Locked In with Ian Bick - C130 Loadmaster On Completing Missions, Making Drops & Overcoming Adversity | Josh Salgado

Episode Date: May 16, 2024

Josh Salgado shares thrilling stories of jumping out of planes, traveling the world as air crew, and overcoming adversity. Discover how he navigated challenges like teasing and negative comments, found purpose during deployment, and maintained strong relationships. Packed with adventure, personal growth, and valuable life lessons, this episode is not to be missed. Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Connect with Josh Sagado: IG: https://www.instagram.com/cosmic_absolute?igsh=dGNjcXFxdmRwMXhp&utm_source=qr YT: https://youtube.com/@cosmicabsolute?si=mL8E6N38iPRRCZw5 Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Buy Merch: https://lockedinbrand.com Use code lockedin at checkout to get 20% off your order Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Deployment to the Horn of Africa 00:03:18 - Usage of VPNs for accessing restricted content 00:06:51 - Overcoming Adversity to Join the Air National Guard 00:10:15 - Overcoming Teasing and Negative Comments 00:13:33 - Childhood Inspiration to Join the Service 00:16:59 - Support from Parents 00:20:23 - Traveling the World as Air Crew 00:24:04 - Jumping Out of Planes and Mission Work 00:27:38 - Loading and Unloading the Plane 00:30:59 - Flexible Schedules and Training Opportunities 00:34:20 - Requirements for Becoming a Pilot 00:37:53 - Creative Pursuits During Deployment 00:41:45 - Finding Purpose and Getting Help 00:45:26 - Readjusting to Life After Deployment 00:48:44 - Exploring Italy and Meeting his Girlfriend 00:52:00 - Open Communication and Persistence in Relationships 00:55:23 - Invitation to the Studio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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even if you've shopped with us before. This was our first time getting to go to the Horn of Africa. You have a brief, right? They tell you what's going on in the region. They tell you what you're supposed to be loading. It doesn't always happen when you land at the airfields. And then you go pre-flight the plane. And usually they're already pre-flighted.

So you just do it the, you know, minimal abbreviated pre-flights. And then you start loading the plane, you know, start up engines. And you get the hell out of there and start moving target. Welcome back to the Lockton with the Invick podcast. On today's episode, we have Connecticut resident Jock. Salgado to share his journey of becoming a C-130 loadmaster. This is a little bit of a different perspective on today's episode, but you know, I have to switch it up for you guys here and there.

I had Josh on the show a few weeks ago, and he's just an all-around humble, nice, and caring dude. He hooked me up with some awesome merch from his clothing company, and I'm really glad I got to do this interview with him. So without further ado, sit back, relax, and get right to lock in with Joshua Salgado. Josh, welcome to Locked In, man. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Yeah, you said you're a fan of the show. You've been listening and watching. I am. Yeah. On my deployment, it actually, so that's when, like, YouTube shorts was, like, popping off. And we had a lot of time. And I saw you a whole bunch. So when I started my podcast, I was like looking at, is there anybody in Connecticut that's, like, a podcast or content creator? And then you popped up and I was like, what?

I was like, no way. That's awesome. Well, plug in the name of your podcast. And you have some merchandise, too, for it. Yeah, definitely. It's the absolutely cosmic podcast. We talk anything self-improvement from the nerdy perspective. We post once a week on Mondays at 12 a.m.

Sometimes if we have extra footage, we'll post some extra stuff. But typically you will expect us Monday at 12 a.m. every week. Why do you pick 12 a.m.? It's just easy. And most people, like Mondays are kind of like the slow day. Most people wake up around six. So they have the whole week to check it out, download it kind of thing. So a fresh start every week, you know.

And are you the nerd? Do you have a co-host or it's just you? I do. So he actually is my buddy who breeds coral. He works for CT Aquatics. He has a coral farm startup right now. But yeah, he comes on and we just talk about anything philosophical, life, you know, as both of us are starting our businesses, things like that as well. So it's anything like that.

I've also had several guests on like the Hartford Film and Media Commissioner as well as a former overseas contractor who turned to designing skateboards as a way to heal himself and help give back to the community and help out. But he's, I mean, his story's crazy. I don't even want to spill it because I'm going to tell him to try to come on. That's awesome. And you said you knew Big Twig? Yes, I do. Who is also on, his episode will be out by the time this airs.

Helly. So what a small world. I know. It's crazy. That dude's huge. Yeah, he's a big guy. He comes in and works out like twice, you know, twice a day at the gym. That's incredible.

Hell yeah. So you were deployed recently then. If you stumbled upon me because I just started like a year and a half ago. Yeah, yeah, it was about a year and a half ago. We were in the Horn of Africa. I'm a C-130 load master. I'm in the Connecticut Air National Guard. This is not a DOD statement.

These are my personal opinions. But, yeah, I was overseas. And funny thing about that is when you use a VPN in that region of the world, you get free YouTube read. So I would download, like, podcasts and stuff like that. And your shows are one of them. And I'd watch them on the airplane in between, you know, legs and stuff like that going from airfield to airfield.

That's incredible. Wow, people from all over the world that are doing that. That's so cool. And so that's what VPNs are basically used for, right, to access. Like if you're in another country that doesn't have Netflix, you could access Netflix with that. Yep, because over there, they limit what you can watch and how you watch things.

So we use a VPN to kind of get around that. Also, it limits the ability for others to kind of track your location. So if you get caught using a VPN in a foreign country, do you get in hot water with that? No, we were told to download one and get one before we left. So it's kind of common practice. It's not required, but it's common practice. Gotcha.

So leading up to your deployment, you're from Bristol, Connecticut, which isn't too far from here. Yes, 100%. What was that like? So I grew up in Bristol. And I don't know, it's rough, but it's not crazy. And I don't know. It's a unique town. It's a unique city.

I grew up in all over Bristol. We moved around as my parents got divorced. They kind of moved around. So I kind of went school to school things all around that area kind of thing. Sorry, I'm a little lost for words. Yeah, I mean, growing up in Bristol, I love Bristol. It's my hometown. I think a lot of the youth have lost their way.

