioned you joined the Marine Corps. Do
you come from a military family.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
I don't know. I do not. In fact, my dad
was vehemently against it. He threatened to throw me off.
He dangled me off the balcony of my hotel room
after my high school graduation when I told him I
was going in, and uh, I mean, I just relaxed.
He's my dad's a savage. He's still I still might

(03:33):
have to shoot dead, like I still like, I mean
like he's and I just remember dangling there and he's like,
you know, why aren't you afraid? And I remember saying, well,
you're either going to drop me off the balcony or
I'm gonna go join the Marine Corps. And he said, okay,
well I I respect that, and he said don't die.

(03:54):
And I said, well, Dad did the best I can
pray for me, and I went in.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
So what made you choose the Marine Corps? Did you
did you look at anything else or was it the
Marine Corps bust?

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah? No, I I was totally open to any of it.
But I remember in my my cafeteria I in high school.
I walked up to the recruiter. I think he was
an Army like maybe a I know he was an
Army recruiter, but maybe he was a reserve recruiter. But
I walked up and I just said, look, man, I
want to join. Uh. I want to join the hardest branch.

(04:28):
I wanted to be miserable. I want it. I want
people to look at me and know that I joined
the hardest branch. I want respect, I want honor. I
wanted to suck every day. And I said, so what's
the truth, Like is it army or is it Marine Corps?
And this guy he looked at me, and he looked
at the left, looked at right and make sure no
one was listening, and he was like, you should probably

(04:50):
just go be a marine. And I was like, Roger, that,
thank you. And I walked right over there, and I,
you know, signed the mother freaking contract, as they say, right, So, so.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
You wanted it hard. So then obviously that took you
to the infantry. Were you were you an athlete in school?
We were pretty active and pretty.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah man, fortunately, uh well yeah, I was primarily active
in football. You know, I always wanted to be a
football player, you know, kind of had that pipe dream
growing up. Ended up playing six a football, iron man ball,
all four ways. We had a great weightlifting program at
my high school, so that's really where I learned how
to lift, and you know, you know, it was a

(05:29):
team captain and all that. So football was like, honestly,
it was like my first introduction to uh team combative
type scenarios, you know, because it's like just you're in
the frame with the boys and heads are getting split
and you're doing damage and it was a good time.
So yeah, that was like really the birth of that.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
Okay, so you go to the Marine Corps. I'm assuming
you're a Hollywood Marine, not a not a Paaras Island Marine.
Yeah yeah, yeah, Hollywood Marine. So you go to right there,
right there in California. So what what was that? What
was your what are you thinking? You get? You get
the boot camp? Were you thinking, oh, damn, I made
a mistake. What are you thinking?

Speaker 1 (06:10):
Boot camp was interesting? Like I spent some time in
a group home growing up, so boot camp was was
pretty interesting. It was great, like stripping Prossess. I mean,
you just learned so much stuff in boot camp that's
so valuable, you know, for life in terms of just
like all right, dude, it's time to get broken down
and get rebuilt. I think you should have to probably
do that a couple of times through the course of

(06:32):
a lifetime. And so it's like these times when you
have to like shed your own skin and be read more.
You can't laid down some good programming for that and
submitting to processes that will make you a better man
and a better warrior. And then I I remember, you know,
and then you get joined with a bunch of people
that you've never met. You have to learn how to
work with them. I think boot camp and the Marine

(06:54):
Corps in general was one of the best educations I
ever received in the course of my life. I I
I'll tell you a story. I will tell you a
quick story if you got time for it. Sure, I
was that guy. I ended up being the guided a
couple of times. I ended up getting out of there
as a squad leader. So I redeem myself. But yeah,
man T seven bro training Day seven. I was that guy.

(07:18):
I remember, I was a dire recruit and I remember
them being like yo, they were like, you know, gonna
get all my obest marines to the front and I
had just dropped, like I just dropped. I think I
was two twenty five. I played football around two twenty five.
I dropped it to eleven to get to maps. Then
I ended up dropping to two oh six, like and
we had a great weightlifting program. So I'm like, I'm

(07:39):
thinking I'm shredded. I'm jacked at TAN at this point,
and they're like Rogers, get up here, and I'm like me, like,
I'm in such I'm bigger leader than these dudes. And
they're like, and I remember them they called me the
duty Hut. They're like, you will be and it was
like one hundred and ninety two pounds based on the
b and my before you beat this da la la
la lah. And I was like, this is impossible. I've

(08:00):
been two hundred pounds. So I was in like eighth grade. Man,
I guess I'm thinking to myself and uh, sure enough. Man.
I left there at like two seventy five. But what
happened was I remember they made me, of course, a
diet recruit, and I remember seeing the Double Rats one
night man and they were in there just you know,
doing what they do. You know, they're the double rats
were in there full of blankets, and I remember they

(08:23):
were just eating these those little peanut butters, those Peanu
pant peanut butters, and I was like, yo, what up?
I got half rash. I was like, what are we doing? Bro?
What's the hustle? Well then they're like, yeah, bro with
the chow hal. We just grabbed a couple put them
on cargo pockets, and I was like, this is life
right now, We're about to win tomorrow. I went in there,
jacked me a couple of them little peanut butter packets,

(08:43):
and sure enough I was getting hazed or freaking smoke
on the track on the on the paray deck the
next day. And I'll never forget it. Man, it was
like slow motion. I I you know, you got to
take everything out of your your your your pockets. And
I reached in, I grabbed my cover out of my
cargo pocket, and this jiffy peanut butter just goes and

(09:03):
it's like slow motion, and I just remember it was
so slow. I remember being like, I'm just gonna catch it,
and I reach up to snatch it at him in air,
and the drill instructures with their superpowers just all of
a sudden, just knew. He turns around and he looks
directly at me, and and I just remember being like okay,
and it hits the ground boom, you know, on the

(09:23):
floor doing push ups. Good recruit rogers wants to be
nasty still peanut butters. And I was like, this should
never happen again. Had the whole platoona getting smoked? Man?
And I remember the boys in the raining room that night.
I remember telling him, look, I know I'm messed up.
You guys can come at me if you want to.
It's gonna be expensive, I said, but I promise you
I will never you will never get smoked because of

(09:46):
me again until he for the rest of the time
you're here. And that's what happened. I carried more my weight.
But uh yeah, brock, good time. So you went.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
You went at eighteen right to your agent.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
So, I've talked about it before on here is one
of the things that and I think, why not just
you know, the Marine Corps, but military in general. One
of the reasons why it works so well is because
you're that eighteen year old, You're just that mush of
a brain, right, and you're just absorbing everything and and
you're in you're in such a a very influential time

(10:23):
in your your life that you're gonna it's gonna be
with you. Everything you learn, Like you said, everything you
learn there you're gonna keep for the rest of your life.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
And it's easy to get buy in, you know, and
sant willing, obedient. It's orders. Like you get a thirty
some year old in there, he's gonna be like, yo,
let me see the math on this, bro Like, yeah,
you got peer reviewed sources on why we're gonna go
kill these people, like it's gonna get camped. But I
don't know.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
In boot camp and basic training, sleep deprivation is a
wonder right. Oh yeah, that'll make any the strongest crumble.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
All right.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
So you you get you're there in boot camp, right,
you're in sight in California. What's what besides this this
peanut butter incident? What's boot camp like for you?

Speaker 1 (11:06):
You know? For me, it was just it just took
me back to when I, you know, had to kind
of be in that group home it I was a leader.
I was always able to find whatever short cuts existed.
I was always able to kind of stay calm and
and get the dudes to suffer well. So you know,

(11:28):
that's why I always kind of bounce back and forth
between that guy's squad leader position, you know. I I
I remember boot camp was hard and I hated it,
but it wasn't like too foreign because of the path
that I had lived in my life. You know. I
ended up winning the Pugil six championship. Uh and and

(11:53):
then the final, the final bout was me versus the
other guy who won the the other half beat the
other half the battalion Pugil six, and his name was Heinzman,
and Heinsman was jo Heinsman was a unit. He was
a big like arian, pure blood looking, you know, demi

(12:14):
god blue eyes, blonde hair, perfect jawline, had a big
white tiger tattoo down inside and a knife wound. And
I remember, man, I'd love to see him again shore.
He's that. And I remember being like like trying to
make friends with him because he was like way more
you know, like hardcore than me. And I remember like
before this, I remember I was like, hey, man, how
you doing, you know, and He's just like, yeah, whatever,

(12:37):
and I'm like, so what did you do before the
Marine Corps? You know, he's like I played d one
ball and then I got injured. He's like, and then
I used to travel around in bars with a biker
gang and I would just fight dudes and that's how
I made a living. Then I figured I'd go in
and go Special Forces, and I was like, oh cool, man.

(12:57):
I remember trying to be friends of them, and he
ended up beating everybody on the other side. So then
I had to fight him in pupil sticks, man, and
I'll never forget it. I said a prayer. I was like,
good Lord. I was like, you gotta get me through this.
I can't beat this dude. Like I know, you know
what I mean, Like maybe, but like nah, bro, Like
I was like, I'm about to catch the beating of
my life in the Thunderdome because you know in the Thunderdome.

