The Team House - International Legion of Ukraine Volunteer | Hudson "Mongo" Sullivan | Ep. 232

Episode Date: September 11, 2023

Hudson was in law enforcement and contracting and decided to joined and fight in Ukraine against the Russians with the International Legion of Ukraine. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's sponsors: Ree Medical ⬇️  https://reemedical.referralrock.com/l/TEAMHOUSE04/  Need accurate medical evidence that can maximize your VA benefits? REE Medical and their team of specialists are passionate and experienced about helping Veterans. Find out how they can help you at   https://reemedical.referralrock.com/l/TEAMHOUSE04 Vitamin 1 Water ⬇️ (VETERAN OWNED & OPERATED) Hydrate Your Health! https://www.amazon.com/stores/Vitamin1/page/EE9B1311-273B-4D86-B4D7-D8BD1CFE62F8?ref_=ast_bln ELECTROLYTE AND B-VITAMIN ENHANCED / SUGAR-FREE / CAFFEINE-FREE / DYE-FREE / GLUTEN-FREE / NUT-FREE / KOSHER / 4 DELICIOUS FLAVORS / JUST 5 CALORIES PER 8OZ. SERVING Buy Vitamin 1 here⬇️  https://www.amazon.com/stores/Vitamin1/page/EE9B1311-273B-4D86-B4D7-D8BD1CFE62F8?ref_=ast_bln --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To help support the show and for all bonus content including: -AD FREE AUDIO -AD FREE VIDEO -Access to ALL bonus segments with our guests Subscribe to our Patreon! ⬇️ https://www.patreon.com/TheTeamHouse Or make a one time donation at: https://ko-fi.com/theteamhouse Team House merch: ⬇️ https://teespring.com/stores/my-store-10474963 Social Media: ⬇️ The Team House Instagram: https://instagram.com/the.team.house?utm_medium=copy_link The Team House Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheTeamHousePod Jack’s Instagram: https://instagram.com/jackmcmurph?utm_medium=copy_link Jack’s Twitter:  https://twitter.com/jackmurphyrgr?s=21 Dave’s Twitter:  https://twitter.com/dave_parke?s=21 Team House Discord: ⬇️ https://discord.gg/wHFHYM6 SubReddit: ⬇️ https://www.reddit.com/r/TheTeamHouse/ Jack Murphy's memoir "Murphy's Law" can be found here:⬇️  https://www.amazon.com/Murphys-Law-Journey-Investigative-Journalist/dp/1501191241 The Team Room Reading Room (Amazon Affiliate links):⬇️  https://jackmurphywrites.com/the-team-room-reading-room/ Intro music by https://www.youtube.com/user/RemixSample Want to sponsor the show? Email: ⬇️ [e-mail] #ukraine #russiaukrainewarBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-team-house--5960890/support.

Hey, folks, I just want to take a minute to ask you to go in rate this podcast, let the Team House know how you think we're doing, go and rate us on whatever platform you're listening to this on, whether it's iTunes or Spotify or whatever else. Those ratings really help us out, and we really appreciate the feedback to let us know what you like and what you don't like. And if you do like the Team House and you'd like to support us, go check out our Patreon page and you can actually support the stream as well as get access to our team house. and you'd like to support us, go check out our Patreon page, and you can actually support the stream and well as get access to our bonus segments and bonus episodes. Yeah, if you're going to give us a great review, please do. And if you're going to give us a not-so-good review,

why don't you just send us an email and we'll talk about it. Cobert Oaks, espionage, the team house, with your hopes, Jack Murphy and David Park. Hey everyone, welcome to episode 232 of the Team House. I'm Jack Murphy here with David Park. And our guest tonight in studio is Hudson Sullivan. Really happy to have you here today, man. Hudson has served in law enforcement, served as a security contractor in Afghanistan. And then when the war in Ukraine broke out as President Zelensky announced the formation of the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, Hudson went over there and signed up. And it was fighting in Bakhmut and Zapranesia and a few other places had a pretty wild experience.

He's been home for about a month now, and we're really stoked to have you here in studios. Absolutely. I'm excited to be here too. Thanks. I was saying before the show, you know, we had Aaron Schwartzbaum in the other day, who is a Russia analyst and a brilliant guy. But, you know, the one thing maybe he can't comment on so much is like the tactical boots on the ground side of the conflict. And that's something that, you know, we're really happy that you're able to kind of talk about and offer your perspective to the audience. Yeah, absolutely. I think that like my experience is, obviously kind of weird and unique in the sense because I don't come from like I said law

enforcement and the contractor and stuff I taught like I took classes for firearms and stuff just to stay on my skills so I didn't really know like I can't say it's I can't compare to other armies because I wasn't one but um you the experience was definitely interesting you know it started off the war started um you know like I said I was going to work at that base in Florida that's what I was interested in doing it and the war started and then about like four days in he declared the National Legion I was like I got to go so like packed all my things i met with a buddy my bisexual went through all my care he's like take that don't take this and you know going through all my stuff and then um yes it's march 9th i think i flew

out and then i met with another guy in poland and we crossed the border on the 11th and now this is the very beginning of the war when it like the funny thing about the war too like well not funny but like it was crazy at the beginning was so fucking scary like nobody knew what was going on you know there's people getting kidnapped the murder at the border i mean obviously the stuff's exaggerated but you don't know that at the time you know what i mean it's like a game of telephone on steroids because by the time you get the information it's like completely whatever so yeah that was pretty wild then we end up linking with some other americans that were teaching civilians like firearms training in laviv and and the goal there what i end up doing because i have some basic law enforcement uh firearms fundamentals

down from law enforcement in other classes i've taken i was basically basically an assistant firearms instructor to one this guy was a former marine that i was with and um we did that for several weeks and then uh we thought the belarusans were going to come because it made sense at the time that they were to come and cut the country's flank the supply lines off. Right. This point, was Key was almost surrounded or just getting there, you know, and, you know, the fights were raging on like crazy around there.

And we were going to go north, a lot of these civilians we were with and held training. We were going to know if the fight if the Belarusians came south. They hit Lutsk and Loviet to cut the supply lines off the country. Let's back up a little bit before we get right into that. Yeah, yeah. You know, I want to ask you a little bit about, you know, sort of your background and, you know, how you got into law enforcement. where you're from and kind of how that came about initially for you.

Oh, yeah, I'm from New York originally, born raised. I went to college in North Carolina, UNC. And with like one semester left, I was like, whatever. I'll go to L.A. They'll go like, you know, try to do the whole freaking filmmaking thing for years. And that was kind of wild. So my early 30s was like my brother was working in law enforcement. And I kind of like, you know, like that world a little bit.

And I was like, you know what? I need a career to get started and going. And that's kind of how I went into that world. And so it was, it was. interesting I want to talk about between, like, combat and law enforcement, the similars and also big differences. And I think with war, and we'll talk about this later, obviously, like, it's much more of a marathon where law enforcement's a lot more zero to 100. Like, we could be sitting talking like this and everything is cool. They're on domestic.

If something crazy goes down, or it potentially could. Someone just bolts running or whatever. You know, war is like you're in the front. It's like you're already kind of on the whole time. And then you kind of switch off when you leave the front, you know. But, yeah, so I was a cop for like three years in North Carolina. It was probably the greatest learning experience in my life. You know, I liked it, but at the same time, too, I kind of wanted to travel.

I wanted to see other cultures and just travel other places, you know. So that's kind of when I moved into defense contracting. And that's when I went to Kuwait at that point. And how did that come up on your radar? Just thinking around, you know, I've always heard about like, you know, academy and all those guys and much triple can. I heard of them and I looked into it and stuff. And now that I had some basic background, I know at least get hired for something. So, and then that's kind of how I put it into it.

I found them online and they hit me up like the next day kind of thing. Because little I know at the time I was like, oh, you know, that resume, man, it's pretty fucking solid, right? And then like, turns out like the turnaround right was so high. They just need people so bad in the ground, you know, passport and pulse contract. Yeah. But, you know, it was good. It was a great experience. I met some great people.

I've got some close friends to this day. We're still, you know what I mean? What was the nature of that first contract you picked up? So it's installation secured at Camp Aaron John and Bearing. And because I had a law enforcement background, I ended up working with the MPs, the provost martial office. So, you know, basically it was like a civilian, it was like a civilian MP, but working with that.

But like, so we did that and then, you know, they for like about a year. And then I ended up switching over to IT because that's where the money is. And then it's something that you could do more with. You know what I mean? The trigger puller stuff right now, unless you have some kind of crazy background, like it's pretty much over, you know what I mean? It's like 2005

and they're hiring bouncers and you know, Baghdad. Right. You know what I mean? Like that, yeah, the whole blackwater days and stuff that I've heard about, you know? But yeah, and that's, that's I ended go to Afghanistan for like I was there about two years during COVID and then all that stuff and you know that was interesting you know and you said you were in Bagram like during the then yeah yeah I was in was it July about F of Vuf 50 for about a year from like 2019 to 2020 when the base closed and then from there and then once that closed we went to bagram we were there for like I was there for like six seven eight months or so and then I went home together because I was like two years at that point yeah so that's my I let you know the contract expired or what ended I was like all right left so that was it so so and then within like once the whole all the bases were gone you know and like I said earlier

before we were talking about it like when I got a buddy was uh on the base and um great guy dude he was just he just got totally screwed man I mean some of these people that worked on the bases you know what I mean had visas in process and all that and they just like you know you're on your own you know and I was talking so I was like when that was going down I was talking to everyone I could get hold of you know I was talking to him he's driving he's driving in Tajikistan, the border up there with his family. This is right after Kabul fell and all that crazy this was going on. And so I had a couple drinks.

I'm calling the embassy there. I was like, I was like, I'm like, you know, and like, I'm like, you know, and like, can you get him across the border? He's got to work at the base. He has, here's his visa application number and like, oh, we can't do anything. Sorry. So he kind of went on the run for a long time and now he's in Southeast Asia waiting out to, you know, hopefully get his one day, God willing his visa interview.

Yeah. So. Yeah. But other than that, man, yeah. So that happened. And then came back and then just kind of self-family, hung out, spent time with family and stuff, start studying for CCNA, which is the network admin.

So I was taking some boot camps online, a couple weeks long courses, a couple grand. And they basically teach you all the ins and outs and everything. But anyways, and then the war started. And that week, you know, I was supposed to take the CCNA test. And the war started. I was like, no, I'm going. It's like, it was just a choice I had to make, you know.

And, yeah, ever since then, it's been a pretty wild journey. So what was the first step of that? Like, how did you... How to start? Yeah, how did you find out you needed to go to Poland? Well, this is how it went down. So when the war started, I think you, I'm sure you guys knew, too, by day four or five, like something's not right.

Like, they haven't circled Kivya, they haven't... There's no air superiority. There's no air superiority. They don't have any infantry established air. They don't have any infantry supporting the tanks. Like, you don't send tanks and say, you got the guy, see you later. You know what I mean? You have to...

Yeah, exactly. You don't do that. You have to have to have protected and all this artillery. So something seemed off. And one of my buddies who was a former ring at the time was in Wilmington,

like we were talking and discussing all this stuff like that. And then I joined a telegram group chat for the Legion once the Legion was created. And that's kind of where I met this one American on the group chat to go link up with him at LeVee.

