Barbell Shrugged - Training for the Most Elite Warriors on the Planet - USAF Special Operations w/ Lt. Col. Kerns - Barbell Shrugged — Barbell Shrugged #423

Episode Date: October 30, 2019

The Airmen who make up Air Force Special Ops are the most specialized warriors on the planet. They are the ones other special forces look to when the mission calls for their unique skills and fearless commitment. A job for the mentally tough and physically strong, these elite heroes go where others won’t because they’re trained to do what others can’t. Learn more at http://airforce.com/specialops   Lt. Col. Heath J. Kerns is the Commander, 330th Recruiting Squadron, Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas. He leads Special Operations Recruiters to scout, develop and guide future Special Warfare Airmen to their combat calling. The 330th Recruiting Squadron is the largest squadron within Air Force Recruiting Service and its mission spans the entire globe.   Lieutenant Colonel Kerns grew up in Kansas City, Missouri and graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in June 2004. He is the second Air Force officer to ever graduate the Brazilian Army Jungle Warfare course and holds advanced qualifications as a military freefall parachutist, combat scuba diver, and air traffic controller. Lieutenant Colonel Kerns served two tours as a Joint Terminal Attack Controller in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom and deployed extensively throughout Southern Command, Pacific Command, and Africa Command in support of Special Operations.   In this episode of Barbell Shrugged, Anders Varner and Doug Larson discuss:  The strength training and performance team in charge of preparing the USAF Special Operations units  Choosing to serve and what it means to put the mission first  Training to be combat ready  Water confidence and training in the most intense environments  What it means to trust your brothers in life and death situations  And more…   Anders Varner on Instagram   Doug Larson on Instagram   20 REP BACK SQUAT PROGRAM   _______________________________ Please Support Our Sponsors   US Air Force Special Operations - http://airforce.com/specialops   Savage Barbell Apparel - Save 25% on your first order using the code “SHRUGGED”   Organifi - Save 20% using code: “Shrugged” at organifi.com/shrugged   WHOOP - Save $30 on 12 or 18 month membership plan using code “SHRUGGED” at checkout  _______________________________ One Ton Challenge    Find your 1rm in the snatch, clean, jerk, squat, dead, bench.    Add them up to find your One Ton Total.    The goal is 2,000 pounds for men and 1,200 for women.    “What is the One Ton Challenge”   “How Strong is Strong Enough”   “How do I Start the One Ton Challenge”   ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Show notes at: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/bbs-airforce -----------------------------------------------------------------------   ► Subscribe to Barbell Shrugged's Channel Here ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/barbellshruggedpodcast TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

Lieutenant Colonel Kearns joins us today from the U.S. Air Force Special Operations. Friends, I don't know a whole ton about the U.S. Air Force Special Operations. That's until I met Lieutenant Colonel Kearns at the Spartan World Championships, and we hiked a 10-kilometer mountain together. On top of that, we did three shows, we shot a ton of footage, worked out with these guys, and if there's one place that I can build some trust and really get to know what people are up, what they're like in real life, it's in the gym. And I met a ton of people in the Air Force. The Special Operations Unit is top notch. And there's an incredible demand right now for people that are looking to enter into Special

Ops. The U.S. Air Force has three separate places that you can go inside their special operations. There's combat controller in charge of air traffic control, airfield establishment, special tactics. Para rescues. Those are the PJs that you hear about. That's like the most elite of the most elite. Search and rescue. They're jumping out of planes. Combat medical.

They're jumping into bad places. Special tactics. These guys literally know everything. And then special reconnaissance, global battle space access, intelligence, surveillance, and special tactics. And then there's the tactical air control party. That's airstrike targeting, close air support, and special tactics. The U.S. Air Force Special Operations is the most elite of the most elite warriors on this planet. These guys get sent into the gnarliest situations. They come out alive, and for the most part, no one knows about them because there's a code of silence, and we are very lucky today to be joined by Lieutenant Colonel Kearns. It took me almost twisting his arm all the way off for him to tell me all the

good stories, but it's incredibly cool that they're coming out and actually getting to tell the stories of what the airmen are up to. Air Force Special Operations, like I said, the most specialized warriors on the planet, they're the ones that all of the other special forces look up to. When a mission calls for unique skills, fearless commitment, and mental toughness, the elite heroes go where others won't because they're trained to do what others cannot. Lieutenant Colonel Kearns was incredibly impressive. I really enjoyed hanging out with him. If I can spend five hours hiking on a mountain with somebody, up 12,000 foot, back down through obstacles,

doing the Spartan World Championship with somebody and come out the other side, really feeling like I have a friend and a really good understanding of what the use of us air force special operations units do. I think that everybody should head over to airforce.com forward slash special ops right now. I think that there is a giant need with the health of our country to find people that are dedicated to serving, that are mentally tough, that are physically fit, and are looking to live

an incredible life that's filled with experience, developing skills, and serving your country. Airforce.com forward slash special ops. I highly recommend you go and check it out. If serving has ever been something you have thought of Lieutenant Colonel Kearns, top notch human being. I've said it multiple times already, and I highly recommend you going over to airforce.com forward slash special ops. I really enjoyed this conversation. I can't wait to work with these guys in the future. And there is just a massive space right now for fit driven people that like to train people that like to test themselves to get into the air force special operations so get over to us air force or airforce.com forward slash special ops and see how you can get involved

today lieutenant colonel curtains into the show. Let's go. Love good stories. Welcome to Barbell Shrugged. My name is Anders Varner. That's Doug Larson on my left. Lieutenant Colonel Kearns from the U.S. Air Force. Dude, this is so cool. We met you last year. I have to tell you a funny story about meeting you. Last year, we did a two-hour-long podcast outside. We don't ever drink on the show, and I say drink very loosely. We had two beers over a two-hour period, which equates to zero in blood alcohol content. However, we were freezing our butts off outside talking to Hunt McIntyre, I just called him by his Instagram handle, Hunter McIntyre,

because he went to the CrossFit Games and all this stuff this year, and he was training for it, making a big push. And we hadn't eaten in like five hours when we came in. And I think Joe was saying, I was like, you guys have to meet. And we were like, we have to eat. I can't talk right now. But you had so many good stories, and you were so amped on everything that's going on in the Air Force. So I'm really stoked that we actually get to sit down and make this thing legit.

Let's do it. So you rolled all the way in where it's Spartan. I have to – the Spartan World Media Fest. Bring it up closer to your face. This is the part where Doug touches. Oh, here you go. This is the real problem. There it is.

Spartan World Media Fest here. We're actually at our Airbnb. This is the coolest part about having the Airbnb is we get to invite all the people here. We're contributing to the Media Fest, yet we're taking people away. That's right. You rolled in. What did you see going on? Are you running the race with us tomorrow?

I am, yes. That's pretty exciting stuff. Yeah. The best way to really make those enjoyable is to not train for them very well. Yeah. And then it's just even more fun. I think spending a lot of time on the road road we were just talking about how you barely know where home is yeah travel a lot train a little and you got it yeah um tell me a little bit about what's

going on in the air force um special ops specifically don't we all at some point get into fitness a little bit because we see special ops movies i totally did like i'm gonna do a thousand push-ups um what what's uh what brought you into taking this path in life yeah uh well it was it was a bit just uh kind of always finding that that toughest road um pretty much every every fork in the road every opportunity um we'll just try and find what the what the hardest way to go was. And I just always saw that when I was challenged beyond my abilities that I had to rise up, I had to overcome, I had to set priorities.

