Mike Drop Podcast Episode 52: Eddie Gallagher - Retired Navy SEAL

foreign [Music] ladies and gentlemen as always it's both an honor and a distinct pleasure to honor my next guest to the podcast he spent 20 years on active duty as a U.S Navy SEAL he's one of very few seals who's actually graduated the marine sniper program he has eight deployments count at eight uh several of which were both to Iraq and Afghanistan he was voted the naval special Warfare group one sailor of the year and he's one of the most polarizing figures in Naval special Warfare and all of the U.S military he successfully completed the Bobby Knight school for temper control and he's the only guy to get Mother Teresa to [ __ ] on national TV please welcome to the stage ladies and gentlemen the one the only Eddie Gallagher oh that was awesome thanks Mike glad to uh be here thanks for having me on yeah I appreciate you coming I'd like to take a quick minute to thank our sponsors of this episode starting with origin Labs the makers of Jaco tea go discipline and all of the origin products they make pants old school Blue Jeans boondocker type boots and even Jiu Jitsu geez a great company they've been supporting us for a while now I use a lot of of the Jocko supplements and other origin products bubs Naturals which is a company that was founded on the memory and Legacy of a good friend of mine Glenn Doherty nicknamed bub which is where the company comes from and they put out a a stellar product of both collagen powder and MCT oil powder that I actually have in one of my cups right now with coffee I take it every morning and one of the neatest things about that company is that 10 of all of their proceeds go to the glendori memorial Foundation which helps soldiers Sailors Airmen Marines and Coast Guard all over the country with uh Post Service um transitioning Etc and so if you support bubs you're supporting the Glen Doherty Memorial Foundation which is an awesome thing uh our other sponsor is Blackwater ammo uh which it's a newer ammo company that has been gracious enough to sponsor this podcast episode they've got some really really cool ammo coming out some that they've even developed in-house um and in a multitude of different rounds both pistol rifle and shotgun they've got some really neat ballistics that have come out of some of their r d and look look in the future to see you know Blackwater ammo really making some waves in the in the ammo industry they've been gracious enough to also make a donation to Eddie Gallagher and his family so thank you to Blackwater ammo all right so uh first but but foremost I got to ask you uh for the lightning round what's your favorite episode of NCIS uh you know what man I actually uh watched NCIS for the first time when I was locked up in the brig and uh that had to hit home dude it but I'll tell you what it matches up perfectly for exactly how they operate uh but uh hopefully uh maybe they'll make an episode about me I don't doubt it or they'll at least have one that uh you know everybody everybody knows it's about you type of thing yeah uh what was the most surprisingly Pleasant thing about pre-trial confinement trying to focus on the positive yeah um outside the the most positive thing that came out of pre-trial confinement was uh probably just the strength and just make like the making my family stronger and just tighter I mean we my wife my kids were uh we're a super strong family and you have to be you know going through this job but then I think that just put us over the top where I think everything they tried to do to us to try and break us or weaken us just made us stronger and uh you can definitely see that now yeah yeah we'll certainly get into the the family Dynamic the impact uh and the enormous role that your wife played uh which you know will be its own section in this podcast but that uh it's good to hear that that uh you know that they were there for you in that manner it sure seemed you know like keeping track of what was going on you know there was multiple times where I found myself thinking like holy [ __ ] like that's got to be really rough situation to be in but seeing the you know kind of the um the element of support that you were getting from from the family was pretty pretty inspiring yeah it was amazing uh what's the biggest misconception that people have about you there's definitely a lot so I'm uh I think uh now that you know I'm out and I end up meeting people there's the biggest thing I found is uh you know when they come up and actually talk to me I can see in their face because you know they they come up with this you know conception that what's been put out in the media that I'm some kind of psychopath uh no Rogue whatever but then after talking to me they're I mean I've been told like oh you're actually uh pretty normal dude and I'm like yeah um that's the way it is so um yeah I mean I think that is the huge misconception is you know that I've been branded as a well by the liberal media as a uh psychopath uh warmonger which is not the case yeah on on the flip side is there something that the that the media or kind of the general public uh has portrayed you as it's it's actually pretty pretty accurate um yeah I mean just the you know never given up aspects you know never out of the fight just you know we're still you know we're still fighting um to expose everything that happened and not just to me but also that's happening to other military members um that's the other positive aspect of being in pre-trial confinement was I saw behind a curtain that I didn't even know existed and uh you know there's a lot of guys locked up um that similar situation as me you just don't hear about it because uh one they don't have a trident um and they're being illegally detained or you know an unjustly prosecuted so we're going to continue to uh expose that yeah I'd say the other thing too is I don't think most people that are put in that position has has a wife that uh you know is kicking people in the [ __ ] throat you know the way that your wife did I mean yeah hats off to her like I mean there's I know we were talking about this before I think there's very very few women that would uh that would do what she did uh you know for you and then that that says a lot about her but uh but just you know I don't think most people have that luxury you know they don't have somebody that's kind of really intimately working every [ __ ] angle like their life depends on in in or on your behalf yeah exactly and I think a lot of that is due to the way they uh treat you once once they find allegations on somebody you know NCIS is a huge part of this they they find ways to sort of break up your family and try and get the family to like turn on each other yeah and she refused to let that happen yeah I mean I can't say it enough that yeah she's my hero so it's [ __ ] that's neat to see for sure what uh what's the first thing that you did after you were were freed um so after the uh judge well I was uh free from pre-trial confinement um before the trial uh the first thing I did was went out and had a steak dinner uh because you're reading some pretty gnarly [ __ ] in in there oh yeah it was vending machines and [ __ ] that was yeah so when I got released out of the brig um you know the president had uh tweeted like let this guy out um and he wasn't saying I was guilty or not guilty he was like let him out so he can properly defend himself because he knew I was having all my rights violated in the break and I wasn't getting able to talk to my legal um while I was in there so once I was let out the command which was a Commodore Rosenbloom at the time had taken it upon himself to lock me in a Barracks room for a month and a half and pretty much put um just this ungodly amount of restrictions on me to where if I sneezed wrong I was going back to the brig so I was stuck in a Barracks room and there was really no no real food they had a little shop at and then uh some vending machines so yeah it was good once I was released I went and had a steak dinner and a bunch of drinks and just got down yeah what uh so now now that you're you're out and you're kind of settled into what you know anybody would at least remotely consider a civilian normal lifestyle what uh what does your morning routine look like when you're at home not traveling Etc uh yeah so right now I'm I'm just so sort of relaxing uh decompress and still from it all but I've been spending as much time as I can with the family so my wife and I take turns usually getting up in the morning getting the kids up and uh getting them to school um then I'll come back you know drink some coffee and then usually go for a run try to get a run in in the mornings and then uh after that I usually spend my morning I I definitely uh I read uh some of the Bible um I made that was like a New Year's resolution of mine was to just uh make my way through the Bible this year do that just sort of reflect on everything that happened and uh trying to get myself in a positive mindset and from there we just my wife and I are like Partners now we just start working making calls all morning yeah historically or you know previously were you uh would you consider yourself a a religious or faithful person prior to all this or yeah I would um you know I grew up uh Irish Catholic um my dad was a pretty strict Irish Catholic that I went to you know we go to church every Sunday but then uh after leaving the house I stopped going to church and then once I married Andrea that was uh one of her checks in the box like listen this is really important to me and um you know I think from there I've I've tried you know I am I believe in God uh I do have a lot of faith but um I think there's you know you can always be stronger in that yeah to me so I mean there's kind of two there's two separate components of that there's the you know the traditional or or what most people consider religious which is you know reading the Bible going to church whatever but to me there's another component that that to me is more practical and realistic which I guess I'm curious you know throughout those eight deployments did you find yourself believing relying on God praying you know is that is that something that played a role in in your deployment after deployment or did it come and go or how how do you kind of uh no I upsize that um before every op before getting on the bird or getting Humvee I would you know say a prayer to myself but it was more just to uh that the platoon would come home safe none of my boys would get injured or killed and we'd be able to do our job properly um and that's you know and then the rest is you know there's you have faith that that's not going to happen but then you also the rest is on uh you and the boys to get the job done and mitigate as much risk as possible yeah so childhood wise um I know you're from Indiana but that's you know there's certain things I try to not find out about guess that being one of them but I accidentally saw that you're from there can you talk a little bit about just uh your childhood growing up Etc yeah um so I'm not really from Indiana I've uh grew up in Army brat um my dad was a uh West Point grad um you'll be tires Lieutenant Colonel after uh 24 years of service so I grew up moving around every two years um I lived in Asia a lot most of my childhood Korea China Hong Kong um you got the Wuhan flu or what yeah I got a strong immune system that's for sure uh bat soup yeah build your immunity yeah and then yeah we'd move back and forth uh from like we'd spend two years in Asia come back to Washington DC lived in Springfield Virginia where my dad worked at the Pentagon and then stayed there for two years and then go someplace else after my dad had uh retired we ended up in Indiana I was a freshman in high school okay I pretty much spent the remainder of my childhood there until I joined the Navy now being from Northern Iowa which is pretty similar to everywhere in Indiana yeah yeah I'm curious like having that type of childhood and then transplanting into you know Midwest flyover state was that a bit of a culture shock for both you and classmates of like who's this [ __ ] guy that's been all over the place oh yeah for sure um I think once I moved because we moved from Springfield um yeah my dad came home was like yeah we're moving to Indiana and the uh closest thing I knew about Indiana was the movie Hoosiers yeah so I was like two you know what the [ __ ] like we're living in cornfields and playing basketball yeah but once I went out there we actually moved to Fort Wayne Indiana which is the second biggest city and uh dude I loved it there I mean I love Midwest people like they're like the salt of the earth um and I had I made the best best of friends there I mean to this day we still talk um you know it was uh yeah I liked it um but yeah it's like the Midwest feel yeah now I mean like I said I was very similar I've spent enough time in Indiana to to know that it's pretty parallel that way um did you have any siblings and did you play any sports yeah so I have one younger brother Sean uh four years younger than me and then um does he have any military experience no um he definitely thought about it um but he I mean that guy is a brainiac so he's definitely I can see him going into politics um he's just uh he's awesome and I played soccer uh a little bit in high school but then that sort of fell off uh I was not the best student you know I uh Troublemaker um what like what kind of trouble did you get into in high school oh all sorts I mean it was more you know I didn't I didn't have the maturity I guess for high school or you know I just wasn't all in when I was there just you know wanting to do other things and uh I ran with a pretty it was an awesome crowd loyal crowd but a very wild crowd um and so I mean it was a lot of skipping school doing whatever um you know smoking weed all that stuff um and then I actually got sent my parents had it out with me uh which I don't blame them they had enough and they sent me to a boarding school uh when I was a junior in Connecticut and ended up getting kicked out of there for fighting went back to the Catholic school that uh I was uh previously at and ended up finally graduating from there barely um so yeah it was yeah I mean my childhood I wouldn't take it back for anything but you know I mean I was a little bit of a wild child so with uh with your dad having you know a lieutenant colonel strong military I'm sure structured and uh you know just that that type of upbringing um and him getting to the point where he sent me to boarding school like was that relationship between you and specifically him uh pretty tumultuous all through high school or no um I think you know it was definitely a strain on him he uh we're both pretty stubborn so it's uh you know he'd get fed up with me and then I would just get fed up with him um it just was one of those things I think needed to happen yeah he and he wasn't the um he didn't bring his home you know work home with him as far as when he's in the military and that's one thing I really liked about him is he wasn't one of those guys that came home and ran like a military household he you know just came home and he was dead and I think I'd I tried to take that same characteristic when I joined with my kids yeah but um when when you ended up having to go to boarding school was there like a straw that broke the camel's back where your parents are like all right [ __ ] that's it you're going to you know was there like a specific instance um yeah I think you know I after sophomore year that summer I was getting uh just in a lot of trouble um and it was not it wasn't like trouble with the police or anything it was just trouble at home like you know sneaking out or coming home at like two three in the morning uh and my parents were just like dude you need you need some structure um and we we obviously can't provide that for you you're not listening anything so I think they you know they did it from they were looking out for my best interest so they decided to uh send me to this boarding school yeah um and so with that I'm curious having been in the military uh for as long as you were boot camp buds the whole bit uh how does how does a boarding school and I know they're all a little different but how does it contrast to say Boot Camp or is it pretty [ __ ] similar oh no it's completely different um so I've always heard about boring school I've always been curious like yeah so it's even like it wasn't like a military boarding school it was just uh it was a St Thomas More um and it was like it was almost like a preparatory school so I went there and um it's it was a lot of uh rich kids from uh New York because it was in Connecticut um and it just it was very it was lacks I mean there was a lot of room to go you know do what you want and get in trouble which I took full advantage of but yeah there was no uh it I don't think it was what like people picture as you know a military boarding school where you're there's a set schedule you know I mean you I was stuck out there for you know Connecticut for the whole time but uh you know it was an experience just like everything else so ultimately you ended up getting kicked out of there for fighting yeah yeah yeah all right so you go back to uh to Indiana and then you finish High School there what uh what was kind of the driving force of you deciding you know what I'm not only am I going to join the military but I want to be a frog man yeah so uh After High School I gave College a shot and went to a community college um IPFW for probably half a semester and realized like this this isn't for me um I'm just not into it and I'm not gonna waste the money you know going to college I work some odd jobs and like I said you know I was hanging out with a pretty wild crowd and I think just one day I was um with a bunch of them and uh it's like three in the morning watching TV and I just looked around and um it was a older crowd I was hanging out with was like a lot of 35 40 year olds that were really yeah dude I was uh I just looked up I just looked at him I was like dude I can't end up like this um I drove right from there to the uh Recruiting Office sat in the parking lot waited for it to open and uh walked right in um was there something in particular about the Navy that or the SEAL Teams and no I like I walked into their first Recruiting office I saw but then uh I you know I grew up watching you know Commando Predator all like all those movies platoon Navy Seals uh I knew that's like the type of work I wanted to do um so I told him I was like dude you know I want to be a seal he had one of those you know obviously posters on the wall but I was like that's what I want to do uh he sent me he sort of gave me the run around like you know nobody makes it into this but he really had no clue of how it worked and then pull the fast one on me and was like oh for sure um we'll get you a contract there was no contract I just went right to boot camp pick my a school um went to boot camp and uh from there I tried to go to buds but obviously I didn't have a contract so the uh the next choice was going to the uh Marine Corps as a Corman which I'm grateful I did yeah so the uh upon joining the the contract or the the a school that you had did you pick Corman going in I did yeah yeah um having no real clue what a corpsman was either he told