That's kind of how that ball got started. How did you even find a telegram group chat? There was like a link on like some Facebook page. Yeah. You know, at the very beginning, me and it was very yeah it was just like crazy I'm going here and like you know it's like hey can you pick me up in crackow and it was just like it was really crazy man like all right go fly here

over this country and come here and like you know we'll meet up with you and so like yeah it was pretty wild so it was just like because it was so crazy in those early days like I said earlier you know nobody knew it was going on and it's like where can I go and you know guys were showing up I heard in Kiev like out of Uber rides like give a gun you know it was nuts no we knew it was going on it's just yeah were there handlers at that time were there facilitators or a pipeline or anything like that? Not really. I mean as far as the Legion so when I got there I was helping civilian I was doing that firearms instructor as helping civilians the Legion of the time it was it was heard as being very extremely chaotic as it would be any country that's going to start a legion in the middle of a war while their bases are getting bombed it's going to be a bit of a mess. So a lot of us and we didn't know what stuff we didn't know about the contracts and all this so like what's kind of wait you know what I mean a couple of us like me especially I was like I'm going to wait and figure that you know where to go from here. and then because the Legion sound like it was a bit messed up and then that missile strike happened in the Averiv

I was there and I was a week into the when I was there it was like March 20th or 23rd Oh on the base world Yeah all the foreigners were I think they hung them on the sim cards They got out the thing they honed on the sim cards And that's the Eskanders hit the buildings And killed like 50 hundred I don't know

I've had some friends that I met over time That were there when it happened They said it was nuts It was just chaos and there were supposedly Some guys that ran to the woods to pull him never came back You know so yeah You know it's just like it was wild so yeah the legion it was just being it was just there's different stories going on and

everything and so i ended up doing that but then a month into the war westra withdrew from keef you know they withdrew all their forces from major parts of major cities and um it was a massive withdrawal and then we kind of knew we heard found out just through word of mouth and i guess intel you know from the ukrainians there that the Belarusians only have like a division ready to go and some spats and that's it they need in any if you're a dictator you need those guys to protect yourself. You know, if you have like one, it's like 10,000 guys that's always got, you need like quarter of a million to pull something like that off. So you guys were initially thinking that Belarus was going to come in from. Yeah, yeah, that was originally the thought, which seemed really

plausible because we thought it was really going to happen when the ambassador, I forget what his name was, from Belarus to Ukraine, got with true and were recalled. The Russians did push south from Belarus, right? They did. And the eastern part. part of Belarus, the word of Chernobyl is. But then the, the, the, the, the, the, you're talking about the concerns that the actual army of Belarus would get involved. Right, or even, or Russian forces with them or more of them. But more west near the Polish border.

Because if you can cut the supply lines, right, right, right, right. That would be, that would be pretty devastating, you know, because everything was being driven it, you know, so, and nobody really owned the sky, so you you're not really flying stuff in, it was being driven at the time, you know, so maybe now it's a little different, but yeah, so that was a big fear, but then once to be realized that wasn't going to happen, you know, I'm like, well, like, what am I doing here? I'm not going to send the Lvivie the whole war.

This elusive foreign legion. Yeah, elusive foreign legion. Yeah. I mean, did you, like, how did you get closer to it? Did you, is it a thing? Does it exist? Is there a Kaiser Sosei? Like, what's going to? No, no.

So basically, real long story short, I end up joining, it was a unit in the Ukrainian army with foreigners. So like I said, at the time, that first month or two, everyone was kind of avoiding the legion. Because a lot of guys are getting out. They're like, no, it's all messed up. Right, right. So we were kind of like, okay, well, let's wait, you know, and like, at least that's what I thought at the time. And then, so I joined this unit that was under the Ukrainian army

for a little while with foreigners. It was actually run by this great guy. He's from Scandinavia. He's an active duty, like military captain from Scandinavia. And like, and like, and like, yeah, you can go see you later. Like, yeah, you mean U.S. military? You're like, see you guys later. I'm going to fight in this foreign war.

Like, oh, yeah, go be safe, you know? It's like. Well, you're going to be a mercenary. Yeah, said it's a postcard. Yeah, I know. Yeah, so he ended up, but he was great. This is the right banking information. So he keeps in your checks, right?

Yeah. So, yeah, so he was our commander, company commander. He was great. He just knew his shit, you know. And we had a lot of Finns. Those guys were solid, real professional, like all ex-military. And then it was a mix. Like, we have, like, some guys are Americans.

We had, we called them the Russian speakers, but they were Israeli Ukrainians. Oh, wow. Jewish-U Israelis, Ukrainians. We called them the Russian speakers. They spoke Russians. So it's stuck, you know, for whatever reason. So there was a bunch of different squads. And my squad was mostly like a couple Americans, a lot of Brits, you know.

And basically it was going great. It was going smooth. We're doing training every day. Squad movement exercises, basic stuff, bounding tactics, something crazy. How was that for you guys? Because did they, there's such a disparity of experience coming in, right? So was there like a boot camp setup or was it more like OJT? Well, later on when I did go to Legion in June, so about a month after this,

that's when I went through almost like a boot camp basically for my month. And, um, but at that time, it was more like, okay, who here has no bullshit the most experience, you know, okay, so you're in British Army, your infantry, a paratrooper. Okay, cool. Like, guess what you're in charge now? So like, come up with the basic training program, what should we do? And then you go from there. You go with people's skills. Yeah. What they bring to the table. Yeah. So, um, and everyone brought something to some extent, you know, but, um, yeah. So, uh, did anybody have to ambush anybody with a coffee cup? To get their bona fidees? No, no. No, no coffee cup. ambushes that not that time you know yeah so yeah so was there and then we long story short this ukrainian colonel showed up and the ukrainians the commanders that i met you know and i'm sure the same as on the ukrainian but foreigners it was mixed there were some that were

excellent competent you know down to earth you know simple you know real not glory hounds or not like that and then you had some that were you know clowns basically you know like the general isimo kind of clowns you know what i mean so you know they're in a militia back in 2014 and then they got promoted the full bird colonel or something like you know when this war happened So, like I said, but it was mixed. And there's some guys from Dumbas and I met, they were great. They were just, like, really good dudes. They cared about you.

Like, hey, your safety is the most important thing. You know, it's be smart, fight smarter, not harder. So a lot of them have that mentality. But then, you know, you have some that are just like, they don't get the fuck about you. You know what I mean? You're just like, you're just like, you know, something for their fucking resume, you know? Right.

So they don't care if you make it or not. So it just depends. So it's something I always learn over the years, you know, it's never so much what you're doing or what you're working for. It's who you work for. Yeah. You know, it's a good competent leader and commander, you know, and anything. That makes a huge fucking difference.

Yeah. So anyways, we were in Hardkeef. We go there and I was there for about a couple weeks. We were doing some more training. And what we were basically was a volunteer. And we left because of that colonel with the Scandinavian officer, a bunch of us left, go join what's called an SSO, which basically was like one step of the militia. So it was run by the SBU at the time.

So they gave you weapons and stuff like that. So we were there. And like, but like, they didn't really know. to do with us and like, we weren't being used for anything. Oh, this is maybe a little bit of recon stuff, little stuff, you know, and then that commander had to get back to his country, you know, that we had, he eventually had

to leave. So, like, he's leaving and a couple other guys are leaving, so I was like, you know what, dude? I'm just going to join the Legion now, you know what I mean? So I ended up, hitting up with some buddies and contacts and, you know, okay, contact this guy, okay, he'll set you up with this dude. And so I ended up going back to the western part of the country to train. And then

what, so the way it worked was like, there was basically like battalion. So he had the three battalions at time. And then we didn't know this to later but also squadron. So that's when I was there we had training from this American

U.S. Army Sergeant good guy, a little crazy. Like, maybe two my ideas in Iraq. Someone said like, dude, this guy's got brain damage dude. But like he was a good deal, but he knew it's shit. Like I'll give him that. Like a bit of a bullshitter and stuff like that. But when we were doing CQB training it was like, because some of the guys were

ex prior, mostly former Marines. I mean, some other guys some of different countries or ex-military in this unit that we're being trained we're training with and um or trained for and he would be like we'd be like oh what about mission planning and net tc and all that stuff like that you're like no your mission planning's go that way but what's over there i don't know figure it out that's your mission planning you know so get used to that so we would train this mock city and actually it was actually literally blown up because the iskand durs hit there too so it was like really real as you can get so we were just doing like just insane cccb like just going through building is like a like sniper you know and then something would happen and like

running through simulations and stuff like that and we did a lot of that and I think that really prepared me later for Bachmoot really at least me I don't know I was for the other guys too how did um how did things like ranks shake out um like ranks are more informal they're not yeah it's more informal it's not gonna be like you know standard US military or or it's like attention you know it's not it's more informal we would have well when I was with that unit and um uh with those foreigners under the Ukraine army that we had formations and stuff but it wasn't like it wasn't very

formal though it was more laid back and you know it was a little bit different i've heard guys that were ex-military to say like there was like the cool version of the military they never had like you just like it's more you know like you go to the range out shoot some brown shoot some AT-4s you know do some stuff and and then um yeah that's it you know compared like bounding to go take a piss or something like that you know that's what they'd say so you know and then with the international legion um like how did how did how did people like pass the sniff test right I mean a DD 214 or whatever

isn't too hard to fabricate no this is where it's interesting so this I would say no bullshit 20 30% of the guys out there completely full shit like completely embellished exaggerated I don't mean like you know you're at a bar and you're joking around and like oh I did a you know 12 month

appointment when it was 10 months okay whatever so I did the world but I mean fabricating saying oh I was this one guy he said he was a green beret I met him in Aviv it was weird like he just like didn't make sense to stuff you do and like he said he switched groups which I heard is extremely rare later on like seventh to tenth group he switched or something I'm like okay I'm like I don't know what that means but like whatever and someone's like someone's like something doesn't make any sense and then like they need when they were at the range I left

and then when he was at the range I guess with the civilians the AK system because they're at AK-74s they gave like you know the zero tool was like all right man go zero these weapons for him and you like didn't know how to do it so right there it's like yeah this guy's full shit but like there was another dude um when so are well go back to the legion thing but we were a union got created later on um i left to go join another unit and then there was some guy who was like a friend or friend like hey i want to join your your team like who is this guy like he's like oh i'm 20 years ranger sapper you know this and that i'm like that's like some of your paperwork so i got a sapra ranger from 20 i'm like 20 years would be like a sergeant major

or something like even i knew that it was like doesn't make any sense so um um I had him sitting to much of my veteran friends, like, his paperwork, they were, they almost died. They were dying. They were like, this doesn't make any sense. Like, the Queen of England, like, the Queen of England, French foreign service medals and stuff. Like, this guy's full shit, dude, you know.

But yeah, man, I mean, I was like, you know, there's some guys that just, they told the lie to themselves so much that they believed it. Yeah. You know, I really believed that to some extent. Like, they just, that became their identity or something. You know, I'm coming to living out to, I don't know, man. I mean, the Brits call them Mitties, like Walter Mitty. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know what I mean? What was your sense of like, I think this is always an interesting question sometimes with some of these characters? It's like, what do you think they were there for? Yeah, that's a million-dollar question. Where some of, I mean, because it could run the gamut, right? Like, some of them, although their background is completely fabricated, could be like totally sincere. Like, I want to fight for this country. Right.

Fight for freedom. And then other people, like, I remember I met one guy in Syria who I realized at a certain point, he came there to die. Yeah. It was like kind of like death by cop. Like it's a suicide wish, right? Yeah. There's some guys like that. Yeah.

It's there. I think the motivations are all over to place. It's just different for everybody. Some it's, I mean, I mean, the brass attacks to me, like, you know, I never joined after a 9-11. That always bothered me over the years. So that, like, that was my generation's war. And that just that got to me over the years, too. So that was one of the amazing, I think, like a weird subconscious catalyst when this war started.

And also, too, like, an international legion, it just appeals to my personality, like this crazy dude on the run. you know, different countries, different backgrounds. It's like the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Yeah, yeah, something like that. Right, right. So, but yeah, motivation is back to your question, man. That's a great question. And I don't think I, I don't think they even know.

You don't know what some guys. You know what I mean? You hit on something interesting too there because I also recall meeting a lot of Army and Marines who, former Army and Marine, American Marines, who had joined and served honorably, but they felt like they missed the war. They felt like they missed out on the G-WAT. and went over there to

fulfill whatever that was for them. I think also too, the missing of the French street, man, you're not going to find that in the civilian world. That bond with friends, like, fishing when they actually have to combat. Yeah. Like, it's different, man. You never, you know, it's closer to family. That's why we can't stand D, honestly.

