The Okay Podcast Powered by The Strength Co. - EP 59: Being A Drill Instructor, Dad Life & AI Coaches ft. 1st Sgt Matthew Tomaszewski

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

Podcast Hosts:Grant Broggi: Marine Veteran, Owner of The Strength Co. and Starting Strength Coach.Jeff Buege: Marine Veteran, Outdoorsman, Football Fan and LifterTres Gottlich: Marine Veteran, Texan, Fisherman, Crazy College Football Fan and LifterJoin the Slack and Use code OKAY:https://buy.stripe.com/dR6dT4aDcfuBdyw5ksCheck out BW Tax: https://www.bwtaxllc.comBUY A FOOTBALL HELMET: https://www.greengridiron.com/?ref=thestrengthcoTIMESTAMPS:00:00 - Tres’ Big Update07:17 - ROLL CALL17:36 - Matthew Tomaszewski Joins The Show!19:26 - Marine Career27:09 - Being A Drill Instructor39:05 - Getting Injured47:38 - Fishing53:50 - Being A Dad01:04:06 - Transitioning to First Sergeant 01:06:38 - AI Coaches01:13:30 - Leaving The Military01:16:59 - OKAY MATTHEW!01:26:19 - Super Bowl01:30:31 - Sign Off

All right, and welcome back to episode 059 of the OK podcast powered by the strength co. I'm your host, Grant Brogi. Today is Monday, February the 10th in the year of our Lord 2025. The unfortunate circumstance that the Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions is a reality we all woke up with today. We'll get to that game and more soon. The price of Bitcoin is $97,000, $581.97. Donald Trump is president. If you open up your Apple maps, you'll see the Gulf of America, just there south of Texas. There's a lot of stuff happening. 29 Palms, as we call it here in the high desert is the high desert.

This episode will come to you on Friday. Thanks for enjoying our Saturday surprise last week. Sorry, but we have been here 59 weeks in a row, which I find impressive. Keep them on their toes. Keep them on their toes. I'm joined in studio by way of a video conference with the best logistics logistics officer

we've ever known Trey Gottlisch in Trey the name stands for three in Spanish it's trace have anything you want to announce? Yeah man we had our Tres Niña born February 1st. Miha, Miha. Did I get that right? The conjugation. Yeah. Niña I think is a female child.

Niña would be boy child. Correct. And then no, Miha would be sister. That sounds right. Or is it? I go to you. I'm the resident Mexican. I tell all the Mexican Marines that I'm Mexican and they're like, really?

I'm like, well, I mean, my wife's Mexican. So close. Yeah. You married into it. Miha Spanish means my daughter. Yeah. Daughter. And then so what's Nina then?

Little girl, right? Nina's girl or child. Okay. Yeah. For for me huh so you got trace me house into casa see yeah man it's February 1st born at 422 in the morning I'd love those early risers one of those early risers man yeah a lot of fun I did not uh I did not realize how involved I was going to be in that birthing process. Yeah. Yeah. South Carolina, we just call that childbirth.

It was a, so we induced early, right? So we go in, we started, start the induction process. She, Abby gets the epidural and it's like midnight. And they're like, hey. Epidural, what a wimp. She couldn't just raw dog it. That's why I said that the whole time. I'm like, come on. I'm sure she loved that.

It was pretty nice. And so she got the epidural, it was like midnight. She's like, all right, I'm at six centimeters, 10 centimeters, the go number, right? Big stab guy. I go, okay, so about how long? She's like about a centimeter an hour. So I'm like, okay, I'll get like four to five hours sleep, have a baby, be good to go. Wake up at two in the morning, said, hey, it's go time. And then nurse wakes

me up and I go, where's everybody else? They're like, it's just us. I was like, fantastic. So it was me and one of the nurse men. Oh, small squad. Oh yeah. It was a fire team minus doing it. So sometimes all you need is that the point man, good saw gunner and you know, the rest is history. It was, it's one of those things that I was not expecting to be involved, but it was probably the coolest thing I've ever seen. So it's a miracle. It's like unbelievable when you watch it. And I mean, I know you already have two, two gals by the way of adoption and like you see young human life and uh, I assume you have a quite a few nieces and nephews like I do. All nieces. Yeah. All nieces. Okay. Interesting. So I like, you kind of think you haven't figured it out, but like when, when human life pops

out and it's yours and you watch it, you're just like, I don't know how anyone doesn't believe in God. Well, congrats. Are you, are you sharing the name or is that close? Yeah. So it's Valerie Ruth Gotledge. Okay. Nice. Val and any family names in there? So Valerie, no, we just both like that. That's what both named that we agreed upon, but Ruth's a family name kind of on both sides. So, okay. Little biblical. Yeah, a little biblical.

Ruth, a little bit. Yeah, I mean, not a lot of options for female. I mean, I guess you could go like Tamra, you know, there's some other options in there. I mean, technically in the lineage. And then Valerie is just a big Steve Winwood fan. Ah, Steve, what do I know who that is? Is it eighties? Eighties guys.

It has a song called Valerie. Oh man. In five years, 1980 will be 50 years ago. That's so crazy. That is just really crazy. Well, congrats. We're getting old, yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah, congrats to mom and dad.

And you know, the first month is super simple. No one's stressed, emotions are like kind of flatlined is what I've always said. It's just a walk in the park. So make sure you're hitting your lifts, make sure you're getting your five by fives Yeah, you're resting enough between sets and all that stuff. But the rats Castrol train started today, too. So it's the best isn't it? You got anything good yet? We had enchiladas that came tonight, so

They're pretty like like white people taco nighters. Yeah 100% white people. Yeah Yeah Yeah, that's the best Well, congrats three kids send our love to Abby if you want to support big Trey You can go click the slack channel down below and join out and you can ask anything you want and Trey I would say you know on a serious note I know sometimes I'm kind of filled with humor. You should call BW and change your on a serious note, I know sometimes I'm kind of filled with humor. You should call BW and change your exemptions. You know, now you got three kids and a wife. The dependents are just growing like wildfires or wildfires. Well, hopefully wildflow. Yeah. Yeah. I

was emailing him in the hospital room. He sent me an email. Yeah. He sent me one does congratulations. He was like, he was like one of the first to congratulate me. Yeah. He's one does. Congratulations. He was like, he was like one of the first to congratulate me. Yeah. I may have had a little something to do with that, but not on purpose. Yeah. He, he messaged me something about you. I forgot what it was. Had nothing to do with the baby. Maybe you need to get a hold of you. And I just like wrote back like he's having his baby today. And, and he was like, oh, well, I mean, you can't wait forever on taxes, but I guess you're going to wait a few days.

And then I sent him the photo when the baby was born because he was like, keep me in the loop. He's a dad, he gets it. He gets it. Twins on January 6th, largest insurrection in history. Yeah. Better taxes. Well, with that, we got a, yeah. Yeah, better taxes. Better taxes. Well, with that, we got a guest tonight.

We're super excited to get on. We'll introduce him here when he comes on. And then our resident Mormon should come on soon. But before, we should see him any second. But before we get him on, I guess we should do a quick roll call. I guess the three's out. So I guess the three alpha out, so I guess the three alpha.

I'll just get on. Trey, you'll have to do my part and be all the commodities out there. So let's start the roll call. Let's kick it off with one shop admin. Admin, you guys here? This is S1 alpha. S1's on leave.

Okay, on leave, yeah, that on leave. Okay. On leave. Yeah. That makes sense. Okay. Good ones in the house. Two deuce. Do we get the deuce here? Lance Corporal here, sir.

Yeah. Deuce, he's still in the, he's looking at maps. He's trying to get some maps. Did he laminate him yet? The, surprisingly, he was emailing, he emailed up the chain. He's trying to get an ASAP, uh, but they're still broken. Are you guys just waiting on word back on that? Yeah, just waiting on word back.

Okay. Do you have any idea when you'll get the word back? Uh, it's pretty soon, sir. I have a good feeling. Oh, hopefully by next week we should, I should have an update by you for next week. Okay. Thanks. Thanks too. And, um, yeah, just, just, just have the two, find the six and make sure everything's good.

Yeah, we'll do sir. Okay. You have three shop over here. Oh, miles to the three. Well, no, I mean, technically Jeff's the three, but I guess the three alpha could be there. Yeah. I said three alpha. Sir, yeah, we, yeah, we, Fops and cops, they're all, they're all, they're all ready to present. Let me know the square is ready. Wait, the future operations or the current operations? A little bit of both, sir. You know, just the cops, the Fops roll into the cops.

Okay. Did you guys set up the power you, like I briefed you last week inside the three shop just so information flow can go well? No, we haven't done can go well. No, we haven't done that sir. Oh, you say you was a you yeah. Power you. So like what I'm kind of a vision is in the battle center. You know, we got the op chief on one side and the three on the other side. We got the deuce with this maps admin, like a power you, you know what I mean? Like a watch. Oh yes sir. No, that's a really good idea. No, I vaguely remember that. Yeah. So did you guys do that? No, we did

Okay, okay. Yeah, got it All right. Well, we'll come back to the three when three gets on four. Yeah, Brad president count for okay Do we get the poor John's locked out for words? So sir, I submitted the the 10 digit grade coordinates And they should be they should be there. The civilians- Should be like, is the contract locked on? It is locked on, but they will put those where they want to. There's, yeah.

