Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC - Cleared Hot Episode 21

Episode Date: November 20, 2017

I think we covered it all on this one. Thoughts on every day carry items, concealed carry and actions by armed civilians, tips on getting in to skydiving, the value of sports for kids, CrossFit training, and my two cents on advice for parents. Hope you enjoy, and let me know what you think.

Episode 21, get ready for it because here we go. Took a week off, just kind of decompressing from a few weeks on the road. A couple people reached out over email to make sure that I was still alive. I apologize for not putting up a podcast last Monday. You know what sometimes you just got to unplug a little bit. So it was kind of out in the woods. Shocker, hunting, you'll never guess. But it was good to step away for a bit, but we're going to roll right back into it.

a couple admin things before I start. There's a military term for you. Wow. A couple house cleaning things before I kick off. The shirts and sweatshirts are almost sold out. So if you want to get one for Black Friday, which I don't understand why we needed to create a day to spend money. I don't know anybody who needs to have a day dedicated to just that.

But the Black Friday deal that I'm prepared to offer, which I think is amazing, the best Black Friday deal you'll find anywhere on the internet is either a t-shirt or a sweatshirt. The first one you get is at full price. And then the second and third or any subsequent order that you make will also be at full price. So I know that's kind of a little bit different than the average Black Friday deal, but I think it's pretty strong. So there's actually not that many left of either of the sweatshirts and the t-shirts.

So if you want to get one, get them now before they are gone. And to everybody who has purchased one and sent me the pictures and is posting the pictures online, I'm trying to go through. Dudley taught me how to search via hashtag because I think it's pretty obvious. I'm an idiot when it comes to social media stuff. So I actually was able to find where people are posting these things. And I'm trying to get on there and comment and thank everybody for doing that because it's awesome to see those suckers out in the wild.

And a small percentage of me would like to think that it actually makes a difference. So thank you to everybody who is supporting the podcast in that way. And I think that is actually, yeah, that's it. Here we go. Episode 21. Okay, Kathy, west of the smoke. I'm looking at danger close now. All right, let's get right into this.

And the first question I'm going to answer is one that I have been remiss to not answer previously. It's actually been asked more than once. And it is, what EDC? And for people who don't know what that means, it means everyday carry. what EDC or everyday carry items do I never leave home without? I think most people when they hear a question like this, they assume that the question is based around firearms, and I personally think it could be broken down into some categories outside of firearms,

but we'll talk about the firearm aspect first. And my answer is that I actually don't carry a firearm every day. The main reason right now that I do not is that Montana has a residency requirement of six months before you can apply for a concealed weapons permit. I plan on applying for that permit once that six months is up, but it is currently not. So I'm limited by the laws of the state that I live in. Now, I'll say that even though I'm not allowed to carry concealed in Montana, the laws here are exponentially and in my opinion infinitely better than in California, where I was basically

going to get in some serious hot water if I had a weapon on me at any time. here in Montana you're actually allowed to have a weapon in your vehicle and it doesn't have to be in plain sight of an officer that were to pull you over you can have in your glove compartment box if you want to so I do have a weapon in my vehicle pretty much at all times

and in addition to the weapon which is a pistol I actually have a fixed blade and a folding blade knife that's sitting in the glove compartment or not the glove compartment what do you call that spot in between the driver and the passenger the armrest, the little latch that you can push in and then pull up.

That's where I have both the weapon and both of the knives. Now, the knives to me are not necessarily based around being a weapon. I have just found so many times that I need a blade of some kind, whether it's to open a box or to pry something open or whatever it may be. So I have two of them with me. One of them is specifically designed to carry concealed, and sometimes I do, but also. Also, sometimes I don't.

Weapons-based everyday carry items aside, I think that there are some important items that would serve people well if they kept them in close proximity in hands reach, at least in a vehicle, pretty much at all times. So for myself, one thing I've carried with me, man, I can't even remember a time where I didn't carry this, but it's a med kit. and in the med kit it's got bandages, scissors, slings, a variety of items. I actually ordered this particular med kit online. I would give you the exact model number if I could remember what it was,

but it was a basic trauma kit purchased online and then augmented with things that I had from work. And the things that I had from work that most people may not have access to would be IV systems, needles for needle decompression. There's a crick kit that's in there. Now, on those things, you don't need to get crazy. And if you don't know how to crack somebody or if you don't know how to do a needle decompression, then I would not recommend purchasing those items.

And if you've never received the training on it, by all means, absolutely do not attempt those things. I'm at the point right now where I probably would not do a needle decompression. I absolutely would not do a crick on somebody unless it was the absolute last thing that I could do in a life-saving situation. But I would actually judge whether or not I attempted both of those things based on the response time of the ambulance. Because there's a substantial chance that I could do more harm than good. And I would only do that if it was in a crazy remote location where it may be able to buy somebody enough time for a high level of care to get there. So you don't need to get crazy.

For most people, you can source a really good medical kit. Maybe some Google terms you could put in there a combat medical kit or a vehicle medical kit or a trauma medical kit. But like I said, you don't need to get crazy. You don't need to buy a thousand dollar bag that has every whizbang item in there, most of which you're not going to have the ability to train with or understand how they work. So keep it simple. Have some stuff in there that can stop bleeding. Have some stuff in there that could help emotive. mobilize a bone or a joint or a limb and maybe a sling.

And in addition to that, I would recommend first and foremost a tourniquet. So on the outside of the bag, I have two tourniquets and one pair of trauma shears, which is a beefed up kind of, they're not bulky, but it's a beefed up set of scissors that can cut through clothing and pants and whatever you may need to get through to actually expose a potential injury. Now, on the tourniquet side of the house, I've talked about them before and I've talked about the importance of them before and how I think that they should almost be a first line of defense to stop any major bleeding. You need to practice with the tourniquet. Having a tourniquet is great.