No. Yeah, but it's interesting because it's one thing to like make up this elaborate special operations background. on social media or in a bar. It's another thing completely in a combat zone where people might actually hold you to that and go,

oh, you were force recon, okay, like grab a team and go out there and wreck you that area. It's like, do they just power through that shit and pretend they know what they're doing? Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of them, yeah. Some of them obviously get called out. They found that was being bullshit.

They can get you freaking kill. That's the scary point, you know what I mean? And get people around. Yeah. Like there was a kid, and my younger kid, there was only 20s back in the Harcath before I joined a Legion.

A good kid. You know, he just troubled past, came from broken home. He had felony drug record in high school so he couldn't join the U.S. military. That's why he was there.

And he's like, I'm here to learn, man. I'm here to listen. You know, what can I do to improve myself? How could I really better? And that guy, and he ended up,

he was phenomenal. Yeah. And he ended up, and there was something crazy went down in Bachmoot last March or April or whatever was. And he didn't save him like four, got ambushed, something crazy, he went down.

He ended up saving like four or five his guys' lives, he's got a medal and everything. Like, I want that guy. I don't want someone, you know what I mean? Exactly. Someone like, hey man. You can learn to a soldier. You can't, you know.

And actually having that open mind and learning, like even me too. Like I didn't have a real hardcore military background, so I had to learn too. So it was like, you know. Yeah, I mean, but the fabricate stuff like that, man, it's just I don't get it, dude. I'm going to give a quick shout out to our sponsors here tonight. Our first one is remedical.

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check out our sponsors. We appreciate it, guys. So Hudson, you did find the elusive foreign legion eventually signed signed up with them i mean so we'll i'll go back to like yeah yeah go ahead by step but like so we were training and we were getting guys every day or every other day we're getting new guys and we ended up basically not altogether at one point but about 15 guys on this part of this new unit which we were being told it was like it's a reconnaissance unit or something like that so we're like whatever that means and like where we're we going after this battalion like you know and then so we were being trained and stuff and then um like i said we had that the american sergeant he was always like yelling at us and stuff. It was so it was like a boot camp in a way and it was pretty

funny. He was like a week in he was like all right. Are you guys any legal drugs? You know, we're doing a full search and everything blah blah blah. I'm like no but I got some grenades my last unit. Is that all right? Like it was Russian F1 that took the fuses out and separate him and I was like he's like what like grenades? I'm like yeah like a couple of me. You know for safety reasons you never know. So he like goes nuts and like we go and he's like give him to me and like so we go grab my bag and he takes them out and he's like what what was this Bring workout. Bring workout grenades.

You're fucking insane. You know? You know, just like a classic drill sergeant going nuts on you, man. It sounds like a sergeant. Like, he never told you to take your hands out of your pocket steady. Yeah. So, I don't know. It was funny.

So we were doing that. And we're doing this, like, a lot of, like, a lot of PT and stuff. We were just getting, you know, doing a lot of, like, we did some recon training. We did a lot of CQB. So anyways, towards the end, as well, it was about a month in. We had a Ukrainian commander coming in with an American. And he'd been there fighting. for a while he's like we're looking recruiting for a special missions unit which is

basically it's in the other day it's it's considered they're soft but I would say to be fair it's more like a well-trained well-experienced light infantry so so he's like we're gonna do a selection process a real basic one real simple for the day we're gonna do the range we're gonna do Wi-fire drills so that's what we did all said and done I think there was like 12 that day because two quit and the one got thrown out or something like that so there's 12 on that day or 11 and they chose like six of us I think out of that group to go to Kiev and they go from there to form this new unit that would later become a rogue team so we ended up going through that

i got selected as the machine gunner um i love the peak ham i think it's a beast it's like a giant upside-out okay so it's like it's just a violent weapon man i love it so i was the machine gunner basically for the unit and then um we were in key for a while paperwork just running around getting stuff you know um you know we're living in one we were actually staying in this like this place where a lot of the georgians were staying and we know moving is kind of getting our own apartment for the team. So we were also recruiting new guys. Like, hey, I know this guy from the unit. He's solid. Bring him in. Like, okay, cool. And like, that's how a lot of that happened. It was really a lot of, and you go back maybe earlier, like, how do you, a lot of it's word

of mouth, man. A lot of it was like, hey, I know this guy is solid, you know, and I've dealt with him before or I know him from, you know, in like, you know, in Syria or something like that or Iraq or a Pish murder guy or something like that. So that's how a lot of it was, in general, not some, you know, but, yeah, so from there, then we end up winning down the Separizia. And, um, yeah. we were at the time so this is all open source this is there's it's been in the news

multiple times but we're basically part of this this mission to assault the nuclear power plant down there to actually do a river crossing across the denebro and do a full blown like normandy style fucking invasion and push into the city and take the reactor back so I was like okay

so I'm like well it seems pretty freaking crazy but crazier stuff's been done in history so like I don't know there's something about it like okay this sounds like we could probably pull something like this off possibly because if we have surprised that's how I was thinking at the time and

so we were doing a lot of training, boat training, you know, and then we actually go there for, we were giving me the second wave and we go there, I think it was like September 1st, the first attempt and we got there, we never actually got the boats, we just stayed on the land because the first way it got pushed back or something with

withdrew and something got really messed up and all killed basically. So the mission is we got aborted and then there was like K-52 as the QRF showed up. You saw him like little dots and you heard them more than you saw them but they're like about seven eight kilometers away like patrolling the water line so um you'd see the reactor out of the distance and the haze and all that so yeah so it was like okay now what so we had the way finally we ended you know you know getting a vehicle to come pick us up because they forgot about us like another

team left and then like forgot about us so they didn't come back and get us so after that um I was like um we had a Ukrainian commander we had um was like a spetsnaz guy and he was great I mean, as a soldier, like, this is like, I told him to his face, and I pulled him aside after all this stuff. And all of us started to see red flags. Like, like, we were doing a lot of training, firearms training. And he'd be like, oh, yeah, shoot this AT4, like, with people behind him. Like, no, like, backblast, you're going to kill somebody, you know? Like, he didn't, he just, like, he was more, he was a classic, what I heard of, classic second lieutenant.

Like, he doesn't know, he's a PT stud and a great shot, but doesn't know what he's doing. He doesn't have emotional maturity, you know, that, I mean, in my age, that age, I don't know what hell is doing, you know what I mean? So, like, in my 20s. So I pulled them aside. I was like, look, man, I think you're a competent, great soldier and a great, good dude. But, like, you're not ready for leadership yet, man. It's just, it's something personal. It's what I was being honest, a heart to heart with him.

I was like, I'm out of here. I'm going to go join another. So basically myself, another guy, I'll have to go form another unit, like that on our own. So very long, story short, we ended up, that was most of Scandinavians, like Swedes, a couple of Finns or whatever, you know, from Danish. And there was a bunch of different mix of your, Europeans mostly in that squad. And we ended up joining a unit down in Mikhailiyev and Hirshan Ukrainian unit.

It was called the 131 reconnaissance. And those guys were solid. I actually liked them a lot. And so we were with them. And that was actually, other than that, other than the Zepparri's nuclear power plant, Anna Hodar. So that was really the first time I was at the front. It was in probably October. And what it was, so we were part of this unit, this reconnaissance unit.

We had to go out to the front one day because a bunch of Russians got cut off. they got surrounded and most of them fled, but some were still behind in, you know, our lines. So they were trying to get out, so we got to find them. So, like, classic, I guess, search and destroyers. So you can destroy, whatever you call it. So that's when I first got to, like, the front the first time. And we just ended up going through the woods and some areas.

And we were just, it was all day looking for them. And we looked up with other Ukrainians. And, you know, at that point, realized they're probably long gone by now. But, like, the best way to describe, like, the front, my personal experience, you know, there's a lot of movies about war and stuff. And this movie in the 80s, It's called classic. A little dumb, but it's a fun movie,

Red Dawn. But there's a scene in the middle of the movie when they go to the front. Remember when the older commander, that pilot was shot down, I'll take it to the front, and they actually go there, that's exactly what it was like.

Like a random tank, random jet, random indirect artillery, you hear the pattern of gunfire in a distance, then it would stop, and then, you know, another tank shooting.

It was like so weird and random. Like kinetic, but static? Did that make sense? Yeah. So that's kind of what was like. And after that, then we did, how we do after that one?

did something else too and then I think another mission or something like that we're doing something similar to that again and then i forget my mind escapes me but anyway something similar and then we were actually getting ready to push on to hirshan because the hymars really started to kick in i think around that time and they were really really screwing up the russian supply lines and their ability to supply over the dinebro from hirshan region and maclea and all that area it's like 30 000 russians there and they couldn't really supply them if the two bridges were one or two bridges at that point were destroyed they'd be screwed so the end of the front collapse They ended up drawing the whole entire area.

So like, you know, we ended going to Hirshan. I was there on, like, the day after the first guys got there, and people were just going nuts. They're screaming and crying and just, it was like Paris, 94. It was wild. So, yeah, I was just growing up to you, grabbing you. It was just, it was crazy.

So, like, we were there, but a day or so. And then we went back to her unit, went back to Mikhailiv. And then, you know, the units started coming in and all the, you know, weaponry and stuff like that. Actually, it was when we were going down there, because the Russians abandoned everything so much, I swear, I wish I took a video or a picture of it.

There was, I saw a lot of, you know, the old Soviet car, the old lotas. A lot of, yeah, yeah. I saw one, this guy, a big grin on his freaking face, driving down the road with a freaking ZSU 23 A gun on the back door. He's like, he was so happy, man. He was a big AA gun who was taking home. It's like this garage. Just like a civilian drive.

Oh, yeah, yeah. A civilian car, just taking an A gun went home, you know, was taking it for, you know. Just out of curiosity, for people who are currently like in the U.S. military, how does one, if you don't like the unit you're in, how do what, how. How does one go about leaving their unit and going and starting their own? I don't think many people could do that. No, I know you can't. But how did you do that?

Like how, you and another guy just go, hey, let's just start a unit. Yeah. And get the Ukrainians to slain off on it. Yeah, that's what we did. We just made him, we figured it out. We got some guys like, hey, I know a guy, knows a guy. It's almost like, it's like networking or something. It's like, hey, talk to this guy.

Okay, cool. Well, hey, I'll sponsor you. We got a unit down here. Go here to do paperwork, blah, blah, blah. And like, that's kind of how it works. It's kind of like a buyer's market, you know, that kind of contracting world, you know. So, yeah, that's kind of what we tried to do. And then due to bureaucratic stuff, it kind of fell apart because some of those got on contract.

Some were like kind of on contract, but not. And then others were still waiting. And then we were trying to form one team. And, like, we were different units. And it kind of turned like a bureaucratic cluster fuck, unfortunately, in the end. So, and after Hirschon fell, the unit I was with those guys, they were just going to stay on the kneepro, just sitting in trenches and get arreied all day. And a lot of the guys are like, no, dude, it's not what we're here.

do and so we laughed at parted ways and you know I really like the credit commanders were really cool dudes and they got along with them really well and uh someone died recently but um yeah so I don't know so we left and I went back to my old unit the original one I left because they got because the team voted the commander out and he was gone so they got a new commander yeah they got peer reviewed yeah voted off the island yeah it's like yeah it's like yeah it's like survivor they get voted off so it's like that's what happened and we had a new commander and he was really cool I liked him for the most it wasn't perfect but he was good he was like he was oil lawyer he was more mature he was a captain you know what I mean so he was just like in his late 20s

early 30s um just down to earth you know not a glory hound like not trying to prove himself and all that stuff so we ended up um linking up there and then while I was down there kershawn coming back around that same time so much of the guys in the team got they got kicked out because they were shit bags or like some guys went home and they were going to come back so we didn't need to recruit more guys so they went to one of the bases got a bunch of foreigners like 20 or 30 of them they did like a I wasn't there for it, but I think it was like a couple of days selection process. Like one was the first day was like a PT test. Then it was like, you know, interviews, you know, get you feel of the personality.

Then they did another thing. It was like shooting NPT. So you'd shoot, go run a mile or something or a kilometer, come back, shoot, run two kilometers. Shoot, run three kilometers. Shoot. You go back and forth. And I think out of like a 30 or 25 or whatever it was. They took like six of them or seven, I forget.