I had to, you know, often when it was way too much, and that was often when I felt God's hand kind of pushing me through these tough things. So it was pretty much every major life decision was kind of like, okay, what's the suckiest thing I can see what's the toughest thing i can imagine and and let's give it a shot and if i can you know push through that then i'll get better and keep looking for that next thing did this come up as when you were a kid it did yeah because i felt like i was just playing sports on the front yard you're looking for really hard stuff to do yeah i i mean way young a friend and i were just you know we would go like bouldering

and stuff it's like yeah where's the easy okay let's let's do the toughest way yeah i just yeah and fall and where'd you grow up back up again uh all over but not not a military brat as they call it um missouri florida nebraska uh spain for a couple years cool pretty well around the desire to to kind of take the hard road or the toughest path was that like a a competitive thing where like you wanted to just take the hard road and kind of just show everyone you could do it like to kind of like raise yourself up and let other people know that like you're a bad motherfucker or was that like what was the underlying drive for always picking the hard road yeah it's kind of a weird thing um because often often people say like you know oh you know you got to be a you've got to be a meteor. You've got to be the type A personality.

You've got to be the toughest in the room. It tells everybody you're the toughest in the room. And I thought that was the model. I thought I had to be that. So I was always drawn to these things but not so much in the competitive realm. The competition wasn't against the other people. It was against myself. And so even early in my career, I thought, you know, every model was like, you got

to be in charge and telling, you know, always, you know, fighting for that. Um, and I'm just like, man, I don't, I don't have that drive against other people. Like, I don't have to feel like I'm crushing somebody else. It's just against myself. Like how, how tough can I be? Which like I loved, uh, I loved wrestling. Um, cause it was, it was an awesome team sport and everyone was fighting together, but then it came down to to it was just you and how hard you trained. And it was just that single accountability of knowing that everything you did to prepare for it was everything you brought to that mat. Yeah. The hard work that goes into wrestling, is that something that's kind of been with you your whole life?

That's a serious grind for a sport. You're basically operating at the highest athletic potential that you have and starving yourself at the same time. Yeah. I mean, you're chasing that difficulty and the bouldering and all that, but I guess coming out of high school, you know, is that something you looked for in trying to pick a path? Yeah, absolutely.

And, I mean, just like I said, I had a love hate relationship with wrestling and I feel like everybody does. And I was like, I hate everything about wrestling. And I, I'm not really sure what the love part was, but I just kept doing it. There was love somewhere. It's just, yeah, it was that, yeah, that, that, that challenge that always went through. And, uh, and so it just, uh, it kind of unfolded, you know, every step of the way. Um, I went to the air force, United States air force Academy. Um, cause that was by far the toughest education I could ever, you know, see. And I knew there was no way I was smart enough to get into it. And so it was like, all right, you know, let, there's a lot of colleges to chew

from. Clearly I can't make it, make it at that one. So if, if I can, and that's, you know, there's a, there's a higher, a higher hand on my life pushing me through that. And then I struggled every day. I felt like an idiot every single day. I mean, my head just crushed to the ground under all the academics and just not smart enough to push through, but just kept grinding through it. And then after that, then I was like, okay, now what? And then that's when I first found out about Special Operations. I mean, didn't even know about it until I first saw that one one you know red beret walking by i was like oh who's that guy

did you always feel a desire to serve uh i had it in my my mind a little bit but it was um it was it was kind of interesting it wasn't it wasn't the passion i mean it wasn't like a driving passion um you know often you know some people say it was like that nine 11 moment. Um, but for me, it was, it was really just kind of seeking that, the, that best path, that most difficult thing. And, and then, you know, uh, luckily that was, you know, recognizing that was serving, serving my country and those opportunities. Why did you choose the air force? There's, there's clearly multiple options and multiple paths that you could take, but choosing the air force. Yeah. Um, there's, you know Force. Yeah. I put a lot of thought to many things in my life, and sometimes it's just luck and

circumstance. I was actually, a mentor sent me his graduation announcement to the Air Force Academy and said, wow, that's so cool. Based just on that, I know where I want to go to school. And he gave me good advice. He said, actually, it needs to be based on what the girl to guy ratio is of the college, how cool the mascot is, things like that. That's what I chose. He said, actually, it needs to be based on, you know, what the girl to guy ratio is of the college, how cool the mascot is, things like that. That's what I chose. That was my choice, 70-30. Yeah.

60-40. Those are good numbers. He said, in which case, this is the wrong choice. But, again, that's where I just started learning about the challenge and fighting through those things. Where is the college at? Colorado Springs. Gotcha. What is a little bit of that? I actually don't know anything really about going to school specifically to serve. What does the academy look

like? Yeah. So there's service academies for every branch. Yeah. And you have to get a congressional nomination to go there. That was the problem the problem yeah that's why it didn't happen right yeah uh you get like a presidential nomination or congressional um and then uh and then you also uh you can play sports as well and sometimes um if your academics are good enough and then they want you on sports and they kind of sponsor you in that way um so yeah nice did you play sports there i did yeah i uh my My freshman year I played football, and then I walked on the lacrosse team. Sweet. And I did that until I got too many concussions,

and they said stop getting hit in the head or you can't commission to be an officer. So I said, okay, I didn't come here for this, so I'll switch to powerlifting. Going from wrestling to football is not an easy transition. What did your training look like back in the day? Because I guess wrestling is just grueling, grinding. I love saying starving yourself because it's kind of like that, but also kind of not. But then going into football, you're a pretty thick dude right now.

I imagine you look more like today than you did wrestler guy when you were playing football. Yeah, I was fortunate. I had a good three other guys on my team, so I didn't have to cut weight too much. But, yeah, I played. I was a three-sport varsity athlete since I was a freshman. So I just went through one season to the next,

and the endurance just helped push you through each sport to the next. Was Alan Hendrick your strength coach when you were playing football? Yeah, yeah. Look at that. Doug Larson dropping names. Damn. What was that like? What was training for football under Alan like?

