The Team House - Regimental Reconnaissance Company Ranger (RRC) | Felipe Peters | Ep. 217

Episode Date: June 26, 2023

Felipe grew up as a Mennonite in Mexico before immigrating to the United States as a kid where he joined the Army and served as a Ranger. Eventually he came to serve in the elite and little known Regimental Reconnaissance Company (RRC) and was deployed overseas. Today' Sponsor: 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 Hello Fresh ⬇️ https://www.HELLOFRESH.com/teamhouse16 Get 16 free meals plus free shipping by hitting the link!⬇️ https://www.HELLOFRESH.com/teamhouse16 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 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] #rrc #jsoc #tier1operatorBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-team-house--5960890/support.

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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. Special Operations, Covert Ops, espionage, The Team House, with your hopes, Jack Murphy and David Park. Hey, folks, welcome to episode 217 of The Team House. I'm Jack Murphy. here with David Park. We're on the show today. Our guest, we're really excited to have on here is Felipe Peters. Philippe has a really interesting backstory from being a immigrant to America, joining the 75th Ranger Regiment, where he served four deployments with 2nd Ranger Battalion.

And then he served five deployments with a regimental reconnaissance company, RRC, a little known but highly effective and professional outfit. So we're really happy to have Felipe here today. Thank you so much for joining us on your Friday afternoon. Hey, Jack, Dave. Thanks so much. I really appreciate it. I really appreciate your time, actually.

You know, thanks for having me. I do appreciate it a lot. Just scooted home from work, you know, on my Harley. And so avoided all the rain. here where I live and so I had to set up my audio and my video and everything and get ready to go. I appreciate that man. Yeah, we've all had to be a little like flexible to make this happen and I appreciate that dude. Of course. So we'll jump right into it, man. Oh, you got to do your real quick. We got to pay the bills and we love paying the bills with our sponsor, Hello

Fresh. Thank you. Hello Fresh. America's number one meal kit for sponsoring this episode. Go to hellofresh.com slash teamhouse 16 and use code team house 16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping. So, Philippa, if you could start us off here, if you could tell us a bit about your origin story about what your upbringing was like and what that pathway was that sort of like led you eventually towards the U.S. Army. Well, at a very young age, so I joined a cult where I was made to join a cult. And so I'm just kidding. Some would, we've been watching some pretty funny documentaries lately. So, but no. No, so I was actually born in Mexico.

I'm a first generation immigrant. And unbeknownst to me that, you know, 42 years later, I'd be sitting here talking to you two guys. But I don't remember ever being in Mexico, living in Mexico. So zero memory of that. I have a lot of memories that are gone at this point. a lot of TBI and stuff like that. So, but so yeah, born in 1981 in Kokomo Chihuahua. So my parents were born there.

My grandparents were born there in Mexico, South America. And so Mennonites were, you know, all over basically North America at that time. But several hundred years before that, it was probably, you know, Russia, Prussia, because I have ancestors that go, you know, probably 1700s into the Russia area. And so I'm 89% Germanic Russian, basically. So, yeah, it's kind of weird. But, you know, it is what it is. And so we speak a Dutch or a Plotich, excuse me, which is our native tongue.

And so coming to America as a, you know, excuse me, like a four or five year old boy, I don't know any English. That's the funny part. And so I just know this native tongue that we speak of this Dutch. And some people have probably heard it on like the, what is it, the Discovery Channel, Amish, the mafia people or whatever. And so some of that I can actually understand, some of the words that they're speaking. And so, yeah, I grew up not like that, not like the Amish, but we had homemade clothes, you know, thrift store clothes. the first house trailer or mobile home or trailer, whatever you want to call it.

We lived in, had a hole in it, and dogs were living in the trailer. And this is our house trailer when we moved to Texas in 1985. And so we fix it up and everything. We lived there for a number of years. And my dad immediately opens up an automotive repair shop. We go that route. We're immediately starting to pay into the immigration system, trying to get, you know, all of our, you know, documents become legal.

And so my dad, he was very proud. He's a very, very proud man. And so we never, according to him and my brothers, we never took any welfare. My dad always, everything we had was because he earned it. And so that was a big thing that stuck out. Not then, but it does now later on in life. And so not easy times living in a little trailer and whatnot. And actually, we were.

treated worse than some of the minorities, which was kind of funny now because we were called fucking Mennonites. That was our name. Anywhere you went, you didn't have your name. That was your name. You're a fucking Mennonite. And so we'd get chased around the neighborhood and whatnot by black kids, brown kids, white kids, it doesn't matter who you are.

Everybody, it was like just because we were new. So it's like the, you know, the new ape to the group where they just beat on them and pick on them. It's whatever. So that was kind of interesting growing up like that, being a, white kid and being, you know, accosted, I guess, by, by everyone. It was kind of, kind of weird, especially in public school. So, but yeah, grew up in a very conservative home. So, you know, going to church three, four times a week or whatever and all that stuff. And so,

went to private school basically until, what was it, like, seventh, went to sixth grade. And then seventh grade went public school all the way to graduating high school. You know, it didn't really fit in anywhere because we were Mennonites and whatnot, and I didn't really care because I went to school. I had decent grades, but after school, went to work. And then Saturdays I worked during the summer I worked. So it was, that's just what you did. You know, there's no off, there ain't no free ride around here. And so, which was good.

I earned my way. And so I actually learned a lot because I got to play around in a pretty big automotive repair shop. And there's a lot of cool shit to play with in those shops, a lot of tools, a lot of, you know, let the pneumatic air guns and whatnot. Come on, all day long. So I naturally tore everything apart. You know, I took to it like, you know, a duct to water. So, which was really cool. Good part of my childhood is being able to take shit apart, know how it works, put it back together.

Because I can still do that today somehow. Like, I can just see how shit works. And that helps out a lot, especially on deployments, you know, when everybody's like, what the fuck do we do and so hey Pete come over here we got it and I'm like I okay whatever we got it we can fix it so it helped but uh yeah so I mean I had a pretty good childhood and all that I did pretty good in high school always played G.I. Joe and all that stuff watched all this the Navy SEAL shows and all the Delta Force shows and all that stuff and course naturally what did I want to do I wanted to do

the same thing fly plane drive a tank and you know be a special forces dude or whatever like in the water coming out of it and then they Navy SEAL at the same time. So let's all do it at the same time. So huge ambitions. And so I didn't know anything about anything. Nobody in my family had ever been in the military. It was very foreboding. So I was actually told I was not going to join the military while I lived under my dad's roof. And so three months later, I moved out of his house. So that's kind of how that went after graduation. With all that ambition and all the information about these different special units out there, what was it that drove you towards the Army?

So the recruiter, actually, ease of recruitment, to be honest. And so no shit. There I was. Circa, 2000, oh, was it three when the Marines toppled the statue there and it was all over the news? Because I remember 9-11, I'm driving to work in my little shipbox ford ring. Ranger just graduated motorcycle mechanic school, you know, going to work, doing my thing, and hear about all that. But so fast forward to 2003, and I see them topple the statue, and I'm like, I'm going to go be a Marine. Those motherfuckers are bad.

And so I didn't care. I didn't know anything. I didn't know Ranger, S.F, Delta Force, Navy, I didn't know anything. So I just saw whatever I saw in the movies. And so when I joined, when I went to the Marine recruiter, he was like, yeah, go do this, this, this, this and this. And I was like, yeah, it seems like a lot of work. Let me go see what the Army recruiter says. I was being kind of lazy, too.

I didn't want to do all that work either because he didn't want to do it either. I went to the Army recruiter and he was like, oh, yeah, I got you, dude. Just come in, take this test and I got you. And so the only thing I knew about Rangers was a book I read in high school English class. And it had the DUI and everything on there. And so I was like, cool. These guys are badass. I want to go be a Ranger, you know, Ranger Marine.

Shit, I don't know. And so thankfully I joined the Army. I was doing the infantry route with intent to go SF, like your previous guest, Dustin Ward. And so I got duped into that one. And so that was great. My recruiter was a cook. You know, thanks, buddy. And so thank God in basic training, I swapped contracts with a guy.

And so I got a rip contract. And so about 75% of my platoon in basic was, I had a really. contract and so I was thankfully going with them so you know fast forward to basic training we get to basic training go through all that Fort Benning do the infantry 11 Bravo first it was like I said intent to go SF thankfully I got that switch because my my drill start was like you're a dumbass it doesn't say anything about SF in here you're stupid your recruiter lied to you so I was like Thanks. But he was that kind of guy. He just, you know, he was a tough love kind of guy. So and like I said, thankfully it got switched, went through basic training, went to airborne with my buddies from basic training, went to, went to Rip. Like I had probably, what, 5, 10 guys, like a squad worth of guys that we went, basic airborne, rip, and then all to 275. And so,

We spent a good five weeks in Riphold, so that was a good time. A lot of shenanigans there. So this was 2004. You got to 275. So you went through Rip just like a little bit after me because I was there when the invasion of Iraq happened is when I went through Rip right at that time. So yeah, okay, so I can picture in my mind's eye, all those buildings and everything, the old World War II barracks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so who did we have?

We had Castillo. We had Rubin. We had Green. Green. Yeah. Fader. Fader was there. We had Nash,

Strait. Yes. Straight. Yep. Hickerson. Hickerson. Yes. I remember those gentlemen.

John Green was a very angry man. So it's favored Rubin. I'm like, y'all are either on cocaine or steroids or both. But no, that was a good time. I remember that was good lessons learned, you know, going through it. It was July. So the blacktop in the back patio area there, whatever we called that. That was a good time.

The basketball courts without a basketball hoop, yeah. Yeah, that was brutal. That dropped a lot of people. That eliminated a lot of people just by sitting there in the front lane and rest, you know, in July when you got blisters on your hands from the blacktop. that was brutal. It's just a war of attrition is all that is. It's just to see which, you know, which one of you idiots will say no. I am not going to quit, you know?

So, but no, it was good times. A lot of lessons learned, especially because you got to think about the way I grew up. As a minute I kid, you're very, very sheltered. Like, everything is very, like, you're not supposed to do anything. Like, the fact that I smoked weed and drank in high school is, like, oh my God, you're going to hell like 10 times. And so. Straight to hell.

Oh, yeah. There's no, I mean, it's like, I don't even collect 200 on the way to jail. So, but yeah, very, very, like super, super strict, very conservative, very sheltered. Like, it's really crazy. And then now you're taking this kid that has this ambition to just, hey, I don't know what this is, but I'm going to do it because who cares? Let's just do it. Right.

Why not? And so let's see how far we can get. No one in my family has ever done this. My dad told me, he's like, you're not doing this under my roof. So I said, well, screw it. I'm doing it on my own. And so I figured why not. Let's just see how far we can go with it.

Did that, you know, obviously you had to move out to do this, but did it cause a rift in your family even after you had joined and were in the military? Or were you able to kind of come together after that? So, well, I mean, like my dad and I, we've never had like a super close relationship where we're just hanging out and talking and whatnot. Oh my gosh. Excuse me. And, and so my brothers were on board. They were on board. And I had a younger sister that she was on board as well. I can understand a parent being concerned for the safety of their child. Right. I have a daughter. So it's like, I completely understand that. I completely understand that. can't imagine my daughter ever joining the military hell no and so i could see that but it was just

not he wasn't educated enough on it is all it was and so eventually yeah they they he turned i think after he realized that there was no stopping it and it is what it is and this is just kind of he's going to do what he's going to do we just got to support him and so he's a big supporter now i mean he has been uh it took a little bit of time but uh yeah he you know like said he's very proud of his son being a ranger and whatnot and so what little he knows of that because he you know he's a god bless him his his education level isn't that high because of the way he grew up and whatnot very very little education unfortunately and so but no he's very proud so that's all that matters so uh but yeah and so yeah i did uh four years four deployments at uh 275 so

That was kind of interesting. I ended up making it all the way to, all the way straight through. You know, we went straight through to airborne school. Sucked there though. I had shin splints like no other. My brain for buddies helped me through that, thankfully. And so we get to 275 in September of 2004. We had two casualties on that deployment already.