But they were solid. They were great guys, you know. One was former 75th dude. Really great dude. And then some guys from South America. Europe, Portugal, you know. So it was a good mix, a mixture of guys. One guy was a French sniper. He was solid, great guy. So that was our team that we ended ultimately going to Bachmood with in the end of December of what, 22. And what was the situation in Bachmood at that time?

So at that time, it was, that's when the city flooding, when we got there was really starting to kick off. because prior to that, it was mostly trenches and surrounding areas. It was mostly trench battles and fighting in the woods kind of stuff. Like I think like September, October, November. I think November, December is when the city fighting started. So we got there. That's when like all the house-to-house fighting really took off.

And then, so we were there. And then we, so our first, we did, kind of our task and purpose, I guess, at the time was basically either reinforced line or the lines. or to conduct assaults, basically. So kinetic work for the most part. And the first one we had, this is the first time I used NVGs,

and I fell on my ass, like crazy, because it was the first time ever used, guys were like, oh, you got to train with them, and, you know, it's like, I was the first time I've used them on a combat mission in Bachmoot at night, you know, like, it was just nuts. It takes a while, doesn't it?

It's like to get the depth perception. Yeah, it was weird, because my brain was like, it was just, like, I couldn't comprehend it. It was almost like, it's like scuba diving or something at first. Yeah. But then once you get used to it,

and then I realize you had to memorize the ground in front, you don't look down, you don't look straight, you look kind of in between, you memorize the ground, that way you know what to step over. I would still fall, but like, you know, that's how you did it. Yeah.

Because in the cities, too, like Urban Morford, dude, there's crap everywhere. There's telephone wires, there's bricks, there's craters, it's just there's stuff everywhere. Yeah. You know, it's like going through a hoarder's house or something. And you just like, yeah, there's crap everywhere, you know?

So, especially a night walking, oh, yeah, a couple times I fell, but like, So we go to reinforce the line one night We took one of our snipers out We had two So they were doing a lot of It was very loose

The way the squad worked The team It was never like Okay alpha Bravo or Charlie Delta You guys are this team You're that fire team It was more like Oh hey we're going out tonight

I need you and you Cool you come Okay cool come with me We're gonna go out tonight And you know Assist one of our snipers or something That provides security form or whatever So it was very loose like that

And then the I think it was December 31st Was like this This is the first like real salt we did on a position in the city that pushed the Russians out or tried to and we went with two other teams they were we were the far left flank they were the center and there's another one on the right of them so we all push up line the parts here same time together so we were originally met with the Ukrainians and then we pushed through the no man's land because usually it's not

like you're not littered next door so much it's usually like um there's some kind of no man's land you're between you guys so we end up pushing through and we made it and we we all push him and then we push up to this this small house and there's two houses there's like a house that are blowing up one next to it and then a shed and those guys went in we heard gunfire and then like someone threw a grenade like we moved back and then then there's like confusion because like wait who's over there you know we couldn't get them on the radio and and uh all of a sudden there's an explosion the house behind us like what the fuck dude they got a hand grenade or somebody shot or probably a 40 mic mic or something into it so it's probably Russian actually a sauce and they shot into us and then

I remember like just grenades getting thrown back and for it or command of three one over this this shed and then um i think at some point i don't uh forget when exactly so i was to the left of the house overlooking over watching the road to our side with the pkm and then one of our guys saw someone pop out of the window and he had his weapon up and he said at the time he had a challenge and password he gave him the challenge and the guy wasn't saying if he raised his weapon he didn't see any tape that's when he's like so they kind of open fire at the same time he went down to he went down to his knee and the grounds just missed his freaking had and then guy still alive and

And he doesn't know if he got him or not, but like there was dust kicked it up. That guy went down. And then we were like, okay, we got to get out of here. We can't see anything. We got to pull back. And I think at that point we saw the other teams pulling back. So we moved back to another house, you know, stay there for a little bit. We fire some rockets or a law.

One of the guys shot the law. We were shooting at some of the areas. Then we went back. And it was kind of like an accordion, like going back and forth a little bit. And then because the other team is one team that they did get in direct contact with the Russians. They took some casualties. is like nothing too serious but like a lot of wounded guys so like we can't go attack ourselves because we can get surrounded so like we have to go to the team so that's when it kind of got

called off and then we went back that night to our staging area you know a little outside the city and then um we went back out a couple times after that you know with with the ukrainian uh you know their conventional military i assume their militias are kind of gone by this point in time but with their military and these international forces and these different units how was it difficult for you guys to do battle space deconfliction was it difficult like were you ever worried that the Ukrainians might fire you up because they didn't know who yeah blue and blue was a big problem out there man I mean that was just miscommunication that was why like you you know like this is one thing like in law unfortunately I got just beaten into the head that was really good was like always assess your target

don't just pull the freaking trick like you know assess what you have even if it means you're delay a half an extra second that can probably get you killed unfortunately But get your target right and know what you're shooting at or or a general avenue approach for they're coming from to say so that was a big thing that's why we were was more tape even though I you know Defeated the purpose of camouflage uniforms but we just kind of had to do it. You know what I mean? So our own guys were gonna shoot you back So we were when we were doing that assault I think we were approaching we haven't got to the Ukrainian lines yet we're in the city we're pushing through we're kind of marking down Rucking down and then we're gonna turn and go further into the staging area for that attack and like someone shot at us like what the fuck was that? You know?

It's like, you sort of round and fly overhead like, who's that? Like, I don't know. Somebody shot at us was probably like, probably maybe even been creating

and like, you know, a couple hundred meters away saw movement just shot. Yeah. I mean, thog of war is a very real thing. Yeah.

Yeah. Big time. It's a big problem there, you know. I'm sure too on the Russian side, you know, there's something.

I'm sure they've smoked their own guys by accident multiple times. Yeah. Yeah. So. Did you have a, did you guys have a sense

of this, any strategic plan? at that point in time or were you just kind of like we're soldiers, we go where we're told and do what we're told to do? Yeah, so regards to strategy, man, like I think, I'll get to the team

in a second, but like, as far as the what's going on with the war, and we'll talk about the big picture for maybe in a minute. So Dr. Stephen Cochon is probably the most foremost expert on Russia in America. Like, he's the professor at, I think he's at Stanford or Yale or something. What's his name? Dr. Stephen Cochon? Cockin, yeah. He's a really fascinating

guy. He said that he made a really interesting assessment of the war and said that the war and why doesn't make sense or it's kind of at first for anyone who has a military or studies military history doesn't make sense he's like because it wasn't an invasion it was a coup that turned into an invasion like in 79 in Afghanistan the big difference between then and now was that they the leader of the general secretary of the common is part of Afghanistan 79 they got him you know in his mansion killed him well here they couldn't get Zelenskyy and they're probably going to replace him with victor yonikovych that was the main goal because Putin was because I don't tell people this like you know what

we're not dealing with some kind of fanatical ideologue like Hitler. We're dealing with something like von Klauselitz. You know, this war is something out of the Napoleonic Wars. It's about territory, strategic depth. So that's what I think he was going for. You know, I could be wrong, whatever. But like I think that's, you know, my two cents, especially Dr. Stephen Cockman's two cents, what happened.

And then because that failed and then they had, and they committed so many forces, lost 70 weapons. They had to pull back. The whole thing was a mess. They had to reorganize other guys. And they kind of moved the goalpost. They're like, oh, we just want Dunboss. That's it.

We just want a buffer zone or something like that. And so even though their main objective was a failure. So now they're just trying to hold on the territory. But I don't know how much longer they can do that for. Maybe a while, but sooner or later, it's, you know, who knows will happen. But as far as the team goes, like, to your question, like, no, it was more like, where are we going? What's the, you know, what's the game plan?

What are we going to be doing? We're going out. When am we going out? You know, 24 hours, 40 hours from now kind of thing. So that was really the big thing. It wasn't so much like, you know, you weren't thinking. you're really operational strategic level you know what I mean really it was more tactical stuff like right you know what I mean like how do we get in how do we get out egress all that stuff

as I was going to say like as you were going up in and kind of probing the wire and pushing forward I mean were there like follow-on units that had you taken territory had you got broken through where that would come up behind you after that attack they there was a lot of like leapfrog stuff they did like we yeah after that attack we waited and then there was another ukraine infantry they're pretty high they were pretty up the up the speed they were pretty good they came right up and they basically replaced us to reinforce the area or maybe conduct another assault. So at nighttime, so we had MVGs and they were really good. But the thing about this war in particular, like you can't use your IR lights, you can't.

You know, even D balls are dangerous because you just give away your position because the enemy has usually some kind of non-optics. But even then, they're freaking love illumination flares, man. They use them like crazy, like just nonstop at night, you know, just because it illuminates everything. And it just, it's almost like a simple World War I War II tactic and it works. You know what I mean? If MGs, well, it doesn't really matter. It's like daylight for five minutes. You know, you can see everything.

So, yeah. And then, yeah, so in the middle of the month, we were then at that point, we went to this place. I think it was called, like, we called it Vlaas gas station or Vlaz. It was like a, it used to be like a tire repair shop with some smaller buildings next to it. And it kind of formed this L shape, overlooking a roadway that went down for about 500 meters that went up, another 500 or so maybe a kilometer up. So about a kilometer, a half to the peak of the hill next to us. to our due east was, so it was like we had next to that building, like a big mound, like a burn, a bit of a depression, like an open area, then another big burn.

And across, it was almost kind of flat, and then it would drop down because there was a road right there. That was the road that connected down and went up. So it was straight, and then down, and then another hill across from you, and that's when the Russian lines were about 400 meters away in the wood line. So when we first got to this position, it was really quiet at night, the first night. And then I remember the northern, about a kilometer, two kilometers north, two kilometers north. It was World War III. And, you know, flares, explosions, gunfire, everything.

And then a couple of kilometers to our south, that was that other team where Navy Steel Dan died. That was, they were conducting assault that night. Well, he didn't die instantly. I think he died a week later. You know, like I said, I never did the guy personally, but I met him once or twice, a nice guy. But anyways, they were conducting some kind of assault, a bunch of got wounded pretty bad, banged up pretty bad. And then a couple of guys got killed. And then I just remember hearing it.

It was like Dishka's going off. It was like it was just explosions. But our area was quiet. I'm like, oh. So like you just waiting for something, but it never did that night. And then we go back the next night. We went back to our staging area and got some sleep, you know, chow and sleep, you know, 12 hours sleep or six eight hours. And we came back.

And then we were there that night. And then when we approached there, we were actually an armored vehicle with someone was shooting at us. And when we got to that position again, because it was now nighttime. beginning to nighttime. I saw a tracer flares coming from this machine gun about 400 meters, 500 meters. So that burn, or the L shape, I was talking about earlier. So if I look across due east and then northeast, it was like northeast about 500 meters. And they dug a trench during a day or at night at some point. And they had a machine gunner, probably got a dragon off because they loved to have their sniper

next to the machine gunners. And then it made another guy. So there's three of them. We see them through a thermal. And well, anyways, with the tracer rounds, I call them the radio. I'm like, dude, bring, bring the snipers up here. You know, and we had the French sniper come up. great guy and he had a 308 and he had a thermal optic and he had his whatever magnification it was, the Treasure Khan or whatever it was. So

we're sitting there and he sees them and finally he sees the machine gun shooting. He shoots him that guy goes down and then you can see the other two guys like their heads moving back and forth like from the thermal lens or whatever. We had like a one eye almost like a hunter for hunters or something like that but NVGs I couldn't see them. It was just too far away

but like I would just see like the outline of the hill above it but like where they were I couldn't see back you could see them with the thermals though so we're waiting and then the elimination fire started popping overhead and they're trying to figure out where we are we're at and then after another half hour hour he shoots again gets another guy so now's only one dude there still alive and he's like he freaking he's running back and forth he's probably freaking the fuck out and that goes on for another few hours and at some point he probably just got like complacent you know looking around and then that's when he got him shot that guy he went down and then all of a sudden the whole freaking tree line about a

So it was about 400 meters past those guys just opens up. There was like flashes. There was like RPGs. They were shooting everything. They were throwing the kitchen sink at us. And you just heard the rounds. I mean, they were nowhere close, but the rounds were all over to the freaking place. But I'm like, yeah, they're really pissed off.