(13:18):
Don't even see what goes on at the Thunderdome. And
I remember I just prayed, and I remember being like, well,
the one thing I can do is I can hit
a hard and football is my thing. I was like,
no matter how big you are, I will hit you
in the face and I will die on impact. I'm
one percent fine and dine on impact. And so that's
all I had. I just remember being like, the only
thing I can do against this dude is I'm gonna

(13:40):
come around this corner and I'm gonna suicide myself on
his face, and uh man, I'll never forget it. I
came around that corner running with that pubel and he
stopped to fight me, and I just kept going and
I just kept going, and I just I jumped straight
through him. I don't know. I think my guardian angel
did it because I didn't even touch the guy. Boom,

(14:02):
I go slam it into the wall, almost die. I'm
like half one con he I guess slipped and his
knee popped out, you know, he popped his a cl
or something like that trying to get around try to
avoid me. And you know, so I hope he's all
right wherever he is. Man the Heisman, but uh yeah,
camp man.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
Since you have to boot camp with Dolph Lundgren basically
bro like.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
Really for real. And I joined the recops because I
I had like five sisters growing up. I was raised
by my mom, So for me being in boot camp
and then the fleet was like, I just want to
be around men. I want to be around a place
to worry about your freaking feelings where if we have
a problem, I go, we go fight it out in
the back of the slab bay. Like that's what I
was excited to just be around men and be like

(14:46):
and then contribute, to be like recognized as one of
the like contributors to a group of menco and war.
You know. So I was all about it.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
I wasn't. I wasn't big by any means. I graduated
high school one hundred thirty two pounds, and so I
get the basic training and I'm little, but I played.
I played baseball, I played football, I played, I ran track,
I was I was very athletic. And I felt so
bad when we got to pugil sticks because they put
my ranger dummy in there with me, my ranger buddy,

(15:17):
and he was even smaller than me, and I bet
the living tar out of a kid. I felt so bad.
So so you graduate Blue Camp? How How was I
was getting that? Nyga?

Speaker 1 (15:32):
I mean it was beautiful because the part of joining
the Marine Corps for me was my dad's an absolute savage.
Like I told you, he's like a very successful businessman
in the Bahamas. You know, uh, Tony Montana meets like
Donald Trump, you know, in a bigger than the island
guy who's a lifelong martial artist. Right. So, like growing up,

(15:53):
he's one of those dads where you're like, hey, Dad,
I just found the cure for cancer and he's like, son,
go back getting there. You get the cure for AIDS,
you know, like I had raised no punk and you're like, okay, dad,
you know. So uh, I was like, what can I
do to be a man on a level that my
dad's got to respect and that I can solve my

(16:16):
math that I can know I earned my right to
be a man and no one can take it for
me if they weren't there when I got it. And
so again that EGA was like a culmination to to
a lot of that, you know, it was the culmination
of a lot of that. And it was like I'm
finally part of a tribe that's an elite tribe. And
I think that's a drive that most men have, that

(16:38):
most all men should have, is you should want to
be you should be an elitist, you know, Like I
know it's like as such a provocative term, but like
you should want your family to be better than everyoney,
should want your son to be better than everyone you
should want your company to be better than you know
what I mean. Like, so for me it was like
it was it meant a lot, and I know it
did a lot for me psychologically. That ended up helping

(16:59):
me in a lot of ways, whether a lot of storms,
whether it was relationally and or in for sure in
business you know, uh you know, and that I earned
that EGA. And then obviously the things happened in the
fleet massively impactful for building a foundation in my in
my in my psychology, in my paradigm that is held

(17:20):
up quite a bit.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Okay, So so you graduate, where do you go from there?

Speaker 1 (17:27):
So I graduate and then I get shipped off to
camp to the pen helpie. So I'm in the pen man,
that's where I earned my stripes. Man, and I remember
rolling up to the squad bay and I remember we no, no, no.
I graduated. I go to s Y. I was in
s Y, but it was in Camp Pendleton. Anyways, it
was like up the street because I was in Horno

(17:48):
and I think s Y is like fifty two areas
that the area right before Horno. And I remember, you know,
getting my mos and and the machine gun machine gunners
Chiney Gunners and Assault were fighting over me and they
kind of gave me a choice which one I want
to be, and I remember being like, well, I don't
want to be the guy in black Hawk down on
top of the hummery and shot in the face. I

(18:08):
was like, I want to be able to get out
and move around and do some stuff. And then you know,
the Assault, you know, squad leader was like, yeah, we
get to get out because I was in during the
small rocket time show. We get to shoot small it's
javelins and do demo and I was like that sounds dope, man,
And so he ended up winning, and I ended up
going Assault at School of Infantry out there, and then

(18:31):
I remember I got woken up to Chicon in doc
I made it through and they're interviewing me and they
were like, uh, you know, hey, you know, why do
you want to be recomerine? And I'm like, you know,
it's just so dumb, you know, like I was just
so young, you know, it's like recomering. I'm like, what's recoverying?
Like it's like Marine Corps specially forts. I'm like, okay,

(18:51):
like that's cool. They're like, well, why do you want
to be when I was like, you guys kidnapped me
in the middle of the night. Make as to be
bro like I didn't have a choice. He just, you know,
he yanked me out of my rack and and now
I'm you know, we're swimming and and they were like
and then I was like, well, how much school do
I have to do? And they're like, you know, the

(19:12):
pipeline's two years or whatever. And I remember being like,
I joined the Marine Corps to not go to school.
I was like, there's a war going on. I want
to go to war. The whole point is for me
to go to war. And the guy was just like, okay, yeah.
It was probably one of the dumbest decisions I ever
made in my life. Maybe I don't know, God's got
a path, but but I you know, I was like, dang, man,

(19:34):
how would my life it turned out if I'd have
went down that road. I mean, I probably I would
have got out. I'd probably be still in its slam bodies,
but probably yeah, man, you know that's what happened.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
So you end up in Pendleton. Yeah, how long were
you there before your first employment?

Speaker 1 (19:54):
That's about I think. I think her first work up
was something like a year or so, and it was
just I mean I got to my unit right after
they got back from the Battle of Fallujah. I remember, Oh,
they were like they were like, uh, hey, you know
they called us in reads were invaded, you know, biggest
urban combat engagement since wast City, Vietnam School Circle. You know,

(20:17):
they all reading the night the newspaper articles and everything,
and they're like, you're all failures. Nobody's going to bout hell.
Y'all missed it, you know. You know, we're just like, oh,
we hate ourselves. You know, well, how are we gonna
get blood? You know? And then uh, you know, I
get to my unit and these cats it was like,

(20:38):
you know, it's the fleet, you know. You we walk
up and we're like, uh, Lance Corporal, Uh do you
know where you know, leave a company weapons becual we
can Kroeni, seabag and all our stuff. And you know,
one of the one of the very gracious Lance criminals,
was like, yeah, man, just hop in the elevator, go
up to the third floor. You know what I'm saying.
If anybody knows how the fleet works, you don't get

(20:59):
the freaking Ollvader unless you're a made man homide. You
take the stairs right so, you know, me and my
little boot Emerson with me. You know, we're coming up
and all you hear is the usual squad like this
is when we're in barracks. I was in a squad
bade my whole rest of my think because we had
a gunny. That was like we gotta be in a

(21:19):
squad bay. But anyways, that's that came after and sure enough, man,
like we're going up and you just all you hear
is just like rap music, country music, death metal, porn,
typical yeah, typical brracks, you know what I'm saying. Pizza
bone you can smell the pizza, oh yeah, and beer,

(21:39):
you know. And I remember being like, man, this is
in tents, Like just the vibes in tents right now.
And then all of a sudden it gets a little
bit quiet, and then you hear ding and the whole
everyone's like silent, and they're all expecting like a staff
or a gunny to like be coming off the elevator,
like the getting ambushed or something. And uh, we come
out and we're like, oh, is this Lama company? We

(22:04):
just get right wrecked? Tell me and it just turned
super PG thirteen raded r for like forty eight hours.
They're just getting destroyed. You know, my scenior marine I
got lucky. There was like one other black dude who
was like a decent human being and then he was
like and he walks up and we're all getting hazed
or whatever, and he's like this one right here, He's like,

(22:25):
this one was fine. And that ended up being my
big bro Eric higgs Man kept me alive out there
and the other dude got hazed and got broken with it.
I want to say, ninety six hours in the processed
out of the Marine Corps. Oh wow, man, Yeah, these
dudes were not they were psycho. I mean you just
got mad from that. They were legitimate, sanctioned psychopaths, you know,

(22:49):
like you know, but it was the best people to
train me for combat. Like he was the best trend,
you know, our first mount training. They're just like unlearn
everything you learned campus. How we actually get dressed on
is how you get to come home, you know, And
it was the best lessons in my life.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Well, the only two times Marines are happy is if
they're drinking or fighting.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
I mean that's that's pretty much that is about it.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
So yeah, Fallujah Fluja was a was a pretty rough time.
That's that's that was a pretty tough sledding. So you're
walking into a unit that is pretty experienced at this point.
You know, they so how many how many of you
newbies were they're coming in to this experience unit.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
I don't remember. I think I know for a salt
for there's a good amount of us because you know,
like we're peppered in. But I know for my MS,
my MS was super small. I mean we just got
extinct a few years ago. There's just me and Emerson
that got said to Lema Company and I was the
only one that actually stuck, you know, got broken. So

(23:54):
it was a small drop, but uh, it was. It
was It was a right place before going out and
going out to combat for sure.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
So what was that training like leading up to that
first deployment?