And that's kind of, I don't know if it's selfish, but the reason why I started the podcast coming from Bristol is like, I want to show that anyone can do it. as people may know, Aaron Hernandez is from Bristol. His mom was actually the secretariat to my elementary school. So with everything like that,

I kind of wanted to portray and put out a message of where I can help with the experiences that I've gained with the service as well as just fitness. Being born a bilateral club feet, limited initially when I was in high school to be able to get into the service.

So I was, I lived in Bristol, but I went to Southington High School for the vocational agriculture program. And it was there when I realized probably won't be going to college right away. Not that I'm not super academic, just wasn't super interested in that. And I wanted to join the service. So initially, I wanted to join the Marine Corps. It was gun hoars like, I'm going to go shoot guns and just be a badass, you know,

be like the punisher or whatever. And, you know, as soon as I turned 17, the day after I was 17, so August 12, 20th. I actually went to the recruiter's office. I like dragged my parents and I was like, hey, can you guys like sign the paperwork to try to start the process? Went through it. When you join the service, whatever branch you choose, you join the, you have to go through the military entrance processing station or maps. And it's basically like a in-depth sports physical. Just to make sure you're fit for duty. There's no injuries. There's nothing crazy going on with you. Well, I went there and during the mobility tests because my ankles are a little bit, limited in certain ranges of motion, I got disqualified. So I went back like three or four times. Each time was the same thing. Disqualified. I submitted for a Navy Bumet waiver,

which means it has to go all the way up the chain of command through the Navy Bureau of Medicine to try to get approved to waive me and to be able to join. That got denied. Tried it again. That got denied. I was trying so long that the recruiting stations or the recruiters at the recruiting stations

actually switched over So it was like a three, four years. I mean, I was summer of junior years when I decided to try to start joining. And it wasn't until like years after I graduated like a year or two after I graduated that I was able to enlist. But yeah, that got denied. I put an inquiry in for a senator inquiry. So a congressional inquiry. So it went all the way up to Quantico, Virginia.

I remember getting a call. I was at work on break. And I got a call from an investigator or whoever handles that kind of situation. from Quantico, Virginia, which is the headquarters of the Marine Corps. And they said they couldn't do anything. So I was really bummed out. I was working full time. That's when I kind of started reading more entrepreneurial books, so like rich dad, poor dad,

how to influence friends by Daniel Carnegie, things like that. I was kind of just trying to fill the knowledge in because coming from a background where we weren't super financially well off to be able to go to college as well as I wasn't super interested in that. I wanted to take a different route to start getting knowledge and keep moving my life where I could. So eventually, one of my buddies, he was like, listen, you know, come join the Air National Guard. Because school is something that I wanted to do at one point, but I realized I wasn't mature enough at that point as well as financially off. So I went and went to the Air Force recruiter, Air National Guard recruiter. He was very honest. He's like, with your situation, it really depends when we send you back up there.

So I went back to MEPs because at that time, my whole physical expired. And so the doctor who had initially disqualified me was still there. He, you know, when we did the one-on-one physical, he's like, listen, if you still want to join the Marine Corps, he's like, oh, we can get that paperwork started. I was like, nope, I'm going Air National Guard. That's what I'm doing. And I got very lucky to be blessed with a career enlisted aviator job, a loadmaster. So that was available as well as my flight physical got passed through. So I was very blessed and weirdly I couldn't get into the Marine Corps just to do even an administrative job.

But now I'm in an aviation position in the air guard. That's awesome. What is bilateral club feet? So club feet in general is when your feet are basically interned. It's really case dependent, I guess. Some people have bone deformities. Some people have soft tissue deformities. Luckily for me, I had soft tissue.

so I didn't need any, they didn't need to like chop anything and put any screws or bolts in there. It was essentially when I was a baby at six months, I had a tendonal release and a pin put through my foot for a certain periods. I don't even remember the surgery. And I guess all my family said I started walking around the same time as any other kid would. What does it limit you to do? Can you run? Oh, I can run. I mean, I completed, this past year I completed my first marathon, the Marine Corps marathon.

That's awesome. So I can run. I lift, you know, five days a week. Um, really it's just, I guess, acute mobility, um, that they were looking for at MEPs. And really when it comes to MEPs, it's kind of like they just are super, super picky because they want to light and term wash people out, you know, make sure that they're getting people that aren't going to get injured in boot camp and during service. So what did it even have made that big of a physical difference if they, if they didn't have

that requirement on you? Like, could you have done anything differently than the person next to you? No, not at all. And I don't, I don't, I personally believe that it, you know, based on, like you said, it wouldn't have made a different effect. I mean, when I was deployed, I attempted the Norwegian Ruck March, which is 18.6 miles in four and a half hours. I'm kind of a short guy in 5'8, so essentially I had to jog the whole time to try to make the time. I got nine miles in, and I twisted my ankle, and I didn't want to keep going and then like get sent home or anything. So I was like, you know what? I'm going to call it.

But even there, I was running two miles every day, plus lifting, plus doing like 45 minutes on the stationary bike. And then, you know, we would fly every few days and stuff like that, which that beat your body up like hell. Did kids pick on you for this at all in school? Yes. So a little bit. In elementary school, I don't think it was, I guess, like, malicious or like bullying per se. I remember distinct memories where like, you don't really run very fast or you're, you know, you kind of walk weird. And I don't know. It never really bothered me too much. I'm always self-conscious a little bit, but it doesn't, you know, the thing is, it's like you're born with what you got.

You know what I mean? You can't. It's something I can't necessarily change about my body. So why am I going to worry about it too much? And that's something that later on through high school, in middle school and high school, people would make fun of me because I have kind of skinny calves. so they'd call me chicken legs and things like that, which... It's okay, I get called chicken legs too on social media. Really?