So. And then the night and our other sniper was shooting guys too on the roadway. Because the road, like it was like it was just snowed even though it was a little bit. It gave it even at daytime you could definitely see them running across sometimes. And our sniper got a couple of them. But to talk about the Russian winter. the cold, man. So I talked about this with my team, my guys, like, you know,

my teammates and stuff, I was like, when we got there, it was like 40 degrees. I was like, upstate New York weather. I'm like, oh, it was a joke. You know, where's that weather that stopped? The Copeland, Empires and Kings. I'm like, oh, what a joke. Two days later, it dropped like 30 freaking to blow zero or something or whatever. It just got so freaking cold.

And even then, the Ukrainian was like, oh, this is like summertime, man. Not even though if this is 20 years ago, it was worse. I'm like, Jesus. And like, it was so freaking cold, man. I ended like losing the feeling my feet for like two months after that but like um it just got them back you know the feeling but like um yeah it was just a cold with your bones dude and we usually rotate every two hours at night we go into like a little like a little area in that that place that building inside it's um completely shielded there's no windows

or nothing so like we'd have like would have like little like we'd have like little like i forgot they call them but they were like imagine like an empty can of like tin you know food that was emptied out and put they put a cardboard and waxen so they forms this candle we use those to like cook meals or something like that. We had MREs on us too, but we would do that. But they're almost like little sternos in a way. Yeah, like a little like a little like a little like a like a lantern kind of yeah lander of some kind yeah.

Yeah, we'd call them camping or something. They had tons of those. With you know with sort of this this older style and I don't mean older as antiquated but you know it's a style that the US hasn't seen for a while. But with this old older style of combat where there are lines, trenches, no man zone and things like that. How were the Ukrainians, you know,

when they decide they want to take a position, how were they with like supporting arms with making sure artillery was going overhead where people were going forward and things like that? That was, I mean, sometimes it was, there's sometimes in this is probably it worked out well, but other times it didn't. And it's a big problem in combined arms,

like, hey, get the timing down. We have artillery, but maybe they screw up and it, you know, shooting an artillery three hours before the assault begins. And I know they're coming, you're not simultaneously during the attack. So it's really that, you know, like people have said before, I think combined arms is like a symphony. You know, you got your oboes, you got your clarinets, you got your, you know, violence.

Everyone's doing their own thing. It's just noise. It's not music. It's not a sound. It's just noise. And I think with the war, it's the same way too. And I think probably for the Russians as well, like anything over two company levels when it kind of falls apart, you know.

The squad level tactics, you know, they're excellent at, you know. Like, cranes are great at that stuff. like hit and run raids because that worked in the beginning of war too to be fair and they did a great job like not creating armies per se at the beginning of war because encirclement the whole point is to encircle something but they didn't do that so they scattered all their forces in the beginning of the war that's why all those if you look at the map when they were trying to do it was like they weren't encircling anything except open fields they weren't actually they were leaving like the the lines behind them open yeah yeah it was all this mess basically and uh yeah so I think anything over like

you know company you know battalion level becomes a lot more difficult at that point you know I mean, it's hard for any army or any military, you know what I mean? Like, it's definitely, you say it's an art, I guess, you know, its own way. But I think its time was on and, like, I saw the Ukrainians, like, I think they'll get better in the long run. I was so hopeful. I know Zelensky's been firing a lot of the commanders lately, which he should be. And I've told somebody about my friends this too. I think, like, the best comparison they make is, like, Ukraine specifically, they had the willpower to fight.

Like, this whole debate of sending money and weapons and all that. I'm like, dude, like, I've been there a year and a half in that war fighting for about a year and living in this country for six months or whatever on top of that. And like, Ukrainians, and that one more bullet or one more penny went into the country, they're going to fight with rocks. Like, they're in this to the end. You know, this is their home. This is their land.

They have their willpowerers through the ceiling, you know. So they got that down. And I think in the long run that, you know, that'll really, you know, make up for a lot of things, I think that, you know. But anyways, back to the comparison. It's like the Union Army, like 1862, 63 during the American Civil War. Like, it hasn't got its sea legs yet. You don't have Grant necessarily running.

running the show yet. It's like you had burn sides and you had Irvin McDonnell before him or McClellan. It was just rotating door of commanders and like they were they had the equipment and the gear but they didn't really the timing was off like Fredericksburg when they got they were going to do this riverboat crossing. Oh, a great idea. But the problem is the boats took so long for them to get there so the Confederates saw the Union soldiers sitting there for like days so they knew their comment. You know what I mean? Like these these little details that become big things, you know, and I think that eventually Ukraine army become, you know, it may take years, but I think it'll become a form of fighting,

formal fighting force at some point. Yeah. And, you know, because you had mentioned before the show that they're, they're going, you know, Russia's still using sort of that old Soviet model.

And Ukraine obviously sort of had that. But they're learning more and more as they go. They're getting rid of sort of the entrenched, old school commanders. Yeah. Yeah, because the Soviet battle doctrine stuff is like very top down, you know,

and like mass and tempo of rolling out on stuff. It's like, it works so like ramble, you know what I mean? But if your commander's incompetent or he's, you know, a flunky, which is a lot of them are, you know, it all falls apart. And the officer does everything. There's no NCOs, you know. But now at this point in the game, you know, in the war,

like it's, you know, you have a lot of guys with a lot of trigger time and experience now that have become those de facto NCOs and maybe even some of them are commanders now. So I think that they definitely learn some of their mistakes. And I think Ukrainians are too, you know, to some extent as well. But definitely the Russians are, at least tactically,

It seems like, you know, some of the guys have done stuff into work, like, they know what they're doing. And right now it's a lot of trench stuff. A dude was part of a trench assault like about a month and a half ago. He was in a completely different team, different unit. And, yeah, that's like some World War I shit, like Stormtrip tactics. Like you just show up, you just suppress maximum violence through firepower, get their heads down and you drag out, throw grenades, jump into the trenches and just start clearing them out. That's wild. Yeah.

That's crazy. Yeah. How are, you know, like the Ukrainian, sort of the old-school. Ukrainian officers, how are they when it comes to, you know, all these new foreigners coming in, a lot of foreigners with a lot of wartime, a lot of time in combat, or a lot of experience. Are they, and I know this is probably different for every single officer, but is there a trend to them being receptive? Is there a trend to being like you're in Ukraine, shut up and do what we say?

You know, it's just definitely kind of like, you know, okay, whatever you're here, cool. Like, I think that civilians love you. You're like a rock star over there. You know, like a mini rock star or something. But like the military, they like you, they're cool, but this is kind of like, not, it's like they're happy you're there. But like at same time, too, it's like this is our war, our country. Right. We're doing it.

We're doing it. We think we should do it. Right. So there's a little bit of that mix right there. I think it's a bit mixed, you know. There's some that are really receptive and great. Others that are like, yeah, whatever, you know, they can care less about you. You know, it's just mixed.

Yeah. You know, I had to save my personal experiences. And everyone's experience is different. So, but yeah, I would say somewhat like that, you know, to an extent, you know. Yeah. You had told us a funny story before the show about, you know, Ukrainians or, you know, the Ukrainian forces are going into a trench. Oh.

Oh. So, yeah, I was telling you earlier, like, this is one thing about the corruption stuff. And like, and some people theorize why you're not seeing T80 tanks a lot and all that stuff. because guys are just in the warehouses, they're taking all the wires out. They were selling them over the years, taking the optics out, selling on the black market for $6 or something.

You know, it's like, and the thermal optics and all that. But yeah, a friend of mine, like he said one of his buddies was a slelt of a trench. They took the trench. They were going through it.

So after the Russians is rather dead or gone or whatever, they started to go through some of the stuff and they finally just create some ammo in a little bunker or something like that. And like, like, Warsaw Pack, just like NATO, is usually a wooden crate. And then some kind of metal,

seal. They have to use like a gerber, rip it off with, you know. And so they did that, and it was sealed, and they opened it up, and it was full, like rocks and sand. You know, so whoever had that in a warehouse before the war, emptied it out, put rocks in it, resealed it. Sold the ammo on the black market. Yeah. It was all gone. Yeah. So, like, yeah, I think there's a lot of that, like, stuff that disappears, you know,

on the Russian side, like, so much, yeah, big time. Yeah. And corruption's been a bit of pretty big problem, too, with the Ukrainians as well, but the SBU, which is, like, their FBI, they're really, like, they've really, like, they've really on it like there were some foreigners at the beginning of the war um very long story short yeah he's a piece of shit but uh this french guy named sharky or something or nisto whatever and he was like basically hoarding gear it was part of a french team called a team baguette i don't know whatever anyway so they're like hoarding gear RPGs around they're NVGs and like so sb you eventually

caught on to and they arrested them and everything i was and threw them out of the country and so when they're on it they're on it which is good you know and like as far as all the donations come in the country I think like 80% got where needed to go for the most part. Sometimes it's so much stuff you know what to do with it. You know what I mean? Like we're going to put this stuff.

You know what I mean? Or whatever, you know? So, but yeah, I don't know. So like, it's just really dependent. It was really, I don't know, the war changed a lot over the last year and a half. You know, now it's still more static. And the million-dollar question is going to be

what happens next, you know? Right. So, you know, I don't know if, like I said, with the whole thing with, with progosian and show you with their drama and Shoygu wanted to get rid of him and his contracts, take over his contracts, probably in Africa, because of the money he's at,

and in Southeast Asia, wherever else they're at. And then that started that feud, which they already hated each other. And that launched that whole coup attempt, basically not so much overthrow Putin would get rid of Shoyu. That's what he was going after initially.

But he said Putin may or may it go too. But everyone's like, it was so fun when that happened. Everyone's like, oh, this is like 60 chess and all this. Like, no, this is legit. Because you're dealing with the mafia here, man. Yeah. It's like the mob. It's all about like, you know, the godfather who was in charge, you know, some colonel wants to be a general and, you know, there's no like, it knows, it's just a different animal, you know, they see it differently because you can't get wealthy in that country unless you have power first.

You can be a successful businessman right now, make a billion dollars. And then someone, I think there's Dr. Stephen Cawken said it best. Like, you know, Stephen Paulson made 500 million before he became Treasury Secretary. And Russia, you become Treasury Secretary, then you make 500 million. Right. You know what I mean? Like, it's like the structure is completely backwards compared to our own. in a way, you know what I mean?

Right. If that continues to go on, I mean, like I said, I've talked to some guys about this. And my theory is that whether it's tomorrow or a year or two years from now, if some other coup happens and it's messy, like no one knows what's going on. And in Moscow was like, no, it's confusion, who's in charge? And if that were to drag down for a week or two, I could see parts of the front almost like collapsing. I wouldn't be surprised like 17 all over again, you know? They'd like screw this for going home. You know what I mean?

I know who's in charge, you know? Any officers are getting away, they'll probably just kill them, you know? Yeah. You know. So you said that the Ukrainians have the will to fight. Was there any sense from either what you saw or people, Ukrainians that you've talked to, like Russians that they've come across and what their will is like? I mean, as far as like combat goes, so that, welcome to this story,

because this was like fucking Cowboys and Indian shit, like Alamo, when we got attacked in that position or that gas station. Right, yeah. So as far as to answer that question, like, when they attack, so basically, we were, it was into the next day, our sniper shot those guys, and then it was kind of quiet. And then there was a prisoner swap. And it was kind of quiet for a while. And then we were waiting to get relieved. It was around like 1 o'clock or 2 o'clock.

