023 Eddie Penney

[Music] welcome to mic drop the podcast the relevancy is irrelevant and we don't give a [ __ ] about your feelings ladies and gentlemen it's both a honor and a pleasure to welcome the next guest to the podcast he is a father and I'm starting that out first because goddamn that's important he spent 20 years on active duty and that's four years in the Marines not that we're gonna hold that against him he does still have some crayons Malthe the 16 years in the Navy all of which were with Naval Special Warfare as a Navy SEAL he's done seven deployments that's to a SEAL team two and then five with team six at Gold squadron he has two Bronze Stars with V's for valor and his earner Purple Heart he is the CEO of contingent group which designs custom security group options for families business or any type of entities worldwide and his shoulders are so goddamn wide that Michael Bay actually hired him to be Optimus Prime stunt double and transformers please welcome to the stage Eddy penny I thinks we're having me Mike I appreciate it yeah I appreciate you coming on I know it's a like a two-hour plus drive without traffic getting over here so I know you're busy I appreciate you taking time out of your data to come talk to us about both your stories some some [ __ ] that's gone down on deployment and also you know what you what you have going on now which I always like to bring something to the listener to take home with them and looking forward to getting into some some personal and house and travel security type tips that you can offer that people are always always interested in and I think you know somebody with your type of background you know who better to listen to than somebody that's been around the world as many times as you have to be able to see it and live it so looking forward to getting into it it's gonna be fun yeah one thing I always like to start off with a little bit of a lightning round and just throw out some [ __ ] questions what what's your favorite haircare product that you like to use I don't know the name of it but I know it's like a and this is kind of weird but it's like a putz like a clay yeah no idea what it's it's a pommade whatever you want to call it works I've tried them all yeah so you gotta look the part right well the appearance is very important you pull it off way better than I do I don't have or does the Hat that works as well - that's what I have to rock all the time as big of a guy as you are I'm curious I know everybody else is what's the what's the most amount of weight you've moved in any direction before in terms of a max lift uh I'm not really one for like max lifts I don't go in there like all right I want to deadlift this I want to squat this I want to bench this it's really for me it's like therapy you know I just got hooked on when I was in the Marines and it's been just it's not a model of Volkswagen that you know it's it's it's not but I mean I've have pushed and lifted heavy things so yeah I just enjoy you're gonna punt on that one what yeah no it's all good yeah I mean I'm kind of the same way I know as I've gotten older and [ __ ] starts to hurt in places that I didn't really even knew should or could hurt I don't I don't go super heavy either I'm in out I know I tears you up yeah absolutely what is the biggest misconception about you uh you know I always get you just by my demeanor though like a view I just think you'd be a dick you know just like hey you just look like a mean person but I'm not a big teddy bear yeah we have the the initial yeah and misconception yeah yeah considering the career path that I've chosen that we've chosen you know you kind of can't just go into overseas target just like hey guys it's going let's all share lollipops it just doesn't work that way so that's somebody to work out and cut a smile a little more no I hear you a hundred percent alright we just took a quick informal break if you could hear reco barking in the background that is one of the we'll call it a huge benefit to run on a dog kennel is that there's always dogs coming out my ass out here and sometimes sometimes they bark so in one episode you may hear him snoring sometimes you may hear him barking that's that's the beauty of what I do for a living what deal with it all right next question I think I already know the answer based on what you [ __ ] pulled up in here with but so motorcycle boat sports car or big ass-kicking truck truck of course all day long right yeah all day long at the big the big be sitting out there done the motorcycle twice and probably put a total of like 2,000 miles on both bikes and I just realized that's just not my thing I love them I love customizing them and making them look pretty and then once they're all done I'm like the weather is this weathers that and I'm just too lazy to get all to go out there and go ride it more uh more of like chopper style icarly style or like Harley's yeah like you know like a Fat Boy or you know a ro King one of the bigger ones are you can kind of customize a little bit to your liking so but they're fun to make either fun yeah I've never owned a motorcycle yeah I'm almost convinced I'd kill my cell phone yes yeah that's and not not because I'm good at writing it or fast cuz I'm actually that incompetently right a lot of us are yeah I just I've hardly ever done that but favorite cereal oh man that's a tough question because cereal is amazing it's like a [ __ ] desert probably some mores they used to have when I was a kid growing up that s'mores crunch but they just came back I think a couple years ago with some mores but now I think that is my number one right there it is so good oh my gosh cinnamon toast crunch maybe a close second cinnamon toast crunch is definitely top five yeah along with fruity and cocoa pebbles just depends what mood you're in I know if you eat cereals never uh usually late night when I'm just like the like you know just kind of the munchies head I'm like all right there we go we bought the box of cereal and with the kids and we just go crazy we'll get into the reason for munchies in terms of supplements a little bit all right so here's one that's probably gonna be impossible to answer but if for the rest of your life you get to own just one [ __ ] gun what would it be it would be my sig 320 no should I carry it every day you know so that would be any I mean if I wanted you know something bigger obviously I couldn't carry around with me so the more practical choice would be my sig but damn he's a question is that I mean I'm not super familiar with that that model is that a dual action as well no it's it's a new one it's not like the two two eight or two to six that we you know we kind of were trained up and raised up on it's the 320 it's just you know no hammer no nothing it's it's amazing gunshot I love it look at what's the matte cap on 17 I believe oh sure yeah yeah it's it's it's nice yeah it's awesome it's on my side right now yeah I'll have to check that [ __ ] out now what is your spirit animal oh god what eats a lot and likes to lay down probably the male lion Pamela [ __ ] Panda maybe maybe a pair they kind of like play too much though I kind of like just to like lounge area [ __ ] male lion I got let the let the lionesses do the hunt right like 20 hours of the day and then stay in there and don't need to protect the pride all right so here's here's a question I love to ask everybody what is your morning routine look like uh usually you know I got two morning routines I had the summer cuz my children are with their mother during the summertime so school year time I usually get up about 6:00 down like a you know they'll be talking nutrition wise or just everything yeah I'm really across the board cuz I think one of the things that that I know I'm always curious about and I know the listeners are is that you know all the people that I have on or they generally have quite a bit going on both emotionally personally whatever and so one of the things I like to kind of highlight is is you know successful people that have a lot going on for themselves you know when I look at and when the listeners kind of contrast all of the different guests I've had on what their write what their morning routines look like there there are a lot of parallels you know some nuances and some differences but I I love to hear about it and I think you know how somebody starts their [ __ ] day says a lot about them and yeah I think it's good good advice for a lot of people yeah first thing is I do a protein shake right away usually with orange juice just to get some sugars in there and then turn on my coffee get the kids breakfast ready is of a kind of protein or I can't remember the name of it's like a designer one it's like the fury ingredients the better you know if you look on the back of protein there's like 5,000 things you know don't take it you know cuz you're just gonna you know [ __ ] it out the same way about potato chips right dude good ruffles it doesn't matter what's in a potatoes oil and soul then get that kids their stuff ready get them off to school and I'll usually have another meal usually some eggs and some oatmeal and then I head to the gym head to the gym for a couple hours if I've to run any errands out in town to run errands and I come back and then I work yeah for in terms of the gym routine are you more of a traditional back buys chest rise legs day off kind of guy or functional CrossFit type [ __ ] or definitely traditional going to the weight room or like Arnold was my you know superhero I loved him so I bought his you know model is encyclopedia and you know kind of like read that multiple times yeah and that's I just enjoy it sometimes I'll do some cardio I'll do some sleds I'll do some of that kind of functional stuff but I really just again it's like my therapy go in there and just enjoy and you know kind of just get away from the world yeah listen to audiobooks there are some music and then just be you know just get lost in it so yeah do you do any type it can like regular combatives training jujitsu boxing I used to when I was in the teams did a lot and then pain started setting in especially with the elbows and knees very humbling experience you know what we did a course over in Holland to Golden Glory and it was two weeks I believe that's where they got a lot of good bas Rutten came out of there I'll start over in came out of there and I got worked by this hundred and fifty pound kid with a mullet wearing a color shirt in Muay Thai shorts yeah and I had a whole new respect for the game and I mean just this kid's been doing it for years years and years and I mean his kicks were so powerful I was like okay definitely carry firearms just in case like I care what the ball that comes up but no it's very humbling learned a lot since since the team's I really don't do that much I mean like i'll you know grapple once in a while with a buddy or something like that no but no not too much there's like a bar like a brawler yeah like i'm counting on my punches knocking you out yeah [ __ ] won the was like the toby keith song right not as good good as I once was yeah good good as what the Second Amendment yeah that's a no shudders I probably should get back into it there definitely I mean I think it's great you got to be well-rounded with the shooting knowing what's going on and then obviously combatives you know to me I think it's it's like with anything and that there's an element of of that happy medium and I think guys with our background and from our community especially have a real problem with happy mediums you know it's like it's either balls to the [ __ ] wall you're all in and it's wide [ __ ] open you know or it's like nah they ever gonna [ __ ] do it some other time you know like this oh yeah and I think with especially as for me I know as I get older and tearing my tricep the way I did grappling like I'll go back to doing it but it'll be very calculated and measured in terms of who I roll with and and how hard I go and you know cuz for me like this is a seven and nine month [ __ ] recovery like I can't yeah I mean I can't afford to be hurt like that I mean with what I do for a living so yeah I mean it's you got to be more [ __ ] careful absolutely absolutely um in terms of a Travel routine you travel a lot I happened recently in the last probably six seven months but usually I would do a lot of trips mostly international trips for clients is that does that more in routine change much when you're when you're on the road or you try to keep it consistent it changes a lot cuz you're kind of like whatever is going on overseas for that client that you're kind of on their schedule and you kind of got to get up before then make sure things are good vehicles are prepped you know their office whatever venue they're going to everything's all set and ready so yeah it's it's long hours little sleep but in the end you know keeping the clients safe and make sure everything's safe and it is you know it's all it's always worth it in the end what was most of that stuff like like private protection or personal protection time yeah we we do see we do like the whole like spectrum of it so like before they leave we're doing you know intelligence gathering monitoring social media all that stuff natural disasters running their office security vehicles transportation getting from point A to point B multiple routes and then obviously protecting the client or it could be clients it just depends on what's going on so every client is different it changes all the time yeah but I mean it there's a lot that goes into it and really it's not really the guy that's down there it's like kind of our guys up here that are monitoring all the intelligence and all that stuff and kind of prompting us okay this is happening right now you know there's a protest yeah don't go that route so okay it's definitely a team effort yeah you know I'm curious about stuff like that because these are primarily civilians right yes yeah so I mean do you ever have issues and we'll get into it further down the road we just made me think of like I'm curious having not really done any of that other than working with some clients that want dogs that I know someone excuse me some of the issues I run into but typically people that have that kind of profile that type of resource in terms of finances can be a little difficult to [ __ ] deal with like how do you strike that balance of like you need to do this well I don't want to [ __ ] do that it's like well here's the [ __ ] deal like if you want me to protect you you're gonna [ __ ] listen to me like have you run into issues where where that was a big big problem I've heard of issues where that's a problem we've been very blessed that our clients are very good they're their pro what we believe like you know the pro military all that good stuff so we have a we have a I'm friends with most of we text each other you know Merry Christmas it's not a really a professional but it's also a friendship yeah but I have had clients where you know they think they know what's better when you know you're kind of the resident expert it's kind of like me going into a doctor's office and they're saying hey we need to do knee surgery not saying no it's actually my elbow that needs so it just it kind of it kind of figured why they kind of forget why they hired you and you are the expert that is you know it's just doesn't make sense of jobs so you just kind of smile and wave yeah okay I mean I run into that sometimes I mean the same thing like most of my clients are really good people and then and great to deal with and everything but occasionally there are some that have either unrealistic I suppose I'll throw that's for sure there's horror stories yeah yep all right so in terms of your childhood where were you from originally from Cincinnati Ohio no [ __ ] yep what what was that like growing up there I was good sports pretty much the whole time I was always in sports parents were divorced my mom raised me but I would you know did like to see my dad every other weekend and like once or twice during the week a good relationship still with both of them I mean really sports kind of just run my life and then in high school I started playing I serve playing football probably fifth or sixth grade then I got the high school and just like getting around all these guys cuz I was a late bloomer you know I told my dad I'm like man I don't think I can play football like these guys are huge yeah so I quit football my freshman year because they would just I was so small and I was gonna be sitting the bench anyway so I've got a good buddies like hey won't you try the swim team I'm like I'm not gonna swim I'm good I guess well so I joined the swim team and did it for all the way up until my senior year was awesome yeah I mean it helped out with my career path obviously yeah that's funny I mean I swam to a kind of a similar thing like I played football I played old all sports growing up and up until about six seventh grade I was on par with everybody else then I stopped [ __ ] growing yeah until my junior year and so the one thing I mean I swam from the time I was five but like at that time I was like well I guess I'll be [ __ ] swimming from now on cuz I mean like I was 5'4 105 pounds as a sophomore in high school you know I was getting treated like a [ __ ] schoolgirl literally I never feeling well yeah but it's just not fair ya know it sucks but maybe that's why I'm addicted the weight room I'm like I'll show you yeah no no no she got him and I didn't start putting real weight on until after I was [ __ ] thirty honestly mm-hmm not that it was fake weight before anyway the so in terms of the the parents and siblings the family dynamic you said your parents were were they divorced the whole time or I think I want to say I was probably seven or eight you know I had no siblings I did have a cat though yeah and I tortured the heck out of that poor cat I was alright so tell me about torturing [ __ ] is easy yeah yeah and you still do to this day no that was like yeah I just never really had brothers ever had brothers and sisters so never really had that family dynamic it was always you know people say oh you're an only child it's all about you but it's like okay sorry is that my fault yeah but you know my parents didn't have other siblings so I don't really have that I wish I did you know just to like more families you know niece and nephews all that good stuff but yeah that's just yeah what in the plan did did them separating have a have a profound impact or was it I don't think so you know as I'm getting older I realized that maybe I did have some I do have some issues with that but you know growing up I didn't find it to be weird I mean a lot of the a lot of teen guys that come from you know divorced families raising other mother it's it's it's a quite a big percentage of an a mistake like 60 or 70 percent so yeah weird so yeah so no siblings did in the sports that you played did you find no you know camaraderie that like the camaraderie and the relationships what what other sports is football and swimming but were there football so I'm making it at baseball did basketball for a year or two I sucked at that soccer of course that was more in the younger years got into rock climbing for a little bit I'd say I'd say my big was born