Yeah, I don't know why, but I guess my legs are small, but I don't even care. I would get teased for it because I have very flat feet and I kind of walk inward. So I would get teased for that. People just always have something to say. It's crazy. And it's usually the people that will have negative things to say. Well, my mindset now, I guess, is when people say negative things about you, whether it's whatever you're doing, your body, whatever it is, think about it.

they're spending that time and thought to put in something negative towards you, but they're still, you know, they're still putting energy into towards you. You know what I'll tell you what the podcast, social media world makes you a thick skin. Yeah. I can imagine. It does, I could see something just like terrible and it doesn't even bother me. Yeah. When I first started, I'd get worked up, but I would never, I always knew you can't lash out in the videos because that's just, there's some creators that do that and it just kills off your whole follow. No one wants to listen to Yeah, yeah. So for me, like, I'll make a funny comment back to someone, like, as a troller as a joke.

Yeah. But I'm never going to, like, address them on the podcast or make a clip or anything like that. Yeah. Which is so silly. It's a waste of time. America's first pledge was freedom. Jeep still carries that fighting spirit. With the Jeep declaration of deals, we're pledging our allegiance to the American people

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Even the Jeep Grill or registered trademarks of XAUS LLC. Yeah, and, yeah, it's, you know, I think maybe being in the service, it's also you have to have thick skin. It's kind of the same thing. Like, when it comes to the people close to you, sometimes they tease you out of love. Like social media, I feel like it's just people who are super insecure. and they're just going to find any way to try to derail somebody who's moving, you know, in their life or trying to make something. But when it's like your close friends, that's how I think guys like share a lot of their friendship is through teasing each other, joking with each other.

So I think there's a big distinction with that. What inspired you to join the service? Did you have family members in it? Did you look up to someone? Like I almost see your story kind of fitting with like a David Gaggins who was told no, no, no. But you pursued it, you know? I just want to say I appreciate that a lot. Gungans on getting kind of tear-eyed because when I was getting denied from the service,

like before he was super popular, I like found him on YouTube and stuff like that and would play it. And I'd put rocks in a book bag and like hike up a hill and like just run all the time. And I was like, you know, gung-ho. But I appreciate that. Yeah, I read his book, man. And that's what he says. And he was overweight. Yeah.

And they told him no. And then he lost that way. He ran every day. Yeah. Like that's incredible. You are super persistent. It's how you have to be. But going back, if you could repeat your previous question.

Just what inspired you to join the service. Family members, someone, a figure you looked up to you. So when I was really young, my step-uncle actually joined shortly after 9-11, if I'd recall correctly. And he was Army Civil Affairs, which is a special operations career field. He got to do a lot of cool stuff in Iraq and Afghanistan. He did two tours. But he came back after his last deployment. he saw some stuff, lost some friends, and wasn't the same.

And from a very young age, I always remembered the person that he came back as, and I realized that I need to pay back. You know, I need to give what I can as a man, as a human being, to my country. Because, again, being born in America, I was able to get the surgery to be able to walk. Like, that's another thing, too. It was like, I was blessed with the opportunity to be here at this time where the technology, the country that I was in, you know, I was able to walk.

I was able to get the surgeries I needed to walk and not everybody gets that with this condition with life in general, right? And so that's kind of was my biggest thing, but seeing him, he was like a big brother figure to me, my step-uncle. And he was just a badass. I mean, he would get pictures of him shooting machine guns

at the qual for the first time, you know, as a little kid, I was like, oh, like. So I always imagined just doing something and my grandfather was in the Air Force, and I didn't learn until later what he did, but he passed away shortly after I came back from deployment, but he was kind of one of the strongest male figures in my life early on. And he's, I mean, even at my computer, when I'm like editing or whatever,

I have his obituary card, you know, hung up right above there because even if I get distracted or down, that's a kind of look up. I'm like, I need to do him, right? He was an airman, and he was wild. He did some cool stuff, but he got stationed in Greenland, and he was an electrician for the base, but he also got to work on like the early ICBMs and the systems with that with his electrical trade, if you will, his AFSC back then. And he shared some stories, show me some pictures. And he's like, this is like, you know, what we did so. And then I showed him some pictures of what I do.

And he was like, you know, he's like, that makes sense. He's like, I loaded a missile on to one of those planes before. And he was, I believe, a pre-Korea vet. So he got out right when it was starting out, if I'm not mistaken. So that was when the C-130 was kind of coming about. So that was really cool to share that kind of like now I load the planes and unload the planes and do, I'm a load master. But he did that years ago when that plane was in its inception. That's awesome.

So what do your parents think about you joining and being persistent and joining? I'm sure they might have been a little thrilled that you didn't get in at first because you're their son. But how would they feel throughout that whole process? So my mom, when I went to join the Marine Corps, like she came in, my dad came in, they had to sign paperwork because I was underage, right? So they were asking questions, like, is he going to get deployed right after boot camp? Like all these crazy off-the-wall questions, is he getting to like die? You know, the recruiter, she was, I believe, a personnelist, and she deployed to Iraq. And she was like, I never even saw combat because at that time things were kind of chilled out.

She's like, I didn't, she's like, it just depends on what job you're in, what's, going on like um but they were always kind of worried but they also knew that i was passionate about it so they always kind of supported it um towards the end before i was able to get into the air national garden enlist my my father he kept seeing me like essentially get denied and he's i remember we got into a fight one night and he was like he's like why can't you just give it up and i'm like i can't i can't and i remember going on a run and it was late at night and uh i guess that's just kind of my motto is like I couldn't and I want to do my 20 so that's incredible so C-130 yes load master when we think of that call-a-duty care packages yeah care everything just call it because that's

one of the main things you use or in call-a-duty I grew up playing that I used to remember AC130 yeah coming in hot of this and that so what exactly was your role would you do and whatnot so as a C-130 load master. The career field's changing a little bit, so the specific terms. I think it might be mobility force aviator. It might be career enlisted aviators kind of going back and forth between the two. Things are shifting with how our career fields are managed. But what we essentially do is load, unload the plane. We fly with the plane so we can do air land. So that's air land operation. So a Humvee deployed. I loaded several Humvees like the little razors, the Polaris, we've had a few of those. any rolling stock so like power carts and things like that we can load up

palletized cargo so think of well wood pallets I guess not the best metaphor and it's hard to explain I want to try to break down less technical and more I guess what makes sense but it's a metal palette and it goes into our plane and we have dual rails that lock it in and you could put food we move blood food muscle milk and that was expired and popped on the pout that stunk so bad so but in the heat oh oh but Yeah, so we can do air land. We do air drop.