Having the ability to put it on in a controlled environment is great, but I would recommend that you practice putting it on with one hand and then also practice putting it on with two hands. I'd practice putting them on in the dark by feel only. And if you could afford a third one, I would mess around with putting fluid on top of that and applying the tourniquet in situations that are not dry with reduced tactile sensation, where it might be slippery. That's the environment you're probably going to have to be using a tourniquet in. So you might as well expose yourself to that before you get in, before you encounter that and it surprises you. Now with that, the environment you might end up using a tourniquet is going to be bloody.

I personally also on the outside of my medical kit bag have a pair of gloves. And before, if I have time and by that I mean the five seconds necessary, which you should always be able to have that five seconds. I personally recommend you throw on a pair of gloves. And I have extra gloves inside of the medical kit, but I have a quick pair that I have easy access to. Human beings are disgusting. and the fluid that comes out of your body has the ability to transmit disease and parasite.

And a lot of other things that I have no understanding of, but I don't want to be exposed to. So first line of defense is throw some gloves on to protect yourself and also to protect the other person from something that you may be carrying as well. So two tourniquets, trauma shears, and a set of gloves. It's ready to go is one of those on the outside of my medical bag. That stays in my truck. I've been fortunate or unfortunate. I don't know the right word for it to have been present at a few accident scenes, car accident scenes, people literally just passing out. And I've actually had to go to the truck and get the medical bag and put it into use.

And every time I was very glad that I had those things. And if you have to use the things from your medical bag, also make sure that you replenish them. So if you ever have to take something out of there, it is my recommendation and advice that you immediately restock it back up. to being completely full. So we talked the weapon side of the house, the medical side of the house. In the truck, I also have a lighter. It's surprising to me how many people think that seals are somehow survival experts, and maybe there are some survival experts that were seals.

I am not one of those people. So, and I've been asked before, you know, how would you start a fire in the wild, you know, rub sticks together, what's the technique you would use? The technique I would use is region, region, into my pocket and pull out a bick lighter. And if that one didn't work, I would go back into my pocket and pull out the second bick lighter that I would likely have on me. So instead of trying to rub sticks together, I just have a means to start fire on me that's

in my truck. I usually have one or two bickliders sitting in there. And I also have a hand sanitizer. Just because, again, find yourself in a situation where you're getting your hands in a place where it might be compromised, not even necessary medically, but whatever it may be, it's awesome to have that stuff on there, clean yourself off, you're avoiding infection of any kind. It's just to me, it's so readily available and it's so easy to have in your car. It takes up no space and it takes up no weight.

Just throw it in there. You'd be surprised how often you might actually need it. Just keep in the back of your mind that you can have all of the shiny, fancy, top of the line, most expensive gear in the world. And it's all totally useless if you don't have the knowledge, skill, experience, and most importantly, in my opinion, the mindset to use it. So for me, when I think of everyday Carrie, the most important thing that you can pack and take with you every single day is your mind. And by that I mean, be prepared, comma, not paranoid.

Speaking for myself, I try to take the world as it presents itself. to me, not what I would like it to be for my kids, you know, a grassy field everywhere with beautiful sunrises and sunsets and rainbows and gumdrops falling from the sky. I wish it was like that for them. I wish the world was nerfed and everything had, you know, incredibly rounded corners and there was no damage that could be done. But that is not the reality of the world that I see. So I prepare myself for the realities that I see, whether that be learning how to stop bleeding, whether that be setting the example for my children, whether that be carrying a concealed weapon, not to attack somebody with, but to defend others with. I prepare myself

and then also take a second to realize that from a statistical perspective, the odds of encountering the evil that does exist in the world is a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent. It's very likely you could go through your entire life and not find yourself in a situation like that, and that's an amazing thing. But if you do find yourself in a situation where action is needed, do me a favor, do your neighbors a favor, do this country a favor, and don't reach for your cell phone. Get off the sidelines and make a difference. All right, question number two. Kind of goes along the line. of question number one. What are my thoughts on concealed carry for civilians with a follow-up question?

What are the thoughts on armed citizens who engaged or the armed citizen who engaged the Texas church shooter? I have covered in previous podcasts my thoughts on concealed carry. And I actually just talked about it a little bit. So I'll try to be brief. But to review, I fully support concealed carry. With that, though, if you choose to carry a weapon with you every day, in my opinion, it carries with it, an enhanced level of responsibility. You need to receive training on your weapon first and foremost, whether you plan on carrying it every day or not. If you're going to own a gun, you need to receive training on the gun. You need to be current. Shooting two times a year to qualify for your CCW or whatever the requirement may be is not enough.

to justify carrying on a day-to-day basis. You need to get out and you need to train and be current with the weapon should you choose to carry it with you. You need to be competent. You can never allow your competency to dip down to a point where you become a danger and a threat to those around you

instead of an individual that might actually be able to make a difference. Going to a static range, which 99.9% of ranges that you're going to find are static, meaning there's a line that you stand behind. And there are lines on the left and right flank, and you're probably going to get a shooting lane with either a paper or maybe if you're outside a steel target that you get to shoot at. But the boundaries are very precise. Most ranges will not let you work from a concealed holster, which you should work from a concealed holster if you're going to carry concealed. They won't let you move laterally, left and right,

forward and back. Those environments, if you are limited to that environment, I still recommend that you go train in that environment, but don't think that that skill that you develop on a one-way range where you're shooting in an inanimate object is going to prepare you for a three-dimensional, potentially two-way range where lead is going in both directions. Competency to me means you have the ability to shoot at night. So if you're going to get a weapon, you need to put a sight on that weapon that allows you to aim at night or in low light situations. Some people will say, hey, well, I'll just put a flashlight on the bottom or I'll use a laser. There's pros and cons to those things and I don't really feel like going in depth on that. Just be prepared because half of the

day, actually right now in Montana, I would say almost two-thirds of the day is low light to nighttime. See the positions. You know, at most ranges, you're going to be standard, like I said, in that static shooting position on a very linear range. If you've never shot, from a seated position and felt the difference in your torso and your ability to support the weapon with only your arms and not having your lower body to assist in everything from aiming to recoil management, it might be a surprise. Think about how often you're in your car or in a restaurant or in a movie. It happens more often than you might think. And then the last thing to consider when it comes to competency, are you good enough with your weapon to discharge it

