Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC - Full Auto Friday - Round 7

Episode Date: June 26, 2020

Today's Full Auto Friday will focus on one question, instead of multiple, with no time cap. I received a message from a man getting ready to leave active duty. He has questions about whether or not we are, or have accomplished anything with our efforts. Questions about whether or not we are the "force for good" that we say we are, whether or not the fight is worth the cost of American lives, and how to move on. They were tough questions, I hope my answers did them justice. Enjoy

Okay, got the red smoke. All right, North and south, west of the smoke, west of the smoke. Okay, copy, west of the smoke. I'm looking at danger close now. Okay, clear not.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, here we go. Full Auto Friday number seven, I think. Pretty sure it's number seven. I will confirm when I actually go to upload this file. traditionally these are five-minute segments a variety of topics but today I received a relatively long well not today actually got it yesterday now that I'm looking at it a long and pretty in-depth question from somebody in the military getting ready to transition out and it's got some deep questions they're going to take me a little bit to unpack and when I get a

question like this I'm going to dedicate an entire episode to doing the best I can to at least give my opinion. And that is, especially when I come to the military, but true on everything else that I say, anytime that I am talking about my military service or the military in general, please understand that I don't speak for the military, that I speak only for myself, and I can only talk about the personal experience that I had. Now, this question, the person who sent it in, requested to remain anonymous, and I will answer it and keep you anonymous. And keep you anonymous. So here we go, not to waste anybody else's time. It says, hey, man, sorry in advance for how dense this is. I have a very loaded and sort of heavy question for you,

and you certainly don't have to answer, though I think it'd be beneficial for myself and other dudes in my shoes. If you do use it, uh, keep my name out of it, essentially, which I will. I am currently in the process of getting out of the military, specifically and in parentheses the Ranger Regiment, for mostly political reasons, as well, as some mental health issues. I'd like to preface that my military career in SOF, which stands for special operations forces, has been completely average, if not slightly below. I know exactly how you feel. I would describe mine in exactly the same way. I only did one contract. And on this point right here, I'm not exactly sure what that means. I'm assuming you mean an enlistment contract,

but I've also heard the Ranger pathway pipeline described as a contract, and I've heard that in the seal pipeline as well. They go in with the seal contract, so I'm not exactly sure what that is. But he continues, I never did anything remarkable. What I'll say right now is actually making it to the Ranger Regiment and operating at that level, in my opinion, is actually very remarkable. He continues, I just did my job as well as I could. I do not want any clout or attention from this, so please keep me anonymous. A series of shitty events led me to a huge change in perspective on many things in my life. Your friend Nick Norris really hit the nail on the head when he was discussing how certain life experiences gave him clarity on what really mattered and led him to his decision

to get out. Right before my last deployment to Afghanistan, my fiancé of five years cheated on me with one of my best friends and teammates. It fucking sucked. But I never had the time, or I never had time to deal with it due to the upcoming deployment. Long story short, this particular deployment was rough and not for reasons you would expect. Before it, actually, I'll finish this, then I'll go back. I just couldn't get behind what we were doing there anymore. And I started feeling like I was wasting my life, plugging holes in the dam instead of trying to fix it. Wake up, eat, workout, con op, which stands for a concept of operations, kit up, get on the buses, get on the birds, fly to target, yada, yada, yada,

get back, sleep, etc. Many of the targets were. dry holes. The first thing I'm going to say here is not having the time or ability or not finding the time to work through what happened with your fiancé, and that sucks. And I wish I could say this isn't the first time. I've heard of a situation similar to this with another member of a team, but it's not the first time. The inability to deal with that, and you reference the episode with Nick. So I'm going to talk about what he and I were speaking on pretty frequently actually, which is the ability to compartmentalize

and stuff things down without actually dealing with them in the hopes that they're not going to impact your now, whatever you're now might be. And in this situation, it sounds like it might be that deployment you just did. And the reality is even the most efficient packers of shit down

into their psyche, I still think that it comes out. So I would allow yourself some time to really unpack whether or not the situation with your fiancé did impact your overall thoughts on the deployment. Because I certainly know on days where I feel like things are going my way, it informs my mentality on everything else in life. And let's be honest, a fiancé of five years, that's a long time with somebody to have that catastrophic of an experience right before you go overseas.

