Kitbag Conversations - Kitbag Conversations Episode 5: Sea Stories

Episode Date: March 27, 2023

We are joined by Posidon S2 (@posidon_s2). Listen to boat stuff with us <3

One, two, three! We're live, dude. Okay, yeah. So, everybody, welcome to the Kit Bag conversation podcast. This is episode four, five, six, seven. What is it, Matt? It's five, four. It's four. Uh, it's four. Whatever. It's whatever we fucking make it. Um, yeah. So this one's actually been something that we've had on the

block for a while, because I found Poseidonus too, and he was doing GEOINT on boats. And I was like, this is good GEOINT. And then we started talking and I realized like he is a man of adventure. Ladies and gentlemen, not only is he a sailor and sailed around the world, he's also a paratrooper. He's also done army, like training, like infantry training, and it's all on the civilian side. So if you're one of those guys, it's like, I'm an operator, but you don't use your gear. Chances

are Poseidonus too is better than you, probably by a lot. So I want to talk about that. I want to talk about his GEOINT. I want to talk about how he's like one bar tripped away in West Africa for becoming a mercenary. Like it's it's wild what you've done, bro. So I guess the question is like, when where do you start with that? Like, did you start with because like, I'll just say it like the merchant Marine, was it that like, what happened? You just I know you've been talking to you for a

while. So it's like, I know that you have adventure, but like what in your blood, but what the fuck? I think the easiest question to summarize that is, where is your pocket? And how can I hold it? Like, yeah, if you haven't served, like, you just need to go talk to Poseidonus too, and, and live vicariously through him, or if you want adventure back in your life, like, go talk to Poseidonus too, like Jesus Christ.

Oh, no. Oh, no, he's muted. I can't hear him. Oh, God. Oh, is it? No, we can't hear him now. Nope, we got to we got to fill in until this great Queen's accent comes back. The silver bullet, you know, everyone talks about those. This is a shameless plug. The Coors light. The Coors is audio is still not working. Oh, man. It stays in. It stays in.

The audible fuck you can see like escaping. He's getting up. He's checking things. Shoot. Yep, there it is. Oh, just you just shit that just shit the bed on the intro. I know. We need some kind of head. That's not very good. No, it's not.

Check the connections. I mean, it's good enough. Well, let's try one more time. Yeah, go for it. Go for broke it. Can you hear me? Yeah, you're good now. Okay, I don't know what that was all about. All right. Well, that was quite an intro. Thank you. You ever see that SNL skit where they

they got Nick Cage like they're like they're like me, Nick Cage. And he goes, that's high praise. That's kind of that's my phrase. Yeah, no, I I've always sort of I've always sort of been interested in the world. Like even from an early age, my earliest memories are my dad put me in front of the television on a Saturday to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark, so he can work on the work on the bathroom. And then I think we ended up watching Raiders of the Lost Ark together

and then the work never got done. And and and yeah. And so that's I think that's where it all got kind of where I kind of got started. I wanted to travel. So kind of when I was going to college and trying to figure it out, I kind of was like, all right, well, I need a job. I can't just like be a hippie and go back back and not that there's anything wrong with that, but I needed to do it like responsibly

in my mind. So yeah, I went to I went to Maritime Academy in New York. So not the Merchant Marine Academy, not the Federal Academy, but yeah, there's there's seven of them all over the country. But the first one is New York Maritime. So that's where I went and it's set up. It's kind of like a regiment of cadets and we've got a got a training ship. So we would we would regular college classes throughout the year.

And then you have kind of like your really focused shipboard type stuff, so navigation, leadership stuff, firefighting, lifeboat, you know, just all like the worst case scenario type courses that you need to know if you're going to be in in command of a ship. And then every May, we would go out to sea for a month or two months and we would go over to Europe. We'd sail over to Europe. It's pretty cool. Yeah, it's dope.

It's way better, way better than ROTC. Like ROTC, you're just getting like crotch rot in Kentucky. And they're like, you'll be an officer one day. I was fucking lame fucking. I'm like fucking West Point. We're not even going to talk about West Point or is it just they're awful? But no, that's between them and the the Academy boys. Like in the Academy, they're like, I don't care.

I don't care. Yeah, no, dude. No, because like he's talking about like, so what are you? Twenty one, twenty two during this? Or like in your 20s, right? Or is it like my early? Yeah, I guess my late teens. So wow, dude, what the fuck? Yeah, so I got some 17.

I did a victory lap. Yeah, I got a little late. But that's it is better. Now, because you like you talking about this, right? Like we've talked on the side a lot. And it's like you talk about like, oh, I want to do some do some spook shit or do something. And I'm just like, dude, no wonder you do because like you're 18, 19 year old.

You're just like, oh, we're sailing to Europe. You're going to sail. You've done firefighting. You've learned how to sail a boat. And then you're sailing to Europe. You're having a great time. You're probably drinking tons of fucking liquor and booze and eating the best food. You're 19. Like your bar has already been set fucking high.

It's it's hard to come in now, like be working as sure. Now it does. It's kind of a they're like big shoes to fill to kind of try to get back to doing something, something needs like that's why I keep. I keep it interesting with all the. The parachuting in the and the training and stuff, you know, you started with heroin and then worked your way back. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, so that was so, yeah, like a moment of realization. Like you get back to the States to get down to like a desk job or something. And someone's talking about how their dog didn't want to go on a walk this morning. You're like, that's it. I'm kidding. Yeah, yeah, I've had those moments for sure. For sure. I've had those moments like this isn't a problem. Like this isn't a problem. No, no showers for three days because the boilers couldn't make enough water.

You know, we couldn't we didn't have enough water for the boilers on the ship. That's a problem, right? Yeah, the ship smells like a like a ball's ass. Like just wrapped in a bacon sandwich. It's been sitting in the sun for three weeks and you're bitching about your dog pooping on the sidewalk and not having poop bags this morning. Like I'm going to jump out that window. That's I'm going to end it.

You're like, I'm going to be I will be the fifth plane. I swear to God. So so you did the merchant. So yeah, so yeah, so I so I went there. I graduated and then I got picked up by the Navy. So they have so the Navy has what's called military seal of command. A lot of people don't I assume a lot of people don't know about this because I think I get even Navy guys are like, well, what do you know?

Like you'd meet them. You'd be in Djibouti or wherever or Naval Station Norfolk and they're like, who are you? Why do you have a beard and why are you on this ship? So the Navy has all these support vessels. They do everything from, you know, they do special operations support, everything, you know, all the way up to that to just as simple as like lugging groceries, bombs and gas, you know, and their Navy gray hull ships and they get underway.

And so like we'll go out to sea and and we would, you know, rendezvous with the with the battle group or whatever. And we come alongside, you know, and just sling them whatever they need. So you like pallets of toilet paper and J dams. This is to the carrier. And then, yeah, so, you know, that's sort of that's probably the bulk of what military service command does. And then and then there's some of the more interesting stuff, which I got

to I got to play around with. And then you want to talk about setting the bar high, because that was like my second ship with them. And then it was like, that was all I wanted to do. And I spent all my time trying to get back there, but never doubt. But I still got to do some cool stuff in between. And then so I did that for a few years. And then I did salvage in the med, which was sweet.

And then I got an opportunity to come ashore. And so now here I am. So yeah, dude, that's I can like so. I've had my run in with contractors, like in the army, like dudes who are overseas as intel support guys or whatever. And it it's hard sometimes, because it's like. You'll meet people who are under qualified. You'll meet people who are way over qualified.

It's really weird, but I can't imagine being like an Annapolis grad worked your ass off, done all these, like just zoned out. Like you're 25 when you lose your virginity and like you don't know what beer is because you're like, that'll hurt my runtime. And there you are in a carrier strike group. You finally got your boat. And then all of a sudden there's Poseidon S2 with a beard, a New York accent. He's been around the world, fucked everything twice.

What's up, I got you bombs. And he's like, how the fuck did you become a captain runway? Like you're like the Joey Diaz showing up to the MMA party. Like exactly everybody, like the Navy may not want to hang out with you, but you probably got the interest of every Marine and like soldier. And like, how the fuck did you know it's funny, too? So like, so I wasn't. So I was so I was a third officer when I when I was working for military

service, the command, I eventually upgraded to second officer. So all that means is so third officer is your officer in charge of a watch. So I'm trying to think of like what the Navy equivalent would that be? Like officer, the deck, something like that. Yeah. And also like O.D. And so that's like a, like maybe like an Ed and Ensign rank or a Lieutenant J.G. Don't quote me on that, but that's like sort of the equivalency there.

So that's kind of where I was in the pecking order on the ship. But what's funny is I had a captain, um, total stud, total stud. And he was a Marine Corps helicopter pilot before he became a captain. It's way better. Yeah. And it was just so funny because I remember sitting talking to him and he's like, oh yeah, I used to fly helicopters in the Marine Corps. And I'm like, and then I had to end up here.

And you know, just this long convoluted story, but it was, uh, you know, it's funny. You know, when you're young and you meet a girl and then if you need months, I do want to ask you though, because I was also on a ship when I was deployed and were you the guy to christen a shower to be the piss shower? If you were underway, someone always did. Well, I can't, well, I can't confirm it. I don't know.

I know I roll in with the beard and you're like, no, this is mine now. This is, this is terrible. This is terrible and disgusting, but I'll tell you anyway. So they would, so I was on a ship. So I was on a ship and it was, um, it was a hybrid man ship. So it was, it was a USS ship. It was half merchant Marine, half US Navy, uh, in the mission spaces and stuff. And, um, like the, we were like, I was in birthing as an officer, which whatever.

Boohoo. But, um, but, you know, but it was like, it was like junior officer birthing. So it was, it was like, you know, two guys, whatever, Ed, but we had no, we had no head in our, in our birthing. I'm sure you could find one, but just the, just the sink. So you mentioned that. So the thing was though, like you couldn't be out, you couldn't be out about in the passageway, like not in uniform, you had to be in uniform to go.

Like you couldn't just roll out in your flip flops, like go take a leak. But there was this sink that was in the room with us. So that was sort of the, the designated pisser sink. So we had one of those. That's not even close to something I was expecting. Well, as long as my mother doesn't listen to it, we'll be like, hi, John. What the fuck? No, dude, so show up to Afghanistan day one.

I'm like a fresh pin, firstly tenant. Like I'm a staff main officer. Usually this is reserved for captains that have been in for like five, six years. I've been in the army a year, like two years plus schooling. So I've only been in this unit for like a year, some change. Get to Afghanistan, get to Jalalabad. And for those that don't know, it's a shit hole. It's literally go to Home Depot, go to the garden shed section, go to the woodsheds.

That's what we slept in. And they called them beehives because they'd sleep like eight dudes. It was just like, yeah. And sometimes they had curtains between the rooms. Sometimes they had like plywood in between. And so like we were changing out units. So I was one of the first group there. And so we were changing out with third ID.

I walk into my room room and they open the door. And the dude who was like, hey, sir, here's your room. Here's where we'll be staying. Immediately gags door opens and me and like, I'm like, what the fuck? And so he's like, oh my God, what is that? Just turn on your headlamp because it's nighttime. Look around. Nothing but like fucking piss bottles, piss bottles, jizz rags.

Everybody come to find out what had happened is that everybody in this wooden shed had been pissing in bottles in the middle of the night and like jizzing. And this dude who was supposed to be in this room, he got hurt. And so they sent him home early. So this has just been like the fucking garbage disposal because like you don't want to leave your chew at night because like if rockets go off, you might have to run into a bunker or it'll be cold. So they've just been pissing and throwing.