obviously it's like baseball football swimming you know there's at the big three yeah that I did hockey or anything like that and so as you went through high school did you focus more on swimming absolutely it was just swimming yes it was like year-round sport I would do I spent for the Y my coach was a huge inspiration for me great I mean amazing man he passed away end of my or beginning of my senior year and when he passed away I kind of quit I shouldn't I shouldn't have quit but I didn't quit you know that was probably my I think one of my main mistakes is like quitting like you just don't do that you know like obviously we know that from our training that we've done they don't quit but I quit I just like I just my motivation was gone I was like I was inspired by him I just felt like a big piece of my heart was kind of ripped out at that time of my life that was during your senior year very like before senior year started yeah he passed away right before there so he Lions really good guy so you didn't swim your senior I did not so my senior um in terms of success swimming did you have any like what was your event well the distance freestyle and backstroke and I bought me a made it to districts never to state because I'd only swam three years I mean there was some guys and I mean definitely using performing performance-enhancing drugs so they'd actually they definitely took the titles the ED [ __ ] dudes juice in a nice cool oh my god they had to because they were ginormous is like you are perfectly chiseled like how do I do that my god that's just the way that school is like I don't think so I think they're ejecting something yeah testosterone or Wheaties yeah goddamn that's [ __ ] that or some cinnamon toast crunch and a bunch of that Christ were there any big events other than it sounds like your coach passing in high school that that were significant or impactful that that either drove you to serve or take the certain path that you did um my dad when I was with my dad on the weekends we would always watch you know Sylvester Stallone movies or no sports [ __ ] movies you know Robocop like all those movies so I was like filled with that I was like I want to be the big guy I want to go kill bad guys not really understanding what all that meant so really like the military for me I mean there was that there was a time frame where I was like I think I read the client and the firm from John Gorham I was like I want to be a lawyer and then like there was like a time like I'll be a doctor but they could it kept always going back to the he's a lawyer in a doc yeah right it would not fit in I could not sit by the desk but no I just always want to do that and I just like I loved it I mean I'd be I mean even I was a kid I would put on Cammy Cammy paint put on camouflage and I'd go like hide and run around the neighborhood I think we could call that peeping tom now so but a back video was actually legit I was just like I thought I was training myself like something I'd see that obviously movie Navy SEALs I made god yeah like that's a recruiting piece in itself so so during during that time did you in terms of the relationship with your dad did you guys shoot and hunt and and that's kind of [ __ ] no I did hunting with my uncle like squirrel hunting a couple times never really did any hunting whatsoever really the first time I really really shot when I went to basic in the Marine Corps down in Paris island no I was the that was the first time my name - BB guns but not not really I was very similar that way like I was hyper focused on sports as was my dad he wasn't a big shooter or hunter I mean we you know he had a few guns and took a shooting a couple of times but same thing like a lot of these guys I'm kind of there's an element of a little bit of being jealous of like guys that you know their dads they had him in [ __ ] you know on hunting trips right like an eight years old whatever in some of the field craft that they brought to the Navy I'm like I was lightyears ahead of guys like us but but that's why you watch movies yeah watch them you do two hours yeah I read I just run so it's so joining the Marines first what was there a specific highlight or or you know whether it's an event or an influence a person that that really drove you to join yeah you know it's kind of funny as I always wanted to be a seal like that was the number one thing and then I had a buddy that I swam with that was a year ahead of me so when he graduated he joined the Marine Corps and he went to Parris Island and I went down to his graduation and you know for the graduation you go down like a day before you get to see like the obstacle course and see people training and marching and I just like I was like yeah I need to be a Marine I want to be a Marine I just like I fell in love with it like instantly yeah so that was my choice for for the Marines and and once I was in you know it's like okay well okay like it just wasn't I wanted more like I was I wanted to go overseas I wanted to fight I wanted to be in combat like I really wanted it yeah of course you want it until you really like experience and you're like wait a second these guys are shooting back this isn't the same thing this isn't what the movie showed now because he was like smiling and had all these cool and liners so yeah that was that was the reason why I went to the Marine Corps right there was a good friend of mine yeah did you was just infantry or what yeah I was Oh 311 infantry did four years there I try they used to do a cross over at three years you could switch over to the Tri seals but I had to be completely out I even tried I had a hundred ninety days on my terminal I was like hey can I just use my terminal go straight over the Navy get this process started like take my days I don't need money just wanted to go to buds so I had to get out I was out for one day because I have to you know check your urine make sure you're not popping doing any drugs and then I that I went to Chicago to transition processing unit I was there for three months at that time there wasn't a seal ratings tried to do Gunner's Mate a school up in Chicago which was six months I believe and then I went to buds was what what year did you graduate oh god mm mm mm - I graduated buds okay what nice what year did you graduate high school 96 okay so [ __ ] were the same age so you can't you join the Marines right out ice 17 years old mom and dad had to sign for me 18th birthday was in boot camp yeah don't tell anybody that's [ __ ] awesome was now when you were in the Marines I mean knowing did you not know about Force Recon or did like what did that ever cross your mind to just stay in and go that I did you know like I'm a big thing of especially now like you know certain things that we were talking really about business a little bit like certain things happen for a reason I wanted to be a Marine sniper because I read all the you know Carlos Hathcock books and I really wanted to be a I / a Marine sniper because I have a great school I just heard all these great things of course you hear how great it is once you're in the Marines I got what's the best is the best is the best if then you get to the seals like all this is the best this is the best but you know I was I mean I was a young kid 18 19 you don't know anything like I didn't know anything but I really wanted to beat a Marine sniper but to be a Marine sniper you have a marksman sharpshooter and rifle expert that you have to do on the gun range so I was sharpshooter and I missed it by one point so I went to my my platoon so I'm like eh can I please go back to the range because they won't accept you into Sniper school unless you're an expert yeah and I and I went two more times in both times I missed about one point I was never a rifle expert I'm like what is going on I'm like and I like I look back now I'm like if I would have made that I probably would have stayed in the Marines like who knows what my might you know my route would look like yeah so now I like I'm so glad I missed those I really feel like kind of God saying hey that this isn't my plan you know that this isn't my plan for you it also then when I went to seals it's like shooting clicks training clicked obviously got better optics and like you know whatever the heck you want I can't here it is and they're more about you like hey let's train you it's not like I we're gonna train two hundred people together it's okay we're gonna train you know you six yeah seventh the lowest common right right so yeah that was that was the dream there like Marine sniper let's go shoot some guys that's that's what I want that's what I want were you aware of Force Recon while here and I was but I was also aware that they weren't very well-funded yeah and that was usually at that time like mm yes I don't think they were part of MARSOC or excuse me so calm and I think they became part of SOCOM literally a couple months after I left reads yeah but I didn't care I was like all right focus yeah seals that's it that's all I want to do and so with that with that transferring over obviously I know with Marines they don't have to go you don't have to go through navy boot camp right I did not know and then so what can you walk us through that process of like you're out for a day and then you go through the TPU unit and then it's you know Gunner's Mate like what was that I can only imagine the transition having gone through Navy boot camp having worked with enough Marines like did you about lose your [ __ ] mind dealing with yeah so like for TPU like you go straight over there and there was other marine Marines there that were my age that were in infantry a lot of good dudes there was actually he's kind of funny there was two guys that no actually those and buds I'll get to that later yeah your TPU days were just like literally waiting on paperwork so we would go work out we'd go have lunch we'd come back take a nap or go work out again sounds like a seal deployment it was like every 9/11 it was like yeah I mean it was really just like okay then they were try to do give you some bait they would to give you like basic like try to learn I think Anchors Away I still don't know that he'd just like just like dude I want to be a seal I want to go to combat I don't care about these like I don't care how to fold my shirt yeah but but did not have to go to the boot camp the Navy boot camp thank God so yeah and there's just like reading I did a lot of reading that a lot of working out and then they had uh I think it was called a dive dive motivator I think is what the program was called every morning you'd get up and if you want to do the seal thing at a certain point you know you're running with them then they beat the crap out of you for a little bit up in Chicago which is kind of cold sometimes oh yeah and you get a little taste of it you're like okay I got this I got this is cool but little did you know what was waiting on the west coast for you yeah so yes you go through Gunner's Mate a school and then you go from that straight to buds right straight to butts what what class was that - 37 - 37 yep what what was your experience I always like to ask team guys you know your perception of what it was gonna be like especially with four years of military because did you do any deployments in the Marines I did no deployments in it zero deployments that was stuck in Quantico Virginia and it's kind of like my time there my first year in Quantico after I get out of cuz I even save and told when they told me my orders and I'm an infantry I should be going to a deployable unit like no you're gonna go train officers like how am I gonna train officers when I don't even know what the hell I'm doing like I'm you know what I mean like it makes zero sense like no you're just gonna be a shooting dummy pretty much and play paintball and all that stuff yeah but the first year I was there I was in the field like in the woods over 300 days Jesus talk about learning field craft like like navigate I mean it was it was a crappy experience it was also an awesome experience at the same time so I can only imagine that benefited you go into buds and being in the seal tangent absolutely but buds for me honestly I mean there are times that it sucked but having a little bit of maturity behind my belt and knowing what it was doing as a game I mean hearing guys say I know the waters gonna be that cold like do your research I didn't know we were gonna like guys like oh I've been I've been training too you know for it to sleep deprived myself like that is not possible you're gonna be tired yeah so I really did not I made it through buds the first tried never failed an event at all I mean I enjoyed buds I mean it sucked but the camaraderie like we talked about the teamwork thing I do I just feed off of that like the drill instructors like all we're gonna beat you down like I feed off of that like try to break me down let's see what happens let's go you know to me there's I find myself especially as I get older and I'm sure some of it is glossed over with ROS memory glasses in terms of what buds was like but I find myself reminiscing you know and looking very fondly on some of the times that while agreed like it was just getting throttled in the [ __ ] nuts but you know the the relationships and Brotherhood and bond that you form with these guys and just the stupid [ __ ] that you guys do together and all this like oh yeah I mean I [ __ ] I miss that I miss that about sealed things that you know it's there's nothing that I've come across even even with doing you know you you have a line of work that's you know related and as do I even with that like even getting in a bite suit whatever like it just it's just not the same you know but they say misery loves company I mean you know your ass kicked together if there's something that happens right there no I know it's amazing yeah no absolutely alright so you get ready to graduate buds did you want to go to the East Coast I did so you requested yeah yes I asked for actually I got my first choice I asked 14 to team eight and team four I believe and back then it was like based off regions and really cuz my ultimate goal was to get to development group that's what I want to do and I've heard like the the influence is better there cuz if guys get kicked out or they want to take a break they go to the regular teams and you can kind of learn from him so that was the reason why I chose that and I also thought San Diego I was like knowing myself and my addictive personality I can just see me partying way too much and I did not want that so I made the command decision East Coast it is I mean there's certainly a lot of truth that I know my my request I did to eight and three and I ended up getting three but for the same reasons like I think going through buds a lot of the instructors always kind of hammer like East Coast is harder than the West Coast and you know it's closer to Dam Neck and you know whatever and but you know it's it's funny hearing different guys take on their time what you know what Coast they spent on and why and all that but what was the the couple of deployments that you did it team to like me because that was post 9/11 it was yes yeah actually 9/11 happened when I was in second phase of buds yeah and we're all like hey are we gonna get push through this training quicker did that mean us that you're graduating now we're good here when you take this club test you're done yeah well so one thing on that I mean what I would love to get your your impression and take on on what that was like being in seal training post tell week when 9/11 happens I had another team guy on on the podcast yesterday as a matter of fact and he was in boot camp well haven't happened but you know being a considerably more hyper focused on going right the SEAL Teams especially for those that aren't aware like you know once you make it through hell week it's not a guarantee that you're gonna graduate but it's pretty rare that people don't you know it happens but you know it's almost you know you're you're anticipating being a seal of course by the time you get into second phase like you're pretty goal-oriented that way so what what was there an impact in your mind in terms of like holy [ __ ] now it's real not that it wasn't before but can you walk us through the mentality you have done yeah I remember we were aware that chow hall or what are they the Navy calls of the galley I think yeah I get confused between those services the cafeteria I think is the proper word for it now and I was getting my tray and I was setting it down and discovery was just kind of like stopping and everyone's just like he's got this theater TV screens in there and I was like whoa what's going on and we start talking about it and like you know kind of find out what's going on and one of the instant one of the jaw our buds instructors his wife was a flight attendant who was actually in that area so he kind of got the information on it and I just remember it was kind of like a mindset change like yeah we want to go do something but there really wasn't stuff going on like you know like you know now you hear like oh we did this one alright that's awesome it's just like a mindset like a this is real now and it kind of changed your training I said of hey I need to push this through to like to get my Trident now it's like I need to push this through to stay alive keep my buddies alive be alive for my family when I come home so there was there was a switch absolutely it made things more real did you notice that paradigm shift class-wide like was the Holzer kind of a I I don't I don't think so you're kind of like you know you're kind of like I need to make this through here you know you want your bow crew to do great but in the end you're like okay like I can't get injured I don't want to do this I can do the right things I'm gonna make these times I mean there was definitely a lot of talk about it but I guess not really knowing what it was before either I guess I was kind of you know you do something for a while your vision kind of opens up a little bit instead of just looking through the toilet paper roll yeah you know buddy started to see 360 III really couldn't tell but I mean there was definitely a lot of talk like hey we're gonna be like wow like we're gonna be busy shits about to get real it is about to get real and it did yeah yeah for a long time still is the whole career so you go to the team - can you give us a kind of a synopsis on what what that experience was like oh go on a team - I was definitely nervous you're like oh I got it because I what we were the first or second class where they actually gave you your Trident after sqt so you do you know you do your buds you go to basic training down to Fort Benning you come back you do sqt there was no halo hey-ho freefall training then you would get that in the teams if you're nervous like all these gonna be all these you know and I was like I started hit the weight room hard again I think I when I graduated I was 193 I left sqt I was like 225 this is great so like I go check in like I'm gonna skip I'm gonna get stomped and I'm like looking around a mic alright you're gonna get stomped so so you know me like I kind of back then and still sometimes I like to run my mouth just kind of like hey I'll show you I'll show you like