It's tough. And even the toughest people that I know, they're not autonomous robots. And so production pipelines and processes, they're not looking for autonomous robots. I actually think that they're looking for people who are very empathetic and in touch with their emotions, but we're taught to stuff, and it has long-term impact. So I think that what happened to you leading up on the deployment may have at least at a small level impacted your thought processes while you were on that deployment. And let me explain to people what you're talking about here. You know, when you're talking about a dry hole, that is an internal term. I don't think that shows up in doctrine anywhere. But that means that you go to an objective and either there's nobody there, which actually happens more often than people might realize, or perhaps your intelligence is wrong or the person that you're looking for.

Let's say you were going after one person or maybe an electronic device of some kind. Neither are there. We call it a dry hole. I'm going to say at a broad level, I would be surprised if any special operations force operates. in the last 15 to 20 years has a history of targets that is less than 50% dry holes. And I say that because I think a lot of people think that every time you go out on target, it's a movie playing on your phone or on the TV screen. And there's bullets whizzing by and there's things blown up.

And that's actually just not the case. Even at the highest levels with planning staff and intelligence staff and all of these people who can manage widgets and intelligence and network. I would say half of the time. And I think I'm being generous by saying half. And generous meaning that it could actually be much higher than that. Half of the time, you get all your stuff on for the dance and you go out to the helicopter and you get there and there's nobody there. And that can absolutely weigh on you.

And it can certainly weigh on whether or not what you think you're doing is actually having a difference, especially if you get on a bad role and that happens night after night after night. So I'll continue. I think I've unpacked everything for that. What you're talking about is an operational cycle. You know, you would wake up, eat, work out, con up, kid up, get on the bus, get on the birds, fly to target, and come back. And I would imagine a lot of that might have happened at night.

I called it vampire schedule. We'd get overseas and when you would wake up as that the sun was getting ready to set. Or if you wanted to work up, not work up, but work out before you were to go to that conop. You'd get up as the sun an hour or two before the sun was setting. And your day starts as night begins. because you're on that vampire schedule, you're leveraging the tactical and technological advantage of the night vision goggles and all of the sensors

and equipment that we have that allow us to seamlessly operate and see in the nighttime environment. It's an interesting cycle to get on. And it takes a few days, if not a week or two, to get used to that cycle, and then the same thing happens when you come back from overseas. So moving on, he finished saying many of the targets were dry holes. Nonetheless, we fucked up so many people's homes,

whether it be destroying their walls or turning the place upside down during SSE. SSE stands for sensitive site exploitation. And quickly, an explanation of what it is, you go to a target, you secure the target, you make sure that there's no more threats, and then you can begin the SSE, which is where you're starting to look for, things of value, intelligence items. You're basically, it could be described as tossing the house for sure. and there are SSEs where exactly that happens, and there are ones that are much less robust,

and there's less damage done, but I understand exactly what this person is talking about. So turning the place upside down during SSE, sometimes we would kill their animals. I had teammates that would take souvenirs during post-assault, watches, etc. And one day it just clicked for the first time that I didn't feel like we were the good guys anymore. Well, we were compared to the savagery of ISIS.