It was just literally a dump. And so they're like, we'll find you another room. But I'll never forget turning on that headlamp and just seeing amber piss bottles, wall to wall, looking down at the ground and seeing like old t-shirts that they had jerked off into. I was just like, oh, oh, oh, God. So a piss sink isn't that bad. Like it does kind of lower your sanitation level because after that, you're like looking at sinks like that's a good piss.

That's about where it was. It was the ideal height. That's what it was. And I think that's what that's a plant of the seed in the room. We're like, this is perfect. This is perfect. So like, how many, you're 20, what? 425 having sailed all over and done all this shit?

Yeah, I probably at this stage, I'm like in my early mid 20s at that stage. So yeah, go ahead. I was about to say, because we were talking about this, the Blackwater Training Facility, it's been named 100 different things since then. It'll always be Blackwater. Yeah, so I was on an ammunition ship and we were home ported in Norfolk, Virginia. So we were getting ready to, we were getting underway to load up to go give the carrier ammunition for their deployment.

But in order for that to happen, all the officers have to be small arm qualms. So your qualms good for like a year. So you got to go. But depending on your ship, it's not always like a top priority to get you the qualms, right? So, but on an ammunition ship, like you need it. So yeah, so they go, all right, you're going to Blackwater. And they were still calling it Blackwater, even though at that time I was academy. Like it's just called, I mean, I'm pretty sure they still call it Blackwater even now.

But that was super cool. So we drove down to Moyak and I went in Cementra. It was just, it was like, it was just like a, in my mind was like big bosses, if you play Metal Gear, like his base, you know, you go down, you know, just go down the road. And at the time I want to say like, I don't know if they were still like Eric, Princes, Plains and helicopters or whatever, but all those were there. So the, whatever is the little, the little, the little birds, the civilian little birds were there. And those like those, I guess the Casa 212s or whatever, I'm probably getting out of nature all wrong.

But they were all there. And whatever, it was just, it was just a goofy small arms day. You know, just the Beretta 9 millimeter shotgun and M14 rifle, but whatever it was, I got to do it at Blackwater. So it was fun. It's like going to the Mecca of adventure. Like if you want to be a man who does adventuring around the world, you at least have to like go to Blackwater.

It was like, it was like a, it's like a tactical ski resort. Cause they had like, they had like, they had like team, like team rooms, like bunk rooms and stuff. It was super cool. But I only spent the day, but it was, it was a fun day. Yeah. It's more than, it's more than most men. And like, that's, yeah, that's incredible. I drove. So we, I went with the captain because the captain had to get his call as well. And the captain drove.

And I was like, can we go to the pro shop? We could go to the pro shop. Have you, uh, have you read Eric Prince's book? Uh, I forget what it's called. The Warriors. I have it. So I, I, I read it on Audible. So I've got it. It's, it's, it's on the docket. I just got to, got to get to it, but I've got it.

Dude, it is because you read it and like, well, growing up in a military family, like my dad's, some of my dad's buddies who, cause my dad was soft, they went to Blackwater cause it was like, they paid you way more. And like, you're used to doing like six months on, six months off. And so like, I had, I was like, it was like nine years old wearing Blackwater shirts. Like my mom probably still hasn't fucked away somewhere, like a little baby fucking Blackwater shirt. But it, it does. It's a great book.

And if you read it, like you kind of grow to appreciate what Blackwater was. And I'm not going to ruin it cause we may put it on the book club docket, like you said, but it's such a great book when you think about like handgun, it is, I'm just from reading it. I know exactly what you're talking about. There's literally a airborne strip there. There's a mount site. There's a sniper course you can go to. Like if anybody's listening in there, like, oh man, I want to learn how to do room clearing, sniper training, all that.

Blackwater will do it for you. And then whatever it's called now, they change the name every three years. Cause everyone's like, Hey, yeah, aren't you the Blackwater training site? And they're like, shit, change the name. But it's, it's a huge, awesome, beautiful place. And just everything's there. Anything you could ever want and you could pay to be trained to do it. Yeah. There's a book.

I don't know if you guys have read it. It's called are we Rome? And it was written in like 2008. But then there was a re-release that came out like 2013. I want to say, but it really focused on like, you know, the similarities between the late Roman Empire and the current American situation because it's written during the Iraq war. But there's an entire chapter dedicated to mercenaries.

And so there's the authors painting these huge pictures. It was like when the Romans didn't want to fight wars, they would just hire barbarians to go fight the wars for them. And it would cost a lot of money, but it would like, Hey, you're not sacrificing Roman soldiers or Roman citizens to go fight these wars. And at the very end, you're like, every story I just told you is Blackwater. I just changed the name. It's like, it's like, yeah, these guys are actually really good at what they do.

Oh, they were phenomenal. I think the, um, so like, so that what they did in a job, I think that's just such a cool story. And that's, that's not a, I don't know. Now I'm sure it's in the book. I'm sure it's in the book. It is. So yeah, but I know, I've seen like Travis Haley's pieces on it and stuff like that. It's totally wild.

So, because Travis Haley, everybody's like, oh, the war poet society. There is, if you read the part about what Travis Haley did in the book and then, because like they take the stories, Eric Prince got everybody's tale and they put it together. And like you hear what Travis Haley did and then they show it on YouTube because it's recorded. And every shot Travis Haley, this Marine recon sniper is just, he's at an angle and far enough away where they can't hear him. And he's just shooting Iraqi insurgents trying to kill these Marines. And he's just like, got another one, got another one.

He's at one point Travis Haley is like, Jesus Christ, they won't fucking stop. And there's like a mountain of empty magazines and you're like, oh my God, Travis, stop. If I recall, it was during the hearings when Eric Prince had to go up for the Senate. And I watched all those. And if I recall, Eric Prince starts talking about this incident. And when he's just like, well, like he's like, the army wouldn't fly. So we flew. We dropped in Speedball's ammo and like, we did it.

And nobody thought twice about it. Like it wasn't even a question. He's like, they just went and did it. So, I think that's super cool. You know that when, I don't know if I told you this before, but I've told Cody that when I got out of the military, I joined like triple canopy, like the mercenary group. And then I was asking about the, like the objective.

They're like, oh, you go where the US doesn't want to. And I was like, oh, that's sick. And it's like, yeah. I was so gung-ho about it. Coming up with all your bags, looking like butters from South Park. Like, hey, fellas. And they had the pipeline was like a two week boot camp at the Blackwater compound. And like the credentials or something like, can you enter and exit a Humvee in a hasty manner

and aim and shoot targets? And I was like, yeah, I think I'm good. They were like, yeah, you can do it. You're good. But yeah, exactly. It was like a disgusting amount of money. And it's very attractive to like younger guys to get out of the military. They're like, yeah, I mean, oh, go to Syria and fight someone else's war.

It's always funny when you ask a GWAT veteran, they're like, who's word you fight in? You're like, someone's. I don't know. I don't think it was mine. And so, but yeah, so like you did. So just for context, like you've done all of this before the age of 25. Yeah. Yeah.

Jesus Christ. You don't think about it. You don't think about it. All, you know, I don't know. You just don't think about it. You just, you know, you're just doing it, you know, every now and again, like you'll, you'll, you'll be doing. So like I, you'll have moments.

So like there was one night and this was, we did this on rep with, with the, with the carrier where we were slinging a mammal all day, because they were, they were getting ready to go and we were in the, like we were in the convoy. It was a full moon. So it was just ship silhouettes. It was all, all the ships in the, in the group. So it was the, you know, the destroyers, it was the carrier, it was us.

And I just remember just seeing silhouettes, you know, in the moonlight. And I was like, oh, it's just, this is like, this is like World War II. Shit. It's really cool. Yeah. So you take your, you know, you have these moments where you can like, I, I got, I don't know that I miss it, miss it, but I definitely miss the moments. You know what I mean?

Like you have those and the, and the characters. Yeah. There's a lot of. Oh dude, there's so many, so many characters. It's always crazy when you meet a guy from like, like Oklahoma or something who didn't know what a DUI was to Lee enlisted. He was like, I was, he's like driving drunk to work and they were like, brother, what are you doing?

He was like, this is a problem. See, I was doing this when I was 11. I've been driving a tractor since like nine. Like, what the fuck? You're like, yeah. He's like, oh, by the way, I have one testicle because I'll kick me in the stomach. Yeah. You know what I'm like, who are you?

And he calls cigarettes snacks. You're like, who is this guy? It was a former, it was a Mustang officer, a former infantry guy turned field artillery. He had the best way of putting it. He's like 95% of working in the department of defense. It doesn't matter what you do. He's like, it is boring. It is awful.

It is the worst thing ever, but then 5% of the time it's the most exciting, extravagant, coolest thing you've ever done in your entire life. And then you're waiting on that last 5% to come back. And then you're just 95% of the time, but it's just awful. It's a toxic relationship. There's that old terminal lance meme where it's like, you know, the eight stages of being a Marine. And it's like, this sucks.

This sucks. This sucks. This is awesome. This sucks. This sucks. So the next question I have is like, so you've done all this. And most people don't know, I don't know. What do you want to talk about first?

Because I don't know, do you want to talk about Liberty Jump Team? Or do you want to talk about the miles training that you've done, the field training exercises with the squad training exercises? We can. Yeah. So we can do, let's do that first. Because that's chronologically how it happened. Okay.

So the organization is called One Shepherd. And they're a leadership, I'll plug them. I'm going to put that, okay, if I plug them. Yes. So One Shepherd, so they're a nonprofit. They've been around for 40 years, believe it or not. And so they're a nonprofit organization and they build themselves. They're a leadership school.

And they teach leadership through small unit tactics and patrolling. That's kind of how they do it. And they're unique in that they're one of, I think, only two civilian organizations that have miles and that they use miles. And so the way their program is set up, it's broken up into semesters. And they have two locations. They have a location that they use on the East Coast, and they have one out in Midwest.

But so you go, so let's say you went for your first semester and you'll do what's called Warrior Basic. And that's your IMTs and your basics of patrolling, real basic field craft. You know, you learn about like the field phones and all the stuff. That's kind of how it starts. And then you'll go back again for another semester and you'll learn, you'll do land nav. And then you'll go back again and you'll do Warrior Advanced.

They call it Warrior Advanced. So they'll do, you know, just it's, you get, you get, you know, they just, they kind of progress you in the line. And as you're doing this, every time you're going, so it's like, it's set up with, I want to say it's two days of training. Then there's a day of, there's an STX. So you'll do STX lanes during the day. And then so a full day of that and then a 48 hour FTX.

And then so with the FTX, there's different, each semester has its own theme and they're, they happen randomly. So you can do, you know, it could be ambushes and raids, clandestine link up, area defense, you know, stuff like that. So every time you go, it'll be something different. Yeah. And it's, I would say it's, it's less milsim. I've never done like a milsim event. So I don't really know.

But I would say it's less milsim and more training. It feels, I mean, I've never, like I said, I've never been in like the military per se. I've been military adjacent, I guess. But I've never been like, I've never been in the army, you know, obviously. I would say it's, it feels, it feels, you know, you feel like you're in a training exercise, but all the best parts of a training exercise, I think.