Because I have a lot of respect for that guy. I used to look over his programs growing up and whatnot. Yeah. Just incredible challenge. Just like everything else up there. Just the professionalism that you had to have because you know just with the the academics that were incredibly tough um and then you know so your your brain your brains are kind of beat to to mush and then going like be able to cross that line and then go down and just just be all about

the sport and kind of let all those uh kind of like the military side of things you know the academics but to the side and just just you know go know, go hit people. I mean, you're, you're in college, but you're also in the military kind of at the same time. Like, is there, is there required, um, physical readiness test type of thing, like for people that are, are in the Air Force Academy and like, is it required training that you have to do? This is mostly like a fitness, strength, conditioning podcast. Like what's the training look like for people that are in at the Air Force Academy? Yeah. So there's, um, anyone in the military has a, has a regular physical fitness test that they have to take. Um, so at the Air Force Academy? Yeah, so there's anyone in the military has a regular physical fitness test that they have to take. So at the Air Force Academy, that test was a little tougher

than the average Air Force test. So it's just calisthenics and run pretty much. But you also add the altitude up there, 6,000, 7,000 feet. So your body definitely has to adapt to that air up there or the lack of air up there um seven you know six thousand seven thousand feet um so it's a it's a your body definitely has to adapt to that air up there yeah or the lack of air up there do you know if that's changing evolving i know a lot of the fitness stuff that the military does is has evolved quite a bit over the last like five or ten years with the rise of crossfit functional fitness and all that uh is it still just mostly running and calisthenics these days actually there's i mean

there's really crazy changes and i mean they they're, they're, they're drastically going on right now. Um, so that was something, so, you know, going through the training for special operations in the air force, um, we were always good at finding that toughest one out of a hundred. Um, but when you need more than, you know, when you need 50, uh, you got to figure out a better way to do it. Um, so the, the crucible, you know, that, that challenge absolutely always has to be there. But, but kind of coming to terms of recognizing that, you know, there is that, that elite, you know, very rare few that will survive absolutely anything almost under any condition. But then there's, there's us that are on the cusp, you know, that it takes a life circumstances kind of can push you one way or the other. And that's that, that envelope that, that, that training really pays off for.

So just the air force recognizing, you know, the school of hard knocks, like we can do better than that. So you still have that, that really tough element, but now they can get scientific about it. So actually one of the major revamps that we're doing just to recognize we need to try and get more folks capable to go through this, you know, rigorous training was basically like giving them every opportunity we can to give them that opportunity to succeed. So there's a preparatory course after basic training. It's literally the Olympic level coaches, former Olymp former olympians uh come to to serve and and kind of take care of these these young military guys as they're first starting out their their career in special operations um so they have uh there's actually like a bandolier of sensors

that they wear at all times so like 12 different sensors on you um tracking you know your your sleep tracking your heart rate talking your your pers your perspiration, your heat. Um, and, and it's running real time to, uh, some, some contractors that have like mobile computers. So as guys are out doing a heavy ruck, you know, big, big, heavy backpacks going off in the, into the wilderness, there's a, there's a guy on a truck driving behind with a computer that has every single student with like a pie, a pie graph that's showing like how hard they're putting out. And so you can actually like, you can see, you know, there's, there is no sandbagging because you're literally have every sensor on you knowing exactly how tough you are. So you can, you can go there and you see, you know, there's, they're, they're all crushing weight, uh, out on, you know, awesome, you know, PT, uh, pit. And you can see like,

okay, Oh, where's this, there's this dude in the green, like pure green. What in the world is this guy doing? And so you find him and you see him and he's kind of like sneaking in the quarter and just like, and he, you know, he's like acting all, you know, like, Hey bro, you're not like, we see your heart rate. You're a, you're not there. And then the other guy just, you know, just crushing it and, you know, the, the, you know, getting in the red and just, and so like over time, the crazy thing is, um, so we were just all these, um, taking all these schematics, all these data points the whole way through and then recognizing what's the most important, uh, one of the most determinants to success is, is basically the body's ability to

bounce back. Um, and so that's like when you first start out, guys get crushed and then it takes days, you know, you watch until you can see their, you know, their stats come all the way back up. Um, whereas by the end of it, it's literally, I mean, you smash them and then they come back a few hours later and then just hit it again. And that's that resiliency. I mean, down to like the, you know, cellular level that your body has to be able to endure. When you're going through that training, that's kind of like the training. They're making it hell for you. What does the training look like kind of in your normal day-to-day being an airman though? Yeah, well, that's the other awesome part is we, with, you know, the Vance the last,

you know, 10 years have come light speed. So there's a thing called a preservation of the force and family. So it's an initiative that basically looks at recognizing that we are, they call them human weapon systems. So the way you'd have a fancy fighter jet, F-22, millions of dollars you spend into it, that maintenance is an absolute vital part of that. So just recognizing that humans are these awesome molecular machines that we've invested a lot of time and energy into that we need to maintain. So the way they maintain it is with, um, uh, flight surgeons, uh, clinical social workers, operational psychologists, uh, chaplains, um, uh, strength coaches, athletic trainers, and that, that, that suite of, of, uh, professionals is just there to

take care of our special warfare operators. And so, you know, it's not, it's not like, what do I feel like today? I want to do bench again. It's like you have a very, you know, it's not like, oh, what do I feel like today? Oh, I'm going to do bench again. It's like you have a very, you know, scripted out system with, you know, some of the very, like, hungry, awesome strength coaches that are taking you through and growing that. Yeah, and they're there if you're banged up and you're injured to, like, switch out the movements and give you different programming and totally take the day off. Yeah.

Which even saying that to someone who's, like, a special operations person, oh, you seem kind of tired. Why don't you just take the day off? It seems kind of weird, but it's a good idea. Absolutely. Yeah, they even have these bands, these fitness bands, that you're supposed to wear 24-7. And so your strength coach is like seeing.

What are those bands? I forget which brand it is. It doesn't have a readout. I can get you that name later. Is it one of these? Yeah. Whoop. We work with them. They're awesome. We like them. it doesn't have a readout I can get you that name later is it one of these? yeah we work with them we're friends with those guys

we like them we've been up multiple times we can tell you a lot about Whoop they're awesome if you go in there it looks like Facebook for recovery so we're fitness people

we're fitness people CEO's at going to be at dinner tonight I'd imagine so we can introduce you if you'd like we love those things so guys will like

you'll get benched basically. If you didn't sleep, if you weren't doing what you needed to to take care of your body to get ready for that next day, the strength coach will say, you don't get the alpha workout. You're going to get a Charlie because, you know, I get it, man. You're really busy. You're preparing for a big brief, but your body is not going to respond to the gains, so you have to take a break.

And so, like, you know what I mean? it's like guys are benched and they know it you know it's actually like every aspect of this affects you know that's how you perform and we know that now i feel like you told that to someone that was in the military like 40 50 years ago like oh yeah they really get honest about getting enough sleep they'd be like what are you talking about right total opposite yeah i feel like uh you know that special operations the unit it it structures itself in the same way like an athletic department does who is i guess what does that structure look like is there like a guy at the top that says here's our here's the mission here's the goals and then it all gets filtered to kind of the the smes for each individual piece yeah yeah we have a network of all of our, at least on the special tactics,

that's one kind of element to our Air Force Special Operations. All their strength coaches, they all work together under the same contract. So they do now have a big boss at the headquarters that helps them work. And they have similar certifications, and they all hold them to a standard. And then that strength coach then gives that to all the operators um and they they tailor workouts you know because you could say hey i want to i want to do spartan races um so that they can tailor that workout for you and i mean we're all you know keeping that that base level fitness um but then you know recognizing hey this guy wants to run a lot

longer okay i'll prep you for that um so it's just i mean absolutely tailored you know professional yeah on top of just general gpp training strength conditioning being healthy being strong um where is kind of like the craziest specialized training taking you i know that there's like you guys go into some hairy situations that you can't just prepare for here in beautiful tahoe like this isn't oh it's so nice up here. Like, this should be, like, when we're in battle. Where has this kind of taken you, and, like, what are some of the more intense or interesting skills you've had to learn where you're taking the strength and conditioning and, like, putting it into a real-life scenario?