me that uh the seals were looking for Corman um at the time I was like Hooters sweet um I'll do that yeah just be a corpsman and you'll get right in yeah so at that time like if you're you know you're going to it sounds like a junior college uh hanging out with a bunch of old you know washed up 35 year olds sitting around watching cartoons or whatever like were you in any kind of shape at that point like were you still working out or um yeah so once I made the decision to join the Navy um I was you know I think three or four months before I you know went to MEPS so I I really like a switch had sort of turned on in me um and you know I stopped you know hanging out uh with a wild crowd I was just like you know I it was like uh like I said a switch it was like 100 Focus um I wanted what I wanted to do I definitely started working out on my own um really had no clue on you know exactly how to work out to get ready for buzz but I would my dad is a uh um PT freak to where he my whole childhood he would get up at five in the morning he had a little basement gym so started working out there going on runs and I've always been you know I don't know blessed with I I mean sort of athletic uh so it really wasn't a big issue yeah and did you find like most people I guess or most seals when they go to boot camp you're actually getting worse shape than yeah um once I showed up at Navy boot camp I literally was like I think I made the biggest mistake uh coming here um after they were screaming at me for not folding my clothes and making my bed correctly I was like and there was no you know you're not working out in there yeah um but you know I think there was one other guy in my uh boot camp that wanted to go so we would sneak off and go work out and like try and do stuff in the past and pull up some stalls stuff like that yeah find reasons to get beat yeah um I guess going back to high school real quick did you grow up uh or meet your wife actually in high school yeah so uh her and I met when we were 16 17. um she's a year younger than me um did you guys date them no we uh sort of just met um we actually both snuck out of our house uh had a mutual friend and met up and uh you know out doing things we shouldn't be but uh we hit it off right away became like best friends um we just would hang out all the time together uh we never you know dated or around like boyfriend girlfriend but we were like super close uh and then um once I decided to join the Navy she had plans she was going to Florida to go to design school and we sort of went separate ways uh lost track of each other and um after I had graduated uh Buds and actually 18 Delta I was driving across country back to San Diego stopped home and just gave her mom a call just to see how she was doing and uh she ended up calling me back and she was recently divorced and uh we just sort of picked it up right where we left it off I mean and we knew like this is supposed to happen yeah yeah that's wild um so I guess so that was that was uh post buds right yeah but there there was a window from the time that you joined uh and actually got a spot at buds there was a couple years in there that that you were with the Marines that did Pendleton or uh Camp Lejeune Lejeune yeah what uh can you kind of synopsize the the time there and what that was like um it was it was awesome I mean it was I was with the uh grunt Battalion one eight um uh as a corpsman so basically the Marines don't have their own Medics and which is probably a good thing let's yeah yeah uh love your Marines but God damn yeah I mean they're I I love the Marines I that's pretty much who raised me in the military I mean I definitely loved the structure um you know they don't mess around it was it was almost like uh it prepared me for buds better than anything else because you know in buds you know you get up at five in the morning you have the room inspections that's everyday marine life yeah so you know it's five in the morning pts um and just sort of I was always uh trying to I guess prove myself to them um and they they loved it so if you are like keeping up with them and actually surpassing them surpassing them on certain stuff they will like hold you in the highest regard and they take care of you um and that's pretty much I made some really really close friends there uh and um I mean they're they're just a awesome breed and how uh where is it like two years that you spent there uh four four years did you do uh one or two deployments while you're uh two deployments so uh one pre-911 um you I did a Mew pretty much just hit all sorts of ports uh did a lot of training um different countries and then uh 911 happened and we did another Mew um and one eight they ended up going into Iraq for a short stint and then uh we off we got a sent to Liberia Monrovia when that was going on for for the civilian [ __ ] listener that thinks that you just meowed like a cat and doesn't know what a Mew is can you just give a Marine Expeditionary Unit like what that really means yeah so it's pretty much the Marines and I'm not even know if I'm gonna explain it properly but they go you know they go on a ship it's pretty much three or four ships that uh just deploy out into the ocean and they're pretty much on standby for anything that goes down um in that area or whatever area they're floating around in um and they're just ready to go at any moment's notice yeah that's always good I mean I know I've got a lot of listeners that you know I've never been in the military and and some guests come on here um you know and drop acronyms left and right and they're like I have no idea what the [ __ ] they're talking about but uh I'm still gonna work on that and explain and stuff yeah um all right so you do that and then at what point did you kind of get the slot or find out that you were going to Buds and how did that um so that was a huge process as well so I always knew I wanted to go to buds the whole time um I would I was completely like 100 focused that four years um I was always request you know volunteering to go to schools to try and help me prepare I ended up going to the Marine Corps combat swimmer instructor course which is a kick in the balls um where you pretty much uh become an instructor and you certify all Marines and uh their swim calls uh and then I got the chance to go to Marine Corps sniper school I was told you know I wouldn't get the credit for it but I was like what way to better prepare for this job and then um meanwhile like for that four years I was taking the screener over and over and I was passing it every time it just they would not let me go I needed four years there um and also by the time it was my when it was my time to rotate out you know they were also denying because they wanted me to stay um and that's typical um but uh it was it took this one Chief who showed up at the uh Battalion checked in um looked at the roster and saw that I had screened multiple times and he was like why isn't this guy going um and he marched me right down to PSD and got me orders I mean and I was and truth be told I was about to give up um I thought it wasn't going to happen I was getting frustrated but this guy uh I mean he turned my career around by just giving me those orders yeah yeah throughout that four-year stint and the Marines did were there ever instances of disciplinary action we're getting in trouble or there or was the the structure that they had that kind of give you what you needed contrasted to your high school time and all that um yeah I mean I definitely you know got in a little bit of trouble there uh the um it was uh in my Stapleton we had this uh OIC who um was in charge and the way it works in a Stapleton which is a sniper platoon um in the Battalion they put a just regular officer he has no he he doesn't know what a sniper does or whatever but they're just like you're in charge of this um the guy was a jackass uh just completely just inept and not qualified for the job and also had a chip on his shoulder um because I was in the Navy he was always you know ragging on me it was you know stuff that didn't really didn't bother me but uh uh one instance that happened is we went on Liberty we were in Norway doing cold weather training and uh he got pretty drunk with all of us and started uh running his mouth to me um the platoon actually told him that they were going to work him over if he kept it up he got pretty embarrassed by that and on the way home he uh I was eating a burger at it from Burger King and he snatched out of my hand and started eating it um I open hand smacked him took it back and then he came back to my tent when we got back and ordered me to the um jock where he told me he was going to fight me um it's an odd way to do that it was and he was you know and he was intoxicated um he brought me to The Jock there was a lot of senior enlisted and Senior officers there and he pretty much told them the same thing like I'm gonna beat the [ __ ] out of this kid um and they all dispersed they were like okay we don't want to be part of this he called the Battalion aid station this is this had to be like one in the morning and was like I'm about to bring a body down um I started getting real nervous I was like this guy's crazy and uh but he was ordering me to stay I was like Roger that we went outside and I beat the [ __ ] out of him um the next day I was I had to go see the colonel um the only thing that saved me was that he this guy had done this you know told these senior officers and uh senior enlisted that he was going to do this to me and they're like because of that you know you're good to go on your Fallen orders but you did strike an officer um so yeah I got in trouble for that but then I really had no other disciplinary actions uh before that yeah so you go to buds yeah um now what what class were you in uh started off uh two five one finished two five two I got uh rolled it yeah um you know we've had a number of Team guys won't get two in the Weeds on on the buds experience but was there anything that kind of surprised you good or bad something was easier or harder than you thought or what what's just kind of the the summary of your buds experience it's the best time I never want to have again that's a big [ __ ] amen yeah like it's I since my uh process to get to buds was so frustrating and I think when I got there I was just like happy to be there so there's nothing I mean every beat down every little thing I was just like yeah this is what I want uh you know I got rolled at pool comp um that obviously was like a setback but I knew you know I was gonna make it um a second go and uh yeah I mean it was everything I I thought it was going to be um you know you can't uh nobody can recreate hell week like we do um that's a uh even when I was a first phase instructor putting guys through I was like dude this is the most epic evolution in the military no for sure it is yeah being an instructor is a neat peek behind that curtain that uh that you know having been through it and now seeing the other side is a pretty pretty unique experience and one that I know you know the the time that I spent there I'll I'll always you know look fondly on but uh the thing that that I guess I'm curious about and I'm sure you know a lot of listeners are is that you know from from the time that you you came in until now you know was there was there ever you know kind of a an indicator or you know an element of of your career up until that point that uh you know that had any elements of um you know foreshadowing in terms of what what may transpire later down the road or or did it seem pretty cookie cutter career-wise no it was cookie cutter career-wise I and that's that's the crazy thing is uh you know whatever this whole past two years I've there was no indicators I mean I was you know I I'm not going to call myself some Stellar operator but I had a pretty decent reputation um and I was actually like excelling yeah um you know I I was just going you know going through the the uh whole wickets of you know team guy life I've been doing platoon after platoon um you know I tried out for Green Team um that you know didn't make it through there but did you actually go to it and all that yeah I did uh got dropped at the CTC portion and then I actually continued to try and screen to go back um I was told that I could come back but I would have to you know wait a year or so because I screamed two weeks after I got dropped um at that point I was at first phase as an instructor and um I was I did not want to wait on short command anymore um so I was given the opportunity to jump onto team seven and go to Afghanistan again and took that and from there I just sort of excelled on the leadership positions at Team seven um after the Afghan platoon I did my lpo and then I was told I could do a platoon Chief um and that was a decision Point whether to do my platoon Chief or go back to Green Team and I stuck with the platoon Chief but uh yeah there was I had didn't get in any trouble um you know yeah so so I guess backing up you graduate buds what was your first command was it stv2 no uh Team one team one okay yep did you go to sdv2 no okay as always Wikipedia's got a bunch of [ __ ] culture in there oh I've seen it yeah pretty comical yeah I like yeah the nickname the blade like did anybody call you the [ __ ] blade so I got that nickname my first platoon when I was a new guy um and just out of you know joking around they just came up with it uh because I you know I mean every team that carries a knife on him but uh I got that nickname from uh the uh that we were in 18 Delta and we were at a bar and that was a biker bar um they were having their little rally there was probably like six of us in there and they definitely didn't you know did not want us in there um which I completely understood um I had actually gone up to the president of that biker gang and was like Hey you know do you want us to leave this is obviously your bar um he's like no you guys just be cool um and it did not end up well they've definitely some of the guys wanted to get in the tussle that on their end um they ended up jumping one of our guys um knocking them out breaking him breaking his orbital and I um was trying to drag him out and getting hit over the head at the same time and I pulled out my knife and sort of like you know backed up everybody and from there it was you know all the blade and so it was like a running joke but that after my that's only like a close personal friends from my first team that called me that I did not carry on yeah is that something that was used against you in the in the court oh for sure um and the only reason it was is my best one of my best friends who was in my first platoon um as a Christmas gift gave me a Yeti uh coffee mug and he had inscribed blade on it you know because from back then and the guys that had accused me had saw me drinking out of it and they were they just you it was more just a like oh we can pile this on to make it look you know like he's a criminal sure um all right so you go to Team One first right out of buds um and how much time did you spend there and if you could just kind of chronologically walk through from from your first command uh obviously you kind of already already did parts of it but just you know to get kind of the the step-by-step of of your career from sure as soon as you graduated to present um okay yeah graduated buds uh did the uh Fort Benning jump school sqt and then went right to uh 18 Delta uh the medical school that's the the Army medical school for those listening yep and from there checked into team one uh did two platoons at team one uh Iraq and Afghanistan then checked into first phase as an instructor um and like I said uh spent about a year a little over there tried to go to Green Team and then jumped onto team seven uh did the Afghan deployment there and then I went and did the cree the crisis response element platoon and UAE and then platoon Chief to back to Iraq uh to missoul and so with with all of those platoons and deployments um I mean it sounds like they're pretty much all combat deployments yeah near uh the UAE one was you know not uh yeah the crisis responses standby but all the other ones were lower combat deployments to either Iraq or Afghanistan in in those deployments um I'm assuming that you know if I'm just doing the math right of thinking of the window of time you were there I'm assuming that there were probably some that were way more busy than others or or were they all kind of the same way or what how would you uh um I would say they were all busy in their own way um you know obviously over time you know the way we were conducting Warfare over there had changed but you know my deployment to Iraq it was very all D.A heavy direct action you know hitting houses um just awesome time and then Afghanistan is a completely different Beast um we were out doing disruption Ops and uh yeah that one was super busy that was probably one of my better deployments um but the uh yeah they were all I would say they're all pretty equal um in combat and there's always you know you got your lulls on deployment when you're sort of sitting around for a couple weeks yeah but uh I mean I was I feel pretty blessed with the career I had um you know because it doesn't happen for everybody and it's not people's fault it's just sort of a roll of the dice yeah and so in all of these platoons up until the last one excuse me were there ever any occurrences instances where um something happened where there was a grievance or any fellow platoon mates um you know accused you of anything that was you know below Board of what the the expected Rules of Engagement were or the the protocols and and statutes that we as as Navy seals live by uh were there any issues with anybody prior to the last deployment not one not one no I uh there's never any issues in my previous deployments uh as a matter of fact I always you know thought I excelled I was always trying to prove myself to my peers you know it's all about peer evaluation when you're in the teams and just trying to be worthy of being around those guys and uh you know I had a pretty solid reputation yeah up to this last platoon were there any instances uh outside of deployment you know the workup or the the Stateside time where there were any um behavioral uh instances where you got in trouble or had any had any issues with the command no not a single one so I think that's something that um you know again just just looking at it as a bystander of of not knowing you you know in the community and having never worked together and now I mean [ __ ] I've been out for a decade you know seeing what's what's painted versus you know what what's out you know what what the reality is is that there's there's a pretty you know heavy perception that uh that you have a pattern or a history of that oh yeah and I've heard it's funny uh the more guys I run into now especially like you know Team guys um they tell me what's been put out about me it's you know and that's coming from senior leadership I know I've heard everything from like I've had multiple DUIs to I mean it's just stuff that's completely not true I don't have any of that on my record and I it's and I don't know why stuff that stuff is said about me I mean I they're trying to construct a narrative about me so people think a certain way but yeah I've never been in trouble like