Okay. So we do have portage arms, but we just don't know where they're going. Exactly. We don't know where they are within the battle space. Okay. Did you reach out to the fire support battalion and see if maybe they could get us a mincerated piss off grid? No sir, I did not, but what I did do is I've, I've been talking to the trash guy here recently.

Oh, the trash guy. Yeah. Any updates from him? What's his call sign? Trash six. Oh, trash six, yeah. Yeah. Trash actual. Yeah, trash actual.

Yeah, he was. Not a confused trash OIC. Yeah, Trash actual. Yeah. Trash actual. Yeah. He was confused with trash OIC. Yeah. I was talking to him and he said that we've been having some issues with the trash. I don't know if they're separate. Are we separating those MRE heaters? Well, this is a problem, reoccurring problem. So the MR... So first of all, no one likes to take over a range when there's trash on it. I don't care who you are, but you don't want trash on the range. And the thing is it's not your range anyway, it's your battalion commander's range. And the MRE heaters need to be separated,

even if they're not used or if they are used. And everyone's unclear, well, if they're not used or they're used, they go in different place. What I'll tell you, I don't freaking go like, is when I go into my freaking Angon motor pool on Monday, and I see trash all over. So this is the problem with trash hierarchy. Okay, so you got battery commanders

that don't like trash in their vehicles. So they walk the line, you know, they make sure that everything's covered in a line, and then they pull the trash out of those vehicles. And their officers, they just leave it on the deck and expect someone else to clean it up. And the Marines come back. And so that layer of trash, while it's secured,

it gets secured in the battalion dumpsters. Makes sense. But they're not segregating over there. So now that next hierarchy of trash has a problem. And oh, by the way, the trash hierarchy above that is the guy that empties the dumpsters. And he won't pick it up if there's MRE heaters in there. So it's, we understand that everyone's working hard on the trash, but we got to deconflict these these trash layers. So we're going to get smoked by the trash phase mode. Oh, I see. Oh man,

the trash Hillary. Yeah, he's going to kill us. One thing I do want to update you on is One thing I do want to update you on is how many vehicles do we have? Working or just in general? Well, on the teeny, how many do we, just in general? Oh, we got 124 on the teeny, two of them work. Yeah, I was about to say. That's, that's a, you already know, I was going to brief you on that. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

None of them are working. Yeah. The blue, the blue force trackers are also down, but hopefully they'll come back up soon. Can you at least talk on them though? No, can't even use the dagger, but, you know, one day, but yeah, we'll come back and circle up with the four. Is there a five? No, no, no. Okay. Got it. Great. Okay. Um, let's, uh, let's see. Motor T, uh, motor T you kind of recovered motor T, uh, career planner, career planner. You hear career planner? No, I think with, with the, uh, who are they with? Uh, who's the who's the lady there with the M. Flack? Oh, that's it. Yeah.

Yeah, the M. Flack. Yeah. Or the DPC, which I don't know what that stands for. But the wizard, the wizard has they briefed ever? Yeah, the wizard. Is that like they text you on Wicker? The wizard, no, the whiz. Oh, not to be confused with the SAC. Oh, hang on. I got some outline. I got some outlying stations coming in right now. Actually. I think, I think, uh, I think the three may be on now. Three, were you able to call in? Uh, three, three. We can see you

talking, but we can't hear you. I got your team speed up in the battalion conference room. Radio check, radio check. Yeah. Three. How are my comms? How are my comms? Comms are good. Three. Hey, so we, we talked to admin and uh, the admin chief's out getting an MRI on his shoulder, but his A slash is here. The deuce is A slash is also here. They said that the maps may be done next week. Good news. Good news.

For the three shop, we knew you were going to call in. So we just gave you a minute. We covered trash in the four shop. We talked trash hierarchy. There's been a little bit of a problem of the batteries have been doing a good job cleaning the trash out of the trucks, but then the trash isn't getting segregated as it goes into the tie and trash dumpsters. And then the trash. Oh, I see is upset when they come to pick up the dumpsters that it's not organized.

The career planners out, he's with the, with the M flack and maybe someone called a whiz. Oh, which we're not sure. The wizard has the wizard wizard. Yeah. Three, I'm going to circle back to you and come back for that touch point. Okay. Good. Yeah. Chaps are you here? Chaps. Oh no, he's, he is our, is our,

gentlemen, I'm here. Uh, just one quick, quick little blessing for this blessing for this meeting. Chaps, can you just start us out with a prayer real quick? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I just want to say that we are so blessed here to have all these patriots in the room here with us. Just commanders, sergeants, major, other commanders, still learning the ranks of the Marine Corps.

I just want to say we're so blessed to have the Marine Corps and the Navy, this one blue green team fighting alongside each other for your glory and in your name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Would you say that God wants a Marine Corps or needs a Marine Corps, Chaps? I think both, honestly. Both. OK. Well, I appreciate that, Chaps.

Thanks for coming in. We appreciate all you do. Thank you. And remember, if you guys want to talk to Chaps, it's an unrestricted report. You can talk to Chaps any time's an unrestricted report. You can talk to chaps anytime. You can tell them anything and it's all confidential, but chaps, if anyone tells you anything that they did wrong in my battalion, you let me know. Okay. Just tell me, don't tell anyone else.

Yeah. Oh, uh, uh, uh, yes, sir. Yeah. You know, you know, chaps, we talked about, um, well three, we got the agenda slide. We also have, uh, we also have the 89 99s in the waiting room. Should we, should we let that, should we just let them in now? Absolutely. But I just want to say apologies for being late. I was at the, the dumpster design force 2027. I just want to say we've got some great new MRE heaters

that are coming out. A lot more to follow. I'll send out the slide deck to everybody so we can circulate that down to the lowest level because we want the boots on the ground, those devil dogs closing in the last 100 meters to know what's going on with these new MRE heaters. I think it's gonna be real, real crucial

to solving this trash crisis we have. Okay. Yeah. A3, before I kick it over to the 8999s, I just wanna say put it on SharePoint, but then share the SharePoint link on Teams. And send it via Teams in an email so that way everyone can click in their email,

go to Teams, download that app, and then click back over to SharePoint and then not have access. But we'll make sure they get access real quick. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. Good. I'm glad Jeff made it for that. He's so much better at it than I am. Yeah. Yeah, he's good. Let's see. Let's see. We're just, we're just doing, we're just doing a roll call. We were just switching over to the 89-99s. We got through all the staff sections. Do we have any diamond life in the building?

She all getting that PME done. Now we'll kick it right off. So we did do the roll call. We joined tonight by first sergeants. Sounds so weird. I mean, it's great. It's just, you know, it's just crazy which I'm sure we'll get into. But Matthew Tomas Chesky, the only name I've ever pronounced right in my life. First sergeant type North Carolina somewhere, right?

I'm in Greensboro right now. Okay. All right. So you're at Lejeune? No. So my family and everything's still down in Lejeune and in the summer I PCS to Greensboro, to Comco and Marfor Rez. Welcome to the dark side. Yeah. Sounds scary.

The old GLE batch service. Yeah. So quite a bit different. So you're the first sergeant for comm company, because we have a comm company, right, Jeff? Yeah. Yeah, there is one within. Yeah, we have a comm company in 14th Marines, but they're out of like Ohio, maybe? I think Cincinnati. Oh, wait.

So you guys are in the division. I'm in MLG. Oh, we're in the, we're in the dimension, the fourth Marine dimension. It's a little different. Okay. You're in the MLG. Right. So CLO four or five, a calm company. Okay.

I'll give a little, I'll give a little background because every time we have a guest, people say that we don't introduce the guests. So, uh, uh, first start ski was sergeant ski, uh, one of the sergeants in Tango battery when a second lieutenant type Brogies and biggies checked in, uh, big impact, lots of field shaves and surfing and, uh, double overhead going on. And then, yeah, now you're a first sergeant in the MLG. That's wild. Big lifter. He's a member of the slack community, just like big PRs.

Oh, let's just get right to it though. Did you ever think you'd be a first sergeant? No, and I actually never really planned on it. Um, I was, I felt that I was very technical in the MOS. Uh, but the promotions just stopped. They, uh, when they stopped, when they took the master, started to build it out of the high Mars batteries, it just kind of stopped everything. And I was watching. So theoretically, if things were on track, I would have been promoted like two years ago. But when the, when the promotion stopped, I

watched all my peers get promoted to first sergeant and I kind of held out for a little while and I was just getting too close to the end that I needed to glitch it up. Yeah. How many years are you at now? I'm at 18. Oh, you're almost done. Home stretch. Are you, are you seeing drop my appendix J? Well, you wouldn't be a first sergeant if you didn't threaten dropping your opinion. That's like, they put the diamond on and then they give you an appendix J and they put it in your pocket. And if things don't go your way, you're just like, well, I haven't told anybody that, but

I'm in the window. All right. Okay. No window. Um, well, nice. Uh, let's see, Trey, do you remember ski at all? Vaguely, man. Now that you see him, I was over in Sierra batty Sierra battery.