but we still were not being the force for good that we were supposed to be. And we were certainly not winning the hearts and minds. And I'll stop here. And we're not even at the questions yet, but I'm going to stop here and work my way backwards. Winning the hearts and minds, if you've been overseas or were overseas any time after probably 2008, you're hearing the term hearts and minds. Because it's no secret, or it shouldn't be a secret, that the United States and the people who are deploying overseas, I don't think. think we're going to be in Afghanistan until 2080. I hope that we're not. We're in Iraq. So at some point in time, the civilians of the countries that we were occupying, they have to be able to

create and facilitate the environment that they want to live in moving forward. The hearts and minds came from an attempt to allow, and this again is in my opinion, we are in this country in an attempt to rid that country from what we perceive to be evil or oppression or injustice. And we're trying to turn the hearts and minds of the people that live there full time as citizens of those countries away from what they've been used to and towards the efforts that we are trying to move forward with. And what I can say about that is when you get to a point where the locals trust you. and they will provide not overt help, but passive help. Maybe a warning, maybe some intelligence through word of mouth that, you know, perhaps avoid this road,

perhaps avoid that culvert, perhaps avoid this irrigation field. Or sometimes it would be much more specific. You know, if you were to go look at this culvert at whatever time and night, you might find the people who are not from this area, but are hiding in plain sight right. in front of you because we could not tell the difference at a visual perspective. But if you were to go and look in this area at this time, you might find the people who are responsible for bearing IEDs that are flipping MRAPs because they're putting 1,500 pounds of HME, which is homemade explosive, underneath these vehicles with a V-hole, and they're literally

inverting the V-hole inside of the cab and killing everybody in it. That passive help, in my experience, and in my opinion, it actually saved more lives than anything else. And the only way that they're willing to help you is if you gain their trust and you maintain their trust. And it's not an easy thing to do. And that's where the hearts and minds come in. And it's so important that you're able to do that. And you say, you know, we were the good guys compared to the savagery of ISIS. I don't think it's a good idea to use good as a comparative term. I think it's pretty obvious when things are wrong and when things are right. And the easiest litmus test may be, instead of looking at things from the perspective of the one

taking the action, look at it from the perspective of the person having the action taken on them, or you are the receiver of that action. There are absolutely times where you need to shoot animals. And I have shot dogs, but I've also been surrounded by dogs on target that were barking, that were not a threat to me. Could I have shot them? Yes, I could. And I would have been able to articulate it, but it would have been wrong, and it would have absolutely eaten away at the hearts and the minds. If a dog comes after you, and both of those countries, Iraq and Afghanistan, anybody who's been there will tell you that the stray dogs are a legit issue. Some of them are very violent, and you'll find some of them inside of compounds. Sometimes you're not going to have a

choice. Taking souvenirs post-assault. You know, what you didn't add on to this is as to whether or not it was a kinetic assault. Are you talking about taking the watch off of somebody who is dead, or are you talking about taking the watch off of somebody's countertop, even though countertop is a term you're not going to use very often in Afghanistan or Iraq in my experience? I'm not going to put a qualitative judgment on whether or not one of those is more right or wrong. You know, Mike came on, it was a few episodes ago, and he talked about, he took the watch off of an individual that he had killed because he wanted to remember him for the rest of his life. And I understand exactly why he did that. And perhaps my personal judgment on this issue is skewed.

I don't have a problem with Mike doing that. I don't have a problem with him having an amount of respect for an individual who stood toe to toe with him on the battlefield. and they duked it out and he won. And because of the respect he had for the man, he wanted to remember him. And he uses his watch as that remembrance. There's a difference between that and enduring an SSE on a target that is potentially a dry hole

or even a target, you know, where maybe you find your HVT and you're going through and you see a watch and you take it because you just want it. That to me is very crystal clear wrong. And again, the assessment of having it happen to you versus you're the one who is doing it. When in the hearts and minds, it's really hard. Even in the execution, you know, maybe at a broader level, war at a broad level is not

precise. This hearts and mind thing, this might be the most difficult portion of your questions for me. The most precise military operation at the highest levels has still such a residual risk for causing damage to individuals to property. I've been there when people have been injured by breaching charges. I've been there when we have overloaded a breaching charge and it collapsed an entire structure and did severe structural damage and people were inside of it. I've seen bombs go where they're not supposed to go.