that uh and it's yeah it sucks that uh there's people out there trying to put that narrative out about me but that's just not true yeah to me that's an important component to to get out there you know because that that makes a difference uh however going into this last deployment which was the battle for mosul correct and that's where a lot of the uh in the incident took place where uh where everything kind of got into trouble if you could I'm what I'm curious about especially you know having been a seal and done multiple platoons from from the time you started because this was your your eighth platoon basically right yeah like eighth deployment yeah um so you know you've done lots of platoons lots of workups you know been with you know probably some of the same groups of guys new groups of guys whatever different commands from the from the time that you got into that platoon was there anything different from the start before you know you ever went on deployment like during the workup where there were there red flags were there things that stuck out as like wait a minute like something doesn't seem right like or did you guys gel pretty well and it seemed like a pretty standard standard workup you know it's there was definitely uh I had to do a lot of thinking back um after all this especially when I was sitting there in a jail cell I was like how did this you know come to this um the platoon I took over was rated the worst platoon the prior rotation um it was Alpha platoon they didn't do so hot uh during ult and just you know the new LT is for the work up sorry uh again yeah I only know it because I catch hell every time like I don't know what the [ __ ] you were saying so yeah the pretty much the training cycle up to deployment um they just weren't they didn't do so hot I didn't know any of those guys but that was a word around the team um I was told I was taking over that platoon um after the uh UAE deployment so in my mind I was like okay um you know these guys didn't do so hot prior um as the platoon Chief I'm going to you know I don't know I wouldn't say whip them into shape but sort of you know get them on par with where they're supposed to be and I wanted to you know obviously like every other platoon Chief had the best platoon at the team um so when I took over you know I implemented uh some training uh during there's a professional development phase before you start work up when guys are going to schools but I would Implement you know two two times a week going and we were doing just the basic CQC post pre-assault procedures everything to get us ready for work up uh there was a little bit of complaints during that um guys were like this is our free time which in my mind I'm like that's there's no free time where we train for war this is our uh skillcraft you know skill and uh you only get good at it by constantly you know mastering your craft for hours so but you know there was really no uh big red flags during work up the guys the guys were definitely a different personality from uh my previous platoons they were not and maybe it's because I was announced you know Outsider these guys a lot of these senior guys had been together for three platoons already um and I was a you know platoon Chief coming in but there were the cohesiveness wasn't there as far as like on the outside of training um because usually before you know platoons will get together for barbecues or you know to build that camaraderie like I tried to have that a couple times at my house or you know we put it together at a restaurant it was almost like you're pulling teeth to get these guys together what do you suppose that is I mean did you get the you know how sometimes like you can tell I mean some people or [ __ ] oblivious when they're that guy you know there's been instances where like you can just tell somebody doesn't like you or you know whatever was there any of that like did did you feel like you're the heart the hard-ass new Chief that's making [ __ ] harder than they're used to and now they're despising you for it and you know or or was there none of that and it just seemed like it was lost on on everything there was definitely two guys and this is I mean this is pretty much the gist of how this all happened uh there's two scenery sixes um Dalton Tolbert and Dylan delay they despise me from the get-go for I don't know what reasons I mean I could probably you know that so when I took over this platoon they were constantly talking [ __ ] about their previous leadership their previous platoon Chief and previous lpo in terms of him being weak or being a dick being weak being weak and being incompetent um which you know they tell me all sorts of stories um but not you know I was like okay whatever this is not how it's going to be this time I just don't like these guys or I don't think these guys being like like told what to do uh and then it was definitely they were they could never be wrong so we'd be training and if you pointed something out like hey you screwed up there and uh they just they're that type of attitude like instead of taking criticism on board it was like well it's not my fault it's yours or it's somebody else's um and these two guys definitely didn't like me from the get-go but they didn't I mean they were professional about it as far as like not showing any signs of it to my face um but behind the scenes and I came to find out this later they were pretty much spreading uh toxicity into the platoon you know like oh we don't like him like you know and they they find little nuances about me that they didn't like and sort of embellish them to try and get the platoon to take their side um but that really didn't blow up until the deployment uh once I was on deployment and this is where um things really shifted is I had an lpo who was a rock star um me and him are pretty tight he uh picked up Chief right before we deployed and our sister platoon um their platoon Chief ended up getting shot in the chest and got sent home so I shifted him over to that platoon to take over once I did that that's when Craig Miller was next in line and he was peers with uh these two guys that I mentioned Dylan delay and Dalton Tolbert and I really don't think he um he just wasn't that didn't act as an lpo you know the lpo and for people listening is sort of like he's a middle management guy I guess in civilian equivalent but he's in charge of middle management um he is like the give me a you know manager is kind of the best yeah so he keeps the pulse of the platoon and then if there's something wrong he comes to the platoon Chief and he's like hey guys are either bothered by this or they're questioning this and then you know you deal you deal with it with the lpo like okay um and either fix the problem and uh or tell the guys like you know this is the way we're doing it that never happened Craig Miller would never come to me say anything um he just kept he pretty much joined these guys on the hate train and I think that's the biggest problem here um and uh that carried on through the deployment um and I really didn't catch wind of it until the very end um and that's when we we sort of had it out yeah one thing just uh real quick for for The Listener so that when you hear lpo Chief aoic OIC so to give you like the best analogy I can come up with off the cuff so that you understand kind of that rank structure and how it relates is think of a restaurant right and you've got a fleet of of servers you know those are the platoon members uh whoever the manager is is the lpo the general manager would be the chief and then the CEO of the the owner of the restaurant would be the the OIC and so you know that that first manager or lpo is really kind of managing all of the the servers the staff in this case the the platoon mates and doing all kind of the heavy lifting then the general manager is is directly over that manager that's overseeing everything else and these kind of the liaison that go between the CEO of the of the restaurant owner of the restaurant and and the staff and that's it's kind of that bridge that's the best way I can kind of explain it but that way you know as you hear him mention these positions it kind of makes sense of of realistically who they are in in this hierarchy but um going back to um one of the things that you said that made me think or have a question about they were talking [ __ ] about their prior chief of him being weak um did you guys ever have kind of a uh come to Jesus meeting of saying look obviously you guys had a weak Chief I'm not that guy I'm coming in here like for for me I'm trying to put myself in their shoes like if we had if I was on a platoon as any senior E6 and had a weak Chief and now a strong one came in like I would have thought that they would have been more welcoming of that do you do you know why they weren't or why there was such friction between you guys kind of right out of the gate there was so like I said there was no um it was just those two guys there was really no friction between me and the rest of the platoon actually um a lot of these guys were happy that I was Circle team Chief um I had a pretty decent reputation up to that point and uh you know they were they were all stoked to have me they they knew that um I wasn't the type I didn't mess around I was all about you know getting the job done getting you know getting the guys ready for deployment they knew I was gunning for to go um to the place where we'd see the most combat um and I made that you know known from the start I was like this is my goal um and we will be the best platoon um so there was the rest of the guys there was no friction they I think because and I don't want to say the last platoon Chief was weak because I don't know the guy but that's the way they sort of described him I think because they were so used to that style of leadership and then I came in with a sort of like no [ __ ] style um you know this is the way we're doing things um it was sort of a shock I guess a little bit to them and you know there's always and you know and I'll go there's always stuff as a leader that you can work on um you know and I think back now there's little minuscule stuff that I could have done better as far as communication and sort of explaining to them like this is the way why we're doing this but in my mind I was like you know no [ __ ] like this is what we're supposed to be doing um and I'll tell you there's a specific instance which I go back to uh where I think I could have it might have changed the tides but uh we were at land Warfare doing training and the lpo or no uh not it wasn't lpo at the time Craig Miller had come up to me um after we had done some runs and it was during the summer everybody was hot and tired and we were doing a great job and he was like I think you should pull the platoon in and tell them what a great job they're doing and really you know pat their backs and and I sort of looked at them and I was like why would I do that like where are we getting hit on anything he's like no I was like is anybody yelling at us no well then continue on like you know I'm not gonna pull everybody in and tell them they're doing a great job thinking back on that now maybe that was the wrong decision maybe I could have given him some positive affirmation uh but that's just the way I was raised in the teams and not saying it's right or wrong but you know if you're doing a good job then no one's probably going to say anything to you um you know but that's just the type of I think mentality the difference now um what I think a lot of these guys want to be told they're doing great um which I get it yeah but I just wasn't raised that way yeah no I'm tracking 100 I mean to me I can see both sides and that I know from dog training like there's while you you know telling a dog that he's done a good job there's a way to do that obviously it's different than saying hey you did a great job he doesn't [ __ ] get that but you can give uh you know affirmation via either Rewards or or affection or or doing it a certain way that kind of relates to the dog that what he's doing is correct and you're happy with it and I know from a dog standpoint like you know my my training methodology and philosophy has come about 180 degree out because I was raised similarly in the SEAL Teams and that you know it's like there's a minimum standard level of expectation that's basically Flawless you know and and anything less than perfect is you're a [ __ ] [ __ ] bag you know and uh and and if you are perfect then well then congratulations you're doing your [ __ ] job exactly and you can stay you know and so I get that aspect of it too and I think do two things one is that psychologically like unquestionably it is very powerful for uh leadership to um you know not stroke people's ego but you know confirm that somebody's doing a good job when they are doing a good job it's important obviously not to do that if they're not but I also think we certainly live in a different time where the the problem I think is that that has kind of now become an expectation and not you know a desired result you know and to me there's a big [ __ ] difference between that you know when you expect to be told you're doing a good job irrespective of whether or not you are now you turn into an entitled [ __ ] prick and I I see that in all of society but on the other side of the token there's still that element of if somebody is doing a good job you should tell them because it is powerful exactly I think there's yeah there's a fine line um of when to do that and when not to yeah I guess you know to me hearing that it's like [ __ ] would would that have you know really made that big of a difference I mean who who knows I mean you could but yeah you know maybe if you had started doing that you know on a regular basis every time they they did a good job you know maybe it would maybe it wouldn't I still you know for me that the thing that's hard to kind of wrap my mind around again is that if these guys are bitching about a weak Chief and a strong one comes in like why why do these two individuals in particular still have have the heartburn with you I mean have you ever been able to kind of figure that out and that's where I think you know these guys um especially these two uh tolburn delay they just have this and and I'm not going to blanket statement you know like Millennial mindset because I think that you know that you're pretty much you know saying a whole generation is like this but these guys definitely had this very entitled mindset where you know nobody could tell them anything they didn't do anything wrong they thought you know everything everything they did was perfect uh so and you know to for them to be complaining about a weak Chief before and then now you have a chief that's actually you know running the show and and we've got you know the number one platoon out of the team I mean we did really awesome so we went from worst to First yeah and it's not and I'm not saying that's all due to me it was all a team effort uh it just it blows my mind it was like they just couldn't be content um with anything and uh you know it was always everything was always somebody else's fault yeah and that's pretty much what it it comes down to with Disney's whole false allegations um were there any instances with anybody else in the platoon did the platoon get in trouble or were there any uh of your guys that got in trouble during work up or deployment um yeah so you know you always have your little instances uh going through work up uh right before we deployed um one of my newer guys um actually my lpo um got jumped outside of Danny's um they were coming out and they were [ __ ] by who by like four or five guys I mean just beat the living [ __ ] out of them I wasn't there um but one of the new guys ran out and saw what was happening and just like a new guy should try to protect his opio um the guy circled him he ended up pulling out a knife and was like you know if you guys come at me this is something you know this is going to happen they called the cops and he ended up getting thrown in jail for pulling a knife out um do you know who these guys were like no it doesn't mean coronados are pretty small yeah it's no they were I think they were I mean they were young um like college kids or maybe a little bit older but we never found out it was like pretty much right before we deployed um so I went and uh bailed that new guy out of jail the next day because I got the call that night um and did our you know I did my best to try and protect him as much as possible um and he ended up being okay uh but that was pretty much the only incident that happened and that's that's the other difference um which you can take this as a good or bad thing um these guys weren't like any my previous platoons uh you know we'd go on training trips guys go out and drink stuff happens you know bar fights or whatever it's just the lifestyle that I grew up in these guys were definitely more stay in their rooms play video games uh just chill out which is fine um which I remember I was describing to my master chief because he asked me and I was like well these guys definitely aren't Liberty risks so as a platoon Chief I'm good with that you know like that's the way they are but it also you just lose that aspect of uh platoon camaraderie like going out and everybody hanging out um so that was a huge difference but yeah there was real no no trouble so you didn't have any like official face-to-face trouble with these two guys that would later come to no not at all okay all right so you go on deployment um was it a typical combat deployment obviously there was a significant battle you know for for missoul that was probably maybe a little different in orders of magnitude than what you were used to is that the safest assumption this was a completely different um deployment as far as my previous ones um so we were not the main effort we did AAA which is advised assist in the company um a partner Force which was the uh emergency response division um this Iraqi unit and uh pretty much our job was to go out with them every day um and pretty much advises this in the company and we it was pretty much I think it was one of my best deployments because do we we wage we laid Siege to this city and it was just Savage Warfare um because America were saying you know we're not the main effort it was pretty much on the Iraqi partner forces to clear now they don't have the same rules as we do um you know more morally ethically or whatever um but they are getting the job done and they definitely got it done in ways that I don't you know America would not agree with um but then you also were fighting Isis which was a just Savage enemy um in the atrocities I think we saw on that deployment on a pretty pretty regular basis were definitely uh different as well I mean there be instances where we'd watch Isis just gun down women and children in front you know 400 yards from us and we couldn't do anything about it you know you you go and I mean the city itself was just it was bombed out trashed and you know you go into buildings you'd be stepping over dead bodies on a daily basis well you know maybe see some little kids that were still on the ground um and so that in itself was definitely different as far as seeing those kind of atrocities on a regular basis and then just it was a very chaotic environment um it was