So you're right next door. Right. I recognize. Yeah. Yeah. Appreciate it. Right. I recognize you. Yeah. Yeah. Can't forget. Well, uh, yeah, we're excited, uh, to have you on here. You know, it's, uh, the okay podcast is, is just blowing up so much. Uh, Trump was going to come on, but he had, he had to go to the super bowl. So

we, we, yeah, we, we backfilled it with you. Um, all right. So, Canon ear 110, 210 to start. Yep. So, I started, I actually started in 510 when there still was a 510. The old core. And then, then 110. I did deployment with 510, did one with 110. And then I came over when they stood Quebec battery up. So just before y'all got there, there was no Quebec battery. And I was one of the NCOs that came over when they stood that battery up.

And then shortly after that, ended up in Tango, then Romeo, Paris Island, and back to 110 or 210, excuse me. Old time as a hat down there. Dude, did you check into 511 as a, as a Sergeant? Oh yeah. No, I was a Sergeant when I got there. Gotcha. I got there in 2012.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. I always remember you as a Sergeant. Like I can't imagine you as a corporal. I just, you as a sergeant. Yeah. Like I can't imagine you as a corporal. I just, you've always known way more than me. So I wouldn't want to view it any other way. Um, uh, no, we had some good times, which maybe we'll get to, uh, all right. So let's talk about a couple of things. First, did you think that you would be a hat? So I poked fun at the first sergeant deal just because

it's fun to do to people because like guys that are like meat eaters in the field, you know, when you're, when you're young, you like kind of make fun of the first sergeants, like they don't do anything, which obviously isn't true. But like, you're definitely like, if I went back to my role, Dex Marines, like sergeants, like not a guy that I pictured to be a first sergeant. But with that said, did you think you'd ever be a hat, a drill instructor? Like it was that in your cards? So when I was young, I wanted to be a drill instructor, like kind of, you know, graduating

bootcamp in the, you know, the drill instructors that I had put an impression on me. And I was like, as a brand new PSC, I was like, Oh, I'm going to come back and do this for sure. And then fleet life started rolling and deployments and things. And I was actually the, well, I guess the time when I should have done it, like my first after my first enlistment, you know, you normally would encourage a young Marine to select an SE at that time. But after that enlistment, there's deployment went on that. And then the 511 thing came up and I had the opportunity to go to that. So a bunch of things just started getting in the way. And then I got hissed in a couple of times and was able to get disqualified

to go on other deployments and eventually. I love that that's a good thing. Well, it was. So if I got my first test, I wouldn't have gone on that deployment in 2014 with you guys. And then I was tested while we were deployed. And I was disqualified because we were in country at the time. But then they got me. They got you. They got me. So I kind of, once I got older and I became a staff sergeant, I was like, okay, that's behind me. I don't really want to do an SDI. I knew it was important.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, they got me and I ended up going down there. Okay. So let's, we used to talk lifting on this podcast and now we just kind of talk about trash. But I am curious, I mean, what are you now? You're like 5'11", what, 220? I'm 5'10 and a pretty fluffy 230. Okay, I'm also 230 right now.

I get it, man, I'm a dad too. It sneaks up on you quick. I am curious, so I I'm a dad too. It's, it sneaks up on you quick. I am curious. So I'll give us a background. Uh, sergeant ski type, Lieutenant Brogi hit the gym pretty hard. I think both like average guys, but too hard headed not to just keep adding five pounds and got like relatively strong. Uh, I want to get into your injury later maybe, but did you, I want to get into your injury later maybe, but did you, like when you left 5'11", not your height, your battalion, you definitely weren't like 5'10", 1'80". Did you struggle going to Paris Island and like physically running, making the uniforms

look good? Like, did you have to drastically change things or did you just go in there like a meatball? No, I actually was small. I wrestled 145 in high school. I think when I graduated, I was about 160. The end of boot camp, I was the 150, 160 range. I didn't break, I don't think I broke 200 until my second deployment in around 2010. And coming back from that deployment, because everybody works out on deployment and you eat, I guess you kind of have a choice. You

either eat strictly junk food, or you eat strictly good food. Right. And you know, I had good support system. My mom was, you know, she sent me boxes, you know, like those flat rate boxes just stacked full of tuna packets. I was eating tuna and I guess kind of like a prison meal is just tuna and ramen noodles chopped up together. I was having that for nine months and I got up. I was like a real, real lean 191 and that was the first time I busted my height and weight was at that deployment.

And then since it's a great feeling since then it was no looking back. Okay. I was, that actually, I'm glad you share that. I was curious about when you left 511 and went to be a drill instructor. Because I feel like I could be wrong. I did grow up in Beaufort where you lived. Drill instructors, huge personalities, right? Scary, awesome hats, great voice, killer cadence. But usually like, I think you're just wrecked from the job

that you're not like necessarily super muscular, right? So did you lose a bunch of weight when you came with drill instructor? Oh, when I went to drill, so I showed up at drill instructor school, thick, heighten, the instructors had their eye on me from the time I checked in. They're like, you're going to, you ain't going to survive here. And going, you know, so I made, I did my initial height and weight and I was good.

And then throughout the course, just because of the adrenaline structure school and the tempo and you're walking back and forth to class and the PT and you're screaming at top of your lungs and running around, I got decently lean. And when I talk about getting lean, I don't think about pounds and light weight. You know, you're able to see definition, I had ads and stuff like that, but I didn't live. I didn't lift in the sense that we do during that whole period of school. So that was three months.

I got lean, I got faster. I got more Marine Corps at that time. So then, before I checked in, right before I started working as a hat is when I got injured. So I was down for nine months. And at that period I was able to start lifting again. And I got, you know, some size back onto me. So my first cycle, I was 230 and people, people knew what I was, I guess. That's that's a scary drill instructor.

Oh my Lord. Just launching footlockers. Yeah. That was actually a thing, a problem. I remember a specific case. So when a kid has his footlocker unlocked, you know, you kind of dump it out. Yeah, you know, just kind of, just kind of, you know, dump it out. Casual.

And I was new and, you know, trying to make a statement and that's what I, I would just go up and grab a handle and toss a footlocker. And I got grabbed up pretty quick by the first star and he's like, yo, you're fucking, oh, excuse me. He's like, you're throwing footlockers at recruits. And I was like, no, I was just dumping it out. So there's that. And then learning to be in the right place that you're not impeding traffic took me a second. There's lots of recruits that bounced off me throughout the cycles.

I hate when they do that. And you got to like report that right. Because Because you can't you can't touch a recruit. And if there is any contact, you got to go get it smoothed out right away before it turns into a negative allegation. Yeah. How much had it changed from when you went through boot camp until then, when you were a hat? Oh, you know more as a hat than you do as a recruit.

So the perspective is drastically different. I don't think it changed a whole lot. I think your perspective's changed. So when you're a recruit, you're just dying. And when you get an IT, it seems like you're getting IT for hours, but you're not. Time just moves slower when you're getting slayed and there's some guys screaming in your face.

But there's very strict rules on how to treat a recruit and how to train a recruit. Even like the disciplinary things like the incentive training where you see the cool videos of drone instructors blasting them and they're doing the exercises. There's very strict rules on that. If you break them, you're potentially getting some trouble. Okay. So it's relatively unchanged. I believe so.

The structure's changed a bit. There was initially a three phase where it was like, first phase you got phase you got slayed. Second phase, you learn all your knowledge. Third phase, you learn a little bit of the Marine Corps stuff, the rifle range, basic warrior training and the crucible. And at the end of the crucible, you got your global anchor and you graduate. By the time I showed up, they had just implemented the four phases of recruit training. And all the three phases that I just talked about got squished forward a little bit and they gave an extra two weeks after the Marines received their

EUGloban anchor before graduation. And the intent behind that was to deliver a better product to the fleet as far as an actual Marine instead of sending recruits to the fleet. So they had, they started, you know, dressing drill structures by the rank. They'd call you gunner, sergeant, staff sergeant, sergeant, whatever the case. And you would, you, the drill structures would treat them more like Marines instead of them flipping the lights on and making them get up and get ready. They'd give them kind of probably more like you all were treated in OCS where you were,

you know, the, the leadership of the platoon was given a schedule and be ready at this time. We're going to chow, um, that kind of stuff. Um, so I think that's where the change in recruit training is. I think the intensity and getting slayed has always kind of been the same and it just seemed different when you're the one getting, getting the heat versus giving it. Yeah. Gotcha. No, it is good. And there's two ways I want to go to this. The first one is, I don't know if you listened to the last week's episode, but you know, so the, uh, comm schools here, 29 Paul's and, um, get a bunch

of our guys. It's hilarious. Yeah. No. So I love, yeah, I'm sure you do. I love going to the Littleton chow hall, uh, PFC Littleton, uh, chow Hall. And it's, it's hilarious because like you see a recruit and like, you know, this way better than I do, but, but you see he's not a recruit. He's a, he's a private or PFC and they see you and like, I get it. I'm a major now. It's like, like whatever, but like, they know they're supposed to do something that they like stop dead in their truck. Like it's like, they can't walk and chew gum. And that's interesting you say that because I've been, I've been thinking like, man, are we setting these guys up for success lead?

