Shaun Newman Podcast - #530 - Chuck Prodonick

Episode Date: November 14, 2023

He's a former sergeant as a member of the Princess Patricia's Light Infantry who served four tours overseas. We discuss Remembrance Day, the Canadian Military, Israel/Palestine and Ukrain/Russia. Let me know what you think. Text me 587-217-8500 Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast

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to your farm, commercial or oil field locations for more information, visit them at Hancockpetroleum.com.com. He's a former sergeant and his member of the Princess Patricia's Light Infantry who served in four tours overseas. I'm talking about Chuck Prodnick. So buckle up. Here we go. The report I've built with certain people who we both respect a lot.

Yeah. And a lot of people respect you as well is allowed for really deep, fast conversations where you feel safe to talk about the subject matter, no matter how difficult or dense it is in a real fast time. Yeah. And that just takes, you know, it just takes reps or sitting across from somebody. Because you can do, I can do it with my brothers at any step of them, but it's a lifetime of that, right? And most guests, every like one out of 10, I'd say, maybe it's two out of 10. You can build that real fast. But for most people, it takes time, right?

Like how well do you really know somebody until you've been around them, you know, enough to see how they act when the camera's not on? That's it. That's the other part of it too. And I think part of it too is the 60 degrees of separation that Canada has, you know, I mean, I remember the first time we met and they were like, hey, do you know James Sinclair? And I'm like, holy shit. You know, what a small world. And I mean, probably most of Canada does know that guy anyway, one way or the other. But you know, you're like, hey, do you know this guy?

I'm like, do I know the guy? Let me tell you. You know, we were on the phone with them 10 seconds later. It's the funniest smallest world in the biggest world, the biggest country, you know, the way that works out. Yeah, you forgive me. This is back to the one man band. D-da-d-l-l-d-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Just trekking, triple-tracking, double-tracking.

I've had so many things go wrong in this studio you know it's like no matter how many times I try something always well knock on one but yeah it's uh I give real credit to my brother Harley for because in the middle of COVID after I'd had like a hundred different I'd had like Peter McCull on and all these people on

I remember somebody being like you know you could probably bring a recurring guest back on now like I mean geez you've had some good ones why not bring McCullough or you know of the same you know pedigree. Yeah. And I was just like, ah, yeah, I just want to, I want to explore and I want to just find as many different people as I can, right?

Mm-hmm. And so I give credit to my brother. I've said this a couple times. I don't want it to go to his head because, you know, but at the same time, he was a guy like, you know, we were talking about the Jonathan Pajro interview. Yeah. And it was good. Like, it was good.

In my mind, it was good. But it wasn't like this like slam dunk, holy heck. wow, well, that was something. Yeah. And he's like, oh, it's because you're trying to build rapport with a guy who's built that structure around, like him and Jordan Peterson have that. You can tell Jordan Peterson takes him everywhere. He's like, why don't you just, you know, bring on the people you like having back on?

It doesn't mean you can never have Jonathan Pazzo back on. It just means why not bring the people, you know, that are in your realm and have been a part of the SMPs since, you know, close to day one. Yeah. Or you get the point. And I was like, ah, that's it. That's a good point, right? And so having Marty back on, there's a reason.

Marty, he drove out here in the middle of COVID to come do this. Exactly. And I was like, you're going to drive five hours in the winter? And yeah, man. And then he came and did it. And then we did Westford Standard together. Yeah. And he was in the studio for Trudeau must go.

And I'm like, this is, this is frigging cool. And I mean, to have him back in the studio, of course. He talked about, you know, the, when he was on the floor, when Daniel Smith got in and all that. You mean, you know. I forgot about that too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm like, he's just such a natural dude to listen. And he's, he, to me, is one of the guys that kind of exemplifies the West.

Like, he's just a casual. He described himself as like a, you know, he's obviously an engineer. He's educated and all that. But he's still a blue collar redneck guy at heart. And I think that's what when you talk about what, why does Alberta get picked on so much by these Laurentians, especially like Trudeau and his cronies. I mean, we're the thing they can hold up as the example is. like, do you really want to look like these idiots?

You know, like, well, I'm sorry, we're the, we're the powerhouse behind the country. We're what drives this nation. The rest of the provinces can hate us, but the Western provinces are what push the economy. We're, you guys talked about it a little bit. Like how afraid are they of us, Alberta going our own CPP route, like our own Alberta provincial.

Oh, I would say very afraid. Terrified. Terrified. Yeah. Now, much smarter people than me, which there are no shortage of, have broken down the financial aspect of it. They went deeper into it than what Marty did, but essentially to tag on to what he said, um, there's no money there.

Like there's supposed to be 500 billion sitting there being managed and invested. It's not there. It's gone. And we know it's, you know it's gone. I know it's gone. It's like lending your, that one weird family member that's always broke. Well, I just need it for the car. Got to, got to fix this on the car this time and you don't even have a car.

You know, you're, well, I think, I think it was, uh, what did twos and I read, um, this week. It was since the year 2000, we've put in Alberta $60 billion that more than we've received. And you go, you know, when twos broke that down, I think he said that would give every citizen of Alberta, every resident, 53 grand in their pocket. If they just took that 60 billion and said, here, here you go. And you go, like, that's such a wild idea. They'd never do that. Government never do that. And I remember Sarah Palin doing something very similar to that in Alaska.

Now, it wasn't 53 grand, let's be clear. But I think it was like three grand or something to every single citizen in Alaska at one point. They gave out the money revenue from oil, I want to say. If you go back and listen to that episode, folks, you can find that. But, you know, like, it just seems like the government just takes and takes and takes. And then right now they just, like I feel like I'm living in the Robin Hood cartoon, you know, where they just keep raising the taxes, you know, except we don't have Robin Hood. You know, we don't have Robin Hood robin it for us and bringing it all back to us.

They don't need to give me the 53 grand. I mean, I'm not going to say no if they do or some portion thereof. But I just want them to fix the shit that's broke. That's it. That's all. Yeah, but you're asking government to do something that can't do. They don't know how to fix. I'm, I'm, I'm maybe, maybe it's the retirement thing.

I don't know, maybe I'm getting old, but I have, I'm still cynical. I'm never not going to be cynical. And I'm always going to look behind the curtain as often as I can. But I have some faith in the Daniel Smith and the Pierre's fixing. something. Maybe I'm delusional, maybe, you know, too much scotch. I don't know. But I have, I have to see, and you already touched on this too. Could you imagine if not we'd gotten in where we'd be? Yeah. We'd be masking. Your kids would be masking. Everybody's kids would be masking. Well, my kids wouldn't be masking. No. I'd be, yes. Exactly. I think, I, you're,

100% right. I'm just saying they would try that crap again. And we're not even, it's not even a thing anymore. Like, are you guys talked about the 6,000 number. And I laughed because I'm thinking, well, that just puts the other four plus million people in Alberta. You're now all anti-vaxxers. You're as bad as me and you are, as all of our friends and family are that didn't do it for our own reasons. You're in the same boat as us now. How do you feel? Because now you're not playing that game.

And if I were to ask one of them now, or you were to ask one on your show, who took the first three, four boosters shots, well, why didn't you? Well, it's been long enough. And I really feel like, well, well, you felt that. Me and you felt that way. We just got there quick. Real fast. Real fast. Real damn fast.

But we got made. Oh, we got persecuted. Persecuted. Yeah. And sort of not just you and I, obviously, but I'm speaking as the grand. People who got the first shot and had a bad reaction were like, I'm never doing that again. Those people got persecuted. You look at this report that's coming out now, and I can't remember his name on Twitter, Noel Cartier, Charche.

I'll look it up later. He's covering a lot of the report coming out of the military. findings of how this COVID stuff was rolled out in the military and how it was unconstitutional. They've they've, it's been deemed unconstitutional what happened. And there's guys who took the first one and had horrible reactions and said, I can't take the second one. You're going to kill me basically. And they're like, you take it or we're kicking you out. No pension. No, not in it, nothing. You're going to get five. You're going to get five. You're going to get like the bad release. Like you got released because you're the shit heel. Not, you know, we're not just letting you

go in the army they can do that to you um and so these guys were like well i got to feed my family i got to do something they're you know and i can remember during all those covid periods and all these um little napoleons on twitter these little nobody military guys were like well it's a you don't you got to follow the orders you got to i'm thinking well who who who that what do you sound like right now i've got to follow the orders and it's for you know didn't you get vaccinated to go on deployment yeah i did with stuff that was was like tested for 80 years or 100 years. And the one that I always brought up was mefliquin.

People forget that they tried to, they didn't try. They gave us mefliquine to take. Stuff that other militaries are like, no, don't give that. The U.S. and the Brits were like, don't give that to your guys. You're going to mess them up badly. I'm not going to get into the whole mefliquine ordeal. That's still ongoing. But we like, yeah.

Is that the one where guys went crazy? Yeah, like legit crazy. Yeah. With in the, Kathy Wagintal was on here and talked about that. Yep. I mean, we were given the dose before you're safe and effective. Oh, safe and effective. Safe and effective.

Well, no, I can tell you, we used to call them nightmare Thursdays or Wednesdays, whatever the day was that we all were taking the pill because we, most guys took the, uh, the, the weekly dose. And I was like, I'd done a lot of research on this because I'd heard bad things about mephlequin before we got it issued before we went to Afghanistan. And I'm thinking, I don't really, I'm going to just watch the first two weeks go by and guys are coming in going, did you anybody else have really bad nightmares last night and it's like a third of the guys are like dude I haven't slept since I've taken the pill like and I'm like yeah you know what Chuck's going to opt out of that not doing it so I just

took all my issue of it tossed it like I'm not taking that like and most guys did honestly most guys just were like I'm not taking this like no so you get the COVID thing happen I'm like yeah maybe you may want to wait a minute they developed this in about five minutes might want to wait so here we are yeah it's it's it's um Yeah, that, you just think this is new, like obviously the way that COVID went out. Yeah. Is new to how our lifetime is. But like when you hear the story of the Army, the Canadian military army and how they've like been dragging their feet on acknowledging this and everything else, you're like, nothing's new under the sun with government.

They are as corrupt and they don't want these things coming out and you go like, you know, I always go, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the. glass half full or maybe the positive side of me goes like, why? Just be transparent and we can get through this and whatever else. But it probably means people going to jail. Probably means this is pretty dark and they don't want any of that. And it's funny, like you listen to it as a human being, as a Canadian citizen. You're like, man, that is messed up. Why would we do that to our troops? Why would we put them through all that? Well, go back to Kathy Wagonthal and listen to that episode, folks, and you'll understand a good chunk of it because that's a lady. in parliament who's telling you exactly what was going on and how and everything else and

I'm actually just going to I'm going to be smart about this I'm going to have people going what episode is that and folks it is that's a long time ago Kathy oh oh CA that's C a that's why June 13th 2022 so that was that was early on in being back in full time but interesting interesting lady because she's one of the women who didn't get vaccinated and was in parliament. Yeah. And you can see, like, they were talking with the treatment of the unvaccinated, the dirty unvaccinated in the military.

They were like middle of winter putting them out in tents on base. Like, you're going to just, we're not letting you in the building. Well, it's minus 40 out. You're going to be out in that tent. Anything to kind of, you know. Yeah, make life uncomfortable and make, you could just come in and get vaccinated and have a warm meal and be under a roof. And isn't that, wouldn't that be great?