It all of a sudden we were here gunfire. Like, we were all just, we were all just chilling. There was a couple of cranes keeping eye up, you know, everything. And all of a sudden, like, gunfire 20 feet away. Like, what the hell is that? So we're like, what's going on? And we're on the radios. Like, are they in the wire?

what's going on. So, like, at some point, we made a quick decision to link up with our commander about, like, go about 80 meters behind this building. There's two big houses. And then, like, we'll do, let's go there. Let's make up with our Ukrainian commander. Bring the rest of the team up,

because they were further south from our position and figure out what the hell to go from there. Which made sense at the time because we couldn't communicate with the Ukrainians. We were being under attack, but we didn't know that. So it's like, what's just go meet our commander, translate, and we'll go right back.

And then we did that. We went back. We waited. He came up, brought the rest of the team, another Ukrainian commander show, they started talking and explaining what was going on. So then we went back and reinforced the whole position, our squad about a dozen herself, give or take.

And then that's when they came at us. Like, both it was about a platoon-sized element, I think. And they weren't really doing any fire by support. It was just no bounding. It was just, they were just, human weight just charging. Yeah, they were just coming out of it. And like, yeah, I mean, there was just, and like, our sniper dropped like a dozen dudes or something like that.

Take, because they were just running around the roadway. Yeah. He was getting them left and right, I guess. And I never seen the bodies afterwards. But, yeah, they, um, they weren't, Russell helping each other. So if some guy was wounded, they just leave them there. They don't even care about them. You know what I mean? As if they had every man for himself kind of. Yeah. That's what it seemed like. I mean, maybe it's different with certain teams and

Russian military, certain units. But that's what we saw. That was because that was probably also too, probably a lot of Wagner. We were fighting Wagner at that point. So it's probably like the prison battalion. So we know that point in the war in January. So they had just basically charged across no man's land. Yeah. So we had that open roadway and then I was on the end of that L shape. And then I saw the machine go fire. They did a shooting I let him out 10 to 15 by rounds I think he was about 200 meters and I was like damn I think my rounds went over him because if he's zero for 300 use an arc right obviously not so much for 308 but there is a bit of an arc so I lower down

shoot another 10 to 15 his way nothing happens he's still shooting I'm like great so like I grab the French sniper I'm like dude I can shoot that fucker and then pull him up over he it's he shoots at him fires a couple rounds it gets that guy and then there was a guy bounding up in a freaking gilly suit with a 50-calf sniper rifle like Pub G shit but do it like he's like a tree going at you know it's like yeah yeah kind of defeats the purpose of the gilly suit right yeah so that that guy ends up um so that machine gun or a guard takes over he starts to light up our position the rounds flounder over our heads we get down get her

heads down and then um that that guy 50 cal shoots at us that tree explodes in front of us and because he had the scope and saw it he's like he's got a 50-caller shoot that's right now so it's like all right let's keep her freaking heads down for a minute you know and like so then um it was just like it was nuts it was going on and on and on and i almost I'm with like 600 rounds at some point because a lot of times I was shooting when guys were running back and forth in my position where we're at

and you know it was just nuts and then like the whole sudden a freaking jet came out of the sky like who the hell is that? You know it's like you know they just flew right overhead and like we I don't know

if the cluster bombs are gonna be starting to drop over us you know who's you don't know who they are is it your side or the other enemies you don't know it's not like I'm sure like in Iraq Afghanistan that's obviously not ISIS's you know

right right right so it's like you know but there you don't know and then eventually it came dark and then their attack got thwarted and i remember they were just launching everything they had at us at that point you know they they loved the fucking aGS thing like the damn thing yeah yeah they go crazy with it and like they just usually they'll do small little bursts what you're supposed to they just lit the whole thing a whole can maybe about 40 50 whatever the hell they have in those things

and they lit them up and they landed um not on our direct position but behind this like 100 meters it was like old cemetery and i just got pounded so it's like well you missed us but like i wonder if it's because like once they shoot their ammo they can go home right yeah yeah it's like it's like Rangers on a on a on an on an AT4 range day it's like fuck let's just shoot these things yeah get out of here yeah yeah I think so yeah yeah I mean at that point though they're shooting their barrels out right they're going out like they're yeah yeah they're at that point they were throwing the kitchen sink at us and uh yeah they're pissed off so they're like they're and then they were they do a lot of indirect with RPGs they'll just you know and because um I was standing so it's getting dark I moved down from that big bird to another one

closer to that building the building next to the gas the tire repair shop so I'm sitting there waiting it's night I have Mij's on there's gut dark you know waiting for a certain rushing this pop up right in front of me whatever I'm just sitting there and then all of a sudden

I didn't see I didn't hear anything I just saw like a blast of heat and I got splacked with like mud and crap was like somebody pushed me over and threw me on the ground it was like some kind of explosion I don't know what it was but it could have been an RPG I don't think it was a mortar or it would hurt it you hear it usually

so I don't know I don't remember there's a 40 mic I don't know, but anyways, that threw me right to the ground. And then, you know, my NVGs went bright and white. Like somebody put a spotlight in. I closed my eyes. And then grab my legs, grab my freaking balls. I'm like, God, still there, you know, like, you know. But like that was all right.

At the time, I was, I think I took drabno. You know, my radio even like, and then, you know, I went to the little building, my friend, and looked up and nothing else flying. And that was it. So, yeah. Yeah. But that was a crazy day.

So, yeah. It's interesting. I mean, do you, obviously you don't know what's going on behind enemy lines. Do you think they're getting ordered for? Do you think they're frustrated? Do you like it's wild to write, especially for a guy in a gilly suit. Right.

To openly charge through open terrain. Yeah. I think probably how that works, they probably just go, hey, we're going to, we're attacking tomorrow kind of thing. Yeah. That's probably how it is. And, all right, let's get some vodka and get hammered. And then, you know, they do it or something, you know, it's probably what happens I think a lot of times and now I don't know it's a little different animal with trenches and

stuff but like those assaults and stuff probably that's probably what it was like oh tomorrow you got to attack them yeah well also we had two snipers there that one night the night before just dropping dudes left and right pretty much so they were like they probably like we have to take that position that's probably why they attacked us yeah so that's maybe why I went down but but yeah but the guys was with man they're almost the uh Iraq war Afghanistan veterans and they were great they're phenomenal like um mostly Marines and like some of the guys just like their battlefield decision making is like why I'm still alive right now like sometimes like oh like they're not assault one guy's like we got to pull back just you know by instinct like you got to get

to a better point of advantage to we see what the hell is going on and you know and it's just like it was a lot of luck in war but also people have said too like you know a lot of luck is self-made so with the right you know people on the ground giving the right decisions or sometimes to save your life you know I really I mean I'm alive because some of the guys I was with they just made phenomenal decisions at the right time at the right you know that right moment when it need to be done right you know whether we're going to a position or moving or doing something and you know but yeah i mean i think that's the best thing about it was the team was really solid you know but you know now we talked about the russians kind of crossing that no man

and you you know you mentioned that you know the the legion and and ukrainians you know the seal the former seal who passed and things like that were the ukrainians or any of those general sort of also that sort of old soviet mentality where they're trying to push you guys across these Yeah, I mean, there's times where like, whether it was planning stages and stuff to do things, like, it was just like, oh, just go attack that way. It's like, so in Zappo, after Baku, we were doing this thing, we were supposed to take a trench, basically, with the Ukrainian unit. It was like a platoon size, maybe company level assault. And we were, it was us, our team, and another team of foreigners in squadron, I guess. And then we were with those guys.

And we did a support by fire maneuver. That went fine. And then, but it was just a mess. And after that, and like, very long story short. or the commander was like, yeah, just go attack the position. Like, we're gonna freaking kill the machine than that. What do you want us to do? You know what I mean?

Like, a lot of time they still have, I think there's a little bit of that old school Soviet tactics, just keep going, going, going, and just, you're eventually going to get the ground, you know? Right. And as I was watching this, like, one documentary when I was talking about Soviet battle doctrine or World War II era,

why they took so many casualties. And one of the reasons is like poor, not proper mission planning, just launching assaults, you know, there's a human wave type of idea. A little bit of that, yeah. There's a little bit of World War II, which made sense at that time, you know,

Because you didn't have guys that were trained. It was just, we had the numbers. It made sense. You know what I mean? So it's not out of, like, left field. There's usually a reason for it. You know, what white people fight. And I think, this is my weird theory, and I'm probably wrong.

But, like, I think the reason why you see countries like Russia or Eastern Hemisphere, like old school countries that have, like, dictators and stuff, where they have this mentality, almost like that, almost like that medieval mentality of, like, you know, on the commander, I'm in charge, you just walk this. I mean, a pikeman didn't have to call it an air strike. Right. You know what I mean? You're staying in formation, that was it.

It wasn't rocket science. Right. So your commander has really left from the front. And they, you know, they had that old school top-down mentality, which made sense at the time because you kind of had to. And I'm sure they had their version of NCOs, like in ancient Greece and stuff. But, you know, but they still have that mentality. And it doesn't really work in modern warfare. It's just you have to have a bottom-up approach.

You really do. You need to have NCOs. You got to have people making right decisions, you know, assessing the ground. I think it makes more sense in modern warfare because you have so much more firepower. It's more you can do. But like that communication coordination, which is funny because my friend was always, one of our teammates, always bust my balls about me saying it all the time. But that was really the big problem.

You know, like when we did that attack, it was just so disorganized. And like some of the APC drivers were drunk, you know, some of the gunners, you know, were drunk too. And they dropped them off the wrong. The other unit got dropped off the wrong place in the Ukrainian unit. So they saw us. They thought we were Russians. They opened up on us. So right off the bat, we had blue and blue.

Right. And then finally someone like ran over to like, stop shooting. Like from the command bunker or whatever. right over to them, tell them stop. They did. And then initially, like, you know, we were doing the attack and all that, and then we got pushed back and that was the end of that. So it's just like getting that down.

I don't know. It's just going to take time, you know? I don't know, you know. Has there been a sense of Ukrainians either holding you guys back because they don't want the international attention on, you know, other country casualties? Or has there been a sense of, well, these guys aren't, Ukrainians to let them go first, or is it very...

You know, the beginning of the war, that was really the vibe. The rumor was like, you know, either it was like suicide missions or like, you didn't do anything. Like you're guarding a warehouse or something. It was like these weird two extremes. And when I saw it seems like it's... I think they just didn't, sometimes utilize foreigners. They did.

I don't think they were so much about the whole PR thing. I don't think that's not really their part of concern because they're to have their attitudes. Like, well, you came here on your own. You want to be here. Like, then would force you to be. here so it's like if we take casualties it is what it is so maybe that's part of that mentality I think it's figuring how to utilize certain skills and assets sometimes I think that's the problem you know some of these two as the Ukrainians

are great at that other times maybe they're not you know and just like some foreigners can bring things to the table and other times they don't you know so it's how to use it so if we give you have snipers like why don't we do some training with that how to sub security I don't know stuff like that like utilize what you got right you know if we'd say you got 10 guys and most certain experience one's a bomb guy okay we're gonna do we're gonna be a sapper team now because it makes sense because you can train you guys and you go from there so i mean i don't know it's it's a good question man i don't know if i can really fully answer it yeah like um i think

so the answer would be probably me in the middle you know what i mean like the i don't think they're really worry about with the whole international stuff but like they definitely want you to be part of it's and stuff but i don't i don't know if i don't know if it's but they're not necessarily like you guys are canin fodder get out there and well there's some commanders that were like that you know that guy we met well some of my friends got killed like so like we left that one you in the new beginning i told you in those ukraine unit that commander was terrible um got got some of my friends killed um yeah uh brian youngs one guy good dude a bit of a character but uh yeah i mean i think for those guys like him it's just their glory hounds they don't care

if he dies it looks like you know you know they gave their best you know like they don't freaking care you know what i mean but there's something that really do care it was genuinely when i was in laiv the guy was the ukrainian guy was running that whole program there like he really did care about it you you know what i mean yeah so it's just it's just so personality dependent and it's just it's luck of the draw man yeah it's who you like I said it's not where you work it's who you work for yeah it's so interesting to that in the you know back home back here in the United States so much of the conversation revolves around drones yeah and whatever the latest greatest technology is you know what are the latest and greatest

Western weapons system being introduced to the battlefield right but to listen to you talk about it it's very much about hand grenades and trench lines and water fire and drones are in important too. I mean, it's like a weird high-tech World War I, sometimes World War II, like a high-tech version of those wars. It's cyberpunk. Yeah, like a weird, yeah. It's a weird mix. It's kind of like a little bit of both man. Yeah, it is, but it's a lot

more, it seems like it's a lot more old school. Even their SF, like their tier one guys, the Ukrainians have, I suspect, I don't know personally, but I'm guessing that like a lot since at beginning the war, a lot of those guys were working in Russia doing old school special forces, like blowing up railroad tracks and blowing up bridges and ambushing

columns or blowing up supply you both because the Russians are real big on just putting everything in one giant place and they probably stopped doing it now because all those places got blown up from high bars and in sabotage but like so they've been doing a lot of that I think that's really one thing they're really good at you know utilizing small team unit skills and stuff and especially the beginning of war like Cravens did such a great job because it was it's easier to work with like a couple guys a javelin you get a couple javelins and let's go you know where are they we don't know

probably over there that roadway so we'll shoot them then we'll get the hell out of there so that really works I think that kind of one winging it mentality works in those combat situations. But when you're dealing with like weaponry and tanks and drones and all that, it gets a little messier. Yeah. You know, sometimes. Now, you know, you mentioned you had like these experienced Marines on your team.