I'll show you what I got because I like competition I love it but I checked in it was awesome and I was so fortunate that my task unit chief was a guy from from development group yeah he was actually from gold yeah and he was there I did two platoons with him and another guy those a greeter at gold as well they had got into some trouble nothing nothing crazy when did they to do a year in the regular teams but the knowledge and the wisdom that they brought to us was in sane I mean it was that really was a marker and I mean those guys are mentors to me I still reach out to them they're the great guys one of them actually went on to be the command master chief of Team six um so we actually went when I went to Green Team he went back to gold and then after after Green Team I got selected to go obviously to gold squadron and so I think it was a lot because of him yeah so it was it was good I was with him all time it was it was amazing that's [ __ ] great show but yeah you're going to the teams and like learning because you think you know what you're doing on Bastille now I gotta try them but then you're like you don't know anything yeah you don't know anything yeah yeah I mean the first couple of [ __ ] platoon trips you're like holy [ __ ] you know I have no idea what the [ __ ] going on exactly but obviously you know four years in the Marines knowing about weapon systems and I mean that obviously helped a lot but but still you know your guys that have you know back then you get guys that have four or five six platoons that's a lot of training yeah I mean that is a lot of training under your belt and they're just kind of looking I mean God knows what they're looking at you like all right you just like a little freshman you don't know anything but everyone's good about like teaching you like hey like there weren't jerks like hey here you this is but you could do this better by this way you know there was there was always that say that was good was uh was your time at team too in terms of the deployments and and just the whole experience there what what types of deployments did you do their deployment number one it we were kind of jerked around I'm sure you probably were done that you're going to Germany okay now you're going to the Philippines like what that's a West Coast Duty or not now you're going to Africa and now you go to Iraq okay then it's Afghanistan and it ended being Iraq so we were going up to Missoula we did two months of Missoula kicking in doors don't direct action it was awesome you know had our vehicles we had an interrogation Center too you know when we brought back our detainees to try to get you know follow-on ops and then after two months we're like this is the best deployment ever the pole PSD the personal security for the new interim Iraqi government kicked off so we guys don't know the story how we got the seals got volunteered so we packed all our stuff and like oh there was just all these seals came in and our platoon actually had the prime minister allow II know a great guy great guy he was actually an elephant people a lot of people don't the story but hey Hussain sent his henchmen to go kill him and in Britain oh sure and they took a hatchet to him I mean he's got scars all over his face his hands they didn't kill him like his wife and him and they just took a hatchet to him try to kill him he can kill them but now now he's the belly's the Prime Minister God it was crazy I mean like roadside bombs learned a lot about security so taking that experience like the worst-case scenario into contingent group the company that I have no doubt that we have now I mean it's yeah yeah it's a rat [ __ ] transfer completely so I mean what were there times where while you're protecting you I mean did you guys get hit and uh we had Close Encounters never we had like random fire I think we had one or two roadside bombs or that were in the vicinity rockets that were directed of his office but nothing like hey if we're in the [ __ ] right now yeah there was none of that we I mean which is good that means you're gone your security well so planning stamp exactly so we know nothing nothing crazy yeah was that experience I mean because I you know we did some of that but never never real well you know we trained some of it in Kuwait and a few other places like in the event that we would get stuck doing it right say stuck but you could say stock yeah everyone what's the kick in doors I mean yeah apparent at the [ __ ] DEA is for sure it's it's getting stuck but the I guess you know I'm curious you know from the amount of experience you had doing it it was there you know a perception of this is what its gonna be like and then this is now what it is because I know for me and you know maybe it was the same for you but like III did a full deployment workup in deployment pre 9/11 mm-hmm and a [ __ ] ton of training before we ever did any real-world stuff I mean that first deployment was in the coal Gabon and we did some some real world stuff there but you know by comparison to what's going on now and then since then not really but my point is is that I know all of the the years and thousands of hours we had training is it like that first couple of real-world missions we did like it I would say it almost went out the [ __ ] window likes things were so [ __ ] different than what I was expecting and how we had trained it was it that same way with the peace I can remember my first stop because I was a preacher at the time I did didn't excuse me I was assistant breach I didn't breach it but I was the first guy in the door because that was a bigger dude and I'll never forget it there is a dude in white man jammies and we go in to do a room clearance and it's just like it's because it's the first one for all of us for the most part and there's a brief second of you know like deer in the headlights like what's going on and I remember dropping my rifle and going up to the guy with the mange and he's and pick him up and just slam him down he didn't have a weapon on him just like pretty much choke slammed him went down and then the Train it kind of like picked up like okay oh we trained for this and then we were gone yeah and then after that it was just like you know it's just like you know flowing water so but yes I'll never forget that seeing that guy's little beady eyes and my night vision yeah and they just go drop of the weapon cuz he had nothing on them and just you know taking it that was my first stop oh yeah that's a grained in my memory yeah in terms of the PSD stuff was it was a similar thing like when you're doing it for real it was different or was it pretty a lot of us were depressed to do that job after kicking in doors and you're you know breaching doors and you know I mean you're you're taking it to the enemy where you you're you're resting them or taking them down because it's there's a satisfying feeling with that pts our PTSD PSD is a little bit different you know you're kind of waiting to be hit yeah you know it's a totally different totally totally switches are reactive yeah you're just waiting for it and you got to like try to take the right countermeasures for that so it's a it was a big switch it wasn't as fun but in the you know the the grand scheme of things obviously was a very important things we're in establishing a government yeah like people don't realize how they're like all you just go over there and you kick down doors and you kill people but there's a big piece like we're putting in a new government that doesn't happen overnight it's it's it's a big that's a big job especially when a lot of people are corrupted you don't know they are yeah and a whole shitload of people are trying to kill you yeah half of which are freighters here we go that's yeah so in terms of the PSD stuff is there one or two things or you know a couple of things that stand out as being things that once you did it for real world and doing what you do now that really stick out is like textbook principle lessons learned that you that you bring to what you do now guess what is good that I believe that I can bring to contingent group and then again I don't like to say I because it's a team definitely that runs that company is that I I think I believe that I saw worst-case scenario like hey this can happen yeah this is what you need to do if this happens you know a roadside bomb goes off and there's bodies everywhere and you got your client you can't get anywhere like how do you how do you what do you do yeah so like the contingency piece I mean we're very unintentional and we're big on contingencies like we have multiple ways to do whatever we're gonna do that we pride ourself on that because we want to be caught with our pants down blank period and that had that happens in combat or in a real world situation that we see like active shooters all that stuff but seeing I guess worst-case scenario in what could happen in a combat war-torn area versus you know in Mexico or Nigeria it's I mean it can be kind of the same but it's also like okay I need this or I'm not gonna do that because I'm not gonna put my guys with my client in you know harm's way yeah so it was very good to see that yeah I mean to me it sounds like the you know there's a realistic expectations piece that that has to be there that I think a lot of people either lack or don't realize that that you know that that initial assessment is key yeah nice and you can see it in the executive protection world not to like rip on people but you can kind of tell guys that have been there done that versus the guys are like hey I kind of like this this is cool to wear an earpiece which we don't do like we're not like a lot of times you don't even know we're there you know so so there's that and the security world kind of has a bad name because of that because you got you know one or two guys that can just ruin it just like you know a seal that does something [ __ ] that the whole okay seals must be horrible right or a teacher they had sex with that underage student every teachers bad and there's always that 10% of badness and no matter what environment you're in yeah because you get the same thing especially in a personal protection dog world like there's some fly-by-night thrash [ __ ] Birds out there that you know I have these dogs that have absolutely no business being and they all get exposed and they all get exposed yeah but all right so that was your first deployment a team - yeah how was the second one by compare second deployment I really wanted to go to Afghanistan really bad so I we that's when we brought in the kind of converge teams and they kind of broke up because they needed more people overseas because of the you know Afghan Afghanistan the and Iraq was going on so I joined another task unit and I did two months in Afghanistan which is fun and that's where I got my first I guess you would say firefight I mean if that's we want to call it they were shooting at us I shot back with a 240 from a turret didn't hit anything a lot of trees as I didn't know where I was coming from yeah but it was a good puckering feeling that I'll never forget yeah so did that for two months did a couple good ops good it was good to see the terrain and kind of the people and the towns and learned a lot and then went back to Iraq to the Green Zone in Baghdad for more PSD work and it was that it was called then the mentorship we were kind of training other people to kind of take over yeah so we would go do that we do a lot of training and a lot of weightlifting so I was gonna I kept eating like good gym yeah but I mean so yeah you do that you know he was kind of more like a fydd mission almost like hey let's teach these guys how to do it and then of course we had to do some of the stuff yeah and we would always try that's what that was when I believe that was when Fallujah was really bad cuz we had guys kind of spread out everywhere and then Sadr City and all if you remember that there was like a three day you know like hey day like all guns out we had a couple of our snipers go do that so there was little things that popped up like go do some cool stuff we did a lot of us did a lot of sniper work over watching for guys planting bombs yeah so we stayed busy we try to stay busy we weren't like if you weren't training you know this other entity then you could go out you know take over a certain position and just watch and you know if guys are up to you know bad bad things you would take him out this is 105 oh six that would have been oh oh five yes I'm curious I know you know my my experienced platoon two platoon was there wasn't a big change we didn't have a huge influx was the two platoons that you did that team two was it mostly the same guys and both of them or was there but yeah mostly the same guys yeah there was a couple that left to go to another platoon or went over to development group or then you get a couple new guys obviously yeah but no it was mostly the same guys and was did you find yourself working with West Coast teams like was there a lot of you know inner inner teamwork I mean we would do like we would do what we call them our sniper ops they would they would do like a certain section or a certain area of the city and we would do other ones we would do change overs with him for the PSD work yeah but never really like hey you're gonna go with guy from team 3 or team one I think it was team one that we were with oversee but it was none of that I mean we would hang out see each other at the gym yeah you know after hours go hang out like yeah yeah ok spot yeah the gym always comes into it somehow it's like sergeants therapy what are we in Thailand yeah yeah probably a reason for that oh [ __ ] you probably still be there probably would be so the with that experience in Iraq doing over watches things like that is there a story you you could share and it was kind of a hairy moment in terms of doing sniper overwatch or you know getting into a gunfight or things of that nature uh you know we really like we didn't have any engagements doing the sniper thing I think the biggest takeaway for that is because what we would do is we would take over people's houses so you'd have to clear the house and you know they would offer you food and there's plenty of stories where they would drug the food and you know you're I think it happened to a couple marine elements actually and you know they find him and they got you know bullets in the back of their head it would just be drugged by the people that have taken over so right but but I have a fatty and I was guilty of like but like hey I'm gonna eat this but you don't so just like if I go down just like protect me because I mean food's amazing what was the food you remember oh whatever whatever they say it was like the rice with like the raisins and I think is crepes and they got through the chicken in the middle there's a name for the dish but it's like a big bowl and it was golden brown all it was it was amazing but no I I think there's like just taking it over and seeing how live how they act towards us how like there was that reaction yeah like you mean think about this you're going into someone's house I can't you're not gonna work today yeah I need to support my family so I'm gonna frickin Jack you up you're not leaving this house and that's like just learning that peace not that we were doing it intentionally to take to be a jerk to your family yeah but we're trying to save lives I mean that's really what it comes down to it could be their lives it could be you know obviously it comes out to Allied forces lives right so yeah it's like world war two right there no no I like what America lives whatever else we gotta listen allies alright so you finish up a team too now you decide to screen and go to Development Group aka team six can you walk us through that that process as much as you can I know yeah that's that's a weird process right there so I actually screamed before that second deployment or got approval and when I was it was when I was in Afghanistan there was a guy that was from that was actually on Roberts Ridge with Ian Roberts he was one of the sleepers he he was he was on the ployment with me in Afghanistan he's like hey you go into a Green Team I was like yeah I hope so alot and I'm waiting so we go to do the mentorship and Iraq together and about I think it was probably Green Team was starting the first screen because first day is your screening test we're about two weeks leaving excuse me one week about the leaf country and then green team was about to start three weeks later well they say I saw him and he's like hey are you gonna the Green Team I'm like no I'm going to the one in six months he said what so I was like yeah I guess I got to go to trade debt do some training for six months and then I'll tee to the next Green Team he's like Andrew look for those listening the Green Team is the is the selection and try out six month plus process to go to to go to teams it's like thoughts on steroids yeah just as a reference so so he comes back a day later he's like hey you're going to the next Green Team I was like but I look dude I'm not and running shave I have been jacking steel like no one's business like I was probably about 2:30 like I mean just like unable to look like move he goes I got you in he's like I made a call you're good to go I was like I was like what do you say no can't do like okay Roger that I'm doing it so when I got home I just started running yeah I would run I was running everyday I just make sure you have to do a three-mile and uh I think it's three or no ways at four miles so it's three miles three miles and twenty-two minutes I believe so I mean for a bigger dude that's that's pretty fast like and especially if you're not you know used to train like that so I would run like everyday try to cut some weight did screening screened and then you know got gotten Green Team and then Green Team was amazing I mean it was a it was a Buttkicker but like fortunately for me but having that the two mentors that I had were like CQB close quarters battle clearing rooms savvy guys I mean just teaching me all the tricks like that I mean that was my easy spot like that is where I shined do you remember how many how many guys you started with versus how many you finished I do not but we I mean you definitely lose a lot of guys doing those first there's initial weeks once he can be so I think I think that's something that surprises a lot of people for those listening you know the the green team composition is all seals you know and they're all seals that have have been seals for you know at least a few years some of them longer than others but you know have a deployment or generally multiple deployments under their belt screen pass a screen test show up to try out for Team six basically and then even in that class like it's not uncommon to lose half the [ __ ] class right yeah I mean yeah I mean guys that were your mentors or no drop dagger-like well they on here yeah it's pretty yes real yeah you know so I mean to make it through all of that what was that that experience like once when she made it through it was it was very humbling I was like I mean just that just the the you know the cadre the instructors that were there I mean just the way they would teach and the way they move in the way they operate it was like a different