Because they, calm guys have been MCT in between bootcamp and showing up 29 palms, right? Or should have? They would have been there in 30 days at. And yeah, and they're just like, they have no idea what to do. So I mean, I don't know. I'm not a hat, never will be. But I almost think that fourth phase sounds like intelligent because like it's, I wouldn't say it's bad, but it's still like, you can tell they don't know what to do.

Right? Looking back to the, and I'll go back to my PFC days, I could not figure out the difference between a first sergeant and a master sergeant. I still struggle. Even if I clearly saw the diamond and the rifles, I could not, I'm like, I can't remember which one's which. There's that. And then the officer, like, to be honest with you, I don't think I even understood officer rank structure until I was a sergeant. I was like, the only ones that you dealt with, you never, and when I came in the fleet, like,

if you talk to an officer, like you're done. Right. And over the course, I think that's kind of chilled out and become a little bit more personable. And I know that as the tenants, you are getting a lot more heat to, to be intimate with, with the lowest rank. So that's changed over the course of the years. I think they just get scared. They're nervous. They don't know. Yeah. Yeah. No, no. And I'm always, I'm not there to like blow up.

I just, I do feel like, and maybe this is just my time in the reserves as an active duty Marine in the reserves. And then now like as a reservist, it's like a lot of guys just don't know. Yeah. Like I have corporals now that are active. Like I'll come back from PT in the morning

and they're like in camis leaving formation and they'll see me and they'll be like, good morning, sir. And like, you know, I can't tell you how many times I've had this conversation. I'm like, Hey, stop. And like, I think they're in trouble. I'm like, Hey, so I'm not, I'm in green on green. I can't salute you, but you're in a uniform. Like it's just like instruction. Like they just don't know, but it is funny at the comm school. The other thread I wanted to pull with that is so you go through Parris Island and then you go through as a hat. So none of us were gunnery instructors, but the way that Fort Sill is set up, when you go

through, you think your gunnery instructor and your fire support instructor are the smartest guys, artillery gods on the planet. You're just like, how in the world does he know should hit data, did hit data? It's unbelievable. And then you stay around, and I didn't know this until I was a captain. It's like, oh, they literally memorize the script.

It's a script. And then you see later as you've been in longer, like, oh, gutter instructors doesn't always mean like good battery commander, right? It just means like they knew how to teach artillery. Did you have like a similar moment as you were going through as a hat or is it different? No, it's the same. And like with any group of individuals, there's, you know, you're bad apples, I guess you could say.

But, and I tell this to Marines all the time when they're talking about, do I want to be a recruiter or don't want to be a drill instructor? And everybody's scared to be a drill instructor because ours are horrible. It wrecks your body. It's hard work, but it's completely mindless. Like it's you, it's a minute by minute schedule. Anything you say to a recruit, you said to this 100 recruits, the knowledge that you teach them the duties. It's the same duty. I was screaming the same duty The ditties, it's the same ditty. I was screaming the same ditty at the end of three years

as I did the first year. I would say one of the things that does require some finesse and skill is being able to teach drill. For one, you gotta be decent at it. You gotta sound good when you sing it and you have to find a way to get them to understand and be excited about it. Kind of like coaching, you know, you would when you're coaching your lifting, but you

can tell somebody, you can read somebody to start a strength book front to back, but it's kind of a dry book. It's kind of not exciting. But you got to develop a manner of getting people excited to do what you want them to do. Yeah, that makes sense. But it's simple. Like, there's no thinking.

I think being a recruiter would be drastically more mentally and emotionally challenging. Sounds terrible. That was like my favorite dynamic as a lieutenant and with the staff and CEOs is you have like the recruiter staff and CEOs and then like the drill instructors, staff and CEOs. And they would just always go at each other. That's I always loved here. I'll tell you what, as also if if I wanted something shady done,

I would go to recruit or seven. I won't disclose names or stories, but if a recruiter works in a big city, he knows some shady, shady stuff. Oh man. That's funny. What else you guys got for him? I could go on. Yeah. Grant kind of alluded to it a little earlier. Uh, and you, and you actually touched on it also that like you had a bet with a leg break,

if I remember correctly. Yeah. Um, what was like, one talk about that and then like the road back from that. Cause then, I mean, you know, I think people get little small injuries and they don't think they'll ever be back in the gym hitting the weights they are gonna and then, you know, if you want to share your story and then kind of now where you're at present day with your lifting. Yeah. So in 2017, I think the fall time, like October, I wrecked a motorcycle I wrecked a motorcycle and shattered my femur and that was a that was pretty rough. I get a for more. It was like blowing apart shattered.

It wasn't just a. Oh, I grant probably got the x-rays pictures. I did. It was nasty. So they put it, the repair was a femoral nail. And what that is, they cut you open, they take a drill and drill out the center of the bone and he's like pounding a nail through, a rod through your leg. Oh my God.

And put the femoral nail in there. So that was one part of the injury. Then during the recovery process, I got got compartment syndrome which for listeners or if anybody doesn't know fluid was going in but it wasn't going out. So my right leg was swollen to the size of both my legs together. And luckily one of the nurses was really concerned about that throughout my recovery and she caught it and she's like, yo, he's got to go now. And that was excruciatingly more painful than anything I remember prior to it, probably

because I was on painkillers. So they rushed me in and did emergency surgery. They did a fasciotomy, which is if you think of your muscles encased like a hot dog in a fascia. So they had to slice that open to let everything relieve the pressure and all that. And then they put a drain on the other side. So I had like a vacuum. It was sucking fluid out for a few days. They took a skin graft off my thigh and covered up that wound on where they did the fasciotomy. So once that was all said and done, I think total, I was in the hospital for probably at least a month.

Because after the recovery of the surgery, then they moved me into like the physical therapy area. And they did, you know, I had to do physical therapy and stuff until I was capable of functioning on my own. It wasn't so much getting me strong or back into shape just to the point where I could, you know, go to the bathroom and take a shower. Walk? Yeah.

Which is the interesting thing with that fracture, like that was the first, that was one of the, the priorities is putting weight on it. The, uh, because like, like your priority or from the doctor, like they wanted to, okay, got it. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Um, because as, as we know, you know, a load causes bone density and that was the idea is to grow a strong bone around the, uh, repair. Then there's a whole bunch of stuff between me and my command because I never started

working and they just wanted to get to service and they would have done a good a service transfer and said, you know, he got injured, he's got to go and send me back to the fleet. But I told him I wanted to work. So I had a personal conversation with my battalion commander and kind of was like, hey, you know, just being transparent, I never wanted to be here. I finished recruits, I finished general charter school and I'm super motivated to train recruits. He said, all right, a standard quota. So when you're a hat, you work cycles and usually in between your cycles, you get a

quota, which is the period of time where you go be the knowledge, you know, you teach in the classes or you go to the pool, you're an instructor, you do martial arts, instructing it, something away from the recruits. You're still with recruits, but you're not a hat. Right. Sure. And the normal quota is six to nine months. So he's like, I'll let you take your quota.

And if you can run a PFT in nine months, I'll let you stay. So that was, that started my clock as far as recovery. Would you run? I'm just curious, like not like there's no judgment here, but I just mean like, I got first class. I don't remember what the score was. I got first class. Okay.

That's, that's, was that, was that like, uh, uh, not to be dramatic and he even told me, was that like a dark, was that like a dark time? Was it like, w like, was it, was it difficult mentally? Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like it. That's why I asked. But like, yeah. So the worst part was before I actually went back to work. When I because I just I lived in a small apartment by myself.

My wife at the time we were dating, she would come over and help me. But it was just I just laid in bed for weeks. Yeah. So it was very depressing. Sad. The physical therapy is very uncomfortable, which we will probably touch on that when we get to training. But it was just, it was very painful. A lot of the, a lot of that was. So let's just get to that now. So you're doing physical therapy.

Your now wife's like helping you out. Are you, and I remember you texting me videos and asking me questions. I think I was on starting shrinks forum, like asking Rip-A-Toe, you know, stuff about it. Like, did you, it's like you crash a motorcycle, you go through this, you have the whole career side of, Hey, am I going to be able to keep this job? And then at some point you started squatting and I can like, I can picture the video.