You know, look at old corporal Groostoff here. He's vaccinated and he's happy and warm in here. This is the men, you know, they wonder why we're down to just about 31,000 troops left in the military. And that for perspective for people that think, well, that's, that's still a lot. Like, no, we were deploying with 2,400 man battle groups every six to eight months to Afghanistan, which meant we had on back, the back end and front end of that, 2,400 to just come back. 2,400 were prepping to go and 2,400 more were like getting the warning order that, hey, this rotation is going. You guys are next up in the hopper.

So I don't and we were still like this is why most of us had to go multiple times, but you could not put 2,400 men. You couldn't do it. You couldn't men, I mean soldiers. Sorry, whoever's offended right now, but anyway, um, people and I'm not taking people. People kind. People. There were lots of great female soldiers. I'm again, I apologize, but um, there's nothing to apologize about.

Somebody will be offended and that is what it is. Yeah, and let them be offended. We got such a like people can be offended. It's quite all right. That's true. So you couldn't get 2,400 soldiers now pulled from across the country to go to a battle group somewhere. You couldn't do it. It would be in, in, in, it would be in, next to impossible, not effective soldiers, not, not, now we have guys over in Latvia. You've heard the whole, we can't even pay them half the time. We can't even get their food allocations right. We can't the equipment's busted.

They're over there doing photo ops. You know, I've got friends who've done that tour now once or twice some of them going over to play the look at Canada, Russia, don't you dare come in here. Like the five minutes that would take. Like not to take away from our guys and girls over there. I'm just saying let's be real about the situation. Are you kidding me? We almost beat Russia.

Yeah. Almost. That's about to wrap up real quick. The counteroffensive, I'm only going to touch on that for a minute because I think that's been done to death. But the counteroffensive failed horribly. They gained a couple of little pockets here and there. So in military terms, when you bump into an area, say this black mark is the bad line and you bump in and you've now created a pocket. If you don't exploit that pocket real quick, and I mean push out and use that as your bounce out real, real fast, that pocket becomes a cauldron.

And cauldrons boil over and get smaller and smaller and smaller done. And that's the couple of pockets that they made are all but, you know, done in now. I mean, and their battle experience troops are all but gone, you know, and I'm not saying Ukraine didn't put up a great fight because they have with what they've had, which has been a lot of support. But, you know, they talk about Russia's lost a thousand tanks. I would say that that's probably, of all the assessments I've seen, and some have said they've lost 3,000, some have said they've lost, you've got to find it in the middle. And most of the guys that I trust to see the information from, about 1,000 main battle tanks. That's a lot of main battle tanks.

This year, they've ramped up two shifts in most of their big factories. They'll have produced 1,500 tanks. That's not to count the X,000 they started with. Russia's not running out of stuff. They're not even at full wartime production. They're not running a night shift in these factories. If they went to full wartime production, forget about it. They're at like 3,000 tanks a year, you know, just if they really wanted to kick it in.

They're just kind of feeling it out right now. This is a great rehearsal for them. They're going to have hundreds of thousands of battle-hardened troops. They've learned. You know, we've made fun of them, the West, I mean. The West has made fun of them for their follies. Dude, we're going to go, if this has to happen, and I hope it doesn't. and I hope it doesn't.

I hope that it doesn't. We're not in good shape. I feel like we're at the bar. And the buddy you brought who's had one too many drinks is the envoy we've sent over. And he couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag. And we've somehow allowed him over there and we're just antagonizing this big giant bully.

And the grown-ups in the room just got to walk over and be like, listen. Sorry about my buddy. Sorry about my buddy. We're just going to take them out of here. Yeah. I'm like, can I just buy you a drink and call this a day, you know, like, otherwise we're getting, you know, like, I don't know, just had Martin Armstrong on. When he's talking about, like, you know, people can go like, man, that guy, who, it's like,

well, no kidding. That guy spent 12 years in jail for building a computer that the CIA wanted to commandeer and use for their own means. Here's this guy that, you know, I don't know, is he bang on and everything? I mean, it's a computer. And it's just saying, like, we're heading more. Yeah.

And these are the underlying things. And you're like, oh, this, oh, oh. And he's, and he said something in that interview actually that shocked me a little bit. It doesn't matter who wins the U.S. election, which is even more, like, it can't be that far gone, can it? In my opinion, in my opinion, I think if Trump can get back in, there's a bit of hope. There's a little bit of hope. Marty touched on it a bit, too, like the Trump factor, kind of. of the he's when they were like well we're going to give you the course on how government works

and Trump's like yeah you know what I got that I've been funding government for a long time I've been you know he made he was no didn't hide it he's like I you know I gave your campaign I funded your campaign it was one of those funny debate moments where he's like I gave you 500,000 you came to me four weeks ago for a million like go away he understands government he understands and he's a businessman so he understands how to make things work you can love or hate the guy but Nobody can deny the success of the guy. We didn't have any new wars under Trump, although I think this time around he'd have to. I think the Ukraine-Russia conflict would end real quick if once he does get back in for a number of factors.

Even Zelensky, I've heard now, has said, hey, I'm open to Trump coming over. They know they're not getting their three territories back. They know this. They understand this. The U.S. has positioned themselves in the last couple weeks now to say funding, we're going cold now. Um, they get it. The West gets it.

That's why it's not in the media much anymore. But if Trump got back in, I don't even know all the steps he would have to take, but he's such a force into himself, love him or hate him, things would shift again. I do think that now that he's better prepared, um, he understands, I think we all knew that behind the scenes, there's a lot of bad nefarious, dark, dang stuff. Even he was shot. He's admitted a few times like, I didn't know what was that. bad. I mean, he had his own generals, General Millie subverting him with China, you know, like

him among others were subverting them. They make the Watergate scandal look like a nothing event when you compare what Obama and all of them did spying on them. They literally watergated him since day one, since day one. Um, so we'll see. We'll see what happens. I don't have a lot of hope if he doesn't get back in. If we get another term of Biden and then he'll eventually, he's not I don't think he's got many years left in him like on this earth like he's not well obviously could you imagine if Kamala Harris became oh my god she'd be worse she'd actually be worse and that's saying something because I haven't seen anybody worse than Biden like this is horrible where we're going I don't know what happens on the world stage after that I mean you have

China now positioned for Taiwan because I've just watched Russia do what they're doing China have been giving Russia all through extra ammunition shells equipment. Like you talk about, we talk about, uh, remember there's a tweet from that Muppet, who's our new, uh, minister of defense. Is it Blair? I think it's Blair. Absolute crittin. And he's like, oh, we sent, we sent, uh, we sent, uh, Ukraine like 5,000 or six

that. No, it was like 2000 and 1,1 5 shells or something. This is like a month ago. I'm like, they're shooting 5,000 a day. You sent them enough for like three hours. Like and that's being dwarfed by like the 25,000 the Russians send back. You know, so I'm thinking like this is where we're at. They we're not even producing one five five shells.

There's none. There's none anywhere now. They're dry. If we ever have to go, we're dry. Like the British are dry. Like the Americans are their javelin systems. All these systems that they've sent, they didn't have backfill. It takes years to produce some of this stuff.

Well, I think. I was just saying this, George Grossman. I think it was a Grossman. Gronin. Grownin? Ah, terrible. Rest in peace, George. Anyways.

He was an old guy who had been a part of the underground railroad over seas and then had the story. I interviewed him in old folks home here in town. And he was talking about being in one of the cattle cars and, you know, the German. And it was like, holy crap. It was only like 50 minutes long. It was a surreal 50 minutes. But he says in there, like the Germans didn't.

lose the war because they ran out of bullets. They lost the war because they ran out of diesel. Yes. Yeah. Like to push them, to move them to like, you know. And when you bring up Russia, when you bring up all these different countries and what they've been doing and how they've been preparing and then you look at how the West, I mean, look at Canada.

I mean, nobody's, in one breath, you know, I better be careful here because I can hear Jamie Sinclair talking to my ear about how impactful we've been in all the wars. Canadians, specifically. We've been badasses. We've been sent into areas that nobody thought we could win and we've won them. But overall, right now where we sit, we are not that country. No. We are we are like a shell of ourselves. And it is it is like, I don't know, I can't find anyone who is even remotely interested in going to war with anyone. No. And yet we're we're flirting like the West. I don't mean I don't mean Canada. I mean the West. Maybe NATO. um is flirting with like this idea of like and it's all been us creating it flirting with the idea of going to war and we've been slowly like creating the the the circumstances for that yeah all the while we haven't like nothing's changed in canada where we prepare you think of like can things just snap on a dime and go to war and think no you need to get things up and running like the production has to be there for years in advance and we don't have any of that none of honestly the west

They talk about Rayathon and all these big U.S. companies and these war companies, you know, that produce X, Y, and Z. And they're there and they do. But a lot of our stuff is so tech dependent, it takes years to actually crank some of this shit out. Like the funny thing is, is you watch the, oh, the Russians are using these old cornered anti-tank missiles. They've been around since 73. And they work. The problem is they work. And they're knocking out our leopards and our challenges and every other main battle.

tank that we've given to Ukraine and they're using old tech that works. You know how quickly they can crank that out on a dime? You're it's just a tube with a shitty rocket in it with a shaped warhead. Mm-hmm. It's cheap and it works and the beautiful thing about it is you can take basically your dumbest private of which there are never a shortage of any army and say aim that with this pointed at that and shoot it and he's got him relatively relatively decent chance of hitting something if he's, you know, fired at once in practice or something.

That's the simplicity of I'm just talking about one system. We take our stuff. Example, the Eric's missile system, anti-tank system we had for like a few years in our infantry. This thing was so complex, so fidgety and crashy and tech dependent. And their course for it was like, I want to say it was three weeks or something stupid, um, with these training. and these like I'm talking like these sim trainers and stuff. The thing never worked. It never worked at all. And these are the gadgets and gizmos that the army gets sold on when we should have just stuck to the thing that worked.

You know, that the simple thing that worked, you can improve that simple thing that worked. I'm not saying don't. But we went to these other systems that just and all armies do it and we've done it. And now we have no, we have a big gap there again. We think we kind of went back backwards again. Yeah. But Russia learned like, oh yeah, you can have all these. fancy things. And now the West, I don't think we're taking notes. I've said this before. I'm

not pro-Russia. I'm pro-winning wars. Like I don't have a problem. War is going to happen and we should be prepared at every level for it. And if anything, we should be watching and taking notes. But people are asleep at the wheel and nothing's been our wartime production, we should be cranking out tanks. We should be crank buying these leopards from Germany and improving them and seeing where the faults lie in them because they didn't last long. They didn't last long at all. That's out of the media right now. I think there's a couple still roaming over there. The challengers, they didn't do any better. Like these super weapons that we sent, they're not super weapons. We need to know how to counter things and how to fight things. You watch what's happening in Israel right

now. Today is like what, the one month anniversary of October 7th, like what happened there? That's a whole, I mean, we'll dive into that in a minute, but I got some stuff to say about that. But I watch a lot of footage. I'm retired now. I've always been a history nerd. I'm not a history buff. I'm not a pro at anything. I'm not a, you know,

subject matter expert at anything. But I'm a bit of a nerd about this stuff. And I like to know what makes it tick. Whether I hate or love or I'm impartial to whatever side is doing a thing, I want to know why. Before I went to Afghanistan in, uh, oh, six, my first tour there, I read a book, um, a buddy of mine happened to have. I don't know why he had it, but it was called, uh, the bear one over the mountain.