And I've seen where, you know, a kid was reaching for a door and a breaching charge went off and it essentially cut off. It was a little girl's arm. Nobody ever wants that to happen. And every time something like that happens, you're degrading and chipping away at the hearts and minds. And it's tough. And war is not precise. And it's this balance, constant and consistent balance, both at a larger organizational, operational level, are you doing the right thing and are we doing it properly?

And then at a more micro level as an individual, am I doing the right thing and am I doing it properly and am I doing it properly? and am I doing it for the right reason? And I think both of those levels have to be constantly observed, objectively, and course corrections need to be made if a good example would be, hey, we're overloading these breaching charges. For the last four targets that we've hit,

not only have we gone through the wall, but we've also knocked over the front wall of a building, and we're causing damage on the inside. We're fucking people up, and we're losing the trust in the areas that we're supposed to be gaining trust and winning the hearts of mind. You have to make a correction for that.

If you see guys on the team that are taking things that they shouldn't be taking, the correction absolutely has to be made. And again, there's levels of that. There's the operational element level, and then there's the individual level. If you don't do that, what ends up happening or what will end up happening is that the United States is going to win every single battle

and we're going to absolutely lose the war. That is how that happens. and it's not just because of individuals, it's because of individuals and people a level up at the operational level and people up above that at the strategic level. It all has to be taken into account. And it's just, I advise against the use of warfare

and kinetic activity, I'd be the first person to tell you that it should be the measure of last resort because if you execute that measure, there's going to be secondary, in tertiary consequences that you're not going to be able to control every single time and then you find yourself in this balance. Am I doing more good than harm? Am I doing more harm than good? Because we could go into a target and kill everybody in there that is bad.

And by accident, or maybe before we got to the target, had the people on it that we were actually looking for, we had to work our way through three dry holes to refine our intelligence. But every single one of those, we blew the gate, we blew the wall, we blew the the door. We did damage at a physical and personal level on each one of those. And then you end up killing some guys that were legitimately there trying to do bad things. What do you call that night? Do you call that night a victory? Do you call it a wash? Do you call it a loss? Because the people that you damaged along the way, they have a memory too. And the next time that they see somebody putting an IED in the ground or the next time they see somebody who looks identical to the

them from our perspective, from the perspective of an American service member patrolling through a street. And they look the same, but to the locals, they 100% know that that other person is a foreign fighter from out of the area. But they remember what happened the last time that we were on target. So what do they do? They do nothing. And somebody ends up getting hurt or killed for it. Those secondary and tertiary consequences and how they impact the hearts and minds and the overall what I'll call win to loss ratio, it's critical. And I am not equipped in any way, shape, or form

to be able to calculate at any high level an efficient and effective way to do that. But I know that it started, and for me, I could control my individual actions, and that's what I focused on. And once I, you know, making sure that those were in order, then you can start looking at the broader operational a level above you. So I hope some of that made sense. I totally went off on a tangent there.

Okay, hearts and minds. Once I got back, I fell into a very dark place. I got to the brink of suicide. I'm good now, and I've had some phenomenal people help get me back on my feet. First off, that's awesome. I'm glad that you found your way back. And what I take from that sentence right there is that the impact of other people around you and the ability and willingness for you to be able to reach out and ask for help. And the ability and willingness of people to be there to receive that request and then take action on it, that's what makes the biggest difference. I am never worried about the friends of mine that I have had that would reach out for help.

I'm not worried about that person, the one that I'm very worried about who says nothing or says, no, I'm fine, and then goes and tries to deal with it on their own. That person gives me a much greater cause for concern. So having that community of people to reach out to, that's huge. After I decided not to quit on life, I got very introspective, and I came to the conclusion that I did not believe in what we were doing overseas enough to die for it. We only have one shot at life, and there was just so much more that I wanted to do. I still don't know if I think that bullshit part of the world is worth any American life, and I hate thinking that so

many fucking amazing people have died over there. So I guess there's a few ways to look at that. The portions of the world, specifically that I was a part of where Iraq and Afghanistan, and to me it was much less about that portion of the world. It was about going to a place that was permeating and growing an ideology that was the antithesis of everything that I believe and what I think this country stands for. Afghanistan, to me, was a cleaner example of that than Iraq. you know, a training area for, you know, people who were working up for the attacks on 9-11, a place where bin Laden was allowed to grow and facilitate and foster an ideology.