You also mentioned that at one point, like the commander was like, oh, you guys, you know, have to get across there. Right. So how do the, not even just the experienced combatants, but somebody like yourself, how does that go down when, like, the, foreigners you know Americans whom ever go no that's dumb like we're not going to do that yeah we would uh we well the thing while the ukraine came in that we had for a while he was great like we would tell him like we're not doing this or not do okay yeah it's not making sense

or like we actually would really put our foot down to some extent that that that's aprizi assault like we're like no this is crazy like with that whole just go attack the trench after we got pushed back like we're not doing that man like no but it's pretty much like mutiny kind of thing like we're like we're not doing that we're just gonna get killed like no We're not doing that, you know? So I think that also pisses on the command structure because like, because like if you're regular

Ukrainian army, you have to do it and go to jail or something. Us, foreigners like, look out. Yeah, how does that work?

So you guys are contracted. Is there a form of UCMJ or, you know, Ukrainian military justice that you guys fall under? Can they put you in jail for, I mean, if you do something crazy, like,

I mean, yeah, if you commit a crime, like if I, like, get to a bar fight, attack some rent, Ukrainian,

like beat the shit at him. I can go to jail for that. No, but what about, But you're obeying a lawful order? No. Not really, no. Because when you're volunteering, you're on their, your own accord, it's a different, it's,

that's the one thing I think about like contracting companies, throughout history. I mean, like, you know, old school mercenaries, like, you can't really enforce discipline. You know, you really can't, you know, everyone has to be an agreement. Almost like pirates up back in the day. Like they all, they all like contracts, they all work together. It's very democratic. Very democratic. It's a lot more democratic.

It's not like, you have to do this. It's like, no, screw you. We'll vote you out. Who's next? You know, it's like, it's much more bottom up than top down, I fan. And I think that kind of command structure or that way of fighting or thinking can sometimes conflict with a normal actual army. Sure. You know what I mean?

Because imagine you had U.S. military fighting. I had a bunch of foreigners like, no, I'm doing that attack. That's retarded or something. Or that's stupid or, you know. It's happened in the near recent history. Yeah. Yeah. So what happens when a plan hinges on, you know, international foreign soldiers?

Right. And they're like, no, do they substitute Ukrainians for that? Or do they go, okay, what do you guys think we should do? Or is there a new plan? Like, how does that work? I mean, I think it would go back and forth. I mean, sometimes it's like, oh, we want to do this. Well, then some guys are like, no, we should do this because here's why.

You know, and then you go back and forth. And some of the commanders we have were pretty reasonable and stuff. They're like, okay, that makes sense. Why don't we do this? And it really comes down to the personality, the person in charge. You know what I mean? they're an arrogant prick or something like anywhere in any army you have some you know Montgomery asshole kind of type like yeah this is my command and then you're not going to get that

but other times you do they still can't make you do it so they still can't no no so then do they bring in a Ukrainian force to do it instead it depends yeah they might do that reing Ukrainian force or you know Georgians or other foreign foreigners that will do it or something like that I mean yeah probably I'd say probably there hasn't been many too many things where it was like full-blown like other than that after we took that little the little outpost part but they'd attack the main trench that got urgently got pushed back because the YPRs got blown up.

Other than that, like, time, we're like, no, we're going to get freaking killed. Like, this is stupid. That doesn't make any sense. So, like, that was, I mean, I always like to say, like, you know, crazy's okay, stupidism. You know, it's like,

if a chance of survival, even if it's dangerous, that's fine. But if it's just, I mean, I can run my freaking skulls on this wall right now and show how hardcore I meant, but I'm dead in the wall won. You know what I mean? You know, this isn't a freaking win a war.

This does. It just doesn't make sense sometimes to do stupid things, even though it's like bravado or some crap, you know, whatever. But, I mean, yeah, but also the biggest thing with the advantage of the foreigners was like, you know, we can just do it how we wanted sometimes, you know, we're not going to do it, we're not going to do it. You know, a lot of Ukrainians weren't so fortunate like that. Yeah.

So how did, from your own personal experience, I mean, how did things evolve from you? You said you went from Bachmutt back to Zapranesia. Yeah. And, you know, how did that kind of proceed through the rest of 2022 into 2026? into 2023. So Baku, we were there and then we went back to Kiv and then we went back to this time. We thought we were going to go back to Bakkenu, then they moved us down to Zapub because there was a major attack. They needed extra guys and stuff. And one of our guys happened to go there for something and they're like, oh yeah, you guys are going to join up with us kind of

thing. That's kind of how that happened. And they joined up with another foreigner team down there. And then there was a couple different teams. And basically that was like a conventional attack, you know, like a company level. On that trench line. Yeah. You know, that's how it started. and then we just trained, but it was like, we were trying to, we'd train, we would basically show up and, like, try to coordinate this and act it out and do rehearsals, and it was just like a mess sometimes, you know what I mean, because you get different languages and, you know, no, I don't want to do that. We're not going to train. We already know how to do that. We'll do that tomorrow, like some of these other guys, these other foreigners, like, no, we're not

training. We already know how to do that. And like, you know what I mean? It's just kind of a freaking cluster fuck. So it's like, that's what it was. And then so when the, you know, the plan wasn't bad. It was, I was like, this isn't crazy. The whole, the, the whole, the idea wasn't insane or something it was this could be done it was like it was like bull run out or mcdowell like it was just like he had a good plan but the execution of it was terrible right screwed everything up and that's kind of what happened with this you know but i think as time goes on if zolonski fires more commanders gets rid of some you know possibly get shitbags and stuff and gets a better commanders in there and he gets his grant because they got their lincoln

they got him but they love him or hate him it is what it is they love him like lincoln or are lincoln But if he can get his grant, I think they'll be able to really have battlefield success. But when does that happen? I don't know. You know what I mean? No idea. And so after that kind of failed assault, I mean, what was sort of like the next step for you? So that night of the assault, especially after going back and forth to command, I was already kind of done.

I was like, I gave myself a year. I was like, you know, one year, common deployment makes sense. I was like, I'll do that. And after that whole mess up, I was like, dude, I'm freaking done. Dude, I was going to take a break, you know what I mean from everything. Another guy, too, was like, yeah, I'm done, man. I mean, he'd been there since the beginning. So, after that, I ended up just going back to Keev, you know,

turn all my equipment in. Also, well, the thing, too, about that assault was, I got an MK48, the Mark 48 to 7662 very air shooting. It was that they're bad. Yeah, they have, like, freaking, I had a four-time scope. Was it a four-time scope? And then I read down on top of that, fully suppressed rifle, barrels, two barrels. Yeah, it was nice.

I kind of went nuts. I almost melted the freaking suppressor. I was like, it's nuts. I just went through, like, 150 rounds. and like a-fringen or 100 rounds or whatever it was and yeah I just kept shooting that thing like crazy so I was a little sad to see that but that that toy go but I had you know

I was like yeah I'm done man I'm just I'm over it you know I'm glad I came here I'm so happy I did it you know you know and it's been a great experience but I was like yeah I'm just going to take a break you know and then I'm going to Kiev for a little bit and then I'm going to Poland and see family and parents flew in

you know we had like a little family thing going on for a while that was fun and then I went back just kind of lived in Keith for a while man just kind of decompressed going to the gym, you know, writing crazy about this crazy experience, you know. Yeah. So, but yeah, I don't know. You know, the future, who knows where we'll go? So don't know.

I mean, it's been in the back of your mind that you might go back at some point? Yeah, I would love to go back one day. But maybe more like to live there. Like, because the country's very beautiful. Yeah, the food's amazing. It's cheap as hell to live there. The mountains and the Carpathians are beautiful down there. Like by Romania and stuff like that.

Yeah, one day, I think I definitely want to go back at some point, you know. but yeah it just depends on what happens in the world you know another war I don't know maybe you know I don't know we'll see yeah you know is there uh you know did in the contracting so like in the French Foreign Legion for instance right I think it's if you serve what like four years or eight years that you have to do a career against citizenship oh I thought it was like eight years maybe maybe you're then you renew or something right maybe I think I think you have to serve a career in the

Legion to get a citizenship. Did, like, Ukraine offer anything like that to the international? Yeah, they did if you wanted to and, like, get that bowl going. You know, you could put it for, like, citizenship and stuff like that. But, like, not too many really pursued that. Yeah. Some guys did, but not really, you know, some guys, you always get, like, visas and stuff. It's just, it's better to have that, you know.

Right. So, yeah, not really. It had that option, but, like, you know, everyone's like, yeah, whatever. So, you know, because most guys went home or went back or planning on your back at some point. Yeah. States so I'll go home so yeah you know now when you watch like what's going on in terms of like the US policy you know we we're against F-16s we're for us right it's like you know the weapons that we do or don't give like what do you think we're doing right and what do you

think we're doing wrong if anything um I think doing right is setting the right weapons and getting them to them you know what I mean I mean instead of waiting and playing the games and all that just give them the freaking weapon systems train them on it um You know, that's, so that's kind of in the middle right now. What we're doing wrong? It's a good question. I think, I mean, you know, the one thing, I talked to some friends about this, man. I think this is one thing Putin did get kind of right on the strategic level is that we don't have strategic patience.

We want microwave wars. Hey, it's done, you know, it's done. It's over. We want to go home. You know, I mean, sometimes that happens like Persian Gulf. It does happen. Right. It's extremely rare, but it happens.

Right. You know, you got to stick out for the long haul, man, for fights like this. and because someone like that doesn't understand anything except the barrel of a gun. It's just the way it is. I mean, we fought a 22, 20-year wars one year at a time. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. And I think that's, you know, and so I think people are generally frustrated about long wars and complicated stuff.

So to be fair, and it's not coming out of left field, but like, I think strategic page is something we need to extend. But at the same time, I think getting weapons and stuff like that, I think there should be more conditions. Like, hey, what do you guys doing to improve? What do you guys learn from, you know, this whole summer counter? offensive thing what went wrong with it like some stipulations you know what I mean because it's not so much like they don't really care the money they want the gear you know the way the equipment because they're running out of the old Soviet stuff and you know and replacing it with this more upgraded NATO stuff is a lot better but you got to use the tools

right it's like I give you the best hammer of the world but if you don't know use it right you know or train properly on it or you know make mistakes first then learn from that you know go from there that's the problem so that would be my shoulder right yeah yeah sorry but yeah it's interesting How was the U.S. like military leadership, were they, were they involved at all in terms of attempting to guide Ukrainian military leadership? Like, are there any sort of lessons? Anything on that level, that like command staff level, I have no idea. I never dealt with that personally.