So instantly right, as you're getting to 275, your unit, you're already dealing with what, death? And so, you know, that's September. And so we, in December, we're already doing training for the next training cycle. And then my roommate, Devin Pagero, gets shot. He gets shot in the neck. It was a training accident. It was a hot wall.

So we were doing simo clear. Mm-hmm. And it was plywood. And so, you know, hotwall is, you know, in one direction. And so somebody put a target on the wrong wall. It was approved. And so the person that, you know, executed, you know, did their job. They did their job the way they should, except, you know, we had a casualty due to it.

And so, yeah, and so it's like in September, you're dealing with the dudes that just got killed on the deployment. And then now you're dealing with my roommate. And so we ended up, they were like, yeah, he was pretty much dead. immediately it just hit him in the neck and went down to his heart and blew his heart out unfortunately and so like he had just went to the class right before me um in rip or whatever he because he was one like I said one class before us and because he didn't go on the deployment and so we ended up being funeral detail like his roommates and whatnot so it's like we're barely into our first training cycle and we're already having you know dudes getting killed right

And so, and it seemed, and we had several more. You know, we had another guy in a different training cycle. They actually, it was a night jump. We were doing getting ready for MLAT. And boom, you know, I hear him hit, not that far away from me. And it's like, you can hear him screaming or whatever. You know, it's like, hey, man, pop your red Kim. I got to go to my rally point.

I'm doing as I'm told. Like, I can't, you know, I don't even know exactly where you are. So I just heard him hit, but unfortunately one of them, died and the other one like basically shattered his pelvis and I think he got medboarded out of the army so there were two uh two casualties on that on the on that from jumping what what was it under did they like land on top of a plane and fall or was it high winds or what happened to my understanding you know they came you come around and they they came together and got entangled um one of the parachutes collapsed and they got entangled and apparently I mean it

just they came in pretty hard. Yeah. And so, yeah, pretty gnarly accident. And I've actually seen, or I've had quite a few now. We've had just thinking about it, that's one there. So I've known of probably four or five. Just in a 15-year span in my career, I've known a five or six parachuting accident deaths. Wow, that's pretty crazy.

Yeah. It is. That's a pretty staggering. number, but that just goes to show you how dangerous that shit is. Yeah. Very, very dangerous. But anyway, sorry. So, yeah, 275.

So finally we get through our first training cycle and whatnot. And then it was kind of like most battalions, you do at least a year or at least one training cycle before you even get a chance to go to Ranger school and all that stuff. And so that's what I did. I was just doing a training cycle. and then we deployed, and then towards the end of our deployment, which was a really, really, really slow deployment, 2005. And so I was chocked for, we only did two missions at deployment. And so I was chocked for both those missions.

And the first one, I was, you know, kanked for at the very last minute. They went and pretty much it was nothing. And so, and then the second one, we were actually on our way to East River Range. I was happy enough to be in the gunners, you know, Gunners hatch to be the idiot to get shot first. So, no, I was just, I was just happy to be up there.

And I remember that we were, got the call. And they were like, hey, we got to turn around. There's a helicopter that's gone down. I was like, what the fuck is going on? Like, is this real? Because, I mean, this is my first appointment.

All we've been doing is training. So it's like everything's coming at you a million miles an hour. And so, we hauled us back to the hooches old charlie eighty if those of you that are listening can remember old charlie 80 on camp alpha a lot of stories in that in that hooch but that was our that was our ready room at the time so that's where we got ready and we got back and we got word that the helicopter had gone down and that was the navy seals that had been shot down so this was operation red wings and i didn't know it

I'm just some dumb private at the time. You know, and my job was a Gustav Gunner. So thankfully, I was lucky enough to be chosen to go on this mission. So we gear up and all that stuff, get all of our stuff ready, and got the Carl Gustav and some rounds and all that. We fly out. We get kank the first night. We go out.

We land in J-Bed and we stay in some, like, airport. And then we go downstairs to, like, the jail cell or something like that. We're all just kind of hanging out in the jail cell, sleeping there waiting until we go in the next period of darkness. And so, yeah, that was pretty sketch. So going out, you know, my first mission in the Army. So it's like, you know, what the fuck is going on right now? I'm pretty scared, you know, pretty freaking scared. And not to mention, I got a lot of weight in our fast rope site, I don't know, 60, 80, whatever, 90 feet long.

and that bitch is like barely touching the ground. And so thankfully, we all make it to the ground off of these, you know, 60 plus ropes, 65 plus foot ropes. And so we're actually not on a flat part of the mountain. We're kind of, you know, on a hill, basically. Did you rope in with Tony Brooks or with Nick Moore's platoon? We were in we ended up at the same spot. I don't, I want to say I was in probably in Nick Moore's.

I honestly don't remember which, because I, man, I may have been with Tony. I just remember going down the rope and it taking forever. And I actually had both, my gloves were the same ones. So I didn't have, I think I've had two left-handed gloves. So I had to like, yeah, yeah. So I had to like wrench that on there and put the strength of a tiger, you know, on there and just slide down that rope and pray that Jesus take the wheel at some point. But I didn't die, John Kelly. My squad leader at the time had put his foot on me as I was rolling down the mountain.

So that helped a little bit from dying. but we had one guy the RTO he ended up breaking his arm a dude came in and smashed his arm and I think like two days later they came and got him but strong he was that dude was hard as woodpecker dick and so he was helping you know drag bodies up the hill that night when they were putting him in the body bags and everything and our job was since I was in the weapon squad we were all just you know pulling security we were you know setting up basically a big patrol base around there. Yeah.

Or as best as we could. And because it was just a shit situation. And we just, you know, posted up the best where we could. And so we built some little shacks, try to, you know, have some sort of concealment, not much cover because that dead dry wood right there doesn't really provide a whole lot of cover. Bullets will run right through that. So it's more for concealment and some shade. But, yeah, we roped in and it was really cold that night.

Because it was like, I don't know, 10, 10, 2 or something like that, 10,000 feet. And even though it's July, it's fucking cold. It's not warm. And we didn't bring it. We brought stuff for a 12-hour mission, not for 12 days because that's how long I was there. And so I barely had, I thankfully had a T-shirt on. Most guys didn't have a T-shirt on or nothing. And we're up there nut to butt, like trying to crawl inside of each other because it's so damn cold and it's raining on us.

And so we break protocols And we're just like You know what, fuck it We're burning the stump right here So we just sat there And whatever we could find We burned And we were burning the stump

And just huddling close to it Because nobody's moving in that There's no way Nobody's gonna maneuver on you It's not happening And so I mean You're combat ineffective

At that point Right And so you had to stay warm Thankfully we stayed warm enough To make it through the night And everything And then But yeah

We had zero basically zero rations and I had like two bottles of water so they quickly realized that we were going to be there for a minute and so you know we had to start establishing you know some sort of like I said concealment of some sort because we had many nights where we had because we had constant air presence so whether it be A10s F-15s Apaches whatever fast movers whatever you want to call it It was there constantly. And you could, like, just nonstop around, like, around, because they're, you know, trying to come up and they're trying to find LaTrell and whatnot. And thankfully, we never had anything crazy happen up top on us because we had so much eyes on us because that was, you know, we were part of the main show there.

Yeah, that was, that was 12 days of just, like, you know, your first, you're just kind of wondering, like, is this? what is this what we always do because there you see different units coming through we saw some r or c r d guys coming up i remember turning around and seeing uh like a you know four or five of them come walking up and they were going to go look for uh lettrell as well and so you know it's it was all hands on deck and so it was just like this is crazy i thought we were going to do raids and ambushes and like ranger school stuff and like you know all this crazy stuff i was learning before we came out here. So now we're out here looking for our own.

But it was a good learning experience. You know, kind of went hungry there for a little while. Had to run up and down the mountains and chasing pallets that had broken because, you know, when you try to drop a pallet on something like this, it's kind of hard. Right, right. And so it's like, do you just get it stuck in the tree and say, fuck it, let's try to get it down from the tree and, you know, figure it out when it comes down. So yeah, we chased a lot of bundles down.

and we made a lot of little canopies and shelters with those canvases and parachutes and all that stuff. So, yeah, we still had a good time up there, even though, you know, you're sitting up there just kind of wondering what the fuck is going on. And so, but no, it was cool. Our first aren't, you know, he's known for blowing up stumps and whatnot. He's pulling apart, C4, Claymore. You know, Claymore is pulling the C4 out and everything and packing them under the stumps and whatnot. and blowing these stumps sky high and just laughing his ass off. And so that way we can get more 47s in there to ex-fill us to relieve us

because we were actually on the end of our deployment. And so 375 comes in and relieves us. And so, yeah, that was number one. And so, you know, that's kind of significant to me, I guess, just because it's a very significant time in history. And thankfully, at least we had one guy survive. So, and we were able to find them. But, yeah, and the rest of the deployments were like, I guess I had wanted to go on raids and whatnot.

And in the, do the gaffs, do the hafs and whatnot. But before our next deployment, I do get to go to Ranger School, which was, you know, much needed, obviously, because we don't want to be a private forever. and so do that thankfully to make it straight through. I broke my foot in mountains. I had the winter exodus between mountains and Florida. So make it through mountains with a broken foot. Go home, stuff in my face for two weeks, go back to Florida, take the boot off because they're like, you can't go.

You're going to recycle you. I said, oh, watch this. Walk around the building. My boot comes off and then I'm like, hey, I'm good to go. So, you know, make it through Florida. and then, you know, and I, what ended up happening, actually, after a ranger school, I ended up fixing my foot, not where I broke it, but I broke it in a different spot in 2004. And so I'd been kind of limping this thing along already.

And so I just keep breaking stuff, unfortunately. But I'm like, hey, screws and, you know, whatever, put just put some screws in it and will be okay. So it's kind of how I limped along for many, many years in the military, unfortunately. And then eventually I got to go on that Iraq deployment with T75, which was really cool driving strikers. That was a good time. So was that your, was the Iraq deployment, your second deployment with Ranger Battalion? That was, yes. And that was in Iraq.

So, yeah, so tell us a little bit about that. So Iraq was quite a bit different. And I wouldn't realize, you know, how much different it was. Unfortunately, I didn't get to stay very long in Iraq because I was still. suffering from a bum foot. I had basically lied my way into getting deployed, you know, just like any good ranger would do. Right.

So, yeah, I ended up being there for, I believe it was only about a month because my foot was so infected. I had a post-op infection. And one of the medics finally saw it. And he was like, what the fuck is that? He's like, you're going home. And it wasn't eight hours later and I was on an aircraft on the way home. And I was like, damn.

So I was trying to cover it up and, you know, self, self treat and whatnot because I'm, I don't want to be out of the fight. I'd already missed one deployment at this point. Right. Now I'm, now I'm on this deployment. Now look at the piece of shit I am because my, no, I got a bum foot. And so I'm just trying to, you know, not, I'm trying to be a team player here and it ends up screwing me. but hey, it is what it is.

So I ended up getting sent home. But while we were in Iraq, we did a lot of raids, lots and lots of raids. And so we had another platoon there. And our company commander, dude's, you know, big balls of steel. Because dude was going out with us and with the platoon that was there. So he was going out with two different platoons. And I think he got like two Purple Hearts at deployment. Where in Iraq were you at that time?

that was Ramadi okay yeah yeah pretty hot during that time period yeah that was oh like october 06 yeah yeah because uh right right after i left there was a pretty good uh a pretty good tick that that they got involved in and i'm like see that's why i wanted to be on the deployment you know duh so but no um got you know got home had to get have surgery again on the foot I was plagued with injury throughout my career, unfortunately. It's a wonder that I'm still walking. And then eventually I got to go back in 07 and then really get into what we're doing. So my last two deployments were really good deployments with 275, lots of raids, you know.