Speaker 1 (24:08):
Yeah, I remember my first night. I was just like, uh,
you know, we're in the rain room in a squad
name later on that night and you know they're all like, hey,
I forget his name, but it was one of the Mexicans,
like a flint tests or something, and they're like, hey,
get in here. What that's so arm you know it,

(24:29):
stand up, you know, and I remember he pulls his
his blouse off and all he has is the bone,
like there's no biceparator's bone, and they're like grab his arm,
grab his arm. It's like super creepy, and they're like,
if you don't listen up, you gonna end up just
like him, you know. And then they like made us

(24:50):
watch all the freaking Moto videos and all the Marine
Corps videos that come out of a war zone. And
I remember calling my my girl that night, like late
that night. I think I was still like up cleaning,
you know, the ring room or something, and I remember
being like, this is not this is not how I

(25:10):
thought it was gonna be. I was like, this is
like some mix between juvenile hall and like government sanctioned
killing is what this is. And she was just like,
you know, she didn't pectady, She's like twenty eighteen to right,
and uh, you know. So then the train up was
just wild, man. It was just like you can feel

(25:33):
you can feel war on these dudes. You can smell
war on my boys, like you could. It was a
different frequency, like and I remember one of our gunnies
man at one point in time, was like we got
a new gunny. This was after my second deployment, but
still it matters. And he came to the drill field
and he was like, there is no difference between a

(25:54):
combat marine and a normal marine. Yeah, we went out,
was it was either Ridgeport or it was or it
was an apployment. We came back and he was like,
there is a difference between combat marines and normal reads.
And I remember like seeing greens. I remember seeing guys
that had been the combat and seeing guys that had

(26:14):
and I remember the look at drives was different, like
I believed in a thousand yards stare because I remember
when I before I got baptized and fire. I just
remember being like, there's a there distinct difference between these
guys and that's a lot of what it was like. Man,
it was, it was.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
It was you know.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
I remember doing the crucible our drill structures, being like,
this is the easiest and smallest hill you will ever
hike up, and the cruci broke me off when I
was okay, I mean I made it, of course, but
like you know, it was like I was like I
remember at the time being like, there's no way, there's
no way were you sending me to actual hell, like
there's no way, and sure enough, Camp Pendleton help me.

(26:56):
We later on ran into the the Reaper and I
remember we were just like doing like a little workout
boots and it's right at the back of Mountaintown back there,
and I remember being like, like not even having any idea,
like even counting it as a hill really, you know,
or you know, bet Starters squad leader was like, yo,

(27:17):
you know that's the Reaper right there, right, and we
were like what you know. It just blew our minds
because the fleet was just intense, man, it was just it.
The fleet was when reality began to start setting.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
Did either of your droll instructors have combat experience? I mean,
because we're pretty I mean we're pretty far into gat
at that point, right because it was two thousand and eight.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
I don't think so, man. I think they were all
like calm guys, to be completely honest, I think they're
all concacs without any of that. Maybe one of them,
but yeah, I don't know. So you're good.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
Sorry, So you're you're training up, you get to your
first aployment where where an Iraqi you go.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
First, and we end up going out to essentially we
Paditha Dam is where it kicked off, and we focused
primarily on Jaditha, Baiwana like syn Jack and that whole
ball sack area. That's what we called it. What year

(28:19):
was this? This was jeez, I went in in two
thousand and four to two thousand and eight, so you know,
I mean it had to have been like six eight
months after that, Okay, and uh yeah, man, that was
pretty much where we were and where it was going
down and then we that was really the deployment. We

(28:41):
stayed in that area.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
Yeah, So what was the tempo like on this? I mean,
were you just patrolling to be seen? Were you? I
mean were you have value targets? What was your what
was your kind of daily mission?

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Yeah? We we did some of the hbis, they're like
the we the whole like the cards thing was in play.
Most of it was presence patrols we did. I was
part of the initial clear not initial but clearing of
Naditha when the with three to one when the masker happened,

(29:16):
Uh goes up the street. But or was I this
stuff it's kind of fuzzy. Yeah, that was I want
to say that was Kilo Company. So you know our
primary initiative after we we woke up to the dam
and that was secured. Were working with Aziwbajani's at the

(29:37):
dam and you matter get the password to get back
on base correct or they're gonna light you up. That
was the thing. And then after we after that, we
just kept pushing until we basically got to around Barwana, uh,
and then we were just running presence patrols out of
a school in that area. But yeah, that initial like
that push through Adetha and all that stuff was us,

(30:00):
and you know, it was one of those things where
it was like my first night in combat. You know.
I remember, you know, we're gearing up, it's like three
am or whatever before we push out there we're skip
painting skeletons on our faces and except for their face paint,
and uh, you know, we roll out and we were

(30:21):
looking at I remember watching the city. I remember watching
Jadetha and then I remember those lights just shut off,
and I remember thinking to myself, I'm like, you know,
I'm a dumblood at this point, so I'm like, whoa.
I'm like the bell just went out. I'm like that's
pretty that we're lucky, Like, oh well, and then I
remember one of my seniors was like, Recon, just cut
the power, idiot, and I remember being like, oh, oh, okay, yeah.

(30:44):
And then something happened where Bradley went flying pasts like
an adjacent like an army that was going in trying
to get there, and our commanding officer hops on the
radio and he's trying to yell at these guys like hey,
slow down, that's a mind da da da da da.
I's trying to get it get up from them, and
then I just remember seeing that first explosion, and that's

(31:07):
when we started to lean into reality. And I remember
watching the mushroom cloud and I remember hearing all the
rounds cook off and and you know, all this stuff
going on around the vehicle. And that's when I was like, man,
this doesn't even seem real. And then that voice in
my head was like you don't know what real is yet, son,
And then I realized, like, I am not in a

(31:29):
freaking video game. It was like high gravity at that point.
And then they shoot the apops up go across the minefield.
It's like one hundred grenades on a string with a
rocket attached to it for those of you who don't know,
and boom blow a big cavern, a big kind of
a trench for us, essentially, push everything out of the way.

(31:49):
Freaking tanks kickoff. Thunder runs into the city and we
we just ran in the tracks they start Siops start
playing freaking led Zeppelin and rock mus freaking green Smoke
just ascended on the city. We got rock music. We
get in there. I almost smoke some dude who was

(32:09):
in a building because he was holding he was an
old man holding it. He had crutches, and I remember
seeing I came around the corner, I saw his hands
and I almost shot him because I saw the wood.
And then I find myself on top of the roof
and I just remember listening to like the psyops and
the babies crying and the women's screaming and the dogs
barking noises and all that stuff. Evil laughter, and then

(32:33):
the the mosque starts kicking off, you know, shout out night,
kill the Infidel, and then freaking Corporal Practice. He's in
a few of these podcasts as well. My big bro
comes up and he's like, how you doing Rogers, And
I'm like, I'm good, Corporal He's like, and I'm laying
on the roofs, you know, doing security. You know, he's like,

(32:53):
how you doing? Like I'm doing all right, Corporal. He's
like freaking Twilight Zone out here, isn't it? And I'm
like yeah. And then you know, that was like my
first night and then you know, of course things just
get crazy into the next day. I'll just get everyone
blown up. It's good time.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
So so what we what we think when you first
went in there, I mean it sounded like you you
kind of hit this realization like oh crap, you know, yeah,
but I mean, what was your what were you kind
of excited? Were you a little nervous going into that?
What was that?

Speaker 1 (33:28):
Well, It's like it's that proving ground man, It's like,
this is the moment, like you got to be. My
mentality was I have to be ready to die. Well
you know I and I have to be ready to
make a difference for my platoon and for the mission
and go to the distance. Man, like I this is
the ultimate proving ground, like boot camp. Yeah that's great,
but like now we're actually doing the thing, you know,

(33:50):
And you know, it never even dawned on me that
guys wouldn't have this experience. My whole culture was Marine
Corps combat culture. It was like, hey, man, past the past,
the orange ue kill. You know, it's like, we're going
to war. This is what we do. Everyone's been wared that,
everyone in the whole unit's been war. So it was like,
this is my moment. Like you can't even really stand
up and pissing the squab bait till you've been to combat.

(34:10):
Like you can't even talk, you know what I'm saying.
So it's like I'm about to get my stripes and
I'm gonna make it count. And I wanted to be
like memorable, you know. So I was down man, and
I remember, but but it was but there was more
fear than I remember wanting to have to deal with.
I remember, that's why I almost shot that guy in
the hand. I wasn't like one of those guys. It

(34:31):
was like all about like the carnage. But I wanted
to be a good warrior, Like I really wanted to
be like a professional, righteous, like good warrior. So you know,
that's a lot of what I was really trying to
lean into when that happened. But that explosion was high gravity.
That's when I started to be like this is not
a game, like like there's no responding holmeie, like you know,

(34:53):
like you're you're you're about to either make it or not,
you know. Uh so yeah, that's things going through my mind.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
Okay, so you get get to that first night and
you get back right. So now, now how is the
rest of this this deployment going.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
This deployment was interesting. I mean, we spent most of
it just out there. We would come back on a
rotation I want to say, like every month. Maybe we'd
cycle back for a week or so to a deefen
damn for R and R. But we caught some IEDs
in that deployment. I caught some id's in that deployment.

(35:31):
We you know, like the next day in combat, we
stayed out there because we were taking territory. I freaking
we were searching a house and you know, I walk
in and this is my first introduction to the or
the indigenous people of the game, right, So I'm like
they're all like annaha bibi Marines, Marines, Yeah, like come on, man,
like we love you, like Lamosa, like no problem, You're good.