in a crowded environment where the backdrop, meaning the things that are behind which you're aiming at, might become impacted or affected by a round that either misses or fully penetrates what it is that you're shooting at. So all those things need to be taken into consideration. So training, currency, competency, and then you have to be prepared to use your weapon. And you cannot be scared of your weapon. And the question that I use most often to judge whether or not people are prepared or whether or not they are scared of the weapon system is, do you carry around in the chamber? To me, from my background, I can't imagine carrying a weapon without around in the chamber. The point and purpose of me carrying the weapon was so that when I needed to use it, it was

prepared to do so. Carrying a gun with a loaded magazine and no round in the chamber does nothing but complicate potentially escalating situation. It adds steps between removing a pistol from a holster and presenting it to a target and having the ability to actually do something with that weapon. The first thing that's going to go in an environment that's filled with adrenaline are going to be your motor skills. You're probably going to be left with gross motor skills. at best. And if you don't practice over and over and over again, drawing your pistol from whatever holster that you use, manipulating the slide to put a round into the chamber and then presenting it on target, don't think even for a second that you're going to be able to pull that off

in a moment that it counts. If you're not comfortable carrying a weapon with a round in the chamber, and I keep saying weapon, what I'm talking about in this instance is a pistol. If you're not comfortable carrying a pistol with a round in the chamber, I highly recommend that you don't actually carry. It says to me that you are either unsure of how a weapon functions, because I've talked with people, and they're just afraid that the gun's going to go off with a round in the chamber. And that is just, frankly, not how guns work. Guns go off when you pull the trigger. Not when they're in the holster with the trigger guard protected like a good holster will. It's not going to go off. So it's either a misunderstanding of the

a weapon system and how it functions, or it speaks to a level of fear and uncertainty about carrying that gun. And either of those things, neither of those things are what I want people to feel should they make the decision to carry a weapon into public. Please do not fool yourself into thinking that a gun makes you safe. An individual with a gun who is either unprepared or untrained helps no one. I would actually argue that they make the situation exponentially more difficult for first responders. The reality is guns can create more problems than they can solve.

Pulling a gun out in the wrong situation or in the wrong moment or for the wrong reasons is not going to go well into your favor. And one thing that we were continually reinforced with in the SEAL teams is a proportional escalation. or the response to the situation we were presented with had to be proportionate. So let's say, as an example, we were on a patrol and somebody shot at us with an AK-47 and then they ran back into a building. We cannot call in an airstrike and level the entire block because one individual with an AK took a few shots at us and then ran back into a structure. That's not proportional. Could we engage them with our own weapon systems, our own organ. Handic Handheld Weapons Systems? Yes, absolutely we could. But there was a limit and there should be a limit to what your response can be.

If your first instinct, let's say you decide to carry and you get into a verbal confrontation with somebody at fill in the blank location, call it a restaurant. First off, don't do that, right? Avoid the verbal confrontation, be the bigger person and just walk away. But if you get into a verbal confrontation and your solution to solving that problem is to pull. a gun. And now this seems ridiculous to people, but it's not uncommon. If your initial response to that type of situation is to pull a gun, you are absolutely nothing but a danger to everybody in that environment up to and including yourself. In my opinion, weapons should always be a measure of last resort. You should look for a way not to use it, whether it, be a verbal de-escalation, whatever it may be, find a way where you don't need to use it.

Because if you do, you need to have thought through some moral decisions prior to you clearing leather with a pistol. First, there's legal consequences. Even police officers, from my understanding, if they're involved in a fatal shooting, they may face manslaughter charges, just like any other civilian. There's financial consequences. you may be found justified in your actions, but you still may be sued by the family or extended family of the individual that you killed.

And then last, but certainly not least, or the moral consequences. If you're not 100% ready to take a life or attempt to step in in a situation where life may be taken, and an innocent life may be taken along with that in your attempt to do the right thing, you need to consider caring and whether or not you are morally prepared to do so. It's not the movies. It's not always clean.

It's not concise. It can get very gray. It can get very muddled and it can get very muddled very fast. You have to have thought through all of these things before you actually get to a position where your weapon's going to be needed. If you're unsure, even 1%

my advice is don't carry even if you have the right to bear arms which i fully support the second amendment and even if you get additional training and apply for your ccw and you get it or whatever you call it in your state or you know municipality the ability to carry concealed weapon even if you have the ability to do both if you have even a one percent doubt my advice to you is don't do it so how do my thoughts on conceal carry for civilians apply to what happened in Texas, which by any and all definition was an absolute tragedy, that loss of life at the church. To be honest, when I saw that that had happened, I did my best not to pay attention to the specifics, because as soon as the initial details started coming out about a guy

who should have been prohibited from buying a weapon based off the type of discharge that he had from the military and just the situation in general, I would have loved to think that it could have improved our gun discussion and debate in this country. But I found that it didn't. People, as they seemed to do in these situations, got very dug in and entrenched. So I didn't pay too much attention as to what actually happened. And I had to go and I had to find exactly how the armed citizen encountered and engaged the shooter at the church. And what I was able to find and from what I was able to read, it sounds like he did everything that he could. And to me, it sounds like he was very smart with his actions. So from my understanding and from what I was

able to find, he lived nearby, he heard the gunshots going on in the church. He grabbed a rifle and went to the church. I don't know how he necessarily got to the church or how far he had to move, But when he finally engaged the church shooter out in front of the church, the shooter was coming out of the church, and he was positioned behind a truck using it for a cover, which is two thumbs up, right? So he's thinking tactically. He's putting a little bit of cover between himself and the person who was shooting at the church. Engage the shooter from my understanding. He hit him twice. He was able to make it to the vehicle when he sped off.