And it's, it's written about this Russian, doctrine from a colonel, Russian colonel, who wrote about their experiences in Afghanistan. What worked, what didn't, what they did, how the Mujahideen reacted, all these, it was a dry, dry as fuck book, to be honest, but I wanted to know what I was getting into on some level. And there's very little written about Afghanistan when you think about it. I mean, a lot of wars are fought there over the last couple thousand years, but, you know, and I've read all that stuff too, what the British went through, what Alexander went through what everybody's who's tried to go in there and there's a fact that could be its own topic but

I'm not going to bore people to death with that but anyway this book I read I wanted to know well what did the Russians do and what worked what didn't work and anyway so for me to watch what the Israelis are doing right now and Hamas themselves Hamas has learned a lot Hamas is not run by stupid people but I watched the Israelis um you know they've got some crack troops some really good units that are full timers and they're, they're well trained and they're well equipped and they do things, they do things in my mind how they should when I watch the footage and I watch their a after action reviews and stuff.

But then I watch them another unit go through and they're sending in armored vehicles and tanks without infantry support and you see Hamas run up and dumping, you know, Molotovs on them into the vents and you see them putting a shape charges on the side of a tank and you're like, where where is your support this should not be happening like now inevitably those guys running up and getting that close are getting they're getting balked pretty hard um a couple will get away for sure but these are things that that's basic maneuver tactics in the army that's basic and they're failing there so it's

like they had some learning to do and they're going to go some some growing pains in this war they're in And it's a war. It's not some, it's a war. They're in a war. They've been in a war for a long time, for their entire existence, basically. But they're going to learn the hard way, like all armies do. And it's a, it's a thing that we went through. It's a thing that every army goes through.

And I'm, I'm trying to overlay that onto the experience of when the West does eventually have to go to war, we're going to have a horrible wake-up call, like real bad. You think we're going to war then? Yeah. I do. I don't know. The catalyst will probably be the Middle East, honestly. China taking Taiwan, are we really going to go at China?

Are we really going to pound our chests and say, whoa, red line? No, China doesn't get a fuck. I don't care. The U.S. has told, oh, likes to make this big beef about, well, we've told China, stop. Don't you dare give anything to Russia. And then China will be like, yeah, we're doing that anyway. North Korea, don't you, we're going to sanction you.

Sanction them out of what? There's nothing left to sanction North Korea. They just sent them like some we sent it. It was the day that we sent Ukraine like 2000 shells of which like I think another thousand of them were like white phosphorus or smoke shells which are useless because everything's got a thermal. So you can see through smoke now in the battlefield basically and almost everything made you will have a thermal device on it.

Any or at least you'll have access to the information from it. So smoke screens on the back. This isn't World War II. But we sent them smoke shells. Yay. Like, anyway. So that same day, North or day after, North Korea sent a thousand train cars full of munitions. A thousand train cars.

Can you, like my math isn't real good, but that's a lot. Somebody did the breakdown way smarter than me again. And it was something like over a hundred thousand one five two shells, which is the common you know, that end of the world shell. They're all, like ours is one 555. There's is all 152. That's why they can interchange it. Same reason we do 556 and common routes, right?

So all this stuff. But yeah, it's just one of those things where like the scale of things that we think we have, it's not there. Well, it's just nothing in our society is geared towards, and I'm talking Canadian saying, is geared towards making our military better. Or, you know, like,

it's not like any of us, common civilians have mandatory training every so often. You've got to go back in. None of us know. Check, the reason why you keep coming back on, other than I do enjoy having to talk with you, is your background is so unique. You know, same with Sinclair.

Same with all these military guys who've stepped through the door and hopefully are going to continue to do so. It's because in Canada, we don't have a lot of it. It's very rare. And so, you know, you go, nobody in Canada knows. They just, we look and we watch and we go, oh, man, that's bad. But over and over here, you know, what we have to defend against is our own government. Yes.

Treating us like a bunch of, you know, hillbillies. I don't know, whatever word you want to use because it's wild. Well, they want to take our weapons away. They want to disarm you and I and everybody listening. And what most, probably even most legal gun owners who have an ARPAL don't understand is that you're basically run through the system. I want to say it's every day. Like you're C-picked it every day. I could be wrong. It may have changed. But if you have a restricted license, you're checked, like, boom, through the system. It's like an automatic setup thing, right? So that if, you know,

Timmy down the street, who's got an R-Pow did something stupid and got a got convicted of X, Y, or Z, they could, they'd make him surrender his weapons as they should and they could take his stuff because bad Timmy. I'm okay with that. I think there should be some oversight. I don't want Timmy if he's an idiot to have weapons where he could do something even dumber than what he's already done. But we are the most monitored segment in Canada is a legal gun owner.

There's no one close, not if you're at least pedophile, not if you're anything else. Podcaster. We talk, remember you know I've joked about this in the past. We've joked about this right here about, I've said to you, oh, it won't be funny when they come for you next, right? Well, now they've got some criteria. Was it $10 million? Yeah, $10 million.

10 million. You know what? If you get to 9.0 something, I'm sure you can hide the rest. You know, the thing about it is Chuck, see, is what they're going to do is they're going to force Spotify's hand. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And Spotify is going to do, you know, man, this cold can really just piss off. when I talk to I've talked to a lot of different people about it a lot

and you know they go want $10 million like you don't make 10 million what podcaster in Canada makes 10 million I'm gonna say zero I don't think there's a single podcaster one podcaster in Canada making $10 million a year I have a hard time believing that anyone's even remotely close but hey that's me maybe there's one hiding there but if they're making 10 million chances are they're state side by now That's just my guess. Yeah.

But what they're going to do is they're going to force all the people who distribute your favorite podcaster to register or not. I mean, it doesn't matter. And if they make Spotify register, then what they get after that is they have to register all the podcasts that they have, which is registering me, which is registering everybody else, which is seeing who their listenership is and where they're getting it from and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I go, I don't know what Spotify's going to do that. Because like every large company at this point has told the Canadian government to go pound sand. Now it's been about money, not about information. I would say that's a differentiation. But regardless, you know, like, yeah, we were sitting here not that long ago where he said,

oh yeah, wouldn't it be funny if they come for. And it's like, well, here they are. And here they come. Here they come for creating more and more censorship. You know, I just was reading this morning Tucker Carlson. and, not Tucker Carlson, sorry, Elon Musk, talking about one of the senators talking about how bad it was at the start of COVID and how much they censored conservative people near the election.

I saw that. And you're like, we already knew a bunch of that from the Twitter files, but just once again put out in plain view, this is what's going on. They are censoring. And we, I mean, the Canadian, like, whoever's listening to this knows. Already knows. Yeah. And they're just like, okay, so how are we going to get around it?

We're already past a step of worrying about if they're going to censor. They already are. We know they are. They just haven't been able to censor this. This medium. Yet. And this is where they know that nobody's watching mainstream TV. Like there's no viewership in anything mainstream TV.

They're not nobody. Newspapers are, I don't think they, does anybody even make it a physical paper anymore? I'm not even sure. Lloyd still has a physical paper. So that you have a few here and there. They're all online now. And the dumb ones paywall themselves. So, I mean, there might be some really interesting article in like whatever.

I'm not paying for your paywall. You know, I'm just not doing that. And most people aren't the handful of people that do. I get it and I understand it. But I want, I can access that same information by going on telegram or Twitter or or listening to a podcast who's got somebody who knows the subject. That's what people are doing. That's why podcasts now are the threat.

You have a Joe Rogan who couldn't be silenced. Do you have guys like you, Peterson, a very few others. Sean Ryan's a great one. Before I forget, I'm going to be all over the place. I generally am and I'm sorry to the listener or viewer out there. That's just the way it is for me. So Sean Ryan, one of my other favorite podcasters, he's on the same timeline you are and the same development you are, which is for me very interesting to watch. Like his, his progression progression.

Yeah, evolution progression, the way he's changed things up, evolved it, worked through things. Excellent guy to watch. He's got some interesting guests. Now he's ex, you know, military, yeah, Navy seal of that. And then did CIA work. So he's, the dude's done some stuff. He, he's networked with the right people to get that. And he's had some impressive guests on, not just military guys.

He's got, he's just had some beautiful. do you guess on. But he's Sarah Adams, um, who he just had on like this last week. He did a two-parter with her. Probably the best one I've heard from him yet. Now Sarah Adams, you remember, um, zero dark 30 and how the female tracker. She wasn't that tracker, but she was in that network of trackers and has, is in that world. Um, you know what he is, the longer you talk about him, spit and tricklets. Why is spit and tricklets the way they are? Yeah. Well, I mean, obviously, adding in pulbis and that who walked in and was telling stories from the dressing room and everything. It's like, I can't believe he's saying that.

And he's a personality and he's an excellent personality. Yeah. But what they have over, you know, any just guy like Sean starting up a podcast and trying to track down NHL players, is they already already know that circle. Yes. And so their ability to get people from all over, get the great one. I'm not saying it was just one phone call, but I'm not saying it wasn't, it might have been closer to one phone call then, you know?

And Sean Ryan, when you, when you think about it, he's, he's done work at the highest level in military and secret service, right? Yeah. And so his ability to track down all these guests, he knows all the contacts. Oh, and he's respect. He's automatically, we talked with the six degrees of separation. I mean, if you could, somebody might go well, you've interviewed Chuck and Dave and, you know, who are they really, but then you, that spider web out, like the James Sinclair or the

Willie McDonald and it is a small world, it's a small military and. So what are we saying? Are we saying we can get a line to Sean Ryan? Oh, obviously, yeah. 100%. 100%. Well, then, Chuck, we're putting something on the old military boys. Wouldn't that be something?

Why not bring them up to Lloyd? Oh, yeah. I do, I mean, you talked about it before. We do a, I don't know what you want to call it. A military roundtable, yeah. And there's guys, I reached out after we talked about it maybe a month ago. There's guys interested for sure. Well, and I know Jamie's, I'm teasing the poor audience right now, but me and Jamie are working on one too.

So we've got, we've got, and there just seems like they're coming out of the woodworks, this blue collar roundtable, that idea. I got two guys from Manitoba, while AMC electrical, Drew McKay from Rocky Mountain House, of course, the boys from Guardian. And we're building that together. That's got just as much, like smoke around it, fire around it. I don't know what to call it. There's a lot of excitement around. Exactly. A military roundtable is right alongside the blue collar roundtable.

Exactly. And I think both could be a lot of fun. They will be in the media. Or they will be a lot of fun. And those conversations are, you know, that's where Sean Ryan, the first time I saw him, he wasn't even podcasting yet. This is a few years ago because he used to do a lot of shooting videos and that kind of thing. And I think he was just trying to find his way, you know, like how Marty does his hiking stuff. and Sean was doing a lot of that kind of thing.

And that reminds me a he-man roundtable when Marty and his buddies get that figured out because that'll be a ton of fun too, sorry. Nope. And but when he, he, he'd had on, um, the guy from Lone Survivor, I can't remember his name right now. Mark Wahlberg? No, the real guy.

Ah, I can't remember his name. It'll come to me. But he had on several of his seal buddies and it was a campfire thing. And it, it prompted in my mind because Marty mentioned campfire a bunch of times. And they were just around a campfire. putting out some scotch and they were telling everything from, you know, their training stories to, hey, remember this firefight to. And it was one of those genuine, there was no bullshit.