That was totally, like, the tell me a great story question. Yeah, I want to hear good stuff. Well, I have a friend that is uh he was like he was like uh yeah if we want to learn how to you know ski because we're going to be really cold and we're might save our lives like we have to go we have to go learn how to alpine ski and i'm like oh that's so awesome i want to go yeah yeah absolutely i mean you trade you have to train for every terrain eloquently asked. Totally.

You can also say, hey, just tell me your coolest war story. Yeah. No, not even the war story. I like the training stories. Yeah, yeah. No worries. I got it. So I was actually just talking to a Silver Star recipient,

and he was telling me, you know, so this is, sorry, send the war story apart. That's fine, too. That's cool, too. me you know uh so this sorry send the war story apart but that's fine too yeah so he was telling me he got hit and uh and he was you know he said the the you know time stopped and all of a sudden the you know the ground came smashing into him and you know he hit down and then he realized you know that then he was trying to get back up and realized that his legs were you know pretty pretty hard hit uh but then you know he can after he recognized he looked it's okay yeah i don't want to look at that anymore so he just kept fighting so his friends, you know, he can, after he recognized, he looked and he's okay. Yeah. I don't want to look at that anymore. So he just kept fighting. So his friends were, you know,

working on his legs while he continued to fight and then, you know, do the, the, uh, close air support that, that brought in, you know, all the, the fighters and the bomber aircraft to be able to, to, to push off the ambush. Um, so as he's like fighting through that, that was just my question. You're like, you know, that that's never, obviously we never injure, you know, guys like, so where, you know, where do we get that? And, and the crazy thing is's never, obviously, we never injure, you know, guys. Like, so where do we get that? And the crazy thing is it's, I guess, asymmetric training, you know, when it comes to it. So one of the things that's really big to Air Force Special Operations

is water confidence. And so, like, you know, there's always, like, you know, well, I'm not fighting in the ocean right now. Why are we putting each other through such stress? But basically, I mean i mean like the human desire to breathe is a very strong you need air like yeah definitely needed yeah it's pretty important yeah and so that's like the most instant feedback you know where you you can i mean and that it's you need it every few seconds it's not like food you know these things you can kind of push off for

a while so that need for air is a desperate desperate thing um so training your body to to come to to come to terms with recognizing that the body doesn't always get what it's once, you know, sometimes the mind has to overcome it. And so the best way to do that is in water confidence. Um, so there's all kinds of really painful, just different drills that we do. Um, one of them is buddy breathing. So it's, uh, you and, you and a buddy lock arms and your forehead to forehead and you're passing a snorkel back and forth. And every time you pass it, it fills with water, so you have to, when you get it, you clear it, and you blow out, and then you can take a breath.

Super simple, right? But then you get attacked. Until someone punches you underwater. So then cadres start mangling you and pushing you back together and capping your breath, and so you blow out air, and then they cap it, and you can't breathe again, and they're going to hold their hand until you pass it to your buddy, you know, seeing if you can be altruistic and like, okay, it's his term, you know, take care of, take care of my friend. And so like that can just get, I mean, your heart rates start screaming

high. You're voraciously just tearing through oxygen and you're not getting any more. And so you're having to come into terms with like, you know, okay, can I freak out? What do I, you know, can I, uh, how do you respond? And so it's, it's like over time you, you, you learn to master your body and control that even something is as core and essential as air that you train your body to, to like, I have to have a higher purpose. I have to understand there's more important things than everything. My body is screaming at me right now. And so even get, obviously this isn't the point, but but you get guys that will they call them shallow water blackouts

so they will go underwater as far as they can until the point where they stop they don't breathe and they pass out um so there's safeties and you know everyone that you know to to and you're constantly monitored so you're not supposed to take it to that point you're supposed to recognize the point you know two seconds before that and then you know be supposed to take it to that point. You're supposed to recognize the point, you know, two seconds before that and then, you know, be efficient to make it through. But all that just like trains your body to be able. So, I mean, if you can train a human to even not breathe, that type of resiliency and mental mastery can come through really painful situations and everything else. Is that also teaching you how to stay calm under extreme stress? Like so you're all of a sudden

just firefight breaks out and you're just like totally ambushed. Like you're not just like fucking tunnel vision freaking out. Like you're able to like slow everything down a little bit, assess the situation and not have a panic attack. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, that's, that's the other crazy thing is, uh, you spend so long training and prepping for this day and going through all this, you know, all this, you know, water, confidence, all these things, that finally the first time I got shot at, I was excited. Like, it was like. I'm ready for this.

It's finally happening. That guy tried to kill me. And, I mean, it's, you know, so surreal. You're like, oh, it's on. Okay, all right, yeah, no, on to do it. Let's do it. You know, and obviously that situation was more ben more benign you know than than other you know intense ones so there's definitely fear on the battlefield no doubt but but sometimes you know

just because you've rehearsed it and practiced so many times over and over that finally when it's your opportunity to to do what you've been trained to do for so many years you're just you rise up and you're ready for it was there a single single piece of the training that you struggled with a lot? I imagine underwater training for many people is probably the hardest part, just because we're on land 99% of our day, and you get into water and it gets freaky. Yeah, yeah. So I've always been a bigger dude, and, you know, so there'd be some guys coming straight out of high school, you know, so 18 year old, you know, 140 pounders, you know, just running circles around me and I was, you know, 200 pound Bubba, you know, so I'm already, I already have a rucksack on without having anything

on. So, uh, running was always a challenge for me. So I, I had to, I had to train twice, twice as hard to, to keep up. Um, so I had, I had failed. Uh, so I was going through the pre scuba where you-scuba where you do the bulk of all the water confidence stuff. And I failed my six-mile run by three seconds. And that meant I had to go all over again, start the whole course all over again.

It was a seven-minute mile. So seven-minute mile for six miles. That miles that's the problem yeah you got to do six of them right yeah so i failed and i had to start all the way over again so running was hard and then i mean that's like that's the biggest you know kick in the stomach you know just have to start all over and that was that was by far the worst training in the pipeline because you're doing you know uh water confidence things like that and then i had one day um where i just went bad like i i swore you know i was taking a breathful of trying to breath full air and i got a breath full of water and you know start coughing and sputtering and then they then you know sharks in the water they smell blood

and so then all the cadres start attacking you and so then i lost my mind i was just you know and like scrambling and you know letting and like scrambling and, you know, letting go of my buddy, which is, you know, Cardinal sin. And, you know, just like trying to scramble anywhere, you know, and then and then they're just higher and higher heart rate. And then there's no way there's no I mean, if you had pure 100 percent oxygen, you still would freak out on it. So I had a horrible day and I had to go. You know, then the next day was a whole nother day of training. And so like that's learned such a huge, lesson on fear because the i was just deathly afraid of going back into that again uh where you know i was like oh man i failed how am i gonna it's gonna get even harder tomorrow you know and just like the whole world just mounts up on you all at

once it's not that next second it's that you know the next year if i fail this again i'll have to do this course all over again i'll fail i'll get you know booted all these things and so like as I was dealing with that fear I was trying to like assuage myself with normal you know coping techniques like oh it won't be that bad it's okay there's a medic you know you'll be fine and and I kind of came to the realization like wait a minute like I'm I'm scared now but but I don't actually have to be but one day I will be scared one day there will be people trying to kill me yeah and. And, and what am I going to do then? Am I going to say, Oh no,

he doesn't really want to kill me. There's a medic on the other side of the pool. Nope. Nope. This is real life. It'll be safe. You know, I can,

I can call knock it off and go home. Like, no, it's, it's going to be, it will be a life and death battle. Friends. I want to thank our sponsors of today's show.