100%. You know, I don't know if it's possible to erase an ideology. And like I've already said, if you damage more people along the way and turn them into enemies along the way, in the attempt of eradicating an ideology, you might be making the problem, worse. So again, that's super complex. But by not going there, we're not making ourselves or anybody who might be a target for that ideology any safer. So it's not necessarily about that part of the world. The reason we ended up in that part of the world, specifically with Afghanistan, is that that is where the ideology was growing from. So we went in an attempt to cut off the head.

Now, whether or not the long-term impact of that was beneficial or not in the long run is up for discussion, right? Because instead of having them in one country, the ideology grew into ISIS and everything that else it had become and it morphed. And because we were so good at finding them and locating them and then fixing the target, they stopped collecting themselves in larger groups and they spread out all over the world. And again, it's this attempt to attack an ideology, which I don't even know. know if it's possible, but we were so good at it at that area in the world that they spread out. But we had to go there at least to begin that. Now, Iraq, I don't know how history is going to judge us on the invasion of Iraq. And if we went there for the correct reasons, towards the tail end of Iraq, at least when I was there as well, it became much different than it was when we first invaded.

You know, we were fading, we were encountering the Iraqi military or what was left at the Iraqi military at a very infrequent level. And later on, fighters from all over the world were coming to fight Americans and to get their experience fighting Americans. So at that point, I would say, again, we were in fact fighting an ideology. But I think the reasons that we went to Iraq are due a very, very granular look. And I think history, in my opinion, should judge us pretty harshly on what we used is our justification to enter that country. Amazing people did die over there. And the amazing people, in my opinion, died over there.

So other amazing Americans here in this country wouldn't have to die here. And that's the way that it works. And I'm glad that very few people wear a uniform and will go over there and engage directly in that. I'm glad that most people don't have to ever experience that because I don't want them to. But that is what is required to maintain, right, not to provide. divide what we have, but to maintain what we have. The ideology, specifically again in Afghanistan that we were fighting, was the antithesis of what this country stands for, in my opinion.

The people who are willing to put their toes on the line to fight for that so others don't have to, you're right, they're fucking amazing. And it sucks that they would have to go over there and shed their blood so others wouldn't have to. But I'd be willing to bet, even if they knew what the outcome was going to be for them as an individual, they would still volunteer to go, so others didn't have to. It's not about the portion of the world. It's about the people and what their service was providing others. Moving on, it's just hard for me to justify the loss of such good guys. I agree with you. With that conclusion, my entire worldview shifted. I had thought from an early age, I'm going to go be a

Ranger or a Seal or whatever in fight bad guys, and it's going to be great. And that just isn't the case. And the fight is less than 1% of the time. Maybe I just didn't get to see the good, but hearing you who operated at the highest level share a similar sentiment really resonated with me. I agree with you. The fight is not a large portion of what it is that you do. And I think if you looked at a 20-year career in a conventional special operations community, if you spent 0.05% of your 20 years actually engaged in combat, you're probably at the upper limits when it comes to the amount of time actually engaged in that environment. the vast majority of your career is going to be training, deploying, hopefully doing meaningful work,

but often like you described, hitting dry holes, training partner forces, enabling partner forces, assisting partner forces. It's just you're not there with shit blowing up and flying over your head all the time. And I've said this, I think probably too much on this episode already. It's a misconception that does nobody any good. So if you're going to come into the military and you think that it's going to be, well, I was just about to say under siege and I have no idea why I was going to say under siege. But if you think it's going to be Rambo or Black Hawk down every day on the job, you're going to be so incredibly

underwhelmed and you might go 10 years without seeing anything. You might go your whole career without seeing anything. And if that's all you wanted from entering into the service, imagine how upset and disappointed you're going to be getting out. You're not going to have a sense of fulfillment based on your expectations going into the service. All right. So now, after all, I have two questions, or he has two questions. I've heard you speak on how you struggle with if any of what you did had any deeper meaning effect on making the world a better place. What has helped you wrestle with that?