It's not a lot of, you know, they keep you on your toes. They change the schedule. They try to induce that little bit of stress, you know, so you are kind of running around a lot. There isn't a ton of downtime, but it's all part of the, it's part of the plan. But I think what's cool about it is that, like after you'll, you'll do this for a week and you'll come away

and you kind of got to like decompress and like think on it. But like the lessons are in the lessons kind of deal. And, and, and you learn a lot about like, you'll just learn a lot about yourself and like other people and interacting with other people. Yeah. And, and it's cool. And like I said, so every time you go back, you, you kind of get,

you know, you get a little bit more responsibility. So your first time, you'll just be like, you know, you're a rifleman in a squad, then it could be a fire team leader, a squad leader, and all the way up to, you know, APL, PL, then you're running the whole, you're running the whole FTX kind of deal, you know. And so yeah, so it's the more you go, so the more you go, the more you get to do, you know, this guys that come and they do one and done,

but I thought I was going to be one and done, right? But then I was like, oh, this is super cool. And I don't know where else to do it. And it was, and it was nice because when I got involved with it, it was kind of like, I'd stopped sailing. I was working on a desk and I could just suck. It was just like, oh man, this sucks. But going back there, it kind of reminded me of being back on the ship.

So it was just kind of like the dynamics of people and, and, and like, like just how men are around each other, you know, it's kind of, it's nice. I know it's refreshing, especially when you're in a corporate setting, man. It can get pretty, it can get pretty stuffy, right? So, so yeah, is there like communities? Do people have to fly in to go to these things? Or is there like communities across the country? So no, no, people fly in.

People fly in. So I mean, I, my first one, I went out to Missouri. That's, that's their, they call that alpha company. And then there's a Bravo company in out West Virginia, which is cool because that's just a few hours away from me, you know? So it's, it's, so yeah. I mean, I've, you know, you fly in and people do it, you know? But it's remarkable that, it's remarkable that your story is all the cool parts

about being in the military without any of the lame stuff. So that's what the guys, so the guys who go, so the guys who go, who were like our career military, that's what they say. So that's, that's their words, not mine. You know, sorry, I'm not qualified to make that, probably make that statement. But that's what they, that's what they say, not to, not to speak for them. But that's what they tell me. It's, it's, it's funny because like it's, I'm like geeking out over this

because I have two friends that were in the honor society in college. They didn't do ROTC. They didn't do none of that shit. And they couldn't lead, they couldn't lead a D1 football team out of a wet paper bag. Like they're, I did leadership courses. I got like a minor in leadership in college. And then like ROTC, like they make officers.

They, they, that's how they do it. They do it exactly like that. They, it doesn't matter if you want to be a truck driver, military intelligence or a finance officer, you are graded on your infantry tactics. So for four years, they're just drilling you on your infantry tactics. And depending on how well you do it, Fort Knox is whether you're going to go National Guard Reserve or active duty. And I went to a school, I brag on them a lot.

It's called Austin P. They have like a 98% active duty rate, but they do it by getting rid of freshmen and sophomores and taking on former enlisted and filling their billets with enlisted and beating the crap out of high school to college kids. So my time in college was absolutely terrible. But looking back on it, like you said, those infantry tactics, learning that stuff, doing those six lanes, like you learn so much more about leadership in yourself, clear on a trench line, leading a squad, just squad, lead 12 fucking monkeys

through the woods with rifles and make sure that they don't shoot each other and make sure that they don't get lost and, you know, make sure that they do all of their PCCs and PCC. It's, to me, I'm geeking out about it because I'm like, dude, you did the fucking thing. Like you went out, you fucking took your time, you took your money and you said, I'm going to go learn and like nobody ever does that. And so it's, that's fucking dope. Yeah, it's fun. It's so much fun.

I mean, you, I, this, I mean, and I like, I like kind of, I like being uncomfortable, like in that way, like, I don't know, it's, it's, it's just something about it, especially like shared misery with other people. It's, it's fun. And, you know, so, you know, you're on like day two of the FTX and like, you know, you have, you're like on, you know, I don't know, 45 minutes of sleep and you're tired, you smell terrible, you know, and it's like, all right, we're going out on patrol or, you know, or it's just, you know, pull security, you know, it's, it's, you do that stuff.

And I don't know, you come away from it and you're like, okay, I like, I, I failed here. This is like, you can, like when you reflect on it, you're like, this is where I hit the wall and I totally shut off, you know, and it's like, okay. Um, and then you go back and you try to do better and, and it's cool. It's a really cool community. I, there's not a lot of, um, what's cool about it is it doesn't, there's, there's, there's not a lot of folks there that are, everyone's very humble. I'll just say that everybody's humble, you know, everyone just wants to teach and,

and people want to learn and it's, it's a really cool kind of community. I think there's a, uh, like a, I guess like the guys who participate in this are also like living, living history enthusiasts. Like they do like French and Indian war, like civil war or something like that to like keep the, the lifestyle up. Um, I would say I feel like, I feel like we have a couple of those guys that come through and that, that stick with it, but I think more so. I mean, you get, you know, you get, you get all kinds of guys, right?

So you get, you've got, you know, you get your preparedness types. You get your, um, you, you get those types. Can you hear that? That's my, that's my, that's my sheep dog. Hold on, let me. I want to do a, like, guess who's dog it is post on kitback because every, every Intel page has a dog. I've got three, Matt's got the one that he's basically stolen and then you've got one.

So I think matching dogs up. Yeah, that would be funny. But, um, but yeah, uh, yeah. So I mean, that's, I mean, that's kind of, you get all kinds of guys through there. Um, you, I would almost say like militia, it's not, it's kind of maybe a goofy way to say, but like military scientists, because like we, like we have guys who write, like we've had guys, we have guys that are very active in the group and they write like white papers for the government on like tactics, like think, take type guys, but,

but they're actually out there doing it. So, you know, like it's, it's, it's interesting, you know, so it's, it's, I do want to ask a question. It's almost like a back step, but the merchant marine is such a kind of like lucrative, like unknown when it comes to like the military, because sometimes people think, oh, you know, merchant marine, that's like a branch of the Marine Corps or, oh, that's a Navy subgroup or something like that. But when you join the merchant marine, how does the designation for positions go?

Are you like a gunner's mate in the Navy? Like, is that how? Yeah. Okay. So no, so I mean, you, like when you start out, you'll start out like, you know, so it's ordinary. So there's some, so there's some crossover, but, you know, some things cross over and other things don't. So like, you know, you've got ordinary, you know, ordinary seamen, able seamen, you've

got a boss and so, so there's some, there's a crossover there. When you kind of get up in the, the officer ranks, things kind of switch around. It's just, it's just different. It's just different titles. So you've got third mate, second mate, chief mate or first mate, and then captain. And then in the engineering department, it's, you know, chief engineer, first engineer, you know, second, third and down. And then your, your oilers and your wipers and that that's, you know, and I, so, so in the,

in the lower ranks, there's this crossover there, but like the rating, like how the Navy's have their rates, I don't know that that, there is and there isn't. I'll say there is and there isn't because you have like electricians. You have, you know, you know what I mean? You have like machinist guys and stuff like that. But, but it's, it's not as, yeah, it's, it's, it's not as, I guess, hard and fast. If that answers the question, like it's, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

It's not one for one, but it is, but they do, they do sort of parallel each other in a way. Gotcha. And so if you augmented with the Navy, is there like augmented positions with like the Coast Guard, like, hey, Detroit needs somebody, we're going to call these guys. So yeah, so no, not, not that I'm aware of a bit. So military service command is sort of that's, it's the only one I know of where that augments to the Navy like that. And, and like I said, it's, it's interesting because like on the Oilers and the ammunition ships,

you know, for the most part, it's a civilian crew, for the most part. Every now and again, you know, you, you maybe you'll, you, you can embark like an AirDat or you'll embark like a Navy security team, if you're going to be off like Horn of Africa. Occasionally, you know, like, occasionally you'll pick up like spec war guys and, you know, drop, you know, give them a ride somewhere, you know, you'll do stuff like, like odd jobs like that, you know, but yeah, this, this, there's a few ships within military service command. And I don't know if I'm talking more about MSC than the merchant marine as a whole, because in the merchant marine, I mean, you could be on a oil tanker, you know what I mean?

And, and, and it's, and it's 100% civilian, you know, so that really that military civilian connection really comes from, from the merchant marine, excuse me. So, I think Cody might know about this, the back in World War II, the German's Creek Marine, they had a, like their, the freighters went out that would move cargo, but they would also put guns on them. And that was like, I guess, like their equivalent of like a merchant marine or Coast Guard or something like that, they would get intercepted and shoot back. And they're like, whoa, you're, you're not combatant, you're not supposed to have guns. But like, is that, I don't even know what I'm asking here. Like, is there a similarity there?

In, it's, I think it's more of a defensive capability. And it depends on the mission of that particular ship. So like, I could speak to, so they're, okay, so there's a ship by sail. And so in them, in the military service command, most of the ships are a US NS designation. So like US naval ship, whereas like combatant ships are USS. But there are some USS ships within military service command. And one of them was when I sailed, it was the, the USS Ponsay. And it was an old, Austin class LPD. So it was an, so it was an amphib. And it was kind of cool, they were back. So I don't know if we'll take a history lesson. So during the tanker wars, in the Arabian Gulf, in like the seventies and eighties, they, they tried this sort of like

lily pad kind of concept where they could, you know, just sort of be out in the Gulf. So that's, that's what this kind, this is sort of like an adaptation of that, that's where that was born out of. But like, so we had, you know, on board the ship, we had, you know, we had sea whiz and we had, we had, we had drones, we had all kinds of stuff, you know, we had, at one point, we had army attack helicopters. Yeah, it was, but I mean, but really, I mean, it's more of a, was just sort of in a, like a, in a float forward staging base to support operations in the region. You know, and, you know, we could, I don't, I don't know that we would, yeah, it's not like we're going to go out like on an offensive operation, you know what I mean? So, but, but like,

of course, we could defend ourselves until I guess the carrier sends some F-18s to, to really help us. So I do have one more question on the merchant marine and then we can like move on. Yeah, sure. Do you also get the Pico? Yeah, yeah, I still, I still, I still, when, when, when I was a cadet, when I was a cadet, do you get the issue to Pico? I still have it. It's the only, it's the only piece of anything from when I was a cadet that I still have and wear. That's amazing. It's, it's really like a fashion piece, because for some reason the last few years, Cody might have noticed this, there's like this weird, like, pseudo modern military aesthetic coming into like the fashion industry. They're like, oh my God. It's like, where are Pico to wear

fatigues or something like that? And it's like, see what's, what's cool now is I can pop the collar on it and not get yelled at. Oh yeah. Jesus. No, it is, it is creeping in. I fucking, well, it sucks because like, you know, who doesn't want free, cheap fucking camo, like, but now that like street fashion has started adopting military aesthetic. I'm like, you like 50 or what, not even 50, it's like $80 for like a used Dutch camo, like woodland camouflage top. I'm like, first off, some dude sweated his nuts off in this thing and then, you know, did like 20 field exercises and it's probably smells like ass. And it's $80 like $80 for a new one, maybe, but Jesus Christ, but you know, some kid in street fashion in Seattle, Washington is going to buy it. And I

hate him for it. I remember when, I remember when I never thought M81 would be drip. Yeah. I've got like three pairs of those pants in the closet. So the big one is like the punk rock guys from like the 80s and 90s would wear the old Vietnam jungle boots, you know, with the green and the black. They came back hard recently. I'm like, where do you find these things? I want a pair. I got a pair. I think Belleville, you can get them from Belleville, I think. And they make, they make the soles on the same machine that they made the Panama soles on back in Vietnam. Maybe it's Belleville or it's another company, but whatever, I'll tell you later. I'll look at the boots. I've got jump boots. I've got a pair of jump boots, a pair of

Corcoran's. Yeah. How'd you get wrote into that? We got to, we got to set the stage though here because like already you've done sailed around the world, banged everything twice, drank alcohol in Europe, and then you're out there with the carrier groups hanging around East Africa, pissing off fucking Navy cadets who worked their whole life to end up at the same place you did. You've done field training exercises, you've hung out at Blackwater for a day, and now you're what else could you want? I think, I think, I think what happened was so like after, after the salsa was like going on, like this was like during the pandemic, right? So like, again, so like, I had like come ashore, been working this job is like, it's kind of boring,

pandemic happens now, I'm like sitting around. And I think, you know, I had one, obviously I had done one of these FTXs I had done, I started doing, I started getting into training like as a whole in general. And then I think I started just reading too many commando books, like World War II commando books. And I was just like, I'd like to learn how to parachute. And I'm thinking like, this is America, I should be able to pay for this. So I honestly, that was, that was probably all the thought that went into it. I called my brother, I called my brother up. I said, I said, Listen, I'm doing this, this is the day I'm going, you can come, you can not come, I don't care, but I'm going, he came. I ended up roping my father on to it as well. And I didn't want to go by myself.