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18 month subscription. Make sure you're checking your HRV. Make sure you're seeing what you're going to save 30 or for the shrugged audience, you're going to save $30 on a 12 or 18 month subscription. Make sure you're checking your HRV. Make sure you're seeing what your resting heart rate is. There's a daily strain calculator in there. So you can see exactly how much stress your body is under throughout the day. And you can use all that information to go in to the gym with an actual plan on the intensity, the volume that you should be using to match your recovery. It's a recovery tool and everybody needs better recovery. So get over to whoop.com, use the coupon code shrug to save $30 on a 12 or 18 month membership. And we're going to get back to the show with Lieutenant Colonel Kearns. And so that was where I was like, man, I got to embrace this fear. I got man, I got to embrace this fear.

I got to accept this fear. I understand that this is real and I'm scared to death. And that's it. Let's do it. You know, like there's, I can't, I'm not going to run away from it. I'm not going to hide from it. I'm going to use the fear for what it is to make me sharper and just, you know, take that next second at a time. And so, I mean, that's so much during the training is it's not the next year.

It's not the next day. It's not the next day. It's just this next minute. You know, do everything you can to get through this, you know, to that next rest or whatever it is, that next step to just, you know, keep pushing through and don't let the whole mountain overwhelm you. It's a really crazy thing because you have to develop a you're confronting fear and then building a relationship with it because no matter what you do in training, you have to prepare yourself that in the real world it's going to be worse yeah like how i guess how do you kind of rationalize that and how do you grow the confidence in yourself to know no matter what i'm doing in practice right now there's real lives at stake on the battlefield yeah i mean i think just way i mean the the little core lessons that you, that you're taught, you know, every, every one of these exercises is, um, is focusing on that, the, the know, get out of yourself. Cause like so much of a human suffering is, is, is, uh, like it just, it, it brings your tunnel vision, just like brings you into yourself and

your own individual suck fest. And as you, like you become overwhelmed by your emotions and your feelings and your pain and your suffering, and you can lose sight of everything else around you. And, and so it's like those moments, you've got to take those, those breaths, open up the aperture and then look, there's a dude right next to you and he's going through the exact same thing. And maybe he actually needs you more, you know, maybe he's in a worse spot. So then like reaching out, taking care of him, then you're like, okay, my problems aren't that big a deal. You know? And it's just that, that, that, okay. What's that next concrete action. That next thing I can do the finite action, you know, instead of just being overwhelmed by,

ah, I don't know where to go or what to do. just like okay concrete okay uh he needs help all right let's help him out yeah one step at a time where that's a that's also an interesting skill to be able to understand like what is a necessity um what is the next actionable thing that you can be doing what i guess in the training process is that in a classroom of you know there's a million options and you one of the options is freak out yeah be terrified and that's gonna end up poorly um is there like a classroom side of this thing of here are options and and making quick decisions like that yeah i mean well there's there's something you know just simple called the you know priorities of work uh so just like any anytime you're doing a mission like there's just different elements of things you have to take care of first um just you know self-care kind of you know as you process through those things um you know with the rise of helmet cams and chest cams things like

that is is training for training in the military similar to like college football like you watch film like every day like like learn the plays of the other team like is there a lot of studying film so to speak in the military these days? Yeah. So there's actually a back to, you know, telling about the operational psychologist dedicated just to the operators. There's a we had one op psych that he was, you know, embedded in a part of the team, like a trusted agent. You knew he cared about you. It wasn't something that you like. Oh, avoid that guy because he'll write you up and get you in trouble. He's truly a brother and just cared about making you better and helping you working through it.

So he would do us. So when we would go through, we had different simulators, the air traffic control simulator, where it's like 180 degree screens all around you and you're controlling all the airplanes. And you have to say the right phraseology to keep them moving and tell them when to land and all those things. Um, so those can get really stressful as you get behind and different things, you know, don't respond. Um, so they, again, like those bandolier sensors, they, they, they tag you with all those in this, you know, cognitive, you know, uh, highly high functioning requirement scenario. And so now as you're going through this, this performance, you're actually getting readouts on, on your stress level, on your heart rate, um, you know, respiration, all these things.

And so he's, he's watching you the whole time as you're going through this, this process and, uh, and giving you that feedback. So like, oh, you just messed up a call. Uh, now you're stressed out. Now you just messed up another call. Okay. Now you're in the hole. Now, what are you going to do? And watch that, that, that heart rate skyrocket. And so then you can actually debrief and go back through the tape and say,

okay, yeah, at this point it now took you, it took you a good 10, 12 minutes to get back under control with this stuff. And so then he, then he comes back and intervenes and say, okay, next time. All right. So you just, you just misstep. Now what are you going to do? Take that. All right. Take that quick recovery breath. Take a second, you know, look around. Okay. And then giving you those like coaching techniques. So that's, that's real time, you know, with the high, the high specifics of the technical knowledge of doing the job and then bringing that biofeedback into it. If you're a, if you're a 12 year old kid listening to this right now, and like, you've watched all the Navy SEAL movies and all that, and you're like, fuck it,

I'm going to the military. I'm doing special operations. Like I want to go into battle. Like, do you have any suggestions for someone that, uh, that has that desire that's still pretty young and has a couple of years before they're going to the Air Force Academy or joining the military? Yeah. Yeah. So the, um, I mean, leadership is, is an important thing. Uh, you know, teamwork, um, vital every step of the way, like all, you know, being a part of a high functioning team, um, doing everything you can to, to take care of the, you know, the brothers and sisters next to you is just a skill you learn. And it's, it's an attitude that you have, um, that we, we even see it now. So that was one of the, one of the struggles we had, uh, in the recruiting effort is we would think like, okay, physical fitness, it's all about physical, find the toughest dude out there. And you find tough dudes that would quit day, you know, day two. And it it was like that because that guy had never failed before he had never uh come to the end of himself and and had to find a higher purpose because he succeeded at everything and so uh you need that failure in your life you need to

challenge yourself to the point of you know beating your head against that rock and and and getting knocked down and okay okay now what are you gonna do you know you know you know everything doesn't go well there's so many factors against you so how do you keep getting up and keep fighting again yeah so like so grit grit that type of thing is like the the biggest character trait to attempt to develop absolutely yeah the you've mentioned multiple times the brotherhood i think that that's something that uh the the military especially special ops people they always come back to um is that forged kind of in the the training process just the experiences you go through just when did that really kick in for you and realizing wow these are this is this is family out here like i i rely on these people for

living every day yeah i mean it's it's every every step of the of the way as you endure and go through those shared challenges and shared struggles. And it can become a lonely road, you know, when you're dealing with things that most of the populace doesn't have to deal with. So that brotherhood is just tight just because you understand one another. You understand what you've gone through. And that like transcends kind of combat you know so uh any more like talking to a vietnam vet like i i understand the words that they're saying i didn't i didn't experience war in any way what they did but i i know the feelings and and you kind of draw that out with one another because you have that shared shared experience so i mean it's every it's every step every step of the way all through the training. You mentioned loneliness. Is it strange not being able to talk to your family about what you do?