not an nsw Mission it's more conventional so we were just driving out during the day um no surprise at all it was like here we are uh and then just trying to as a platoon Chief and also my OIC um it took us about a couple weeks to like really figure out how we're gonna like work this Beast as far as helping clear this city um and we came up with a pretty good um you know plan on how we would do it um and so and the other the other element to this is we senior leadership would show up and give briefs every once in a while and this was uh you know it'd be from nsw senior leadership and we were working for marshock at the time and they would say they put this ID out they were like this isn't your fight you're here to just advise and assist you know this isn't worth dying for so don't like be a hero be a hero get too involved just real quick uh so you guys are actually working for marine Special Operations Command while you were there like yeah we're in charge of everything so we were detached from Team seven uh ourselves in another platoon and we fell under marsok okay that seems like an odd odd relationship that they've had them in charge there do you know what it was because just the uh the AO um that bar stock was in charge of um one thing I'm curious about so in a lot of these instances where you guys are seeing these atrocities and seeing a lot of dead bodies including children Etc in the assist portion of that AAA mission that you guys are doing what was the what was the kind of the left and right flank in which you guys were bound to either be in or out of in that assist portion like how how much of of these gunfights and an actual Combat Action as an Advisory Board essentially are you guys actually taking place in so the rule was that we were not allowed on the front line so we would have to be in the the distance would change throughout the deployment so when we started off it was uh we could not be 800 meters or or closer to the front line um you're out there with a Laser Rangefinder making sure all our job when we went out there and this is where we sort of had to figure out how we were going to attack this Beast so like there was really no there was no uh um training or anything like hey this is how this job is done it was we showed up and we hit the ground running and they were like here's your partner for us go out so the first couple weeks we were going out and setting up you know we fly the UAV and um you know look for targets and we'd have a mortar set up but it was mainly you know looking for targets to drop order and so on and uh you know telling telling the Iraqi partner Force like hey there's guys in this building or or the Iraqi partner force would pass on to us as they were clearing through like we're taking fire from this building and we would have to PID where they're taking fire from but at the same time Isis also had drones and they were flying them over us and as soon as we'd see a drone over our heads we would just start taking Motors uh left and right um and the drones also had uh they had capabilities of dropping grenades on us and everything so that we went on for a couple weeks like that of just going out trying to set up and then getting murdered all day um and sort of we were in a defensive posture um the Iraqis definitely did not respect the fact that we weren't taking part in the fight um and then there would be a lull in their clearance because we weren't you know helping out I decided to take it well myself and the OIC like listen we're not a defensive unit we are an offensive unit so let's set ourselves up in an offensive posture instead of sitting here all day taking Motors so I split we'd have a main element that was shoot mortars and then I would push up a little bit closer and set up sniper Ops and we would take up the javelins gustavs and sniper rifles and we really started affecting the battlefield a lot more uh doing it that way and also the Iraqis were super stoked that we were doing this and their clearance moved a lot faster that way was there any pushback or conflict confrontation with marsac for you guys doing that or did they sign off on you doing that oh not at all they knew yeah they they actually were like you guys are kicking ass mom this is awesome so it was totally uh condoned on their end yeah there was definitely some some times where we would uh you know request to move up a little bit closer and it would get denied um just like nope that's too close uh but we like any good team guy I would find a way to you know push it just enough to like start you know getting effects um marsock had no problem with it the guys this is where some of the guys especially the two I mentioned were not cool with some of it um they were like they would rather just sit back um and do the defensive game and you know just have it as like a regular nine to five go out shoot Motors or or do nothing and then go back home um but that wasn't brought up to me during that's where that the toxicity started spreading on the deployment and so they they had a problem with it and they were just kind of inner grumblings amongst the platoon that do you know what what angle they were taking what was it a this is too dangerous this isn't our mission like what were they complaining about they were telling a lot of the younger enlisted guys that uh you know what I was doing was dangerous um that you know I was putting them In Harm's Way for no reason um you know that somebody was going to get killed uh and it was and this was like I said all behind the scenes and I had no idea this was going on but you know in the end no one got killed I brought everyone home alive um and that's where actually the first platoon to do that and like three rotations where somebody didn't go out there and die I mean we the OIC and I always had everything planned out we had you know we wouldn't just pick spots willy-nilly we'd have as much as much risk mitigated as possible and we had to continuously plans um I think this it was just them finding reasons to get you know guys to go against me uh so I mean here's here's one one thing in trying to kind of play Devil's Advocate is that um you know if if that's their take and this is one where it's it's kind of a bigger picture decision is that you know depending on what the mission is or not or whatever is that you know some some may say well that's not our mission to you know to push that envelope and and if any of our guys I mean you know luckily they nothing happened but if something did like is it worth it and obviously that's a 30 000 foot view you know perspective you could say that for the entire scope of the war but um you know I guess I'm curious like was were those kind of elements ever brought up or was it all completely um you know under under the guise of what you you and the OIC were aware of like I mean how did you end up finding out about that and and um did you ever talk to them about this is why we're doing what we're doing oh yeah I had multiple uh meetings with them on the deployment when I once I started finding out you know there were some grumblings and this is where I had brought up before Craig Miller was not bringing this to my attention which as an lpo he should have right away and like hey these are the concerns the guys are having um and I would have addressed them uh sooner but I actually found out about them through a text message um the Jo that was living with me um you know had a phone I asked if I could use it to call one of the guys to tell them to bring some Gear Up um once I like pulled up the guy's name I saw a text thread with my name all over it and obviously I read it and it was definitely a lot of grumblings uh pretty much what I just explained like you know he's too aggressive he's too dangerous one of us is going to get killed we don't want to go out anymore um so after that I did I had a uh meeting with the e6s first um told them to bring my their concerns up to me um the concerns were that I was working them too hard uh that they didn't have time to work out um that you know they asked about some some tactical questions and I had an answer you know for everything I was like this is why we're doing this um this is the job and if you're you know intent or whatever is to work out during this deployment I don't think your priorities are straight like this is the mission um and I realize it's not a you know nsw Mission we're going out during the day but this is the job we were given and uh you know I told them that I had guys banging down the door trying to get in trying to augment us because they knew we were one of the only platoons really getting after it um I told him I was like you know you if you want to go I can switch you out at any moment guys would give their left and right not to be here right now uh you know they're like no no we you know we want we don't want to go um and then you know the whole working out aspect one of the guys actually Dalton Tolbert was uh like well I don't have time to prepare for Green Team I need to work out I was like you know what okay then I will give you time to work out and I took him off the up board for the next day and we went out and I came back and he put then he flipped it around on me and was like well now you're punishing me because you said that you took me off the outboard because I said I wanted to work out and I so told him I was like that's what you said I'm like it doesn't seem like you're going to be content either way um you then don't complain about it uh I'm trying to give you what you asked for and now you're complaining because I did and that's just the it that's what I was dealing with um you could not make them happy uh which I wasn't really trying to but at the same time I was like you know this is going to relieve some of this you know hate train fine uh yeah it was just it was tough like you know and I didn't have I didn't have the answer to deal with that kind of attitude um and I was also definitely Mission focused um wasn't really paying attention to a lot of their feelings uh what you know I guess the morale which looking back now as I I could have done a better job at that um but yeah that's it was just a tough leadership role for me um but luckily I mean the OIC me and the OIC were super tight um he was he was awesome and uh the final meeting we had on deployment um I had with the guys again um we talked about you know the Tactical decisions that were made and they all agreed with it I was like you know we weren't trained for this job our workup does not focus on what we're doing right now so this is a whole new element so we're sort of OJT in this uh and figuring out how we're doing it I was like you know if you guys have better ideas I'm all ears but no one's saying anything you know so I'm and you know they all agreed to like okay you know this is what it is this is what we're doing and we finish out the rest of the deployment uh did you do that the entire time you were there pretty much or not the first couple months um because I really didn't I mean I was heavily just focused on trying to figure out how we were going to clear missile and me and the OIC were super busy you know going to briefs debriefs and then trying to plan um you know for the next day and you know I just was expecting the guys were doing their job um and wasn't I didn't really hear any gripes or complaints like I said until about a little after halfway this is when it really started uh you know I started hearing little things here and there and I also took it as a natural I mean when you're on deployment it's not unnatural for guys to complain I mean that's you live with guys and and we were living in real shitty conditions um in close quarters so to me I was like okay maybe you guys are just you know fed up or close being close to each other and this is just a natural thing uh yeah it wasn't until uh a little after halfway and then definitely at the end of deployment is where it got super out of control um and so just for the listeners I'm assuming a standard six month deployment uh it was a little bit it was like seven seven and so and so the first like half of it you weren't you were just basically planning to do what was going to take place the second half the no the in the first half we were working okay but it was trying to figure out how to attack this Beast like figure out how we were going to do this job okay then once we got into a rhythm which was you know before the first half we were just continuing on and so at what point did you kind of stop doing that in in the seven month process or the whole time the whole time so you know the last month the seventh month we didn't do anything so it was always cleared we pretty much worked straight through for six months um and I do want to say this I split the platoon up um so we had a house back in our Beale um there's a two houses back in her bill so I would I didn't take the platoon out as a whole every day so I would split the tune up into squads one Squad would go rest and refit for a week and they could just chill out and then they would come out and switch out for the other Squad so that way guys we're getting plenty of rest or which I thought um and myself and the OIC stayed out the whole time um uh so after missoul was clear we were able to go back to those houses in reveal and just sort of wait until we went home um not a lot was going on there it was and I took it as a I was like this is a perfect time for everybody to decompress instead of decompressing I think they really just spiraled out of control um they there was a bar um on the roof that that was built and they were going up there every night and drinking which you know I was like I had no problem with but I wasn't joining them because at that point the personalities just weren't you know I didn't want to be around them and I think that's where those two guys they had gotten Craig Miller on board and then they really started like you know trying to spread the hate to the platoon um and even you know Craig Miller had called me in his room that last month and said hey can I talk to you and I was like yeah he was like listen they uh the guys were saying that you said I was a real shitty lpo and they said that you you know that you didn't trust me and you don't like me that was never those words never came out of my mouth once an appointment um I told him I was like well who's saying this and he's like well I don't they I was like okay uh well that's not true Craig you know I think you did a great job um and I do nothing but singer Praises if somebody asks and that's all I can tell you uh but I think he had already the the well had been poisoned at that point um and he wasn't the only I had similar conversations with random guys in the platoon whereas it was always they said they told me this um and that they is Dalton Tolbert and Dylan delay which I came to find out later on so I mean these guys were actively trying to um persuade other guys to go against me and uh I mean they got about three other guys on board and that was it and I think that's a big misconception too where it's been put out that my whole platoon turned on me um no it was five guys out of the 24 that I had under me there um that really did made up these false allegations yeah so you know in hearing kind of the the timeline I guess the the next logical question is the actual incident that took place I mean was it at the very end was it in the middle or or when did the the alleged incident that these guys were saying that happened when did that allegedly take place um the that was in May so that would have been a little past halfway and so here there's a couple things that that you know this has me thinking and I think most people do there's kind of two-fold as one you know again just being fair and and having you know not known you worked with you met with you and having been through multiple platoons and deployments and I think most people would think well you know seals are a certain breed and and what what have you like it's hard to imagine you know even five guys all being you know so adamant that that you are a shitty guy that they're willing to you know basically put you in in prison for the rest of your life just because they don't like you yep on the same token um it's also hard to believe that if you have that big of an issue with a guy that it would happen and then you would continue to fight with this guy for months without having a problem and saying anything and so to me it's like you can I think anybody that's looking at it objectively which unfortunately a lot of people don't you know and one of the biggest reasons why I wanted you to come on and I'm glad that you did um is that you know the the nation has heard somebody's side you know they've heard the the prosecution side they've heard the media's side they haven't really heard your side you know and so to me that that's important just like with most things there's usually an extreme on both sides and it's somewhere in the middle but can you kind of talk to both of those things and that you know number one is is that again you know there's an element of like well how do you have you know five platoon mates that are willing to testify you against you I mean to me that's a pretty big [ __ ] deal and that they would be willing to do that just based off of a grudge on the same token if they had that big of a [ __ ] problem why did they continue to work with you and fight with you and not be like dude we're not this guy's a [ __ ] murderer we're not working with him okay yeah and that's those are two great points and uh I'll hit the second one first as far as the the um them if these allegations did happen why didn't they say something to me well first off because they didn't happen but if people just took a step back and really looked at this I say Common Sense was where these guys you know and what was put out about me is I was just randomly shooting people you know willy-nilly uh firing shots in the crowds um I mean the allegations were nuts especially you know that I I killed some little girl and an old man yeah I mean if you so to me you know when I first heard these allegations I was like you know first I was appalled and then second I'm like okay if I was doing this the whole deployment why didn't somebody say something to me like you know so I was like you know if I was crazy enough to be just going out every day doing these things nobody said a word to me about it so in my mind I'm like well then these guys are just well that borders on complicit yeah you know like if you're standing by while somebody's you know and that's that's honestly like what came out in trial was these guys had made up these allegations and lies and they couldn't once they took the stand I mean they couldn't keep up with them and the jury saw right through it I mean literally the The Old Man and the young girl were completely made up and this so that goes into um after deployment the first point to where it's like how are these guys you know they made these allegations just because they had a grudge on you and how could they want you to go away for life in all honesty they did not want me to go away for Life their allegations um escalated after deployment so after deployment they came back and made you know little complaints about that I was too aggressive that my tactics were dangerous and that I was stealing stuff uh I