Dude, you're making a private army. Like, you have like, like I said, I started this podcast off with that. I said, I was like, you are one beer away in West Africa from becoming like executive outcomes or some shit. Oh man, his mic's off again. Shit. Right, let's fill the gap, fill the gap. But uh, oh, that's so funny. Like when it comes to something like the Merchant Marine, we were talking about that earlier. It's a, yeah, oh yeah, you're back. Anyways, can you hear me? Yeah. Sorry. Okay. I think at the time I was reading, it's, it's about, it was about the Rhodesian light infantry, uh, in full of hard men. There it is. Yep. That's, that's what I was reading. Let me guess you, you read about Fire Force.

And then I saw that now's your cut, uh, put to Afrotodo Africa where they're jumping out of the C-47s and I was like, yeah. It's amazing. It's amazing. I was like, okay, let me, let me figure out how to go do this. And, um, did you at least buy a pair of like the shortest Chikers possible? No, no, no, no. I didn't. Oh, it's Michael. You keep knocking your microphone. Oh, oh no. I love that you said Chikers. I'm literally wearing. How about now? Show me your thigh. Show me your thigh. I'm literally standing like, I'm back. I'm just not going to touch anything. I'm not going to touch anything. So, um, so yeah, did Google search in and there's a few, so there's a few teams in the country that do it. Um, some are all military only. There's, there's what's

called, um, well, uh, ADT airborne demonstration team. They're more of a reenactor type deal. Um, really like to the point where they modify their parachutes to be like the World War II parachutes. Yeah. That's kind of what everybody says. I mean, I mean, they, they just, they're modifying their, their, their modifying these, you know, these parachutes, you know, to launch, you know, to deploy which roads and whatever. That's what they do. That's cool. That's, that's, that's enough for me. Um, so I, I, I find Liberty jump team and, uh, I was actually supposed to go jump this weekend. Uh, that's, that's another story. So, no, not rain down, not rain down. I will get to it. We'll circle back. Um, but, uh, but at any rates, I find Liberty

jump team and, and they just, they just seem like they had their stuff together. So that's kind of, that's kind of who I went with. And, um, so I went down to their jump school and it was, I want to say, okay, they pushed me out of a Cessna. I was hooked up. I did a static line out of a Cessna on day three. And so like day one was like just basic intro, like, okay, like, this is, this is what the parachute is, is what it does. Day two is like, you know, they put you in a harness, they, they do some drag training with you. You get in the PLF pit. Um, my first time in the PLF pit, I, I looked like a pro wrestler or something, a very sophisticated. Um, the instructor was like, I don't, how did you do that? That's what he said to me.

But, uh, I got it down eventually. And, um, and then on day three, they're, they're pushing you out of a plane. And, um, so you do, you, you complete two jumps out of the smaller Cessna. And I think that's just, it's just a cost effective thing. They can get a lot of jumps in and out. And then on the, um, on the, the last two days, they bring in a C47 and you do you jumps out of the C47. Yeah. And I just was, I was, um, I was hooked. I was, I was like, again, it was another one of those things. I was just like, okay, it's like, I'm getting my five and done. I couldn't even get my father-in-law to like, buy the right helmet, like to go do it. And like, he was like, I'm just wearing, I'm just wearing this motorcycle helmet. I'm like, no, dude.

Come on. And he, and he ended up, he, he's so hooked. He's so hooked. It's like, he's calling me up. He's like, come on, let's go jump. I'm like, okay, dude, I got a job. Like, I can't take all this time off. I got to support your daughter. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. So, um, but yeah, so it's been doing that. And it's so, Liberty Jump Team is a, it's a nonprofit. It's founded the, the founder, her, her father, the, so the founder's father was in the, the test unit for, for the airborne during World War II. That's, that's kind of the connection there. Um, and again, it's, it's a smaller, I think it's the smaller team of all the teams that are out there, like round, kind of the parachute team is pretty, they've been pretty heavy on the social

media and they're, they're pretty big and they're cool too. Uh, that's actually who I was going to go jump with this weekend. I was going to go, let's go, just go give them a shot and, um, because I met them out in Normandy, but anyhow, we'll get there. So, yeah, again, so it's a nonprofit organization and they basically, it's, it's a veterans organization, but so, you know, there's some, you know, there's civilians in it. I mean, obviously I was there, um, but mostly vets and it's, um, I don't want us to use the word support group, but that's, but it, but it is, I mean, everybody's, everybody's really, you know, it's, it's, it's guys there, it's catharsis or some guys, I think. And, um, but the overall mission of the team is to support

the World War II vets, all vets, but World War II vets in particular. And so like whatever they need, if they need something, if there's something going on, like they'll go put a roof on his house or like, you know, we go to, you know, if they, when there's a funeral, the funerals we have, you know, they'll do birthday batches for the guys. Um, and then they fly him out to Normandy as well for the, if they want to go for the, for the commemoration. That's fun. Yeah. That's just fucking amazing. Yeah. It's super fun. And it's super cool. Everybody's super cool, you know. It's, it's funny that you say that because it's like, uh, there, there is something that comes with, cause like, I tell people, like when I meet Matt, I think I've told this story

like three times in the past two weeks, but like when I met Matt, he was a Marine supporting Marine recon. So like he has his sleeves rolled up. He's got his eight point. It's fucking crisp. And I'm a fucking captain. And like people will say like the 101st is an airborne, it's aerosol. I had my Pathfinder torch. I take great fucking pride in that. It's behind me right here. And so like I've got this racked up. I'm supporting this special forces group. I've got a maroon beret. It's caught so bad. It's over my eye. And it's like, there's an attitude that comes with the guys who jump out of planes. And it's like, when you're here, it's olive garden. When you hear your family, but if you're from the outside, fuck you. And so it doesn't, the only thing they don't care about

is like the five and dimes or the five jump jumps. And so if you've done more than five, you're cool. But yeah, that's how like when I met Matt, it was like this like dick there. He may deny it, but there was kind of a dick staring contest. Like who's who's bigger? Like he's he's like, it's funny that you mentioned that because like, it doesn't matter if you've been 25th or jumping, like the fact that you like want to come and jump and want to come do that, like, it's a big deal to us. And it's wild to just to meet somebody who because I've thought about bringing my wife because my wife never got to go to airborne school. She just did aerosolton and deployed. But uh, yeah, I'm definitely going to throw her the Liberty jump team. No, you're

coming. You're you're going, I'll let me know when you go and then I'll go and we'll be good. So just so everybody knows for reference when because we both fucking cringed for reference when they you said there's a jump team out there that jumps World War two parachutes. No, it's not. It's not World War two parachutes. They jump. They're taken. They're taken your SF 10s. Yeah. And you're like, and then they're and they're MC one, like those shoots, I guess they're not, they're not, they're not using the SF 10s. They're using the MC ones and they're modifying them. And um, yeah, no, I don't to look or do exactly like, like, like, like they remove the anti-inversion netting. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, can anybody at an air show? Can anybody and we do

this? So we jump at air shows. They jump at air shows. Can anyone at an air show? Is anyone going to see your anti-inversion netting? Is anybody going to say, Oh, these guys, these guys are jokers. They got that anti-inversion netting on their parachute. Oh, whatever. I'm not knocking them. No, I will fuck them. I gotta jump with these guys. No, it's okay. No, because like, I'm, you're a big dude and I'm a big dude. Like I was, I'm 200 pounds. I'm five, 10 year, what, six, four, two, 50 fucking six, six, yeah, six, three, two, 40. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And those parachutes have a weight limit of like 300 pounds. And the closer you get to it, the closer you see Jesus when you hit the ground. And so the minute you said like they jumped World War two style parachutes,

that weight barrier goes down, down, down, down, down. And so I have hit the ground at Mach 20, whatever, and just like set up like patches of dirt on my helmet, my fucking, you look like Peter from Family Guy. That's a fall and his foot's like by his asshole and like your heads down and like somebody has to come by like, Hey, dude, are you alive? Like, I can't imagine jumping that. I mean, I'll say this about Liberty Jump Team. They're super, they won't, they won't, they like, they just won't let you jump unless you're ready. Like they, they won't, you know what I mean? And like they've, they'll scrub a jump too. Like I know there's some teams, there's some teams that are like, well, fuck it, we paid for the plane. Like we're going. Like, like, like we're

going and it's kind of like, and we're as like at Liberty, like, I've been, I've been, I've been, we've been, we've been green, been standing the door, standing the door. And then, and then red light, like pull them out of the door, like, like right there, like right over the drops, I'm ready to go because just because the wind's just, you know, it just started, it was just too windy. And, and, and they'll bring us down and, and Jill, that's the founder, you know, she goes, I'm sorry, boys, I don't want my boys getting hurt. Good for her. Yeah, no area. Is there like a freefall equivalent? Because there's the static line, but there's also like freefall. That's a thing. It's like just skydiving, bro. I mean, I know a lot of the guys, I mean, a lot of the guys

also do that too, but not, I don't know that there is a, like a military style, like if that's what you want to call it, like freefall community, I don't know, maybe there is. The forward observation guys are always doing it, right? So they're sick. Those are nice. Those are good videos, man. I watch them all the time. Jesus Christ, stop. I don't even know where to take that. It's like they look good. They look, they do look good. You gotta give credit where credit's due. Yeah. I mean, what was the GI Joe slogan looking cool as half the battle or something? Oh man. So yeah, and I guess like the next question is, and so you've done all this,

and then it's that's Poseidon S2. And so like we said, we said, the best way to become a really good analyst is to become a really good soldier or a Marine. And you've pretty much done it. And so now you're in, I'll give you credit. I'll give you credit. Let's tread real light. I mean, you've done it. Everybody. Yeah. My words. Look, I'll tell you right now, I have met many, many infantry kids that like if I put you in the fight pit, which is just basically chewed up tires and you both went shirtless, you could probably beat the fuck out of like half the platoon, just scrawny little kids like I'm an infantry. I don't know. Well, you know, it was funny at one chapter. So generally right before the FTX, so like the STX lanes conclude, we'll do like an hour of just

Puglesticks. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. Matt's booking his flight now. At least for me, I think I get performance anxiety. So like Puglesticks for me, I'm sort of like, I don't want to do it, but then like, get your ass over here. I'm like, all right, here we go. But yeah. Remember that, that first time you like entered the arena with Puglesticks, like I'm done it. So it's like you walk in, you don't know who your opponent is. He's some guy four times bigger than you and you're like, yeah, you don't know who you're fighting. It's all good though, right? You just put up, put up, do the best effort and try to put up a respectable effort and it's all good, right? So the old college try, the old community college. No, you gotta win. I gotta,

you gotta win. Yeah. Dude, that's booking. Oh God. And so yeah, no, it's, it's Poseidonus too. The Navy Intel page. So I've always, I mean, I've always kind of been interested in this, I don't know, probably going back to college. I kind of got, I was really, I'd say, you know what really sealed the deal was when I was working at military seal of command and I got to kind of peep through the keyhole on some stuff. But yeah, it was just to fly on the wall for some stuff. And I was like, oh man, Intel work seems really cool. And, and then being in certain places and like kind of like seeing things like when I was in, I was in Djibouti and the war in Yemen is going on. And so there was the, I might, I actually

might make this a post because I might actually make this a post, but there was an Iranian ship that was loaded up with food aid. And it actually, it made that it was in the Navy time. So it might have even made like the regular news. But the Navy had diverted this freighter into Djibouti and they, they, they trans ship, they cross loaded the cargo onto a UN charter ship because they thought, they thought there were weapons mixed in with the ship. And so, so like, I, you know, I would see stuff like that. And I'm like, man, yeah, this is, this is, this would be cool to like learn how to like track this stuff and like work in that field. So that's kind of, that's kind of where I think it started. And I've kind of just been flirting with it for a long time.