Yeah. It's kind of funny. A lot of guys, like, you can talk a lot about what you do. Like, there's, I mean, you can, the general principles of things, and sometimes that's, sometimes it's kind of a negative compartmentalization where you keep your, so for me, like, my it's a, it's kind of a negative compartmentalization, um, where you, you keep your, so, so for me, like my family, my wife knows, um, everything, you know, like obviously there's, you know, classified documents that I don't share with her, but she understands the human aspect of everything that I go through. Um, and that's, that's vital. I mean, we just,

just recognizing hearing some, some, some tragedy stories of guys that, uh, that went through trauma and, you know, emotional, mental trauma and didn't, didn't get help, didn't reach out. Um, just started taking, you know, again, that, that own private suck fest, just bringing them into themselves and not getting that help, not expressing, you know, to, to work through those things. So to me, it's been absolutely just vital every step of the way to, to keep, you know, my loved ones as, as informed as possible, possible um to help help me process through it you know it's a teamwork it's a partnership um your your spouse is there to lift you up and help you through those tough things um so that that that for me

you know i always i always reach out and uh and and talk talk to her through those challenges anytime i meet somebody that's in special ops, they're always some of the best people. They've been humbled enough. They've lived enough. They know, let's just be good people. And they're just great individuals. But there's also the side of you are in war. You're in battle.

And it's life and death out there. Being a dad and having a family, is there a conversation about kind of like that side of it with you? I have never been in a situation like that. So I wonder if I was talking to my daughter and kind of explaining what I do, it would be a very intense thing that I would have to think about the wording and how I deliver that message. I did a lot of thought of this as I was in combat in Afghanistan, and I had a really long mission. And the whole mission through, so, you know, we were going on a presence patrol, and we were hoping the bad guys would come get us so that we could fight them. Because, you know,

fighting an insurgency, they look, they can be a civilian and a happy, you know, good citizen one day, and the next day they can try and blow you up. And they can be the same person, you know, it's just they decide when they want to fight. So you have to kind of, you know, fish them out a little bit. So I spent, you know, that whole mission just looking for an enemy to destroy. Like I was there to fight the bad guy. And so I was actively hunting, you know, another human every step of the way. And so, you know, we got in combat and dropped

a lot of bombs and took out lots of bad guys and, and came home. And then, you know, it's time for me to start journaling and writing little love letters to my wife. And so I'm like, you know, these, these fingers that were just, you know, at ready to, to end the life is now communicating love passionately to my, you know, to my wife and which is it, you know, am I, am I a warrior and a killer or am I a lover and, you know, husband and, and just recognizing that like, you know, I am all of those things and I'm all those things together simultaneously. And, and that, that's like, there there's, there's, you, you come to terms with that. You, you understand, um, that you're doing your job, you're doing your duty to the best of your ability.

Um, the same way I love my wife as much as I can. And those things are not one or the other. I don't do one in hate and one in love. Those are both ultimately to serve my brothers next to me, to take care of my country, to fight bad guys that are doing evil things across the world. And those are all kind of seemingly, you know, together a lot closer. And so for me, I mean, that's maybe one of the ways I'm able to be resilient

is I've come to terms with that. Like I don't feel guilty for those things because all my body and my mind and soul like are all aligned to do that mission. Do you feel like it makes you, in a way, it makes you better because you understand how important it is to have good relationships that can be taken away instantly while you're out there.

Do you feel like there's a piece of you that is a much better dad or husband because you confront evil all the time and you know that you have to balance that out or the pendulum swings back the other way and you're a much better father, more present or just because you know how quickly it can go away. I think so. I mean, you, I mean, you know the fragility of life and you feel that you see it and, um,

and you also, I mean, you, you gotta, when, when you have to, when you're doing something that requires a, uh, a decision that could put your life on the line, like you're doing that intentionally. You're living a life focused on values and higher priorities and things like that. It's not just I can make a buck or I can get through this or I can get to the job. Nobody's doing what you're doing for money. Right. Putting your life on the line like that.

It's crazy. And so it's just, I mean, like, that's all life. You got to do it for a reason. Like, do it on purpose. You know, you're here for a reason on this earth. So know it, own it, and seek it. You know, it's not just, ah, whatever happens. Yeah.

When you're on the battlefield knowing that you have family at home, how does that conversation inside your brain, like you're putting it all on the line um and and the other side of it is you know dad may not come home and that's a that's a very heavy conversation that i would assume happens laying in bed at night when there's nobody around and just how do you what is the mental uh conversation when that when that comes up yeah um so you know i actually one of my brothers i had lost in combat um tech sergeant william jefferson and he was on my team and i was responsible for um allocating forces you know deciding where people went and at one point i had to decide whether or not he would go to this, this hot fire base where the enemy was attacking every day, um, or send a younger guy with, with no family. And, and I had to come to

terms with, you know, who am I going to send to this, to this very hot fire base? And, uh, and he was the right guy. He was the best guy for it. He had a lot of other skills that we needed to do. And he was a senior, senior guy, senior non-commissioned officer. And I know like if I had given him that choice between, you know, sending him or his subordinate, the guy that he was taking care of, he in a second would have done it every day. He would have done it. Even if he knew what was going to happen, he would have done it. Um, because that's that, that brotherhood and that, that sacred responsibility to, to take care of what you're entrusted with, what's important. And so that was like, I, I, as I, as we lost him in combat, it was my responsibility to bring him home. And so I, you know, as I was, I was standing, you know, inside the, the, the, the C-17 with no

seats, all slicked out and they're bringing the flag drape coffin on, on board. Um, I, I was very sober to, you know, recognize like, man, I had, I had a hand in this man's life. And, and for good, you know, for bad, for, for all that. And, and, but knowing that like all of us know what we're doing, we know we're getting into and, and we chose it and, and we, you know, we chose it to take care of our families, to take over our brothers. And, and that's like, he wasn't a victim in that. Like he, he chose to fight in that way. And, and it was my honor to serve with him and to, to take care of him everywhere I could to make sure he was ready to go. And, and then to take care of him and his family when he had, when he needed to be taken home. When you are going into very dangerous situations like that um the ultimate commitment and sacrifice for your

country um are there times where you question is this the right actual tactical move is this the right place that i should be um knowing that you're going into a lot of fire and it's going to be dangerous and in a way just a little mental piece of, man, this isn't right. And knowing that it's going to get crazy. Like, do you start to doubt any of the higher level thinking of, is this really worth it for me? Is it worth it for my family? And then even on a lower level of each individual battle and tactically making the right moves, knowing things are about to get wild. Yeah. level or lower level of each individual battle and tactically making the right moves knowing