heard this through uh other guys the team that they were going around trying to spread these rumors I called one final meeting with the platoon this is after deployment and uh I was pretty pissed that uh they they were accusing me of stealing because I'd never been accused of that nor would I steal from anybody uh so I I brought them all into the high Bay and I was like ranks are off and I'm like tell me exactly what I stole from somebody um they sat there for about two minutes quiet nobody said a word and I was like come on guys I've heard it from multiple people I know you guys are accusing me or somebody in here is accusing me of stealing uh Dalton Tolbert raised his hand and was like well you took a Red Bull out of the fridge at the beginning of deployment that wasn't yours and that was like the first allegation [ __ ] Red Bull yeah so I just looked at him and I was like I couldn't I can't either confirm nor deny if I did take a Red Bull out of the fridge that wasn't mine it's a possibility um you know there's plenty of Red Bulls in there I might have grabbed one nobody said anything to me about it but that doesn't constitute me being a thief I was like please tell me there's something else don't over it again he's the only one that talked during this was like well you owe somebody money for a haircut in here I was like okay I got one haircut on deployment that the Jo Tom McNeil paid for I looked at Tom McNeil I'm like you know what I'm sorry I forgot to pay you back for that I'll give you the money he told me oh no it's not a big deal don't worry he was sitting off in a corner just not saying things like and he told me he's like it's not a big deal and I was like obviously it is if Dalton Tolbert is speaking up for you this this has been discussed I was like is there anything else that I stole um Craig Miller then said I stole his sunglasses and uh I told him I was like well I don't have them um he's like no well I have I got him back and I was like well then how did I steal them I was like well I put it out that someone stole them and all of a sudden they appeared I was like that wasn't me I don't know you know what to say those are the three main things that were brought up but oh and the I took Power Bars out of a care package um which to me I was like those are care packages and I actually am the one who ordered the care packages for the whole platoon on deployment I had a company I was going through um well so the from the thief standpoint that's what those are what did they did you address any of the the war atrocity grievances so this is what I'm saying no war atrocities were brought up at all during this and this is where the escalation begins I told them to uh go on with their careers to decompress and I was like you know if you continue to spread these stupid Petty rumors you're gonna ruin the good deployment that we had because we we did a good job you know I told him just I was going to move on with my career that they should move on with theirs um Craig Miller took it upon himself so they were angry because I had been nominated for a silver star um which I had no idea about my OIC and Tom McNeil had both put me in for one and had been routed up Greg Miller went to the command Head Shed and said I don't want him to get a silver star I don't think he should pick up Senior Chief and I was getting uh my next Duty station was to be the sca at uh trade it which was uh Salk and it's the senior enlisted advisor at the training Detachment yes so he those were his three uh stipulations to the commander like we don't want him to have any of that so the command was like well why are you you know what are the complaints again he was like well he stole from us and he's aggressive and you know he used us as bait out there um the command was like okay how did he use you as bait the only thing they said was oh I'm he made us put a helmet on a stick and put it above a wall to see if sniper fire would come in the command's like well that's a tactic that's been used for a while is there anything else no Craig Miller continued to go back to the command about three more times and the command started getting I think frustrated with him and they're like listen you need to drop this is there anything else you're not telling us um Craig Miller said no the command asked him was there any laws of armed conflict violations Greg Miller denied it twice no there's not the command then told him well if there's nothing like that there's nothing we're going to do to him he will move on with his career he got number one Chief at the platoon he proved himself you know to to go to uh Sal can be the SCA and so in a way the command sort of coached Craig on what to say next um Craig then came back to the command about two and a half months later not to the command but came back uh to uh he my to you my Tu Commander who my prior to you commander and said okay we have something and my team's manager is like what is it he's like um he stabbed an Isis prisoner he's like me so in that two and a half months what we came to find out is these guys had conspired via text messages and they actually went and had meetings on how they were going to come up with this story and when you say these guys it was your five guys all your platoon platoon guys it didn't have anything to do with the command Head Shed yeah yeah the guy the Five Guys in my platoon yeah because one thing I'm curious one of the things you mentioned is that they were basically coaching him on what to say next what what makes you assume or say that I think well I say that's unknowingly coaching them so like basically saying that's not enough if you have a grievance you better come up with something exactly or drop it right get out of here um they came back with that so the two Commander is like well then I suggest you guys call NCIS um and that's where it sort of went off the rails uh and Craig Mill and them didn't never intended me to go to jail or prison for life what they wanted was for me to be sort of kicked out of the community they did not want me in charge of training because they knew they would go through and they knew they thought in their mind that I was going to treat them different because of how they acted they also thought that I was going to go around and spread uh bad word about them about what I thought about their reputations um so that's where sort of all this conspired from um and once NCIS got involved that's I mean this uh lead investigator Joel warpinski he right away formed his own prosecution in his mind and just looked for ways to go with that um he brought these guys in on the NCIS videos and we have the videos uh where he told them we don't care about anything you guys did on deployment we don't care you know about if you guys did anything wrong and your guys names will never come out whatever you say here is going to stay here so you have all that on video oh yeah and we're gonna put that out um I have it all so they pretty he mentioned he pretty much gave these guys car Blanche to like say whatever they wanted to so that's where they just started spewing like lies left and right um and from there NCIS went back to the command after the day I'd investigated these guys and pretty much told the command we have everything we need to put this guy away for Life the command didn't question it one bit they were like Roger that he's guilty and they're like oh yeah it's done um they the uh Craig Miller and them had also said that they had a video of me um committing these this heinous act or whatever you want to call it they were like we have it all on video and if you guys don't do something to him we're gonna give the video to CNN so they sort of blackmailed the command in that way as well so the command went full on yeah they we need to protect the institution and in doing that we're just going to hang Gallagher out to dry um and from that point I started getting shunned uh I got pulled out of my instructor Billet they threw me in an office somewhere and pretty much would not talk to me they told me I just had to sit there and um see what happens so you know for me coming again coming from the community and I think anybody listening how do you here's what I have a hard time with is that you've you've got a guy who you know a sailor of the year which for those of you listening that don't understand what that is that's there's one guy picked once a year from an entire Seal Team of you know 225 people that gets voted as like the guy like the number one [ __ ] seal at a team and you got that yeah um ranked number one chief of all of the platoons at the Seal team that you were with and you took over a platoon that was ranked the very worst in you know before you showed up as the platoon Chief and the very next that next deployment it goes from very worst to to rank number one how how was there not at least some going to [ __ ] bat for you on on the command side and I'm telling you that was probably the most frustrating thing for me when I went through when this all started happening to me um I literally couldn't wrap my mind around like how nobody was talking to me or just even asking me questions about this uh I actually went and tried to talk to the group one master chief um I went to his office and said listen um whatever is being told to you is a lie I don't but he straight up was like I'm not talking to you about anything this is out of our hands you know you're just gonna have to sit and wait and honestly what it comes down to is you know after all this happened I've actually you know gone back and thought like why they did this it comes down to protecting the institution you know nsw looks at itself now as an institution you know the Trident this is trademarked thing um and they'll do whatever they have to to protect it and that includes hanging one of their own out to dry without asking any questions and I think that's the scariest part here I think you know I think that's why the community is really divided on this is because guys are seeing what happened to me and they're like dude if that can happen to him that can happen to anybody and they're willing to just throw you away to you know make the community you know the institution look good yeah and that's what it comes down to it is uh and forgive my assumption on this but NCIS had it's almost like Internal Affairs and and police is that they they kind of trump everything else and so is it is it a safe assumption or a correct assumption and saying that like once they were involved that's when the leadership was like it's [ __ ] out of our hands yeah they were able to just sort of put it on that and be like well that's it's all them now and then NCIS started running the show can you refresh my memory who who recommended that they that these Five Guys contact NCIS was a part of command leadership it was you know um my Tu Commander that my my former Tu Commander at the time had told them and I you know he he's still active duty uh I wouldn't say his name but yeah he I mean and I don't blame him he was like listen because he's not going to sit on that he's like yeah and he wasn't there and he's like he wasn't and uh to me that's an important distinction is if you're saying look hey I don't blame the guy you know if he if this was brought to his attention he did the right thing I mean yeah and honestly like it was brought to my attention too um soon after that I had talked to the TU commander and uh my SCA and they were like listen this is what these guys are saying um and you know that's why you know they hadn't pushed the investigation yet but I had told them I was like then go ahead and investigate it I was like start an investigation because they're lying um in my mind I thought it was going to be an internal Vestige like nsw in to investigate this because I knew if they actually looked into this they would see all the holes in their stories um but that's not what happened NCIS took over and that's where it spiraled out of control uh morpinsky like I said had formed a prosecution in his head and just all he was taking on was you know anything he could find to like go against me or you know make me look guilty um there's one there's one thing that I I see in that um that that I see in um like criminal defense or a criminal prosecution attorneys is that one of the the downsides and I think it's a mistake in doing that is you know they view their success as a lawyer as percentage of convictions that they have you know to me like that's a really I don't know how people can look at that and think that that's a good thing like wow this guy puts 98 of the people he prosecutes away like why why is that the goal well that just shows you're not really looking for the truth you're looking for a win yeah you know and to me like on not just in the military it's even more prominent in civilian is that like that's regarded as he must be a really good [ __ ] attorney if he can put these people away and to me like that's such a [ __ ] backwards way of looking at things but anyway um with the the specific incident and again I'm going off of Wikipedia for the the Ridiculousness with that but that's what I had to go on I can't wait to hear what it says um let's see so the the mo that says you know multi you're accused of multiple defenses but the most prominent uh best attested to was the murder of of a prisoner of war which is a war crime a captured young fighter of Isis was being treated by a medic according to two seal Witnesses these two e-6s I'm assuming yep Gallagher said over the radio he's mine and walked up to the medical prisoner without saying a word killed the prisoner by stabbing him repeatedly with his hunting knife uh Gallagher and his commanding officer OIC Lieutenant Jake portier portier then used or then posed for photographs of them standing over the body with some nearby seals Gallagher then text messaged a friend in California a picture of himself holding the dead captive's head by the hair with the explanation good story behind this got him with my hunting knife yep so in knowing that that's like the primary War crime accusation what is your response to to that accusation so there's a lot of false information and what you just read and some true information what you just read uh the picture I owned up to um you know so basically what happened is we were out that morning um typical morning but uh it was actually pretty good we got into a little uh firefight and the platoon itself I mean we ended up uh killing a bunch of Isis guys um in this Village that um ERD our partner force was about to clear we had dropped a lot of ordinance on it um ERD had pushed through after we pretty much uh you know demolished most of the guys there and uh they brought back out of this one building that was uh hellfired it was the numbers changed but you know there was multiple Isis guys in there that had died and this one was still survived he was under a bunch of rubble they had pulled him out and brought him back to our the compound we were in um the the uh the statement that I came over comms and no one touched me his mind is a complete lie um that Craig Miller Dylan delay got together and they're the only ones who really say I said that uh um they brought the guy in I had come up uh and they saw that he was pretty much he looked in pretty bad shape um I was like you know what we'll treat him and interrogate him and see if there's anything you know anybody other Isis guys out there or whatever information we can get out of them so I came up uh brought the med bag and started treating him um I did an initial sweep on him he was uh shot in the left leg and I mean he wasn't wasn't breathing um but once I started initial Care on him you know it was that was it I was going through the motions of um so he like I said wasn't breathing so I gave did a pretty invasive procedure gave him a crack which is you know you put the tube in the neck so he can get a Peyton Airway um at that point the two other Medics had come up and started assisting me um that was uh TC burn and then Corey Scott so they assisted on the uh cryke and at that point they had sort of taken over the med scenario I got up and went back talked to my OIC who was uh still dealing with uh talking with the air controller and the UAV um he asked me to sit rep on the Isis fighter I said yeah we're treating them and then I'll let you know what happens I mean I knew I was like it doesn't look like he's going to survive um he's in pretty bad shape I had come back and they had already started chest tubes on them um and from there they did uh tried they did one chest two on the left side and then attempted to do one on the right which was failed and then they gave they attempted an IV which they couldn't get a Payton IV and they so they did a interosseous um through the chest plate one of the new guys assisted and did the interosseous one um for training just so I mean at that point we were like this guy's not gonna make it um so one of the new guys it was interested in becoming a medic so they let him do some uh procedures uh once he put the chest plate in the guide I mean the guy was made no movement whatsoever and that's a very very painful procedure um I asked I was like you know is he dead Craig Miller was sitting at the end of the head and he was like I think so I can't tell I was like all right um I had also turned around the Iraqis were sort of crowding around um taking pictures or like trying to take pictures and so I backed them up told I want to talk to the Iraqi officer I was like hey get these guys out of here because we're not as Americans we're not supposed to be in pictures anyways uh with the Iraqis and all that um and then pretty much the guy passed I came back and he was dead uh and that was that and so we were still stuck out there for probably three or four more hours we requested to go back because the um partner Force wasn't clearing um we were told just to stay out there and you know see what happened the remainder of the day and we're like okay um and there was not a lot going on um that's when a board team guy uh started going into effect um the well uh my OIC had I was planning on reenlisting as well so he came up and was like hey since nothing's going on you know we're sort of like in a lull he's like you want to do your reenlistment I was like yeah let's do it it was not over the dead body it was not near the dead body the dead body was in the vicinity um but it was not because the dead body was there I just knocked out a re-enlistment which the whole platoon part you know took part in and everybody was you know okay with it um after degree enlistment we were still out there for about another hour and a half two hours and that's when guys started coming up and taking pictures with that dead Isis Fighter um so there were other guys in the oh yeah and this is what's not the toll either is pretty much ninety percent of the guys out there took pictures just like the one I did and I'm not saying it's right or wrong um but this is just stating the facts of what happened that day uh guys were doing you know little trophy photo poses with him um same thing pointing a gun at his head or like doing whatever I also did the same thing took a picture with the uh Isis fighter and then um we took a group picture with him um and that was pretty much it uh where does the story of I mean did you perform the the trick with