They were laughing about it. You know, there was tears. But they, they, I think that might have been a moment that prompted them. Anyway, to back to the Sarah Adams. Folks, if you ever want to understand how the Middle East works and has not working right now. Sean Ryan had Sarah Adams on two episodes. It's the most, I learned. stuff. I like to think I know a little bit about the Middle East and where things are at. I had

no clue. This woman, she's so bright, so smart, so behind the scene. She's a tracker. She's literally still tracking people like today. This is what she does. And she's good at it. She's caught some names. But she broke down Afghanistan. And I bring this up because we're going to be going back to Afghanistan. Um, not today or tomorrow, but in the near future, we will have to go back to Afghanistan. And this is why. I'm going to Coles note this thing's from Sarah Adams and I'm going to butcher it a bit, but it's me bear with.

So essentially every major al-Qaeda network, and it's a network now that's global, it's across the world, have since they've taken back Afghanistan, thanks Joe Biden and Obama, have moved all the training centers there. They now have multi, every province in Afghanistan has a major al-Qaeda training center. every terrorist from around the world who used to go to like Syria or X, Y, or Z, they are now all going and being based out of Afghanistan. Every major name on her list is in Afghanistan. And they don't do drone strikes in Afghanistan anymore because they want people to forget.

And Sean asked her, why aren't we doing drones there? Why aren't we going after these names? These are the bounty names. And she said, well, because they won't go after them. Because if they say, hey, we drone struck and got. X, Y, or Z in Afghanistan, we've mentioned Afghanistan. They want that narrative to go away. They want that gone.

And she said this like explicitly. So everything that is about to happen. And she talked about the southern border in the states. It's just it, we all, we've seen those videos. It's just porous. So now an Afghan passport is highly sought after because, you know, all the aid workers there trying to bring Afghanis over for good causes, you know, our interpreters, the ones we left behind.

Most of them are dead now. There were not, there's nothing really left to bring back. Most them are dead. They, they get these passports. Well, these passports now are basically freely given to these Al-Qaeda operatives. They come through the southern border. She linked the whole rat line going through Brazil, which is super easy to get into, but they don't track your, super easy to get into and they don't track you leaving it.

So they're coming through Brazil, convoy up, come through all the way up that southern border and here they are. And she said she's the biggest one she ever saw that she knows of that she can speak about was a cell of 50 al-Qaeda operatives. She says on average they're 8 to 10, but she saw one of 50 within the last year. Can you imagine now if when that's activated like it's not in so Sean asked her about well what's the next attack look like they have to outdo 9-11 like it's no they don't have to and it won't look like 9-11 like we're all thinking airplane.

And we're all thinking, you know, that kind of thing. It doesn't have to. They could do it. They could do it in a movie theater. They could do it at a football game or a hockey game or some big sporting event, some big thing. Nobody knows what it's going to look like because they're going to do it and we're all going to, holy shit. Nobody saw that coming. And she's like, it's going to happen.

We know it's going to happen. Did you see the report? I'm all over the place again. Anyway, folks, you will learn stuff from that. And she, he's highly, I don't want to say entertaining is the right word, but he's, he's good to watch. It's like watching what you. do. Well, and the thing with Sean Ryan, when it comes to the military stuff, is he asks good military questions. If there's one thing that I do, I don't know, well, is I ask questions

that are pretty dumb. And I mean that because it gives you a simple, maybe dumb, isn't the right word. I just ask simple questions that I don't understand so I can get more and bonner because I don't know. But if you don't know about Hamas and all these different things and you don't have a background in it, you can't ask the, the questions that actually solve some of the, the bigger problems that are going on. And I don't mean that from a podcast, you're going to solve problems. What I mean is what you're pointing out is he's asking all these things about drones and he just has all the background and why aren't we doing this? Yes. And that's one the thing Sean Ryan has over a lot of podcast hosts is his background. His background is,

his background is critical, but I've seen a lot of these guys try and do podcasts and they fail, like from his background, his particular background, because they don't have his personality or his ability to you know I could sit across from a podcaster whoever but if they don't have that natural ability like that rapport building it has to be very quick it has to be believable it has to be genuine and you you have that um in spades like you never have to worry about that um and Sean Ryan has that as well he's just you can see his guests I mean you've seen his podcast is they're sitting in lounge chairs they got a drink going there Yeah, I've seen his setup.

You know, it's funny. I don't want to get to braille us here. Yeah. But when it comes to setups, he's got one of the least favorite setups of how I'd like to do a podcast. And that, and that's, I get that. I do. To me, I don't know, maybe I'm, I really want the round table. Mm-hmm.

I really like having something solid between. Yeah. And then, and then it feels like you can share. Oh, agreed. Or break bread or whatever you want to say. And it feels very like, it's almost like, I don't know, it just fits the space. Whereas if you're in a big giant easy chair like he is, you know, it looks super sharp. I'll give that 100% to.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Looks sharp. But it almost feels doing business like. I got you. I got you. That's my own personal thoughts on it. Regardless, the show is still great. And he makes it work because obviously like he's doing amazing things.

Did you see the one that Rogan just did with Musk maybe a week ago or whatever? I'm like partway through it. You just nailed with what your explanation of what your setting is. And then the two of them order pizza at like 11.30 at night. And they're mowing down on pizza like, you know, breaking bread like you just said. And it works. That formula works. Yeah.

Well, it does it. Not everybody can recreate exactly what Joe does because it's Joe, right? And to sit there and smoke big stogies with Elon Musk and order pizza and go shoot a freaking arrow off of his new brand new truck and all these things. It's like he's on a different complete level than anyone under the sun right now. He's the goat. Yeah, he's. In saying that the simple idea of it isn't that rocket science? No.

It's like who decided to have the cigar? And does one guy have the scudder or both the guys have the cigar? I can tell you if you both have it because the other guy wants it, it's a common thing. It's like having a glass of scotch. If one guy drinks, it's why we like the social aspect of having a beer together. Yeah. Because it loosens each other. Oh, and he's going to have a beer with me.

Right. Yeah. And Joe's an expert at it. He's just so likable. Yeah. And you have to be. And it may, it's what make it, it's either going to be successful or fail based on that. You can do all the analytics. You can do all the recipes. You can do all the, um, you know, focus groups. If you're not a likable dude. Or you don't have the voice. Yeah. And you can be a likable dude. Yeah. Joe has a phenomenal voice for podcast. So does Ashley Sean Ryan, those guys in particular. You want to hear a cool stat? Here's where we sat at November, November 2nd, somewhere there. We're just so close.

So I'm trying to get to a million. Now, I'll be clear on this. I call them downloads because when I first started podcasting, that's what it showed up as is a download. And I remember Anchor not being able to answer. if you streamed it, was it a download? And there was some confusion. Now I can safely say,

if all you do is flick on Spotify on your Wi-Fi and start watching it automatically counts, okay? So, just so nobody gets confused with the download. The goal for 2023, so in 2022, we had 600 and, I forget what it was, 600 and some odd thousand downloads of the podcast. This doesn't matter about Facebook, Twitter, rumble YouTube to take all that and just throw it in the garbage from the day one I have been watching

these numbers and so I know in the first month I got 400 and some right and I don't you know I remember back then being oh that's cool right and the first year was 26,000 and change where we sit like just a few days ago was 156,000 away from hitting a million wow and you go I go so close so we're going to be so close right now we're we're paid let's say 75,000 a month okay yeah so you do the math that's 150 we're 6,000 short so when you're listening to this and you're like oh people should listen this you should share it yeah because we're so close we're we're we're you know on I think we're within 6,000 of December 31st hitting a million and I've

been I've never watched numbers I hate watching the numbers I just like if people are gonna enjoy this whatever but right now I'm watching the numbers like extremely close which is driving me insane because I don't like doing that we're over 800,000 down It's incredible, dude. Yeah, it's unreal. And you think about the population that's listening. We're not, we're not the 330 million of the United States.

I am predominantly the one million of Saskatchewan and the four million of Alberta. Yeah. That's who's listening. That's pretty cool. That's when you, and I think you'll be at a point where you do watch the numbers for a little while. And, um, and then you'll grow out of it because you're going to reach a point where like, that's old hat. I'm hitting at that $100,000 a month. and I'm at 150,000 a month.

And you're going to grow to a point where you're like, I'll check on that every few months, I think. Because I remember even Sean Ryan mentioned something about that with his downloads, because he used to be really, really hot on telling people, make sure you like us or leave a comment.

And I get that. That's the, that's the algorithm that needs to be entertained. I understand that. But now he's kind of like, yeah, just whatever, like, because he's, he's tipped that point now. And he's, he's past a point where,

the cool thing, the most impressive thing about Sean Ryan was he was number two behind Joe Rogan. And I was like, when did that happen? Like that. Like that's pretty insane, you know? That shows you how important the military community, though, is in the United States. In the United States. In my opinion. Yeah.

Right? Like that's, I look at you and Jamie and all these people and I'm like, you guys got to, like, you could probably come back on the podcast once a week. Now, I don't think that would be great podcasting from my angle. But in saying that, the, um, the need, like the lack of it in our society is giant. Like there's nobody in the Canadian landscape talking to Canadian military vets. No. As much as I do.

I don't think. Maybe I'm wrong on that, folks. There's probably a guy or two out there doing it. There's a few Canadian military podcasters and I'm not trying to poo them here because they're, because I know a couple of them and they're good guys. and they have their right heart and the right intention. But it's always about how broken the soldier is, like that the veteran is. Yeah, yeah.

And I'm like, you know what? Stop pounding that narrative. Just stop. Do, do soldiers need help? 100%. Do they need to be offered made when they ask for help? No, that's bad. Like, I'm a simple man.

That's bad. Like, but it's the day in and day out. And I'm like, guy, there's got, stop eating Eeyore. Find some light and find a little. light, you know, like, you know, sure, I've got some stories and I can tell some pretty sad stories, but I, in every sad story I have, or every story I have, there's, there's a moment that I pull out of it that's a positive to me, you know, maybe the listener's like, holy fuck, that's the worst thing I could have ever imagined my life.

Yeah, it probably would be. But for me, that was like, I was, I got, I lived that and these were great people, you know, so. Did you listen? Did I, I, I was listening a little bit of, uh, Akira the Dawn. when you were walking up and it was jaco you know discipline equals freedom yeah and uh i was enjoying um enjoying that and i was you know like one of the things for a lot of people is they can't put i can't put myself in your shoes you know i was the reason i was bringing you in today was

this weekend is remembrance day and you got the pop you got the popillon and um well just trying to um that's a big day in in uh this the scheme of three 60s you The Remembrance Day is a, I don't know, as a kid, I was always a big, one you circled. One you were very, I thought in schools and everything, we used to draw, and I'm sure they still do. We used to draw pictures and we used to submit them and we used to, you know, have the service and they'd bring in the military vets and they'd have the, you know, just everything. Yeah. When I started playing senior hockey, we had our Rembrands Day game almost every single year. And it just, the National Anthem felt real.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, it hits. Yeah. Oh, yeah. What's, you know, shifting the subject, just a smidge here. You know, is that what it is, Remembrance Day for you still? Is it changed? It's changed.