Let's, I want to hear about that. But let's give a quick shout out to our sponsors for the show. The first one is vitamin one. This is a sports drink that guest on the show Mike Taylor developed. Episode 124 if you haven't watched it. So the problem, when he was a contractor in Iraq, and him and his guys were drinking a lot of gatorade, and he was finding that they were getting cramps and things like this because of all the sugar in it.

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He gives you all the great views on all the bourbons. If you don't know what to drink, he'll show you. But he sent us all these great little things. So thanks, Robert. So Philippe, I'm sorry for the interruption. Go ahead.

Pick up right there. You said like 2007, you got back overseas with 275, and you started really getting into it at that point. Yeah, so at that point, I was getting into team leader role, which is like one of the best jobs in the world. It's so amazing. It's like one of the funest things to do in the world, especially it's like that or sawgutter, hands down.

And so that was, to me, the prime of my 275 time there. And so 2007, really good deployment, a lot of raids, a lot of action. We ended up deploying and hanging out with the seals. And so the same squadron and whatnot. And so which ended up working out, they were pretty cool. You kind of, you know, earn their trust, I guess, because, you know, we're dumb and you don't know how to clear rooms and whatnot. So whatever. But, uh, well, no worries. We'll kill the people on BPs and you'll bitch about it. It's okay. I don't care. But hey, you have it your way,

buddy. And so, um, but, uh, yeah, we got stuck with the, the seals, uh, out at, what was it, J-Bad? Yeah, we went J-Bad and then, uh, probably about halfway through 07, we switched to Kandahar. And then Kandahar was really hot and heavy. And so the rest of that deployment, just just tons and tons of like every single night you're going out going out going out because there's shit to do and you know they're there we got to the point where the seals would hit a target we would hit the target um yeah just had had uh i think it was those yeah maybe it was 07 we had this weird um i don't know you guys remember doing the you're walking doing the you know doing iads training or whatever and you're doing the near ambush one right and so I don't know if I can't

remember if any of you've ever had a near ambush experience or not in your like personally in your career in the military or not but so this was mine so we're walking if you remember they had just a little shit creek or the wadi or whatever it was probably what a foot wide maybe at the most something like that ish I honestly can't remember how wide but ish and so they got little trails on both sides and then there's trees and stuff sporadically throughout the this whatever wadi not wadi but the irrigation ditch yeah yeah irrigation ditch we're kind of we're kind of we're you know paralleling and then i am first squad so we're in the front i'm bravo team

and so we're walking and all of a sudden i look because i mean i'm looking side to side i'm paying attention i'm keeping my head on a swivel because we're ducks in a row so i'm like I don't like this. Immediately, I don't like this shit. And so I'm looking and I see the team leader turn and he raises his gun and I'm like, oh, fuck. And so I turn and look and it's like, dudes are like, they're all right there. They're all popped up. And so we have about a squad worth of dudes sitting right there.

Thankfully, they're sucking right now. They're doing this. They're, you know, because I remember seeing like one or two RPGs, PKMs, AKs, like, Like, had those dudes been switched on, we would have been fucked. Yeah. And I mean, they would have roasted us. Roasted. The first squad would have been roasted.

And so we immediately do the, you know, turn left and ready up. And it was just exactly like you, exactly like you trained it. And then all of a sudden we just start lobbing frags. And you just see, it's like, you know, cockroach just fucking running everywhere. And we're just unloading for a good bit. And so I'm like, yes, let's go, go, go. and for whatever reason the call was made, hey, we're going to break contact. I don't know if they had, there was more guys behind there or if there was no overwhelming force.

I'm like, hey, whatever. I'm all bound back. We actually had a little bit of defilade, so we making that bound back wasn't bad, and so we dropped rounds. And so, and then we, unfortunately, whoever was calling in rounds called in round on the wrong target. And so we were like, oh, okay, fuck it. We're just going to go clear it anyway. So we finally got ISR on this situation here in this whatever near ambush situation.

And then we end up getting up to there and getting through the little irrigation canal or whatnot. And there was probably, I want to say probably a good 10 or 12 guys there that ended up that just got unfortunate for them that night because they could have really put a hurting on an entire squad of us. and so that one that one stands out a lot because that was this yeah yeah because there was there was another night where that was a near miss we had some contact we had squirters coming out we were actually like 50 dudes online and it's it was actually one of the coolest things in the world and I

completely did the wrong thing but I don't really give a shit my weapon was unsafe so and pointed in the safe direction but we were all shooting at there are squatters out there and I actually just put my weapon on safe and took a quick glance to the side just to honestly to look at, they were so far away. I was like, they're running.

And I just looked to see, we had like so many dudes online. All you see is just rounds going off. And it was a moment of beauty is what it was. It was just, you know, one of those things that you remember for a long time. But we ended up clearing the compound and whatnot. Dudes went,

a couple guys were hiding and whatnot. This guy ended up hiding. in a bush. So everything was clear, everybody was cool, you know, EK, everything was handled. So we're standing kind of in this courtyard and they're just like weird bush over there. So my back is to it and I'm standing there looking and we're just, you know, everything's pretty calm. And all of a sudden this dog starts alerting. Well, apparently they, they swung either thermals or something on there and they saw that there's a dude in there with the RPG just sitting I think he was scared.

Ah. He was too scared to do anything. So they were like, hey, man, you might want to move. There's a dude point in an RPG issue. And so, it's like, okay, cool. So they, they, you know, told me over the radio like, hey, walk away. So we all just kind of casually walked away, walked away, walked away, walked away, like nothing was happening.

And then all of a sudden they just start lobbing, like, frags, and they light it on fire, and they just start shooting it and all sorts of stuff. And I was just like, okay, well, that's one way to do. deal with that. But cool. Sounds good to me. As long as the guy doesn't shoot me. But yeah, that was kind of a close moment. I guess the guy was just scared to, because I mean, he could have killed himself me or something. I don't know, whatever. It would have definitely done something. Yeah. Do you, with that near ambush situation, did you get a sense that those guys were like lying in wait? Do you think they were moving or resting? Or do you think they were just kind of

undisciplined that they were on in an ambush spot and they just kind of like dozed off? So they were actually in a good amber spot because right behind them, if I remember correctly, there was a compound behind it because we cleared a lot of shit that night. We went from like one compound because we took contact there, went and did this compound and we went further whatever in that direction, whatever east or whatever it was. After we took this, we had this tick and then did our SSE and all that. We kept going and we actually hit several more compounds. And that was just the high dynamic it was on deployments because it was like you'd get into a tick or whatever. And then it could be a century location. These guys are just set up.

Right. And they were just set up. They were kind of like a ranger school, but they were super undisciplined. Right. They had their prayer mats out, all their mats out. It was a gypsy camp. Yeah. And so their guns are just stacked up.

Nobody was behind a gun. pulling secure nobody was doing anything and so i don't know if they got word that we specifically were coming through but maybe they had patrols of other forces that came through there and but it was just we got you know hey it was that's what that was the fate that day yeah it was it was on our side um and so it you know thankful that not a single one of our guys was wounded nothing like it was just you know and uh basically overwhelm, you know, violence of action. Violence of action for the win.

Yeah, I was just thinking that. Very well executed. And so, but, you know, a lot of missions where it was things like that were even we'd get on ISR, hey, you've got an ambush in waiting. So we'd just hang out and wait and just be like, cool. And then A10s would come in and do their thing again. And, you know, it's like I got so used to hearing A10s. It was kind of like I missed it.

All the coming home, I'm like, I want to hear more A10. because it was just so common because you go out like every night and it's like, whoop, waiting for the 8-10s, and so, yeah, a lot of good missions there. And then unfortunately in 2008, we had a lot of tragic events. We had, you know, Gather Cole. He was killed. Ler-Petri lost his hand, warded middle honor. You know, great individual there.

We lost Sarmfus class Dave McDowell. That was a pretty shitty mission. And so we actually, I think that was, we landed, it was like a, it was a Y landing, so about 300 meters off. Had, so a lot of the deployments or a lot of the missions, excuse me, we had squirters. Squatters would just fucking take off and then they would go to the cache because they wouldn't keep a big cache of weapons there. And so they would squirt, take off, and they would go to the weapons cache. And so we'd already had seen this. I could, I almost had it down to, I'm like, all right, we got about another five or ten minutes and we'll have contact.

Right. And so I'm like, all right, cool, let's get ready, boys. And so it happened all the time. Yeah. So we just kind of got used to it. And unfortunately, the squatters, this time they got lucky. And, you know, we're in a contact. We got AC130 gunship.

That was pretty gnarly. 105's going off on the other side of the wall, like Dangerful. are close. Holy shit that rocks you. So that was a good experience. And, you know, 40 mic, mics, everything's just going off because, you know, we got these dudes shooting from over here, over there. We got a squad coming here. We're doing kind of like an L shape. And then McDowell gets caught right in the armpit. And so because when we, and I watched the video, ended up watching the video later, it was off to his left because that's where the dude had squirted to, he grabbed his gun and he was shooting back at us this way and we were getting shot shot at from many different

directions outside of the compound and so uh all the squatters had went and got you know all their cashier shit and just they came back and tried to you know counter attack and so they got lucky and i could hear it on the radio you know immediately he got killed and then uh it was in vicinity so ran up we got to him myself a squad leader and two other guys i can't remember who they were at this time but I looked down and you could see his face and his eyes were rolled, it was over. Like, to me it was lights out. Yeah. It's a, it's a wrap.

And all you could see was a little pink mark in his pit. I'm like, fuck, man. So all I could think of was Begaro. And so I'm like, fuck, man, round two. And so I'm not a pessimist. You know, I'm optimistic, but I just, I, you know, when I see something and I'm like, tells me that that's what it is that's what it is i'm just like fuck and so and we ended up bringing them in the compound doing the right thing uh medic comes over we do you know do all the things

that we're supposed to do as rangers uh the medic does his job uh he needle ds him uh he moves he like and that you know it's just i think it's just reactionary but he was already dead and then uh they had jemal on the 47s actually at that time and so uh they had a surgeon and anesthesiologist just in like a combo dude or something. And so on, we were taking them into the, into the 47. And I just remember, we, we unfortunately had to get on the same aircraft. And so we're on the same aircraft with him. And they're working on Dave.

And it's like, the whole front of that aircraft is fucking red, dude, like red. And you see this short little surgeon, like in his ACUs, like his flight suit ACUs, just sitting there pumping, you know, on your platoon sergeant. And there's just fucking blood everywhere. And you're like, what, though? like you just like like holy shit what the fuck just happened you know like it it fucks with you pretty hard and but it's like you're so it's so easily you can compartmentalize it so not so easily but it's it's like you just swallow it and it's it's weird because a week later we're out

hitting targets right i think it was seven days but um and so we ended up going to bastion because we were very close to the Iranian border uh on that hit and so we ended up uh going to bastion they pronounced him dead there myself and another ranger we we basically where we've on we bagged them up and everything and we put him in a bag the rest of the platoon already went back to the to the fob and so we were his escort and they had a AC130 or not AC 130 but a C130 come in to pick us up it was like a ring route or whatever and so we put him on the on the 130 and then we escorted him back to Bagram to the mortuary affairs because the acting platoon sergeant at the time was or actually excuse me as my squad leader was like hey we're going to make sure that a ranger escorts him back to boggum

and so that was that was a tough one that was a really really tough time and so we you know seeing senior platoon son get killed like that's that's a hard one to swallow and so you know we get some, we get some days off and we get some time to rest and whatnot. And then, like I said, about seven days later, it was, it was game on. And those squatters didn't go after cashés anymore, uh, that, that deployment. So, um, yeah, that was, that was a rough deployment, but, uh, you know, that's the way it was. And so, you know, we survive and we live to fight another day and that's what we're going to do. And, uh, we'll remember them. And so, uh, But, you know, Dave was a really good dude.