And so I initially, Poseidon wasn't Poseidon as to it was another name, less cool, way less cool. And I was doing sort of like just general, just general, oh, I did like, I did like three posts and, and a buddy of mine, um, he like calls me up. He's like, Hey man, that page is really cool. But the dog, the name is dog shit. You got to change your name. No, I have a question. So like you said, you were at Virginia Beach, right? You've been in Norfolk and all that. And so were you just like walking past that huge Poseidon statue on like Virginia Beach? And you're like, actually, yeah, I'll just take that. No, I think I was, I, after he told me the name was dog shit, I started just like

rattling off names to him. Like the term dog shit is like the name is dog shit, change the name. I'm like, all right, dog shit as to now, um, yeah, I, I, yeah, I don't know. It just, I, it just fit, you know, so it was like, okay, cool. And then, um, and that's, and that's, and that's kind of where it started. I'm still just kind of feeling out the page and, and trying to figure out my, like what style kind of like grabs people. Um, and yeah, it's about Russia winning. That, that does the thing. That, yeah. I mean, how many pitchforks and fucking torches did they bring? That's one way to piss everybody off, I guess, but I mean, I don't ever. Well, actually, I do have a question about this. So if you look at like the maritime aspect and everything

and the Russian Black Sea fleet, they lost the muskva, but they also have sea mines across the entire channel. No one can get in, even if Ukraine wins, no one's going to get out. So, well, I mean, I mean, are you, are you talking about a Dessa in general? So like in the Pax, yeah, Dessa in general. Yeah. Dosa in general. Yeah. So I mean, I mean, so there's a corridor, ships are sailing, right? Um, it's, you know, that's, I guess that just comes with war. I mean, eventually, you know, eventually the mines will get cleared, I guess. I guess, or they don't, or they don't, they wash hands and louse with one arm. Yeah, Poseidon, they get cleared. Fuck you. I mean, I'm sure, I'm sure Navy EOD will be busy over there when

all the deaths. Oh, let's ask the slew of Afghans in the 90s for stepping on Russian mines. Fair enough. I mean, I mean, for, you know, for the moment, you know, for the, yeah, I mean, it's kind of, it's kind of, it is what it is. I hate to use that word, but that, that phrase, but it is kind of that, that's, that's the situation right now. Um, you know, so there's a lot of, there's a lot of interesting things going on in the Black Sea, and that's kind of where I've turned my focus, just because there's a lot to talk about, you know, and, and the way I'm, the way I'm kind of getting my imagery. So like a lot of guys will, like, there's a lot of free resources for satellite imagery, but the problem with them is that

it's not always the best resolution. Um, some of it is, it's, it's, the resolution isn't great, but it's usable and you can kind of like PID a ship kind of by doing measurements and things like that. And, but it's not always timely. And that's kind of like, that's really where it is. Like, you need, like, I need to verify if a thing was in this place at this time. So I've, I found this other, I found this other outfit they're called, so it's called Skywatch. And, um, their commercial satellite imagery company and you can, you can essentially, you can buy archives. So, so they'll, they fly their own missions and they'll do, they'll do shots. And so you can buy like archive images and, um, you know, you just search your date and you, you know, you just draw a box

or where you want the picture and they'll say, okay, this is what we have. And then it's prorated from the image. So like, so like the whole image might be like a thousand bucks, right? But you just need like, I just need like half a kilometer to like look at something and it'll be like, you know, $5, $10. Like, okay, it was doable. There's stuff like, um, stuff like Falcon view and whatnot that takes, it's not, you know, it's not, you know, near real time when it comes to imagery, but it's definitely good for like building terrain analysis or something. Yeah. I mean, I'm the, the, the free resources, I think maybe for like, like again, like, like if you're trying to maybe watch like a long-term

thing or there's something that's not like with a time constraint. And I could tell you why, like that's really important for what I'm trying to do. Um, it's because I've been trying it. So, so there's a lot of talk about, uh, Russian flagships going into Ukrainian ports and stealing Ukrainian grain and then, and then that's the thing. Yeah. So there's a lot of talk of that, but I kind of had the idea like, if I could catch, because usually what they do is they turn off their trans, their AIS, their, their, their beacon, right? So you can't, so you can't really like, you'll get like their last reported position and then like, you, but you can't, unless you catch them at the birth doing it, like you can't really like say like, yeah, that's what

they were doing, right? So that's kind of where this, that's kind of where this need came in for me. That's, that's where I, that's when I started playing with this, with this outfit sky watch. And they're cool because like, if you got enough money, they'll, they'll fly a mission for you. Like you just said, like, I want you to do this. I want you to fly over like two days and they'll do it, you know, and, and, and you'll get shot. So, so just so we're clear because you kind of skimmed over this, like this was fucking like, yeah, it's a Monday, like, fuck that. It's just my ADP. Yeah, no, no, because when we talk about this, it's like, we talked about this with Alcott or not Alcott, AFV and tank diary, like the, the, the little autism, because it's a

spectrum, you can't say Aspergers anymore, but you are on there because you basically were planning and targeting Russian ships so that you could find them doing crimes against humanity. And then you would have been at the Hague, like the six, three Queens fucking merchant marine with a beer just like, yeah, so that's when I fucking sat there and I hired the satellite company to take a picture. I knew those cock suckers were going to be there taking the grain. And I would have pissed myself because Joey Diaz's son is at the world court telling his lawyer like, yep, just had a hobby and I did it. I saw the clues. You are the ultimate definition of, I know how to use Google better than you. I've only been able to get to like,

like a lot with a lot of this stuff, a lot in open source. You can get to like an almost like, yeah, okay, probably, probably yes, right, or something like that. I think the guys at Belling Cat like do really, like if any, I don't know if you guys ever read any of their stuff, but like the Belling Cat guys are really impressive where they can, you know, I don't know, they track guys down and they're like, this is, here's his passport, you know? Yeah. I mean, you're one guy, right? Yeah, exactly. With a regular job, yeah, which is like, I'm sure your wife is like, what the fuck? Yeah, what are you doing? Come on, let's, let's, yeah, let's hang out. Like, I'm working on it. I've got a case, sweetie.

The world needs me. So I've kind of, I've got like, I've got a little Moleskine notebook and like, so over the years in general, I just like, if I, you know, I get bored at work, I'll go and I'll click around and I'll see what looks interesting. Oh, that's it. I'll just write it down. And so I've kind of got like this, this book of stuff that I'll come down, I'll come back to and like investigate a little bit and see what's up. But the most interesting part about shipping are like the people who own ships and like who they are, like that's the most, because they are like, it's like a, it's a shady business, man. It's, it's, it's, it's pretty cool, actually. In that regard, like really, really interesting people.

So you can go onto Twitter and just dump onto like, FlightRadar24 or something like that and just track Russian oligarch planes and all these things. Is there an equivalent for? Yes. The own class. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For the, I mean, so, well, actually finish, finish your question because maybe I cut you off and I'm assuming something. Oh, I was just going to say that when it comes to like military, you know, or higher intelligence terms, there's like, Thresher, Maritime Thresher, these kind of things where you can go down to the Sconem, but you can go down to that on like FlightRadar24. So if there's something like that for the Navy, like, hey, if you want to try the Russian oligarchs

and like, hey, if they're all going to one central location, there shouldn't be a party there. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's, I'm trying to think like how to contextualize it. You know, I, yeah, I would say, yeah. And on Twitter, I would, I would say that so on Twitter, the Maritime Intel thing is like big on Twitter. It's, it's, it's not really big on, it's not really big on Instagram, but it's really big on Twitter. And I, and so there's guys like this tanker trackers, and there's these guys that like just find oil tankers and they're, and what they are, are actually just like oil speculators, like commodity trader guys that like, so they're like, okay, here's this ship. She's got Venice well-incrued. And they're

doing like, you know, Massent where they're like, okay, she's loaded, she's this, she's that, she's in ballast. And, and they figured like they figure out what all the oil tankers are. You know, there's another guy, H.I. Sutton, I think he's from the UK. And he does a lot of like, you know, he tracks, he does a lot like open source, like with submarines and stuff like that. There's, so that on the, and the Twitter, on the Twitter side, there's, there's really a lot of it. But, and that's kind of when I was starting beside it, I wanted to do, like, that's why initially I started like as a general OSIN page, but everybody was kind of like, like my first post, if you go back, you look at my first post, it's on that drone,

I'm using air quotes, that drone strike on that, that, that main state, that IL-76 main state at the airport in Belarus. And like, I went and, that's when I like, I went and bought a, that was like, okay, let me just buy this shot. So I went and called them up, bought the shot, because I wanted to see if there was damage on this plane or not, you know. And then like 20 minutes later, like, you know, Reuters has the picture, I'm like, gosh, shit, I didn't have to spend any money on that, but, but that's where, sorry, but like everybody, I kind of just felt like everybody was doing that. And so, and, and in some ways, I felt like I was a little outside of my lane too, because I was like, eh, you know, like, I could sort of do this, but do I really

know what I'm talking about? So that's, that's kind of why I shifted back to the maritime stuff, because at least on the, in the Instagram OSIN community, it's not a lot of people doing it that I know of. No, it's, it's like going back to what Cody said earlier about, like, we keep talking about the best way to be a good analyst is to be like a good Marine or soldier. But it's like, hey, the best rifleman I ever knew had no clue how to shoot a weapon before they went to the range. Like, you have these hunters who are dug in their own ways, they know how to shoot, like on their own path or whatnot. And they're the ones who like flunk on rifle quality. But it's like, I don't want to say the term outside or something like that, but it's like, oh, yeah,

you just have a passing fancy. You just, yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm in fancy into it. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's, I mean, that's what it is. Yeah, I mean, you know, kind of like my path in life sort of just brought me this, you know, this one, you know, that's as many people have, you know, but it is, it's something I geek out over and I really dig it. I'd love for someone to pay me to do it. I was sitting here thinking the whole time you're saying this, I was like, bro, if you started a Patreon and you were just like, Hey, for $1, like, I'm pretty sure all of us would give you a dollar just to see like, because you're like, you're sitting there and you're planning and you had you're like, okay, if the great shipments this day, I can catch that