things are about to get wild yeah uh i mean yeah it's i mean that's that's like the the million decisions that you make as you train and as you prepare um that's that's refining your mind and refining the speed of decisions and and training you to react quickly and um and getting lots of repetitions in in safe environments you know where you can you make mistakes and you get that feedback and um you do you know paintball rounds that you get shot with and they hurt really bad you know but you learn you need to fight through those things um so you mean you train you train to respond to those things obviously and i mean you make mistakes, humans make mistakes all the time. Um, but, but you have to, you have to build that confidence. Um,

one thing they call it violence of action. Um, you can go left, you can go right, but you definitely got to go one direction. You can't stop in the middle and think about it. You know, sometimes you just have to have to act, um, you know, act vigorous, you you know that's a uh the uh you know the the poor uh the less less conceived plan executed with violence and action immediately uh can overwhelm the perfect plan execute executed too late you know so that those things you know happen real time when it comes to tactical actions and then kind of the bigger you know tougher decisions sometimes you just gotta you gotta act and move out and and kind of deal it. Sometimes you have to be the actor in the system. You know, like stop waiting for things to happen.

Just kind of punch your way through and then make them react to you. When was your last tour? It was a year and a half ago. Are you done officially going over? I go more in command roles now. But now my job this this time was to to create a recruiting squadron focused just on bringing in special operations so that's i i got another year to do that do you miss the battlefield um i miss the the i miss

the brotherhood uh of just you know fellow operators you know guys that know everything you've been through and you've done it with you yeah um but but yeah the it's crazy like because you as you grow and you get stronger in every aspect of your your life and leadership um you're ready for that next challenge and for me that next challenge it isn't so much tactical anymore it's more leadership and organizational wise yeah um to create something and change something to to change a big whole system, took every ounce of my experience and intelligence to try and fight for a new way to do things. So that was exciting to me.

It's not shooting stuff, but it's way tougher. I think people hear leadership in the military, and they think it's the military. Like if I tell someone to do something, they're going to do it because it's the military. But that's not how it happens. wouldn't think so yeah i mean you can you can tell people to do things and and it's wrong you know so then they'll do it it'll jack it up you know and it won't won't have solved anything um and there's a lot of ways to to drag your feet you know if you know yeah so how do the question leads to uh

how do you create buy-in with the guys that you oversee? Like, how do you get them to do the things that they, that are required of them without having to like breathe down their neck or micromanage them or double check and that type of thing? Yeah. So, I mean, there's a lot of, I mean, we're definitely spoiled. Like there's a lot of really high functioning professionals that want to do their job. You know, you don't have to when they see the value of it, they're going to do it.

They don't need anybody over their back because they believe in the cause. So often, you know, it's just giving them that space to be the professionals that they are. Like no one wants to suck at their job and they want to do it well. And especially if it's important and helping them understand the importance of it is is a huge part of that um so i've been i've been very lucky to to be a part of things that were important um so it's i mean they're intrinsically valuable you know it's important to go and fight you know to be at the the hottest firebases there are and to be excellent at your job um that's not a lot of motivation required in that you know just because the thing itself is and then just on the recruiting side, like helping people understand the downrange

impacts. Um, so you asked my last appointment, um, I was, I was just in an area where, where we lost some guys, um, and we lost them because we didn't have enough. Uh, there weren't enough, uh, rescue, uh, people available to, to kind of take care of things the way that they needed to. And so that was like I immediately left that situation and then came to the recruiting side and said, hey, man, guys, this isn't about numbers and spreadsheets and sales quotas. This is about people downrange in combat that absolutely depend on what you do. And so just helping them understand, like, to get their eyes up off the lower motivations and onto the higher goal to recognize, man, there's life and death, and it is important out there.

I'm always blown away when you start to see people at these, like, extreme edges, whether it's the performance side or, you know, I love, I shouldn't say I love watching them, but I'm very interested in watching documentaries like Restrepo, where you start to see human nature at the extremes, right? You've got kids, literally kids, going out to battle, facing the most intense situations, and then three days where it's just like dead quiet. No one's talking.

It's the extreme boredom that kicks in. Your brain starts messing with you. First, what does a day-to-day when you're deployed look like and then how do you handle some of those moments where it's just so boring and miserable and the only thing you're stuck with is your own thoughts and there's a couple guys around you but they're stuck in the same position like how does a day structure itself and then you know what are you doing in those moments to keep yourself occupied and not in your own head in a way? Yeah.

Well, there's always awesome deployed gyms. We train. There's rocky gyms. I was actually, I was out with some other special forces element, and I was visiting the base. I was coming through. And we were visitors, so we're like, you know, we're trying to be respectful. I'm like, I don't know what the rules are here. You know, I'm just going to jack some steel.

And so we had music on. It was kind of a reasonable volume. And a guy walks in. Like, he's the quintessential Navy SEAL, like 80s Navy SEAL. So, like, high socks, you know, straight out of, like, the movie. Yeah. And he's a big old, you know, ridiculous mustache. And he comes in.

He's like, what's going on in here? Like, what the hell are you doing? You know, I was like, what in and he's like, what's going on in here? Like, what the hell are you doing? You know, I was like, what? And he's like, why is this music so quiet? You know, so he's like, he's like, crank that shit up. So, like, he just, you know, blasts the bomb. So, it's like it's lifting the weights for you. Yeah.

So, Crush Steel is a big one. I also did Arts and Crafts Time. Nice. There you go. A little creativity in the mix. I like that. I actually do paperclip sculptures. So I actually have fully flexing buffaloes and stuff like that.

See, that's the boredom part. I like that. I'd come back from a mission, and I'd binge watch some long series, and then I'd just play with paperclips. It's kind of chaos and everything all around you, and then you just get that one little micro detail that you can kind of just find peace and control in this little small world so i mean guys got all kinds of random coping capabilities that's a good one yeah i like that i want to see some of the sculptures yeah we're gonna have to look at

that you have pictures you can show us after the show yeah nice i definitely want to see them um you guys have these massive training programs and everything when you're at home getting prepared to go deploy. But what does training actually look like when you're over there? Are you guys on program? Is it just kind of get it in where you can? Yeah. So with the physical fitness, like with the advent of those strength coaches, they give you good kits that they send downrange with you. And they continue to give you workouts.

So you actually have those workouts that you're getting from your strength coach um it depends on on what you're at like how how busy you are but there's there's ranges and everything's set up out there so you can continue training sometimes you can get better training because sometimes there's less restrictions and less uh bureaucracy so you can just get after you know doing that stuff is getting your own programming from the strength coach, is that for special operations guys, or is that just for everyone that's over there? More for special operations, yeah. I mean, there's gyms in just about every base you go to,

and, yeah, they have facilities like that, but the really high-end, like, tailored professional coach, something that's just afforded and focused on those human weapons systems, the special warfare operators. Yeah. In this new role, we talked a little bit, but leading up recruiting specifically for special ops, where, I guess, kind of how did you find this role and what is motivation, obviously, to build the recruiting class? But is there a shortage of special ops people now? Just kind of where is the Air Force at in its recruiting efforts? Yeah.