So, and do as, you know, do as Rangers do right after that deployment. What do I do? I'm like, fuck it. Let's go to RC selection. Let's do something hard. Yeah. Right after that, right after experiencing that. And it's like, sign me up.

And so I got through that as well. Actually was able to make that. So first time go. Tell us a little bit about that about like, you said you ran into RRD guys on Red wings. I mean, so the idea that this small unit is out there is kind of on in on your mind. And I mean, did you, did you go to selection really? Because it was like you were trying to put that past experience behind you. You're like, give me the next challenge to focus my mind on. Well, so I, I think I was at the point where I was, uh, wanting to move on for whatever reason.

And because like I said, I'm, I, I can't remember. a lot of things. A lot of my brain, I guess, has shut that off. It's like, hey, you don't need to think about that for some reason. But, and so we had a guy in my squad, actually. He had gone to R.C. selection, RD selection. But, yes, that was the first time that I had interacted with RRD guys. And so, you know, the dude, like, I have long here now.

But the guy that was walking up was John Chella. He had a gnarly, gnarly beard. He had a suppressed 46, you know, which is bitching with the hundred-round nutsack on there. And he's got this bandana with this long fucking hair. And he's walking up with a rack. And it's like, what the fuck is this shit? And they're like, oh, that's the RRD guys. I was like, I don't go do that shit.

Because I always felt really comfortable in the woods. Like that was, for me, reconnaissance, like, you know, sitting there doing snoop and pooping type stuff. I really thought that was cool. I enjoyed the raids. I just, I don't know. I kind of wanted to try that. I was drawn to it. So I had ambitions.

I had big ambition. So I said, you know what? Let's try something. Because now I'm already in this unit, but now I have to go to another selection. And, you know, the attrition rates or the passing rates about 25, 35 percent. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, let me sign me up.

Let's do that too. So what was selection like? Brutal. For me. Very brutal for me because I did not prepare correctly. I will 100% you know, be honest with you on that. Like I didn't know shit about nutrition, about supplements. I mean, this is 2008.

And the way I grew up, I didn't grow up in a home where that was prevalent. I mean, I had a lot of great food. I had, you know, home-cooked food. You know, I had phenomenal food growing up. Menonites can cook some phenomenal home-cooked food, like homemade noodles, homemade enchilada sauce, homemade everything. homemade corn tortillas, you name it. Everything's homemade. And so I had good food, but I didn't know shit about nutrition.

So I brought like, I think like B12 or something like that, maybe some electrolytes to selection. That's it. I didn't know anything about anything. And so I was just raw dogging it. And so I struggled a lot. I have this just, I just have grit. I have heart and I will not quit. Like I will not quit.

It just, I will grind it out. And I've learned that about myself over the years. And I, that is something that I'm very familiar with. I'm very in tune with myself now, especially on a lot of reflection over the years, post-military. But just seeing how strong I was. I didn't realize it then. But I was very, very mentally tough, very tough.

Do you think that your upbringing had anything to do with that where other guys, like, were like, oh, this is too hard. You're just like, this is what we do? Yeah, I know absolutely. I think that I didn't have a hard upbringing like I was never abused like I didn't have like crazy rules where I had to, you know, like I wasn't a he worked like a Hebrew slave like some people say, you know, whatever. I had a good, I just had to work a lot. But I very disciplined. Like you're good. Like this is what we do. This is how we do it. And I'm also very loyal. Like wherever I learned that from, I don't know. But. I'm very loyal to those that I'm loyal to. And so it's like one of those things that if I'm loyal to you, you can bet your ass that that's it. Like I will be fucking loyal to the death. And so that's just how I am.

Maybe to a fault sometimes. But so now the, I think mainly it's stubbornness because my dad's really stubborn. And so and it's funny because I'll fast forward to just a few weeks ago when we were taught right before we were talking about the, you know, trans-magnetic, you know, cranial or whatever stimulation stuff. What they do is they line up your, basically your frequencies. And they were like, when I was going through the treatment, they were like, dang, you kind have a stubborn brain. So yeah, I could have told you that.

So it proceeds, you know, through all these years, it's still, I'm still stubborn. And it's like it shines through. But a lot of it is stubbornness. I just, I refuse to, I told myself, I will not, I will not quit. I said, they will have to tell me to get. When I get in the van, either they're going to tell me I'm done or I need to go to, you know, they will give me further instructions because that's what you get. You don't have a conversation there. They're like, take your instructions from the board.

That's all it is. You know? And it's like, okay, I'm not being dropped. So, hey, I'm going to keep going. Yeah. That's, that's really what it was. It was miserable. Like, I was not in good shape.

I mean, I was in good shape, but I was not in like selection shape. I just had a lot of heart and grit and I was too stubborn to quit. And so I don't like things to defeat me. And so I wasn't going to let it. And I said, the only way I'm going out is they're going to take me out. So I ended up making it. But it's long days. There's a lot of lanes that you traverse and you hit the Appalachian Trail.

You run into hikers, hippies, and whatnot. It's actually a really cool experience because you're sitting there sucking dick for beer money. and you know your orange shit and you're your your rubber duck and all this and you're cruising along like just fucking hooking it you're i mean you're doing like you know a standard 12-mile or in three hours is what you what we were doing up there and these people are like are y'all okay how far how far y'all going how far are y'all going and they're like oh about 12 miles like 12 miles like that oh yeah they're going to do 12 miles like that the whole way and there's like there's no way. I'm like, yeah, that's, that's how you do it. And there's like, there's no

way you can do that. I'm like, yeah, go down there and you'll see them. And they'll come running, running right up, 12 miles later, poop, they'll be right there. And so, but it's, it's a good experience because you get to, they teach you some good things, you get to see some beautiful landscape. Saw a lot of black bear, you know, a lot of beautiful scenery. I'm an outdoor guy. A lot of creeks, you know, got lost, boy got lost. And, you know, learned about, Learned about the gut feeling. Trust my gut. Trust that I know where I am.

You know, my gut knows where I am. My brain, I guess, does not. And something's deceiving me. But eventually I, you know, found my way and whatnot. But I was probably, like you do, an EIB, would you blade running? I was probably blade running in selection. But, hey, I don't give a shit. I still got my go.

Right. Right. And so. But now the, the last night was kind of, we ended up with, we had, what, I think, five or seven of us started? Art, like you said, you said, Jack, R or C, R or D is very, very unknown, unfortunately. And so the selection numbers are very small sometimes. And so even with that number, we only had two guys that ended up completing it.

Wow. And so, yeah, myself and then one of my buddies who's still in the Army right now. And so he and I actually, he ended up as the team sergeant and I was his ATL or his assistant team. leader. And so, yeah, that was good times because we went to selection together. And we were in RTC, the reconnaissance training course for nine months together. So we still talk to this day. And so yeah, a very good bond there. Had a lot of good shitty experiences, especially, you know, Sears School. That was fun. I don't know if Mike talked a little bit about Sears School because I was at Sears School with Mike. Oh, really? Oh, do you have some dirt on them? Let's hear it. No, I'm just

I just want a pizza, bro. Spils your team. I just want to. Yeah. Oh, no. Mike is, Mike is a very big character. He is larger than life. I don't know if the phrase Magnum came across and I don't really care.

But he's got a nickname Magnum for a reason. And if next time you talk to him, Jack, ask him why his nickname is Magnum. So I will. I don't, I don't spill other people's laundry. Yeah. It's a job. joke, but, hey, I just want to see his reaction on it. But, no, I love Mike Edwards.

Mike's a great dude. I spent, you know, through the reconnaissance training course. He and I didn't go to selection together. He and I, Mike Edwards, we were in the reconnaissance training course together. Love him to death. He doesn't live too far away from me. So, really good dude. To back up for just a moment, Felipe, you know, like we were talking about, you know,

it was a very small selection course said you started with seven guys. Now, by comparison, like, Rip or Rasp nowadays probably starts with a couple hundred guys. SFAS is probably like three, 400 guys. I've never been to a J-Sox selection course, but I know it's more than seven guys. I know it's, you know, a couple of platoons worth of dudes at least going through. Seven guys. I mean, it just speaks to how incredibly small RRC is. And so I was wondering if you could explain to, like, folks out there, especially guys out there in the Army now today,

what RRC is? So RRC up until 2017. So that is where I stopped because that's where I left. So I can't say, you know, you don't have firsthand knowledge, basically, because I'm not, I don't get to go behind the door anymore. Sure, sure. And so after 2017. And so up until 2017, so we had, it was very, we were very low on numbers, you know, just. Like always. That's just kind of how it goes across the board in J-Soc.

Guys are worked to death, not work to death, but guys are worked a lot. And there's a lot as expected of guys and gals and whatnot. And so, but, yeah, we had basically we're m-toed for six teams. And so you got about eight guys per team. And so when I got there, there was guys doing AFO stuff or advanced force operations. and so that's basically like plain clothes type stuff, low vis or whatever you want to call it, you know, gathering intelligence on that battlefield

or in that level of the battlefield. And so we had guys that were doing that, but then we had guys that were doing traditional recry or attack reccy, and that's what I started doing. So upon graduation from RTC, so we actually had two selections combined into one RTC because like you said, we had low numbers. Yeah, and I think we only had about, what is it, like nine guys.

I actually have a picture. One, two. I actually have a picture of us on our first mission in RTC over on my workbench. And I'm counting how many of us are there. One, two, three. Like, I think there's seven of us, seven or eight of us. And that was the RTC class. Like, that's it.

and so yeah we were both combined there and then I went to a tack reckey team I think pretty much all of us did and so we had about four like tack recic teams and they had like two aFO-ish teams and so things kind of change as the times change we still maintain that basically that number of teams And then as guys would come in and go, guys would kind of, we started doing that special mission program overseas in Afghanistan. Our senior officer, he started that. So basically it's, you know, it's a program that's, you know, all in the up and up. We take local nationals, we train them. There are guys.

We're in contact with them. They're vetted. Everything's, you know, we're good to go. And so they're all hand-selected. They're all trained by us. So basically they're our baby is kind of what it is. And so they would kind of mimic us, I guess, in what our role would be, one of our roles in regimental reconnaissance. So because once again, what do you do in Ranger Regiment?

You wear a lot of hats. You're not a, you're not just a breacher. You're everything. You're going to do everything. You're going to be the mechanic. You're the AC repair. No, but so you wear a lot of hats, even in RFC. You know, your jack of all trade is really a master of none.

And so you have to be, you know, cross-platform there quite a bit. And so we ended up, I ended up going to one team, and then a few months later I go to a different team, just kind of the way the Manning worked out. But ended up on our first deployment, that's exactly what we did. We stood up that program. It was basically a reconnaissance program there, for lack of better terms, there, in Afghanistan. And our guys, we ended up having a good number of guys by the time I left regimental reconnaissance. But that was a big portion of it.

And I get it. I know it's not big and sexy. You know, all the cool guy, Instagram photos and all that stuff. But my gosh, you know, these guys were getting some really, really good actionable intelligence. I mean, and unfortunately, a lot of times, you know, at the point, you know, at the point, problem was is we wouldn't they wouldn't clear it hot to strike and I'm and we're sitting there I'm on the phone with this dude on the fucking Rocheon and I'm like hey man talking to my guy that I've trained is this the guy he's like yes let me send you a picture boom takes a picture of the dude

you know even takes a picture of the dude next to him no big deal he's like he's here he's on the fucking list drop rounds yeah they're like No. Like, why not? That's not a good enough. That's not a good enough source. I'm like, well, he's not a source, but his information is firsthand not. He's standing next to the dude. Like he'll run away. Like he knows what to do. Yeah. So yeah. So we had to deal with that sometimes. And then we did some plain clothes stuff where, you know, you dress in local garb. We're doing, we did a lot of stuff in Kabul. and even in the outstations where we had our guys for each outstation with our local national partners there. And so they would basically handle all of them and say, you know, report back to us. And they, you know, you have all the different location, northeast, southwest. And so we service all locations. And so we're, you know, we're like Verizon.