Do you ever find yourself thinking he didn't need to die? I'm sure it's harder for you since you had way more time invested than I did, and I mean no disrespect. You have lost way more than I have, which is why I value your input. I toil with this one, and I tussle with it personally often. and I talk about it often. I don't know in the bigger picture if I was able to do anything

that is going to make, you know, I have three kids, and I look at them, and I think about them often when I think about my career. Because one of my biggest fears was I didn't want to get involved with something that my children would have to finish.

And I don't think I was ever involved in anything at any level that had a global impact. But I do think it made a difference. And my opinion on that used to be different. I used to think that it was different. It was just a waste. But in talking to enough people with a similar background that I had, somebody at some point still has to put their fingers in the dam.

Even though it might seem futile in the moment, it can at least give others the ability to move out of the way. And if you don't do that, the cumulative damage from not putting your fingers in the holes in the dam that are sprouting themselves up can be absolutely catastrophic over time. I think the wars that we're fighting are going to be generational. if not forever. And if we ever are going to have success, it's going to be built on those little microscopic steps

that people are putting in their literal blood, sweat, and tears on. And it may not seem like it's making a difference in the moment, but I am of the belief that in the aggregate, they will be the reason that we are successful or maybe not successful. And to your point where did I ever feel like he didn't need to die? Yes, I feel that way all the time about my friends, and I also have felt that way often about people that I have also personally killed or seen killed.

You know, you go to Afghanistan and you watch somebody who's farming for most of a day, and then they go and they pick up an AK because they're in the Taliban as a part-time job in the afternoon. And maybe they knew where you were in a high ground position for the most of the day, and they decide to take a shot at you or they start shooting at you and you shoot back and you kill the person. Completely legitimate, hostile act, hostile intent, imminent threat to your life. But at the end of the day, that individual, you know, did that person need to die? I don't know.

I don't have any issue with taking those actions personally, but I also don't think that that person in that situation is going to have a global impact. You know, maybe he was watching or harvesting a poppy field, and it was his part-time job to shoot at people that he didn't recognize. So this has to be viewed from both sides of the coin. You know, American service members and the people, people that we are tasked with going over there and taking them off the chess board.

The people who are at the absolute apex of the organizations or the ideologies that we're fighting, I don't know of any other way to change their mind. You're not going to reason them out of their position, so you have to take them off the chessboard. But at some point, it reaches a level where, yeah, you might be justified in taking that life, but the reality is that person probably didn't need to die. Second question, what is your advice to guys like myself who feel like they did? not accomplish what they set out to do in the community and decided to call it quits early, for whatever reason, whether it be moral, political, etc.

And piggybacking off of that, how do you wrestle with the egotistical part of your brain that still wants to go overseas and canoe someone's head in, even when you do not agree with our nation's foreign policy slash the long-term strategy for the war? Or the quagmire we got ourselves into, that feeling of, I didn't get enough. I see a lot of guys who just want to fight and don't care much for what they are fighting for. So long as they get to the fight. Maybe that is just a theme within the Rager Regiment and not the rest of soft community, but it is very apparent here.

And recognizing that in myself is a big reason I decided to get out. Okay, there's a lot there. I don't feel like I did enough in my career. People do not believe me when I say that my career was average at best. I have never been involved in anything that I think was large or on a grand scheme of things. I think that I tried to do the job to the best of my ability. And that's all I could have done. The people that were the most unhappy were the ones that thought that there was always another foot that should have dropped.