Like you sent me in your apartment of like you air squatting to parallel. Like was it, I don't know. I mean, and for context for the listeners, like this is a guy that like had a 405 squat, you know, for a couple of reps, you know, five now, whatever, but like, you were strong then. Was it six months before you could squat 225? Was it?

I'd have to, I mean, I should have kind of like done some research, but I got all the videos the picture saved So first off I don't want to discredit I know we kind of poke fun at like physical therapists and the stuff that they do and they had me doing some weird things But I do want to credit them because a lot of the stuff that they did do May not have been focused on strength like we did. But the range of motion things that they did. Oh, we're good. Like I had these two physical therapists and they're like, they were always laughing and joking around, but I hated them because they would take my knee, I'd lay on my stomach and they would just try to push

my foot to my butt. And there was so much scar tissue and swelling in the knee. It's just excruciating. And then I'd have it straight. They'd push it down, you know, just trying to like break everything up in there. And I do think that that that is important. And it did help as far as in that aspect. And some of the balance and stuff that we're not a huge fan of, I think it is important to kind of gain, you know,

to gain stability. And I do credit, you know, that to a good recovery, but definitely squatting and, you know, that was a priority and it definitely helped. And I think that, and this is just my thought process is being strong prior to the injury, probably one made that break not as bad as it could have been or let more maybe more bones broken and to help me get back functioning again quicker

because I had some muscle there a real, a real weight. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty good. Dang. That's great. That's great. Oh man.

Okay. So then you kind of recover from that. You get into, you finish your hats tour successful. We should talk about Beaufort for a minute. Like, where, like where'd you live? I mean, you don't have to give it, you don't have to dox yourself. And I had a blast and this, I keep telling them like, the monkeys are, no, the monkeys are, the monkeys are out where I live.

I did your Island in Carolina and just see there's monkeys on it. I think there's a lot of little islands right there because of how the intercrop goes. And that was one thing I got into in my off time was fishing. I did a lot of the inshore stuff. We're big fishing guys. We're talking fly fishing. We talking spin reels. I was on a boat, so I was using bait casters or spinning rod.

Yeah, real fish. A lot of soft plastics. My guy. I knew you guys would be friends. Yeah. A lot of soft plastic, a little bit of hard baits, but not a whole lot. Little Texas rig. I was more like a jig head with like a curly tail on it or something.

The Gulf saltwater series, they're kind of scented and slimy. The redfish eat them up. So you were getting the reds with like the with the little that's what you were fishing. That's what you're into. Yeah, fish, redfish, trout, founder, she said all the like. It's a limit out there on reds to keep. I think it's too.

That's what it is here. I can do a whole lot of keeping them. I was keeping more of the sheep's head. They're they're common. Yeah. So they're funky fish. They got like these old people like choppers on human teeth. Yeah. Yeah. And they're hardly hard to catch because their their jaws so bony and solid.

Like, it's got to be a perfect hook set. Crazy. Were you catching those out of the boat or were you like, um, so I'm from, I mean, you should know B for pretty well. So I'm from the other side. If you like are headed towards Charleston just before you get to garden's corner, there's the whale branch river. Like you take a highway 21 to 17. Like I'm from that side of town and sheep head is like where all the black island south of Paris. So you go late. So you go ladies Island, then you go like downtown Beaufort. Yep.

Ladies on north, then you go downtown Beaufort. And then let's skip Port Royal. You go out towards like Walmart, Cross Creek, like where all that stuff is. And then you hit 21, like past the car dealerships. Anyway, but like everyone always fish there, like a pier fishing for sheep head. Yeah. So they do like the structure. And even though I was on a boat,

I would end up in that kind of area, like around bridge pilings or dock pilings. You know, finding some kind of structure because they're probably similar to bass fishing. Well, I guess redfish, they are all those intercoastal fish are kind of the same way. But the pier fishing for the sheath, the sheepshead eat crustaceans. So they will chew on the barnacles off the, uh, off bridge pilings and stuff. But that's when you're talking about people, you know, shore fishing, they're probably just dropping down by, you know, bridge pilings or something. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So on a side note, and I feel like this is interesting with you and like, I feel like you and I are a little bit the same in this. You kind of like adapt to whatever culture

you're in. Yeah. Right. Like, like, because like when you were in California, you were all about surfing. Yeah. And I mean, so was I. And to be fair, I'm terrible at it, but like, I definitely tried a bunch. And then like you go to South, like you're from North Carolina. So here's the kicker to it is I grew up in South Florida. So all of that, you know, I grew up, we go into the beach, but the waves aren't nothing like the West coast, but I kind of got into surfing and in as a kid, uh, we did,

you know, me and my family did a lot of fishing and stuff like that. So I guess, yeah, like you said, anywhere I go, I can kind of adapt to the things that I like. Yeah. And it's also kind of fun to like figure out the new, like whatever's the culture there. But anyway, that's, I know I regret that I never went snowboarding out in California. Yeah. I regret that as well. And feel like, did you skateboard at all as a kid I did as a kid I Did too like like I wouldn't say I was good by like any Tony Hawk measure But like I could land a kickflip right like like I like I was like whatever and I tried

I've tried skiing twice in my life and hated it and I was like I think the the the way to go would have been Snowboarding. I also regret that we didn't fly fish out here in California, because there's some really good spots. I'm interested in it. And I probably, once I retire and get another boat, I might try some of the fly fishing, because that's a lot of good of the inshore stuff.

And right here down in Jacksonville, even there's some good spots, you know, and that's probably selling this tray of, you know, finds them or no, you're the fly fisher, but you enjoy it too. But getting a tailing redfish, like sight fishing the tailing red ship fish up on the grass flats. And you just see their little tail sticking out of the water and your sight fishing to him. It's real, a real surreal kind of thing. I'm kind of embarrassed I got into fishing later because now like being from Beaufort,

like I flounder fished as a kid, but that was it. And like now that I know that people like travel there to sightfish like redfish and like, and like study the tides, because like I know all the tides from like the shrimp and the crabs. I just never got into and into that. But now it looks looks pretty cool. How do you like Greensboro? I don't spend much time here. It tells us all we need to know. There's nothing bad about the area. I, I just, like, if I got time off, I'm gonna go home and spend it with my family. Yeah. So, yeah. Um, I think these guys can hop in. So Trey just had, as you listened to this back, he just had his, uh, well, I had his first baby, but his third

daughter, cause he adopted, he adopted twins. He's been in it and it is kind of, I guess my question to you would be, you know, my daughter is four months now, but I had her like later from that intense time in the Marine Corps. I don't know. It just makes you think about everything differently. Yeah, I don't know. I guess what are your thoughts of like being a dad like in the core and like you have your job, you're in Greensboro, you got to get into 20 years, like you got to retire, obviously, like set your kids up for success. But like, have you like thought about that? Like now you're like mid, what are you 36, 37? 37? So like, have you like thought about it? Young man, it's a young man. Yeah, it's a young man. It is weird now, like to me,

and I came in the Marine Corps three years after college, but like now that like my gunnies are like my, the same age or younger, or like my first sergeant's younger, it is really weird. Cause you're just like, wait, you're supposed to know everything about life. Why are you looking at me? Like you're my senior. I don't know. Have you, have you like views change on like family and like the core? That's a very broad question.

So, no, I get where you're, I understand where you're going with it. It is hard as a young it's hard. The whole family concept in the military, the Marine Corps is difficult as it is. No matter when you have your kids, it's definitely a struggle for young Marines. And I think when we're young, we don't have the maturity to realize what's really important, you know, the family. When you're running around as a young sergeant and stuff, like that's the job, like you gotta do it. And you miss out on a lot. And even still now, you know, unfortunately, I'm gonna be working up here for the next three years, maybe less.

And I'm missing, I'm missing so much. And it's it's very frustrating. Yeah. And it is and it's difficult to because I mean, kids are expensive as it is, but now we've got two households, you know, because we chose not to. I have. So I have three kids that live with their mom in Georgia, and then I have three stepchildren that live with me in Jacksonville and a four-year-old daughter that I had with my wife. So that's a total of seven.

But the kids that are living with me, they're all so involved in things that like my, my oldest daughter is about to graduate. She's a senior. Um, our middle one just started high school and the social life for young women is like very important gumming up, you know, um, and stability and things like that. Um, the 12 year old, he's on a D one soccer team, a higher level, not like D one in the college. Yeah, in a soccer club. Yeah. But they're doing really well. And he's playing because he's a larger kid. He's playing, you know, two

ages up. And he's just, he's got a good coach and his real, you know, real good environment there. And then my wife's job, you know, that's going to be our future. You know, don't want, didn't want to move that. So I decided, we decided to, you know, it's probably best just to do the geo bachelor thing. Yeah. It's gotta be tough.