This guy flagged down, passerby, and they started chasing him. Meanwhile, he's reloading his magazine in the car. So again, this guy is thinking tactically. One caveat that I'll put to this, if you want to make a difference in these situations, make sure you have multiple loaded mags ready to go. I have a variety of weapons at the house. And any time that I travel anywhere,

I have more than one magazine. And I have more than one magazine loaded for each weapon system here at the house, even though most of them are in the safe. nothing sucks more than needing a gun and having to figure out where the ammo is and load your mag. So be prepared. This isn't a critique of this guy in any way, shape, or form. This guy, to me, sounds like he did everything he could. Just a little bit of something to add.

So this guy's reloading his mag, the chasing the dude down. The guy's vehicle ended up, the guy, meaning the church shooter's vehicle ended up swerving off to the side of the road and stopping on the side. this individual aimed at the vehicle but did not approach the vehicle, which again, in my opinion, is an excellent tactical decision. I have no idea this guy's training or background, but I can tell you right now he wasn't a first responder. And what he did by not approaching the vehicle, as he didn't put himself into any additional danger, and he didn't put anybody else into any additional danger.

And what he did is he just allowed the first responders and police to come. come, and when they got there, they approached the vehicle and found that the guy had taken his own life, which is a fate far better than he deserved. It sounds like the guy did everything that he could. He stepped up and he took action, but he was also calculated in his action, and he made decisions that kept himself safe and others around him safe. So this guy gets two thumbs up, in my opinion. To me, it's an example of somebody getting off the sidelines when the situation arose and doing the best that they could and then allowing the authorities to do what they needed to do. And it didn't say it in the articles that I was reading, but I would hope along the way as they were driving and following this guy, like the, you know, this guy was like a tier one civilian and just totally kicking ass. He would have been in contact with the 911 updating them on their position along the.

the way. I mean, although I didn't see that in the article, if he was doing that, I got no critique of this whatsoever. It is the way that I think it should be done. Now, I'm going to give you an example of the way I don't think it should be done as well, because this occurred at another mass shooting. And of course, I'm going to have to tell you which one I'm talking about, because they happen more often than I would like to admit. So what I'm talking about is I'm talking about Las Vegas. And specifically, I'm talking about Dan Belzerian, who I don't know, have never met, have never spoken to, and I only watched this from an outside perspective. And I don't care about the social media aspect of him Snapchating as he was running or

maneuvering away, however you want to frame it. I really, I don't care about that. The example that I'm going to give came much later on. He was still recording himself at this time. but it was when he was asking a police officer for a weapon. This is the perfect example of an individual that thinks because he has the right to carry a gun, that he should be carrying a gun. And this is an example of somebody doing it wrong.

So in the video, which you can find, he is behind a concrete barrier that looks like it's on the side of a road. And I think he's with, I don't know if he knew the individual or not, but it seems to be him and another individual. and there's two Las Vegas police officers that are also taking cover behind this concrete barrier. And he approaches them and he flips open his credentials. And in there he's got his badge and he's probably had an ID card. And he says, hey, I'm a cop. Give me a gun. And the police officer did exactly what he should have done.

He said, get the hell out of here. If you were actually a police officer, you would know not to approach me like this. I think he actually used a slightly more colorful language, but it gets the same. same point across. This dude has zero situational and tactical awareness. How would a police officer be able to verify the legitimacy of your credentials in an environment where there's still somebody shooting? And why in your right mind would you try to interact with a police officer in the middle of a shooting and try to get a weapon from them? I mean, what gun did you want? Did you want a pistol? Would you want a shotgun? You want the M.

for that might be in their patrol car. Do you know the distance that that thing is sited in for? Does it have night sights on there? What are you going to do with it? Are you as a civilian going to start shooting? I mean, come on. Again, this person thinks that, give me a gun. I can do, I can do good.

I can make a difference. No, you can't. That individual would have done nothing more than make the situation worse. And he's not a cop, right? he is part of a what would be the best terminology for this he is part of a

bullshit reserve police program in New Mexico and the reason he has the credentials is because of a federal law called HR 218 and this is not the reason why he has the credentials but the reason why

he wants the credentials HR 218 from my understanding was signed into law in the Bush presidency Bush Jr. Presidency. And it was a way to allow active and reserve police officers the ability to carry their weapons in all 50 states, regardless of the concealed carry laws in those states. It was a way to get more trained, armed individuals out and among the populace, so hopefully they can make a difference. Well, if you're a reserve police officer and you have a badge and credentials, you can qualify for HR 218,

and then you can carry concealed in states that may not give you the right to do so, especially if you are not a resident of that state. So here's an individual who has no law enforcement background who received a set of reserve police officer credentials, who approaches a police officer in a medical of a tactical environment, shows him the credentials and expects to get a firearm in return. Giving that person a gun solves zero problems and complicates and worsens the situation, in my opinion. So there's the example of somebody who was the first example, somebody who seemed to be tactically aware, situationally aware,

who stepped up and did the right thing in the moment, and then the individual who was not tactically aware, not situationally aware, and did exactly the wrong things in the moment. Both of those individuals, right? The second amendment applies to both, the gun ownership, the right to carry, all of those things. There's an example of good and example of bad. Question three. Quite simply, Glock or Sig, question mark.

I am assuming this individual is asking me which one is better or which one I prefer, but my answer is going to be right down the middle. My answer to the Glock or SIG question is yes. I think they're both great. I own both. I have trained with both. I have used both. They both have pros and cons.

The Glock is a single action pistol with an internal hammer. So you squeeze the trigger and a round goes off. The SIG that I am the most familiar with is the Sig Sauer P-226. It was the one that we were issued in the SEAL teams and trained and deployed with extensively. It has single and double action. You can cock the hammer or you can pull the hammer all the way through its range of motion until it comes forward and strikes the pin. They're both great. And I would recommend to somebody who, the person who asked this question, instead of thinking more about the Glock or the SIG as a brand, just focus on what works for you. They have

different frame sizes. There's a variety of pistols made by both Glock and by SIG. Find one that works for you and the requirement that you may use it for. Do you have smaller hands? Do you have bigger hands? Do you want to conceal it? Do you want to have it as a pistol that stays in your vehicle and you don't have to worry about concealing it? What caliber do you want to use? How many rounds do you want to have available with the magazine? Sometimes depending on the caliber, you'll get a net more or fewer rounds on the magazine capacity. Find what works for you. For some people, Glock's are perfect. for other people, depending on what it is they want to do, SIGs are perfect and everything in between.