We're everywhere. And so, and it worked out a lot because the task force commanders loved us because we were able to articulate. like hey look this this is the information you're getting and this is who you're getting it from this is how these guys were trained right and they were trained by us it's not just some cheese dick you know dude that that we just found off the street and we're like yeah hey man go over here and do this we'll pay a couple hundred bucks right it's like there we have there's a lot we spent a lot of money and time you know our own blood sweat and tears into these guys and so you know you have a little little bit of heartache when you see all that shit kind of just get fucking

wiped away with, you know, pulling out faster, you know, than your mom. Yeah. Yeah. I heard this from, well, let's let's back up a second. I mean, one thing to mention with this program, and if I'm editorializing, stop me at any time. But, I mean, the traditional RRD or RRC mission, you know, is that like six, seven-man warp team out there in the woods, you know, conducting a strategic reconnaissance or tactical reconnaissance.

And now what the program you stood up, now you. guys are training surrogates to go out and do that for you. And it's like taking it to a whole different level in a sense. Like you're also penetrating much deeper and doing the, because you're using locals to do these things to go places that you couldn't go. Yeah, absolutely because, I mean, I don't really look like, you know, a Muslim. I don't care how long, short, how much you color my face.

I'm only going to pass the test for so many yards. like at some certain distance they're going to know they're going to spot me mild you know they're going to be like yeah that's not a he's not from around here you know so why not use use what we have we have local nationals and so as surrogates they go in and they can live their normal lives they can do whatever that is they need to do but they're still it's passive collection right and what's weird is like how much faith our country put in like a random cell phone hit in order to launch a raid on that location eight hours later. Right.

But here you have active human assets taking photos. And it's like, well, we don't know. Yeah, because you're scared. You're scared that this information isn't valid. But it's like if you would read the emails and the information that we set out, then you would know that these are, these guys are very. more than a lot of people that you're trusting with to pull the trigger right you know or to say hey yeah let's launch right it's unfortunate because I can call a guy like

on the Roche and be say hey dude go do a CTR real quick and send me a report and it's like within less than probably I can probably that night or that morning I have a report right a detailed report on what what he saw pictures but you know everything and it's like I can forward that I can give that I can go right over to the strike force and be like man you might want to bring some ladders you might want to bring this because this is what my guy is seeing and they're like oh shit damn what else did he see you know i sr only gets so much this dude can see that hell he probably may even know the person right so you know he might even be

able to leave legate him love so do you think some was some of the distrust because the program was brand new and did that start to change you know in subsequent deployments so my personal assessment of that question is that I think it's personality based and individual based is how the program ran. So just like anything, you know, you have two, two, three, four, ten, twelve individuals, whatever, but generally it was a program manager and the task force commander is who you were, you know, talking to. And so that communication needed to be, you know, you guys need to have a good relationship,

good communication, good relationship. And so that relationship was different from team to team and commander to commander. So you could see the fluctuation and the changes in that. And so you just kind of worked with how it was going. You try to read the room and read the commander and kind of read how the previous team is doing and how they're doing things, excuse me. And so when you kind of get a feel for it, when you do your left seat, right seat ride. but I think over over the years we gained a lot of traction.

We had a lot of good intelligence, a lot of good information that was brought out and a lot of good things that came about from the program, a lot of confidence that came of that in those individuals that were, you know, the guys that were running the program and whatnot. And so just because of the things that we were able to produce. Because some people actually did pay attention and actually did care. So I think what it was is a lot of the intelligence nerds were a little butt hurt because of the type of, you know, intelligence we were getting and how easily I was getting it without having to pay these dickheads, you know, all this exorbitant money that you dumbasses pay them. Right. It's like, why? Right.

You know, you know, he's going to come back, you know, for more. Right. It's just the way we did it. It's, it was, you know, it was very controlled. And it was way more controlled than the way these other intelligence. types do it and so um which is kind of it was kind of disheartening at times because like dude you got actionable intelligence go what was it was it challenging because like you talk about the the intelligence people paying their sources money but the intelligence people are still part of

like whatever organization it is right they're not they're not like you guys where you're sort of a standalone element running these guys and then selling it to the the the the unit, you know, the unit, you know, conducting the ops. So whereas like an, like a native, and by that I mean, a unit owned intel person can say, oh, this person brought me this amazing information. They're going to be immediately believed, even if the information's shit, whereas you guys. Right. Because it's not just the credibility of the source.

It's also the credibility of the handler, right? Well, and you guys weren't in whatever element that was that was conducting assaults. Yeah, because you're working on, you know, a J-Soc level. And so you have all branches in that intelligence, you know, wing or in that intelligence area of the jock. They're, you know, all different branches. You got Army-Navy Marines because when I went in there to talk to these guys, it was like, okay, now I'm talking to some Marine, you know, officer, now some Navy officer, whatever. I don't care.

you are. Right. You know, it doesn't matter. But there was just so many different personalities and I really think that personalities unfortunately got in the way of good business because a lot of good business could have been had and dealt with, you know, dick measuring contests. And, you know, well, I don't like you because you did this to me. And so we're going to fuck you off for the next three, six months or the rest of this

deployment. Because you see it where the deployment like people just kind of pretty much, you know, cold shoulder you the whole, you're like, dude, come on. Yeah. I have to wonder if part of it, too, was that this is a type of mission and a type of program that no one really associates with the Ranger Regiment, right? No. Yeah, they think they think that it's just knuckleheads kicking down doors. And this is something that's very unconventional, you know, and it sounds like you guys did it very well. And so, again, this is just purely me speculating.

I wonder if there was some skepticism that the regiment could do something like this on other levels. Yeah, the ape did graduate school, you know, that's the good thing. And, you know, it's, we are smart enough. And that's why, you know, I was a cadre when I blew my knee out in 2000, I think it was 11. Yeah, 2011. I was doing my one on an M-LAT, Airfield seizure in Nevada. And so coming in, just hyper-extended it and snapped lateral collateral ACL MCL. everything just bloop popped at all and that was a good time so uh that was you know

18 months three cadaver ligaments later uh recovery so i just i once again like to abuse myself do you do you feel that because we've talked about so for people who haven't watched the other shows and don't understand about uh ranger recontimental deta ranger reconiscence regimental attachment and regimental reconnaissance company. At one point in time, RRD was a regimental level asset and doing, you know, doing the reconnaissance for regiment. And then it turned out they were so fucking good at their job that the national level goes, oh, well, now they're a national level asset.

like and rangers need to stand up their own battalion wreckes right and then and then the detachment had to grow to a company but do you feel that like some of the roadblocks you guys had was because people didn't know enough about you absolutely um and i will caveat immediately and just immediately say that we didn't help our cause a lot of times either though so because you got guys that once they get they go over there and they're like oh now i'm in rc now i can grow my hair i have a beard or whatever y'all are beneath me and it's like whoa stop we're still we're still in the army buddy you're you still have a rank everybody has rank we still use it like that don't get it twisted like just because we're on a first name basis here that it doesn't right we're still rangers you know

we can be relaxed but when it comes time to business we can do business you know it's fine and that's what you what you want and need there and yes jack i think that people are I think people were jealous at some point because they're like oh look at these guys because they get to go wear civilian clothes and go skydive and it's it's like look dude go to selection that's what I did I don't know what to tell you you know and it we're doing a different mission we're asking for support we're supporting the entire task force not just first second or third Ranger battalion yes we still support the battalion because we're lined up with the battalion obviously because that's how things

work. We're all, you know, patternistic. So yes, we're, we support the battalion that we, we deploy with, but we're supporting the entire task force there when we're over there. Right. So, you know, that helps everybody, not just the platoon or the, you know, the company that we're there. It's everybody. And so it, unfortunately, you know, too many people with the dick measuring contest and egos and whatnot and they're like why I'm you know I went to selection so I'm better than no it's like hey man we just need some help yeah we need support you know you're you're increasing our our detachment to a company now we need you know all these people in the operation cell and the you know support cell so that we can do our job and so we were very limited on numbers and two on numbers as well the

entire time that I was there even in the operation cell it was always low low bare bones you You know, everybody's worked to the bone. And so it's just kind of how it was because regiment doesn't see a small company like that as necessary as the rest of Ranger Regiment. And I understand that. And I mean, that, I get that. I understand that. But it wouldn't, it wouldn't hurt to help out, you know, them as well every now and now. You know, when I was there.

So are you saying, correct me if I'm wrong, but are you saying that there was generally more friction, with regiment with battalions than with other J-Soc elements? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. We had a lot of friction with other battalions, other, you know, RSM, RCO or whatever. No, I think the RCO actually we had pretty good. We had some friction with several of the sergeants majors that came through. And so they just didn't like us.

And I don't know if one of our guys pissed them off, you know, which I would, and doubt it, probably smarter it off and said something stupid, which you shouldn't. Like, there's more scrutiny on you when you're wearing plain clothes and a beard. It's like, you should be extra, you know, extra shut the fuck up. So, like, just be quiet. Be respectful. Like, do your job. And that, unfortunately, there's guys that just can't handle that sometimes.

So, yes, they get, you know, removed from the company. But I think that happens everywhere you go. Yeah. And but I think no matter where you go, you're going to have friction, you're going to have that kind of stuff. But we were still very effective at what we did. Like, we got a lot of praises from a lot of, you know, task force commanders and a lot of, you know, assistant task force commander, whatever, deputy commanders and all these, like, we did a lot of good shit. We did a lot, a lot of good work. And so, you know, that's something that I can be proud of and say that we, you know, we did good shit.

And so, you know, our program did for the amount of money that we were given, because, you know, our program wasn't the only program out there. There was a number of programs out there that, and ours was probably the lowest on the budget, that's budget-wise, and we were far more effective than some of these that had received 10 times what we received, because why?

We're Rangers and we just, you know, do we polish this turd until that son of a bitch signs? You know, it's going to look like a Cadillac if you want. And that's just what we did. And that's just a testament to who we are. We just work at it and we'll make it happen.

And so could you tell us you got another interesting mission that you got sent on. Another deployment was over Africa, East Africa. I wonder if you could tell us about that. That's kind of a unique one. Yeah. So East Africa or Hola, Horn of Africa, so you have Djibouti out there. And then you have, what, Air Force Navy out there in Djibouti. And so there was several other little outstations, if you were.

want to call them that that the Navy has been occupying for a number of years. The RRD guys, which later on turned into REC, they've been deploying to these areas and hanging out with these seals and the other various J-Soc elements from the Army, Marines, you know, all that stuff, seals and whatnot that we're coming with and doing this. You basically have a hodgepodge of, you know, J-Sog dudes come together to this outstation and then they start running operations out of these outstations and going to the embassy and whatnot. And so we were basically just a continuance of that. And they eventually established a similar program that we had established in Afghanistan. So they're like, hey, you guys already know this. So you can just come in

and, you know, basically fall in line and we'll run the program. And, you know, they're training these guys doing the same, basically the same thing we were doing. And so a little bit different mission. And so, which actually was a really good deployment. because about 100 yards behind the compound, our house was the Gulf of Aden. So for four months, I went and paddleboarded and spearfished and, you know, got a lot of tanning done on the beach and a lot of volleyball. So the montage scene from Top Gun. Oh, my gosh. It was, no, it was beautiful.

But, no, we had some good, you know, a lot of good goat meals. Went out a couple times. We had, so, you know, so that's a, it's not like Afghanistan where the, you know, it's not a designated theater of active war on conflict. So this one's outside of that. And so there it's a lot more sensitive, obviously. I'm sure some of your previous guests have mentioned in those areas where you can't just run out and just be like, hey, we're going to wax these dudes.