Yeah, so it's changed. So before I go into the Remerance Day and what it kind of means, tomorrow, the 8th is Indigenous Veterans Day. And I've seen already on Twitter, like some like, why that? Why do they need their own damn day for rem? And it's like people are understanding it's not. Another remembrance day. It's a day of acknowledging indigenous veterans and for good reason.

Like they weren't counted as legal citizens until 60 something. I could be wrong. So you had these guys volunteering fighting for the country and getting no acknowledgement, no benefit of their service, no, not even counting as a citizen technically until whatever. that I'm going to get the date wrong, but it was sometime in the 60s, I believe. You can, you can Googleize that. This is why you need a Joe Rogan Jamie. You need a Jamie, that nerd that sits there and he's like, oh yeah, I got that stat.

Like, on here's the video of a whale doing something. Like, you know, anyway. But anyway, so tomorrow, it's an important day and people, I mean, they can like the idea or not. I, for one, I, so when I went through battle school, I'm a, I'm a princess. Okay, give me one second. It says the amendment provided that anyone who is defined as Indians in quotes, First Nations or Eskimos, Inuit, and who were not natural-born citizens but were domiciled into Canada January 1, 1947, and had been a resident in Canada for 10 years as at January 1, 1956, were granted citizenship retroactive to January, 1947.

So, 1956? Is that what it's saying? I think that could be right. And this one says rights that apply to all First Nations, Métis, and Inuit in Canada, they are legal rights that were affirmed in the Constitution in 82. I don't know.

This is, it's all over the place as far as that kind of stuff, I guess. But so for me, and I think Jamie's talked about it before on here, like one of the legends of the Patricia's, the my old regiment, was Tommy Prince. He's a name,

he's a legendary warrior, like a legendary soldier. First Nations guy fought World War II and Korea was just chucked away like garbage after. Like he's not the only one, but this guy was a legend. Like he's part of our history in the Patricia's. I fought besides some legendary First Nations guys, you know, and things have changed to a degree in the Army at least. people look at the army and I hear it all the time from people who don't know any better um you guys are the worst racist in the world and the worst misogynists and all the worst

types of all this bullshit no were there idiots absolutely and back in the day there's idiots everywhere everywhere and back in the day a guy like oh maybe dave or myself or others like us would solve that problem behind closed doors that guy would be an idiot for a minute and then he wouldn't be an idiot no more. That's how it used to run. And it worked not too bad where there, obviously things can get away here and there and they do, but look at where we're at now. So would you rather me going up against the bad guy or the guy who has feelings get hurt

because you yelled at him going up against it? So you don't have to like me or guys like me, but I'm the one that you probably. I tell you what, we go to war. I bet you there's going to be people getting yelled at just, just a curious. Just a thought. Yeah. Most likely there'll be yelling and screaming and hurt feelings, probably. They're not yelling Pugh, Poo Poo Poo Poo!

So. Poo Poo Poo Poo Poo Poo Poo! So these guys that I worked with in the Army, in my unit at least, the First Nations guys, they were just as proud to serve. They loved doing what they did. They were given every opportunity to advance. And for the most part, they all did. they were hard working took the bullshit they could play the game that's what most of the military is

is a game once you understand that you're like oh I'm just playing a game for the most part putting on the face I put on the uniform put on the face go to work and um so this this this entire like oh they nobody who's ever been treated properly and all that like I get it I understand that there were idiots but for the most part none of us cared me Dave no one I knew gave a shit what your background was, what your orientation was, nobody cared. Could you haul the weight and could you fight? That's all we cared about. Really at the end of it.

The rest of it was nonsense and noise. Like that's all it was. So we just, that's how we went, you know, but for me, so anyway, tomorrow is a, it's an important day, I think. And people are either going to acknowledge it or not. I do in my, like just by doing what I did, you know, I hope that it informs somebody that most people don't even know it's there. But, you know, they weren't treated properly way back when. And that way back when is not that far in the history books. And there were some meg fucking outstanding warriors.

Some of our top snipers way back when were First Nations guys. They were just absolute beauties in the field. They were fighters. They had the mentality. Why can't they just be a part of Remembrance Day? Well, this isn't a Remembrance Day thing. This is a separate acknowledgement of what indigenous veterans went through. So it's not like, and I think, I mean, at the end of the day, to me, I go, we need to tell the stories.

Yes. And I think that's what the sense. And I go to have another day. I mean, it doesn't bother me one way or another. I'm like, whatever. Like, you know, like, I mean, it's, it's interesting, though, there's a new day for everything. There is. And so you go, like, now, does it, as long as it's not a national holiday, you know, to show some, um,

some tip of the cap, I guess, to a group of part of the military. Okay, I mean, sure. I'm listening to a guy whose life was it, and you're going, this is a good thing. Are they going to do it in time for all the different ethnicities of the Canadian military as a tip of the cap because of what they did for the country and everything else? I don't know. Probably not, and honestly, hopefully not,

because it will turn into every day there's something. I think this one personally is important because they were some of the best fighters we've ever had and treated like garbage. Typically, we're treated like garbage anyway. They were treated even worse than the average veteran. You know, it'd be cool to get, you know, probably none of them are alive anymore. That's, that, A, it would have been cool to have had one on. I remember I approached the Legion. I can't remember, like, where's the Head Legion?

Where is it, Winnipeg? No idea. Because what I wanted to do at one point is I wanted to like, you know, like all these, I look at military. It's kind of the same way I look at the NHL alumni and that's probably a terrible comparison to make. But I just go like they're getting older and there's some wonderful stories. Oh, yeah. And they're disappearing real fast. Well, take Gerald, right, the one I did in Lloyd.

Yeah. He's passed on. Yeah. But that story has been captured. And what a story to have had captured by his voice. And I remember the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, they're, they're not. I was like. They're, they're, they're not.

Isn't that wild? So I'll tell you what, partially why. And I, I will probably take some smoke for this and I don't care. Um, the Legion is basically all legions are run for the most part by people who didn't serve. Like, they may be affiliated in some way and they got on the board and they, and they. got into the Legion, the management portion of it, and they're running it. Now, there are also a number of people who did about five minutes in the military, achieved nothing, got bored and thought, well, this is a way for me to flex.

And now they're in the Legion as well. And if you're a Legion guy and you're one of them that are maybe you're a good guy, sorry, I'm not trying to lump you all together, but maybe I am because that's been every other veteran I've talked to in the last 10 years, especially. post-COVID or during COVID post-COVID want nothing to do with the legion nothing to do with it we were all legion members at one point i as a young soldier used to go to the legion on remembrance day and there'd be very few old world war two vets left and a handful of korea vets left yeah we'd buy them drinks because we hadn't done shit at that point we'd gone on like a couple tours but we hadn't done and sit down and listen to the stories because you'd put it pour a few in them and the stories would come out and my god if that if those had been captured you'd have. Well, I just think, you know, I'm going to remind people on Remembrance Day to listen to Cy Camel. Sycamel was episode 20.

20? Let's just see here, folks, you know? My memory's good. You know, when I'm coming up on episode 530, you know, it's Cy Camel, what were you? Episode 18. Episode 18, and I got to go down in Unity, Saskatchewan. Yeah. And here's this 94-year-old, I think, at the time.

Yeah. Talking about going to World War II, being a tailgunner and a Lancaster bomber, and telling it with such clarity, it was insane. Oh, yeah. It was insane, you know, like insanely cool that I got to experience that. Like, that I got to experience that. But, like, the thing is, is, like, that isn't the only war we fought in. You know, World War II is certainly a big one.

But, like, there's just so many stories from the Canadian military. You guys coming on here has proven that to me. immensely. And the thing with the legions is you're like, even if you didn't go and experience everything, you'd think you'd want to showcase who are your members. No. That would help bring business to you. Would it not? There's a huge disconnect between the Legion hierarchy and the people that run physical legions and the guys who've gone and done the business. There's a huge disconnect there and it's I'm not even sure what to put the finger of it all on. I mean COVID exasperate like really brought out like well I mean if there was one institution

that should have said fuck no to your mandate like these guys have gone and fought yeah so that you didn't have been the Legion it should have been the Legion and they were the first among the first to cave so if you're a Legion guy and you're like you know you sit there and you whine about it then you know you do that that's fine. But those of us that have gone and done the business, I want nothing to do with the Legion. Remembering State to me isn't even, you remember what state in the Legion used to be sympathetic. It used to be like doing the ceremony. We're going to go get a quick bite to eat.

A bunch of us are going to, you know, we're all done up in our fancies and we got all the bling bling on and, you know, we're going to go get a free drink at Moxies or whatever and a nice meal, you know, great day. And then we're going to get sloshed at the Legion. And then we're going to go fight some civis somewhere. That was, that's, you know, and if you're out there, James Sinclair, any Dave and Dave and any of the guys, they know what I'm talking about. It was like, there was a day. Was it not saying we're the most mature assholes in the world, but whatever.

Um, that was normal. That was the good old days. And then the Legion got. So now, so now what are you going to do on remembrance day? So it's changed now. So there's a few guys out like Dave is one. Um, there's a few others that I will meet up for a ceremony, usually St. Albert. Wornville's got a nice little one.

I'm from they do too but the St. Albert one I find is um it's well done it's always been well done. I like that one and there's more of our crew there although there's a huge military community in Moranville and and they do a great ceremony there as well. Um, the St. Albert one I kind of got away from the last few years because it got a lot commercial like at the end it's like and now this wreath is sponsored by you know and you're like dude like lay the reef.

I get it and I appreciate it but I don't need to hear the commercial for like half an hour of reef land. Like that to me, that part of it kind of. So now I'll go to this thing. I don't know which one I'm going to go to yet. I usually make the decision the day of depending who's going where and who I feel like tolerating that day. And then we'll go and we'll have a drink or lunch after and that'll be that. It's not the day it was.

Maybe that's just me, but I don't think it's just me from what the many, many military friends I have say. How upset was the military community when Don Cherry got let go on, remember the stay of all days? So this is a guy, Don Cherry, who spoke about us all the time on Coach's Corner. Well, actually, when I think about it, after Don Cherry went, who spoke about the military? Nobody. He's a guy. So I'll send you a picture of the pitcher when I get back home. I'll send you a picture of the picture.

I should have done. brought it. Um, actually be something I could give you to put on your wall. Um, anyway, it's Don Cherry sent this big cut out of himself and his dog, blue. And there's this big card word, we don't, I didn't, none of us even knew what the fuck he'd sent it to us for, but it was like the first week or two of the tour and we're like, no six. I'm like, well, what the hell is this for? I'm like, well, somebody said, well, why don't we just take a platoon pitcher with us at the vehicles with Don Cherry and Blue? So we did. Some, somebody sent it to coach's corner he hand no autographed and sent a note to all of us

you know go get him patricias or whatever he said and it was like holy sure i still have that thing you know like this is a guy that got it and got nixed off of you know coach's corner for saying you people aren't wearing poppies well i walk around a lot of people aren't wearing and i'm not one of these vets that says you better wear one and you better listen you don't have to do shit then you don't have to do shit because guys before me gave it all up so you didn't have to do this stuff you know i'm not saying me i went and fought where i did i did my thing i don't put myself in any way shape or form in the same class because there was other guys not by long shot But you don't have to wear it if you don't want to wear it if it you think it stands for going to war and all it.