So find what works for you, and then once you find that, just do me a favor, train with it, practice with it, whatever weapon you choose, maintain your competency and your currency, just like I talked about when it came to concealed carry. Question number four, why did I get out of higher level CrossFit training

with a follow-on of how did I get into CrossFit in the first place? The best answer to this question is going to be, the second question first, rolling into how and when I left. So I found CrossFit in 2005. And at that time of my life, I had been injured at work. And I was right in the middle of the Navy's rehabilitation program for my injury, which in a nutshell was e-stem, the electronic stimulation, the pads that you put on your muscles, probably very similar to the compacts or the power dot units now. I think that the technology is different, but in essence, it's the same thing. You put a pad on your muscle and it flexes the muscle.

It was flexing muscles that I was incapable of flexing because of nerve damage. I would get that for an hour, and then I would go home. And in addition to the eStem, I had a broad and robust suite of medications to choose from. I had pain medication. I had anxiety medication. I had sleeping medication. I had stay awake medication. And I think at one time I had about 14 pill bottles, and I would take one or two from each.

And it got pretty bad. In addition to that, I did two, what I remember them being called as experimental treatments, spinal blocks, nerves right into the spine to kind of give the nerve a reset, specifically in my left leg, it felt like my leg had been dipped in gasoline and was constantly on fire for about a year. And they were trying to do everything they could to interrupt that confusion. And again, that's my word, not theirs, but from my understanding, it was the confusion of the nerve that was constantly giving signals and interaction to my brain, which was not allowing me to sleep unless I loaded myself up on the sleeping pills and washed it down

with my favorite drink at the time, which was Captain Morgan Spiced Run. Needless to say, six months in, I was a complete mess. A friend of mine recommended checking out CrossFit.com. And I remember the day that I did. I logged in, I checked it out, and it said deadlift 1-1-1-1-1. So five sets of one deadlift, which I now understand, meaning five sets of your maximum load. But in that moment, when I found it, it didn't make any sense to me. So I kind of disregarded it.

Fast forward, maybe a couple of weeks. And another friend recommended that I check out Jim Jones. Now, at the time, Jim Jones, which is a gym that was founded by Mark Twight, at the time, Jim Jones was a CrossFit affiliate. And that in and of itself is a very interesting story, but it's not mine to tell. So I'm going to leave that for Mark to tell. It's a time and place that he's ready to. but I reached out to Mark and we started going back and forth. And for those of you who don't know who Mark is, again, Mark Twight, you need to Google this guy.

He is awesome. World class alpinist. He's an adventurer. He's one of the most intense human beings that I've ever been around. And I love that about him. But I was able to actually bring him to the military command that I was stationed at. And we basically did a functional training, seminar for, I think it was three days, it might have been five. It was somewhere between three to five

days. But that was my intro to the movements and workouts. Fast forward to 2006, Dave Castro and I were at a diving supervisor school in San Diego. And there was a CrossFit seminar of some kind in Coronado, or Greg, I think, was there doing a meeting with the leadership of the West Coast SEAL teams. regardless of what it was, Dave invited me to lunch. That's where I met Greg and some other, I'll call them senior members of the CrossFit World. And later on in that year, I was invited to attend a CrossFit Level 1 certification at the Orange County Fire Authority, which is a great facility.

I believe it's where they put on their academies for the Great Orange County Fire Department. I was invited back to another seminar this time as an assistant, as an assistant, as an assistant to one of the main instructors. And surely thereafter, I received a phone call asking if I could go and help as an assistant instructor at a Canadian seminar, a Canadian military seminar. And the rest of it is kind of history after that. It slowly built over time, as did the CrossFit seminars. I remember when there was one every, I don't know, it seemed like every two months.

And then I guess once a month, twice a month, one every weekend. And my involvement, I think naturally just grew along that time. So I became part of the seminar team. I ended up teaching the level ones and the level twos. At some point, switched over to the business side of the house and focused more on licensing and sponsorship, a little bit in the charitable initiative side of the house. And then I became the company pilot as well, too. So it started in 2006. And then in 2014, I resigned.

There's a couple, there's professional and personal reasons as to why that happened. on the professional side of the house, I had gone as far as I could go in the company. It's a large company, but it's also small internally. And there was nowhere else that I was going to really be able to go to or another job that I was going to be able to do. So it was time for me to move on. And that's what I chose to do. And as far as the personal reasons why I left, we're going to leave those, we're going to let those lie. Now, I never left to get to the second or the first part of the question, I should say,

is why did I get out of high-level cross-fit training? I'm assuming the person's asking about why I'm not teaching the seminars anymore, but I stopped doing that four years in. As far as the methodology goes, I still absolutely believe in the methodology. I know the people get very wrapped around the axle when it comes to the term, the brand, the name, CrossFit. And that's unfortunate. And I hope that that's not a stumbling block for a lot of people, because there is,

in my opinion, a ton of merit and value in that methodology. And it's how I still train whether or not I work for the company or not. I do believe in functional training. The intensity for me, it saves me time and it nets me the results that I'm looking for. And about the only way that I have adjusted it since working for the organization is I now program for specific end states instead of general fitness. So my year is kind of a sine wave. I'll peak for an overseas Europe trip to be hiking around in the back countries and base jumping and the physical demands of that. And then I'm going to have a little bit of a dip just to relax and recover and let my brain reset a little bit.

And now, now that I'm completely 100% in the deep end addicted to bow hunting, I'll start training for that season. And post the hunting season, I'll let the sine wave come back down a little bit in intensity and start training for my European season again. for me, that's what works best. I cannot maintain a very high level of intensity year round. Some people can and more power to you. I wish I was that person. I'm not. So I have to give myself a break.