fucking crime against humanity, like, I'll throw a fucking dollar, like, it's better than buying a scratch off. I mean, we'll all chip in a book and then you can get like one good solid image. And it's like, I just want to see you at the world court or CNN with like a shuffle tie and just like, Oh, cock, suck it. Mother fuckers. I knew it, vindicated, vindicated. Like, I would, it's better than a scratch off because you'll have to like, you'll sit across from Anderson Cooper, like I knew, I knew they were doing that. And Anderson Cooper just has to suck it up for 10 minutes with you. Like now, bro, bro, check out, check the image, bro. Come on. Yeah. And the whole OSIC community is just cheering in the background. We got him on stage. Like, just fucking, but we

need to get you on there before, uh, forward observations group does. So yeah, yeah, I know. I mean, well, I mean, so I'm, there's, there's, I haven't posted in a little bit, but there's one, so there's one right now. I'm kind of like, I almost, I was, I was like, almost going to post on it. And then I was like, all right, let me just wait. And I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to ride this one out. I'm going to do it all the way to, you know, I'll get it all together. And then I'll, I'll just, I'll just make my case. So there's, there's a ship I'm watching right now. And it's on, and they're on, it's been going around Twitter as well. So, but we'll see. So it's, it's not, it's not like I found something that no one else did. I would love to do that. That would be probably

a homerun for me. Find something that no one else found. But this guy, unfortunately, I thought I had something that no one else found, but plenty of people, plenty of people found out about it. So, so we'll see. And, and hopefully we can catch them. That'd be really cool. I have a question. So we haven't seen like VBSS. Is that a thing in the maritime or merchant marines? Visit boards, visit board search season? So no, that's not anything we would, that's not anything we would do. Yeah, that's not anything we would do. We would maybe support that every now and then. Like we're,

like we'll, we'll serve as the ship that they have to take down. Like we're, like the Coast Guard wants to do a VBSS or the Navy wants to do a VBSS. But with that, I don't think we've done too many VBSS missions in the last, I don't know, 20 years, maybe a couple of handful that we haven't heard about. But with something like that, you yourself, just because you're interested in it, could you plan a VBSS mission? Like, oh yeah, I know exactly the blueprints of the ship. What, oh yeah, I, I, yeah, I mean, I could like, I mean, I, I think so. I'll say that. I think so, maybe. I think you could, because here's the thing. I don't even know what VBSS is, but I've done room clearing. I've done all that stuff. FBI has entered the chat. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, dude. He's,

he's dying laughing in these comment sections. But I've, I mean, I've, I've probably got the training to probably, I could, I would never even a million years thinking about taking, taking down a boat. In terms of like, I don't know. I mean, maybe, maybe I'm a little outside of my lane. We're going to get you a little drunk and then you're going to plan it. I want to see it. Like, like, I know how to take, like, I could take local control of ship steering from the engine room or like from the steering gear room, right? Of a ship. That's just something, that's just something they teach you. That's just basic. That's just one of the things you got to learn how to do. Cause like, you're on the bridge and the relay from the bridge to the steering gear

goes out. Like you got to go down to the steering gear and do it locally. So like, that's, that's a key sort of thing, right? That's, that's totally, yeah, I don't know. FBI is watching the spot. Yeah. We got a new subscriber. That's open. That's, that's open. That's basic common sense guys. Okay. I think it's, I think it's funny that you mentioned that like the boat, like, cause I, I mean, I'm a, I'm an army guy, I'm a Marine guy. Like I've worked with the Navy before and I'm just like, these guys make me feel stupid because you guys know boats. Like I don't know shit about boats. I don't think like you guys do in terms of like ports, ocean ways, like even like how shallow or deep the sea is, like what boats can fit. Like

if you put a gun in my head and you're like, can this boat fit near Odessa ports? I'd be like, I don't fucking know. Kill me. So it's, so it's interesting. So this, so this thing that I'm working on now is sort of, it's, it's, that's, that's kind of like the technical side of it. That's what I'm getting into because the, without, without saying a ton. So the ship is reporting, it's going to go to a particular location, but the ship's too big to go there. Like, like there's a, there's like, there's a scenario. Like, like so, so she's saying like, like the ship is reporting, she's going to call this Russian port, but like, there's no way she can get in. And like, and like, even if, even if she loaded, like, like she could get in, but she really couldn't load.

She couldn't load at the burst. You'd have to like do it at an anchorage. Like it's, it's just, it's just like, I'm squinting at it. So like, I don't know. I don't, I could be, I could be totally wrong. So I'm, I'm waiting to see, but that's kind of where this is, this kind of coming around because I was like, huh, the ship's, the ship's draft is deep draft is when she's loaded nine meters. Like what's the draft restriction in the port? Oh, it's five meters. That doesn't make any sense. Yeah. So it's, it's sort of like, that doesn't pass the smell test. So what's, what's, we have like our own things, right? Like we're, we're looking at like airborne forces, tanks and stuff like that from a Ukrainian perspective. Like in your mind, what,

because I see you posting all the time, like you're watching their docs, you're watching what they're loading, like you're looking at the meat and potatoes, which is their logistics, which is how you win wars, which is why me and Matt are like, we have our own theories. But like, for you with the ports and then what's going on with the ports and Navy, like what's going on with that entire thing? So I've been, so I've been watching, so I've been watching Nova Rocesc, probably the closest. So I guess what's, so I think what's kind of interesting is, so the few, the few, I went in there, one of my first posts, I mean, you guys all saw, so I went in there, I just sort of labeled everything that was in there, like that I did the best of my ability,

right, that I could figure out. And so they had a pretty big landing ship that was in there at one point. And, and then I think as of the 17th, it was gone, I haven't, I haven't checked back, I should check back and see if she's back. But like, that was kind of interesting, you know, so, so, you know, repositioning, you know, repositioning equipment, you know, you know, mechanized equipment or whatever, right. And then, and then the logistics vessels, so like, so there's the Sparta, the Sparta IV, and the Pisma, I think that's how you pronounce it. And that one could, you know, that one kind of makes regular runs up into, up into, into Crimea, I think to do kind of like resupply. And yeah, so that's, that's just sort of been what I've been watching.

Up in, up in the Baltic, like in Kaliningrad, there's, there's a couple of ships that roll on, they're like roll on, roll off in containerships, they can take vehicles and containers. And that I think is interesting, because it just, it's not anything they were probably not doing before the war. But it's more important now, because of the sanctions where they can't bring in certain goods by rail or by road into Kaliningrad through, through like neighboring countries, because of sanctions, like dual use goods, but like even like it's like concrete and steel is can, is like a, as a sanctioned good, they can't bring it in. So, so yeah, so like, so like these like life, like this is kind of like their lifeline to get a lot of, a lot of this stuff in

and these ships are just sort of, they're making like liner runs in. But what's, and what I mean, liner runs, just regular runs from, up from St. Petersburg. And there's a couple of them, and they just make really, you know, I posted on it once, I don't, it's not, it's not terribly interesting, but there's just a nuance there. It's like, okay, yeah, this is, this is really important right now, especially right now, because of the sanctions, because this is the only way they can get all the other stuff that they need in, in. So yeah, that's, that's kind of where I'm, you know, just watching, kind of just watching the logistics and, and, and watching some of the Navy ship movements. And there's, there are the guys, there's guys on Twitter,

that are like doing a hundred times what I'm doing, like they're really, really good, like catching them on, they'll, you know, they catch them at sea, on like weather satellites, and they're able to ID them, and like, I don't know how they do it, but they got it, like, they're, they're like measuring, I don't know how they're doing it, but it's, it's cool. And I'm pretty sure they are, like, it's accurate, you know what I mean? So what's crazy on that is back in like the 1960s or 70s, if you were doing this for fun, and we're very accurate, the CIA would hire today, they'd just kill you. They were like, yeah, you do this better than us. Like, oh, Tales of the Economic Hitman. Yeah,

it's a whole book about it. So Jesus. Oh, when it comes to something like, like grain exchange and whatnot, and so Odessa is the largest functioning port left still in Ukraine. Like, what's going on in Sevastopol? Because the Russians took Crimea first because of that. So like, what's the exchange going on there? So that's, okay, so that's interesting. In terms of like how, in terms of how like the Russians are trafficking grain out of Ukraine, like funneling it out, that's, so Sevastopol is really, really important, because that's, because they control that port and they control that grain terminal. So if you got like, go on YouTube, and you can just type in like Russian grain smuggling in the Black Sea. And there's,

there's a couple of like 10 minute, like, there's a frontline piece on it, there's a CNN piece on it. I'm sure TW did a piece on it, I'm pretty sure. And they kind of map how they're, how they're using Sevastopol as this hub to get the grain out. But essentially, you know, they're, they're taking grain from elsewhere, you know, these other grain silos within the country, loaded on trucks, and then bringing it into Sevastopol and then loading there. And yeah, that's, that's, so that's, that's a major spoke in that like hub and that, and that smuggling hub. And I think it's really funny that everyone talks about like Cody and I have talked about it when it comes to like Crimea, the Germans called it where the iron crosses grow. And there's a reason

the Russians took it first because, hey, that's their traditional deep water port to the Mediterranean. And like just, you know, talking sanctions and all these things like this, like looking from in like a nautical aspect, like it's, they definitely won in that aspect. Yeah, I think also, like, like we can go back, let's go back to Syria, like when Syria kicked off. In Tartar, in Tartar, in Tartus, not to say that the United States lost the initiative, but the United States lost the initiative in it. Like the second, the just like the, like the second the Russian, like the second the Russians beat us, like they just were there. I think we kind of lost the initiative because at that point, we're not going to mess like,

there's now there's only so much we can do. And I think the Russians saw that because that was their, that's their foothold in the med. And, and that's, you know, that's why they, they really, they really, I mean, obviously there's a historical link there, right? But I think that they were really, they were really quick on it because they just, they knew, like they saw what happened in like Libya, you know, and they're like, all right, we can't. Oh, they're there too, by the way. Yeah, no, no, no, they're there, they're there, they're there, we can talk, we can talk Libya, Libya's. But yeah, I saw, and that's the thing. So like, when the Russian Navy got into,

into TARDIS and established that foothold, like, unfortunately, United States, I, in my opinion, we kind of lost the initiative there because at that point, now there's only so much we can do. Yeah, you know, so, and yeah, but that's, I mean, that's a key, that's a key thing because that's their base out of the med. You know, and this, and they have other places they can go, like in the Canaries, they have this, there's connections in the Canaries that are friendly to them that they can go to and stuff like that. But TARDIS is the big one. And that's what was going on with the Sparta IV. So the Sparta IV, so she's home ported out of Nova Roces. And they, so it's interesting, so you have to like,

like what I was saying earlier, like the most interesting thing about ships is like who owns them. So like, so like, if you look at the Sparta IV, she's owned by a LLC that's on OFAC Sanction List. Okay. But like, if you go and you dig around, and at one point, this will be a post probably, and I'll show all my work how I arrived to this, but they're owned by a Russian logistics company called Oberon Logistic, which is also on the OFAC Sanction List. And I believe they're connected to another Russian company called Oberon Export, which is there, like if you wanted to buy a MiG-29 from Russia. Nice. These are the guys that export it for that. They're like a Russian state arms exporter, or like S 300. So like, hold on, I think Cody knows very much about that.