It's not even close to what it stands. You don't understand what it stands for. Probably don't wear one. What does the poppy stand for? The sacrifice of people who understood that unless they died or thought they were going to die, this country was going to fall apart and something evil was going to take it. And for me now, you know, it's dead. different now it's not the same now I wear this now partially to commemorate and remember and

think about the guys well before me you know the veterans that really did build this country um world war one Canada was forged on that battlefield all those battlefields um world war two punched above our weight in every fight Korea same thing Afghanistan not even close. No one could touch us. We don't have a Hollywood. So there's no, you've had Willie Mac in here. Yeah. That guy would be the star of any movie. Um, Vaughn Ingram who died. Scotty Shipway who died. A ton of these guys, you know, got, I'm speaking to guys I know. There's many other guys who, who did the business and could be the star of their own movie, you know, put, um, I'm speaking of guys. I know, I'm speaking of guys. I know,

They would honestly put most Hollywood films to shame based on, you know, Americans go in with all the toys and they got all this, you know, they'll go in with a hundred dudes and we'll be like, well, there's six of us. Let's see what happens, you know. Americans actually stopped at some points being like, we're not going with you. There's only like you're doing platoon objectives, like a 30 man objective with like a four man stack. I'm like, well, I only have four guys. So I don't know what you want me to do. They said go take it.

I'm taking it. like yeah we're not doing that like oh that's not the movies you know a lot of that shit so if we had that acknowledgement people would be like holy shit they did the business well one of the cool things about being on this um this side of the border i don't know sitting here is is uh nobody knows i think now more and more people are understanding who truck is or who jamie is or willie or right but uh the one cool thing about the canada side of the world is you know, can we get access to Sean Ryan? I don't know, that feels like a real long shot.

I'm not saying we can't. I don't think it would be as long a shot as you think. All right. Well, we're going to leave it on Chuck, folks. That's what we're going to do because Chuckie's going to find us away. But the cool thing is, is we can have Sean Ryan-esque guys from the Canada side almost any time we want. And the reason why is nobody talks to him. It's almost wild, you know, like Dallas Alexander goes on Sean Ryan.

But it's like two days. later he's on this show. Like it was it was crazy quick and you know like the one thing we we uh um you know I I got to take some notes from some of the the American podcasters because they do it big you know like they really make a show out of uh some of the guests they've had on because like we've had them on here too and it's been it's been interesting right some people may even forget that but when you look at the Canada landscape there's a ton of Dallas and Alexander or whatever name you want to put beside it. They're all sitting there because in our world, certainly there's being more and more

independent journalists that are starting to talk to these people, but not like the United States. No, no, no, no, not even remotely close. Because it's better to forget about it. You know, you've seen the documentary. That documentary for a little bit of time before it was actually really released in Ottawa. You're talking Bards of War. Bards of War.

Yes. And if people want to watch Bards of War, just shoot me a attack. and we'll get you hooked up. It's now been put on YouTube because it's not monetized or anything. So if they want to watch it, it's on YouTube under Bards of War, go look it up. If it's pulled for whatever reason, but I don't think it is, just text. Text me and we'll get you hooked up. Yeah.

But anyway, it's on there. But that documentary. And I should quote, I should say, Bards of War is a documentary of Afghanistan where Chuck and Dave are both a part of it. And anyways, now you may carry on. Yeah, it's a 10 day snack. of an eight-month tour, so it's an interesting 10 days. Um, but the powers that be in Ottawa were like, we're dude, we're going to

this doc. So the filmmaker had sent that documentary to the powers that be in Ottawa through the public affairs office and then it's reviewed and there. Initially, the reception was there's nothing like this. There's nothing even in the states like this. So if you've watched Restrepo or Coringal or the Hornet's Nest or any of those, there's nothing. Those are all great.

Sebastian Younger did Cornwall and Restrepo and a father, son team did the horn and sister. Great documentaries. But there's nothing as up close and dirty as this. Bards of war. There's just isn't. There's some British stuff under Ross Kemp, who I recommend people watch his stuff. On gangs is a great series he does. And on, uh, on with his embed in

Afghanistan, there's second to none. But the pushback eventually came that, no, we're not going to use this. We're not going to endorse this documentary. Now, for those of you in Calgary who've been to the Regimental Museum in Calgary, the Museum of the Regiments in Calgary, which is fantastic, by the way. It's probably one of the best museums in Canada that most people don't even know about. It's near the base. They were going to host a viewing of it for like, there's, I think there's like 400 people

slated to attend this viewing, like this premiere of it. And I was going to speak at it and a couple other guys were going to speak at it after and take questions and stuff and talk about the documentary. This is like five, six years ago now probably. And, um, Otto said, and the museum was like ready to do it. They had everything set up to do it. And Otto said, no, you're not doing it. Like we're, we're not endorsing this documentary.

They would never give an answer. There was never like a, there's nothing wrong with it. We did nothing wrong in it. Our language is what it is. It's what you would expect to hear from guys who are killing people every day. Or getting shot at it. Or getting shot at every day or losing friends every day. It's what you would expect to hear.

It's no worse or less than anything else I've ever heard. It's, it's, it's, it's, It's locker room talk. It's funny. I just don't remember the language being even, you've literally have shells going everywhere in the documentary. And we're laughing, you know, through a lot of it. You know, maybe that upset them.

I don't know. They never really gave an answer. So, um, their pushback eventually came to the point where they're like, we don't want to endorse it for anything like that. However, we want to, we want to use it for training purposes because it's got all the best, that stuff that people. people never get to see room clearing or you know using a vehicle as part of your assault and command and control at the squad level and all this stuff and and I remember

the filmmaker's like no go fuck yourself like if you you want to hide the thing tear parts out of it for your purposes and he asked me he's like well how do you feel with that I mean it could save lives I'm like it could but they need to acknowledge the entirety of it like the interviews the the the way we felt the way we existed. And if they're not willing to do that, then that I don't understand. Like I don't, you know, and honestly, that stuff wouldn't have saved lives. You know, I'm not trying to get out of anything or nothing, but it, it wouldn't have. We, we would come back from tour and try and train the next group. So me as a leader, you know, as a sergeant, I was like, one of my jobs in

between tours was to train the next batch and be like, these are the things we learned. For example, going back, I came back in 06, went on a course. And then they're like, I'd already been slated to go back in 08. I'd volunteered to go back. I kind of wanted to go back. I'd unfinished business to look after. And so I'm training my new crew to go over. And they're young guys like they always are.

They're 20-ish and I'm getting older. And it's 34 in the first one and 36 on my second one. They're all like 20 something, 20-ish. And my squad section, I'm training up according to stuff I learned. And there's only a handful of us from the previous. tour mixed in with this 130 or 40 man company. And you can see it from the, the bosses of this company are like, stop training this way. We're not doing that.

Well, this isn't the 06 tour. And that's all I kept hearing was this isn't the 06 tour. I'm like, well, did anybody send that memo to the Taliban? Because to them every day is the 06 tour. Like that's now the 06 tour stands out because it was the, the heaviest combat tour of the deployment of all the deployments. Nothing really came close. That whole year between arson and the Royal Canadian Regiment was a rough year.

And I was like, I'm training my guys to do what I learned by seeing people pay with their blood. Like, this is what you do. But either Taliban blood or our blood, people paid to learn these lessons that I'm teaching. And so I would have other squad, there's section commanders, other sergeants be like, well, you show me what you're doing. I'm not going to pay attention to them. it got to the point where the pushback was so bad about training this way realistically that one of the other section commanders who got the big award for August 3rd who's a you know a friend of Willie Max and took over when Vaughn went down Pat Tower he came to me at one point

a few months out from deployment he's like I'm not going with these guys they're they don't get it I'm like dude we're we've been we're not far out like we're going and he's like I'm not not with these guys they don't understand it and I was like I felt it he he just verbalized it and I was like oh man you're not wrong like it's they're not understanding where we're going you can tell them I just came from there my I'm still wearing actually the same chocolate chip uniform and boots like I'm got all the same kit that's still covered in dirt you know still has Afghan pootered on it and you aren't getting where I just came from. I'm in videos on YouTube. YouTube had just come out in like 06.

So this was a big deal too like oh there's chuck on video you know, Durpin dudes and they're like it's not going to be like that. I'm like dude the Taliban they're not getting these emails that you think that they're getting that says they're not going to fight us this way. This is what they're going to do. This is how we need to react. This is why I have very little faith in the West reacting appropriately to any modern war. We didn't react. We didn't react to it in real time back then. Yeah, 20 years ago, roughly, roughly, roughly, roughly, roughly, roughly, roughly, roughly, we didn't react to it properly.

Now, my guys, I trained, I didn't give a shit with the boss said. I wouldn't go over unless my guys, I felt were trained the way they needed to be to fight. And they fought fucking hard, like the second crew, my guys fought hard there too. But the leadership was nothing compared to what we had in 06. It was nothing like it. It was, um, junk, honestly. We fought in one in 10. spite of the leadership instead of you know the leadership being a proactive you know so

that's 06 so you know we're we're 17 years past then so what you're saying is it's only progressively got worse gotten worse so I've just had two of my really close friends retire they were both approaching their 30 year marks in the lot one of them was like two weeks ago I ran into him at sobies in Warrenville he's like dude I'm done I'm out going corrections like most army guys do out here I did it's an easy transition and so he's like I'm like what was the final because I'd spoken to him about four or five months earlier and he was still a little who rah about it he was down in the dumps about where the army was and these are guys who are in like command roles these are not like you know

room pushers these are these are high ups you know um and he and and both of these guys were in positions where they were about to take army level high up jobs like we're not talking these were dudes on the on the move right they'd been mafia blessed the regimental mafia and um he's like i just couldn't do it anymore i was going into work every day and he goes i was sitting in my truck in the parking lot going i can't enforce anything there's no discipline to enforce because there's no discipline anymore if i try to enforce something that thing is now gone anyway like dress and deportment which was this the building block of everything in the in the in the military especially the infantry, dress and deportment, like is gone.

Dress and deportment. So your turnout, every day your turnout, like how your boots look, how your boots are bloused, your pants are bloused above your boots, your uniform, your hair cut, your beret, your department is. Your presentation of yourself. Your presentation of yourself. Do you look like a soldier? Are you playing the part?

And that's what I mean by you put on the uniform, put on the game face. It's like putting on your skates and, you know, yeah, I've got it on now. I'm going to switch gears here. That's how it is there too. It's like that anywhere you go really, you know. And when it's probably teaching you is attention to detail. It's it. That's all it is.

That's when you realize that part of the game, it's all just, now most of it you go through automatically. People think, oh my God, I couldn't have done this every day. I'm like, you do it already. If whether you're a carpenter or a farmer or a nurse or a teacher, you go through the same routine every day to prep yourself for that day, you know? If you're a carpenter, you want to make sure you have your PPE on or tradesmen you got your PPE on your you know you might not want have to look all shiny every day but that's

part of what we did or or you know we cleaned weapons every day we worked worked on vehicles every day we worked on our kit every day because when we went to war that shit really mattered and it really mattered not how shiny we were but that you paid attention to the detail and the discipline you know just you were talking about jocco um and i like i do like jocco i i i i It gets a bit exhausting real, being told how shitty a human I am inadvertently. You know what I mean? Like, I'm up at 3.30 and I'm doing this. Like, fuck dude, not this guy.