And that's what I do. I find the key events I want to train for and I give myself some off time in between. All right. Question five. Sports and parenting. Did I play sports pre-military? So I'll just answer that first. Yes.

I played water polo in baseball in high school. school. I was completely average at both, but I don't think it matters if you're great at sports or you suck at sports or your average. I can say without a doubt that every lesson on leadership and teamwork is available through organized sports and you need to get your kids into organized sports. They're going to learn about communication, sacrifice, hard work, goal setting, failure, losing. They're going to learn about all of those things. The only thing that changed about those lessons were the practical application in the SEAL teams. That was the only difference. The principles were exactly the same. And I do believe that the combination of growing up

working for my dad in the environment that he created and my experience with organized sports set me with a good set of principles to move. forward with that were refined in the seal teams they were not created in the seal teams they were refined and there are so many lessons to be learned by getting out there and getting active when you're young so get your kids into sports second part of this question was no there is no manual on kids do you have any best practices let's start with this i am so underqualified to give any advice on parenting, but I do the best that I can. I am of the opinion that although I'm proud of the things I did in the military, my best chance of actually having an impact of any kind

or changing the world or this country in any way is not going to come through my military service. I actually think that anything that I might have been able to accomplish has already been eroded by the tide of the world. my best shot at it is to raise and parent amazing kids who can go out and make generational changes. And like I said at the beginning, I don't feel like I'm qualified to give advice on parenting. I have screwed up a ton and I continue to screw up and I'm sure I will continue to in the future. I've definitely lost my cool with my kids. I've been unreasonable.

I've allowed outside the outside world or outside influences to impact my behavior with the kids. I've missed important events and missed important days. And those things, they eat at me constantly. And I apologize for them to my kids. I do the best that I can to show my kids that I am just human like they are. and I make mistakes just like they're going to. I was having a conversation with my 12-year-old. We were driving in the car yesterday.

And to paraphrase what we were talking about, before we even began talking about it, and this is the way that I truly feel, my son is a freaking, he's 98% genius, 2% psychopath. But the kid is smarter than I am. And I told him that. I'm like, listen, buddy,

the only advantage that I can provide for you or the only advantage that I have over you is that I've been around a little bit longer and I've seen a little bit more. So this is what I've seen. Let's talk about what you're seeing and see if we can find some similarities. I never try to tell my kids that I'm better than them or that I'm smarter than them because the reality is that I'm not. So I make mistakes all the time. But when I make mistakes, I apologize to them. And I tell them I'll try to do a better job. And then I actually try to. For me, The key principle that I try to use with my kids is honesty. I love telling them that I don't know, and I love finding the answer with them together.

So although I feel unqualified to give advice on kids, I will give some. And all I can say is there is a reason that the back of the cleared hot t-shirt and the arm of the cleared hot sweatshirt says what it does. the best, most accurate, most correct words are completely meaningless when you couple them with actions that display the opposite of what comes out of your mouth. If you want to raise great kids, in my opinion, you have to set the example. They see everything. And I wish I had recognized that earlier. They see everything at a very young age, much younger than I thought that they were paying attention. If you want to have your kids end up being hard workers,

Show them what hard work looks like. If you want to have children that are disciplined in all things, whether it's financial or exercise or dietary, whatever it may be, show them what that looks like. If you want your children to value relationships and understand the immense positive impact that can come through going through life together with somebody that you love, then you need to show them what love looks like. Show them what affection looks like. show them what to do when they make a mistake. Do you want to have kids that make great critical decisions? Show them what reasonable and rational decision making looks like based on information and as many facts as you can gather and not on emotion.

It's the most important and impactful thing that I can do for my kids. And it's the most important and an impactful thing that you can do for your kids and for the country and for this world. So to sum it up, The only parenting advice that I have is be the example. Question number six, tips for getting into skydiving. Now we are talking. First off, I think everybody should skydive.

There's a lot of people out there who are scared of heights, myself included. All I can say is that it is an incredibly rewarding activity. So if you are curious about skydiving, here's what I would recommend. find a good and reputable drop zone and your best resource for that in the u.s skydiving is regulated by the united states parachute association believe their website is either uspa.org or uspa.com pretty sure it's dot org and if you log on to that it's going to give you somewhere on that page the ability to find all uspa drop zones in the u.s so that would be a great place to start your search For most people, I have found the experience will be better if you start with a tandem for a couple of reasons.

One, you don't have a lot of responsibilities. All you need to do is experience the jump. And two, it'll give you insight as to whether or not you actually enjoy skydiving, the activity in and of itself without putting too much money on the table. A tandem should be $200 or so, plus or minus, maybe $50 on either side of that. And that's less expensive than signing up for any accelerated free fall program, which is where they teach you to jump on your own with your own parachute on your back. And you have to make it through, I believe it's seven or eight jumps. So that's a large financial obligation.

The tandem you could accomplish in a couple of hours and it's going to give you some great insight as to whether or not you want to continue or pursue the activity. If you can't find a place to do a tandem, I would look for a wind tunnel. The most popular or the most common wind tunnels in the United States are called I Fly. The literally the letter I Fly. I'm sure they have a website, iFly.com, and I'm sure it's going to have a map, and they are all over the place. I think there's three in the Los Angeles, San Diego area at this point alone go in there. They're relatively expensive, but you don't have to worry about flying an airplane, any equipment.

You can kind of just get in there and get an idea of what the sensation of falling through the air feels like. And if you really like it, then maybe from there you can go do a tannin. And if you like that, maybe from there you can continue and go through AFF and take it as far as you want it to go. However you decide to pursue the sport, dedicate the time to completing the initial training, and then dedicate the time to maintaining your currency. My advice would be go slow. Go slower than you think you should go. Find a good mentor and listen to what that mentor has to say.

There's a couple trends that I see in the skydiving world that have, in my opinion, contributed to a vast majority of the injuries and fatalities. And the first one of them, it's called downsizing. and I would resist the urge to downsize for you new jumpers or people who are very early on in their jumping career. Downsizing references the size of your main canopy and is measured in square feet. I don't remember the size of the first free fall canopy that I jumped, but I bet it was in the mid-200s, probably a 250 to 260 square foot canopy. And I give you guys some reference, a military parachute is 360 square feet of fabric.