Yeah. Like I'm like quasi doing it. You know, I got the activation orders I brought my wife back out of California, but she's two and a half hours away and I mean, I'm an SLT not me my buddy, but he's an SLT right now. And so it's like you can't leave and I have like thought so many times over the last You know six weeks like I cannot believe people do this their whole careers. I guess it's crazy. It's actually it's a crazy ask. Because it's,

it's weird, you know, and I'm like, you have days where it's like, everything's like good. And then it's like, the cats took a dump on the living room floor. And you're like, and you're just like, man, if I was home, I'd clean up that cat crap so quick and like, it wouldn't be an issue, but I'm not home. And so now there's like a screaming baby or you know, whatever it is. It's weird. Yeah. And it's frustrating at this level too. Being like, they expect you to just want to do that. And like it's like it's the expectation. They're like, you know, right before I got promoted to first sergeant.

Well, when I when I got selected, I kind of went to the sergeant major and other first arms and talked about how I'm going to address the monitor to try to get try to get a location that I wanted. And the majority of the answer is you chose to be a first sergeant. You just got to be ready to go anywhere. And I'm like, yeah, that's not how I work. You know, I got a family that I care about and I got two more years. The Marine Corps has only got it for two more years. Like these people depend on me for, you know, the rest of their life.

And I know and you can see how it affects kids like my four year olds have and he has a hard time right now. You know, you know, I come home for a weekend and we try to jam as much fun and play time as we can in there. And then I got to leave and she's like, oh, man, you got to leave tomorrow. I'm like, yeah, you know, I'll be back in a week. Yeah. And then we can't, I gotta put that in there.

Yeah. Seriously. The sacrifice of my wife, you know, puts forth for this and all that. I don't even know how she does it. You know, she's working full time job, you know, soccer practice, picking up the kids from school, daycare, like the whole deal. Like that's off to the, to the wives. Seriously. What were we going to say Trey? Man, I was, I was listening to like a kind of on that note,

I was listening to like an interview with like a Royal Marine and those guys are with, they're like the same unit, like the whole career almost. And so like that retention is so long. And like I'm not saying like the Marine Corps, it operates differently, like you need new blood coming in, people leaving, you know, cycling in and out. But at some level, I feel like if they would take that more into consideration, that I feel like the retention would be much higher and you would have I don't know, I don't know where I was going with that, I was kind of talking to nobody. So, and that's something interesting about the reserves

is there's a gunnery sergeant in the reserves that's been in the same company for 17 years. Yep. Yep. Now granted, they're a little different scenario, but I've always wondered that, like why they don't do that. Cause there's plenty, I can assure you, there's plenty of people that want to stay in California.

And there's plenty of people that want to stay on campus unit. And you know, Hawaii, like you can find the people that want to stay there. Yeah. You know, I don't know why. Maybe you rotate from like, all right, you're in one 10 this year and then, okay,

like you get orders and you go to two 10. So like you're moving around units, like, all right, you're in 110 this year and then, okay, like you get orders and you go to 210. So like you're moving around units like, yeah, again, you probably run into a lot of same people, but it's like, And just think about it. This is what always confused me. And I really saw it, you know, as you see it as in the leadership positions of the platoon sergeants, the battery gunnies, the lieutenants, the captains and stuff. You got three years to get things right. And then you move and then you leave and then somebody else and changes everything and they get right. And it's just like maybe that first

year is, yeah, is you just working to fix all the stuff or like identify what's all broken and then you get a year to work on it. And then a year where it's okay. Yeah. Things are like clicking. Oh yeah. Now I'm out the door. Yeah.

It is really interesting. And the reserves is a good point. And I'm actually kind of personally glad. I hope you enjoy where you're at, but that like you're getting a little taste of it because it's, there's, there's some things that are interesting of like, no, like you serve the needs of the core, but it is also like, like my motor T chief is selective for Gunny and he's been in, in, in golf battery for I think 14 years. Right. And so I was like putting this thing up to the fourth Marine dimension. I

was like, let's frock this guy. And they're like, well, why? Like he doesn't need to be frocked. He's just going on BLT. And I'm like, because he's like the grand old man of the battery and his family has supported him. And like, yes, he loves the Marines of the battery, but how much cooler to be for his family to like see him get promoted to gunning. And I lost, he didn't get promoted. But no, it is interesting because it is cool. Like some of the guys that stayed with the unit for a long time. Yeah. And it's interesting. And the longer you're at comp company, you'll probably see like, I had a very bad view of the reserves as an active duty Marine. And then I was like, as you like, I think most of us just like getting older or more senior in rank and you start to like zoom out and you realize like, oh, we need all of this,

right? And it is different. There's frustrating elements, but no, some of the continuity that happens in the reserves is, is super cool. Like I, I checked in, I and I duty in March of 16 and a PFC and a gun is now staff sergeant select like senior section chief in the battery that I'm deploying with now. It's like, Oh, like that's pretty cool. Right. And he's never, yeah. So it's, it's interesting. Okay. I got a question answered as

much as you want if it's too, uh, whatever, don't, but like you are a meat eater, oh, 8 11, right? We did love first Sergeant Sergeant Major Bimbo, right? Like we, we had, we had some great examples, but like pinning on diamond, is it harder? So when you're a staff sergeant, section chief, or platoon sergeant, and you make gunny, in the artillery community, you're the battery gunny now. I feel, and you can speak to it more than me, that is like, holy cow, I'm the freaking guy.

Diamond, holy cow, I'm the freaking guy. Diamond equally important, but like, is it a harder transition? Is it different? Like, is it hard for you to like remove yourself from the intricacies of the MOS and just focus on the bigger picture? I've had a lot of first sergeants in my time. I've never had one that was a buddy of mine

that I could ask like, was it weird? Like, is it like, do you like it? Is it? I don't know. Like what's it like transitioning from combat arms to first sergeant? I think it's kind of individual basis. Um, I did a lot of first sergeant things. We were gapped for a while and I decided to handle all the first sergeant stuff as well as. But when I did get promoted, I wasn't completely lost. And I did spend some time in 210 as a first sergeant, like an actual first sergeant, before I PCS'd. And I made it very clear that I'm not a battery gunny. And I just watched.

And of course, if I were to see something that I know was on the safe or wrong, I would have, you know, prevented injury and stepped in in that case. But as far as like the planning and, and how, you know, the gunny kept track of his maintenance and things like that, you know, I've just watch and I would offer some guidance here and there. But I think it's a personal thing. Some guys can't can't probably couldn't let it go. And they, you know, they'd have a hard time here in com company. I have no problem because I don't know what they're talking about.

They don't know what they're talking about either. Full moon. Yeah. Yeah. They don't know what they're talking about either. Full moon. Yeah. So. Yeah. And the job. The job. I dedicated so much to learning how to be an artilleryman. Yeah. They may be I didn't pay enough attention to some other things. And one of the most frustrating things for me is there's so much. There's so many orders. There's so many more admins.

There's so many this. And because I'm a first on everything I got, I know I know it all. And it's a lot of. And I tell'm a first on everything I got, I know, I know it all. And it's a lot of, and I tell the Marines straight up, I'm like, I mean, I'm not the guy that has all the answers. Like I don't have, I don't have the 10 pound bucket brain, but I can do, I know how to find some stuff. So it's a lot of that. If that's another thing that is slightly And I don't know who came up with writing a Mar admin in all capital letters, all mushed together. And that's why I'm not the smart.

Did that try to get changed at one point? And they were like, no, no, no, no, we got to change it back. We got it. It's got to be all caps. It has to be all. It has to be all. So frustrating. I mean, I'm not the smartest. I'm not the smartest. I'm not the smartest.

I'm not the smartest. I'm not the smartest. I'm not the smartest. I'm not the smartest. I'm not the smartest. I'm not the smartest. Didn't that try to get changed at one point and they were like, no, no, no, no, no, we got to change it back. We got it. It's got to be all caps. It has to be all caps. It's so frustrating to read Marat Mase. And then everything's got 12 references.

So like I'm looking for the answer and the sentence in the order says the answer to your question is in reference K. So now I got to go read all of reference K. And they said the answer to your last question, here's half of the answer. The other half of the answer is in reference J. So now I got to go find that reference. It's frustrating, but I'm not going to disclose how much I use chat GPT. It's a great way. It's a great tool. Hey, it's it's seriously is very. I'm not saying that all my Marines don't get a good fit rep shakedown, but definitely have to help that out.

GPT for like awards writing and stuff at least gets you like an 80 percent. And then you just go in there and put a little flavor in it. And that's, that stuff blows my mind. Um, it really does. And actually I had a question for you, Grant, about that. So your grant bots goes off, right? How do you see the longevity of like your, your face to face personal coaching continuing? Cause I'm not trying to hate on any of your coaches or anything. No, I love the feedback when I put when I put something in the in the slack. But grandpa just eats it up quicker than the coaches do. And then mess around just regular chat GPT.

Like I just put some questions in there and like, hey, my squats this I want to be this. How do I do that? And it writes me a whole program and knowing the things that I've learned through you and the strength code and starting strength, I'm like, this all lines up. Yeah. Are you talking about when you talk to your grandpa or just like, how is your coaching going to compete with AI? Yeah.