So, um, I was not out on this one. unfortunately, but the seals had gone out with these guys with the locals. And they were, you know, we keep taking parts of this mountain. And then six months later, it gets taken back. And then six months later, it gets taken back. And it just keeps going like this big flip-flop back and forth. And I'm just like, why is it, you know, why can't we just hold the ground? And it's all about money, I guess.

And whoever's, you know, on deployment, that deployment. But so we, we had guys. that were maneuvering on the element that was the the locals that we had trained there and everything and these guys are kind of very trigger-happy if you've ever been around you know Somalis before they hear a rock slide somewhere and their magazine is dumped it's over like they're just shooting all of them they just turn around and they just start BKMs are going off and like we're like whoa whoa whoa whoa like stop shooting where is anybody shooting at

you no okay so you know you got to be very careful with these guys. So eventually these guys are maneuvering, which was al-Shabaab actually, and so they're maneuvering on top of this mountain because they're emplacing a mortar and the significance of was it was a type of ISR asset they were using. It was a very small ISR asset that we were launching off of the beach head or off the beach right where we were staying. And so because I would wake up and I'd help them, you know, the UAV guys, I'd help them launch and whatnot and catch the UAV and whatnot but they were using that actually to spot and they actually dropped rounds on on them they dropped a hellfire on these guys that dropped a couple of them on them and that was the first

time that that had happened in a very very very long time so that was it was a very significant event and I think that kind of stopped that whole everybody up there on that mountain just kind of was like okay these guys are something's difference happening right now so um Day later they come back and it was, yeah, it was pretty quiet up there after that. And, but Africa is a little bit different story. Those mountains are a little bit, a little bit different. It's very, very rough. We mainly stayed in the mountains.

And like I said, in that little encampment, they're training these guys. You know, it's not like basic training, but it's just like a constant training cycle with these guys. And then going out with them doing IADS training and whatnot. but yeah there was there was a I don't know how many rounds were shot at them but I don't don't think any of the the locals there shot any of the guys that were that had the mortar they were just shooting in I think pretty much every direction but hey at least they had that whatever covered that they were shooting at so but yeah like I said did a lot of spear fishing so I had a lot of triple you know nice fish big fish to fry on the on the barbecue and whatnot so because we always had

to cook for ourselves. And, uh, no, it was, it was, it was, it was kind of weird, you know, you're on the beach, but yet you're on deployment and you're, you're still going out and whatnot. And it's, uh, kind of a unique experience, but a little bit different than Iraq and Afghanistan. Could, could you expand on that a little bit? Like, how, uh, how was it different than Afghanistan in terms of like the mission or the, the, the, the, the, uh, social structure. I mean, what, what kind of jumped out at you as being different? It's, it's so much more restricted. Like you you have to be so much more careful about what you say you can't just go in there and just do whatever you want like people think that you because you're US Mill you can just go in there and swing a hammer and They have to listen to you no man it don't work that way like they don't care so money talks out here and that unfortunately that's the only way that you get anything done out there

There it's everything is is much much slower everything moves much slower. A lot of corruption is I is from what I, you know, my own assessment of what I saw and whatnot within what those guys are doing out there. But that's to be expected. You know, those Somalis, hey, it is, you got to get it when you can, I guess. In a way, I guess I can't blame them. You know, because with it being, you know, in a place where we're not actively going out every day doing raids and whatnot because of the, you know, environment that it's in, it's, it's kind of relaxed, but it's not. because they're still, you know, a couple of hundred meters down the road. You got, you got dudes setting up bombs still, you know, because they're attacking police and whatnot.

And, you know, my thing is I'm not really too worried about those guys. I'm more worried about these dudes high on cot. And then they start clacking rounds off because they shoot at noises. They shoot at anything. They don't care. And so, you know, you're switched on for them and for the al-Shabaabab that's there because they're still hostile. They know where we are. They're still trying to attack us.

They're still trying to, you know, set roadside bombs and do all that stuff. And so you kind of have two different things that you've got to be concerned with. And so Afghanistan, it was like, hey, yeah, you know, I've got Afghans here. But it's like it's a little bit different because I don't think, I wouldn't, I wasn't be as worried about these guys that my guys that I had as far versus the Somalis that we had. I was more concerned. My guys I was more confident with because I knew what they could, they were capable of. And I knew that they would at least shoot in the right direction and probably at least put

rounds on target because I taught them how. And so versus some of these guys who were struggling with that. And, you know, like I said, these dudes are high on cock because there's no rules against that. The truck comes and it's, dude, it's like a feeding frenzy every, whatever day it was. And every, yeah, yeah. And then it's like they get those. And then they get, you know, the truck full of cotton.

And they started going out there and playing soccer. Every day soccer was, I think, 5 p.m. every day. And death blossoms. Yeah. No, it was, yeah. And obviously we're, you know, collecting intelligence and doing things like that. And there's different things going on and whatnot out there. But that being the primary mission.

And it was a cool deployment, though. It was just cool to see the way that program was ran versus the way. we ran our program. Ours was much smaller in numbers, much smaller in, you know, money, budget-wise and everything. But it was, you know, two different types of missions. Like ours was it really is overt, I guess, and direct. Ours was, you know, kind of passive.

And these guys are, you know, very direct. They're direct action, ambush, raid, you know, that type of stuff. I highly doubt they would do any type of clandestine, kind of work. But, yeah, it was cool to see that. just because it's the difficulties in trying to teach these guys no shit like types of iads and whatnot and my guys I'm teaching a little bit different types of iads and I'm teaching my guys how to use electronics too and so that was a little bit different trying to teach an afghan you know which

surprisingly some of these dudes are really good really really good with with electronics and whatnot and so that was surprising but also good and some of them were just like oh my gosh you're you're not smart at all. You're a strong ranger. But, no, it was just a different, you know, a different dynamic there. And like I said, a lot more hostile, I guess, in Afghanistan. Like, you know, you're ramped up. You're just ready to go because you're going to do, you know, a raid of some sort. And so here you're more laid back and you're kind of cherry picking stuff and cherry

picking when you're going to go just because you have, you can't be out there in the front. It's the AAA. It's a vice assistant company type stuff. And so, I mean, that's what we're in. That's how it goes. But sometimes you get lucky and you get to, you know, throw some rounds down range doing that kind of stuff. And it had changed, though, because the guys had done previous deployments, same places that I had been and the other place we had went. But just because of the way the program had changed, it really limited us to where we, I think at the state and time in the state. State Department was coming in and kind of pushing people around and telling people, hey, we've taken over type thing. That's what I gathered, because on the way out is what I, basically what I was told,

State Department was basically taken over. And I was like, okay, whatever. So, but that's kind of just how things change, especially when it's not owned. It was, you know, the AO or the space is owned by the Navy. so. And now we're sort of getting towards, you know, 2018, 2019. And you mentioned some of the injuries that you had. Did you eventually have to be med-boarded out of the Army? Yeah. So I left RRC, made it to assistant team leader.

I left RFC in April of 2017. I was burned out. I was because I just didn't, I didn't stop. And so I had at that point. already blown out shoulders like you know the rotator cuffs were fine but I had ac separations I had slapped tears like just completely worn out and then my left knee was still jacked up like I said I had those three cadaver ligaments that was 2011 and my right foot was still jacked up from breaking it two different times

having three different surgeries on that and like in my head was you know just jacked up and I was an alcoholic too by in 2017 I was full-fledged like Like I was drinking at least like whatever, a bottle, you know. I was drinking, what, that bottle you got right in front of either, Jack? Yeah. I would drink that in at least six or eight IPAs. That was every day. Holy shit.

Every. And that was while I was in regiment. I was still maintaining regimental standards. Was that? You're a functional alcoholic. Yeah. Yeah. Hell yes, I was.

Was that for pain? Was that for sort of psychological stability? Was it a combination of things? It was, for me it was, basically it was just, that was the only thing I knew how to deal with all the noise. Like, I didn't know how to deal with any of this. Like, I didn't know what to do. I didn't.

So my thing was to drink. I loved to drink. I loved it. It was, I always had a good time. everybody else may not have had a good time but I sure did and so yeah that was my coping mechanism you know nicotine and nicotine and alcohol and so that's what I turned to um you know got divorced in 2013 so you know heavy alcoholic back then too um and so you know alcohol is just it's so prevalent everywhere it's kind of like expected you know I mean look at look at our military

you know I'm not knocking on you guys up right drink away drink your heart's desire or whatever but you see it in the military you see it it's so like yeah drink drink drink drink drink drink drink everywhere it's drinking and it's just like dude to drink in moderation cool but when you're drinking a bottle of night you're killing yourself right like alcohol is really not good for you when you break it down alcohol's not good for you and I'm living proof of that because I quit drinking over five years ago and my blood works fucking phenomenal. And so, and I don't take any medications. Like, I take zero prescribed medications. So, you know, it's like, I'm off. No SSRIs, no blood pressures, no nothing. And so, you know,

I'm rock solid, but it's not, it's not a road that is short at all. Um, the alcohol took a lot. And, you know, eventually, what was funny is I never got a DUI and regiment. I didn't get my DUI until I left Ranger Regiment. So I was in the big army and I got a DUI. And so at the time, the two-star general, he was, he didn't care. He was coming down hard on seniors, like senior NCOs and officers. So anybody that got to DUI, he didn't care what it was, didn't matter. He immediately, you got a Go-Mar, general, you know, a letter reprimand from a general officer.

And boom, it's over. And I was like, fuck. So I dropped a med board packet. I didn't know what, you know, I didn't have anything else. So thankfully that, you know, saved me because, you know, it, it helped out significantly when I left the army because of, you know, medical insurance and disability and all that stuff. And so I left in a much better situation. It was not the way I wanted to leave the army. I only made it to, you know, 15 and a half years.

but yeah just you know burning it on both ends yeah being gone for four months and then you know I tell people that like so imagine it you're gone for four months straight like on a deployment and then you come home for literally two weeks and then I leave for three weeks immediately you know so I'm home for two weeks to leave and then I leave for three weeks to go my jump trip so I go three weeks you know MFF jump trip where we just work our ass off for three weeks and then I'm home for a week and then I get ready for MLAT and then I go to MLAT for three weeks and then I come home and then it's like

I may have courses that I still have to go so it's like you see how in between these deployments you're never home and so it's like the first four years in my daughter's life I wasn't home yeah so it's like I barely saw her in between TDIs and deployments like it's fucking rough

and so I drank a lot yeah and you know any pills like dude you give me pain pills shit I'll take that Yeah. You know, I don't give a fuck, you know, because you want to numb the pain. Yeah. And so, yeah, I took my DUI.

And since that DUI, I haven't drank. And so it's rough. Like, it's not fun. Like, it's still rough. And it's, it's a rough road. But it's just like, it's one of those things that I'm so stubborn that I just, I'm like, I'm not doing it. And so for me, it's one of those things that I don't care who drinks.

Like, any people can drink around me. I'm cool with that. I'll volunteer to be D.D. Like, no problem. All day. I'll be that. all day and so um to prevent somebody else from getting the DUI because that fuckers expensive and so uh you know but it helped to open my eyes a little bit and so um

but i want to talk a bit more about the uh the recovery aspect of it yeah do we have questions we do have some questions um so far let me pull them up while i'm pulling these up though you know you mentioned your DUI and obviously commands need to punish for DUIs because you know it's you know because DUIs you risk like

harming innocent people and stuff but at the same time at the same time you know guys who have been or people who have been in you know many years of combat did anybody at any point

like did this general officer whoever he was in addition to the punitive side did they also say did he also give you like a mental health referral and say hey like what's going on did the army did anybody the army ever look at it or did just go bad yeah because that that that is the other part of it is yeah there's disciplinary issues but also why is that happening the other things that are happening in your life uh in addition combat deployments uh the separation with your wife

marriage dissolving not seeing your kid grow up all of those things are factors that they're factors in something else going on in your life. It's not just that you're undisciplined and decided to throw back a few drinks and drive one night, right? As you described, there's a bit more going on there. Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot. There's a lot going on, unfortunately. Even right now, like, there's so much going on.