It is very docile in comparison to most sport parachutes. It is bigger, but it's also designed for an entanglement with another military jumper and both of you to have equipment and to land safely. So a common theme in civilian skydiving is to get to the smallest canopy possible as fast as possible. And I guess the best analogy would be you started your driving career, driving a school bus, and then you went to a minivan, then you went to a sedan, then you went to a Corvette, and then there's a Lamborghini, and then I don't know what's more high performance than that,

but I'm sure you get the picture. You're going from something that is slow and, I guess, cumbersome, to something that is incredibly fast and can get you into trouble, really quickly. And that's what happens to a lot of people. So my main parachute now that I jump when I'm not wingsuiting is 84 square feet. But that is almost 20 years of jumping and almost 7,000 jumps. And I am still incredibly careful every time that I air that thing out. Don't be in a rush to downsize learning how to walk again when you powder both of your femurs because you do a low turn and your canopy won't recover. I've never done it myself, but I've seen it happen to more than a few

people and the experience seems to suck. So resist the urge to downsize. I would also resist the urge to wear a GoPro. Go-pros, in my opinion, have killed quite a few people. And I don't mean that the GoPro was responsible in any way, shape, or form. The choice to wear a GoPro is on the individual, as is the choice of the individual who tries to do something outside of their experience level because a GoPro is pointed at them. And that's what I mean that gopros have killed a lot of people. The company isn't responsible at all. The individual who does something atypical to what they normally would do

because they want to make an amazing YouTube video or do something for social media and ends up either hurting or killing themselves is completely at fault. And you would think it never happens, but it happens all the time. And I'm sure it's true of people on skateboards, motorcycles, fill in the blank. You get a camera pointed on you. and you try to do stuff that you're just not capable of doing. So spend some time not wearing a camera,

just mastering the fundamentals of skydiving itself. With that, be realistic in your goals and your capabilities and your expectations. At the 200 to 500 jump range, I personally think that's the most dangerous time. I know it was for me because I remember my mentality. and I thought I was incredibly capable. I had very high expectations for myself. I thought I had a super high skill level.

And I can look back at all three of those things now, like I said, with nearly 7,000 jumps under my belt, which is a low number in the skydiving world for people who professionally jump. And my actual skill level, any of those three things, was totally laughable.

I probably survived mostly on luck. And I constantly have tried to do my best to shepherd people through that phase. It's a very, very dangerous window. One thing I do personally, and I've done this since my first jump, is I practice my emergency procedures before every jump. And the emergency procedures for skydiving would be cutting away your main parachute and deploying your reserve parachute.

The systems on a skydiving parachute are not complicated at all. It's just it all works off of the theory of drag. one small parachute pulls out a larger parachute. The handles that you have to pull to cut away your main parachute and deploy your reserve are on my parachute system. They're both made out of fabric and they're held in place by Velcro. But I touch them in sequence and in order before I exit the aircraft on every single jump. I always check to make sure my handles are in the correct location and I go through a simulated cutaway and reserve pole before every single jump. with that I put my stuff on exactly the same way and I highly recommend that people do exactly that

they need to develop a routine it shouldn't be well today I'll put my parachute on this way and I'll do it in this order figure out a way that works best for you and then do it that way every single time be amazing how unnatural it feels when you deviate from that and that's a good thing you need to make it a very systematic approach to putting on your your equipment. And then the last piece of advice for people who are looking to get into skydiving or people who are in skydiving is don't become complacent. I think complacency has killed more people in both skydiving and base jumping than any

other aspect that can lead to a fatality combined. All right. Final question. This one is based around aviation. And again, I'm remiss to not answer this sooner. So I apologize. But people have asked me about my aviation experience. My aviation career, or this, yeah, I'll call it a career, I guess, in air quotes, was not necessarily of my own desire.

I kind of just took the opportunities that came to me at the time. But it started in 2006. I moved back to San Diego from Virginia Beach. And at that time period, I was checking into Buds to be an instructor. And I think since the inception of Buds, they've probably been looking for ways to increase. increase throughput. And at this time period in 2006, the idea of the day was, let's get rid of winter hell week to see if we can get more students through training, which of course, they found off later on that it did not. So they got rid of it. But during that time period,

I checked in and they basically said, cool, we're recorded that you're on board. You can come to work a couple times a week, but we have nothing for you until a class phases up and gets into your phase of training. So I was driving home that day and where we lived in San Diego, there was a small municipal airport and I saw this little Cessna coming into land. And I don't know why I turned off the road, but I did. And I just kind of followed it to where the aircraft had parked and there was a flight school there. And I walked in there and I was talking to him about what it takes to become a pilot or just an interest in aviation in general. And of course, they got me hook line and sinker. Like, oh do you want to do a free intro flight like that's a rhetorical question of course i want to do a free

intro flight so i did and like i said hook line and sinker i started taking flight in essence the next day but all i was thinking about at that time was i just wanted to get my private pilots license which took me about 40 hours and i was doing lessons every day and i think i don't know maybe after that private pilots license i flew on my own maybe 20 hours maybe 30 so a total of 60 to 70 hours. You know, one of the biggest reasons I didn't continue on my own is that it's, it's not the cheapest endeavor in the world. But that was it.

I didn't really have any aspirations to do anything else with it. It was just something that filled the downtime for me. And then in 2011, I got a phone call from the guy I was working for at the time who was living in an area and he was driving, you know, basically commuting 12 hours each way multiple times per week. And that got old pretty quick. and he was interested in purchasing an airplane and flying, you know, cutting that commute time from 12 hours to an hour and a half. And he remembered that I had my pilot's license.

He's like, hey, you know, if you're interested in doing this, start taking your lessons again tomorrow and we're going to get an aircraft and away we go. And that's kind of what happened. A way we went. I had to get current again flying aircraft. So I did get current again. And then I started studying for and training for my instrument. rating, which I was able to get. Then I got my commercial license.