a lot of experience I mean just don't house run after house run after house run after you know jump after jump after jump or dive after whatever it is I mean they were just because it's all operational so it's not like hey we're gonna go get you wet and Sandy and beat the crap out of you with push-ups it's like hey we're getting you we're taking you up to 24,000 feet and we're putting you know - and we're doing a real world mission scenario you're jumping in you're hitting this up and then you're extract by helo every year so it was real world stuff that you were training for um I soaked it in I loved it you know the it was it was awesome it was everything I wanted it was more than what I wanted that the adrenaline rush the guys the it was it was a blast yeah well there any any injuries setbacks failures anything Dern no the only thing that I mean there was a lot of running so my knees being a heavier guy I mean obviously was always a problem I do remember if this is a crazy story and this is that this still blows my mind we were doing we're out in out in Arizona outside of Tucson doing our jump trips and you have to do certain jumps and you have to hit on the at the X and you know with the you know within a certain amount of feet just to like say okay yeah he can land and opens properly I came down with strep throat like on one of the on the final one of the final jumps and I was like hey I need unlike that I I think I was a 102-103 I mean hallucinating pretty much and one of the instructors come in and I'll never forget this he's like we need you to do this jump I was like I am freaking about to die like you've had strep throat I get socks like you you're out I was like okay like I mean it's like you do it or you don't do it's like there's like a kid you wanna get rolled to the next class you just did all this you have to redo it like that's more stuff on your body and something you can get injured on the next class so I rolled out of bed I went to my buddy's on like a man I need you to dress me but that dress got my chute on and I I remember feeling like I don't care if I die I just I was I was I was so sick some dangerous complacency wit yeah went in there did the jump passed it dropped off my stuff when right back to my bed like literally dropped my chute did not pack it because I knew I was sick yeah when right back there like all right we'll see you tomorrow morning and think I just got pumped full of drugs IVs and I was good to go then I mean somewhat get to go the next day but were there any did you loosen ate it all on the jump like where you see him lying around no no not that I just remember like I don't care I was just remember like I just want to fall out of this plane yeah and get this over with like but that was probably the most memorable moments of like like I was kind of like crap I hope this this goes well so I I'm always curious to get guys with that experience take so you finished Green Team you've done multiple deployments in regular SEAL Teams now you're jumping into [ __ ] the illustrious SEAL Team six like what does that check in like and getting the gear and the [ __ ] the budgeted training like man goes through that as best you can it was they do a thing where you know you kind of like initiation we kind of like got to give a little quote and kind of like just you know tell by yourself and they kind of make fun of you a little bit what the [ __ ] up pretty much yeah my name is shut the [ __ ] up never gets old yeah and you get your patches and I remember just grabbing those patches and just be like man like this is this means a lot to me it was it was awesome very humbling but at the same time your head kind of swells a little bit you're like oh dude I'm like you know because there's the car you're the best the best you're the tip of the spear but I mean really you have a lot of assets you've got a lot of funding and that kind of what gives you that extra edge not to say that the guys aren't well-trained at all but that but it did yeah it kind of goes to your head a little bit I mean you know doing the deployments which I'm sure we're gonna get into and you you realize what you're doing you're doing you know when I was a kid watching Rambo and freaking commando with Arnold like you're doing that stuff like it was like crap on here yeah like I'm finalists as well I actually signed up this is what I signed up for exactly I mean it was awesome who's the most prideful fee and then you're doing it for the greatest country in the world yeah um I mean this country's amazing like you either Dorner for that that's really what it comes down to you're doing for this country and that's that's everything yeah it was there anything upon initial check-in that surprised you about about the unit the either weren't expecting or thought would be totally different um no I mean guys were pretty cool like they weren't jerks I was I was surprised by I guess the stuff that was going on and like what up full mission profile look like they're really like you know because you know you're in the Vicat SEAL team to like we're gonna do a sniper overwatch or PSD or we're gonna go kick in the thing it's totally different when you're going out for some really bad guys yeah when you have guys that you know are armed and there's you know a dozen plus it looks a little different here we go crap okay these guys are responsible for this and we're gonna go get them yeah so is there an element because I know like the stuff that we did you know and then granted my experience is everybody's experiences are different but of course you know putting putting the face to the name kind of thing that it almost would you say it personalizes it you know like you know like this is the [ __ ] this is one and done like I can only imagine that there's an element of motivation that that's even higher knowing like this is the [ __ ] that's responsible for this yeah when you know they're responsible for American deaths it's like okay dude it's been brought like it's it's on yeah so you went to Gold I mean you did five five combatant I mean for for the listener for me I mean for most people that's you know I think anybody listening I mean that's that's hard to wrap your mind around I mean can you can you walk us through I mean especially the first deployment I guess I'm curious to see the contrast or hear about the contrast between you know two deployments as we'll call it vanilla seal or a regular team guy versus now the the the Jedi [ __ ] team six their Jedi yeah yeah I tell you what and my first deployment and again my deployments were different times somewhere summer four months number three almost two and I think one was only like a month month and a half I believe so it varied but I remember my first deployment and I was just eyes open and listen and just watch all these guys move watch how they operate and I was a preacher I was the team preacher so I was just in charge of preaching which is like my vein I love it and and you're doing breeches every night I mean dual breeches I mean blowing down big doors big gates and you're you're engaging the enemy and you're Emmy hits on it was it was a totally different target set it's not like hey we need to go detain this guy and there's like no weapons now there's dudes with machine gun positions or throwing grenades at you they've got boo traps early warning systems it was the real deal I mean there's centuries sitting out there where you know where your snipers are taking him out quietly I mean it was it was eye-opening I was like holy [ __ ] like you don't even you get back at night you're like wow that didn't happen and it just happened like so that is the snow of death so it became very real very very real very very fast and I just tried to consume and watch the guys that have been there done that I mean cuz there's guys I mean really honestly over there six or seven deployments it's I mean it's it's it's a number there's guys over there with 12 13 14 15 deployments I mean those guy mean like three four Purple Hearts yeah and those are the dudes that you look to you like and they're just they're just cool on target gunfire and they are just cool yeah and and I wasn't at the you know first I was at crap like did this sound like we were getting shot at but then as the key experience kicks in it's like yeah we gonna do yeah you dodged the bullet this isn't wanted with Angelina Jolie really dark and I could object or neo in the matrix right exactly that's a better example but ya know you just you just kind of like get opened up to it so like conflict wasn't you know you kind of get amped up if a fight breaks out ya know just kind of like you would lose it you're just more calm like this is my job this one I'm here for and so it would definitely get tamed yeah that's that's it's hard to I think for a lot of people to imagine the the amount of desensitizing that it would take to you know to get to that level but yeah and there's a price tag that comes with that that you learn once you get help yeah well I mean cuz yeah I mean you're it essentially it it deadens your emotional baggage but it's always you know that's certainly uh that's been an issue I've had in my personal life of this might as well of you know not having enough [ __ ] to give and you know to me there's there's a certain element of benefit of you know I don't ever really get depressed mm-hmm I don't ever really get excited either right like it's just I'm almost to to even keeled as as far as you know like big emotion stuff I may lose my temper over something straightaway but but like big-ticket items it's just like yeah well [ __ ] whatever you know Lincoln and there's an element that's that's kind of relieving but there's an element that's that's I think borders on toxic for for personal relationships so absolutely yeah I've you know I think I should write a book on toxic relationship yeah yeah but I you know I to me that one of the one of the issues I see with you know our our government and our society having an expectation for guys like us to go do those types of things and not just do them but be [ __ ] successful right and you know almost to to any means but then have the expectation to come back and and deal with the Gillette toxic masculinity campaign of shave your beard cuz you're got to toxically you know masculine yeah jesus [ __ ] christ what do you expect yeah you know so but you know I'm curious like so as you know you did your first deployment and as you get more and more seasoned you know what what type of mental toll and you know an emotional strain did that put on you both professionally and personally and did you recognize it to answer the end of that no I didn't recognize anything I thought I mean we kind of just you know when I was very successful in this in my seal career i I don't was very good at my job and I say that very humbly I just was well trained by people above me and just by listening and learning from Mike from my counterparts but but I didn't realize but my Mike home life was falling apart like not there for my kids I mean I'd be there there's a there's a scene in American sniper where he comes back and he's looking at the blank TV do you know what I'm talking about yeah he just stared at the TV the TV's not on I think he's holding a beer and he's just spaced out yeah and I saw that and I like I kind of like got it like choked up started weeping I'm like dude and of course I saw this after like my deployments and stuff I was like meant that that was me like I was always come back and I would come back and I'm like I'm not even there I'm like I'm physically there but I wasn't there for my children got a divorce from it and you don't realize you're like no this like this is important this is for the country and you're and you're believing this you know and it's an it is an important job especially at that time when Iraq Afghanistan were both kicking off meanness and you got terrorist attack here on our you know on our homeland oh but I didn't but I didn't realize that was happening at all at all so I think I don't know if I just took a tangent on that or but I mean I I I steered that [ __ ] ship but yeah you know but I mean to me it's an important element that I know we'll we'll revisit a couple of times throughout the rest of the talk but but okay so bat okay I got the original question so deployment wise dude I was it was awesome that he would get calloused as the shootings became more frequent and the killings became more frequent and then you're like wow I kind of want to try this gun yeah I've never done a silencer before I mean all legal be if it's nothing nothing weird but yeah you kind of just go to that spot like yeah like yeah I want to see if I can get you know what what what can I get tonight is almost like a drug I mean just the feeling of taking out a bag I don't know if this is a bad thing just remember the feeling that came with killing a bad guy knowing that they're responsible for this and they're trying to kill you was the greatest feeling I've ever experienced in my life I don't know if that makes me crazy but I mean just taking that off the face of this earth because that is pure evil over there it was a most amazing thing and I was like okay and like I could get addicted to it that get addicted to it and and I had one I had a guy that had he was reaching for a gun and I and I could have probably stopped myself but I shot him and killed him and I felt bad for it I thought it was boy I think was my first or second deployment I think was my second deployment I felt really bad for it it just like kinda and I usually don't feel bad and my second deployed yes I felt I felt bad about it and I asked the Intel guy cuz we took some stuff I was like hey if you find anything that this guy's like super bad can you please tell me because I felt I mean I don't know why I just did and he came and got me later that night I came here so he showed me any and he put in this disc and he played it the guy that I shot had KBR you know Kendall Brown a root they do all the like you know transportation run the the cafeterias over there and all that stuff he had these Filipino ones standing on the side of the road I staked out and they were doing ballistic tests on their bodies stabbing him shooting him in different parts and just watching and joking around and it was that guy that I shot and I remember when something happened that when I saw that I was like never again will I feel for these freakin piece of [ __ ] like ever and I get was over like it just took me to another place and I'm like alright how many can I get like I'm I'm out for you now it's just like that you could do that to another human being a truck driver that has a family over you know wherever they're from so so that I'm very clear or aware of what you're talking about and the listener for that matter like you're talking living workers that were working for basically the u.s. carry much kidnapped him and Pat them on the side of the road as they were driving with Josh like tied tonight tied them down like tie the buff like a scarecrow you know and they were just don't like testing like all right let's shoot him in the leg while they're alive while they're alive and you can just see them screamin and they're crying I just I still can picture that Jesus [ __ ] so so when that happened you can just omit like in my brain I was like okay it's like that's [ __ ] on it was on before but it's like really on now yeah like I don't care anymore yeah like I am I am I'm your beast yeah coming for you yeah that was your second deployment right uh I believe it was I think it was my second one I just river like it I just that always sticks out to me so I'm like what what what happened like that I just remember I felt so bad I mean the guy dude was cool preacher for a weapon but I think I could uh I could have done other means possibly but but but then again you know could have killed a buddy so it's just just that one you know kind of struck me weird and then he showed me that as I've never again do you think that there was an element of maybe his body language or something that he was doing almost subconsciously that made you think that he was not necessarily not a bad person but was I mean a weak or not not even a formidable enemy I don't know if I'm a thing maybe it was just like a it was a quiet target that really wasn't much usually there's a lot of going on there really wasn't much besides this dude I think there was one other situation outside I don't know it just struck me as weird was very odd and eerie for me but then when I saw that I was like I can and that was like the first I knew what they're capable of but to see you know and to see the guy that you just shot doing that it was a good feeling knowing that that guy was gone yeah yeah no [ __ ] um so with your second deployment and really on all of them I'm curious in terms of the op tempo operational tempo the pace with which for those of you listening that it's a term we use a lot in it and it gets used a lot because that that tends to be one of our Achilles heels is that we all love to work we like to stay busy when we're overseas but that op tempo is is a double-edged sword because it's what either gets you complacent or tired to the point where you're not thinking clearly or exposing yourself in the same areas too many times in Rome is a multitude of of negatives to it obviously the benefits are that you know you're doing more and more work and making a bigger and bigger difference but I'm curious from deployment to deployment what was that was the op tempo for you the same was it just bolts the wall every [ __ ] time was there any variance it felt like balls to the wall the whole time I mean going out every night I wouldn't say every night sometimes you know there'd be you know seven to 15 days straight and then there might be every other night and then there might be the occasional alright we have two nights off you know I think there might have been once where we had like three nights off but I mean you're putting all that gear on you're you know you're walking X amount of miles X amount hours up a mountain and then you know then you got the adrenaline dump of you know getting in a firefight it takes a toll like it takes it you don't realize it until you kind of come home and you just step on that American soil yeah well you know the feeling it's like I can breathe finally I can breathe so yeah it was what I would consider balls-to-the-wall and then the guys are more experienced and guys that I still talk to today that I was still carrying out though you know so fighting the war we were we were like it was very boss the wall yeah we would call it ya know did you do a mix of Afghan and Iraqi deployment yes and Africa one Africa and then I did I think it was three three or four Iraq and the rest for Afghanistan more Iraq than Afghanistan yeah was there any any missions that you can share that kind of stand out as being either exceptionally important or went horribly [ __ ] wrong or I mean were there ones where you lost in your teammates yeah there's a couple of those that was that was definitely one Mike and Nate when they that was my first time losing friends yeah the OP was crazy we had three targets we went to one and we were we were about to go in and I look at my page and I was looking