So like that call it duty care package, that essentially is what a CDS bundle is. So we'll be in the back of the plane. There's different configurations on how we can drop those and limitations. We all have to memorize them. We have hundreds of pages of publications and books that we go through and have to study and, you know, stay sprung up on. And essentially we're in the back of the plane. We cut it or we'll pull something and we rig it up. So we'll rig it up on land.

Load it up, rig it up on land. you know, we take off and then the front end crew, the flight crew in the front, they'll actually, you know, do their magic. The navigator will set points and boom, drop it out at the back and we'll be in the back cutting it out. So your role is to stay with the plane basically at all times? Yep. So we fly with the plane. So we're enlisted air crew. So how much time do you think you've spent on a plane over your career so far? So I've been in... And where have you gone to? That's a good question.

So last I checked, I think I have a little over 400 flight hours. Like time on the plane, not flying, it's probably double that because we usually get to the plane about two hours before. And that's deployed a little bit. It's all different and all subject to change. But we have to pre-flight the plane, load the plane. So usually two hours before flying and then flying, those boost in my flying hours. But I've been to, so the Horn of Africa, so Somalia, Kenya. Djibouti. On the way back, we visited Cigonella, Italy, Spain, Rota, Spain. I got to go to Scotland. I've been stateside all over. I just recently got back last week from Key West. So we get to travel all over and see the world like in a different light. And it's crazy because even like overseas in Djibouti, right? It's a Muslim, you know, Muslim dominant country and the culture is different. So imagine like here.

typically we're a Christian kind of based country right where British we were formed from Britain right so that's where all of our architecture where our towns are called after places in Britain over there it's kind of the same thing for their culture of Islam so it's a totally different culture and it just it just made me realize how people are different but all the same yeah it's kind of a cool are these C-130s armed for precautions or anything like that what do you mean by that like armed with missiles or defense mechanisms, like when they're flying? Oh, can't really talk about it.

Okay, gosh. There is stuff to keep us safe. We can stay safe, definitely. There's always a threat, you know, with things, but that's, there's things that we have to keep us in the fight. What about food? Do you get to eat on there on the plane for a long plane ride or is it like airplane snacks? Yep, so we'll bring snacks.

So usually kind of the culture is, like, if we're leaving, like a time, TDIWire, a trip, like, down in Key West, we would, like, hit up a BX or a gas station, grab a bunch of snacks, and we all, like, tie it up and have our little, like, nest area where we, you know, get our snacks. Deployed was the same thing. Like, before a flight, I'd always stock up on snacks.

Like, I'd have beef jerky and twizzlers. I love food. So, and then we have an oven. So those are the older models. Yeah, it's almost like an air fryer, a convection oven. So I've made sausage. Some of my buddies made cookies and muffins. Like, you can make anything.

And it's free to roam around on the plane? Yep, pretty much. Yep. Is there a bathroom? Yep. So we have, it's essentially like a glorified port-a-potty with a curtain. Okay. So the big culture is you can pee in it, but please don't poop because the whole plane will stick.

Yeah. Is it like the movies where they're like dropping out like a tank in the middle of the air? Oh, yeah. After the podcast, I'll show you. My first off-station trip, I dropped a sequential heavy equipment Humvee. So two Humvee's. So the first Humvee went out. what we call the bomb rack, so it kind of basically just flip.

The extraction shoot flips out, deploys and sucks it out. And there's other parts of that, but I'm just simplifying it. And then that first time V will actually extract the second one. So I think it was 27,000 pounds in total. I mean, it was a tight, like there wasn't much space when we took off. We literally took off and dropped it right away because that was. Do you feel it come off, like the weight lift? Yeah.

What is it, like bounce or something? Yeah, especially for that one. It literally, like, you could feel the plane kind of canter back as it came almost like recoil. Wow, that's incredible. And do you guys ever jump out of these planes? Yes. So that's another thing. So we do the basic airborne course.

So we're basically dropping airborne guys, special forces type guys would do like the halo high, altitude, low opening. So I've done that once so far. We dropped some special forces army guys and got to like see them. Literally, he fist bump me. he's like, what's up, man? And, like, just jumped out like nothing. And I'm like, dude, you're insane. This is during a mission, like an actual mission or just training?

This was just training. Okay. Yeah. So are there ever any mission works or that's a separate field? Yes. So it's really dependent on where you are, what's going on. Like in the news recently, Israel, Gaza, there's air drops. Actually, because it's such a small community, I reached out to one of my buddies who I was like,

oh, you know, do you know who that was? And he was telling me some stuff about it. But yeah, so the purpose for AirDrop is essentially to either supply our forces or do like humanitarian aid, supplying food, water, medical supplies in areas that are either you can't get to contested, things like that. Are you ever worried, like in fear for your life? So on the deployment for a few flights, I try to keep it calm, cool, and collected, but I would be, you know, in the plane and I'm like, you know what, we could get shot down right now. Yeah. But after a while, I think it's just, you know, it sounds terrible, but is it what it is. You know, it's part of what you're doing.

And I mean, on my way here, I could have gotten through a car accident, you know. I could have not woken up. I could have a heart attack at any time. You know what I mean? So I kind of view it that way. Like, life could end at any moment. So there are rules of engagement, though, in some of these countries, right? They wouldn't necessarily shoot down a plane like yours compared to maybe like a Black Hawk helicopter or something.

Is that the case? It just, I mean, I guess it depends on who some of these people over there don't follow rules. So. But yeah, I mean, there is rules of engagement. Luckily, we're not in a time where, like, World War II, where planes were getting shot down. And, you know, those guys are the real deal. And those are also a lot less safe. Yeah.

Like the technology now, I'm sure, is incredible. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We have a lot of stuff, you know, within the plane. like when we're air dropping, right? We have mechanisms and we're trained. If something doesn't look right that's going to, you know, maybe bind up or cause an emergency, we will, we have procedures to kind of mitigate that. Now, what's a deployment look like for you in this role?