(35:54):
So I'm like these people are nice, they're pretty cool man.
And I'm like, you know, praxic, this is like, you know,
shut the f up, Rogers, and I'm like, they seem
like nice people I don't know today. And so we're
searching the house, you know, and searching houses, and he
grabs me and he's like, you know, he's shorter than me,
so it's kind of awesome and grabs me and pulls
me down and he's like, find me something, Rogers. I know,

(36:15):
these guys are moves, you know. And I remember thinking, like, bro,
you're just mad because like you were in Fallujah. I'm like,
these are nice people. Like I'm like a chick at
a bar that thinks everyone wants to be her friend
even though she's like hot, you know. And I'm like,
these guys are nice guys. And I just I'm like, well, father,

(36:37):
and I you know, I say a little prayer. I'm like,
if there's something here, can you help me find it?
And uh, sure enough, I'm like I see a drum,
a water drum, and it's got no water in it,
and I'm like, like, why you got a water drum
off no water? But these ones got water in them.
So I go over there and I like moving around,
and sure enough, you know, I find a freaking I

(36:58):
end up finding and digging around. I end up finding
a bunch of fake passports, a bunch of adrenaline, a
big ied that was buried behind that water drum underneath
the house. So then me be in a mood. Uh
and I'm the I'm the demo guy. I'm the fifty one,
So I gotta get the explosives. So I'm sitting here

(37:18):
like digging, I get and I gotta shove. I'm digging
this thing up. I end up finding the weapons cash
in the back of the the back of the house
that I'm like, hey, there's a weapons cash back. There,
there's this, there's that. There's a pile, there's a pile
of expended shells on the roof from where the guy
was shooting at us from a RpK. And I dig
this freaking idea, and my bright idea is to get

(37:42):
it out of the ground and show everyone what I've got.
So I'm like, you know, I'm like amazing how heavy
it is. I get it up, and I'm like, hey, gods,
look what a boo and my whole But like everyone's like,
you know, Braxton, it's just like Roger, I'm like, and
then I realized, like what I'm doing. I'm holding the

(38:03):
freaking live you know, explosive explosive like, and everyone just
jumps out of the courtyard and I'm like, oh, like,
set it down, you know, this was this was me
be in a boot. Guys, don't hold it against me,
you know, and uh yeah man. And then that you know, uh,
some of the guys go back to find a freaking
to open up the weapons cash, and the weapons cash

(38:27):
is booby trapped with the blasting caps. They pull, pull
the like rag out of the way and it goes pop. Now,
the house before this, I don't know if I should
name name, but one of the corporals told one of
the gunnies he said, hey, gunny from the drill field
who's never been in combat, your weapon is off safe.

(38:47):
And he literally had the audacity to say the exact
same line from freaking uh black hawk down this year
is my safety. And we were all like, oh, we
don't trust this guy. We don't trust it guy. So
they're pulling the weapons cash out and pop blasting cap
goes off and he was sitting there aiming in at
the hole where the weapons cash is and bam shoots

(39:11):
freaking corporal wigging the hand and then he comes running
by us. At this point, I got the DT down
on his face, I got a KD on his back,
and he comes running by sniper and corporate wigs like
boot Gunny, you f and shot me and I just
I just remember me like this is crazy, you know,

(39:32):
the watching the little kids that we're going to turn
into terrace because we're beating their dad, I.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
Mean, not people up, but like you know, yeah, yeah,
So when y'all went into this area and did y'all
replace another marine unit or did y'all replace army or
what what was that? Or were y'all the first ones
in this area?

Speaker 1 (39:48):
Yeah? To my knowledge, man, this was this was the
initial push and h titha. Yeah if I had based
on what I knew as a freaking PFC, not PFC,
but I think it was a lance with that.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
Yeah, so there was a good chance this was like
the first time a lot of these speak with Marines
and Saint Americans. So okay, and so so Corporal's got
his hand shut up, Gunny did it? I'm sure that
after action review was just fantastic.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
Yeah, so he got I mean he didn't get busted down.
That takes an Act of Congress, they let him drive.
He later he was just that gunny though he later
lit himself on fire in his sleeping bag because he's
trying to use his stove, you know, because it was cold.
It was cold. I remember that night. I'll never forget
that night. It was so cool. We were doing a
tank refill in the middle of the desert, and we

(40:39):
had to sit there and set security for the chopper,
for the helicopters while they are on the ground, the
helos and so we were getting frozen from the wash
all night and he tries to light at his kerosene,
his little which we didn't have a heater in the
dang in his sleeping bag and he had to spend
the rest of the time we're out there off with
burnt off pants, half burnt shoes. You can see his toes.

(41:02):
We called him sat start and Sesame Street. God bless them,
manh Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
What kind of makes you wonder how some of those
guys get to that rank, right, They just.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
Stay in bro they just keep treading water. There's just
no one else. They got nothing else going down, you know,
And you're like, this is what this is what we
got to.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
Work with all right, So how how long was this deployment?

Speaker 1 (41:27):
Marine Corps deployment? So I think it's like six to
eight months, right, So you go over for six and
that's a B and A kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (41:33):
Okay, so you go back to Pendleton after this? Or
where did you go after this?

Speaker 1 (41:38):
Oh? Yeah? Right back to the pen for the next
work up? Do about a year, turn and burn for
thirty thirty first mew. You know this one I was
way more prepared for psychologically. Just my psychological orientation was
just like yeah, big talk now, like and I was
a squad leader by this time, right, so you know,

(41:59):
I have my guys, and it just get used to
the life, you know. I think the toughest thing that
happened to me on this one was just my girl
had cheated on me on the first deployment, you know,
my my accent in my axe, and she didn't tell me,
but I knew it. I could feel it, of course.

(42:23):
And so when I was getting ready to deploy my
second deployment, I was like, you know this the night
before we go, the night before we roll out on
the ships, and I remember looking at her and being like, listen,
I already know what happened last deployment. I could die
doing this. Can you just tell me the truth once
of what happened or whatever? And I she got back

(42:44):
and anyways, so then she's like she freezes, and of
course then she's caught, and I'm like, just tell me
the truth. So she ends up telling me cheated on
my first deployment three hours before I deployed for my
second deployment. So then I have to process all of
this on the ship and I'm sitting there staring at

(43:06):
her disappear into the horizon line, and I'm trying. I'm
trying to process all this. So I remember I went
silent almost for the first three days and say anything
to anyone until my boys were like, hey, dude, we're
gonna have to send you to the shrink if you
don't speak, Like are you good? My boy Michael McDonald

(43:27):
ended up pulling me outside finally getting me to talk.
I'm like, yeah, bro, I was like, I'm good, I'm
good enough. But I remember the worst part was the
next morning I woke up on the ship. I thought
it was a bad dream, and I was like, oh,
I thought it was a bad dream. I just remember
being like, all right, I was ready to deploy. I'm
ready to go. I've done this before. It was like

(43:48):
hurt Locker where like at the end where he's like
I'm good. Like it was like that feeling. And then
I remember being like, man, I had a wild dream
about and then it all sorted just pascad in on
my reality. And I didn't really cry, remember I let
out this like there was like a piece of my
heart died in that moment. Uh. And then I just
went quiet because I just didn't know what that was

(44:08):
the best thing to do, you know, So processing that
was tough.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
Sure, Sure how long of a long of our boat
ride over? Is it say a boat ship? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (44:20):
I know on our way over, if I remember right,
we stopped by We stopped at a few places on
our way there. I he was like two months or
something along those lines. But that meal was super awesome
because we got to go to Singapore as Australia why Guam,
so we stopped at a few of them on the

(44:40):
way there. I remember we stopped on Australia on the
way back because I remember being like I could never
see the US again, and I'd be happy because you know,
Land of the Blonde hair, blue eyed devils. You know.
I got stories about that for days. Oh yeah, man.
We had one guy that was like, I remember them us.
If you try to if you try to stay, we

(45:03):
will find you. We've planned for it, don't freaking do it.
Sure enough, my boy sitting next to me, he's like,
who would do that? He's like, we haven't been home
for you know, a whole deployment. We just want to
go home. And I remember being like, I don't know, man,
but these chicks must be awesome. And sure enough we
get back on the ship and who's missing? The one marine,

(45:23):
My exact boy, and I'll never forget. I saw him
mopping the decks, you know, later on, and he's sitting
and I'm like, what happened? Man, Like you just had
to get back on the boat. All we were all heartbroken, though.
I was like, I can never go to us again.
And sure enough, man, he's like, I just couldn't do it, Corporal,
I just couldn't. God, she was too good to me, Corporal,
She's too good to me. Simple man, you know, he's

(45:46):
just he's nice. God bless him. He's a good marine. Though.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
So this second apployment, how was how did it compare
to your first one. I mean you said you were
you were better prepared, but I mean tempo and and
and where your mission was the second second appointment.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
Yeah, second deployment I think was less action Jackson, But
I remember I think I hit more i ds in
my second one. The big thing we we had this
mission called Pegas's Bridge. That was Harry's thing that we
ended up dealing with On the second mission, I got
rocked by the i D that gave me that out

(46:20):
of body experience, which was the last idea I caught.
I think I think there was more danger more often
on the first deployment, but I dealt with more directly
on the second deployment. I don't know where we were.
We were on the arm of the Euphrates is. All
they told was round the middle of nowhere, and uh,

(46:42):
you know it was. It was much more And the
second deployment was much more desert. First deployment was much
more urban Clarence cities and stuff. Second apployment was Clinton,
you know, things out in the middle of the desert
a lot more. It was way more Waddies, Claren Watties
and stuff like that as well.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
Uh yeah, so was it was it a lot of
a lot of patrols, a lot of you know, seen
seen to be seen that deal. No uh, no high
value targets or anything. The second trip.