through I had a good vantage point through the door and I and there's kids running around there's women and I'm like okay this will be good I mean there's kids of women right don't I could do anything and then this guy just clacks himself off clocks himself off the roof lifts off of the structure and kind of settles back down we all go we all got nailed with rocks and debris and shrapnel from the from the blast and so the other two targets sent guys to us because obviously we were like dealing with some stuff so we had women and children all jacked up running around and trying to take care of that and there was a kind of like adjacent structure that we also had to take care of so they would sit more down nothing really happened and then we hear gunshots at the other two places and we go back up there and we realized that two of our two of our buddies got shot went into a room and there was a machine gun position and just took him out took them both out so that was that was a crazy off just looking down seeing your buddy with his head you know trying to keep this G just goes like family members and stuff just seeing your buddy down there in the condition that he was I mean you're welcome to say whatever the [ __ ] you want yeah just like seeing his head open is just like it's a it's a thing you don't you don't forget and just seeing that and like crap this can happen to us too and then just you know and then it was it was very real and then we had I think we took away two detainees from that target and I did not want to take them away I wanted to I was so [ __ ] pissed I wanted to butyl ate them I wanted to like just do some medieval stuff to him obviously we can't because we have all these rules that we thought we found ourselves in so we took them back I just remember being just like just look at him on the plane like I will I just want it just knife you just gonna take you out yeah I don't deserve to be here you piece of [ __ ] was that was was there a dog that got injured on that up also that was that that was a week later with Louis okay and that was that that is my nightmare op yeah can you can you walk us through it we're gonna have his handler on soon but but I'd love to hear the the shooters perspective so I'll bet he's coming on yeah oh good yeah so he preacher just my dog went down there training got trained by his good dude so we went down to it was a week later after Mike and Nate died and when you when you see your buddies die ops change you're a little you seem to be a little more cautious before you go into the store you seem to be like you kind of watch your step a little bit more and then a week later we were around this this comp this uh this building and actually Delta said two of their guys up to kind of backfill us cuz we lost those guys just kind of see what's going on and I was team leader at that night because my team leader was sick so I was acting team leader and I told Louie I actually raided a my like hey Louie go go cuz but they were starting to get people out there's a lot of kids as I can't go help them you know you know get these kids into one spot she was like Roger that goes up to the door and I'm like alright they need help so I went up with Louie and I was and I put my hand on a Louie's right shoulder and I just got this weird sense and this is one of these things I can't excite can't I can't explain it now definitely God like a hundred percent if I put it my hand on his shoulder as I hate you're just getting kind of crowded I'm freaking I'm gonna head back but on the other side of the wall he's like right dude I got eyes like I love you because love you too and I walked around and soon as my I was just about through the gate on the back side of the wall the House explodes and Louie was on this pill or he was standing by this big pillar and this huge overhang and this overhang kind of sledding probably I mean at least a ton of concrete slid down on them and just crush them I mean just destroy them just study he was he was done and it took out we had to medevac I think six guys six or seven guys from that I mean guys are just just combo crumbled I mean just done and then Diigo was the dog you know some number wanting out like what's going on cuz you're waiting for the like the smoky clear and Diigo was actually biting my foot so I'm like some of what the heck is that I'm like in Diigo I like look down I just CD goes head like he's covered in rubble yeah in just his head I'm like oh man it's why I like don't have time to mess around with a dog I ripped my frickin foot out I think it took some teeth out but we had a guy's down there so I went down to where I thought Louis was and found him and a member reaching in there grabbing his leg and it felt like jelly rock it was like there is no bone structure it's just like there is no there was nothing left and it was just I guess I had that was kind of like a survivor's guilt cuz I'm the one that told him to go up there and and that's been unsettling ever any it still is it flares up at times I get you know I you know I you know I think was it's February fourth I believe when the oven that comes up man it's just like I think about that night and and Benny and he had to compound femur fractures you know carrying him out and I mean just the screaming that was going on I mean God like that bit is probably I don't think there's any other injury that could top that just there was just mass chaos and that was the first time I was like we just got our asses handed to us you know and there was buildings all over us I'm just waiting to get hit by other people random shots were going on it was just a very bad bad feeling I mean we had six guys down houses blew up your buddy that you just told he's dead zero life I mean just it it was [ __ ] chaos man that wasn't the that was chaos you know that's that sucked so yeah I mean six guys down pretty hard right yeah probably some of them were I mean were you know limping around I mean they're pretty Tora bleeding everywhere I mean it was like what you would see like an you know or maybe like Saving Private Ryan and your guys are like totally jacked up I mean but mostly like fractures just jacked up from debris not really gunshots but obvious I mean explosion I mean that's it can be detrimental in terms of the you know bringing so you get all your guys back like how did that impact you guys operationally moving forward for the rest of that deployment that's got to be yeah we brought in some guys from another country that were in our team brought them in then we then some guys that were back at the command came out and and back filled us so we had to like kind of do that but dude losing two guys than a week later you lose another guy and your handler and dog and then you're you're like [ __ ] I mean it's like dude it's just like okay like what's going on because we're so used to having the upper hand it was the first time in my career I'm like we don't I didn't feel like we had the upper hand in the cell we were on was actually Saddam's main dudes like sf guys I mean they they all got theirs trust me but that was that was the most memorable OP just be anyone was just I've never been in chaos that would that would be my description of chaos was that night do you think that there's any element of insider [ __ ] that led to you guys getting rolled up that way or was it just yeah you know your number gets called sometimes well it's just like I mean it's simple you you're stacking on a house and you're about to go in and someone sets off a house Warren ieb I mean they're ready for it I mean they're ready for to that they're like they made up in their mind like if this happens we're all gonna go to this god of the Kohala yeah right that's what they're gonna that's what they're thinking and so that's what they did and they took out everybody inside did they have any any other or exterior positions opening up on you guys whatever it was just there was random shot so I think it was just like pop shots it was nothing nothing else I think everything was it contained in the building so it wasn't so much coordinated multiple moving parts like no I mean but when you're in when you're in it you know yeah you're like [ __ ] we're going down this is happening yeah we're going down yeah it was it was definitely a puckering feeling yeah I think not a good one moving uh you know moving on from that mission and staying on that deployment what were what was the rest of that deployment like in terms of op tempo work I mean obviously you continued the mission with new guys and whatever but how was that dealing with that type of loss that close that in-your-face still having to go out there night after night um it was very stressful I remember everyone handled it a little bit differently some guys would go sleep it away I would sleep for like an hour to I'd be up but basically for two hour - I'd be up and just kind of suppress the pain with anything I could yeah without getting into things now I know what were otherwise yeah anything that I probably shouldn't be doing in just it changed it in and you know you know when the first two guys passed away you know I was saying earlier that you just you're kind of more cautious but then when it happens again a week later you're more cautious but then you got to like okay wait a second like if you're too cautious you still can't lose that aggressiveness and still got to be delivered with your actions you still have to go get it and after a couple II after a couple options like all right we're still owning this and we kind of like I guess that kind of comes back to that mindset thing that we're still we're still gonna do our job and we're still gonna take it to him but we might be down but we're definitely not out and we we had a it was a great deployment we did a lot of good things we cleaned up the areas that we went into I mean we lost those three amazing heroes legends whatever I mean they were just amazing men but other than that no we just we carried on because that's what else you gonna do yeah that's how we suppress we had to suppress our feelings ya couldn't think about it and I'm curious you know when you lose guys like that obviously you're still on deployment the funerals are taking place you don't even get to [ __ ] go to him I know for me that that was always a really hard thing for me to manage and juggles was when that happened what did you guys do anything when you came back from that deployment to honor those guys yeah we did we had we did a service overseas obviously and we put up there their weapons and their helmets and like around our flag and with their pictures and before every night all the guys would go at me was their helmets they were wearing so I mean there was bald holes there was blood so still tripping down the rifle and we wanted it that way you know we didn't want to clean it up and we had touched our helmets every night before we go out and it's just kind of like hey this is for you is for you I mean it's yeah I guess in a way it was kind of like hey this is what we can do for you like an honor you were still taking the fight because they believed in the same thing yeah get rid of evil and that's what exactly we're going to get when we get back when we got back we did do something I can't remember exactly one thing I know for Louie he was a really good friend of mine we did a dive trip down to Miami we actually have every union won here in a couple weeks going back down there to Fort Lauderdale to do a dive trip with his family with Jamie his widow and so I mean so we're gonna do that we do that every year I haven't done the last couple years but did that go diving because he had a free diving plays a big free diver and he would there's a spot that he would always go to and that's where we go diving so it's just kind of a thing that we do so there's all there's little traditions that we try to do to remember them you know we always say never forgot you know never forget never forget and we don't we don't we don't forget them you know and you know that just as well as anyone else but yeah you still got to carry on the tradition because those guys left an impact in my life that I'll carry on to my children that hopefully they will carry on to theirs and so I mean it just goes down yeah certainly any traditions in terms of taking any of those guys ashes to any special places or name I know that's that's more of extortion I can't I don't know like do you mind my memories of fog with that there's been so many darn deaths and funerals especially with extortion yeah I don't eat each one had their own thing each family had a plan for you know whatever you know whatever they wanted so I mean some were buried in Arlington so I don't know answer that yeah one thing before we get into the next employments and then subsequent issues specifically extortion you mentioned some of the CAD guys dealt the guys coming in what was that like working with them because I know like one of my best friends growing up and I'm gonna get off on a tangent here for just a second but one of my best friends growing up he was a ranger for a number of years and then he screened and went to that went to Delta and was on his first deployment to to Iraq with one of their squadrons and there's actually FLIR video footage of him they're getting they're doing a high-value target assault nerve they're in little birds getting ready to land on a rooftop in Baghdad there was like a mattress pad or something on there on the rooftop and as they're flaring like he had unclipped from the deck two feet off the [ __ ] rooftop and then that mattress pad flew up into the rotor and it spun he flew out the tail rotor swung around and hit him and took his right leg off and broke the whole rest of the side of his body and threw him into one of those [ __ ] lips you know in Titan I mean he lived but I mean it [ __ ] him up before he got medically retired afterwards and you know has half his body's mental he had a really bad brain injury for a number of years but my point in bringing that up is that I remember when he went from being a ranger to be an adult the guy that same I think it got to his head I'm not talking [ __ ] brother you know I love you but no I am talking to you got a little big for his britches like there's definitely a paradigm shift and how he talked to me how you know and whatever and so I'm curious because you guys are both at that Tier one status and obviously it's it's like Army Navy game almost yeah you know what how was it working with him is it like all [ __ ] aside hey we're brothers and we're doing the deal or I mean there's still that like hey we're better than you we're better than you I mean we all know that we were better than them no they're great guys man I never had a problem with them I learned a lot from them they there's definitely a different training and mindset because Delta you can come from any any like the National Guard cook right you could do anything and then wear the seals like we're kind of green to the same which is could be good and could be bad but we're all like we know what we we've been through yeah that we've been through [ __ ] together I know you've done this many deployments together we've had the same training where those guys might have done like five years like you just had a cook or five years to one engineering stuff and then okay now you're you pass the screening now you're gonna be Tier one but my experience with them all thought they were awesome you know when they came up to backfill us when we lost our first two guys they were awesome I mean it was actually the command master chief and the CEO I believe they were freaking awesome they told us about new gear we told about ours I mean it was we was it was awesome I love are there instances where those guys are jumping right into your [ __ ] units and kicking doors in or um the first couple like well kind of like like they'll kind of hang back see how we're kind of flowing but then before you know what they're right there in the Train yeah yeah it's kind of I mean in CQB CQB yeah that's good [ __ ] yeah all right so obviously you're you're continuing to do deployments even after these these issues come up with losing guys before we get into extortion 17 between then and extortion 17 and kinda as you finish your time at Dam Neck what were those deployments like resuming that stuck out as being you know big missions that that really defined who you are both professionally personally mentally etc um I remember I give this example I do speeches once in a while and I always go back to this one off that I did and it was just kind of to show like uh as you see I've said the word mind said I'm not anytime because I'm a big believer in it you know you can kind of make your mind like hey we can sit here and cry about it or we can make this situation better yes I tend to go with the latter and try to make things better well most of us are exactly that same way it was actually a couple weeks after Lois passed away we did an op and I was at my team wasn't primary assault team so we were kind of like holding the backs the the structure of security and they couldn't get in there was machine guns they were throwing grenades all the gates were locked everything and we talked about started going through walls so the team there was like hey Eddie like go do this I was like Roger that and I just started blowing holes in these walls and ended up taking out every dude she was [ __ ] awesome so it was me and uh Dom Rosso you know him him and I were just running up to the back of these things so in these charges on they're taking him down and then we would go clear and there these guys would be so dazed and then we would just they would be so dazed from the explosion once the dust settle you just kind of see him alone you just finish him off yeah you know he's got a big machine gun in their lap and then once that settled this is this is this probably the funniest thing that ever happened on target I walked into where the main room where these guys were at they had like two machine guns there's a guy up top and like a little machine gun nests and they're like a big stack grenades and I walked in I was like huh I got carpet in here that first time I've been its I'm like in my boots like they have got carpet in here and I'm like that is so weird I'm like this is like the softest carpet I've ever been on so like once we start clear and I like turn on my flashlight I look down and there's just this eyeball kind of looking at me it wasn't carpet at all my charge this guy must have had his back up against the wall totally flattened him no [ __ ] was like my first breaching kills myself on the back of like is the greatest night ever but there's just you just kind of flattened out for my explosive charge I was like this is this is kind of funny [ __ ] come on carpet this is kind of fun oh yeah there's a couple more crazy stories but that that op was big and rewind bring that up as just I realized with like the training of like that we got you know through the pipeline of exactly what we can do as a team like you know you know and we're just blowing holes in the wall and you know we're taking that where it seemed like we're not getting into this castle like they're not letting us in and we just kind of improvise make your way and use our