Yeah. So for me, it was, it was pretty interesting because this was our first time getting to go to the Horn of Africa and our unit's first time to go to the Horn of Africa. and a lot of the people who've deployed like, you know, eight or nine times, you know, they visited, you know, those countries and stuff. So they kind of had an idea, but it was a very long time since anybody's in our unit went there. And when we got there, I remember, like, on this little, like, caravan bus, you know, it's hot as hell. Like, it looks like tattooing. Like, that's what, like, imagine a military base on tattooing, and that's what it's like for Star Wars, the desert planet. or like Mars even.

It felt like that. And I was like, wow, this is Africa. This is Africa. But typically for us, our tempo was a little slow. So we would go and fly every few days or whatnot. So you go, you have a brief, right? They tell you what's going on in the region. They tell you what you're supposed to be loading.

It doesn't always happen when you land at the airfields. And then you go pre-flight the plane. And usually they're already pre-flighted. So you just do what the, you know, minimal. abbreviated pre-flights and then you start loading the plane, you know, start up engines and you get the hell out of there and start moving cargo. How long do you stay on the ground during deployment out there? So in like Djibouti at our, I guess, staging or home base, if you will, we have like a,

it's safe. So you could do the two-hour, you know, time. We didn't really need that. But, you know, now we're two hours load up pre-flight, do what you got to do. But when you're going to these airfields, you want to get in and out. as soon as possible because planes are loud so that can attract attention

you know you just don't want to be in a place sometimes you don't want to be in a place for too long of a time you know what I mean have you landed in like some really sketchy areas

like where you're landing on like sand or not a run runway too yeah so there so there was a specific airfield and it was run mainly by like special forces type guys

we call them snake eaters because they you know bravo they're badasses but we always tease them. But yeah, we landed and it's a bunch of plywood and sandbags. And I remember looking with my night vision goggles out. And I see the barrel of guns like through this little cutout. Right.

And then I like flip my nogs up as I was jumping off the ramp to go and find the JTAC, Joint Terminal Air Controller, because they actually give us to load plans and coordinate MHE, which is like forklifts and stuff, to load and unload the plane. And I literally like almost jump to. on because it was so dark and I didn't have my nags down to see him and that was one of the first few missions and then I look over and I see an artillery gun and some dude in like

his flack vest like Adidas, basketball shorts, sneakers and t-shirt and he just looked like a dad and he's just like walking over there like nothing like about to you know just make sure if anything happened so yeah that was kind of that was crazy but yeah we can do like short runways and all crazy stuff now are you guys

individually armed too? Yes so you're trained and everything Yes, so we're trained on a handgun. Okay. And the pilots are too? Yeah, everyone aircrew is, yeah. Do you have any dreams of becoming a pilot? Does that interest you at all?

I think so. I want to get my degree, and that might be a potential. But I also really do love the mission of a load master, you know, being able to load and unload the plane, problem solve. You know, it's like a game of Tetris and seesaw. You know, you got to put the weight in balance of the plane. You know, you've got to try to fit as much as you can inside the plane, and then you're doing that time constraint.

The engines are running, so you're getting. getting blasted with jet engine exhaust at night. Like, it's just a challenge that I love. And I love the sweat. I love the grind like that. But, you know, a career progression potentially would be becoming a pilot or a front-ender. How many deployments have you done so far? Just the one.

I want to hopefully go on the next one and the ones after that. Now, how does that work now? Are you still actively in the service? Yep. So as Air National Guard member, it's a part-time endeavor. So it's a reserve component. So we have our drill weekend, two weeks a month. And then because air crew, we have a little more currencies and stuff.

We could literally, you know, come in up to three times a week, typically four times a week if we're flying, training, things like that. So it can be pretty much a full-time or, you know, a pretty heavy part-time job if you need to be. But it also, if you're going to school, we have a lot of people. The schedule is very flexible. So you could come in one day a week. You could come in every other week. You could come in a few days a week. It really depends on what's going on the outside.

And could they call you right now and say, hey, we need you. We're deploying. Yeah, actually. So Drill weekend was this past weekend. And the scheduling office asked me, they're like, oh, can you go do a prop pickup today? Or, yes, it would have been today, leaving today in the morning into tomorrow. And I was like, oh, no, I'm going on a podcast. They're like, you're going on a podcast teasing me.

But I told them like, it's Ian Bick, you know, the famous Ian Bick. They were like, oh, so they looked you up. And they were like, whoa. So they're like, okay, it's okay. What's a drop pickup? So literally you move either maintenance personnel or like, you know, engines, like airplane engines or props or things like that. So sometimes we'll go and bring out planes to be maintained, you know, deeply, I guess, for lack of a better term, out at Depot. And you're going like to different states in the country for this prop?

Yeah, sometimes. Okay. It just depends on like what needs to be moved, essentially. Is the Army base that you go to in Connecticut or do you have to go? Really? There's a full army base in Connecticut? Well, it's not an army base. It's an air guard base. It's small, but it's by East Granby. Is there a lot of planes there? Yeah.

Actual, like, C-130? Yeah, we have a fleet. Oh, that's so cool. Yeah, and then the Army is right across the civilian airport. Okay. So when we take off, we see the helicopters. We're like, yeah. Yeah, I have a friend that's in, I think the National Guard reserves.

So he goes twice a month. He's also a state cop or a city cop in Torrington. Oh, no kidding. So he goes, I think, twice a month or whatever for the training. What kind of training do they do for the reserve training? It depends. I mean, usually you have your, like, anyone who's in the military knows you have like your computer trainings, your basic kind of currency trainings for just being in the military.

But then for us, it's job dependent. Like our maintainers and crew chiefs, they'll do things to maintain and work on the planes, right? We'll do, you know, load trainers. Well, we'll load up something, take it off, you know, take it back on, try different MHE. when we can and different things you could see down range that you might not get told or even there when you're flying into it to kind of keep the sword sharp, I guess. What's the next step up from a loadmaster? Is it pilot or is there another ranking within that?