Speaker 1 (47:13):
No, no, we weren't doing the high value targets as much.
We did have a lot of ops about this, like
Janaie's house, which there was that incident where a team
of snipers got wrecked and then they got their rifles
and they were doing damage with that and they believed
this Jannaide had something to do with it. So we're
frequently hitting Janete's house. Problem Janade's house is it was

(47:33):
like haunted, so like it was this creepy house with
these like dried up like uh like fruit trees that
they were making wine out of. So it's like all
these like characters in the front yard and you could
see where the where the sniper team got wrecked because
there's still blood everywhere, and Janade's house. Every time we

(47:55):
hit Janete's house. A non conrad bat related injury when
I end up happening and send someone home and weird
to think dude stepping down elevator shafts and getting electrocuted
and stepping wires. It was just weird. That place was
creepy and uh, but yeah, it was. Second deployment was interesting,
but it was it was just different. We're out in

(48:17):
the elements way more to an ops in the middle
of the desert, just bacon under the sun. Second deployment,
I did also get that. Uh. We pushed and we
cleared all the way out to where we were going
to set our firm base up in the middle of
the desert, and then my unit left me and a
recon unit on the other side of my squad and
a recon team to hold this MSR and hold the

(48:40):
place where they were going to come and set up shop.
But within the first like couple hours, the recon dudes,
god bless him, ran over an ied and one of
the gunnies lost his leg, and they all pulled out,
and I remember being like, are they gonna leave some
of them back? So me and my squad of Jundi's
we're out there by ourselves for days, for days. I

(49:06):
don't remember exactly how many days at this moment, but
if I remember right, it may have been it was days.
That's all I'm gonna say. I had to shove my
radio off because I was like, dude, we're not gonna
have enough battery and days, man, And that was one
of the most intense pressure cookers of my entire life
because I had to keep my dudes from like going crazy. Sure,

(49:29):
always pressure was always on. We were sleeping in, like
hiding out in the craters of where mortars had come
and hit that that hill, and we were just sure
that a group of grown men with freaking rifles was
gonna come out there and we're gonna end up in
the fight of our lives, right, and we had we
ran out of supplies. We had to go into the

(49:51):
little like suit area that was at the bottom of
the hill by night and try to scavenge for things
to eat. The one market that we were able to
get into that had like things to survive off of
was a had a chicken ornderneath it where they put
the chickens underneath the Of course chickens were dead, so
it smelled like death in there. And so by day

(50:14):
we would lay down in this crater, uh so no
one could see us down below, and then by night
we could kind of sit up and you know, so
we were just being a crater baking with like one
guy like and then finally we see my unit come back. Tanto,
our oppatun start and come back and we're over here,
like you know, I'm like, I remember turning the radio
back on and being like, I'm so pissed. I'm so pissed.

(50:38):
And I remember my boy, Hebert knew what was somehow
he intuited what was gonna happen. He was one of
my senior marines, and uh, you know, I go and
I'm like, yo, Bert, I'm like, we gotta go up
to the top of this hill. And he's like, I'm
getting my pillow and I'm like, we get your pillow, bro,
we just got to do this out. And he's like,
I'm getting my pillow. I'm like, I'm I'm a junior marine.
To him, I just happen to me in charge. I'm like,

(50:59):
come on, bro, you gonna make me look bad. Dude,
just like listen to me. And he's like, now, Rogers,
I'm getting my pillow and I remember. So he goes
and he gets his pillow and a sleeping bag and
he comes back and I remember, dude, he was the
only one with any of his kids. Good on you, bro,
good on you. But I see Tanto on the road
underneath us, and I'm like, yo, I'm like, uh, tanto,

(51:22):
this is over back. I'm thirsty. And he's like, drink
your piss, Rogers, drink your piss. And I'm like, come on.
I didn't say it on the radio, but I'm just like, no, love, man,
it was this fact then.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
So I was I was, you know, because I've talked
on the show before about our tactics have changed and evolved.
Like you know, when especially the United States or any
any military force gets engaged in something, usually the using
equipment and tactics from the previous war. Right, and so
the previous one to this was probably Bosnia, and you know,

(51:55):
the first Gold four. So from your first apployment to
your second deployment, we're what were you doing things that
was different? I mean, obviously your mission was changed a
little bit, right, you weren't you weren't going door to door,
you were out in the desert. But and uh and
second to that, how was how was the the enemies
tactics changed? Like, were there any differences in the I

(52:17):
D S? I know I E D s over the
over the entire g WATT started out as just like
pressure mines, right, and then what they would do is
they would they would attack convoys so they can get
everybody to dismount and then attack them that way. And
then they got into the remote detonations and things like that.
So did you did you?

Speaker 1 (52:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (52:35):
Did you see any differences in your tactics and the
enemy's tactics and especially in the I D realm from
you first and your second employment.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
I would say in the second deployment, as far as
Marine Corps tactics, we were a mobile assault pituits, we
were a map a map section. So basically they took
all the weapons, marines, machine gunners, rocket dudes like me,
and they put us all in vehicles, your vehicle mount
which was dope because we didn't have to do as
much as much freaking foot patrols, whereas first deployment was

(53:05):
a lot more of that. But we still ended up
being a map section first deployment towards the end, but yeah, man,
second deployment was pretty much all map section stuff, and
so we would roll in after a fight started or
if there was a suspicion of something, and they would
push us to the more dangerous stuff because we had
all the asks, we had all the machine guns, and
all the fights stopped show stopping stuff. So a lot

(53:29):
of it was motorcade, convoy ops, convoy formation, vehicle patrols,
a lot of lpops out farther than the foot the
infantry the riflemen could get to. So that was like
the biggest difference. I mean, even in our bounding and
blocking positions, and like you know, when we got into
a firefight, it would be, you know, we would orient

(53:51):
our machine guns and flank with vehicles and things like that.
Because we're in the desert, we could actually do that, right,
So that was pretty That was relieving. But in an
a in an AO where you're looking at eighty percent
victim initiated IEDs, being in a vehicle is pretty creepy
all the time. You feel like you're in free fault
all the time, you know, and then you catch an

(54:12):
ID and like within forty eight hours you get twenty
four hours off, but within forty eight hours, your butt's
back in the seats doing the dang tee if you
didn't get wrecked. So you know, that's when I that's
when I picked up smoking. Was during my first apployment.
I remember sitting back there after getting wrecked and I'm like, guys,
we got blown up this morning. And then the boys

(54:34):
were like they're like, like no one even knew what
to say to me, you know, because I was usually
the brave one, and I was like, we just gonna
do this again, like we're just we're just gonna do this.
I was like, everyone's fine, Like it's just okay with
you guys, Like no one's got anything to say, and
everyone's just been sitting there just like and I remember
being like, that's why I look at Luciano. I was like, Lucy,

(54:55):
give me a freaking cigarette. Man. Here we freaking go man.
You know. So yeah, as far as enemy tactics, I
wouldn't say so, Like I wasn't in like hardened, hardened
combat and stuff like that, like we had some ticks
and whatnot. But like, I think the worst thing we
were in was at Pegas's Bridge scuffle, where we did

(55:15):
end up actually arguably retreating the base and and and
getting out of that AO after getting wrecked pretty good.
And most of it was guerrilla warfare, you know, units
rolling up on us after we got blown up, but
they got way better with their IED's. I mean, these
guys were hitting. They hit India Company, which was you know,

(55:36):
you know, I love Liman all that, but like India
Company was like the best company in my battalion. These guts,
they got all the best dudes there was, like Boat Company.
It was a boat company, so they got all the like,
you know, like the most athletic build guys. I remember
we would go force on force with India Company. They
would beat us up. I mean, you guys know the truth,
you guys, the guys in my unit, you know what

(55:58):
the truth. Bro. You remember what happened at our Turf
Force base. Don't maybe talk about mar Surf Force Base.
All right? So, and they got, they got, they got,
they got hammered out there, and and a lot of
it was because the i ds that they were were
coming with were more sophisticated, blowing dudes up downhills into
freaking wells and swamps and placing multiple IDs and secondary

(56:21):
i DS on intersections, and you know, so that's where
I almost lost my life.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
So well, you we were an up armored Humby's. Is
that what you're rolling?

Speaker 1 (56:29):
Yeah? I was primarily in the seven ton because I
was the vehicle and I was true commander, So I
you know, I had my squad of marines in the
seven ton. We get out and bring the pain. But
the rest of the motorcade, the other three vehicles were hummers.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
Yeah, okay, so let's let's get into a little bit
if you want to about a couple of the the
incidents for you, I mean, you've mentioned it a couple
of times. You're you're out of body experience and and
getting kind of kind of lit up a little bit.
Talk about that.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
Yeah, we can go into it. No worries at all.
You know, I think Grace got up a justice pretty well.
But I'd say the worst, you know, the worst, well,
I would say, I mean and think we're on Pegas's Bridge, man,
I remember us. You know, this was kind of you know,
we spent the morning ah digging around. We spent the

(57:26):
more so we heard we got the report that India
Company was getting chewed up out there. And I don't
remember like the scuttle butt, like the scuttle butt from
like the Lance Killers and the you know, talking and stuff.
Lance corporal was talking was like they took like forty
casualties overnight out there. If my memory serves me correctly.

(57:47):
We were on a patrol and I found and I
found a weapons cash out there, and we got into
a firefight. Lieutenant Frank ended up pulling us back, you know,
and these guys were pretty quick and they were pretty smart,
like we're you know, we ended up getting My driver
ends up getting out of the vehicle, you know, God

(58:08):
bless him. And he's in the middle of you know,
where he shouldn't have been. He starts taking fire. He's yelling, Roger,
get me out of here. You know. He's my boy,
you know. And I'm in a waddie and we had
just found a good sized weapons cash US fifty there's
like there's US weapons in there, and I want to say,
fifty cows and things like that. And so these dudes

(58:30):
were upset and they're in the they're in the city,
shooting out into the desert towards us. We're all totally exposed,
and not totally because I'm in a waddie and I
remember running out of this waddie and you know, our
vehicles pull up, wop wop. They're shooting into the city there,
and our guys are still in the middle of this field.