And it's years and years and years later, you know? Like, it's wild. You said you had a question, David? Yeah, so we have some questions on the channel. Let's see. We have a few questions. Oms, thank you very much for the donation. Oms says, cheers.

General discharge, thank you for the donation. Thanks for all you do, fellows. Louis Fasquez, thank you very much. Nice avocados. Oh, I like it. Those are from my wife, actually, by the way. Yeah, so that's the next to the avocados is a Maraca. I'll have to tell you the story about that one.

I have shin splints often, and it's making it difficult to do long hikes. Do you have any advice on how to avoid it, and do you have any recovery advice? This question could be answered by anyone. Thank you. Man, I, so my shin splints were airborne school, so that was circa 2004. That was when I had them. And for me, I think the biggest thing is shoe selection. and fitment of that shoe because I don't think I had proper shoe fitment and I was running all fucked up.

I think it's what it was. And it's like because I finally found shoes that I wear that don't make my back hurt and don't make my feet hurt. If I find shoes that don't make my feet hurt, I'm buying them. And I finally found pairs and it's weird because there's zero drop. Like they're basically, you know, Chuck Taylor's, but they have, you know, their ultras. or like running shoes or whatever. And so shoe selection is a critical component. But, you know, obviously recovery, do your recovery.

And you're the best person to ask about recovery and how you feel is yourself. Listen to yourself, listen to your body. The worst mistake I made was listening to other people when I should have been listening to myself. If your body's telling you something, listen to your body. But to me it was about shoe selection and also like about how you strike the ground. That was a big thing too, because you can be running all jacked up. Have somebody watch you how you run. Maybe, you know, pay for somebody to be like, hey, show me how to run. We did that with my daughter just to help improve her running and it's helped tremendously.

And so that would be my recommendation. Yeah, I used to do like ice and heat, like going back and forth just to kind of help the area. But like you say, like a lot of it, a lot of shin splints comes from overtraining. you know, bad gait and poor shoe selection. Yeah, and that's a thing, posture. Gate and, you know, that's a lot of my shoulder problems are because my shoulders are scrunched forward. We need to be further back.

And so there's a lot of problems can be alleviated just by, you know, that type of self-care, which is something that we, you know, self-care was that bottle. Right, right. I need to be stretching, doing yoga, doing foam rolling. I need to meditate. Like, no, why would I do any of that? I can drink, make all that.

the pain go away. And so, right. No, that's, and that's something that I've learned, you know, doing the yoga,

doing the meditation, doing the mindfulness stuff. Like, that's, that's key. That's very critical. And then over-training. People think that I have to grind,

grind, grind, grind, grind, do this shit 24-7. Look, bro, you're not David Goggins, okay? And you don't see behind the scenes. I'm picking on him just because, you know,

he's always out there. And, you know, whatever. He's crazy dude. He's always getting his knees drained, like getting gallons of fluid out of his knee strain. I don't want to do that.

If you want to be hard, stay hard. Rock on, brother. You do your thing, you know. But that's a lot. That takes a lot. You're grinding a lot. And that's, you can grind yourself down real quick doing that. So be careful with the training.

Joe's got you. Thank you very much. Does R.C. have a direct action hostage rush your aspect to his charter like Kag and Damneck or is the organization predominantly about? He says ISR. But he means AFO and recon. So no hostage rescue type stuff, no, that's not. So you still, so you're still a ranger at the end of the day.

You're still a ranger NCO. So you're still supposed to be able to, expected to be able to do direct action missions, MLATs and all that stuff, just like a regular, like an NCO and the line would. And so even on our deployments, when I was working with RRC, I would still go out with the strike force at night. And so I'd just be like strap hanging with them. And so that was really cool because I just kind of get to float around, you know,

and hang out and kind of just, you know, hey, I get to be on a BP or go clear or do whatever with these guys. And a lot of you guys after you finish your time in RRC are going to go and be platoon sergeants, be first sergeants in the line companies. Absolutely. And so it's you're you're working with the people that you could probably be in charge of. You know, this might be your platoon, might be your company. And so that happened. You know, we had guys that went on to be a platoon first sergeants and whatnot in the different battalions.

And so you want to build that, you know, that cohesion there because we need more guys. We're looking for mature NCOs to come over and be like, hey, man, you know, we can trust you to work out onesies and twosies in these areas. But it's traditionally the reccy and the AFO type stuff, yeah, because that's our bread and buck. But, you know, hey, Jack of All Trades, Master of None. You've got to know how to do everything, man. Got to know how to do it all. Alejandro, thank you very much. Hey, Pedy, seriously, how are you born in Mexico,

grew up in Texas and not Abla Español? You've got to be one of the worst Mexicans I know. Ha, ha, ha, ha. And he did the ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha in the Latin American. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course he would. Of course he would. No, I'm a horrible.

I'm a horrible immigrant Latin. I'm not, I'm actually, I have no Latin in my DNA, so, which is funny because I do have the, whatever, the ancestry thing done. And it's like, like I said, Germanic Europe, Swedish, Denmark and all that. My dad speaks Spanish fluently. Like, he's got the mustache, black hair, everything, you know. He's straight past, like, when he's in the summer, he would pass for a Mexican, like a light-skinned Mexican. And so he just never taught me. He was just one of those weird things. And his employees,

so his employees growing up were Mennonites. And so I'd speak to them in the German, in the German that we spoke, English, and then a little bit of Spanish, like broken Spanish, but I don't know. I just never, they never taught me. And I guess I should have learned. I need to learn. That must have came up in Ranger Battalion a lot. You're a Mexican, immigrant, but don't speak to any Spanish at all. Oh, yeah. Oh, I know the curse. I know the curse words. I know the words I'm not supposed to or not supposed to say. My mom's like, you know, I say that and she just looks at me and I'm like, hey, you know. But yeah, yeah, I'm a horrible Mexican.

Alejandro will scold. He can scold me later. And again, another generous donation from him. This is also, Alejandro. Jokes aside, I'm proud of all things you're doing to take care of yourself, everything you're doing. and can't wait to see what all you accomplished next. Love you, dude. Two.

Yeah, that's right. Second bat. Second bat. That's right. That's right. I do. It's coming. Oh, yeah.

Sam, thank you very much. Dee, is that a big penis? It looks like it. Yeah. Okay. I'm not an expert. Nice. I'm an expert.

Nice. That's a penis. That is for sure. That's a penis in action, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. PIA right there, penis in action.

That's right. I like it. My man. Kansda, thank you very much. Did going into the military change your faith? Yeah, because so, and it's changed three different times, I guess. So joining the military, I was very regimented, very rigid. So before I joined the military, so Mininite is kind of like Protestant.

ish, just a little bit stricter with some of the dumb rules or whatever because it's just an interpretation of a book. That's all it is. And so, I mean, you break it down, like religion to me, it's an interpreter. You're just setting rules up for an interpretation on a book. And so the way I was raised, it was like super regimented, super like, you know, you don't join the military first. And so I'm in the military and I'm doing all these things. I'm partying. I'm drinking. I'm seeing all these things happening. You know, I'm having sex before marriage. you know going to hail and so there I didn't I was still always always still believed in God just not I was like the way I was taught was kind of weird I'm just like

it's very regimented I want I went kind of more with the Protestant side in the military and then when I kind of lost not lost faith or whatever I just kind of got away from it towards the end of my career in the military and then I started messing with plant medicine so mushrooms cannabis you know DMT things like that. And so, and then I'm like, holy shit. And so perspective has changed again on religion. And so what I believe in it. And so it's kind of, it's morphed. I still kind of believe pretty much the same thing, but it's just overall I've become very loose with, very open-minded with it, I guess I should say, instead of loose. It's very, very open-minded as far as what exactly religion is and whatnot. But I still

have faith in the things that I have faith in, and I believe in the things that I have faith in. And I believe in the things that I believe in. And so, and actually plant medicine has actually reinforced that tremendously. So would you sort of say that you have sort of the same spiritual values, but your, your idea of doctrine has kind of opened up? Yeah, because when you, so when you do Ibegain or 5MEODMT, it is a completely different ballgame. Like you, it's so hard to describe what happens when you take those medicines because everybody has a different experience and especially the the DMT because our bodies produce DMT and so it's a naturally occurring substance and so it a lot of people call it the God molecule and so there have been theists that have taken this this plant you know this medicine

and become or atheists have taken this and become theists excuse me because they for whatever they saw God their version. of God and before they didn't believe in God. And so a lot of people experience their version of heaven, of bliss, of God, of whatever it is. And so which can be experienced on psilocybin as well. And so I've been like microdosing things like that because the psilocybin actually helps with brain function and neuroplasticity. And it helps to, it's been shown to help reconnect neuropathways in your brain, And so the sack that's around your brain gets jacked up really bad through all these IEDs and getting blasted in the face during, you know, football PT at, you know, Ranger Battalion where you just beat the shit out of each other for an hour and a half, playing whatever a game it is or, you know, boxing people or getting into fights or whatever.

You got all this trauma and, you know, jacks all that up. And so the psilocybin actually helps repair that and helps reconnect those neuropathways to be like, oh, shit, now, you know, now I'm able to actually think a little bit. bit more clearly and more you know I'm cognitively a little bit my function is way higher now really so oh absolutely no I I'm you know especially messing with um taking micro doses of like the psilocybin and lion's mane and shataki and ricey like all these other types of mushrooms that that are so beneficial for you it's like to me you know I'm not a vegan I'm not a like this weird fucking hippie dude plant medicine but like plant guy or whatever but it's like I you know I eat red meat, pork, all that stuff. It's just, I've found that I don't need pharmaceuticals because plants

are what were put on this earth to heal us. And we actually have the ability to heal ourselves. And so it's been very interesting because my faith in God itself hasn't really wavered per se as far as believing what I believe. It's just experiencing, when you experience death on DMT, it's it's pretty it's pretty a nerveing kind of when you think about it but it's it's fucked up and it's wonderful all at the same time it was like one of the greatest experiences that you'll experience and so and it's just kind of the beginning I'm I'm a work in progress so I'm going to need some more and we're going to continue to do that though because that's I found to be way more effective than any type of you know pharmaceutical treatment that I've experienced so far

I want to really talk about sort of your experience, like going from alcohol and getting out and kind of dealing with all that. Alejandro had two more questions. One I think you answered. And then the last one is, oh, he says last one, I'm still at work. What would you say is the worst company of battalion and why was it Bravo? Well, it obviously wasn't Bravo. No, it was alpha company. The AlphaBats.

It's the AlphaBots. Yeah, the AlphaBots. Yes, it's the AlphaBots. I mean, you could say HHC because they just suck, but no, there's always the alpha bots. I liked BCO when I was there. I had friends in BCO, so, and I also had friends in ACO, but they were, I was like, I ain't going to ACO. BCO was the second battalion of the companies, you know? Yeah.

Like, it was, it was the more kind of like, you know, chill. Oh, no, it was. It was. Okay, so let's, so you get a DUI. So did you stop drinking immediately after your DUI? Cold turkey. Like what, what was that for you? Because you had been using alcohol to sort of self-medicate, self-treat up to that point.

What was it about that DUI that, you know, like that that's a lot of willpower. Yeah, it's a lot of willpower. No, it was because I have a daughter. and I I can't drink when I I can't drink and have a daughter and be functioning

like that that's just it doesn't work like I I will you know I'm like I'll be was a Frank to Tank like in old school Frank to Tank you know it's it's game on

we're wide open if you're not first you're last right so right it's it's that's you know I have to be careful with that because you know one side is just as extreme as the other so I have to be careful with that you know they're not

drinking and so you can pick up different habits that can be just as damaging but it not be alcohol and so yeah going cold turkey is very tough I do not recommend that for anyone and I mean I had been drinking consistently heavily for years and years and years you know I could drink with the best of them I spent so much money on alcohol so did you have some awareness that you were that you were self-medicating? Did you have some awareness that you had this trauma, that you had this stuff going on, that you weren't dealing with? Or was there something that, was there somebody or something that sort of like woke you up to that?