So load master is a career field. So you have the enlisted side. We have flight engineers and load masters. And then on the flight deck you have pilot, co-pilot, and navigator. For our airframe, every airframe's a little different. And those individuals aren't enlisted? The pilot, co-pilot, and navigator are officer. Okay.

So that's like your lieutenant captain major types. And then enlisted as, you know, E1 through, you know, E9. So would you have to go to officer school to get to that? Yeah. So is there two steps to an officer school and then pilot school? Yep. So for them, I'm not too sure. But depending on the career field, it can be like a year and a half, two years.

Between like OTS officer school and coming back. And then they have additional training coming back. getting spun up on how we do things. What's a requirement to get into that? Having your degree and then you board. So you have to go in front of other pilots or other officers and kind of they'll ask you questions and I haven't been to one yet. So I don't know what type of questions, but it's like moral character questions.

You know, if you have your private pilots license, it might pertain a little bit to aviation and things like that. So it's kind of like an interview, an intense interview. Do you think you wouldn't be going back to school now if that wasn't, a requirement? 100%. I probably just be trying to do the podcast

and stuff and working full time and going on base. But I think personally, I believe that if you're not constantly doing something to grow and improve,

even if I don't go the officer route, that you're going to stay stagnant and never achieve what you fully can do. You know what I mean? Yeah. Oh,

that's great. You definitely have your hands full. Yeah. You do a lot. I mean, you're in school part time, you said? Full time.

What's a requirement for full time? Are you there every day? day, five days a week? For school? Yeah, for school. So for school, I fixed my schedule just for two days a week and I'll have all my classes from 8 a.m. all the way till like one or two.

Last semester was a little bit longer. But I'll do that two days a week and then fly when I can. I'll put my availability as open as possible. And then I work part time at the gym where Big Twig who was just on. He's nearby. He's a regular. Have you guys talked before? A little bit, yeah, a little bit.

Next time you see him, you got to say you were on the podcast. Your podcast pros. Hell yeah. And then videography, it's basically with my buddy who does the coral farming and saltwater aquariums. It's basically whenever they have a project. So every week they're trying to do one to two videos. So I'll go in for a few hours, do one to two videos, and then edit one half time.

And then now recently I've been trying to market the T-shirt shop in person, a little guerrilla marketing. Yeah. Yeah, tell us about the T-shirt shop. You have some examples with you too, right? Yeah, I'll see the t-shirt. And how did you get into t-shirts? All right.

So I got into designing t-shirts. So when I got back from deployment, and this is, I think, something super important that I want to, I guess, harken on for anyone who comes back or leaves where deployment comes back. Give yourself the grace time to adjust going into and coming out. I came back thinking, and that was when Andrew Tate was really hot and popping off on the internet.

I was like, I'm going to be, you know, I just came from deployment. Like, I'm going to just like try to. do social media and I didn't really know videography very well so my videos were very bad um just it was just crazy I wasn't being authentically myself you know um and AI was starting to kind of develop um so I was experimenting with AI as well as social media um so eventually I just kept kind of messing with it and got to the point where I was like you know what I can take if I want like say a flying saucer which I'll show in one of these designs I could take that you know bring it to Photoshop to Illustrator and then touch it up, adjust it, do my thing,

and then make a design and create a gymware brand. And the whole idea behind it is because I've noticed that there's like Jim Shark, you have all these gym brands that focus on like the gym bro. But I notice a lot of like nerdy people who like Star Wars, Marvel, you know, whatever it is, right? They'll be wearing those IPs and there's not really too many independent or just like, I guess, gym wear kind of focused brands. So I was like, that's kind of a niche that I want to try to get into. Very selective, very like tiny pocket.

But I was like, let's try it. So I designed a few T-shirts, and then I just kept every so often, I have an idea and just work it. And then I have a new drop that just came out. Actually, after this, I'm going to be putting some of the renders on the Insta and the mock-ups on Insta and kind of show it. But we'll show these are actually part, these are some prototypes of those new drops. So this one, let's see. This one is a Neanderthal or caveman chasing a UFO. Because, you know, like the conspiracy theory on Joe Rogan's podcast that we all evolved from aliens or something like that.

I need a good tank top. Hell yeah. Well, I got you. I got you a few. So there we go. That's awesome. This one is kind of like... Oh, I like that one.

It's like Godzilla. Well, it's not Godzilla. But it's like a giant, you know, creature. and a firefighter, futuristic soldier kind of walking into the flame. That's awesome. This one, I'm wearing it actually right now, but it's a, I guess, a, like, science fiction city, kind of call it like the Crystal Castle kind of thing.

I just think it looks really cool. It looks kind of like a vintage, you know, I don't know, like a VHS cover from the 80s or something. Like, I don't know. I'm really like sci-fi. I love sci-fi, so that's kind of where the inspirations come from. Oh, there's more. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. That one's cool. I like that one. Yeah, this one's like a Titan, you know, kind of like the same kind of thing, giant, you know, fire. I don't know where I was going with that. I just kind of thought it looked cool. Hey, it flew in your mind. You put it together.

Yeah. And then this one is, I guess, a cosmic, I think it's called the title's Cosmic Kaiju on the website. So do you guys only do tank tops? No, so we have, we have hoodies, sweatshirts, t-shirts, I'm looking into getting some flags, maybe some patches up on the website, as well as I started writing a graphic novel that kind of ties in these designs into, I guess, my in-head-in-game lore, you know, to kind of just flesh out the brand and flesh out kind of what these mean, you know what I mean?

So did pouring your heart and passion and work into this kind of help with the mental effects of, or the mental backlash from being deployed and being deployed and being away from home? 100%. So when I came back, and when I came back, I was struggling with finding my purpose, you know, I applied to between coming, like a few weeks before I left Africa to coming back, I applied to like 17 different jobs, all part-time, you know, small entry-level stuff. You know, I was learning photography, videography, so I was applying to very entry-level things like that. And I remember I got back from base one day. and like eight of them got denied.