Then I got my multi-engine license. And then I started being the company pilot. Small company, small airplane. But again, I mean, I was the pilot for the company. And at about 500 hours through introductions that I had made in getting my previous licenses, specifically my instrument and my commercial and my multi-engine, I was introduced to an individual who was flying a Gulfstream. And they were looking for.

for somebody to sit in the right seat of the Gulfstream. There's mandatory two pilots in an aircraft of that size. And the guy was like, hey, if you want to give it a shot, if you can pass the school and get qualified, it's called being typerated. The Gulfstream I was flying was a G4. I think they make, I don't know if they make G1s. I don't know.

I know they made G4s, G450s, G5s, G500. I don't even know what they're on right now. But each one of those types of airframes is a specific school, Just because you fly a G4 doesn't mean you can fly a G650. So the guy essentially said, hey, if you can pass the type rating course, we'll let you sit up here up front with us and we'll let you fly. So I did. And I went to flight safety in Newport, California, and with just under 500 hours received

my type rating and a Gulfstream G4, and then flew that sucker all over the U.S. to Hawaii, to the Bahamas, Turks and Kako, Mexico. It was awesome. Shortly after that, shortly meaning like probably 18 months, I was offered another opportunity in a different series of jets, the Citation 525, which is all of the CJ aircraft. I think the straight Citation 1, Citation 2, and then CJ1 through CJ4. And for people who aren't interested in aviation,

just turn the podcast off now. So I'm probably losing guys. But I had the chance to pursue that type rating. as well, which I did. And when I passed that type rating, I also got my ATP license, which is the highest license you can get in the U.S. aviation world, and flew around in that aircraft as well. And I have just under 3,000 flight hours. I am not current in either aircraft anymore.

I haven't flown in probably two years. But the beauty of pilots licenses are that they're essentially good for life until you have a medical condition that would prohibit you from flying. And the type ratings, you know, all you would really need to do is go back and do refresher training and you can get right back up there and flying again. So for the people who are interested in aviation, there you go. I had no intention or plans to do any of that stuff, but opportunities were put in front of me, and I figured I might as well put one front in front of the other and see where it can go. And it went some really cool places. And a common question that I get that's

associated with that is how the hell did you do that, especially with the low hours that I had at the time? Let's just say it's atypical for somebody to get typerated in a Gulf Stream with 500 hours. And the answer is, I did it one flight at a time. I paid attention to all of the little things. And for me, one of the things that made flying, not, I wouldn't say it made flying easier, but it was able to sync up with my personality well is that it's completely checklist-based. There's a checklist for everything. And guess what?

There's a lot of checklist for stuff. in the military as well. So if you throw a checklist in front of me, I will absolutely not deviate from it. I will do it the same way every single time. And in the aviation world, that is a bonus, or a benefit, I should say. I also paid attention as a voracious reader of incident reports. And I do actually the same thing with skydiving as well. There's a monthly magazine that comes out called Parachutist. And probably my favorite section in the magazine is the incident report. And it talks about fatalities and injuries. And I read it every month. because I want to understand the mistakes that are being made, how they happen, the error chain that generally exists,

and by that I mean the small things that lead up to a catastrophic failure. I want to understand those things so I myself don't repeat them. And when it comes to aviation, it's the same thing. It's I've almost never, if not never, mechanical failure on the airplane. Like the wings just don't fall off of the planes. It's always these little things where somebody was tired and they didn't just. check the weather or they didn't check their fuel and all these little things that led into a catastrophe. So I'd read them and I would study them and I would make an effort to not repeat those things.

Another thing that helped me with aviation is I did it all at once. There was no lapse in currency. When I started training for my instrument rating, I would probably fly five to six days per week up until I took my test and then all of the other ratings as well. I just constantly kept flying and I was able to do so because a company was funding that flying and funding that training so I could be the company pilot. I would not have been able to do it on my own. I didn't have, don't have, didn't have the money to be able to do that. And then the last thing was I had some great mentors. Two people very specifically that I would not have been able to do that without.

First guy was named, actually three. The first guy was his name's Quentin. And he was my instructor all the way through instrument, multi-engineer. commercial, all that stuff. The other guy was Scott, and he was the guy who works for the FAA, who made the introductions for me without him and Quentin. It would not have been possible to have done any of those things. And then when I finally got into the G4, the only reason that I was successful was because

I had a great mentor to draft off of who kept me from getting in over my head. And instead of making me drink from a fire hose, he gave me a, you know, a thermos with a straw in it and I was able to absorb information at a rate that I was able to process and then function. So Bobby, the guy who sat left seat in the Gulf Stream and then eventually transitioned me over into the left seat and we flew all over the place for about two years. Again, none of it would have been possible without those people. And that's it. That is how I went from private pilot in a Cessna to flying basically all over North America and to Hawaii and to the Bahamas in a span of about three years once I started taking it seriously.

Not a typical route to take, and it wouldn't have happened without the help and support of others. But you know what? There's not a single aspect of my life that I can't think of or that I can think of that isn't exactly the same way. So find a mentor. or pay attention to the little things and just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

I know I'm a broken record, but that is truly how I've been able to do the things in my life. And that is all I got for episode 21. See ya. Thank you, everyone, for the support, like I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast. For everybody who's buying the T-shirts and repping those things out in the wild and the sweatshirts,

I can't tell you how much I appreciate it and how cool it is to see those pictures. Thank you for the feedback that you send via email through the contact on the Clearthot Podcast.com website for the reviews you guys have written on iTunes. And if you haven't written one, do me a favor and go, you don't have to write a review

or just click on the star rating whatever you want it to be. I don't care if it's a one or it's a five. If you think the podcast sucks, tell me why and I'll do my best to improve it. If you think it's awesome, tell me why or don't. I don't. I mean, I'm actually more interested in the negative side of the house.

What else? I think that's about it. All I can say is thank you. Tell somebody about the podcast if you dig it. And until next week, have a good Thanksgiving, everybody.