(58:55):
My driver's still in the middle of this field, and
we had this one marine. He was always his troublemaker,
always getting in trouble, and he goes boogying. But he
was like an eighteen minute three mile er man, you
know what I'm saying. It was glorious. And I was like, yo,
put that eighteen minute three miles at use. He goes
running all the way back, gets the seven ton, pulls
up in a blocking position, gets my boy out of

(59:16):
the fray, you know, and we're up. We get out
of this waddy. We're on a hill and we're getting
into the firefight. But everybody was spooked because at that time,
you know, there's prosecution and different things going on because
of you know, like I forget what you what incident
had just happened concerning the war, but everybody was scared.

(59:39):
I think he may have been the one where they
were stacking naked bodies.

Speaker 2 (59:42):
At Abu Gram.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
Yeah, Abu Grad. Yeah. So yeah, uh, you know, our
our our our lieutenants streaming at us, and he's just like, hey,
you know, what are you shooting at? Where are they?
And I'm like they're over there, you know, and he's
like where. I'm like right there. And then I remember
getting feeling like you you know, look to you, they're
gonna flank you. And these dudes, sure enough had another

(01:00:05):
blocking position already built, like they had a fighting hole
already built out, like they planned this whole thing out.
And I just remember turning more right there, and I'm
like yelling, and I let off a few rounds. Then
machine gunner ripped that thing around and you see like
an ak and like a boot and stuff flying around

(01:00:26):
behind that berm. But that incident caused us to to
really look at this area that became Veegas's Bridge as
like maybe there's some stuff over there. So sure enough,
you know, we end up they end up running this
up to Pegas's Bridge, you know, as a map session.

(01:00:50):
We get the call. The boys are like, hey, uh uh,
there's there's you know, India Company got wrecked. We're gonna
send in weapons Lima weapons. So we have, you know,
a whole platoon, two motor kates of dudes going down
there to reinforce them. We spend the morning pulling freaking
vehicles out of swamps and wells, like I told you,

(01:01:11):
and picking up pieces from I d's and these guys
had a lot of I DS. EOD was like, hey,
we can't blow all the i ds, so just pick
like what direction you want to go, and we'll like
clear those routes. But we don't have enough demo to
really deal with everything we're finding, so we got to
leave some stuff. So we're trying to do what we

(01:01:33):
do and push into this area. And uh we spend
the morning working cleaning up the mess from last night,
and uh, I my my, my sergeant Tanto calls me
into the calls me into his his his his hummer,
and he's just like, you're Roger's hopping my vic. I'm
gonna tell you what to do with the next stop.

(01:01:53):
Like Roger, that's starting so hop in. And I just
remember getting this feeling like I remember being like, man,
I ain't do something not good. They I don't feel
good about this place. And the weirdest thing about this
place was this was the first time that I had
people being like, hey guys, you know, not for nothing.

(01:02:15):
Seemed like nice kids, you should leave, you know, like
I've never seen that before. Like if you cleared cities overseas,
you know, it's always like, oh a lot of baby
greens in We love you, La La. You know, Laha
haden like everything's cool. And this was the first time
they looked at us like are you are you okay?

(01:02:38):
Like you guys need to get out of here, like
do you not know? You know? And I remember being
kind of like wow, but of course, being like, you know,
young and everything else. I remember being like like yeah, man,
like where they at? You know, we were ready to
be ready, you know, and and it was just dumb
and so but that did catch my attention. I was
a little bit like why y'all, Like you really seem

(01:03:01):
like you genuinely are trying to help me right now,
like you know, like you genuinely seem like you you
are trying to help me. So we just kept pushing
in and sure enough, we're rolling to this next stop sign,
not stop sign, but we're in the middle of the desert.
There's no stop signs, there's no you know, anything like that.
But we're rolling to this next kind of intersection looking thing.

(01:03:22):
And I remember our driver was so afraid because it
was it was you know, for those of you who
have been in in combat, you know that there's like
this frequency like before there's a fight, before there's an ambush,
there's like everyone knows, dude, like everyone knows, like there's
no kids on the street, like you're you all get

(01:03:43):
kind of quiet, like like everyone the world the universe knows,
your bud's getting no firefight. And I just remember he's
freaking out, and you know, he's trying to drive and
he's scared, and he's like kind of getting close to
the vehicle in front of us, and I remember being
like back up, dude, Hey, back up, they're gonna get
blown up. When they get blown up, we're gonna catch

(01:04:06):
secondaries because you're afraid and you're bunching up, you know.
And he's going he can't help himself, and sure enough,
like you know me, and the start and reach over
him like pop cock, you know, and he's just like
a you know, like step out of you know me,
like back up, you know, keep your dispersion. And I
watched this explosion come up out of the ground into

(01:04:30):
the back of the seven ton where I would have
been sitting, and I remember watching the armor of the
seven ton like like eagles wings basically, and then like
just bow out hardcore and then wow, it all sucks
back into the ground and I just get out of
the vehicle as quick as I can. I start running
running over there, and I remember in my stomach just

(01:04:51):
feeling this pit my stomach, and I remember watching my
boy Tinez. You know, he was sitting in the back
where I would have been sitting, and he just like
he just like flops out the back boom like and
you know, seven tons, like six feet up off the ground,
and he's just say he was instinctively trying to get out,
and he just flops out, the back bone, hits the ground,

(01:05:11):
gets up and like he's trying to get to, you know,
get into a position to get ready for an ambush.
And I'm running past him, and all you're thinking is like,
I gotta get to my guys. I gotta see what
the damages are. I gotta get my squat out, I
gotta set security, I gotta get ready for an attack.
We gotta get ready to counter attack. But you're also
thinking we're all gonna die from a secondary blast now

(01:05:34):
because we're out of our vehicles and we're running in
and here we go. So you know, you feel you
feel button naked, like you're in free fall, button naked.
So I'm running in and I'm like, I gotta get Tina,
I gonna get my guys, we're clearing everything as best
we can. No rounds pop off, open up the hum
V and out flops near him and he just is

(01:05:56):
like a ball, a slid basically, and he just like
slims out help him to the ground, you know. And
you know, I remember, you know, he was getting zipped
up and a few of us were staring at him.
I felt like God was like, you know, watch this kid,
like just stare at him. And I remember I was
just like walked onto him. I remember just staring into
his eyes and all I could think was like, man,

(01:06:19):
this is wild man, Like I know this kid better
than his parents know him, you know, like he's been
recreated in the image of the Marine Corps essentially, like
I don't even know he is. I remember being like,
we're like nineteen whatever, We're out here dying right now.
I remember having all these thoughts go through my mind,
and sure enough, as they you know, Tonto starts reading

(01:06:40):
off his kill number. But no, da duh lima da
da da, and uh, you know, we had already checked
him and thought he was deceased. But as we zip
up the body bag, like we see his eyes and
he blinks and so we unzipped that thing, and we
just commenced to just beating the john S a like,

(01:07:01):
we just be just stomping him out, man like, just
trying to keep them you know, you know, just chest compressions,
stirn them rubs, you know, just trying to keep them stimulated.
And he was pretty much non responsive, and then every
once in a while he'd be like they just go
kind of back to get non responsive, and we just
kept on just hammering on him, and you know, the

(01:07:26):
first bird came finally to collect our casualties. We had
casualties that were then we we're gonna air metavac and
then we had casualties that we were gonna send out
via ground, and the first bird came ended up being
the wrong freaking bird. That was a gut punch. They
were like, we're loading up and they're like, hey man,
this bird's not for you. Guys. We gotta get out
of here, and we're like, what are you talking? Like, no,

(01:07:48):
you're taking him, and we get to a fight and
they had to be like, no, we gotta go get
him off, and so we end up being like seriously,
So then we end up having to play to keep
them alive. Game for another, you know, felt like an
eternity second bird Lance loaded them up near them and appears,
and Foster, I want to say, all end up getting
out of there and Narrow ends up surviving. We didn't

(01:08:09):
lose any life in that explosion. And so I'm running
back and forth here just making sure my guys are
setting good positions, setting security for everyone. And I remember
kind of getting that feeling like check for secondaries. And
so I see my boy Wellerman, and I'm like, hey,

(01:08:29):
I'm like, you know, to my whole squad, I'm like,
make sure you guys look for secondaries, you know. And
then I get this feeling, you know, like, hey, there's
a lot of snipers in the region. Make sure you
take a freakingde So I'm like, all right, I'm up.
He sees me, I'm down. I'm up, staying up, saying
move around. I'm up. He sees me I'm down. I'm up.
He sees me I'm down. And then I'm like, all right,
I'm gonna take a knee. And then right next to

(01:08:51):
freaking Wellerman, and I remember that voice, you know, which
I believe is my Lord saving Jesus Christ as the
Holy Spirit. That voice is like, look at your and
I'm like, I look down and there's these two hacksaw
blades and they're just all I can partially see is
like the top end of these two hacks all blades

(01:09:12):
kind of coming out of it. They've been dust being
kicked around them. My feet are all footprints are all
around it. And I remember being like, but the hacks
all blades are laying right next to this massive crater
where the seven ton just got blown up. So I'm like, oh,
and it looked like it had been expended because there's
a massive crater right next to it. And so this

(01:09:33):
is one of the creepiest moments of my entire life.
Right here, this thing's between my legs. I almost kneeled
on it, but I looked down in sikes I heard
this voice and I'm like, hey, and I swear to you, bro,
the world stop spinning. Man. It was a weird moment.
I was like, this is what blew you guys up
right here. And it felt like if there were tumble weeds,

(01:09:54):
that'd have been tumble weeds. Like it felt like the
whole world stopped spinning. And I remember going to push
this thing because I was convinced that it had already
been expended. There's a lot of crazy grip, and I
go to push this thing, and that voice comes back
to me and it's like, don't push that. Pick it
up and check it. And I remember being like why, yeah,

(01:10:17):
like it's already obviously expended. And I was like, yeah,
it's good, it's already you know whatever. And I remember
right before I just like push it and that's with it.
The last second, I was like eh, and I grab
it by the sides and I kind of check it,
start tugging on it, and then I see that it's
still live wired into the ground. EO, dude, yeah, I realized.