brains and started like going in now it's like now it's you know we use it the method a lot yeah it was cool it's like the ultimate - flashbang it was by like personal like kind of like and made me feel really good yeah was it was there any other instances like that that that stick out as being exceptional or or really burning your mind yeah there was um I had one there was a novice it was with Don Rosso again i him and i were like we're all wearing the same teams we did a lot of fiery gold pretty much the whole time together we were again backside security and we just hear all this gunfire we're like at that point were like crap and we're missing out all fun the sucks so we go out on the back side of this building and there's a bunch of windows and we're just kind of looking like is there anybody to shoot is there anybody to shoot and then down comes I think to the second window and there's a dude there with a neikei mics and of course I'm like piss at this point I'm like I would to shoot somebody I want I want to be a part of the fun it's like I have Tom's disease terrified of missing [ __ ] right I want to be a part of the party oh god that's why I'm not until like 2 o'clock in the morning I was in the teams all the time I don't want to miss any fun yeah I better get to the next window and then there's another dude just like they were like I had all these rooms occupied took that guy out and [ __ ] whack-a-mole that we just like started Tate we and Don and I you know take like three or four guys out all on this like line of houses are on this line of rooms but when we go in this is the funniest thing Dom's on the ground look with the flashlights looking I'm like what are you looking for it's like this guy's missing his eyeballs so like if you look at this guy like he doesn't have any trauma and I don't know ch there you go no trauma whatsoever his eyes are literally gone it's like black hollow holes also what we're looking for and he goes his eyeballs I like go Dom bro do you think they're just like little marbles like rolling around on the ground and he goes you're right I'm an idiot to think so like that was probably another op that was just like kind of funny like just a ha ha moment like dude he's like I'm an idiot so well that's that's definitely a good one I'll have to get down here and get yeah yeah there's definitely we got a couple of those stories with just being complete idiots that's [ __ ] I mean that's about the only way you can even try to keep your sanity that's exactly right you just got to try to have fun to make an ass of your situation yeah being you know with my relationship to dogs and what I do for a living is there a a dog story you can share that that either you know was a capability that that they did that you're just like holy [ __ ] I'm glad we had the dogs I'd love to give our houses look stories absolutely we had we had a we had another target of course and we had a couple guys run out what their I think they had a couple RPGs and we had the DAT Birds the gunships pretty much to come and just drop all this ordnance I mean missile after missile after bomb after bomb after gun run after gun run and these dudes are still alive we could still pick him up that they were still alive and we were tried every option and we're like alright listen the dog I saw we said it was actually it was digo I believe still D go yeah sent the dog and the dog found him and ripped his throat out yeah and took him out so we just wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on ordinates were really we just need to send the dog and he took that guy who was the guy was hiding in the reeds and like in like shallow water with the big like cattails or whatever you want to call him the reeds and he was hiding in there was just his head out but just enough to where the dog could get him and just freaking and when we got him I mean they just ripped open his throat now and he [ __ ] killed him right killed him yeah it was awesome but so d go and I don't know if you remember a dog named breast and I do remember breast and ego and Rustin were the first two dogs that came here with the warrior dog foundation so you know it's you had to go didn't you yeah here yeah okay okay [ __ ] almost five years that's right awesome yeah once once do retired he came here I mean he was he was piss and vinegar until the day he died I mean he was just an absolute [ __ ] in all the best ways pilot I want what he has because this world no I know he's [ __ ] nuts I mean it yeah some of the stories I've heard about him that that being one of them but it was neat and same with breast I mean there's so many stories I mean some of them are in our the trident book but it's so so neat to hear guys who were on the missions with some of these dogs kind of putting putting those pieces together for for us here who had the the honor and pleasure of taking care of him and his in his twilight years was there was a real deal I was just very impressed yeah I mean that would always give you a little nip on the heel oh yeah yeah that's no [ __ ] was there any other any other dog stories similar to whether it's an IAD find or even a cachet I know like some of the caches yeah the dogs were we're good at that one thing that I was found about the dogs is they you know use the red dot the little red laser is how they would Intifada cailli go through then and we'd have the cameras on them and they would go through and just attack these dudes like they would go behind the curtains they would go checking the blankets and I'm like the training that has I just remember thing like you know like some of us don't even do that these guys are smarter than us yeah but they would methodically go like lower then we go in the upper and you can see their lights like if you just lift up you can see their you know their lights and it was crazy I was we lost a dog in one of our offs that was horrible I remember he got shot robic was his name and I mean I was a [ __ ] was actually the same night would Dom and I where Dom was looking for the eyeballs who was actually the same op that our dog got shot and and that that op actually there is dudes dressed as women as well yeah so that was a crow so that was a weird night so but but I think do you there's dogs do phenomenal things every single night it's like we would send the dogs and most the time before us I mean and they would flush dudes out that was crazy I mean they're just such a vital piece to that to our mission you know on the battlefield there they're phenomenal yeah I mean obviously it's it's impossible to quantify and put a number on you know the impact that they have but you know could you even even begin to put kind of a ballpark like there's there's X number of guys or you know for a fact like there are dudes maybe even yourself included that are here today because of some of those dogs I would say quite a few I mean not just one or two I'd say quite a few I mean then it's just the it's insane the capabilities that they have and like and I don't know all the training that goes it goes into it but I mean you guys do a phenomenal job that like just that the trainers that do that but I mean yeah countless countless guys countless guys I mean just you know dog sitting dogs taking guys over hiding finding guys over hiding I mean one guy with a ak-47 and a full magazine that's what 30 rounds 28 whatever that's a lot of dudes you know come and get a gummy and then the dog takes that guy out I mean that's that could say five to six dudes right there yeah and that happened quite a bit so the did you guys do anything for for robic when he was you guys having a moral thing we we did we had something I can't remember exactly what it was but we did do something because that's one of the things they do on the quarterdeck at the convention I got a I got a tattoo of robic right here dude that's [ __ ] awesome areas right there if you can lift that up for the for the camera now if you can see that or not but if if you're listening check it out on YouTube you can see a see a picture of robic that's [ __ ] bad-ass so yeah I got that was the deployment and there's a certain number of skulls on there there's 807 without air support so yeah that's and it's got Mike Natan Louie's call signs on there so ii kind of my memorial tattoo for those guys yeah this was robic the only dog that you guys lost while you were he went for my deployments yes he was the only one that obviously Tico got totally jacked up yeah but those are the only the only two that's one thing it's one of the most common questions I get is you know do dogs get lost a lot and while they do I mean that their capability is such that many times you know they they prevent themselves from being from being rolled up you know percentage-wise like they don't lose a lot of them you know they are lost but yeah I mean the component and augmentation and an asset that they bring to the table for for all of our forces is is hard - hard to overstate it real I'd say it's probably impossible you know it's so significant that I remember being ops where there was no dog and not liking it yeah I kind of like this it's like as I was almost like had just one a gun you know just bring a comfort and like having a comfort in that environment anything that you can possibly you know is yeah that's security blanket totally and then they provided that a hundred percent of the time I loved having them there they're like we're bring in two dogs as I thank God query twelve which I mean now you now you have one from similarly yes I do when I love them yeah yeah old he is all features the band good ship he's a big teddy bear yeah we'll just like you right right all right all right let's slip the dogs of war goddam it's hard to do a hard not that it's impossible not to love me to me if you don't love dogs you're [ __ ] communist and you're not welcome in the house but it's very true um so moving on into the deployments this is where our paths or probably came the close to crossing in terms of just both significance of loss and and and shared loss was with the extortion 17 mission that you know was unquestionably the biggest blow to Naval Special Warfare and then in the history of it and I know I'll let you kind of tell the story because I know your personal situation was woven into that story right really but for me I'll just you know when I heard about it I had just come back I was on my way back from doing some training with the West Coast k9 program I was driving back to Texas and and one of my former business partners called and told me about it and I just a mean [ __ ] heart sunk you know and I went to the the memorial out on the East Coast and ran into a bunch of guys I knew a number of those guys but I was not on gold squadron the way you were sick if you can walk us through that I'd love to hear it so after before Gold's before that deployment when extortion happened I went through a divorce and somehow I got custody of three children you know so here I am an operator I can barely take care of myself like I'm like operate overseas and I get custody of an eight month old of a boy of four year old daughter and a no daughter and so that says a lot about maybe your former significant other if a judge like you know you need this quite a bit it's exquisite but it's so like I was trying to do the 50/50 so I could steal Alec I was in you know even gonna say hey I'll stop deploying I'll just do a training thing but I got full custody and I was like in shock and this was two weeks before deployment this is the deployment before extortion this is when Adam Brown passed away you know so I think on that deployment because I was raising these children are trying to learn how to like hash tag how to be a dad because I had no frickin clue this makes me think of a movie pacifier like the rock would play you in a movie and be like mr. mom by Meghan's I can see Disney making some [ __ ] like that I mean it sounds like a [ __ ] movie yeah I've actually like them thought like thought about writing a book on that whole piece right because that is like your eye on itself like just taking care of those children that was crazy I mean you you got the the deployments and the killing and you're losing your buddies and now like eight three kids take care of one's eight-month in diapers what the hell's a diaper yeah like it's so um that was the worst time of my life and it was the best time of my life because it learned how to be a dad and I got to be with those children that are the number one thing in my life so then that's definitely a blessing so I did that I've ever my the the guy that I told you was coming I mentor a team too and then he later became the command master chief I was actually in Dick's Sporting Goods and I was pushing my car and I had my my son and like and like the little bike carrier in the carts and then my two little ones and he just looks at me and he just like shakes his head and I go ha ha ha and I was like yeah that's my life like this is literally happening right now but anyways did that and then what worked out was that my ex-wife would get the children during the summer you know so it worked out that the deployment extortion was was actually one week after the kids were gone yeah so I went back as okay I'd love to jump on this deployment like jump back in my team like I'll just be a shooter carry whatever you want me to well you know Kerry everything's I don't care I just want to deploy you know one more time um that I kind of look like that like was I being selfish with that you know considering I had three kids I don't put myself back in harm's way but I'm also you know there's also a second there's other side to that it's like your boys if you know it is man like you get off that train you see your boys like punching out and still taking the fight to the enemy you miss that it's like it's like that it's like oxygen so yeah what they feel a sense of responsibility totally yeah and then when and then I got to call it you know that deployment I told you in this where Adam Brown passed I got a call it I think was 2:00 in the morning from my team leader he's like hey Adam Adam just passed I'm like we were just around the phone like crying and talking don't shots talking about Adam for a couple hours yeah so I was like dude I gotta go on this and I only did I think it was only like a 60 day deployment because that's all I could do with the kids school schedule so I went on it and I was set to come back three days late three day three days after she's me three days before extortion happened I was supposed to come back all like like five days after extortion so I was something like around that I was supposed to come back the same time when the guys you know when their bodies came back so extortion happened and I remember watching we call it kill TV you got like all the TVs watching the operations and there was two helos and one of them went down and you know we're like trying to get radio comms like hey because we knew all our guys were on one of the helos and one of them just had the aircrew obviously we don't want anyone to get killed but obviously it was the you know our guys and I remember watching that and then they just kind of zoomed in on the crash site and you can just see like four or five bodies like just turn on the back side they wrote that on the tail of the the helo just kind of spilled out and who I don't even have words to really put to that to that to that feeling because my best friend was on there Jason workman met him a teen - Matt Mills and me robberies I mean I could just go on with leg unless I mean there's just so many so many awesome guys on there but like work that was my best friend like he was my best buddy and it sucked I mean it was like [ __ ] and just that the families and just how many families are affected by this these great warriors uh and I'm like okay well maybe there's still hope maybe there maybe there's still some alive if there's still some alive and we tried to go go get the bodies and then our CEO is like you're not bullying like what do you mean when I [ __ ] go home or [ __ ] going like are you kidding me that's our guys and I and I understand his thought process now is like he didn't want us to see our guys charred and you know whatever I've heard the stories after from some Ranger buddies that wouldn't actually you know took care of that cleanup of the cleanup of that mess it's probably good that we didn't get to see that because the only as you know those images are just ingrained at your mind but I was set to come back because I had to be back for the kids like a few weeks later or something like that and then Jason's workman's family Stacey his widow asked me to bring his body back I mean of course I'll just come back early so I came back with Jason and I remember you see those pictures of like a dog kind of sitting next to the casket they just lost her owner that was kind of like new adjacent I was like I would like you know we're on the c-17 flying back and he's got these metal caskets we got I can't remember how many caskets are in there because there was extra body parts and there was four or five of us that came back with the with the with the bodies in well talk about a freaking experience man just like being with your your buddies are in there you kind of want to see him but you don't want to see him I just remember laying next to his casket cuz I know which one was his I made sure I find that found out and I was with his body for I think was like two and half weeks because we had to find it over I had a time to go down to my house kind of get things give my like my blues all that stuff cuz I was going to take the when they called the angel flights to Utah to his family and my girlfriend at the time flew in saw her for like a day flew back up to Dover so you there and then we took the angel flight and had to drop off another dead body in like Missouri or something from an army guy like it's just a weird experience like we're just dropping off these dead bodies we get to Utah and while this is happening there's all these memorial service because I think that there are so many of our guys like we're just you know and you know they had the command got there no busses to go hit all these memorial services and I really couldn't do them because I was a Jason I had to stay with his body which was if he was an honor it was an honor to be with him cuz they on the island you know he came in after me he kind of like you know that you know the student kind of became the teacher I mean he was just so talented at everything he did and it's so good looking got like the best best flow inherently there's just amazing so I was with him and his family and you know a lot of drinking a lot of suppressing feelings a lot of just like I don't want to be sober right now I don't want to feel so obviously alcohol was huge and alcohol kicked in big time for me when I got the Kazi of the kids like at night where they be in bed I was like alright wine time like I didn't want to do hard liquor because I know how I can get on that stuff so I'll fight you so I was just like gotta take some wine but like it just it was just weird just feel this body and then you know we have a service for them and I was cool is that you ever heard of Robert Earl Keen yeah these things a lot of us