Yeah. So it's really interesting. So one of the things we've learned in coaching and like you hit it on earlier is like, and it's probably like your physical therapist, right? Like so, and I don't want people to think that I hate physical therapists. I don't.

What I hate is when people get told they can't do anything and there's not a real answer for it, right? But so like your physical therapist based off the story you told probably made you feel like you can recover. And that's a whole level of like, um, mental stuff happening that you probably didn't realize it was happening. But the fact that he was like, Hey, you can, like I'm going to get you where you recover. It doesn't, I don't care if what he's telling

you to do worked or not. Like you believed you can recover, which is a big part. It's the same thing in coaching. So I say, I'll have to say in the gym or even in our online coaching, like live platforms, a lot of people, man, I can only say knees out so many times. I can teach you the Valsalva so many times. And like, if you don't figure this out, like you're an idiot. Like I'm going to teach you that. But people still pay us because we make the like experience better. But what I've learned over time, and I was hard headed about this when I first opened my gym, I was like, everyone will pay 300 plus dollars a month to get like personal training. But I realized like there's a ton of people out there that will never pay that, but do want some feedback. So is chat or is GrantBot as we call them in Slack better than some of my coaches? I would say

no, if they're personal, like if they're getting in-person coaching, but yes, if it's a dude that's like, Hey, my right shoulder hurts right now. I'm in the gym right now. And I want an answer. Should I bench 225 or not? Like Grant Potts can spend an answer. And to be fair, we have written a lot of code over him. So we use chat GPT-4, we use Python and stuff. And like we've written a lot of stuff into him to be like, hey, if someone says this, this is sort of the answer. And is it the best is like a real coach, like talking to you and learning? No, but man, it's pretty close. And yeah, so I don't know what the I think the answer is. And I've learned this the hard way. The coaching that we provide is people that want human interaction. They want it

out like what you and I, we used to live together. Like they want that experience. And that's just different than like you're a paying member. You're just like, Hey, every now and then when I squat really heavy, I want to drop this in. And what I always laugh at, especially now that like I'm not on there as much as I used to be because I'm busy leading a battery is like someone will post a squat and grandpa will answer. And then basically the starting strength coach comes in trail and not like, cause I've told them to do this, but I'm like, Oh, you said the same thing grandpa did. Yeah. So it was interesting the other day. Um, I think Brad, yeah, he's like the main guy. He would make a, he would make a comment and then grandpa would break his comment down and then he made a joke and grandpa would break it down again. And they

were just like, it was funny. No, it was funny. No, when you text me the other day, it was like, grandpa's out of control, but no, it like it is smart and we weren't going to leave it called grandpa. That was like a joke. And then we just left it. But, uh, but yeah, no, it's tough, uh, to like figure out what that future is. But I just think it's cool. What I like about the Slack channel is everyone that's in the Slack channel is like a pretty serious lifter. And if they're not, they kind of leave right away. And like the people that are there are like dealing with real stuff. Okay. So we got to get into like some of the things that we always get into. But before we do that, you're, you're 18, you live in Greensboro, North Carolina. You got seven kids all around

the East coast. Are you hitting 20 and like dropping? Are you going to get selected for Sergeant Major and like, I got to get high too? Have you thought through this? I take a miracle for me to stick around any longer. Okay. So you're like, you're kind of viewing like, so 20 is, you said you're at 18, 20 is like what month, what year? August. Of 20. 27.

26. 26. Yeah. 20 is like one month, what year? August. Of 20. 27. 26. 26. Yeah. So you're like less than 24 months. So yeah. Okay.

I'm gonna fit my 18 month window. And what are you thinking? That's why the appendix J is in your pocket. I get it, you're a first sergeant. What are you thinking? Like you're gonna go for a corporate job. You're gonna like ride GI bill disability and like whatever. Like have you thought like you're going to go for a corporate job. You can like ride GI build disability and like whatever. Like have you, have you thought like you can get into coaching? Like I feel

like you could go past the starting strength certification right now. So I haven't put it extraordinarily serious thought into it yet. What I'm going to do. It really depends on what that disability looks like Yeah, I mean broken bone But I mean that's once you break down the like how the whole thing works that's really not gonna get me that much It's really complicated. It is like I Can get a bunch of like residual stuff like Like the knee's going to be jacked. And I think I got some hip problems. I honestly,

and I had, I'd asked the doctor this question, but I don't know, how do we know the bone is straight? He says it's perfect, but I feel like my right foot like pick like pokes out to the right anyways, you might, I might get some residual stuff, but like just one broken bone and ink and it's not going to to the right. Anyways, I might get some residual stuff, but like just one broken bone doesn't ink in it. It's not gonna be the gravy train. I got some back stuff and I don't know, we'll see how it goes.

But if anyways, that's the long way around. Let me actually pause you real quick, cause this is interesting. You've done one, two, three, four, three or four combat deployments. But in Iraq, Afghanistan, Afghanistan, three combat and then a couple UDPs. Okay. So, three combat deployments, your first sergeant at a minimum, maybe a sergeant major when

you get out, you leave at 20 years. Does Matthew Tomashevsky feel fulfilled or are you like, hey, now there's like a second chapter of my life that I don't even know what it is that I wanna open? Or is it like, hey, for 20 years, I haven't been able to spend any time with my kids now. And I'm asking for myself too, what are you kinda thinking? I think it's like making it in the world.

I just wanna live comfortably. I'm no, I'm no, I just want to live comfortably. I'm not looking for a millionaire. I don't want to run a huge corporate company, anything like that. I want to be well off enough to enjoy life, spend it with my family. Yeah. Okay.

And lucky for me, I have my wife's student really well. That's great. Sounds like a keeper. Sugar mama for the win, baby. She got a sister. I know some single Marines that are searching for their purpose. I don't think any of them are available. Probably not.

Let's see, Jeff, you want to take them down the one track and Trey will take them down the other one. Okay. Yeah, I think we can get a good, this, this could be a good one. This should be pretty easy. Yeah. I mean, this should be just like doing your job. Yeah.

I mean, pull out, pull out the campaign cover, you know, mentally put that thing on. Just think about a recruit doing something, something dumb, touching their face, laughing because you said some off the wall stuff to another recruit that was doing something dumb. And you want to lock them on real quick. You're just going to give them the OK. I bet I can't get you because I have neighbors. OK. It's more of the intensity of it. I can do because I have neighbors. Okay.

It's more of the intensity of it. Yeah. Okay. Knucklehead. I like the knucklehead. That's good. I like the knucklehead. Yeah. So I do have to ask this before we go into our sponsors. Did you, I don't actually know when you started listening to this podcast. Obviously we've kept in touch over the years, but like, did you kind of get like the, okay. Like did you know exactly what you're talking about? I didn't know when it was the okay podcast. I thought it was more like average Joe's okay. It's okay. Okay. But then once it started going, I was like, yeah, I know exactly what he's talking about.

Yeah, okay. It's hard to explain. There's a lot of civilian minds out there that won't get it. Trey, why don't you take them to the next part? So you have listened to the podcast once or twice. Okay. So you kind of know our fearless sponsor

and the one and only. That's a big she's to fill. That's not really, dude. That bar is so well. I just who who is the New Jersey? Herbert, Herbert, Harvard. Yeah. And so if you listen to her words, we can play that.

Just start it. Start from the bottom. I give him her word hard time. Yeah. So usually what we do, man, is we just have our sponsor BW tags. And you have the floor to give the shortest or longest ad read that you want. We got nothing but time on our hands. Do you need sound bites from us or are you good? No, I think I got the basics.

Ooh. Okay. Cool. What a rip. I love it. It's anything, man. Yeah, so you know what's up. We don't have to explain anything. And I'll just give you a 3-2-1 action. And then you just give us a little ad read. For BW Tax LLC. 3-2-1.

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Go ahead and check out bwtaxllc.com. He'll take care of you. Ah, that guy. That guy. From the heart, that guy. That was good. That was good. I'll use some phrases from some past guests.

Yeah, that was excellent. That's so good. Matthew, I'll say one, great to see you too. I know it's late there, but I know that Marine and you was like, Oh, the majors in the middle of SLT probably doesn't have a lot of time to spare. So I appreciate it. We're glad to have you on. Thanks for listening. I do want to leave one thing. I may have seen some like Toma Chesky orders coming through soon or recently. Are you, uh, you building out your home gym?

Oh, well, actually I'm building out my work gym. Oh, so tell me more. The, uh, so we're on a NRC, which is a neighbor, a native recruiting center. Um, and the Marine Corps, we just call that an HTC home training center. They I get our. They have they have a gym that they're so proud of. But there's there's not one complete set of weights. And on top of that, they're not even the same continent of weights. There's a lot of kilos Together and they didn't have a single squat rack so I packed up my stuff from home and brought it up here and I Was squatting one day and I realized I was just curious about the bar that I was using So I looked it up on Amazon where I bought it during COVID. It was all I could find

and it said, um, max weight, 300 pounds. And I was like, I'm sure this isn't going to break, but it's trash. It's time to go. I ordered some stuff for the, uh, for the HCC. We appreciate that. I'm just sad. Uh, please send, you sent me the photo of the bar, but I saw some plate orders come in and you have a last name that's rememberable. But it is sad. It was like when I was at regiment, I their gym was trash and I just said, Hey, I happen to own this company. I won't give it to you, but I'll give it to you at cost, like whatever it costs me to make it. Like I'll do that. And someone was like, that's a conflict of interest. And it was like, I literally have no interest in this. I'm making no money.