(01:10:41):
I'm like, I'm standing on top of of of live munition.
Right then Gulli comes running back and there's those Christmas
tree lights they used to use to make pressure plates
out of where they would get like a string of
Christmas tree lights and they take the plastic out of it,
so it's all metal. If you step on any of
the metal parts, it completes the circuit boom. Sure, as

(01:11:02):
I say, And so he comes running. Just then he
comes running towards me. I'm like, well, I man, you
didn't find this bro you're laying right next to me,
and and then freaking uh Gully comes running up rogerster
toinato beads over there and uh. And then I was like,
we gotta get off the streets. So I just grabbed
my dudes and and and we assault the house. And

(01:11:24):
it was a good thing knowing was in that house,
because I remember we entered that house like it was
a mid scene of freaking platoon, Like it was one
of those things where we got dudes getting blown up.
We are overwhelmed with explosives, we are pissed, and I
remember being so thankful that no one was in that house,
because we hit that house with a rage that I

(01:11:44):
hadn't experienced and up at that point in memory of
court career, and I remember looking at my boy on
the way in there and being like, oh no, it's
in this house, bro, and had the grace of God
and no one was in that house.

Speaker 2 (01:11:57):
And then they're gonna get the angry end of this, yeah, man.

Speaker 1 (01:12:00):
And we we cleared that house and then E O
D did blast analysis on that and it was it
was two one, five, five anti tank shows that would
standing on top of so that's pink mess like that's
the wall sized pieces of caval are like yards away. Yeah, yeah,
wow wow, Wed we ended up pulling out of there.

(01:12:24):
It was another hairy knight firefights. The guys that went
ground grounding back, it took them. They didn't get home
til the next morning. They got so much resistance and
uh and uh we ended up spending the night in
a graveyard. So they leave us alone and uh oh wow,
freaking getting chased by a camel spider in the morning

(01:12:46):
and then we we left. It was but it was.
It was a rough rough, the roughest op that I've ember,
you know, And.

Speaker 2 (01:12:55):
So anything else from from that deployment stand out.

Speaker 1 (01:12:59):
Ah No, I would say, you know, the next major
event would be would be when I got when I
caught the ID, when I caught the final one. I
was in a number of blasts. I was in five
id's and one one mortar attack that ended up canoeing

(01:13:21):
that built the tent that I was in. But that
was the grace of God again, Man, that was the
grace of God again. One of the only reason I
didn't get a freaking vaporized was because my buddy came
up to me, one of my Mexican homies wanted to
tell me a joke, and I was like, bruh, I
gotta work out. I got a freaking I gotta work out, man,
before our next patrol. And he's like, Dude, you gotta

(01:13:42):
hear this rogers. You gotta hear this. You gotta hear
and I'm like, bro, Like, I don't want to hear
your stupid joke. Bro Like, I live with you, dude.
And he's like, he's like, now, you gotta hear this joke.
You gotta hear this joke. And I'm like, dude, like,
I'm going to get my lift in, man, because I
had this whole like pull up bar and had these
sand bags, I had some little gim I made out there.
And he's like, no, you gotta hear this. You gotta
hear this, and I'm like and he was persistent, and

(01:14:04):
I remember being like, this better be the best joke
I've ever heard in my entire life, homie. And I
don't even remember the joke because I woke up at
the other end of the building when it half collapsed
on me in the floor, and I remember being like,
and I started getting up and I felt this burning
in my stomach and I remember being like, Doc, they

(01:14:27):
got me. They got me, Like I knew I wasn't
like dying, but I felt burning in my stomma, so
I was like, maybe I got some strapnil, And I
was like Doc, So it's kind of cracking jokes, but
I was kind of serious, like no, you need to
get over here, but like ah, and I'm like getting up.
And we had to wear flight suits that deployment, which
I really hated. I hated. I wanted to be in
my Marine cor outfit. But the flight suits had these zippers,

(01:14:51):
and the zipper had grabbed a bunch of my pubic
hair and was like I nipping it out slowly because
my launched I had folded up like this while I
went flying, and I probably got lots to get fifteen
to twenty feet. But the kicker is that that mortar
where it landed was right where my pullup bar was,
and it blew out and obliterated the pull up bar

(01:15:15):
and obliterated my entire gym, and wow, I probably would
have been the one guy that died, and I was
I would have been sitting there slick, no body armor,
doing pull ups back there right, So grace of God.
But yeah, man. The other major story is just when
I taught that last ID. Okay, you want to go
into that, Yeah, man, I mean it's it's I think

(01:15:39):
it's probably it's really like that's part of my testimony. Man.
I feel like that was the day that I like
got a new lease on life, you know, because it's just,
you know, it's one of those situations where it's just
you just it's there's things that happened to you in
life that are greater than you, and the tools you

(01:16:01):
end up using to get through them end up carrying
you for the rest of your life if you do
it right. And so yeah, we're uh, we're rolling down
the street on my sett towards the end of my
second deployment and we end up. Uh. I hear Foster

(01:16:22):
come over the radio, and Foster has been through ten
like okay. So in my platoon getting blown up was
like normal, like cats running around five six IDs was
like just the way that we behaved, you know, it's
just what happens. We're a mobile sultplatoone eight percent victiminitiate IDs.
Like I remember one of our boots was like, yeah, corporal,

(01:16:43):
uh if we get blown up and I was like
stop stop. I was like, we're gonna get blown up.
Help me. I was like, so this is what I
need you to do. Think about what you're gonna do
when we get blown up. It's just what happens here.
And he's like and I remember watching a light and
his eyes flicker and he's just like, oh okay, And

(01:17:06):
sure enough, man, comeboo. We get wrecked yet hit by
a freaking motorcycle on the side of the road. And
I remember looking at this motorcycle while we were turning
the corner, and so they were smart. They put it
on the inside of a motor of a turn that
would take our seven ton multiple iterations, like a three
point turn to get around, and there's a cliff on
the other side. And sure enough, man, I remember like

(01:17:29):
sitting there staring at this motorcycle while we're doing all
these like two three point turn things to get around it.
And I remember being like, who just leaves a motorcycle
out here? And I was like, I was like, golly, man.
I was like, aren't people like not afraid of things
getting stolen? And then sure enough, I remember being like,

(01:17:50):
what's that pile behind the tire cabo? You know? I
land back in my seat and I'm like, anyways, you know, uh,
but that boot on that explosion, he was like, you know,
he went to work, he got set security, and he
came running back to me, and he was like, Corporal, Corporal,
I did exactly, it works, you know, I did exactly

(01:18:13):
what I told myself. I rehearsed in my head what
I would do when we get blown up. And you know,
that's one of the things I teach people is like, hey,
you need to be already pregaming in this mental realm
before things happen. Like what's gonna happen if someone walks
in your house while you're sitting in your office. I'm
gonna do this, this, this, this, this, Like if you're
at dinner, what's gonna happen if someone if someone is

(01:18:35):
active right now? You know, because you're doing your mental
rap and your brain will go in that direction. But
so yeah, no, for the for the final explosion in
my life, We're rolling down the street and I was
singing some mischievous song that I had just thought up,
which I won't sing again right now, and sure enough,

(01:18:59):
like you know, I, uh freaking Foster comes over the
radio and he'd been blown up. I watched Foster get
blown up multiple times.

Speaker 2 (01:19:08):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:19:08):
One of the times I watched him get launched like
I mean, he was in the air. From the time
I saw the explosion, I was staring at Foster. Foster
was waving at kids driving by in a truck. Kaboom happens.
I have time to get out of this, lower the bridge,
the ladder at the back of the seven ton, get

(01:19:30):
down and start running to his position. It's the ground,
I mean, it's freaking faster. Man. Anyways, he's got a
sixth sense for getting blown up, and multiple times he
was right. He just could feel it, and he was like,
you know, He's like, comes over the radio like silver Back.