he's got a lot of really good songs but the he they reached out to him because it was Jason one of Jason's favorite singers he came up to the funeral didn't even hesitate oh sure played a song and then you know took off at me it was awesome like it was a really great service and then took his body back to Arlington where they have the big service where they put everyone in the grave and then that's when I was done and I was with his body for her adopted where they would open the caskets and like it I saw exactly kind of what happened I mean he was rapping you could tell like he wasn't the same cuz he was a tall guy I think it was like six to six three and he wasn't that you know so do you do you know from a from a tactical standpoint what exactly happened because I mean I've heard a lot of different variation you know we all have you know I've heard you know the conspiracies and this and that and were they using the right birds no but we did it again well you know the whole lone survivor thing right we did it with not havin is our we wanted to go get the bad guys they got hit with an RPG the helicopter went down and it's called war and it's not fair and it sucks and that's what happened you know that is that is what I firmly believe in my heart yeah um do I know all the external pieces that people are claiming or saying no and I don't give a [ __ ] like I don't care like I know that there was good men on that helicopter cuz whatever stuff we want to try to bring up or stuff that we it's not gonna change anything you're not gonna bring him back you're not gonna change anything it doesn't matter so just respect those men carry on their their the legend that they were and move on like if you just like dwell and then try to like blame somebody the fact of the matter is those men are no longer here and you can't change that no that's it yeah yeah I mean we could we get I guess that kind of goes the mindset we can kind of sit there and tread water and just like how do I get to land or we can start swimming to land yeah so it's kind of I mean that's kind of like what you need to do to tread and water and thinking about how [ __ ] you are right just [ __ ] start or just me or find a solution I mean the bottom you're not bringing it back it sucks it's hard I know a lot of the families they grieve and it's it's way harder for them than it was for me obviously because they weren't my family but they kind of were too I mean I did years and years and years training drinking having great times with these guys getting deep with these guys knowing their families so you know brothers not by blood but I mean it's it is hard it sucks no it does suck yeah and I'm not taking that away from any family but it's war yeah and Wars not fair is there an element like from a survivor's guilt standpoint of like [ __ ] you I should cuz it let's say that the the custody thing had never taken place would you have been on that you know it's kind of funny to say that when I chose to come back for my it was I've volunteered again to come back to do that deployment as I was talking to Jason he's like dude come with us he's like it'll be fun like just hang out with us getting back together you but we weren't in the same boat - I was like no I got to go back with my same team I gotta I gotta get a run with it and I've wanted so bad to go hang out with him yeah but there was that there was a that moment where like hey I could like push and I probably would have got it to go I want to go with these guys you know thankfully I did not do that I went back was I because I was led to go back with my you know my original team but yeah it's my flip of a coin though it's it sucks man there's not a day that goes by I don't think of those guys think of the memories that we have the stupid crap we did I mean just okay they're just amazing they did they're just amazing every one of them they have their own little thing Micah storm never robbed Reeves coming in with a calculator watching and Members Only jacket cools dude I've ever been like who wears a calculator watch yeah it's like I were a colossus I guess you do so I mean there's just so many great stories of all these guys I even that got me with that that's a 18 pot I mean a thousand podcast just to cover you know the accolades and the great things these guys did but I mean they're they're in a better place I believe and you know I love them to death and they're just they made a great impact on my life that I can carry on to you know my children yeah I I did an iraq deployment with Matt Mills it was those first two their first deployment and I've been the Mangler he is oh my god he is so intense yeah I mean we used to spar like my background or my fighting yeah he was always my sparring partner they're about the same size and that guy sweat so much he would throw a punch in sweat would come off and would land in your eye you're like why did I hit you at sea you're killing me with your sweat you forget suck I'm like dude I'd like stop to wipe your face off like get that sweat off your face in the grasshoppers total I do know my Chris Campbell was was my first roommate we went through buds together and that crazy great guy and yeah I mean just and there was a number a number of other team three guys that I didn't know quite as well but but knew him and had worked with him briefly or whatever but you know for me it was tough and into even try to put myself in your guys's shoes of being from that squadron and working with those guys and it just you know it's a it's a tough thing to even even think it's a tough for the whole community we all you know we're all tied some way you know guys worked with them here whatever and there's all those memories that are built and then you lose them it's like no I mean it is it's real you know I mean it's very yeah one of the things I've noticed in in doing this interview with you is I'm either markable how how [ __ ] composed you are in talking about it because a lot of guys aren't even even with our background you know I've had plenty of guys get [ __ ] choked up on here and whatever and I'm curious is there an element of what we're kind of talking about earlier in terms of the the deadening or the the diminishing of emotional bandwidth that takes place because I firmly believe that it's like with anything you know and we use a lot in dog training and desensitizing don't look some things that freaked them out slowly you do it calculated so that now it doesn't bother them anymore but I think with with our type of experiences yours you know tenfold over mine but that you know you you experience something that's that traumatic that's that heartbreaking that's that emotionally devastating over and over and over it gets to the point where it stops kind of registering and I'm curious is that do you feel like that's an element of where you're at I spent it's a it's a great question and some of your listeners might be like you're full of crap and a lot of your listeners can be like oh cool that so that is a real thing I I was dead to emotion for a long time by pills by alcohol by women by I mean just you name it anything to not think about it I don't want to feel I don't want to feel I don't wanna feel um and then I I've I found faith in Christ and in it I mean my eyes were opened I cried a lot I still cry a lot um but it just kind of opened me up and kind of like hey like you're you're you're not you're not just here and my life they I have a very strong faith do I mess up all the time on my god daily it's like five times daily you don't I mean yeah like I'm cussing Akasha because Nettie you know better than that but it's like but but you're human did you grow up with that no I didn't know no my um my girlfriend the time I went to I was drinking a lot and being stupid and she um it was it's called True North ministries it was out in Oklahoma and it was a three-day boot camp no cell phone no nothing and I'd never prayed I never and I kidding it was a it's a it's a program that was called wild at heart originally stopped by John eldritch out of Colorado and I was like I remember I got there as I got cool I'll just have a couple beers you know it's fits fine and then and like there's no alcohol I mean there's no alcohol this is a gathering man I thought man there's no I felt like I was just very weird for me I've never done any Christian based anything and so I've been listening to this stuff and I just like and there's like these segments there's like three or four segments a day like hour-long and then you go pray I've never prayed before and then I just see guys like they're talking about like a father wounds I mean I know if father ones I'm fine and I just see dudes and like the audience like start crying they're just they're just getting taken out in a good way and they're just coming to realization they're like okay this is it and then like what you realize and you admit it and then you can kind of move on from it so I finally got hit like day three I got hit like a free I mean I got hit so hard of just this piece this feeling and and I and I'm not saying I'm not perfect Christian because if I there's no such thing I I says sin daily and I try to do get better myself all the time but that has helped me reading the Bible don't devotionals in the night praying at night and and remember after that when I left that boot that little Christian boot camp it was like a three-hour drive back to Tulsa where I was living at the time I cried the whole way I cried the whole frickin way trying to call my girlfriend I would be able to get like ten words start crying like a gonna call you back now just are crying it's like this piece this feeling I've never felt before like my body was being warmed and I was like okay God like since we're like trying this prayer thing like okay if you're real like I'm like literally testing him if you're real like show me your real like show me your real and I remember what I was driving by this carwash and and I was like am I saved because I'm like man I've killed I've killed a lot of people and I've killed a lot of people I have I've sinned I've cheated I you know I'm sure I've stolen like a baby seal magazine felt bad for that I mean just like just like I've done so many things surely I can't be saved and I was driving by this carwash and and you know the others like their signs like the red letters it just kind of flashes by Oh note that those signs are called but literally I just like I prayed I'm like if you're really like tell me tell me I'm saved I tell me I'm save I look up and this carwash it says saved ocean not say it doesn't say save $15 it said saved with a D yeah and I was like and I just started crying again I'm like holy [ __ ] I'm like are you freaking kidding me right now like I just done and since then so many things but that that that's why I'm composed because I accept it for what it is like I know you can't bring it back you know and I believe that you know heaven is a better place than what we're dealing with here and I do believe in good and evil so so that's why but I would probably go to that then that my faith is the one but but I trust me I have I've been through the torment I've grieved a lot I still have my moments yeah you know we do that die trip for Louie I know that but I'm there with uh with DOM and Jamie I mean Louie's family it's gonna come up again and I couldn't accept that no that's okay it's okay to have those feelings yeah I used to think you can't have feelings coz we're all these alpha males we can't have feelings you can't I feel like that's [ __ ] you're just gonna what's gonna happen is you're gonna explode and I've done I've done that plenty of times and I'm not doing that anymore yeah so well it's I mean to me it's remarkable and and really neat you know sitting across the desk to hear all the things you've been through and how you've handled it and where you're at now and you know having kids and moving on and all that kind of stuff but you know I'd love to get before we get into kind of what you're doing now and then some some advice on some of the security type type issues that I've got written down here just if you could talk to the family component and from getting out and transitioning out of the military and losing that identity to a certain extent I mean we're all always always always going to have always been a seal but there's right there's a huge disparity between being an active-duty frogmen and I used to be absolutely and so what can you walk us through that transition now yeah so when I was on my seventeen year mark that's when I got kind of got custody of my kids after extortion and I obviously didn't want to get out so I tried to find a position what I could do is I mean it was just a blessing in disguise and and I did they have those Coordinator positions and I did that for the last three years we're just training guys I want to be seals wakey OD rescue swimmers what's the other one there's another one but any of the special kind of things that the Navy has so you just train them kind of put them through the through the wringer and season it's ended up saving the Navy money when they get to buds so they're like oh you know I realized the water is cold this sucks I just got stood you know X amount of dollars come on I can't do six below I can't do exactly so it was cool to kind of give back to try to feed into these guys as best I could because I know when I was going in I wish I had somebody feeding into me I had like movies all right so it was cool and I was able to get my bachelor's and security management so I took advantage of my time I didn't like just wasted and then I started my company contingent group during that time but the the op tempo of going from going out every night and shooting dudes and just that intensity to going to raising three children by yourself and being domesticated I would like to call it and trying to be a father figure and try to lead the right way it's a different kind of leading than the battlefield battlefield is get your [ __ ] ass in the door and kill that dude we need to get in there right now where it's like it's okay honey I understand your stress today what do we you want to talk about like tell me about your feelings what are you feeling yeah I have so many books cuz I didn't know what the heck I was doing I don't know what I don't know what this is you know it was so I kind of like called the war after war like if I do write a book it will be called the war after war because they're something that you know it's like your guys are out doing what you've trained your whole life to do and now I'm like taking care of kids but I mean like I look back at it now it's like oh my god like I missed out on so many good years of these guys like ah like I love my children they're amazing oh now I'm being choked up summertime on the kids yeah well no I mean I I know for me like I've gone through you know the foot again my kids are a little bit older now but you know haven't been through you know having them after I deployed you know in and and I was an instructor so you know trying to balance and not treat them like they're [ __ ] white shirt buds students right and have these expectations that they're a 19 year old man that wants to be a seal like it it's it's it still is hard for me it's very hard to not just be like you know hey do this and it's like if you if you're not doing it like you're [ __ ] [ __ ] is on fire you're then you're wrong and I'm gonna go to level 12 exactly you know until you get there and in me trying to balance that and and leverage you know high expectations good standards being a you know a role model not just in in talk but mostly in action of saying you know I'm gonna show you how to how to do these things right and I'm going to show you the principles that I'm gonna live my life by so that you can hopefully won't try and want to emulate them etc all while balancing like you know I'm not gonna take an ounce of [ __ ] attitude and you know you're gonna have manners and respect for your elders you're not going to be one of those [ __ ] you know that that is on WorldStarHipHop because you're fighting with a [ __ ] teacher you know all of those things in conjunction with you know again the emotional interaction that you have especially with girls you know of not jumping their [ __ ] and understanding that they're they're hardwired different and therefore their emotions are vastly different especially at that age and it's just like for guys like us that is a whirlwind of razor blades you know that that's just like holy [ __ ] christ a challenge you know but yeah so I mean I can't even imagine doing it by yourself with three of them yeah it was whoo like I just I just think about I've ever call my mom like mom so I need your help for a few weeks because I don't know to know in here like learning out what diapers and baby it was a holy learning experience but but so cool about that is just like going from operation to like learning to take care of three kids it's like humans are awesome yeah humans are frickin awesome the resilient doesn't you can we can do some [ __ ] yeah I know replace the the m60 with an eight month old there you go what so you know in terms of the transition from excuse me getting out to starting contingent can you walk us through that to that process of how that took place so probably about a buddy I was that team to with I think this is probably around my 18 year mark he was like hey you want to do some side work and I was like heck yeah like because I just lost all this money from leaving the command and I think a hazard duty pay and all that stuff I look sure so as protection work EP work for a you know a billionaire family and I just started doing it and it was great pay and I was I was like well I can I can see a business here I got this experience this experience and then so I just started you know I got the insurance started having guy subcontract at first and then I was like well if we can do this when we could do background checks so we can do surveillance and we can do this and like let's what does kidnapping stuff look like and then it's just okay well we can do vehicles too so just kind of like morphed into like just own protection - okay we can do it all now yeah so it's definitely morphed in the first two years we're in business it was just me yeah just doing contracting for a friend and then I finally started reaching out to try to get my own clients and then finally get my own clients yeah [ __ ] that's great do you have a 30 second elevator pitch for for what the company does that you can share that like this is who we are and what we do yes so contingent group does pretty much anything that revolves like involves safety and security for an individual family and organization it doesn't matter where they are overseas where we're worldwide so we just kind of like pretty much design your security program so if you have for an example even an organization that works in you know Mexico for example we will take care of the safety and security piece from when they leave wherever their home is when they get down there set up the drivers set up the hotels and we do our background checks we have all our connections down there we have our Intel people down there and we're gathering information and we just keep them safe whenever