And that was like the ones I did like the night prior. And I was like, come on. So that was a big thing. I had a lot of family stuff going on, lost my grandfather, had some relationship stuff going on, and was struggling to find my purpose, you know, in the civilian side, I guess, you know, balancing in the service and civilian side. I felt a lot of pressure to go to school for biomedical engineering

or something that would make money from people close by and stuff like that. And I wasn't following what I wanted to do, pursuing, you know, the film degree and film TV and media down at Southern Connecticut. So I was very, I was struggling a lot. And it got to a very, very dark spot. And it just, I was at a point where I almost made a permanent decision for a temporary situation, if that makes sense. And I'm being very open right now because I think, I think this can help a lot of people to just give yourself the grace and pursue your passion. Don't try to fall into others.

You know, don't worry about what other people think in that aspect of what you should do. If you know what you need to do or what your heart's telling you to do, then pursue that. And at the same time, like, give yourself the grace to come back. And when I finally decided to get the help and stuff like that, everyone in the service was like, how come you never came to me? Like, I'm always an open door. Like, they were very caring and supportive. And it made me realize that I was the one who kind of drew myself back

because I was afraid of what other people would think if I said, oh, I'm going through this, you know, this is what I'm struggling with coming back from the deployment. And it was like six or seven months after. So it was a bit after I was flying a lot. I was like, you know, put me in coach. Like every, I was going on trips like, you know, once or twice a month flying two, three times a week.

like doing what I could to just keep busy that aspect. But I just felt like, because as a guardsman, you have different pillars of fulfillment and what you're building a life. You need to have a civilian career because it's a part-time endeavor. You need to be proficient at your job in the service. And then you have personal relationships.

And this was what a mentor told me on deployment. And I was struggling on that personal relationship aspect and as well as, you know, building that personal civilian. in development. So that was my biggest struggle. It took a lot of work and I'm thankful that I didn't do anything crazy and I got the help that I needed and I think this is a message to anyone, get the help you need. I mean, I'm back up flying again. I'm back up doing my job again. So if you need help, there's not this stigma that like get your help, get your help, get what you need.

because you know you're not alone trust me do you think that pursuit of the process of getting into the service for so long you thought that was your purpose and then once you got in you kind of lost yourself a little bit because you had got what you were working for and then you kind of once you get to that point you kind of get lost a little bit yeah that was my biggest thing is because my whole dream was to deploy go to do some cool like you know lack of a better term slang term hood ratchet yeah can you swear yeah of course Okay, okay. But, like, that was kind of my thing was, like, I deployed, I joined the service, I did it.

What now? You know, I came back and I'm like, because my job's not directly correlatable on the civilian side, you know? We don't really do air drops in the civilian world or load planes too much. And most of those jobs that, like, for FedEx or Amazon, you need a degree. So I was very lost. I was very lost in that aspect. Yeah. that was I was like I did it now what what's what's next for me and I felt empty you know so did you talk about this with your parents at all

were they accepting of it I tried do um I think a lot at that time you know a lot of the people in my personal relationships and family and stuff they were very like well you already been back for a little bit just kind of get over it and I was like well I'm struggling though I would if it was that easy to just not feel you know crappy not feel then I would. Yeah, what's it like to be deployed and then come back and life is you just have to jump back into life. Like it's like it's in pause when you're in that other country, when you're in that world. But when you get back, the world hasn't paused for you. Things are still going.

And I feel like that's comparable to when guys go away to prison. The world's still going on for them. And we have a lot of people that watch a show that have been to prison. Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely, you know, so here's the thing. deployed life simple and I'm sure maybe prisons like that where you just you have the regiment you have you do what you got to do to get through each day by day and for us it was like get that next flight done get that mission done it's fulfilling because you're doing a real world thing you know you're supplying the war fighters downrange you know at these other air bases moving cargo you know we would move doctors every now and then so it's like stuff that's like wow like that deep stuff you know so like coming back and it's like you know everybody has been living life normally and you're just sitting there and you're like this your perspective. changes so widely. You know what I mean?

You're not the same person and people expect you to be. You know what I mean? People expect you to understand or like they'll complain about certain things that it was like, well, I mean, I don't know, we had long days over there and we had the grind over there and things are different, you know? I don't know if I can put it into words, I guess. Is it hard to readjust to like time zone? Yes.

The way you sleep because of the way you eat, everything, physical adjustments. When I got back, I don't think I had a full night of sleep for like two, three weeks. And even then it was still, I mean, even now my sleep's still a little funky. I think I got like maybe three hours of sleep every night for the first two weeks. Fitness-wise, like literally I did not work out for the first, again, three, four weeks that I got back. I just felt like dead. Like I just wanted to sleep all the time. I was like, my body felt like it crashed.

And I was like, what's, you know, we had leave. We had leave. so you get leave when you come back. So that was kind of, I think, a little difficult too because I didn't really have too much going on. So, and everybody wants to see you and thinking you're just like, just let me, like, give me my time. But yeah, it was hard.

I like my appetite dropped and I love food. Like, I love food. My appetite dropped. I didn't want to work out. I didn't want to do anything. I just felt lethargic and, like, everything was gray. I can't even imagine, you know, to be a while. I mean, I was away for prison,

but it's just, it's different. Yeah. Because you're still like living your life and it's, and you're probably in your head even more in danger too, or you are physically in danger in those other countries. Did you pick up any languages or anything while you're over there? No, I wish I did. I didn't pick up any languages or learn anything. I did.

So as a load master, right, sometimes we have contractors and stuff we don't speak English. So I guess in a sense maybe like a load master sign language, we were able to, to communicate with them when there was language barriers or like sound barriers because sometimes planes are so loud you have to like grab somebody pull them to year and be like do this um so i didn't pick up any languages like that but i learned a lot of communication skills with body language and uh i guess that kind of leadership and delegation when you're in a place like italy do you get a chance to explore, you know, try things around because that's not like a hostile area in Italy.

Yeah. So we went through this. We got back. We settled down in the hotel and we literally just went down to town. We took taxis and just explored. Had food, had ice cream, had some drinks, you know, just explored. Like, it's beautiful. It's awesome.