I'm going to drag this on. But the other thing is, we're not allowed to have certain equipment because in order to purchase certain equipment, there has to be a full time brained individual on staff. And if you go to the gym in Camp Lejeune, you have some 16, 17 year old kids sitting behind the desk. And I'm like, what, what are you supervising? Like I'm not, I'm not a coach by any means, but I kind of know what I'm doing. And I could probably help

out Marines train as well. But yeah, we can't purchase, we can't purchase squat racks, benches. We can't even purchase a barbell. It's crazy. We're working on it. We are trying. And I say we, I mean the team while I'm gone or my buddy's gone, trying to get in more. The only place we've gotten in well is the air force.

We've built out about 15 air force gyms. They're a little more liberal with their spending. But I'm hoping Doge gets in there and yeah, we'll see it's a whole other thing. But Hey man, thanks for joining us. Is there any place like they can find you lifting like now? Okay. Just join us and talk to you. Yeah.

All right. Yep. You bring to you. Yeah. All right. Yep. Thanks for coming on. I got your address. You just need to text me your shirt size. We got to send you a little gift for coming on the pod. We appreciate it. Okay. Yeah, I'll do that.

My lighter man. Appreciate you. Appreciate it brother. Yep. Good dude. Good dude. Good dude. Good dude. I remember his face. It basically. So I remember the sergeant.

I mean, I didn't want to tell him this and my gold oak leaf staring him in the face, but like one of the most impactful sergeants in terms of like, Hey sir, this is how you need to be an officer. Like good dude, good dude. And it's, it is fun with the Marine Corps. So like when he broke his leg, I meant to ask him if he still rides a motorcycle and I hope the answer is no. But when he broke his leg, I don't know that I've ever used my parents for anything in the Marine Corps, like ever.

Like I've never been like, come to my promotion, come to this thing. Like I've never used them. But I did call them and was like, go visit this guy and mom make him a pound cake. And I have a selfie of them like over his hospital bed because that was a rough time. Yeah. So it's cool. Yeah. Yeah. We're pretty late into the podcast. We have talked about BW tax. He has our sponsor keeps the lights on. Trey's got three kids when she's incredible. Jeff's here from Utah.

Being a Mormon. We need to talk about the super bowl because we just have to. But if you don't have the helmet you want, go to Mr. Helmet. I'll give you a little inside baseball. The Marine Corps helmets are off the site now. If you wanted the Marine Corps helmet, can't get it anymore.

There's a guy named, there's a guy that's a president named Donald and there's like tariffs and stuff and those mini helmets are not available anymore. So that happened just like that. But if your team, it's a lot of Obama. Yeah. If your team, you don't have your team's helmet, there's a good opportunity for you to get one now. So go over to mrhelma.com. Just kidding. Don't do that. That's not his website. Click the link in the show notes, go

over to green gridiron or gridiron green. I can't remember. And, uh, go buy yourself a helmet. Um, I think we should like, keep this on like a six, seven minute wrap up. Did you guys watch this super bowl? Loosely. Man, I was like, I'm playing answers. I watch it for the commercials, right? And the Dunkin's commercial was fantastic. I couldn't turn it off after that. I've been completely. Yeah. Jeff, did you watch? No, I was working and it was like, check it or hardly working. Hardly working really. But because honestly, like once the game starts, like this, the store got dead.

And then I was checking the score, got home probably, I think right at halftime. And I was like, I don't think I need to. I'll turn it on if it gets within a touchdown. And then it never did. So I never. Yeah, it was pretty boring. We took the staff and out to a casino in 20 and palms just cause the spots are limited here. And I was like, Oh, they'll have a lot of TVs and the faggot picked it. Um, that's kosher for this adult. It's fun and games. Oh, you gave it up. Just like, just like PGA will never know what bingo

is. Um, yeah, the faggot picked the casino and it was just like, just like PGA will never know what bingo is. Yeah. The faggot picked the casino and it was actually like a great pick because they did have a lot of TVs and I had to like convince them to turn the sound onto the game, which I thought was strange because there's definitely a bunch of people there watching the game. And then I'm not going to rant about the halftime show, but I was like, Oh, this game sucks. The halftime show will be great. And then like, this is before, now everyone has complained about it. But I was like, this half time show sucks.

I could have told you as soon as Kendrick Lamar was announced that grant would not be a fan of the kitchen. I don't think that's fair. I like sit down, be humble. I like they not like us. I don't think he's a bad rapper. Rappers have been known to do good half times. It was just boring. And is he like, he's not really much like a showman, right? Like he's got, he's a great rapper, but he doesn't necessarily put on like crazy shows. Right. I don't know. Yeah. Like we needed a big jumping guy. Oh, that's true. Yeah. And she had the big jumping guy.

Yeah, I thought it was pretty. I was disappointed because. Well, apparently that whole halftime show was just making fun of it. Who's his beef with? Drake. Yeah. Which apparently is like Epstein Island and all kinds of stuff. When she's like, I'm just cool. I'm a surface level user and I'm like, I want to be entertained and I'm not entertained.

Yeah. I tried to sit down, but I couldn't be humble. No, as far as that game goes, man, I was super impressed with that eagle defense. Yeah, I I've never lied to Marines, but I definitely did the night before the Super Bowl because I cut the guys loose. I'm like, we're from Fort Dix, like we're Jersey. I'm saying we're because we're one. And I'm like, go birds. Fly under like.

And I'm like, I hate the birds. But I might hit the chiefs more. I didn't want him to three Pete. I didn't want the Mahomes goat conversation with Brady to come up. So I was happy with the outcome. Your boy called the game, though. And that's terrible, apparently. Yeah, he didn't. He's not a great commentator.

He doesn't know when commercial breaks are coming. Good guy. Better at playing football. Yeah, way better. Yeah, which is OK. It's OK. OK. OK. Hey, good guest, right? Good, dude. Yes. Great guest. Yeah. Really great guys. Better at first sergeant. Trey, at this time. This time to wrap it up. Yeah.

Episode zero five nine nine nine nine. It's been episode zero five nine of the. OK. OK. Uh huh. OK. OK. OK. OK. I have to thank. OK. OK. At ease. At ease. OK. Hey. As you were. OK. As I was. OK.

I think our guests first sergeant of, I'll say ski. Tomaschewski. Tomaschewski, yeah. First sergeant ski man, great guy. Good talk, good combo, good dude. Better at marini. I'd like to thank our sponsor as always, BW Tax.

If you notice all of our lights are on. Oh yeah, stillW tax, you know, so all of our lights are on. Oh, yeah. Still. Yep. Verified. Yeah. Like to thank BW for that. Like, think our other grid iron green sponsor, one helmet, Matt, except small helmets. Sorry. You're out of what? Sorry. China. So it's getting now. China. 500% tariffs.

If you look at the link below, you will see a link to the Slack. Use code OK, talk to us there. Got any questions about lifting? Ask them there. Got any questions about life? Ask them there. Want to be silly?

Got a joke? Post it there. We love jokes. We love jokes there. That brings me to the YouTube channel. If you haven't liked, subscribed at this point, I don't know. Just do it. What's wrong with you? Come on. So like to subscribe. Come on.

Most importantly, if you go to www.theokpodcast.com, I will make sure that domain is still up. Let me. I've been saying this whole time. We have a domain. That's up. Yeah, no, we're up. We're good.

Verify. You will find if you go to the domain that is working, just verified as we speak, you will see all the links to the social media accounts. Give us a follow there. Interact with us there. Like, subscribe. Most importantly, we all have our each social media accounts

that we are very involved in. I've actually been on X a lot this week. I don't know why, but three Godlitch and I know everybody. I know Jeff's little handle. I know Grant's handle. So what's my, uh, Grant, SSE, oh, no, I'm Grant. I see. Oh, no, I'm Grant SSC on Twitter. That's right. Yeah, I can't. I go with my back.

Yeah, I freaking knew that. You know, let me see. I'm missing works. It is. Whoa. Is that working? What's going on? Oh, look at this.

That the website. Wow the whole time Dang, so I'll just watch a movie. What other websites can we go to? It's kind of like the jury report for fun. You love that format So simple the UX on it is so straight If you're not watching us YouTube, you should. You have to ask your question, Trey. What, my question?

No, coach, did I miss anything? No, you're good, yeah, you're good. Episode 059 of the OK Podcast, Power by the Strength Co. Thanks for tuning in, we'll see you next time.