That episode about how I got caught up in arms dealing with beyond the Patreon, because if I'm going to get arrested, I'm going to get paid for it. I'd like to hear that, but yeah, I'm going to get rid of the Patreon for that. God damn it. Some person who's given like a dollar a week, just like, I want to hear arms dealing. So yeah, so anyhow, so this, so this part of four goes down. So she loads, so the earthquake happens, and so she loads humanitarian aid, and she heads down to, she heads down to Syria. And the company that, the company that I can't, I won't say owns the ship because they technically don't. That's an LLC. I mean, they technically do, they technically don't. It's an LLC, right?

Through an LLC, but this is one of their ships. If you're their website, it's one of their ships on their fleet list. So like, they own it, or you know, it's under their employee. And they say, Hey, we're going down and we're bringing all these tons of aid to the Syrian people. It's just, you know, for the earthquake. Okay, great. And then like, so the ship got down there. And I have not, there's big asterisks here. I have not verified any of what I'm about to say, but there, I haven't seen it. I just, I just haven't seen it. I mean, I haven't seen it with my own eyes, right? So, but there's, there were a couple of news articles saying that when the smarter four was down there, she offloaded and then she loaded, and then she got underway with

a military escort with a patrol boat up, up and up through, you know, up through Turkey, through the CMRMA, and then to the Bosporus, because the, because their combatants can't go through the Bosporus, but their merchant can. So the long and the short of it is she was loaded because she was, she was squawking on our AS, she was squawking her draft and her draft, like, seven meters, I want to say it's on the post, but she was loaded. And they rate, so she, she loaded something in Syria. And so, and people were saying, you know, the report that I read said that, hey, they saw military vehicles and the, you know, I haven't seen anything get off that ship in any vehicles. Like, you know, here is a, you know,

here is a BTR, here is an S 300. I haven't seen anything like that. It's possible. I missed it too, because it was a week of, it was a week and a half of 100% cloud cover and bad weather in Novorossiysk when that ship got there. It's one of those things where you have to check something like LiveLeak in the country of origin and then see like, hey, if there's a, an SA-6 or something pops up in like a local town, it's probably from these guys. I was, I was looking for like local webcams like in the port in Novorossiysk, like people had like a, that's, that's, that's, yeah, see like what I could see. I was just like, oh, and there was, there's a city cam, but it wasn't, of course, not pointed in the right direction. So you couldn't see anything. Show me the money.

No. Oh, I'll tell you guys a funny story. So I remember when I was like, you know, doing my, my bullshit in Libya, that when it came to like raw Osent reports, I would go to LiveLeak and there was this, this Rayleigh inside Ukraine, or not Ukraine, inside Libya, and he was posting pictures of BTRs and like Russian like supplies inside Libya with all these like Mizoran tribes and all these things. And then one day he called himself Pavel, his name, he was not Pavel. He was Israeli. One day he stopped posting and I was like, oh man, I'm going to pour one out. They killed him. Yeah, I remember because he had a Twitter account, he would post all these things and I were like, I made a burner account and I tweeted him. I was like, thanks so much, dude.

Okay, but holy shit, I think we're almost pushing two hours here. That's, we're at like an hour and a half and we're not even like halfway through like, we've just like, you can tell me. I know, I know. God damn it. Compared to dollar notes. It's a Russia, your Russia episode. Yeah, I have to go over the Patreon. I got to hear the rest of it. Oh god. Oh yeah, it's it just opens up with us laughing. We're like these suckers. Yeah, it's, it's funny because I was telling him about the story when you and I met like the ship on our shoulders, like it's like, you know, the captain meets the NCO marine and it's like immediately, like within like 20, 30 minutes, it was completely dead in the

room. Like all that tension was gone because we were doing shit like we're doing now. Like it was just like, and then this happened and we're like, yeah, right. And then this and then this and like, it was just a total nerd out and like a sweat. Small sense of like military professionalism went out the window. Yeah. Oh man, it just getting like, have you ever seen that scene from it's always sunny where he's like, he's in the mail room. He's like, it was like that. But like, we were both working together in a top secret room with our tops off just sweating, joking. Yeah, it was so bad. That's how I feel sometimes when I'm when I'm looking at ships. I feel like I'm doing the Pepe Silvia. That's all Intel work is. Yeah. Congratulations. Welcome

to the club. Come be good. And then there's the other side where it's like you ever see that American dead episode where like Roger sitting on the balcony is like, well, that didn't solve anything. Well, that wasn't right. Yeah, like the amount of people who in our group chats who were like, Hey, Poseidon redacted something. And I was like, yeah, he thought he found the MQ nine, but he didn't. They're like, I found an oil field. Yeah, they were like, they were like balls on this man. I felt really bad because freaking Sino talk God bless him. He like posted it. I was like, dude, take that shit off. Take it off right now. Who was it? There was a shit. There was something I think like AFP posted it and he was like,

Hey, this is a rumor. And then all these Instagram pages explode. They're like, this is confirmed that challengers have been destroyed in Ukraine. And he's like, no, read the post. Yeah, I mean, in my defense, I think I use the words suspected possible, maybe in the post. I leave my, I haven't taken it. I mean, it's still there. So you can see, but yeah, no, it was that was stupid. So what happened there was, I was, well, yeah. Okay. So I was, I was going, I was, I was looking for it, you know, and I see all, I see this cluster of ships and I'm like, okay, they're just sitting there. And I got really excited because I was like, okay, I think I just got really excited. But at the same time, H.I. Sutton, who's a big

Maritime Ocean guy, he posts a satellite picture from like a weather satellite of these ships. And, and he had a Latin long. So I was like, is his Latin long the same as my Latin long? And it was. So, so I was like, shit, if he's, and I look, I really look up to H.I. Sutton. I got like, he's like the guy like, I want to do what he does, you know what I mean? That's, you know, so I was like, shit, if he's got it, like, this has to be it. So that's the whole story. That's, that's, and, and even as I was posting, I was like, you should really like keep checking. And then so somebody, so then I get a message from, from a follower, everybody in this community is super cool, by the way, like, that's, that's the one thing I've learned. So he's like, hey, man,

he goes, I found these, because I have a paid subscription for a range, and I paid subscription from rain traffic. It's like a thousand a month. It's, it's like, not cheap. So he's like, I got, because I paid, and it goes, I found the names of these ships. And I was like, Oh yeah, let me see. So he sends me the names of the ships. And I'm looking at the ships and I'm like, Oh no. And I was just like, they're like offshore oil and gas ships while, while actually would be handy for recovering something like, like they actually like dive support, like, yeah, sure, why not? But like, I was just like, because that first one was like Norwegian flag. The next one was British flag. I was like, well, maybe they like contracted that's, that's actually where like my brain is

going. Maybe they contracted them out to go get it because the Navy can't get in there fast enough. The US Navy, like the military can't get in there fast enough. And then I started seeing like Turkish flag like ships also in there. And I'm like, that doesn't, I don't think we would do that. And and then I was just like, I bet you this is a gas field. I'm sure as shit. But hey, there's oil there. You have the Latin long, you know where to go. So there's, there's oil there. Okay. Yeah. Changing my stock portfolio now. Now everybody, everybody was like, fucking praising you. I really feel, I really feel shitty about the whole thing. I really know that every, every Intel page I talked to was like, good on him. Most people have the balls

to admit when they're wrong. I told Sino because we were so Sino talk and I were like, it was just funny. It was just funny, right? Like, I like jinxed it because like two nights earlier, we were told like, oh, like, I always get like this anxiety when I find something because like I want to post it. I'm afraid like, like someone else is going to post it before me. And like, like, I get like this, I get this like, but I got to be right. Like, you got to be right. Like you can't or like, you know, you have to at least show the work that like Navy you're right, you know, and like that was exactly the pitfall. And I told him that. And when we were talking about like, the only thing you could do is fall on your sword. And just like, yeah, I fucked up.

So yes, I fucked up. Yeah. I think everybody was messaging me to be like, you know, hey, remember when Kroa Tolerant reports that Ukraine was going to fall? You didn't redact that shit. Like, no, fuck you. It's still falling. I like give it take 90 days. Oh, my favorite thing recently is to like, like St. Javelin will post. And so I'll just go back to the Kroa Tolerant post page and just go like, oh, yeah, Ukraine loses three to one a day. Jesus fucking. It was good. It was good. Yeah. What are you going to do? I mean, that's that. I post. Look, I mean, like, what I love to blow up and, and whatever, like be really popular. Sure. But I honestly,

I kind of just do it. I do signing this to I do for me. I just did something fun. I do it. If people get used out of it. That's awesome. But that's also good to like, like having people like necessarily like, oh, this is pretty cool or whatever. Like that kind of gives me the motivation to keep doing it, obviously. Right. So, so I guess there's a little good. Yeah, it's a two-way struggle. Yeah, a little bit. I mean, of course, but, but at the same time, I do it again. It's just a hobby for me. You know, so for right now, it's like, once it becomes a, once it becomes a job, you're not going to want to do it. That's the one thing I have to do. I like, I like being able to like, I like being able to just sort of like have ADD with it and like, whoa, I'm not really,

okay. It's enough. I want to know what like it's going on over here. And like, I can just go like focus on, you know, I can just do whatever I want, which is kind of nice. But yeah, like I said, I'm still sort of trying to figure out what the page is, what its final form will be. Do you ever look into something like a, like Chinese cargo vessels in like West Africa or something, like to compliment their Belt and Road Initiative kind of like activities? I haven't. So I haven't really looked into any of that. But I suppose I can comment on it. When I was, so like, when I was over in Djibouti, they were built, like, so they built that deep water port there. And, you know,

it's just, it's just, it's just anecdotal, you know what I mean? That, that's all. Like the Chinese presence, like in those areas, like, you know, like Djibouti, I don't think Djibouti can afford the deep water port that the Chinese built. No. So that's going to become a Chinese deep water port if it hasn't already. It's right across the street from the soft base there too. Yeah. It's right down the block, it's right down the block from Camp Lemoneer, right down, it's like, it's like the neighbors, the neighbors. Yeah, it's wild. So like, you know, that, that's there. The Chinese are, but they're expanding everywhere. I mean, I was in, a few years ago, I was in Antigua on vacation and they were like, this Chinese, like diplomatic compounds everywhere,

all the construction projects, what's crazy is like, and the antigens, I think, aren't really totally happy about it because like, so there's these construction projects, but the, the local antigens aren't allowed to work on the project. They're old Chinese, they're old Chinese construction workers. So it's like, you know, it's, they're, they're, they're expanding and they're doing their thing. But yeah, I mean, in terms of Africa, yeah, there's that sort of kind of giving assets to, to local, you know, to these countries, to these host nations, if you will, that just can't afford them. And that's, and that's the plan, you know what I mean? That's the plan. Yeah, we'll repossess it and then they're there.

So they have that foothold in the Horn of Africa now. Yeah, they shipped the land. Yeah. I think, was it, I forget who was, I think it was on your show, but you were talking about the Chinese soft going into Afghanistan and hit a, That was me. Yeah, like that. When you told me, I was like, holy shit, I had no, So I need to, because this is our podcast, so I could say whatever the fuck I want. But I said, when I'm an aficion, I'm gonna, they killed the whole goddamn fucking village.