(01:19:51):
I'm gonna I'm just gonna stop him looking around. I
got a bad feeling, and I'm like, Roger, that do
what you gotta do, Brov. And sure enough, man, he
starts to slow the vehicle down. I think if I
think about it hard enough, I can I can feel
maybe like a pressure going through my body. And my

(01:20:15):
boy Hebert, who was sitting across for me, he's the
last thing he says he saw was me like this
on the roof, like with my hands and this look
of like on my face and my feet up by
my head, which I can't do right now. Uh, they
detonate this thing. And I'm sitting in the back of
a seven ton, in the back corner of the seven ton,

(01:20:38):
on a Gatorade water cooler, one of those round ones
that you dump on your coaches having you win, like
you know, and I my next The next thing I
experience in my consciousness is just Foster saying I'm gonna
slow down. And then I'm just in a black room
like I'm just everything's okay, and everything's fine, to the

(01:21:02):
point where it gets my attention to the point where
I'm like, wow, why is everything so like just okay?
You know? And I start trying to figure out like
why I'm there and what I'm doing, and I'm like,
what was I doing? And I remember, you know, for
your audience, this will probably be funny. I remember being

(01:21:24):
able to like call up my thoughts like I knew
that I was able to like just know what I
was thinking. And I remember seeing this. I remember thinking
like what was I thinking? And I saw this screen
cursor that was blinking, and it was like, why is
the water cooler trying to come up my ass, like
that was the last thing that was going through my head.
And I remember being like water cooler, and then I

(01:21:47):
was like what the heck was I doing. Then I
was like, oh, I was on patrol in Iraq. And
I was like, I was on patrol in Iraq. And
then all of a sudden, it started to occur to
me that like, oh my gosh, ah, I died in Iraq,
like I'm dead. I and in this point, like now

(01:22:10):
I'm starting to see my family and I'm starting to
like I was almost like I was visiting everyone. It
was like you know, my my, you know, my mom
or my girlfriend was washing dishes and I was like mom, mom, mom.
And I started apologizing everyone I saw, like I'm so sorry,
I'm so sorry I failed you guys. I died. I failed.
And I go to the next one. I was like,

(01:22:30):
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I failed. I died. I failed.
And I remember visiting like anyone who really cared, who
I really cared about, and apologizing to them. I got
to my dad and it was really hard because my
dad remember he said, you know, just don't die, and
I'm or I was heartbroken, being like dad, I'm so
sorry I failed. And I was really upset at the

(01:22:53):
finality of it, like I was super just probably this
was the deepest sorrow I had ever experience in my
life to be to be to be accurate and honest,
like this sorrow just began to explode from this. It's
just spread the center of my being about how final
it was and how like, dude, I'm like a nineteen

(01:23:15):
year old, twenty year old whatever it is, kid, and
it's over. And I never really lived and I never
experienced like I just wasn't conscious for this experience of life,
you know, like I was just like I wasn't aware
even of the miracle of it. And I and I
apologize to my dad, and then I get to my
grandma and I'm like, Grandma, I'm so sorry, you know

(01:23:37):
I feel And my grandma used to always say this
to me when I was a little boy. She's and
it's not I wish it was tougher, like I wish
the story is about how tough I am, Like how
ba I am. But I just say, you're just saying man,
And he's like my Grandma's like, Byron, you know, if
anything's ever stronger than you. You just you just start

(01:23:58):
praying and you just say, geez, this is Jesus, Jesus.
By the third time, it'll go away, and I just start.
So my buddies make fun of me this day. They're like, yeah,
we heard you in the undercarriage of the dang seven tons.
Oh Jesus jes As you came back, and I am
and I started praying, and then I remember, you know,
I remember saying a prayer. I remember my prayer was

(01:24:21):
just Father, I may never I may never be everything
that you've called me to be. I may never be
good enough. But I promise if you send me back,
I'll go, I said, I will go so hard into pain,
I'll go ham. I'll go as hard as I can
to live the best life I can. And then I
remember waking up back in my body. At some point
I looked at the guy next to me when I

(01:24:42):
wasn't in my body, but I couldn't look down on
my body. And then I woke up in my body,
and I remember not quite being able to move, and
I remember being like, Father, you gotta let me move.
I got a high cat, I can't do this on
my body. And I remember my dad when I was young.
You got shot at point plank range with a shotgun
and yeah, bro, yeah that's that's a whole other thing.

(01:25:02):
And I remember he he told me. I was like, Dad,
how did you not die? Like they declared your dead
all the time, this thing like what happened? And he
was like, son, and my dad's all hard whatever, Son,
when you give up, you die, He's like, I wasn't
gonna give up your daddy, don't give up. And I
remember being like, okay, Dad, and I remember that came

(01:25:23):
back to me. I was like, when you give up,
you die. And then all of a sudden, you know,
after I said that prayer, like father, I can't do
this without my body, Like I felt my body power
up like it was it sounded like an abram sink
like it was like like this, like just like this,
like I just felt myself come back online completely. And
then I remember being like, I'm not gonna die here.

(01:25:44):
And I crawled back up into the seven ton. There's
smoke starting to fill the seven ton from the explosion.
I tried to get out. The ladder was jarred, shut
kicked that freaking thing out, and I remember looking down
the ladder was shut and then I black out. My
homies apparently they're like, hopie, you had crackhead strength. You

(01:26:06):
jumped out, they said, I jumped out like ten fifteen
feet straight out. They're like, and you sprinted. The next
thing I knew, I woke up in a field of
reeds setting security for myself on a knee and I
look back and they're all in the vehicle, and I
was like, get out, get out, let's go. And we
ended up clearing a nearby mechanic shop where we found

(01:26:32):
six mans and by the grace of God, wow, by
the grace of God, didn't end up doing harm to them.
But yeah, that's that's a whole other part of the story.
But we did the right thing with professional warriors.

Speaker 2 (01:26:48):
It was good, right, Well, that's that's that's an amazing story.
That's an amazing story, man.

Speaker 1 (01:26:55):
So such a gift.

Speaker 2 (01:26:57):
So I kind of warned Joe's gonna ask you this question.
So going into Iraq and then now, and I know
you weren't in Afghanistan, but seeing the withdrawal from Afghanistan,
seeing that type of thing, what is your kind of
perception with it, you know, looking at things now with
that hindsight.

Speaker 1 (01:27:19):
Yeah, man, you know, on a lot of it. It's
kind of tough, you know, honestly, I I know what
we're told, and I as you grow up and you
learn how the world works, and you start understanding how,

(01:27:39):
you know, we somebody smarter than all of us, gave
us this planet that has everything we can imagine or
ever need, already given to us for for re even
the idea we come up with and make a million
dollars out of for this next year. It's going to
be free probably, you know what I mean, Like every

(01:28:00):
breath you take is free. You know, you were all
trying to eat organic, self free. But now we have
this system is ramaa get a little weird, you know
what I'm saying. But now but now we have this system,
you know that, Like it's fitted over the top of it,
and like you got to pay for your vegetables, your fruit.
Your doctor's given you prescription meds that are maybe killing you.

(01:28:21):
Your foods may be killing you. Because it's got to
be more fiscally responsible. It's got to make people money.
Your food's got to make people money. So now it's
got preservatives that are killing you, you know, Like and
so my whole paradigm is essentially shifted, and so I
don't I don't really feel like I see a lot
of righteous war going on anymore. And I don't feel
like I see a lot of you know, the whole

(01:28:42):
world's made for money, not mankind anymore. That's made the
image of man now. So you know, I take what
I can from those experiences because I believe that was
my path, and God sent me to those places to
get educated for a reason. That's gonna help me be
come the type of leader and the man that He's
created me to be, and it'll all serve in the end.

(01:29:06):
But now when I see these things, it's like it's
man and man. It's it's missing the mark. It's it's
taken something that once was one of a sacred and
one of the highest levels of service that you can
render to a tribe honorably, that turning it into just
another thing that's designed to uh to a few humans
and bring profit.

Speaker 2 (01:29:27):
Frank, Yeah, that's good. That's good, All right? Was there
any anything else you want I want people to know?

Speaker 1 (01:29:38):
I Mean, my whole life just comes down to I've
been so blessed, you know, Like I'm a little island
boy from the Bahamas, from a third world country. His
mom happened to be from Washington State, signed up up here,
and then, you know, by the grace of God, ended
up joining the Marine Corps, and then, by the grace
of God, become an entrepreneur, you know. And and so

(01:30:02):
the only thing I can give you is what I've
been given and what has made the difference in my life.
And that's just been you know, to not have a
really my earthly dad, mean around, and so I've always
just looked at my heavenly Father, and you know, Jesus
Christ has been my Lord and saving my whole life,
and that makes has made all the difference. And that's

(01:30:23):
what's gotten me through the darkest times, being blown up
multiple times, still being a functioning member of society, you know,
having multiple businesses that are that are actually, by the
grace of God, quite successful, being able to create multiple
brands because I'm always listening for what He wants me
to do, and being able to help a lot of people,

(01:30:44):
like I never thought my life would be positive and
impactful really, you know what I mean, Being able to
have a family and create things that I've kind of
impacted the world, and really impacted my industry, and so
you know, looking to him as my heavenly father has
literally made all my all the difference. And so if I,
you know, getting knighted at age thirty nine or whatever

(01:31:04):
I get out of here, you know, Like so if
I was gonna say one thing, I just say I
if you look at me, I hope that you see
what one imperfect dude, while I call myself a dude
come do pretty much down here in California for the Bomas.
But what imperfect man can do by the grace of God,
if you just give your imperfection and give your best
to the altar of progress, you know, and then working

(01:31:27):
on what he wants you to do, whatever that is,
to see what you can see what one imperfect man
can do over the course of a lifetime living that way.

Speaker 2 (01:31:36):
That's awesome. That's awesome. Thank you, all right, sir, Well,
I appreciate we I told you an hour. It goes
by quick, so we've been talking a little more than
an hour. So I appreciate it. I appreciate you coming on,
appreciate you. Appreciate you sharing you know everything, Wess and
all right, we'll stay in touch. Hang on, Mulla we'll

(01:31:57):
get this tin care of.

Speaker 1 (01:31:59):
Thank you, God bless Never fire,

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