So it was, it was, I started or I self-admitted to, I say self-admitted, but I started going to EBAH, behavioral health or whatever, the Army was calling it at that time and to see a counselor because I'm like hey whatever's going on is not working I'm going to I'm going to kill myself you know I'm going to drink myself to death or something's going to happen so I need to talk to somebody or something and so I just I started doing the counselor thing and then several months later I ended up getting the DUI so I have to go and I was already out of the Ranger Regiment so I'm in the big army now and I had to go through the ASAP program or whatever like when you get the DUI there's no hey you're going straight to the ASAP program I already had a counselor so she was ASAP certified and so I just went through her and did the program through her and everything and you know I had to piss every week you know make sure you're not drinking and all that I didn't thankfully I didn't have to go to meetings I just went to see her like twice a week or whatever it was we arranged that and so she's like as long as you're not drinking and you come see me whatever like twice a week or whatever it was and you go to DUI school and you're

do this, this and this. I won't make you go to A.A. meetings. Like, I never, I haven't done 12 steps. I don't know what the 12 steps are. I don't have a coin. No one's ever given me a coin. I don't have a, you know, one year coin, a two year. I don't have any of that shit.

I just fucking raw dog it. And just, today's another day. I didn't drink. Yeah. And so tomorrow is another challenge. And then tomorrow night, hey man, because I, well, I'll see my daughter tomorrow. So I definitely know I'm not drinking. There's no way because I'm going to be around her.

I mean, I'm not drinking either way. but yeah and i still you know that's i still think about it in that way yeah that's how that's how much it's still there even after going doing plant medicine you know and and and so it's it's one of those things that i know i have to be careful with and so you know i i do i do fine with you know other means of uh consumption and whatnot and so you know whether it's cannabis or or mushrooms man it's like you know they're they're so beneficial And I highly recommend a lot of people go down that, at least explore it, educate yourself. And that's what unfortunately is happening.

So many veterans are so uneducated on plant medicine because they're relying so heavily on VA or pharmacy to help them. Right. And unfortunately, I hate to tell you, but those pills aren't going to fix you, buddy. Right. You know, they won't, even the plant medicine won't fix you. you know it's that's something that you have to do over time right and and it's it's it's odd too because not just the VA but the DOD and the government stance like we just had Andy Milburn on again and he talked about you know a lot of his challenges with like post-traumatic stress with recovery and

things like that and he mentioned uh he mentioned this on the last show but the show prior he had mentioned that cannabis really helped him you know edibles really helped him like slow that you know, the hypatom, you know, the amygdala, like slow it all down and everything. And then because he said it on a show, the DoD comes after him about his clearance because he talked about using. And, you know, and this is one of the things that a lot of veterans are. You either go to the VA and you get medicated out of your mind or you turn to something else and face, you know, a number of other issues. Can you talk about what led you into like plant medicine?

How did you discover that as a way of like self-exploration and healing? Honestly, the first time I really heard about it, I was listening to, I mean, I smoked weed and stuff in high school and then I smoked weed before I joined the Army. I went to motorcycle mechanics Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, became a certified home. Honda mechanic. So I was smoking there. We would get baked in our garage and then hotbox the garage and work on dirt bikes. And somehow they still ran the next day.

But I didn't realize it was for what it can be used for. But now, you know, pretty much right after I got out, I'm like, I knew that that we, you know, marijuana helps with pain cessation, you know, helps you with sleep and whatnot. And I was taking Ambien, all the lunesta, all the, like, trazidone, whatever, you want to. call it just taking massive quantities of that stuff and it's like you're walking around like a zombie constantly and so i'm like hey i'm gonna i'm gonna try edibles i'm gonna and i even went the the legal route with the delta eight stuff you know stuff that i found to be legitimate you know it's third party tested all everything was on the up and up and even that stuff which is completely legal and i can order it through the mail and get discounts because i'm a veteran it's like you can get that

stuff and you can use it and you can help to go to sleep help with pain cessation help with you know the topical stuff like inflammation and things like that far better than any of that crap that you'll get it to be a and it's just one of those things that people are too reliant on the pills that come in the mail do some homework yeah you might have to pay for it but my life is worth it so it's like i'll work extra if i have to to get to pay for these types of you know tinctures topicals whatever it is um to get me going or you know to get uh psilocybin microdosing that's like you're taking happy. That's like taking happy pills four days in a row.

And so people don't realize how beneficial that is. And there's so many people that have like completely gotten off of Adderall and whatnot because they started micronosing. It's phenomenal. And so for me, the plant medicine, I've heard it early with Joe Rogan, him talking about going in these deprivation chambers, you know, high on mushrooms or whatever. I'm like, that's phenomenal.

That sounds like a good time to me. I don't know why. I've always been drawn to it. And so hearing stories about people having these wild, wild experiences on, you know, plant medicine, I was just highly intrigued. I'm like, I want to learn more about myself, about the universe, about what's going on. What is life? You know, I had a DMT experience where I, what I experienced was my soul.

I saw it, you know, I'm sitting there staring at it. And it was intuitively told to me that it has always been. been there. It was devoid of my body. Like my body was not in play at this point. And it was just this energy that was right there. And so had you told that to me while I was in the army, I'd be like, there ain't no way I'm ever doing that crap. Yeah. You're crazy. And you know, and that was. And so, but it was the most beautiful experience because it put me at peace for a moment. Like for a long time, like I was at peace with myself. And so, you know, a part of me. And so there's just a lot of things in the rucksack I got to get rid of.

And so that was one of the things that helped to get rid of a part of, you know, that shit that's in the rucksack. And that's where plant medicine comes in. One thing doesn't work for everybody, you know, and so you've got to find what works for you. And there's a lot of nonprofits out there actually that are helping veterans, you know, monetarily to get this done. You know, like, hey, you don't have to pay for it. there's there's places especially spot special operations veterans and that there's a lot of help out there for guys and all you got to do is get put on a waiting list and I know it's a waiting list but I did it and I've experienced it a couple times now and it's phenomenal so you know you just

got to you got to put the legwork in but um and basically from 19 on I just you know it just said you know hey this is what we're going to we're going to try plant medicine because that's what I feel drawn to versus, you know, staying a zombie on drugs. Yeah. From the farm. So did, so you went, so when you went into plant medicine, did it just seem like something that would be like, you know, you hear these interesting stories, or did you know that it would actually be a pathway to healing?

Intuitively, I knew it was a pathway to healing. In, in the, the time that I've left the army and where I'm at today is, is a big, big change because the medicine itself, and you yourself end up guiding you kind of to where you need to go. It's kind of crazy how that works. And looking back on it, it comes to light more just seeing the process that has happened because without it, there's no way I would be where I'm at today. Like it helps so much that I know in talking with some people that they actually are doing,

ketamine assisted therapy in the military with active duty soldiers and I'm like thank God yeah like hallelujah I did a ketamine experience in Atlanta um but didn't do what I thought they thought it would I was just pretty I was pretty high for about an hour and a half it was great I had a great time saw a lot of cool shit you know a lot of a lot of colorful figure or shapes and whatnot it was it was fun like I felt really good but what's crazy is like I was saying earlier listen to your body what i've what i've neglected to do is listen to myself and listen to my body we are we are hardwired with an incredible amount of wisdom innate wisdom and innate it just there's so much within us that we are so stupid not to see because we're so busy dicking around with our phones

with all this other bullshit you know take the time who cares if your bit your mind is racing a thousand miles an hour it's going to do it either way go and meditate for 10 minutes whatever let it race You know, say, who gives a shit what's happening? Just let it do its thing. And you'll start to listen to yourself and you'll start to find some answers. You're like, oh, shit. So, and that's kind of where I've been heading down that road. I'm finally realizing that I've been telling myself to go to this direction or that direction

and stay down this road of plant medicine because of what it's doing. Because even my, you know, my wife and my family are telling me, and they're like, we can tell. You know, we can tell the difference. So they definitely never said that on on pharmaceutical shit. Right. Right. If, you know, if there are any veterans out there listening to this and kind of interested in getting started, are there any resources that you would recommend?

Yeah, absolutely. So what I did is I just went straight to Google and then started Googling special ops, you know, nonprofits. And so vets is a big one, you know, veterans exploring treatment solutions. And so you have them, Amber and Marcus Capone, they're huge, huge proponent. They just, you see them all over the, you know, social media trying to advocate for the psychedelic research and the psychedelic therapy for veterans. So I think it's like vet solutions.org. And then there's a heroic hearts project. They're a big one.

And I off right off the top of my head, I can't remember the, there's two other ones. but vets and Heroic Hearts Project are big ones for psychedelic therapy. And I do believe both of those are special ops guys only, but they might do other non-special ops veterans as well. The big thing is just get on the waiting list, get your information in there and get on the waiting list. Because you got to understand that it is so bogged down with dudes going through because you can only do so many people at a time.

It is a lot of work. I mean, having five dudes in a room, five, six dudes in a room, tripping balls on Ibegain all the same time, that's a fucking nut rule. Like, that's a handful of the deal with for, you know, for 12 hours or whatever, because you never know it's going to happen until it happens. And so you have to be prepared for a lot of shit. And so, and it's very taxing on everyone. And so, you know, the throughput isn't there yet because, you know, the funding is. isn't there. It's very expensive to do all this stuff. So it's a big backlog. But, you know, like I said, vets and heroic hearts, they're big. Actually, that Maraca behind me, that's where I got

on my last trip to Mexico on Ibegain. Sean Ryan talks about it. He went to the same place I did, and you're sitting there shaking this thing, listening to this ancient bogeedy music. and because according to what we were told, the Boidi on Ibogaine were told what instruments to make, how to make them and what music to play while on Ibogate. So that was pretty trippy. And so we're sitting there. And I got to take it back home.

So it's kind of a memento from the Knights adventures. Well, Felipe, thank you so much for sharing all this with us. And a lot of information that I think you shared that can help a lot of other people. Absolutely. No, I'm very thankful that you guys allowed me to come on here and ramble. No, absolutely, man. I mean, as you as you point out, it's an alternative form of treatment that's becoming increasingly mainstreamed and a lot of people are seeing good results with it. So, it's good to get the word out there. Yeah, very good. So I don't know who's coming up next week because I'm going on vacation. What's that, Dmitri?

To be determined. To be determined. Hopefully somebody. Yeah, this place is going to fall apart. Oh, he didn't. Oh, shit. No, we're having some trouble. We'll get somebody. Yeah, we'll get somebody.

Okay, guys. Yeah. Yeah. I met a guy down at the bandagia. Time to spread your wings and fly. A little baby bird leaving the nest. Nice. So, all right, Felipe, again, thank you, man.

Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your story with us, man. It's really cool. And I look forward to hearing from you in the future. future, seeing where you're at a year from now. Sounds really interesting, man. Yeah, I'm headed to Peru next month to do some ayahuasca, and then a couple days after I get back from that, I'm going to Montana for an integration trip, a veteran's nonprofit retreat that I got signed up for.

So, yeah, that's going to be pretty gnarly. Yeah, Heroes and Horses, that's the one I'm going to. Oh, fantastic. Yeah, I'll be on that one in August. Cool. Awesome, man. So, Dave, we'll see you next week with Milburn. Andy Milburn's special guest host.

Yeah. And I will be out of here. I haven't been on vacation in like four or five years. So I'm taking- Wining, man. Yeah. Vacation. What's a vacation?

I know. Yeah, exactly. You don't need a stinking vacation. So, cool. So see, not me, but they will see you on Friday. Take care of everyone out there. Have a nice weekend. Thanks, everybody.