Like, no. You know, do I look after myself a bit more than I used to? Yeah, I'm trying to do all that. It's the good stuff again, you know, like working out a little and eating a little better and drinking a little less and all the things that you should do. And I do love the jaco stuff, but it's like, yeah, I'm not, you know what? I'm not a 3.30 guy. I never was. Well, actually, there's a guy living in Northern Alberta, I know, David Gagans.

Mm-hmm. Who. Legend. Unreal. You want to get motivated? David Gagins. Read that book. Yeah.

Go listen to his first podcast, Joe Rogan. Oh, yeah. Just go listen, like, just listen to a story. It's, it's like, you'll run through a brick wall. But I also go, man, what a curse to, like, have to maintain that. Yeah. And, like, you can maintain physical fitness and a whole. whole lot of things with not having to go that far.

Yeah. Now, in fairness, I'm sure if I ever get David Goggins sitting across me and I say that, he'll probably ream me out and say that I'm not even living up to a tenth of my potential. And you go, I don't know what I could even say it because I just watch Goggins and how intense he is. And I'm like, you know, that's a, that is an absolute choice in life that, uh, you know, and. And I'm thankful for, I'm very thankful for the people like that, like the Goggins, the Joccos, um, they're absolutely inspirational.

People just need to be realistic about where their bar is going to get to, you know, and I think once people understand that, you can actually watch it without being like, I should just probably never do anything. Because what it will do to a lot of people is be like, well, I'll never get there. I'm never starting. Well, you, you, yeah, but that mindset, though, it sucks too. Yeah. Because it's like, listen, you, I didn't get to possibly, we're just going to throw

the universe, a million downloads in a year overnight. That has not been that. That has not been even remotely the case. It has been putting in the work every single day. Yep. Every single day. And just like on it, you know, I was just talking to twos about this, right? He works.

So on the Tuesday mashup, he works. He was up at 4.30 or gone by 430, I think he said, and then home at 7.30. And then get things, they'll eat a little bit and then get ready and we're back, you know, 830, me and him meet up. We go through our notes and then we do the, and I'm like, that's a long day. That is a very long day. But if you don't do the long days, you never get to where you're sitting across from Chuck,

kidding to, and I'm talking podcasting, where you get to do this, because once upon a time, I used to work full week and a podcast at 5 a.m. or after the kids went to bed, and then I carved out every Sunday, one to five, I do two podcasts a week on those days. That's where I did.

I just never stopped. It was draining. It was tiring, except if you never start, you'll never get there. And starting can be real. small. Yeah.

I mean, like, it doesn't have to be this, I think we get paralyzed by the, like, we need to be Jocko. It's like, well, Jocko's got a full, he's what, 50 something now. Yeah. He's got a full life where he was, he built that into his regimen. That's what it is. That's how he functions. That's the discipline.

He's getting up at 4.30 in the morning. What he's trying to explain to you is with discipline, you get freedom. And the discipline is, okay, you don't get up. before 3 anymore get up at 6 get up if you get up at 8 right now get up at 7 and see what an extra hour does and it's funny because people will be you know they'll talk about the military experience that didn't haven't served and they'll be like I couldn't have served because you know I can't handle that level of discipline I wouldn't have been able to X Y or Z and I'll always come back well what what do you do for living and don't you have to follow

I don't I wouldn't have followed orders like that don't you work for somebody like even if you have your own company, you're eventually following, you're taking direction. Everybody takes direction. We just called them orders. You know, everybody answers to somebody in the army. There was probably greater repercussions than most people. I mean, as far as like even the day to day stuff, I'm not talking war stuff. I'm just talking like, you know, you're five minutes late.

No, no, you step out of line with a company. You're, you're certainly not taking a bullet, but you're taking a figure to bullet because you're probably out of work. You probably are to work. And most of us got kids and bills and every. everything else and you need to work. So you get up and you go to work. And really, if these people aren't disciplined enough to show up every day, turn themselves out to some level, you know, some standard and perform their job to some standard, then that's discipline. Everybody's got to have

some level of discipline or you're going to be an unemployed bum in whatever field you're in. And I would try to explain this to people like the army's just a different game of that. Really. once you understand that it's you know like discipline is freedom like once you so for me discipline and and motivation were two critical factors and like motivation is the stuff you're doing to like once you've got the building blocks done the motivation is the stuff during training where you're getting guys mentally hyped enough to be able to stand in combat and do what needs doing overseas motivation isn't the factor people think it is it's the discipline overseas the discipline is what will hold you.

That and, you know, me and Dave and me and James are beside each other. Me and Willie Mack, that guy is the motivation. The rest of the big hurrah stuff, that's not even, not even a thought. It's that guy. That's it. That's all. The discipline is what keeps guys from running. Now, I've seen cowards.

Now, don't talk about that stuff very often because everybody just assumes, well, they went over there. They're all this, that, or the other. there's cowards. I've seen it and I won't talk about it, you know, unless it's off air kind of thing. Because and only because I don't think they deserve the air time. Like they just don't. They know who they are.

They know what they did and didn't do. That's enough for me. They got to live with that. You know, I've never had a sleepless night because of anything I did or didn't do. If I had to attack it, I fucking attacked it. Well, and all of us think we'd go over there and we'd be the Chuck Broadneck. But none of us know until you're there. It's not even, partially about that.

Chuck Proden didn't, didn't know what he was going to do till he got over there. I'm not, I'm here 20 years in hindsight, you know, I've got that luxury. And people will, another thing they'll bring up is, well, I wonder, I always wondered would I have passed the test. I mean, like, what test? Well, you know, in combat, would I have stood, stood and fought or would I run or, you know. And it's like, that test isn't a one time deal, dude. That's not an entry.

exam that's every single second that test is on loop nonstop like I think every second I think a band of brothers you remember the band of brothers series the what was it was it 10 episodes was it 12 I don't know followed around all the different parts and then there was the one episode where it was the guy just crying in the trench with the white hair yeah yeah he was one of the officers and it's that's impactful and accurate obviously accurate because I mean these guys all talked about it but it you would see it here and there where a dude would be having a rougher day like dude shake it get shook get ready stay frosty it's coming we're going back out and I

saw it a couple times with guys who uh one who was in an IED and an IED will fuck with your head more than almost anything like it's just such a it is a such a mind fuck but dude had been badly wounded in this one ID he was the gunner for our headquarters car in my my platoon and he had a busted up, I think it was his collarbone was busted. So he'd, he'd been in a a sling and they were debating whether to send them back because his heel time was, his heel time was in that window where do they send them back to Canada, or they keep them over there to let him heal up? It was one of those weird. It happened. And we were going, we knew what was happening. We were going back out to get real business going here in like early July. We knew we'd been

briefed like they're fucking, there's 1,500 of them. You're going to go hunt these guys down. It's happening when you go out. And so Chris, um, the gunner, great guy. He's like, I can't, I can't go out. They're not going to let me go out. He's like, I'm, I'm in a sling. And yeah, he's in a sling. Totally. He's got an out, a legit out. But mentally, he was like, he was kind of fluttering. And I remember myself and, uh, Derek Thompson, who was another legend. And he's like, uh, uh, No bullshit. And he's like, well, you can take that sling off and go out if you want. You know, nobody sees the manifest of people.

So every time you go out, you would submit a manifest to the talk, the tactical operation center of who's going out. Yeah. And, uh, nobody really pays attention to it unless somebody gets killed or wounded. So we knew that this was going to be on, he's going to be on this list that he should not be on. And he, Chris has brought that up and Derek's like, really, budd, that's, that's, your out and Chris is like you know what you're right fuck this

he went out you know that kind of he was fluttering and I've seen guys do the full flutter and come up with every excuse in the world to get losers limp and be like yeah and that and you don't have to go to the extreme of war to see no who's a gamer who's not a gamer well it can be in any industry really any profession you have take any job I bet you I bet you there's farmers out there who've got hired hands or whatnot or a carpenter with his people working and there's gamers and there's and then there's carpentry is a dangerous bloody job I mean I mean construction carpenter these are dangerous jobs people get injured all the time to farming and

other I grew up on a farm I know the injuries that happen best friend runs uh is on service rigs I can just imagine the gamers he sees there because I mean the the level of excuses that you get hurt and especially when it turns minus 30 and you're out in the The cold, uh, sling and pipe. A ton of friends in the oil rigs that are ex-military or even just not military, but that are up there that I know in their same thing. It's all about the posers. Guys and corrections.

Oh, I was a bouncer at this bar and let me tell you how tough I am. Okay, hop in that cell with that 300 pound maniac buddy. No. No. Like you find out real quick. And I'm not saying you have to be that because there were, honestly, there were guys who were my best friends over there who cracked. and we no longer speak.

Now, I might be the asshole for that. I'm the un-understanding asshole who, but that's how I'm built. I'm not going to, I'm not obligated to pull your bullshit and emphasize with it. When this 20-year-old kid who everybody was like, he's not going to perform overseas. And that kid stood in the firing line, you know, he didn't run. He didn't look over his shoulder, but you did. You ran. You backed up.

You went home. That kid stayed, you know. So for me, I'm a simple, simple man, a real simple man. I'll break it down to the molecule if I have to just to find the simplest part. But you did you asked a while ago now we've gone off on a till I've gone off on a tangent but remember and stay. So for me the remembering part it's it'll be a bunch of texts with buddies or phone calls with buddies. That's where I'm happy. I'm good with that.

You know, and um, one guy want to get out to the. He's in Ontario now. He's a minister. We talked about a little bit with Ben before. Ben's a big deal on the documentary. My ginger. Um, hugely intelligent guy. Um, smart, smart, quick thinking guy. Well spoken. Um, so the funny thing about when we went out into these combat operations, you know, we have 10 men sections for people that don't know how an infantry section works. It's 10 men. Three of them are operating the vehicle, driver, gunner, crew commander. Those, those. positions are set basically. But then you got seven dudes at dismount to do the fighting. And, um, we were about to go on this monstrous operation, like a big one. We're going to go hunt like 1,500 of these fuckers. And we were told like 10 minutes before we're rolling out to go so we're in this little base, this fob, this shitty little forward operating base, which was worth this ground,

really useless. We're going to go back to Kanderhry airfield, re, you know, bomb up our ammo. get the vehicle sorted and that night we're rolling out so we're this is happening quick and they're like you have to leave three dudes per section to defend this fob and we're like it's ridiculous you're carving out half my dismounts fighting men to defend this worthless chunk of ground no you're leaving three do this 10 minutes we're rolling out sort it now so me I'm like in my head I already know who I'm taken but I don't want to tell these other three guys who are great guys um you're staying sorry you just didn't make the cut to go

fight this wouldn't be an issue except at this point the tour you know we're in july now we've been there seven months all the losers had left all the guys that you wanted to leave had left all the guys that weren't going to cut it out there had left of their own volition everybody who is there wanted to do the business and had been doing the business had been you know given it had been on all the But this one was different. This was the one that was setting the stage, really. So I was like, I don't want to be, I'm an asshole, but I don't want to like tell these guys like, you know, sorry you're not coming. Like you're not good enough in my head.

You're not coming. That would break their hearts. So I came up with a scheme like, I'm going to put their names in a hat, my boony hat. And I'm just going to write down Ben, Tony and Mark, my three boys, my favorites. I'm allowed to say that now. I would set it back then. So I'm just going to be like, I write their names each down. twice I'm a genius.