with your combat knife or did you use uh no I used a scalpel I used the whole cry kit and so it was a totally fabricated [ __ ] story yeah so and if people look at the facts because this came out in court um and this is where Craig Miller's lies couldn't keep straight so when he told NCIS that he saw me stab him multiple times in the neck that was a lie uh you know he's like oh I came around the corner and there was Eddie just stabbing him randomly oh and then that lie like escalate each time he told it it was something different and finally when he was on trial they were like you know and then what happened and then he's like well then I saw Eddie stabbing him and there was blood squirting everywhere which he had never said before and that's when I knew I was like dude you just you screwed up dude like your lie is getting so extravagant now so the prosecutor's like oh you saw blood squirting he's like yeah I was he described it as a pumping out like baby vomit um and they did tests on the knife on the sheath there was no blood no blood on the knife I mean they tried every way to like find blood on it there was none if you look at the picture of me posing with him there's no blood anywhere on me there's no blood on the knife then that's supposedly right after the incident so and even the Pathologists the prosecutors brought in that guy on the stand was like no I cannot determine that this happened because there's no evidence there so was there some sort of text message that you sent back I did and this is and I'll you know own that too I was one of my best friends so we were texting back and forth through deployment and you know he'd be like hey how's it going like what's you know and it was you know pretty good deployment and I was like oh check this out like and it was a joke it was a dark humor joke uh and if they read like the rest of that thread because that's the only text they put out there it you can see that it's just like dark humor between both him and I we were joking around um but you know after they had raided my house and took my phone that you know they were like oh this is we got them now like this is you know you you admitted to it which it's not the case at all it doesn't look good at all you know especially in my case but it just wasn't true um you know I did not stab that Isis fighter and so where was or what was the turning point in court I remember you know in following it in the news and seeing it but there was there was a specific instance about that incident where like the the prosecution completely went to [ __ ] right yeah I mean the big instance is where um Corey Scott the medic it was one of the prosecutor's main Witnesses um got up there and pretty much was like no I killed him um I put my hand over the breathing tube um he was gonna die anyways and he knew that if we had handed them over like that to the partner Force they would have chop this head up or done something um that was this big concern so he's like I sort of like mercifully killed him uh but by putting my hand over the breathing tube um and that was like a huge you know shock and all factor in the in the courtroom the prosecutors freaked out um they had no idea that he was going to say that and uh you know because they never asked him how the I mean they were so focused on just trying to you know convict me they never asked like the real questions and my lawyer had asked him like well how did you know the Isis fighter die and Corey Scott and he had said this previously in interviews oh he died by a 60 asphyxiation and they never asked him how and my lawyer was like well how did he die by association he's like because I held my hand over the breathing tube and that was it but you know then the prosecutors attacked him and we're like well you're lying and they continued on with the case um they just I mean I'll give it to him they had a uh never quit attitude but uh it was just in the wrong the wrong way I mean they and at that point they were hugely embarrassed they had wasted all this time and money and trying to prosecute me and I became national news yeah so there was no way they were going to try and you know quit um but the jury saw right through it I mean I know the jury at the end told the prosecutors like how did this even come to trial like this was embarrassing um and uh but there to me there were so many other turning points during that trial besides that I I don't think people really don't know because they don't know all the facts about the case and what these guys had said um like for one instance you know with the sniper shoot um Josh Brens who was one of the accusers who's actually my neighbor um was telling the prosecutors that I had shot this little girl he's like well at first he was like I thought Isis did it because Isis probably did do it but then it was until way after deployment he's like oh you know what I think Eddie did it um so the prosecutor's like oh did you see it and he's like no I was in a different building but if you ask this guy he says he saw it they went and asked that guy and the guy's like I have no idea what you're talking about no I never saw that and they hid that guy's statement the whole time and were just like we're pushing we're pushing this through and there's a reason why they added on those two charges the little girl in the old man which weren't added on until later on in my trial is because anybody who heard you know that was like oh we're charging this guy with murder of killing an Isis terrorist people were like this first reaction is like well who gives a [ __ ] so they decided to add on this little girl an old man as like a shock value like well now people were like maybe this guy is a monster and I mean that was just so they could further push their narrative uh were there any accusations uh that they came up with that were true uh outside the two that you said with the the main instance of the picture and the text messages were any of the other accusations that they made throughout this entire thing that we're trying to paint you in a bad light were any of them true no not a single not a single one so I mean from the get-go and this is and this is how the military justice system works which I went through the fire and and learned the hard way or what they do is they they find the main charge which was the murder charge and then they just look for anything to throw on so that it's just like throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks so they literally threw on I mean I think I started off with 18 to 20 charges and then by the time we got to trial it was like down to uh maybe six or seven something like that it's just a and this is it's not just me they do this do is they do it to everybody to paint you in such a bad light that it's you know the jury or if it's the judge or he has a preconceived notion like man this guy's being charged with all this really there's something wrong here what what was the the process in terms of once like at what point did it go from okay NCIS is investigating um your command leadership is it's basically awkward at this point right like or I'm assuming it was like if the Seal team did there come a point where it was like you were the the turd covered in ice cream and and nobody would even [ __ ] talk to you or they no it was they hid me away um so they put me in a log Sue uh which is uh supply for everybody out there but I had no job I just sat and I was told to come in check in and that was it um and so did there become a time where they came and [ __ ] arrested you yes and so when I was at Supply um they had uh called me the day prior and like hey the EXO wants to talk to you tomorrow he just wants to do a meet and greet and I was like okay um threw on my uniform I went in the next morning knocked on his door and he opened it a crack and like looked at me and shut it and then opened it again there was probably six or seven NCIS agents in there um they told me that they were going I had to be detained um and they handcuffed me right there and so paraded me through the command um and took me to an interrogation room uh it's at another base 32nd Street um once I was there they were like you know why you're here I was like no he's like well you're being accused of uh war crimes and we just want to hear your side of the story now I'm smart enough and I'm like I'm not I'm going to talk you know talk to you without a lawyer so I was like I want my lawyer they're like okay so you're not going to talk to us a lot of lawyer I was like yeah um like oh we'll be right back and they shut the door and left me in there for seven hours um during that time they had already sent they'd been staking my house out for about two weeks they sent a uh pretty much a 25 assault team 25-man assault team at my house they knew that my wife and myself weren't home um my eight-year-old son who was uh watching cartoons at the time had um looked out the window and saw guys with assault rifles coming up to the house he then ran upstairs to get my older son who was sleeping he told him there's guys with guns outside my older son obviously thought he was messing around but my youngest son started crying so he then um walked down to the front door opened the door and franchise agents put guns in their face don't put their hands up um my oldest son told me they had a uh the breaching tool one of those uh battering rams ready to smash the door open they pulled both my sons out into the street in her underwear and then just laid Siege to my house um and that was sort of and I had no idea this was going on I was an interior just sitting in that interrogation by myself um my wife was notified by pretty much a neighbor had they were screaming at all the neighbors to get back in their house they had blocked off my whole neighborhood like I mean it was like I was a cartel member um the neighbor had called it was a little girl had called my daughter and was like this is what's going on and then my daughter called my wife and was like this is what I was told my wife drove home they tried to uh interrogate her and pretty much just ransacked our house and took just an abundance of stuff um they let me out seven hours later I did not know this happened until I got home because they took my phone and everything that's when we were like okay this is real like this guy this is because the whole time before that I had trust in the command still that like somebody's gonna see through this somebody's going to like you know have some common sense here and actually look into this and see that what they were this is all lies or these allegations are so ridiculous um but at that point I was like all right this is nuts I went into the command the next day talked to the group one master chief it was Steve Ward and I said hey my house was raided my kids are pulled out of gunpoint please tell me what's going on nobody will talk to me and he was like I still can't talk to you about it he's like if you want to talk to a chaplain go ahead um I said that's your answer he said yeah and he's like oh and by the way because I had been selected for Senior Chief he's like you're not putting on Senior Chief um until this investigation's over which I never ended up doing picking up or putting it back on um so after the house was raided we had already planned to move to Florida I was moving my family to Florida because I was planning on retiring and then I was just going to Geo batch um until my retirement in San Diego so I moved them out there got them settled in flew back and went to uh Niko um which uh it's like a TBI Clinic um in Pendleton so I went there and about a week and a half two weeks into that the command showed up and arrested me told me they had orders from the Commodore Rosenbloom and Admiral green uh yeah Admiral green had just taken over command and he signed off on it to throw me in the brig um so I mean in that two-week period what what was taken I mean obviously if nobody's talking to you like it seems odd that I mean did you talk to a lawyer I mean did he give you any insight I mean some of their charges what no no charges how can they raid your house and take your [ __ ] with no charges it's all and that's this is for the corruption and just the way they go about doing things the reason they raided my house like that was it's a shaming tactic because and it worked our neighbors who had you know some of them we'd known for a while we're like well you must have done something for this to happen um there's no reason they had to do it that way they could have literally walked up with two guys and been like hey we have a warrant um yeah they were all they were just going off hearsay that's all it was they had no evidence of anything but like I said this Joe warpinski this prosecutor was running the whole show for NCIS and that's the way he conducted business is that something that uh if I'm assuming it's outside the bounds of protocol is that something that you guys are fighting for now on the kind of an offensive standpoint on your end or yeah I mean we're we're not um doing a lawsuit but we are going you know expose exactly what happened and how this corruption and misconduct like took place because I think people do need to know so all right so they show up two weeks later while you're processing out of the military basically going through a TBI clinic and they say you're under arrest you're under arrest they did not give me a reason um I asked you know why I'm been you know I was at the TBI Clinic I was like I haven't been doing anything uh you know I've been pretty professional to this point doing exactly what you guys told me to do why am I being thrown in and they said we don't we don't know it's just been signed off um it wasn't until I was about a week in the brig um when I found out that the so you when you're in a week in the brig you get it's called an initial initial review hearing um where they determine whether you stay in the break or not and I thought I was like I'm getting out because there's absolutely no reason that I should be in here that's where I first saw the prosecutors um and what I first learned the command was completely like with the prosecution trying to you know hang me out to dry the prosecution got up at that initial review hearing and pretty much called me you know everything under the sun uh they were like this guy is a drug abuser um he beats his wife I mean like crazy allegations and that have no evidence of anything but that's the crazy system is they can say whatever they want and you literally just sit there and take it uh the neighbor Josh brins had wrote a letter the day before that hearing and said that I was stalking him and he was afraid for his life and so on there he said that I had walked my dogs which I have two French Bulldogs passed his house and that scared him and his family and he said that was intimidation the French Bulldogs are nasty they are they got attitude but that's that's why I was kept in the brig pretty much they were like well because of his letter yeah and they knew that NCIS probably had him write it um and this Joshua is crazy I mean he definitely lost his marbles after that deployment and he was assuming his history of uh problems for disciplinary problems from him or was he no he was one of those guys um how do I describe him he had a flare for The Dramatics and um one of those us Uber bible thumper to where he thought he was above everybody else um because you know of his Christian faith and did you ever have altercations with him crosswords getting an argument with him was there ever exact exactly the opposite I actually had him over at my house for Bible study um and this is where he joined forces with uh Craig Miller Dalton Tolbert And Delay now he was a younger guy and I honestly think he was just like looking to fit in and so he was like you know what I'll join your guys's cause here and let's and whatever I got to do and then from there Joe warpinski sort of took friends under his wing and sort of made it made him an honorary NCIS agent to where he had Vern's stock like uh staking my house out so he was my neighbor and the whole time I would see him and I would give him little head nods or a little wave I didn't talk to him uh because of the whole drama from the platoon but I had no idea he was like involved in anything up to that point uh so when I saw this letter from him I was like this is crazy like what do you mean I've intimate I've walked my dogs there like that's the route I take them all the time I had and I told him I was like I didn't even knowing no idea this guy was even involved uh but Vern's had I mean yeah he's he lost his marbles um he had uh also I'll backtrack a second I went to a seal future fund event um and he was at that event and this is before my house was raided um and there was a knife auctioned off at that event by uh one of my good friends uh Andy arabito he owns half face blades um he auctioned the knife off to raise money for the seal feature fund uh foundation and um friends at that event called NCIS and said oh he's trying to auction off the murder weapon so now this Bryn's guy because he's so out of his mind he got seal future fund involved and now they're getting investigated um and it was it was nothing to do with anything but in his mind he was I mean that's where I'm like he lost his marbles and he was just so invested in trying to find ways to you know screw me over and that ended up I mean wasting ncis's time everybody's time because they were calling this seal future fund and like well you guys auctioned off a murder weapon and it just didn't go anywhere um but it just shows you where this guy's heads at so when he wrote this letter saying I was stalking him it was just more of the same like all right man like you're a little loopy uh but honestly that's what kept me in the brig the whole time and then once you're in the brig if you don't make it no one gets out of that iro hearing never really and once you go past that you're not getting out until your trial you know what what is the brig environment like can you describe that yeah that's a whole other experience so which is another curtain that I saw behind them maybe I'm glad I did but I did not know this existed so the brig the one I went to was at Miramar um air Marine Corps Air Base and it's uh all branches so there's Army Marine Air Force and navy guys in there I mean how many beds are there how many cells or whatever the [ __ ] um so I I can't give like a exact number so what I there's five pods which each pod is like a general population um I would you know in my pod there's probably like 80 to 100 guys um you have a you know a cell everyone has their own cell um and uh yeah that's pretty much how it's separated um but the break I got sent to is a sex offender break so pretty much 85 90 people in there are pedophiles rapists and just sexual offenders um and then uh you know you'll have that's where they put some guys for pre-trial confinement so you go there they believe you know you're a threat or whatever they'll you'll sit in there until your trial um Brig life is it's a different Beast man it's a a whole different ecosystem in there and it took me so when they first put me in there they treated me like I was Jason Bourne um I was obviously this you know told on like this high risk individual I was in you know being a Navy SEAL is you know everyone's like oh this