Like, I'm telling you right now, like, because everybody in that room could have justified that like, holy hag, oh my God, like it just, because everyone was in the comments like, yeah, aficion, China aficion, like, that's cold for me saying, like, they went animal mother, they went, you know, we're gonna do the whole village. Like, impressive. They had no care. And so like, I guess, like, if I had to speak on that again, I would say like, they aerosalted in, they came in, and they were shooting everything, kicked in the door, shot, like, you could, you could see it on the drone, because like, it's our battle space. We allowed them to come in and hit what is a terrorist target. And so it's like, I mean, they, they just came in guns blazing. And

it was just like, holy shit, like they're doing it. And no, nobody brought dead bodies out, no guns, no nothing. And then they lit the fucking place on fire, got on the helicopters and left. And it, I mean, they were in there for some time, they probably knew we were watching. And so like, they went in, they didn't come out. And then by the time they left, that place was on fire. And then I don't know if we followed up behind to look for scraps or see what they were doing. But like, I can testify, like mud huts don't burn. So it was probably a thermobaric charge or something like that. They lit on fire, but they don't mess around when it comes to Uyghurs, man. Like, they, they know, like, to, like, you know, how people would say like, you can't kill an idea, like,

you could kill an idea, but it's going to come with some genocide. And the Chinese are like, fair, fair, like that's a deal. And so it's like, if Matt's laughing, because you've watched enough kill TV, but it is, it's like, Jesus, like nothing I've ever seen before was that intense. I was just like, like, if you could just imagine, like, being told, like, you have triple the ammo, go ahead, go crazy on this objective. I don't even think Americans could have spent that much ammo. It was just impressive. I was just like, did they really bring this much? Oh my God, they brought that much ammo. Holy God, they brought that much ammo. Like that machine gun barrel's going to melt. What's going on? Like, so just to clarify, like, because everyone's like,

yeah, China's not efficient. China's not good. Like, didn't need to be like, it was intense. And so, but no, it is wild to like, that was my experience with China. It is funny to hear you say like, because the Belt and Road Initiative has been pissing a lot of people off because that's the game. Like they, they give out huge loans, they do all this stuff where they give you these great wonderful deep water ports, airports, whatever, and then they take it back. I mean, I was going to say, not to tell another deployment story, but when I was there, we were trying to find geological rare earth mineral deposits for the Afghanis because the Chinese owned all the mineral rights. So the NGA were there, the Geological Association, a bunch of marines from

a new airway, and us, and we're all just sitting there and we're planning like this seven day adventure for a bunch of geologists to go out and pick rocks. And they wanted to go up into like the Khorongal, wherever Streppo was, and we're like, that's not fucking happening. And it's like, well, there's these reports of like emeralds and like, mind the spice, bro. Yeah, yeah, no, it won't do. That's a great fucking, yeah, the spice man. It was, it won't do it. Holy shit. I've never made that kid. I'm going to say that from now on. It was, it was the spice of love. It was like, because like, yeah, it was. Fuck. I mean, I had, I missed that because like the, the Anglico, which are like the marine fisters, and then like their, their air wing, the guys who

were flying the sea kings and all this stuff were in this room. And this guy's just like, we're pretty sure there's lithium deposits here in this region. What can you tell us about that? And I'm like, that's for Streppo. That's, that's Khorongal. And they're like, the Marines are like about to throw up. They're like, because to give perspective, the mountains are higher than the helicopters can fly. So they'll shoot down from the mountains at the helicopters. And so I was like, that place hasn't been visited in like five, 10 years. Like, we don't know what's up there. They're going to be T sixties for all I care up in the fucking mountains up there. And the geological survey is like, so you're saying that's a no, like the spice

man. We must have the lithium. What do you mean? No, that's a, that's a hard no. That's, yeah, but it's funny to hear you say that you got to like see the Belt and Road initiative. I had another. So on my last, that was, so what was cool? The coolest thing about military seal of command specifically was because like, I was a civilian merchant mariner. So like, if I'd been in the civilian merchant marine, I'd been like on a merits container ship or like an oil tank, like doing nothing affiliated with the military, just, you know, bringing stuff from here to there. But with MSC, I was, I was able, I was, because I was attached to the, you know, to the military in that way, the Navy. Yeah.

You got, like you said, you get to see a lot of stuff. So on my second deployment, I started out in the fifth fleet. So I was in, I was in the Arabian Gulf, then went down to Horn of Africa, bounce around there. And then we chopped out and we went to seventh fleet, I believe it was, to the Far East. And I don't, I want to say we were doing like freedom of navigation operations in the Spratlys before like it was getting reported on. So, so we were, so we were, so we would go off the Spratlys and we would just, you know, just cruise it around. We'd do our, we'd just conduct operations, you know, do, do unwraps do, you know, we were just supporting the fleet in the area. But what was cool was so like the Chinese would come out, you know,

so they'd like this Chinese frigate and you'd see it on the horizon. You'd see like this gray silhouette of a frigate. And then you'd see like this little red speck and that was like the flag, you know. And they'd call you up and I would love to do my really bad Chinese accent in English, but I won't, I won't, I won't, I won't, maybe before at the bar one day and I'm drunk, I'll do it for you, but I'm not going to do it on your show. You'll get banned for sure. But they're like, you know, US warship, US warship, this is China warship, stop your legal action, you know, all that. And what the fuck, you know, and, and we're just like, we're in, you know, we have, we got our script, we have a script that we can, I don't think I would, I don't think I was allowed on the radio.

I think I had to call the captain to do it. That's he wanted, he wanted to do it. So I was in his standing order. He was like, I want to do it. If there's any queries about the Chinese Navy, I'm going to talk to him. Okay. But at one point, this was really interesting. So at one point, there was, we were, we were out there with an, like a destroyer, like a DD, Arleigh Burke class destroyer. And at one point, they shift to another channel on VHF, and they're having just a conversation. They're just BS and like, what'd you have for lunch today on the ship? Yeah, we had, we had chicken, we had chicken tenders and french fries, American ship, you know, and the Chinese ship tells them whatever they had. And they are talking about

like, at one point, I hear this Navy guy go like, Oh, Oh, they said, Oh, do you like, do you like wrestling? That's what the Chinese, the Chinese asked us like, Oh, do you guys like wrestling? Like, Oh, do you know Macho Man Randy Savage? Back and forth. And they were just talking, it was interesting though, because they were, but they were just talking pop culture. And I was thinking to myself, like, maybe like, that's that's what I'm sitting there. And I got the rate, I'm on watch, but I've got that channel on, because it's an interesting conversation. They're just, they're just talking, you know, and and, and I'm thinking to myself, okay, so on the DDG, that's probably their intel officer talking

to this Chinese frigate. And on the Chinese frigate, that's probably their intel officer. But I thought what was interesting was that the Chinese were like really focused, like hyper focused, like on American pop culture, they were like, they were talking about like Britney Spears and like, like all this, like all this stuff. And I was like, yeah, so like, I don't know, when they said, when the spies go, when the Chinese spies go to their version of the farm, they, they learn all about Britney Spears and Macho Man Randy Savage. It was once said by a guy who deployed a bunch, he's like, if you want to win over the Middle East or Asia, he's just like a picture of J-Lo in the skinniest bikini, blue jeans, and a steak.

He's like, those guys will leave their country for that. Like, but Britney Spears and Macho Man Randy Savage, like, yeah, that's what they want, bro. They don't even have that. It was, it was, it was really, it was really interesting. And I thought to myself too, like, I'm like, wow, it's, I don't know, maybe it's a corny to say, it was like, yeah, I was like, wow, this is, this is, this is like, this is like diplomacy. Like, like, you know, I don't know. I was having a moment. I remember the, like a couple years ago, like when I was deployed, we were in Italy and it was the most bizarre situation where there was, it was an American themed Vietnam era bar owned by like, Dutchman in Italy. And their clientele was like Russian

sailors. So we showed up and these Russian sailors were getting fucked up listening to like, just Vietnam, like Hendricks and all that. They're just getting blasted. I'm like, these guys are the enemy. They want to, they hate us because they, you know, totally regular guys. At one point they asked, they asked the Chinese asked if the destroyer had a basketball, a basketball team on board. And they were like, yeah, we have a bit, we have a little team. And the Chinese was like, oh, we also have a team. And they're like, I gotta get the phrase just right. But they were like, we hope, we hope to challenge your ship, your ship's team in a glory, in a, in a, in a glorious tournament of basketball or something like that. I'm like, a glorious

friendship tournament at basketball. It was something goofy like that. Did you ever hear that story from World War one, where Germany and all these countries start going to war, but the German, the Germans had a colony out in like the Pacific. And so one of their ships get intercepted because their local port was taken over and they rolled up and they were like, what? There's a war. And the Brits were like, uh, yeah, you guys want to like go get a beer? They're like, you're the enemy, but who cares? You're not really a part of that. So you lost? I don't care. I wasn't even playing before. Um, I should probably, I should probably put a disclaimer in here before like NCIS

closed me up. That was all on open comms on VHS. It was regular old VHS open comms. So nice. That's so funny. That's just bullshitting with the Chinese. It's awesome. But that's, dude, that's like almost what, I think right like an hour of 55, I think I would gotta call it. Matt, you want to do the outro? Oh, the outro. All right. Yeah. So what club? Matterhorn. We're about to wrap this up. So what we're going to do is we're going to sit down on a televised, I guess, conference or something like that, record our discussions on the topic. Cody's the one that recommended it. We're going to record it, dropping on the Patreon. We're probably going to do Zinky Boys next.

That's like my recommendation for good books. Really focus on like, you know, asymmetric warfare, these kind of things right now. And then later on, I mean, just, Hey man, if this is a free episode, so if you want to see the good stuff, we're talking about those, those hated comments that you always saw in the crow toe and stuff. But yeah, just jump over to the Patreon. We're going to start writing a little more. Tell your friends, tell your, tell your mom. We're going to start a Facebook, I guess, if your grandma wants to join on. It's definitely tell your mom. Yeah. 100%. So if you, so what's really cool is if you guys have any questions or topics or anything you want to discuss, just, I mean, it's like $4. And then you could throw in your questions

into the podcast rotation. We could just address those in there. We also have game night. We did one of those last night. The first one we played AFV. You got, Oh, I got it. You got B. You got B like a limited step child. I played war game red dragon with AFV recognition and lost in three minutes. I had no idea how to play the game. And he just kept saying, yeah, he just kept saying skill issue, mate, skill issue. But yeah, it's so funny. But yeah, I mean, you know, fun stuff coming out, I guess, Merch eventually we got to find someone to make the Merch. But yeah, here we are. So if you want to stick around, we have fun things. But yeah, Poseidon, if you want to plug your goods. Yeah, I mean, thank you. Poseidon underscore underscore is too.

Um, I try to get some, you know, fairly regularly, but you know, I only post when I got something to say. So yeah, you come in, check it out. If you like it, subscribe, whatever you like. Tell me you hate me. Tell me you like me. I don't care. Thanks for having me on. I think like the ultimate like blessing when it comes to like a good Intel page is if all con goes, yeah, he's good. Like I appreciate you guys having me on, man. It's been, it's been a trip like it's, it's, it's really, I didn't, I didn't expect, I didn't expect to get the reception that I did. And I remember waking up and seeing your guys is message to me and I was just like, holy shit, it's fucking, it's crotone. I was like, that's cool. I think I woke my wife up. I was like, honey, look at this.

Oh, that's so funny. It's, I will tell you that. What was the one we posted? It's like, oh, Ukraine, like why they shouldn't be allowed into NATO based on intelligence capabilities. And I was at a bar and as soon as I hit post, I like took a shot and I was like, they're common. And it's so funny. It's so funny to see like in pages, I don't even follow. They tag me. They're like, see bitch, see. All right. Yeah. But everyone, you know, thank you for listening. We're going to publish this tonight. And then yeah, bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Thanks, fellas. I appreciate it. All right. Yep. Take it easy.