they've got going on it doesn't matter our construction site I mean they're developing or if they're just going down there for a vacation whatever it is we take care of it all that's we do it and it doesn't matter where and it can be from you know one guy doing an assessment to full-blown it could be yeah like obviously it starts with an assessment and then I mean now we're going into we do kidnapping and ransom things like actually if somebody gets you know snatch we'll go get them mat like we actually physically go get them no [ __ ] oh yeah so we we will take care of those that's [ __ ] great you still gotta have your fun right yeah yeah so for you know for most the people listening who aren't billionaires you know one of the things I like to try to offer as a takeaway for the listener is is just I've got kind of a list of things you know security tip type things obviously you know we don't have days to give away the playbook but just kind of some some bullet point style tips or things that people can kind of think about to be a little more self-aware about how they live their life and I've just got a couple of them written down here I'm curious to get your take of what you you feel like providing but one thing I'm curious of is you know a guy you know from you doing assessments and you see you know again whether they're rich poor huge corporation a family that ever is what are some of the biggest and/or most common mistakes people make or take for granted in their day to day of complacency they think it won't be old it won't happen to me and I always I always tell this to clients and if we go do like a travel safety or a teaching of something like that if were you know were school people up is there's not one victim that said I'm gonna be a victim you know there's not one out there they're like hey today I'm gonna go get shot in the head they didn't think it was gonna happen or else there would be no victims because I crapped this is gonna happen if I could do this so there's no like pre-trip like I felt like you know if we're gonna go do something I'm gonna go up to Brazil I'm just going down there for a day I'm just gonna get a taxi okay well do you know about the taxi student desert a lot of kidnappings kidnappings that happened from those taxi services like people just assumed that it's okay you know it's not okay it's not America yeah that's why if you leave America and you go to these other countries I'm not saying all countries are bad but some of them are pretty brutal they have a different way of thinking yeah they have different crime you know like Chicago we know that that's you don't go to certain areas because murder is bad right no the same thing they have the same thing but there's might be taxis you never get into the taxi yeah when I think of that a lot of that with that it's cultural - that is like we have zero contextual you know even you can't even contextually wrap your mind around like oh because it's so second nature well you can get an a' nuber and its side safe and it's fine and you know it's whatever but we do we do this things that we we saw on our on our website they're called wrist snapshots they're just a one-page PDF that you can I mean they're like 20 bucks but it just gives you situational awareness before you go because we're trying to like help everyone out because a lot of our prices are more for design for higher-end clients but you know we're reading a more put them together in there's certain countries if you get in a car accident you're going to jail notion even if it's not your fault you're going to jail so like there's like okay well I need to know about that or like I mean there's there's so many things that if you do this you're going to jail things that are perfectly fine here like public display of affection you know people don't understand that they're just like oh I'm good I'm just gonna go over there but if you just like literally and you could do it yourself just called research it's called Google or Bing or whatever the hell you want to use and it's just they don't they don't think about it they're like it's okay I'll be fine it won't happen slap your old you slap your old lady on the ass end up in prison you end up a prisoner now you're getting it now you're gonna slap yes exactly and it's not an American prison where um Brandon writes whatever ails it's like a what happens all the time I mean like I mean like a China and I mean like I'll just take this with me no because they are sucking all your information over your phone yeah soon as you walk through customs yeah yeah people just don't understand that and they they really need to yeah so I've got just a couple things written down in terms of kind of taking that same approach online any advice you can offer in terms of online things take for granted or just kind of a synopsized I always recommend like a VPN like keeping your stuff safe never use public Wi-Fi hotel Wi-Fi always have your personal password protected like router my Intel guy would be better at explaining this stuff than I am but you you go in there like people are very savvy and they can get in your stuff credit card information personal information they can get in your computer and just run your computer yeah do you guys offer any any type of training as it relates to that we do the whole gamut like everything from you know intelligence from like your your server stuff all the way up to physical security so we do it both suite information security and Temescal security okay the next one I have is just house like regular residential house things that people take for granted or that you know they they generally [ __ ] up or overlook or is there any kind of things I guess from your experience that that you find the most common that when you walk into a house to do an assessment like people always [ __ ] this up and they always have this wrong or whatever you know it's a lot of people they don't lock their doors they're like I'm letting the dog out or I'm bringing the dog in I'll just like I have a fence I'm just gonna keep this door unlocked yeah you gotta lock your doors and another thing if you can see if you just look up YouTube or on Instagram or excuse me Facebook is you need be prepared for the worst there's videos out there where there's four guys with guns kick down the door because I can kick down a door guys can kick like that door can get get down period okay what do you do if you're in the shower what do you do if your baby's in the other room what if you're making dinner and that happens have a plan like a lot of people don't have plans or protocols you know and some a lot of times the person that is like I need to have a plan they don't bring their family into the plan you know and you need to have everybody involved like okay medical what if somebody gets stabbed we're going to deal with that yeah the communication what if they put a jammer out there how you guys can communicate yeah just certain things like that that people don't think about they that that can't happen and does happen all the time yeah and people don't really want to it won't they'll do it won't happen to me until it does cuz it will well and the thing I mean I've had instance happened to me I mean it to me it's no different than when you're overseas in a gunfight breaks out I mean it happens so [ __ ] fast mm-hmm that like I don't I mean even if you have a plan you have [ __ ] staged around the house you have all these mitigation protocols put in place like it will still catch you with your [ __ ] pants down every single exactly but better like having a plan is better than having no player playing this simple it's just like a football team right yeah we got plays and so with travel I have both you know in in CONUS you know here in the states and overseas I mean it sounds like you know downloading the the PDF one page or if you're going anywhere is is a good option but it's it's a great option and that's just like a hey here's your medical natural disasters here's kind of like the trending crime because we update it all the time every depending on country how often we update it depending on the news and stuff and our other Intel gathering sources that we have and then we have our recommendations on there like don't do this do this don't do this like travel in groups you know don't don't be drinking this kind of drink because they do this but we also go in-depth like if you want to jump on a phone call and really get into it I can really tell you all the way up to will send one of our guys with you all the way to will set up your driving services all the way because when we go we bring our medical team with us we have our medical because a lot of these countries medical socks so it's not like you're screwed so it just depends on obviously finances and the area they're going to but we do it all you know we were down in Mexico and it was last year there's a big hurricane hurricane sorry big earthquake at Mexico City I mean just crazy and our client one of our clients was landing and I'm there without mic my colleague in the ground shakin and because of the protocols that we had in place we got him out of there because the city turned to chaos so if we didn't have that though and we were able to get everybody off we had like different ways to get people out of there not by commercial aircraft just in case so the perfect example when it worked and the clients like I'm glad we have you guys yeah so the the contingency plan exactly that I haven't yeah do you guys do any any stateside traveling and type stuff and I guess obviously the the overseas pieces is much more complicated and it depends on where you're going and things of that nature but is there anything you can offer as just kind of a freebie for for stateside travel that you'd that you see people [ __ ] up or get complacent they were to go back to the like the you know using like hotel Wi-Fi like it you need to have your own personal and there's no I mean just especially for businesses that are you know they have certain information and they're sending back and forth you if you're if you're not providing your guys with what they call Tammy Phi or a personal hotspot you're you're you're so wrong I think that's the biggest piece and just traveling around town at night but that if you don't know that city or not for to that city by yourself yeah and not having some kind of protective thing like we sell or contingent group executive pin I got one for you by the way um it's just a pin but it doesn't look like transformers appendage you know some of those defensive pins looks like dude that is said like this one actually gets you through TSA yeah I've taken it to many different countries yeah never had a problem with it and I always keep it in my pocket I always have something so it's like something is better than nothing yeah so I mean I recommend always like a firearm if you can but obviously if certain states won't allow that then you can't a blade depending on you know local laws and then you kind of go down the the order like alright pepper spray okay a defensive pen okay a personal alarm okay don't do this you know I mean do you guys do like if it let's say I call you up and you don't know me for my [ __ ] paint which would probably be better is that you know I say hey I'm traveling to [ __ ] pick a state you know I'm going to Michigan and I'm gonna be in a shitty part of Detroit for a business meeting do you guys offer customized packages like that where you'll research like where they're going and plan a route I mean I can compete with contract you guys to do [ __ ] like that absolutely and we do we always work with local law enforcement or local vendors that we have vetted and have worked with in the past cos of obviously with our network from our backgrounds we have a huge network globally um but you know a lot of people it's kind of funny you say that it's like people like hey I need this I need this and then I'm like okay well we need this this this this information what hotel you're staying what are your dates where are you working like and they're just kind of like fishing so we do we have a validation process before we even give em any information yeah and and but but yeah of course absolutely wherever you're going it's like it's like the SEAL Teams right we'll be anywhere about 24 hours and we're the exact same yeah I mean we have clients that need something in like like Nairobi like we need this for this how fast can you get it to us like really fast yeah so we have those those connections made that's fantastic um from from an identity theft standpoint as is that something that you guys do much with um we can we can take care of what we haven't had a need for it I think we maybe had one time where it was being utilized but we have we have our connections to to deal with that yes so I mean it sounds like in terms of all things security related I mean your one-stop [ __ ] job we are one set and that's why I was always my vision is like we're gonna be like Target but we're not gonna do our quality you know we will always take quality and and and get rid of quantity but it's just we're growing yeah by bringing more guys on that are that are qualified to do this yeah that's [ __ ] great so if you're listening I mean you know he's got a stable of [ __ ] pipetters working for him that new online stuff physical security you know security details [ __ ] route planning for travel overseas ship hostage rescue you know background checks identity theft you know I would imagine something as simple as like if somebody wants help disappearing you know they can do that you know you know that it's it's almost almost movie proportion one of our one of our things that you know you follow us on Instagram is that we give free tips yeah I mean we're always trying to like how can we keep it will keep people safe like hey did you know you could do this medical security wise so our page is great to follow just because it gives you free foundation yeah why would you not want it there's no there's great tips and yes we do push products sometimes yeah that's the way the world works same here which is what I'm about to do actually but no yes so you know that's uh that's you know the gist of the interview here I I really cannot thank you enough for sharing your story I mean that I appreciate being the own thing you know I I didn't know your real well before we sat down and here in your story and the things you've been through and knowing some of the same guys that we've known whatever it's just a real honor to have you small world thank you very much for the invitation that's it's truly my pleasure and it will be the guest pleasure or they can [ __ ] choke themselves I got to throw that but is there anything you want is there anything you want to want to add before we wrap it up here oh no I just hope everyone enjoys this and just make right choices I guess I've been a big thing that's like user has to stay grateful yeah don't do wrong things yeah yeah if if you want any of those security packages excuse me now if you want to enlist Eddie or contingent group for any of their services which I've just outlined they can go to just contingent group comm contender group comm or they can we're trying to get better at like messaging through Instagram but the best thing to do is info a contingent OOP calm okay listen an email or in that you can find that through the website and the handle and Instagram is at your primary social media platform uh contemporary khadija group yeah it's just that continue group okay all one word all one word okay so there there's where you can find them obviously if if you want the best hire the best and you know in terms of resumes credentials and the crew that he has a working form doesn't get any better than that so you do yourself a favor and and and be prepared in terms of any of the types of services that they bring real quick before we wrap up I want to let everybody know I get a lot of questions dog related questions you know I've done a number of dog podcasts where I open it up and people send hundreds if not thousands of questions and and frankly a lot of them end up with kind of a similar answer and it's not me being a pushy prick trying to plug my own product in essence it's that the whole reason I started the online training two and a half years ago is is from all of these questions of saying it'd just be easier to demonstrate it let me do a video on it and I spend you know 10 or 15 minutes talking about at 10 or 15 minutes demonstrating it with different dogs different stages but the team dog pet experience has morphed into really a community feel that I encourage you guys to check out I mean the amount of people listen to the podcast it never fails I still get question after question after question of people asking me things that are a really basic which is fine but be there [ __ ] covered on the team dog online side and no different that I don't go to the chiropractor expecting a goddamn free adjustment I do get a little bit weary of being asked over and over and over by people I have never met you know all of these dog training questions that I provide on my online training and it's $99 for a [ __ ] year of unlimited access so I have it it's worth it yeah just just [ __ ] sign up for it you know I'm happy to help you guys out but realize that this is what I do for a living number two is that we've got a host of new products coming out here in 2019 we already have the CBD oil on or remind people that it is now available in the human flavors in both the full spectrum with key lime and the isolate which is lemon lime and then there's still 200 milligram bottles of the chicken flavor left for pets but the nice thing is with the new 500 flavors of lemon lime and Key Lime you can take them yourself where you can give them to their pets put it on their food I take the [ __ ] every day I've seen it do wonders and a number of dogs we've gotten a ton of good feedback from a shitload of clients that have bought the Trico CBD oil and it's done wonders that's Trico supplements calm all onward so be on the lookout for new products collar leash crate food clickers pouches all sorts of [ __ ] coming down the pipeline here over the next few months with the Tri Coast brand and design behind it and I'm looking forward to offering that for you guys but again I want to thank Eddy penny for showing up and sharing his amazing patriotic story I on behalf of a grateful nation thank you for your service because you as well my [ __ ] pipe hitters like you are the reason our country exists and so thank you show that for everything everybody listen and I hope you enjoyed it hope you got something out of it and as always until next time this is Mike god [Music]

Channel: Mike Ritland

Views: 165,379

Rating: 4.8906145 out of 5

Keywords: navy seal, DEVGRU, SEAL team 6, SEAL, MIKE RITLAND, Mike ritland, military dog, dog, k9, SEAL TEAM SIX, eddie penney, trikos, mike, ritland, navy

Id: 7yByshNvc4E

Length: 145min 19sec (8719 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 01 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/goodatfarting]

Eddie was my mentor in Oklahoma. He’s huge.

[u/PB0034]

it was a great podcast. Would highly recommend.

Y’all should also get Fearless audiobook. Best thing I have listened to so far.