guy's dangerous um they had me Shackled from my legs to my hands um and they would shut down the whole prison if they had to move me uh they threw me in isolation for about 72 hours when I first got there that means you can't leave that room they would you know slide food under the door and then finally they were like hey you're you don't seem to be a problem we're going to throw you in general population um and that's when I was yeah putting gen pop are you I mean is it like what's portrayed on TV um you got your own room but like is there periods where you're going outside and mingling with the other people or so no it's well yeah you have one hour of a yard time you're supposed to have one hour yard time a day um that was at eight at night for us so do you know someone no sunlight um the only time you saw sunlight is when you marched to Chow and uh that was you know about two minutes um so yeah I I'm being in pre-trial confinement is almost worse than being an actual prisoner in there so if you get convicted and you're an actual prisoner you're given a job so you can leave the Gen pop and go do your job for the day and come back pre-trial you cannot do anything you sit from 5 45 in the morning till about nine at night in the same gen pop area they have one TV where they are only allowed to play CNN and that's it uh you get one hour yard time at eight o'clock at night there's really they had a pull-up bar and dip bar and like like a couple weights but that's shared between 100 people um and you just had to like I just had to find ways to adapt to that environment uh during this time well two questions one how long was were you in that environment two in terms of outside contact with your attorney with your family what did that look like so yeah that's the other problem this is why uh the president sort of got involved um there are there are all sorts of uh human rights violations that go on that break for one they starved the prisoners um you're not allowed food at all unless you go to ciao and that child was they literally time it 20 minutes and uh that's it and they barely give you enough food um and then you also are pretty much blocked from your legal representation I mean it's it's a pain in the ass to get to be able to talk to your lawyers and on top of that I was definitely being uh targeted um and you know the other prisoners in there all caught on real quick you know I do they are treating you a lot different than we've seen you know so the I had a couple guards that were cool with me they would come and tell me like listen NCIS and the prosecutors are telling the guards to make you snap to like do stuff to you so you will you know snap or do something and they can pretty much point the finger like see he's crazy um so it literally was like a game to me in there where I was like I just bit my tongue um and I wouldn't react to anything that they did to me and I mean it was to the point where you know they come toss my cell at random times um anytime I did see my legal team which was barely or I had a visitation they would strip me naked afterwards um you know take all your clothes off the whole like lift your nutsack spread your cheeks and then it would just you know sit there and like stare at me and like see if I would do something and all that is not protocol oh there's you know it was just pretty blatantly obvious um that they were trying to Rattle me um and then on top of that I was not getting the proper legal representation I needed and so my wife and a couple other people filed um ig's you know uh investigations into the brig because this was happening and that's what sort of spun up and I think that's you know the president finally got word of it and my wife was going on Fox News sort of telling the truth like this is what's happening this and the crazy thing is I'm not the only one that's happens to this happens to so many people in there it's just that nobody has a voice and nobody has a wife that'll fight forums which we sort of brought up before and nobody has the money for real lawyers uh they are you having to pay for that oh yeah so I mean my legal fees by the end we're well over half a mill uh and that's the thing the only rights that you have are the ones you can afford and that's that's what we've learned um they issue or not issue they they give you a Jag that's you know the Navy's like well you know you'll get a lawyer this Jag first off was up in Lamour so he had to go Tad to even come see me which was barely ever um you know and then they they stacked the deck against you so hard to where what I call the break it's a plea bargain Factory so you go in there and they're like this is what we're charging you with um we have everything you're done um you're gonna like for me they're like you're getting life without parole so you're sitting in a cell with that weight on your shoulders but if you admit to it we'll give you 20 years exactly but they don't come up with that until maybe a couple months later when you're [ __ ] when yeah you're weak yeah and they're like hey you just and they did they came to me like multiple times like listen you just say admit to this and we'll give you 25 years and you know my answer is about half a second I'm like go [ __ ] yourself like I'm I'm innocent you know I'm going to trial oh but yeah it's they do that to these other young kids in there but these 24 25 20 24 25 year old e5s um and they're you know and these kids end up breaking and they're like okay I'll just admit to it and I'll do four or five years which so how how long did you end up in that so I was in the break for about seven a little over seven months I think and then that's when uh you know the president had tweeted like get him out um and give him afford him the opportunity to defend himself before he goes to trial the and you know they let me out that that day that he tweeted that um the command was pissed uh Rosenbloom Commodore Rosenblum was irate that the president had done this so he took it upon himself to lock me in a Barracks from my Balboa and still I had no I I almost had less um rights there to where I mean and I wasn't able to contact my legal team there I wasn't allowed to phone computer TV anything I was just in this room um and uh we actually had so we had to go to court to file a complaint like hey he doesn't have access to his legal team still the judge looked at the prosecution and my command was like listen I'm not ordering you to give him a phone I'm advising you to do it and if this doesn't get fixed I will get involved so a week later the command shows up uh Kelly Anderson the command Jag gives me a phone with no service she's like this is the phone you get that's it and I told her I was like there's no service on this thing she's like too bad I mean that's how like much they were you know trying to screw with me and a lot of it at that point was out of pure emotion because my wife was going out and calling them out and everything and so they were pissed about that I mean there's so much stuff that they were pissed about and they just kept trying to screw me over um it wasn't until I was probably stuck in that Barracks room for about a month and a half until the prosecutors got caught spying um and uh that's when the judge was like he relieved the prosecutor and because the prosecutor spying they violated I think my fifth and sixth amendment rights he was like I'm letting him out of confinement and that's when I was released from Balboa to then you went to Sizzler got yourself a steak okay I'm right what uh God that's [ __ ] nuts man um so at that point the the initial prosecutor that had such a hard on for you he got relieved yeah and the new guy came in they brought in another prosecutor um and that's the other crazy thing about the military justice system is if that had happened in civilian court and a prosecutor had been caught I mean spying and sending beacons out to try and get the defense's plan the case would have been dismissed right there I mean and that prosecutor would have went to prison in the military justice system they're like you know what boom we'll just relieve him and throw in another prosecutor and so when you say spying what like what exactly is that consisting of so what he did is uh he sent an email to my lawyer asking some random question like hey you know what dates I don't I don't remember the question it was just something not even pertinent but he attached a beacon on it um which NCIS was involved NCIS taught the prosecute how to do this so if my lawyer had clicked on that Beacon it's like a little symbol they would have access to everything um that all my lawyers emails so they sent that same email to all my lawyers um and anybody that was on my side in that case my lawyer though was smart enough because he had a previous um client that had a stalker and the same thing had happened to him this is like divine intervention almost my lawyer saw this and was like dude I've seen this before emailed the guy back and was like tell me this isn't what I think it is and there was no response and that's my lawyer's like dude I cannot believe this happened they investigated it and sure enough it's they did exactly that I mean they broke the law tried to spy on my legal team and uh yeah that's how they got relieved um and uh they but that's the crazy thing is they just kept going uh and then so that guy gets relieved now at this point you're living back with your family now no so I when I got released from uh confinement we I was only like about three and a half weeks out from trial um so I did go back probably like for three days back to my house in Florida spent some time with my kids and then I mean my whole legal team pretty much lived in San Diego with me up until the trial and we just worked our asses off uh they definitely work their asses off getting ready to prepping for trial um I stayed at uh said the sub base down in Point Loma we just stayed at the um beq yeah Bachelor enlisted quarters yeah civilian bucks stayed down there uh with my wife um and then once the trial started my whole family flew out including my mom and dad my brother and we got like Airbnb in point Lomo and just stayed at that house and uh yeah trial was a whole different animal how uh how long was the trial from start to finish about three weeks three weeks yeah and so there was one question I had written down that I'm very curious about is that during that time when you're in there what was the the feeling like like the the air the Ambiance between Craig Miller the other two guys you know some of the other Medics you like was there like this feeling of tension awkwardness uh that was palpable or was it was it not because it was such an official thing with so many other people involved what was that like facing those guys in that environment it was so I didn't I didn't see them I didn't get to see them until they actually came and take this took the stand they kept those guys uh in the back and would like you know bring them in when it was returned to testify and honestly they they didn't bring those guys in to testifies about the second week um or maybe the end of the first week into the second week but I knew and this is what I was telling everybody up to the trial because I had a lot of a lot of guys in the teens you know were especially after I was released were coming up like dude you know this is nuts like and they were telling me exactly what the Commodore and the command were doing like going around telling everybody not to support me um and I told them I was like listen it's all going to come down to when those guys take the stand and I was like I'm not worried about it I'm like dude they've told so many lies I was like this is going to be embarrassing and sure enough it would it was even it was worse well better for my circumstance but they came off worse than I could have ever expected I mean Craig Miller got up there and just flat out like couldn't keep up with his lies and that he knew he was getting caught up and then all of a sudden he got a case of Amnesia and was like I don't I don't remember anything anymore I don't know this I don't know that all I know is that he stabbed him and that's it like you couldn't tell any other details um you know then the whole baby mama thing came out of nowhere so like I remember I think that they had a bunch of reporters in the back and the comments like because you could sort of hear what they were saying they were like this guy is a Navy SEAL like this dude's an idiot like how is he how is he their main witness but that's I mean so he got off and then um was there like when he was standing there would he not look at you oh yeah he he wouldn't really look at no he wouldn't look at me and I you know this is the crazy thing is you're told when you're on trial you know I was told all these things before it started like don't make any facial expressions don't just have a stone you know straight face don't try and not look a certain way because everything that you do the jury's looking right at you and that can base their decision just because nobody's perfect they're all human so they could be like oh I don't like the way this guy's looking or that looks like that looks like a look of guilt so I had to keep like a straight face the whole time even when I'm hearing these guys spew out this crap um I think the only time I lost it where it was visible is when the NCIS agent got up there and because they were denying that they pulled my kids out of gunpoint the whole time um they were like that's not true they admitted it on the stand like yes we pointed guns at his kids yes we pulled them out in underwear and I definitely I mean I I was so angry I was almost in tears just like St I wanted to jump across the table and rip his throat you know but that was like the only time I Really Ever showed any kind of emotion the rest when those guys came in I would just look at them Blank Stare and like I was just in disbelief that these guys were still continuing to do this um and there's a lot of reasons that they they got pushed to that point they had the backing of the command I mean I think they thought in their mind like the command has our backs every you know we're good to this day do you know why the Commodore and the Admiral why they kind of cited so heavy with with NCIS not because I'm assuming they didn't really know you right so I still have never said I've never talked or met those guys once I mean do you do you have any insight on their motivation to be so hard line about it because I mean again if you're looking you know people that aren't seals that have no idea about anything they're like okay well the seals seem like a pretty [ __ ] tight outfit a pretty close fraternity this guy you know is accused of this and he's got this as a track record in terms of you know no huge instances of of uh insubordination or problems or anything else sailor of the year you know number one Chief blah blah blah there has to be something that that makes those guys decide you know what we're all in [ __ ] this guy yeah so I think it and this is what it comes down to is protecting the institution and that so from the get-go they were trying to protect the institution because these guys had sort of blackmailed the command and said if you don't do this we're gonna send this video which didn't exist to and to uh CNN and what was the video that they said exist so they said they had a video of um the whole incident of me stabbing the guy everything um and so the command was like okay I can only imagine you know what they're thinking is like oh [ __ ] we don't need this getting out so let's get this Gallagher guy and hang him out to dry or you know we're going to process get in prosecuted so that way we looks like we take care of our own uh once they threw me in the brig they put all their chips in they're like we're going full force this guy's going away like we've got to make an example of this yeah now I think that flipped once this little truth started coming out and like oh [ __ ] so what these guys are saying is a lie including the video because the video finally did come out and it did not show anything like that in fact it exonerated me all it was is me coming up with the med bag and starting to treat the guy and then somehow it magically shuts off um and I think people should think about that too why did that video just show me coming up treating that guy and then they deleted it from there shut it off it's because the rest of the video just shows me doing medical treatment on them and that's it now they deleted on purpose so nobody would you know then they have to decide what happened uh once that video came out then the command instead of backing off and being like okay we might have made a mistake they just fell on their sword and they're like well now we've got to protect the institution because we don't want to be embarrassed and they went full on trying to once again make me guilty um what did they do to to try to make that happen given all of those circumstances as far as making me guilty yeah oh um while I was incarcerated the Commodore um Rosenbloom the master chief went around to each command each Seal Team and held all calls with all the seals telling them that I was guilty that they had seen all the evidence that they had seen the video which was a blatant lie in that no one should support me um and so they pretty much and I've heard this from multiple seals at each command that they did this and it's the same exact speech that the Commodore gave um they uh that there was a free Eddie shirts that were being made if guys wore those into the command they were getting counseled um they were they were just cutting off all support possible for me and in doing so I mean not only is that unlawful command influence um and they had also had like the mat some of the master Chiefs and oic's especially the ones from trade at uh Master Chief birkenbach and Commander Green were doing the same thing going around to each seller trade at saying Gallagher's guilty and these guys turned him in are heroes and you guys should treat them as such because the guys themselves were were pretty pissed and like they were questioning the command like why are you guys throwing him in prison he hasn't even gone to you know trial like why is he being treated like this so they were pushing that narrative like oh no he belongs in there if you knew what we knew he belongs in there uh that that that alone right there I mean is insane that they were doing that yeah and to be fair you know imagine I mean again I'll give my perspective on it here in a second but imagine you know most of the guys are going to be at that point are junior to you yeah you know have never met you that have a you know senior senior leadership in the seal Community holding in all hands and say hey this guy's a [ __ ] bastard he's guilty you don't support him if you do you're gonna get in trouble it'd be hard not to believe that you know well yeah you're being told from yeah like leadership yeah exactly and doing so that also tainted the jury pool yeah well I mean to me it's like politics and church like they shouldn't have gotten involved either way no no and here's where else I'll say my opinion is is you know being on social media and having the podcast you know a lot of people ask hey what do you think of what's going on and you know I I made