You know, I wasn't like a staff officer or enough like that. As far as like real like four star stuff, like I had no clue. Yeah. I'm sure they're working together and trying to help them. learn from each other kind of thing and there is anything going on you know but yeah i never really dealt that personally but um i'm trying to think uh yeah i was gonna say what was gonna say something i fricking forgot but yeah i don't know but you really do with that too much on that level um i think it just really comes out the learning from mistakes man because the russians

they're they're getting a little sneakier and smarter in tactics like even trench stuff like i've heard stories of the old band and what's said they get already even if you coordinate your artillery exact at right time your tanks and everything you attack, they'll bail from that actual area. They'll put explosives in there. So you go away to all of a sudden there's mines in there. You don't even know. Or they just said everything they got pre-zeroed artillery

and just blow the whole freaking area up once you're in there. Right. You know, so like, you know, they're definitely like smart. Like they're not idiots. You know what I mean? I mean, well, some of them are idiots, but they're probably dead. But like, you know, they definitely learn from their mistakes, it seems like. And I think the Ukrainians will too.

But they have the willpower. And they're in this fight to the end. So what do you make of the current offensive? and I mean a lot of ink's built on it already, a lot of armchair quarterbacks. Yeah. But I mean, you actually had experience up at the front lines. Yeah.

What do you think it's happening right there? I mean, what everything from what is a reasonable expectation to begin with to what's actually happening to where it could go? As far as can, I mean, for my personal experience, my personal opinion from like what I saw, like I said, those platoon level, company level attacks, that's, they don't have that, nobody has, they don't have it down yet. It's just, it's not organized. It's not there, at least back then.

maybe now six months later it can be different I don't know because I've been out of the game for a while so for a few months but I think it's just like that man it's like starting a band and the drummer's doing his thing he's out of tune the guitar player's out of tune with the singer but eventually if you work on it hard enough you can kind of get it together where it starts to make

you know music you know and I think if they really focus on like hey what did we do wrong what could we do better next time you know what I mean really hit that hard really hit that hard home that would make a difference I think in a long run you know so the Ukrainian would benefit from AARs basically. Yeah, pretty much.

Yeah. Like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Do you have questions for Hudson? I think some came in. Don't hit you up with. And so you talked to, you said you were writing a little bit about your experiences. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,

just, you remember, this for me, man, you know, just, it's been a wild ride. I kept the journal when I was there.

So I was like, I'm going to remember this stuff. So, you know, definitely, you know, probably just keep it and shelved it or something. So what's the name of the book?

and we'll all drink stone wine. It's from the Johnny Johnny comes marching home again song. And like, I always heard that line. And I always loved Civil War stuff grown up as a kid and all that. And I always heard that line. I always thought like drinking wine of stone.

Like, it's like you can't enjoy the drink with a friend when they never came back with you. So that's kind of what I always felt like it meant, you know, a weird way. So I don't know. That's cool. I look forward to reading it. I think our number one question tonight is

does Mongo like candy? Yes, I do. Yes. But, okay. Jay Walker, thank you very much. Jay Walker just says thank you. Billy Madison, thank you for the generous donation. Did you run into CIA, S-F, Seal, Ranger, wannabe, Casey Gray?

Casey Gray? I don't think so. There's been a lot of freaking, oh, you know, I can't talk about it, bro. I'm an opera. It's like, dude, shut the fuck up, dude. There's so many guys out there like that. If I didn't meet him personally, I probably met someone like him. you know what I mean

right so many guys are like oh you know I was in black I was back and it turns out like they were a mechanic

in the 80s in the arm like a month and they got kicked out it's like you know they're just a dive a dozen out there

man I did some stuff with OGA yeah I can't really talk about yeah our fucking sniper

turned out to be kind of shit you know and he fooled all of us and he was

I'll tell you I called him the devil Bachman he did a great fucking job yeah

he was one that very exceptionally because he taught himself I think and he went to schools on his own. Because we found now, basically, very long story short,

through his DD-214, that he was, he was a combat veteran, like a legit combat veteran, but he wasn't a sniper. Like, why don't you just tell us that? What he cares, dude? Right. That's even more impressive. If you're like, yeah, I taught myself,

I read manuals, I went to some sniper schools. I'm just trying to learn. So you're not talking about the French sniper. No, the American sniper. My other, our other one. Yeah. So, yeah. That's how I heard it.

Yeah. So he's a combat vet. Combat vet. Like 11 Bravo. Yeah, yeah. But not a sniper, but went to the schools to learn probably in America

well this is the schools like in Texas sure the place you go in states pay for a couple of and I think that's what he did but like I'm like God

why just just be freaking honest man like yeah you know I was I can't stand that like I said about that kid who was like ended up like doing phenomenal like he just had a big heart

big mind and I'm trying to learn I want to improve myself compared to you know freaking being like I'm you know seal team 20 or some crap yeah

it's like how did you find out that he hadn't been a sniper in the military something we're looking to do some work. I think some kind of background check was being done

for something. I forget the details, man. But anyways, we got to hold of this DD-2014, the real one. And then that, we were confronted about it. You never said anything. We haven't really talked or anything. It's been really weird. So, yeah, I don't know. It's just weird, man. And he knew his shit, too.

Like, he'd keep talking about something. Like, he seemed to really know it. Yeah. So they were just everywhere out there, man. Yeah. You know, and an interesting phenomenon we're seeing, I think, in this war, especially because social media is not only you get the people out there that are doing that, but you get the people out there like Vasquez and whatever. Yeah.

Who are faking it for social media. Yeah. And probably making money off of it, right? They're like, hey, you know, send money to us so we can get food and this and that. Right, right, right. And people are sending it in good faith. Right. And meanwhile, they're like, I'm on the front lines and taking a picture of their boots.

Right, right, right. Oh, yeah. That guy was a freaking clown. Yeah, he was like, yeah. And there's guys like that David does. And especially like people like that, especially the beginning,

you hear about them, you kind of avoid them, you know, the beginning of war, like we didn't really mess social media, didn't talk of journalists, just kept a little profile,

you know, so guys like that kind of like, you know, you kind of stayed away from or you hear about them. Yeah. But they never were, yeah, like,

all these guys that keep hearing about, hey, do you know, so and, you know, you're supposed to be doing, I'm like, dude, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know,

like, most of those guys like never went to the front and they did. was like a photo off with a different day and see you later, you know, here's some dates or something and, you know, I don't know. Yeah. R.S., thank you very much.

The Secret Life of Walter Middy by James Thurber is a great short story. Thurber was an American, by the way. Alex Bennett, thank you very much. Did you get to play with any of the brads? I'm a bit sentimental for them after seeing them across the Atlantic. Oh, the Bradley's?

I assume that's what you're talking about. No, we had YPRs for that assault. And then in the tanks, we have her T-64 BVs. So I never actually personally dealt with Eddie the Browley's, and something like that. It'd be kind of cool to see you. But I think they came in later, I think the summer out there was gone. Or they were used, they were being used elsewhere.

We had YPRs. I think that is it for the questions. Let me just double check. Let me check Patreon real quick. Nothing on Patreon? Yeah, so where can where can people find you if they want to like follow your exploits and You know the the book and everything? I haven't created any web station like that I have my Instagram which I barely use but you know Mongo

Dash 999 or something you know that's what I have and and that's about it right now man you know I'm like an email public email that's about it yeah Yeah, yeah but so so you're just you're on the down though until yeah just just just spend a time of family dude's been gone up here and a half you know they were freaking out the whole time I was out there So, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. You know, driving them crazy for fun.

So that's good. So, you know. So, yeah, I just, he's just appreciating that and spending time with family. And yeah, man, it's just like, pardon me sometimes. I'm like, ooh, that's funny when I came back. I'm still alive, you know? Yeah.

Because it's, it ain't no fucking joke over there, man. Well, friends that got fucked up and just banged up pretty bad. And it's like to walk away from it, dude. Like, it's just nuts, you know? Yeah. Because I got some friends that got banged out really bad, like crippled almost. And how, you know,

obviously there's no veterans administration through Ukraine for foreign soldiers for contractors how do they manage their their injuries and things like so the injuries yeah they'll actually put you that's one thing they do like they put you in like there's really a hospital in Kiev they did some of the people they put like a lot of the guys the foreigners in okay it's actually one of their best ones in the country it's okay it's good it's good for like simple stuff like hey if you got some shrapnel some moon some liner stuff but if you have anything like really crazy they need to be done like I had a buddy got really banged out really bad he got shot he got

blowing up from a freaking tank with, um, it was like two kilometers away to use them as indirect artillery and they're assaulting a position. They're doing something and then, then there was a heat round explode near him and just it just, like hotline through butter just went through his leg. Yeah. And so his leg was shattered and all that. So he needed like 20 surgeries. And so he ended going to go to Poland actually, he's a prior veteran. So like, because of like, um, the VA or something, he didn't work in something out. So he's actually on a NATO base and he healed up. He's fine now. Wow. That's better now. I mean, he's not day one better, but like he's better on what he was. Sure. So he can walk again.

So, you know, yeah. Has there been any talk about Ukraine, you know, helping with disability, like post-care? You know, obviously. I know there's something like, there's some kind of veterans card you can get. I don't know. Yeah, anything like almost like their version of the A benefits, maybe something. If you're in on contract, I think they'll take care of you. They will.

They're not going to like, oh, yeah, screw you. You know, they're going to. Back in the day, there was literally nothing for any of those guys, including Ukrainian military. hopefully that's changed since, you know, yeah, uh, nine years ago.

Yeah. Oh, night and day. I'm sure it's completely different. Yeah, yeah. This war started. I'm sure there's so many like a lot of like, you know,

doctors and up orders and all those guys and a lot of medical supplies came. We had so many medical supplies too. That's been great. And compared to, which they probably didn't have when that started in 2014 and all that, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Well, man,

thank you, uh, so much for, you know, coming on here, sharing your experiences with us. Yeah. And,

And, you know, I know. I'd love to talk to you again when the book comes out. There's another book. I have one of the no-no books that you're not supposed to buy. It was written by one of the Ozlov guys called The Foreigner Group. And I haven't read it yet. I believe he's a Finnish guy. But I think that's like the only book in that sort of genre of foreigners who came out of Ukraine so far. there have been very few there have been a couple but very few out of the

out of the whole Syria-Iraq experience too it's kind of odd right yeah there's one I read it was called Cap Hunter where this guy was in a fish murder I think he's on your show yeah it was a bit of a character Irwin he's a pretty good yeah

his book is interesting he's a good guy yeah the book is really good actually like it was interesting all the characters just like that all the characters yeah yeah you know came across the nickname he calls himself the necromancer or some guy or something

you know people like the motley crew yeah yeah yeah actually we have one more from from Alex Lus here also what are some good humanitarian organizations that you might recommend that are working in Ukraine so a lot of the

donations like the legit NGOs are pretty solid legit I would say Ukraine Adops is a pretty good one I think it's wrong by like Swedes or something like that but that's like legit you know I got some good stuff than them I mean, my winter boots were donations, you know what I mean? So, like, I would say Ukraine Adops off the top of my mind is probably one of the good ones. There's probably a bunch more than I don't even know about, you know what I mean?

But I think that's probably one of them. Yeah. And then, did you ever bump into the unicorn unit? Never heard of them. Unicorn. No. I think Vasquez was in that, you know? Yeah.

Jesus. So next week we're going to have 275 Ranger Dan Blakely on That's going to be on Monday And then on Friday David McCloskey A CIA analyst author of Damascus Station and Moscow X coming out Next month

So we'll see you guys then I mean Hudson anything else that you want to throw out there No no every now nothing I mean Okay man Yeah it's right coming here's really cool talking Yeah dude Stay in touch We'll talk again when the book come

out. Like I said, I'm excited to read it and put it on this bookshelf, you know, with all the others. You mean the bookshelf on this wall? With our 100,000 subscriber plaque that came in the mail today. Thank you, everybody. No big deal. Yeah, thank you. D. Going to put it on eBay, see what happens. Yeah, thank you, everybody. Thank you, Dee, back there producing, making the magic happen. And we'll see all you guys on Monday. So take care out there. there.