So actually it's kind of crazy, but the overall health of the American populace is declining. So there's actually a smaller pool of people that are even eligible to serve in the military, especially with there's a lot of medications people that are even eligible to serve in the military. Um, especially with, there's a lot of, you know, medications that, you know, kids are put on real early on that can sometimes be, you know, restrictive to military service. Um, so that's a smaller pool. So that's just across the board, um, that you got to recognize, but then the bigger problem for, for specifically, uh, air force special operations is, you know, one of our main kind of core warrior ethoses is the quiet professionalism. Um, so before this was my job, I would never be seen in uniform

and I would never tell anybody what I did because I just wanted to do my job and be left alone. And so, like, the end result of that is that no one knows who you are or what you do. I actually want to know about that. The Navy SEALs are very vocal. I shouldn't say they're very vocal, but they have a very vocal side to them. Yeah. I don't know a ton about you guys are very quiet.

Yeah. Is that built into, obviously it's built into the culture, but yeah, talk about that. I don't really know how to pose a question outside of like, I'm very interested in how I haven't really heard a ton about you guys specifically. Yeah. Yeah.

It's the, it truly is a deep part of our, our, our warrior ethos. And it's even just like, I mean, we're self-regulating, you know, like guys,

I even, I had a mentor like kind of here, you know, cause it's my job now. So I talk about it a lot more. And he, he can't, he listened to me talk one time.

He's like, yeah, it kind of sounds like you're bragging. And I'm like, do you think I'm bragging? And he says, no, I know you're not, but it kind of sounds like you are. I'm like, I'm like, you know, boss, of sounds like you're bragging. And I'm like, do you think I'm bragging? And he says, no, I know you're not, but it kind of sounds like you are.

I'm like, you know, boss, like we've done these things. Like all of us have done these things. And I have to tell people about it because otherwise they have no idea. And so actually I was telling you I was just talking to a Silver Star recipient. And I was interviewing him. I was trying to get him to tell his story. And he was a stonewall. He didn't want to share details about what he did.

And so it was the wrong thing. I instead asked him about his friends. And he would tell you all day about the valor and the incredible things that his friends would do. And he did the exact same things and more. He literally said, he's like, oh, yeah, man, that guy got into it. Silver star recipient. I'm like, like bro you got a silver star too and he just but he wouldn't tell you about it because it's still it's just deeply ingrained and so it's kind of i think like i don't think we have to change our whole culture into into sharing like a few i don't think like me

at no point during this that i at all feel like you were bragging about anything. It really is. It's almost like maybe you guys just in a way do it better that the culture is deep enough and that the people really do stay quiet. Yeah. So John Chapman just received the Medal of Honor not too long ago, and he was an Air Force combat controller in a battle of Takhar Ghar back in Afghanistan, you know, in the heyday kind of the war. And he did absolutely insane and amazing things. And so they recently, somebody wrote a book about it, Alone at Dawn.

And so I was actually talking to that author who's a retired, uh, does retired, did my job, special tax officer. And, and he was kind of, kind of coaching me through like how we need to tell our story. And, uh, and, and he was still like, you know, like, man, that's, it's too humble. Like it's too quiet. Like you, you, you can't be subtle about this. Like you got it, you got to tell the story and still it just, it pains you and you're just like, I don't want to do it. Yeah. But I mean, so the way he does it and it's, it's awesome. And so I can tell, talk about him. Cause that's again, it's not me. And that's what you're just like i don't want to do it yeah but i mean so the way he does it and it's it's awesome and so i can tell talk about him because that's again it's not me and that's what you're good at talking about your brothers yeah so uh what he um what he explained is is literally in in the history of modern war history of warfare there has never once been

a single force on the battlefield more powerful, more capable of bringing death and destruction and saving lives than Air Force Special Operations, Combat Control, Pararescuemen, Tactical Air Control. All our brothers, what they bring to the battlefield is insane because we have to have all the same skill sets of our other brothers, be able to kick doors down, shoot, move, communicate, all those things. But then when things go really bad, the show all comes on that guy that's controlling all the close air support. So he's coordinating multimillion-dollar aircraft, seeing what they see, getting the vision, passing that to the ground force commander, knowing where all the personnel are on the battlefield, seeing that complex picture all in his mind knowing my friends are here the people they're responsible for partner nation are there the enemy's attacking from this direction i'm getting shot at i'm crawling in the dust and i'm controlling aircraft that are you know 50 000 feet above me at you know seven different stacks of altitude keeping track of the

bomber just came in with this bomb and then the fighters come in you know seconds later deconflicting all that stuff real time like it's absolutely insane the amount of firepower um that that one you know uh air force combat controller can wield and so like that's the message just like yeah man spec spec ops across the board are cool but then there's this one guy that literally controls you know thousands of pounds of bombs all with the sound of his voice like that's a badass in my perfect day we're gonna come hang out and you're gonna break that that literally controls thousands of pounds of bombs, all with the sound of his voice. That's a badass. In my perfect day, we're going to come hang out,

and you're going to break that all down on film for me because what you just laid out sounds like a puzzle that I would love to watch happen, and then we're going to do some training, some of the stuff that you guys do in your training. I would love to do that. If people want to learn more about recruiting, how do they get a hold of you or where can we send them?

I have got a couple handles. Air Force Special Operations. I can give you, we can provide those at the end. I'll read them all out there. Yeah, there you go. Obviously, airforce.com

backslash Special Operations. That'll be the best gateway to get to. And you can hear about the different jobs that we have. And then look for us on Instagram and Facebook as well. Very cool. AirForce.com forward slash Special Ops. Dude, I should have been in the Special Ops. I'm positive of it. I would have been really good at training, and then I would have just melted.

Would have been bad. Like, I was just here for the training. I love training. I didn't want to play the game of war. That's how I got into fitness. I started doing military workouts and realized, oh, I just like working out. Yeah. I'll keep doing that.

Yeah. Hey, man, this has been very, very cool. I really appreciate you. I know that it's not easy for you guys to come out and tell the story of what you guys are doing, and it's probably amongst your friends and brothers probably something that nobody's very comfortable with doing. So I appreciate you coming out. It's been very cool. Doug Larson, where can they find you?

You bet. Find me on Instagram at Douglas E. Larson. Yeah, make sure you guys get over to airforce.com forward slash special ops. Just really cool stuff that you guys are working on. I'm very happy to get this message out to the people. You can find me at Anders Varner because I'm Anders Varner. We are the Shrug Collective at the Shrug Collective. Get over to OneTonChallenge.com, and we'll see you guys next Wednesday.

Friends, that's a wrap. We did it. Lieutenant Colonel Kearns, make sure you get over to AirForce.com forward slash special ops. Just do it. Get over there. Do the special operations thing. It's so cool. We're going to be working with them, and I'm going to be showing everybody on YouTube what's going on behind the scenes,

special ops, how you can train for it, what's coming your way. And I'm so excited. So airforce.com forward slash special ops. And of course, organifi.com forward slash shrug, save 20% on all of your greens, reds, and golds. And savagebarbell.com forward slash shrug, save 20% on all the Savage Barbell schwags. And then our friends over at whoop.com use the coupon code shrugged to save $30 on a 12 or 18 month membership. Friends, we'll see you next week.