This is me, Chuck, thinking on the fly. So, like I said, there's a lot more smarter people in me. So I got my booney hat full of these names. And Ben, who's like not going to be left behind, thinks that there's a risk. He's going to be left behind. He grabs my hat. And he's like, I got this. Chuck, it's not fair.

If you pull the names, all pull the names. And I'm like, oh, fuck. So he pulls the first name and it's like Tony. And Tony's like, Tony's like. Yes. And so he pulls a second name and it's Tony and I'm standing beside Ben and Ben looks at me like, you're an idiot. He goes, it's me, Ben.

I'm going and I'm like, oh, thank God he's not. He gets how stupid I am at this moment, how panicked I was. Pulls the next one and it was like Ben, but he called Mark. And so because Ben and I were, you know, same wavelength for everything. So he got it. Thank God. And after this like, as we're getting the vehicle prep to go, he's like, how dumb are you? Like I'm like, it's pretty dumb.

Like I'm sorry I panicked. I didn't know what to do like you know what to do with my hands. So he's like, okay, it's fixed. We got the right three guys and I'm like yeah because he went through the rest of the names. He's like you're an idiot. So anyway, these poor buggers had to stay. Like we're talking a third of our fighting strength from our entire all company had to stay here, which was just idiotic. So we get up to the camp. We group up and we go to our business and we went and fought for a long time weeks weeks and months. So. So. this particular fight we're going into Sangin, it's in the documentary. And it's a day of days. It's a bad day. Or it could have been a much worse day. For me, one of the things I think about when I think about Remembrance Day is always Ben. So in this fight in the documentary that you can see, we're ambushed.

And it's in a bad spot. It's in Sangin Helmand province, which we knew nothing about. Turns out as one of the, it's basically the epicenter for the worst of the worst Taliban, the hardest fighting Taliban in Afghanistan. We didn't know this. Nobody told us this. So we roll through the contact starts at about 60 feet, like 60 feet. I'd seen the contact.

I'd seen as we're moving, seen like a dozen bad guys off and I, you can hear it in the video. I'm like ambush high left and I thought those would be the last words I said. Because these guys turned on us the same time we turned on them. And it was me, Mark and Tony were in the open field at that point. We just jumped a ditch and a wall to get into this field. We were the lead element for our platoon, which was like 14 dismounts. 14 dismounts. We left our cars way back 300 meters in the rear because they couldn't get in there.

And the fight starts. So I'm like, well, fuck, we're dead here. Like there's no, we're just not getting out of it. We had no cover. open field they have some cover where they are um and these guys were on target like they were snapping

them right past us you know when you're getting shot at where you know you can see people have seen movies and it's funny ha ha where it's like oh you can tell if it's here or here you really can like you can tell and uh so I told the boys break contact right now anybody who's done ambush training knows it's kind of a running joke like if you're

doing ambush training you're basically just buying time for everybody else to live while you die that's what it is and in my head i'm like holy shit like this is a real ambush like well this is where we die so i said break contact right so which means the ambush is here we're going to continue firing but we're going to try and get out of their killbox like that immediate death zone they have and as we're doing this i thought well ben's at least safe he's on the safe side of the wall where the rest of the boys are are he'll be okay mean Tony and Mark whatever it's not going to be good so I see Ben bound ahead of me I'm like fucking Ben's here then it's out of my head about three or four evolutions and you can see part of it in the video we're moving and scooting and

shooting they set up a machine gun about 150 meters out on the corner of this field we were in and um it opens up and that's not good either like now we're getting shot from the what was our front now we're getting shot from the side by a machine gun team and I'm like well they just went from really bad to absolutely shitty to to like now what so I just said okay hold here throw a grenade each um because that contact was 60 feet the close guys we're going to attack this close contact throw a grenade and push like just get up and push attack it. And I thought, well, then no, we're not living through this. There's no fucking way. So as the boys are

all throwing hand grenades, um, I had an underslung M203 grenade launcher and we were so close that, that most of my grenade, I got off like four or five grenades into their pile like the Taliban, they weren't going off because the army distance, it was too close. Like that's how close we were. Um, we could, you could make it a physical feature on these guys. They weren't like in movies where it's like they're all far away and you're shooting at smokes. They're there like they're fucking there hammering us. And this one dude pulls up an RPG and it whips, he fires it and it goes right between Tony and I and Tony and I are drop like we're already kneeling but we just drop and I remember looking over at Tony and he looks

at me and I'm like, we're deafened, you know, we're looking at each other. I'm like, are you okay? And he's like, I don't know. And I'm like, are you okay? And I'm like, I don't know. And I'm like, get up let's go let's do it so you know you talk about looking to see if guys are looking over their shoulder are they doing what they need to be doing not even a thought they're these boys are pushing so um that 60 feet was a long 60 feet and uh we got in pushed in and uh we killed everybody there at close range Um, they didn't run. I was hoping.

Fuck. They're gonna see us coming. They're gonna run. They'll break and run. They didn't run. They stayed and fought right there. So I was like, okay, we're here. Consolidate this chunk of ground.

I gotta unfuck this situation, you know, work the problem. Figure out who's alive, who's not. Like this has happened to us, but where's the rest of my platoon? Like the boys like, they're, They've, I could hear them shooting for a while. And in the video, you can see them shooting for a bit, but. The Taliban had carved out a chunk in between us. They'd separated us out.

Me and my guys, but two other dudes were there, three other dudes were there, Dave Pickett, a legend, absolute beauty. Um, Mike Gabry and John Dirkson. And John Dirkson was a replacement and he'd been in country like two days. So he was like, this was wholly new for him. Um, the rest of us had been fighting for a long time. But even not this was a unique thing. So we're holding on for dear life in the spot and I'm like, where the fuck is everybody? Like we're they must have did they die or push back or what the hell and the little shitty radios we had.

They're just not working like they're just junk these little personal radios. Um, honestly most of us stopped even taking them out because they'd all, you know, just stopped working. So we're like what now and we could still hear our vehicles back where Dave was. You've met Dave Moriarty and thank God for guys like him because it was because of him and a few other guys that kept up a heavy amount of fire. We kept the Taliban, this new group of Taliban from overrunning us. So we didn't know how bad things were at that moment. But every time we tried to move out of the seven of us plus the cameraman out of our position, they'd swamp us. And they'd push right up on us. They'd be huck and grenades over the wall at us.

They'd be dumping AK on us. It was just it was bad and we fought there for about 45 minutes. We found out later that night, not to jump ahead, but we found it later that night. There was about 80 more Taliban pushing us with seven of us. So at a certain point, Dave and I, who's a sergeant, was like Dave, we're fairly fucked here. My boys are down to like a couple mags. We're going to have to make a bump out of here. Started that fight.

I started that fight with 10 mags. and 16 or 14 M203 rounds for my grenade launcher and two fried grenades and pretty much everybody else is in the same boat. My machine gunner Tony had 800 rounds going into that fight. So eight like belted ammo and he was down to like 75 rounds. All of us were down to like two mags. We're going through our dump pouches where you dump like a empty mag or a partially emptied mag and they're like popping rounds out and trying to stack mags, new mags. And, uh, we had nothing. Like, we're like, fuck, they're done if they overrun us here now.

And, um, it'd be nice to say you could pick up AKs and stuff, but honestly, what people don't understand is when you're shooting center of mass on dudes, where's their weapon? So most of the time you're shooting right through rifles or weapons are getting banged up and dropped or they're shot through probably a good chunk of the time weapons that we could have recovered were already shot through and they were not serviceable. So we're down to what we have. And honestly, as much as we had AK training, we fired a shit ton of AKs and stuff like that, you're going to stick to what you know and it is what it is.

So Dave's like, yeah, fuck it. We're going to pull out of here. Let's, let's figure this out. We made a plan to like, we knew where the vehicles were because we could still hear them shooting. We said, okay, we're going to do this thing. We're going to pop out of here. And the second we made the pop, it went bad. Like they were honest, like on us bad.

And before we'd made this little pop. Um, I'd said, boys, if somebody goes down, we're all sticking. We're all staying. Like nobody's, you know, if you get hit in the leg or you get hit, we're all staying. Everybody's cool with that. And they were all like, it was almost like a weight off their mind. Um, nobody wanted to be left behind. Everybody's worried, you know, if I get hit, the boys are just going to cut and run.

And it was Tony. It was like, fucking promise it. You promise it. You promise it. They all promised it. Um, no problem. So we fought another 300 meters back to our vehicles. And it was only there that I realized, like, they thought we were dead.

Because there was new dudes in my car, like guys from one section had put a few guys in my car, the back of my vehicle. And I could see them as Chris Turin was standing in the top of the hatch. And he's like, you guys are alive. I'm like, get out of my car. I want some air conditioning. I get out. I'm fucking exhausted here.

He's like, holy shit, we thought you were dead. I'm like, no man, we've been over there, like fighting for our lives. He was like, dude, um, major, he was then major Fletcher. He was in charge of a Charlie company. He was a beauty too. He became our CEO at one point after. He'd shown up when he heard how bad it had gotten and he was going to lead a team in to get our bodies.

Um, you know, my company commander not so much. That's a whole other story. But Fletcher was a beast. He is a beast. Um, so you can see him in the video too going, You got everybody now and my platoon commander going, uh-huh. And like, not that he's a bad kid because he was okay, but anyway. So we make it back out of there.

We push back to a little British base that night, about three kilometers outside of saying again. And I mean little like the size of your parking lot little. It's small. And these British dudes are all like, what are you doing in saying in? We don't go in there with like less than a company or a big movement element with support. And you got, you guys went in there with 14. dismounts.

And I'm like, nobody told us. Nobody tells us nothing. And they're like, you shouldn't have done that man. Like you're crazy. Like all the, all their interpreters that they're listening to the intercom channels on are like, there's hundreds of them massing. We're going to get hit tonight because of you guys. And we're like, sorry.

And they're like, I don't worry about it. They do this. They would have done this anyway. So that night, you know, sure shit, like 300 of them attacked that camp. And they got bonked hard. Like it worked. That wasn't even a hard fight for. us like they attacked for a couple hours didn't go well they fuck off but i pulled ben aside

went in a quiet moment and i'm like dude what on earth were you thinking you're on the good side of the wall like you jumped in there with us you idiot and ben's like oh i thought you guys were dead and uh i wasn't going to keep going if you weren't they're like what do you say to that he's like 22 like so that's what i remember Ben, guys like him. And Ben is from Ontario? He's a minister in Ontario now, yeah. Holy crap.

Now we're going to have to, well, we got to go get Ben, don't we? Yeah, yeah. He's the reason I'm still here. But he prays for me a lot too, he says, but he says I need it. So I appreciate you making the drive, as always. You know that. With it being, um, Remember and stay here on the weekend.

This is going to release a couple days before then. And, well, I thought, you know, hopefully in the years to come, we'll get a group of military men in here and do it proper. But regardless, having you come in and, you know, do what you do, Chuck. I know I speak for the audience of how highly everybody thinks of you and when you tell stories and everything else. I appreciate it. So thank you very much for coming.

in. We're going to switch over to substack, which we've been doing here the last little bit of fun there. And I think we're going to, you know, because it's you, I think we're just going to release it on Reminders Day. So if you listen to this on Friday and you go, where the heck is a substack? I think in my brain, as I think this out, we're probably going to release it on Remembrance Day. So if you want to see a little exclusive clip that won't be anywhere else, substacks where it's going to be, and we hope you'll join us there.