It was cool. You kind of have like a little Italian look to you. Like a Mario type of guy with a mustache and everything. Thank you. Oh, yeah. My girlfriend jokes. She says, you're Luigi. Oh, okay.

Not even the main character. Yeah, you can be Luigi. What does your girlfriend do for work? So she actually, so she's finishing up her marine biodecary down at New Haven University. Okay. Or University of New Haven, excuse me. And she's actually looking to hopefully work for Deep or Noah one day. But she's, right now she works at the Agriculture Station.

And she does like invasive species research on local plants and waterways. That's awesome. So she does some cool stuff. How did you guys meet? So that's actually interesting. interesting because so I hadn't seen my cousin for years right they have a family a family function party and they're actually neighbors of my cousin and never met him like we would go over their house as kids and stuff so it's the first time I see my cousin in years and she was there

and I asked me because I'm like who's that girl is like so we actually just started talking from there and been dating for a little over four and a half years now wow that's incredible has she been a good support system for you? Yeah, definitely. For the most part, she's very, she knows how to listen because I talk a lot. That's why I have a podcast probably. At Hyundai of Glendale Lisa New, 2026 Hyundai Tucson

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plus government fees and taxes. 7,500 miles per year, expires 6126. Who available at this payment? PH 71529, PH7159. How is that relationship when you guys deployed? We had our difficult times. That was rough because time zones played a big part. A lot of times, I think we were seven or eight hours ahead.

So a lot of times even if I got back, she was asleep or she was at work or just leaving for work or things like that. So it was kind of difficult to coordinate that. Towards the end, we kind of had a system. Like, every time I got back from a flight, I'd be like, hey, I'm safe. You know, this is something funny that happened. This is something cool that happened. And then I'd be like, I'm going to go work out, or I'm going to sleep, or I'm grabbing food, and then kind of do our thing. Is there, like, FaceTime or Zoom or anything for you guys?

Yep. So we had Wi-Fi on base, like, in our room and a few other locations. So I would just FaceTime or when I could and shoot her texts through the Wi-Fi signal. And then other than that, I was like, listen, if I don't text you, it's just because we don't have signal. Don't worry too much, I guess. It must have been hard for her, too. Yeah, definitely. She's a trooper for that, you know, and I'm super appreciative of that, you know, that she was able to, you know, work with me.

Because that's a big ask, especially nowadays with relationships and stuff. Yeah, I mean, it's very comparable to prison in the sense where, like, you're away, a guy that's in prison and you leave your loved one behind. And they kind of feel that too. And they didn't necessarily sign up for that. Yeah. But that comes with it. You know, it's a part of loving someone and being in a relationship with someone. And sometimes we don't think about that.

Yeah, 100%. Yeah, that's a good perspective. And yeah, it's difficult. But if you make it work and if both parties are open to, you know, those type of things that happen in life or situations and circumstances where you can't communicate as much, I think that's the key. and finding somebody who's willing to put in the work or be a little bit persistent. I agree. And, you know, as I get older, it's more about compromising. Yeah, 100%.

Maybe sometimes someone just needs you to go the extra mile for them. 100%. Like, not this whole stigma of, oh, if they don't, you know, obviously don't be like a creep about it and chase them if they don't want to be chased. But maybe somebody needs a little extra love. Yeah, 100%. Don't give up on someone so easy. Society's so quick to say, oh, they don't.

They're not interested. Fuck them, this and that, you know? Yeah. Well, there's this big movement where it's like,

you know, you need 10 girlfriends or you need, you know, have a rotate. It's like, no, just work on you

and find the person that's going to work with you. You know, every person, we're also different creatures socially, you know, and emotionally in personal relationship. So finding that person

that kind of blends with you and connects with you is going to be difficult. But again, like you said, you know, sometimes some people need a little more. some people need a little more space. Some people are introverted. And I think when it comes to personal

relationships, not just, you know, significant others, but family, if you say, hey, listen, like, I tell my girlfriend all the time, I'm like, hey, listen, I need two hours just to do my podcast, to do this, to do that, whatever, you know. And she's usually good. And the same thing for her. She's like, I got the, you know, the school stuff where I'm working extra this week. I'm like, okay, you do you. Just let me know, communicate to me if you need me to do anything. And having that open, direct communication, I think is probably the biggest thing. And that's where load mastering, I think, kind of tied into. Absolutely.

What advice would you give your 18-year-old self? Like the kid or 17-year-old self when you were very gung-ho about joining the service and getting into the military, what advice would you give yourself? I would say, stop being so ignorant about the branches. That's one thing. Every branch does their job and every job in each service is important. And if you want to do something awesome, work for it and persist for it.

but also, you know, just work on being authentic and work on opening, opening yourself up because I think a lot of people doubt themselves nowadays and a lot of, you know, I know I did personally. I was very in my head and I'm working on that now, but, you know, especially then I was very in my head and would be like, oh, I can't do that. Oh, that's not possible. Oh, whatever. And thank God for me persisting into the service and that being my first little endeavor of just trying to get something in my life because it's opened up so many doors and life lessons. Well, said. Thank you.

Well, thank you for coming on the podcast, man. It was a great conversation. Appreciate it. Thank you for the gifts. You're very welcome. It's very much appreciated it. I'm looking forward to rock at some tank tops. I don't know if the crowd's going to like seeing my pale arms.

I would have to get some sun this summer, not as tan as you. Thank you. But it's a perfect day to wear a tank top today. Very warm out. Yeah, yesterday was beautiful. Hopefully we're done with the cold weather. Hell yeah, I hope so. But I said that two weeks ago, and that I got fucking freezing.

Knock on wood. Yeah, Connecticut's ridiculous. But we'll put the links to your podcast, your shirts and stuff in the bio this episode, and stay in touch. Awesome. Thank you so much. And Ian, you're always welcome on the show. Right now we're remote, but they're looking to do a studio. Well, yeah, when you guys do in person, I'll show you the other studio we got.

You know, you guys are welcome to come here. Awesome. Thank you so much, Ian. Yeah, you're welcome.