Or there was always and next. And I struggled with that when I got out of the military because I, had gotten out and I came from a job where I thought, you know, the actions that we were taking and the areas that we were going into, they would make the news sometimes. And then I found myself in a position where I was watching the news and it's very difficult. And you sit there and you're like, well, you know, what am I going to do now? And then you start having these creeping doubts, did I do enough? What really helped me is the realization that what you do in the military should by no means

anchor who you are as a person and what you can do with your life. I realized that my military service was the beginning of what I thought I was able to do. And the first realization for that, for me, was when I started fundraising for the SEAL Foundation.

I couldn't go overseas anymore, even though you're speaking directly to a lot of how I felt, this egotistical desire to go back there and get into the fight. I didn't really have a desire to go back. in kill people unless they were the people that needed to be killed.

That's just, I mean, and to answer that part of your question, take some time to identify why it is that you want to do that. Do you feel like that you didn't get to do enough of that? Because if you got to do some of that and other people didn't get to do any, is there a value difference between the two of you is one, a better soldier than another? The realization you'll come to is that putting the uniform on, going over there and doing your job is what mattered. the body count is the single most fucking irrelevant figure and metric in the United States military.

It's irrelevant and it's not a marker as to whether or not you were a good. Ranger Seal, Marsok, fill in the goddamn blank. It doesn't matter. And I say that and I know it's used as a measuring stick and I understand why it is. It's a line that, you know, everybody seems to want to get across because it's a profession of arms. But at some point, I hope people realize it's an irrelevant metric. It doesn't make you a good person because it say you have. the most kills in the SEAL community and you come back and you're an alcoholic and you're on

your third marriage and you're in debt and you can barely hold a security clearance and you can barely come to work on time. You're a piece of shit and I don't want to work with you regardless of how good you were behind the sights of a gun. And now I've completely forgot what I was talking about. Went down on a total tangent. I was fundraising for the SEAL Foundation and I realized that I could still stay in the fight. I could stay in the fight by supporting the families. So I tried to fundraise to raise money for the families because I knew that the families could support the people that were going overseas and still putting their toes on the line. And in the process of doing that, I realized that there are so many different ways that you can serve that have absolutely nothing

to do with the military. And instead of looking backwards and saying, well, I don't know if I have done enough in my military career, flip the mirror. Well, not the mirror, because that wouldn't work. Flip your head around. Instead of looking backwards, start looking forwards. And look at all the the things that you can do. You can take your military experience and the things that you learned about leadership and integrity and character, and you can impart those on people around you. You can have an impact on your family. You can have an impact on your community. You can have an impact on your fucking country if you do it properly. Take the things that made us unique in the military due to our occupation and spread them to as many people as possible. Take the highs and the lessons

that you learned and pass them on so we can generationally move this country in the right direction. And if you dedicate yourself to doing that, you're not going to waste your time looking in the rearview mirror and worrying about ranking yourself in comparison to your peers and your military service. And the last thing, you know, you said you see a lot of guys

who just want to get into the fight and don't care much what they're fighting for. Well, in my opinion, those people shouldn't be there. It's a privilege to wear the flag of this nation on your uniform and to have that issued to you instead of have to go out and buy it somewhere on a t-shirt and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with buying it on a t-shirt I'm saying it's unique in an occupation

that it is presented to you and you get to go overseas often without a lot of oversight and the only time some people are going to see that flag is when they see it on your body and how you behave is how they are going to view every American going forward from there it's an absolute privilege and the right people need to be wearing that uniform And if people are over there to fight for fighting's sake and they don't understand what it is and they don't have a good moral compass or a path that they are following absent leadership, then those are the wrong people and they shouldn't be there. And I don't know how to fix that other than tailoring or tweaking the selection process, refining the leadership training that would go into the people that would lead those individuals. But you need to be there wearing that flag for the right reasons. Because if you're not, again, hearts and minds.

We'll win every battle, but we'll lose the war. And I think that's all I got. I went far too long for a full out of Friday. For the individual that asked this question, I hope that that helped. I hope that that made sense. Got a little bit lost along the way because I still am very passionate about a lot of this stuff.

But I hope that it was helpful. And I'll see everybody on Monday.