a point of of not having an opinion either way until I knew more about it you know and some people even in in the community I think have a problem with that of saying okay why didn't you have Eddie's back like from the get-go and it's like the same reason I didn't have the guy at team one that got rolled up with child borns back from the get-go because I don't [ __ ] know him yeah I wasn't there it's not my [ __ ] business like I'm not gonna assume that he's innocent because he's a team guy I'm also not going to assume that he's guilty because of what's being said I'm gonna stay the [ __ ] out of it now hearing all of the story like yeah it's it's infuriating uh you know to know that that that's that's how it all went down but it's still like to me you know I always try to maintain a level of of neutrality when it comes to something I don't I don't know enough about to have an opinion on you know um and that's exactly the way that I expect anybody to you know be like yeah you don't know me um I don't expect you to have my sides because you don't know the facts and I don't blame people for I mean they should stay neutral because that's how the system is supposed to play out yeah like you that's why somebody goes to trial to see if they're guilty or not guilty um and that obviously wasn't happening I mean I was presumed guilty from the get-go and they were trying to push that narrative now as far as guys you know reaching out like oh you should have his back I think there was definitely um some guys visiting me in the brig um and they were knowing what was going on yeah but at the same time it's very hard at that point to like push out all this corruption that's going on because we're fighting against nsw command yeah the military justice system it was just yeah it was a nightmare yeah um I mean it it obviously was it sounds like it and and to me you know looking back on it now like it's just such a [ __ ] black eye for the community in a lot of ways oh yeah you know because there there is a significant portion of the population especially because the president got involved you know so by default and this is a [ __ ] sandwich for you that just is the reality of the world we live in is that anybody that hates the president which is half the [ __ ] country if they see him take your side automatically [ __ ] you two then you know exactly well that's yeah you could see that plain as day once uh you know the president did get involved I became like a political football that you know certain you know New York Times and all these entities were now completely against me I mean to where after I was acquitted and found innocent of all these charges except the pictures they wrote articles saying that oh he got away with murder and like so I guess you know the system doesn't work now because I was found innocent and that to me was insane and I was like and it still goes on to this day yeah no I mean yeah you still see it I mean I guarantee you in in posting this interview like there's it's going to be a lightning rod for sure there's going to be people that don't listen to it you know that are because I you know I'm I'm in dogs and that's kind of a it's really not a political [ __ ] issue you know I've got uh supporters on from all all walks of life all spectrums you know some that are Uber [ __ ] liberal some that are Ultra conservative Libertarians I mean gay straight [ __ ] transgender you name it like every almost everybody loves dogs you know so without question there's going to be people that you know [ __ ] me for even having you on here you know that so I'm sure and like you're propping them up and you're giving a murder or a platform and that's [ __ ] you know it's like well [ __ ] you you know and all I can say to those people is this like you know I understand that if you're on the other side and you don't like the president like fine but I have nothing to do with that like I went to trial and I was found innocent and because I am innocent and that's the bottom line like the fact that some people are still going after me and saying like oh you're a murderer like and because the president got involved like you really don't have a foundation for your argument like that's you know and I'm you guys don't know me and maybe if you did talk to me you'd find out I'm obviously a pretty normal person and you would actually to find out just how scary the situation is for sure yeah and to me you know I'm I'm glad to to be in a position to have a platform to for you to tell your side because there hasn't hasn't really been one no um you know and to me it's it's an important aspect of of our society that many times because politics are involved uh that that you know right and element gets lost um you know I I'm glad that things have worked out the way that they have for the most part I think you know you still from the sounds of it you know have have some [ __ ] sandwiches to deal with by people you know again that just automatically assume like because again like there's going to be people that I lose their support even for having you on here which I don't give a [ __ ] but um you know but uh you know to me it's it's an important uh you know process that needs to be needs to be put out there and I'm glad you're telling the story um well I appreciate you letting me be on here yeah yeah I mean it's uh I think everybody ought to have uh at the most bare minimum everybody deserves a right to at least explain their side of the [ __ ] story you know um if there is anything that like looking back on it is there anything that you think you [ __ ] up or that that you feel like you know you should take accountability for that you could have done better and throughout this whole process where you're like you know other than the one instance of you know maybe a little bit of positive reinforcement on the platoon like is there is there anything in this trial accusations what have you that you're like yeah I [ __ ] that up and probably shouldn't have done that or or anything like that oh for sure I mean the picture itself um you know doing that I if I could do it over again I wouldn't take that picture um you know and I'm I never deny taking that picture and I took accountability from it from the get-go um you know it's it's you know it's hard to explain to sort of I guess the civilian populace on the mindset you are you have when you get over there um I think there's there was a lot of emotion involved um in it you know with just seeing the atrocities that ice has committed every day to women kids and children and then you know it's just the environment that you're in you just you don't have the same mindset you have over there that you do back home and I'm not making excuses for taking that picture by saying that but I'm just sort of trying to give the civilian who's listening to sort of an aspect uh but yeah I wouldn't take the I wouldn't take those pictures again um you know but that's and I would change some of my leadership style I guess but that's also any good leader you know learns from his mistakes and continues to lead uh you know nobody's perfect you know I think a lot of this the leadership stuff that's being taught Now by guys that are out it's those guys all made mistakes too and that's the stuff they're teaching now is probably a lot of the mistakes that they did make um but yeah that's that's it I mean as far as everything else the way that I conducted my tactics the way that I you know aggressively you know took it to the to Isis during the deployment no I wouldn't change anything about that no that's that's pretty much it I mean as far as anything after that fact or the trial or all that no I felt like I conducted myself in the most professional manner possible I tried to hold my head up high the whole time because I knew I was innocent and no I wouldn't change anything yeah fall uh aftermath follow-on since uh you know once you were found not guilty um has anything happened to the accusers are they still active duty what like what's happened to them and are there any consequences for any of them and this is yeah and this is where I think um the problem lies is I was found innocent which meant those accusers were lying they and they you know their lives got their stories all got holes poked in them as they took the stand nothing they were not held accountable at all as a matter of fact it was quite the opposite as soon as I was found innocent I tried to go back to work I was banned from the teams banned from uh the both amphibious bases and they stuck me down at the new base um the Commodore continued to go around saying that I was a criminal and that I had gotten away with it um they sort of put a blanket around these guys um that hey nobody touched them at that point the guys you know the boys and the teams were like you know [ __ ] these guys um I can't believe they did this uh but they were told like they were untouchable um even to the point where uh Dalton Tolbert when he took the stand we had we had uh text messages from all of them they're little uh group texts that they had together in that text message he had said because he was at he is that Development Group at a blue Squadron in that text message he said everybody I work with is just like Eddie Gallagher and they all like to kill civilians he's on the stand we're like did you text this yes where do you work at Development Group so everybody there likes to kill civilians he's sort of like oh well like have you deployed with them yet no so you're already accusing them of war crimes and this is I mean it just sort of proved the point like dude yeah this is how these guys are but he is still there because add the Admiral went and pretty much was like do not touch him you know he's allowed to stay there have you talked to any of the guys there that uh work with him I mean is his reputation there [ __ ] I haven't and you know what I steer clear that because I don't want to get involved like if that's the way you know if they're going to keep them over there for some reason I just hope that he doesn't pull the same kind of crap um I I don't know I I definitely I'm not getting involved in that because that was they that was one of my charges in the first place is because I had called up one of my buddies over there when he was first trying out and all I said was listen I wouldn't trust that dude he's you know I call him probably call him some name they use that as a charge as oh I'm trying to ruin his career uh little do they know that when guys go try out you get phone calls if you're their prior leadership like what do you think about this guy well but yeah so I stay steer clear that I honestly I'm I steer clear of um you know I don't try to make contact with any of those dudes um I I figured you know the problem is going to work itself out I can't imagine anybody wanting to do a platoon with those guys after this uh so I don't know what's what's gonna happen but the one thing I do know is um you know I put out a video last week which I know caused a lot of ruckus and people were like oh you put their names out and their faces also the first thing I'm going to say about that is their names and faces were out during the trial and where they worked uh and they've been put out multiple times after that um and then uh New York Times is Dave Phillips uh made a TV show or Syria one TV show about me called The Gallagher effect and in that show he spliced up the NCIS interviews to make it look like you know I'm this evil person um uh and so after he put that pretty one-sided show out about me the death threats that I was getting and my family was getting escalated and we've been getting death threats since this whole thing ended just from whatever people who hate me because like we said the president's involved or whatever um but the death threats definitely escalated after that and we decided you know what we're we're not just gonna sit here and let this happen we're gonna fight back and we're gonna expose exactly what the truth is and so that was a little preview of what's to come I am going to put out unedited their NCIS interviews and also their trial audio and people can see for themselves just what a mess this was because I get what people think they're like you know how can Navy Seals turn on their own and believe me it blew my mind as well but I people need to see the truth and you know what these guys do need to be held accountable for doing this you cannot just make up allegations trying to put somebody away for life and then it didn't work out and you're going to continue on living your life yeah yeah I mean you know to me whether it's the New York Times guy I mean to me like the that uh incident with CNN and the the teenager Nick Sam and the you know um the issue where the you know Native American drum beating thing and they motherfucked him into me he just sued him and he sued him for 250 million and they settled so I'm sure it was a lot you know and there's like 12 12 other [ __ ] media Outlets that he's going after also I mean to me you know that's one way to uh hold people accountable especially when it's a big media Outlet is their [ __ ] pocketbook I mean I don't know if that's we have a so we have a lawsuit um prepped and ready against New York Times except this is the problem people Sue New York Times on a daily basis because they do put out nothing but you know their agenda and a lot of it is not right um so yeah we we have a wall suit ready to go against them yeah and against Dave Phillips um because he definitely continues to fame me and my family uh and you know it's his money ticket yeah what uh and in terms of any of the other guys or any of the accusers people that contributed to um you know what what happened to you is there can you say is there any uh plan for suing them or getting any enacting any type of consequence no um you know I'm not going to go after them and then the like NCIS you know people have like oh you should sue NCIS this is the problem is you are suing the government and it's almost impossible yeah they have everything on their side and so you're going to spend more money on lawyers trying to sue them than what you're going to get in return yeah it's just another rabbit hole that I just don't want to go down you know I'm going to expose everything that they did people can look at it if you want to believe it or not I mean they're straight facts uh but yeah I'm you know I I don't need to go through I've got enough stuff with lawyers I've been dealing with them for too long I'm like dude I don't have the bandwidth to uh just want to move on yeah and I'm sure these guys that accuse me I can't imagine what their headspace is right now yeah and that's they dug that grave um and you know honestly I hope they do get some help yeah um that they need well rock and roll uh so the the big burning question is what the [ __ ] now what are you gonna mean you know yeah so um actually you know even though this whole thing was a nightmare there's been a lot of blessings that come out of it um so right now uh I'm working uh pretty close with nine line uh apparel so they uh decided to Tyler uh who's the CEO of nine line decided to uh start a clothing brand called salty frog gear and he offered me you know he's like do you want to be the ambassador and his clothing line is going to be sort of around you and how you are in your lifestyle um he started that pretty much a little bit after my trial um and I was still trying to get out of the Navy at the time so I didn't I wasn't involved as much but he got it going um I'm definitely now getting heavily more heavily involved in that um and sort of turning it into what fits me uh so that's I think you know that's going to be a big project uh and then um I got offered a another sort of Ambassador job by redcom one um the supplement company yeah well Aaron singerman yeah he's awesome awesome guy so uh I'm going to be working with them and I should be having my my non-profit that uh my wife and I my brother are heavily invested in right now should be off and running um hopefully within a month I mean there's a lot of stuff that's involved in starting a non-profit but uh that's going to be called the pipe hitter foundation and that is pretty much going to raise awareness for guys in that are in my situation but it's not it's gonna be uh warfighters uh law enforcement um you know um border patrol agents any anybody that's you know being a public servant I guess uh not a public service first respondent first responder yeah there it is uh that you know if they're being unjustly accused of something we're gonna take a look at their case and um you know help them raise money for them for their legal defense and also use that as a platform to speak out against the UCMJ and get some reform going um that's going to be a big thing coming up uh and then um I'll be uh coming out of the book with ex you know pretty much detailing everything and I don't think you know like we could sit here and talk about all these little intricacies of what happened to me and my family and it would probably be 10 hours of talking because there's so much stuff that's involved but I'm going to put everything in there um any any idea when that's uh coming uh not yet um I'm just uh sort of still working on it um you know and I want to make sure it's done right yeah but yeah that's pretty much what's going on in the future um I'm you know I'm only like two months out of retirement so I took that uh you're still shooting Navy Chow right exactly yeah just trying to spend as much time with my family as I can yeah you know to me perspective uh perspective wise you know seeing that you're starting a foundation to uh you know mitigate similar circumstances happening to other people like you from from my standpoint says a lot you know and I think it's really cool that you're doing that oh yeah well that you know we we got so much support during this whole thing and the Navy Seals fund um which God bless them they you know raise money for us for my family during this whole time and we not giving that back with all the support that we've got would just be wrong and that's we want to pay it forward um there's actually uh and I won't get into too much details of it but there's three MARSOC Marines being charged with murder right now and they are going through the same corrupt process um that I went through and uh you know if people uh look into that um and see what's going on yeah um I would ask real quick too just going through all of this obviously you know you being in that position you know I think as any father husband you know grown ass man that's one thing for you to handle that kind of stuff how has this entire process impacted your family uh and and where are they now in terms of you know mentally in in relationship-wise I mean are you guys kind of back to normal or is it there's a kind of a it's a uh back to normal I think my wife joke it's a new normal but uh yeah we're my wife is probably the strongest person I've ever met in my life um I mean she she blows my mind like just how she handled this whole thing I mean she and I think everybody knows they saw her on the news she took the fight um no she was in the Navy [ __ ] pit bull out there same time yeah like my kids are just as strong um you know my they had obviously they were stressed out during this and there's there's always some implications afterwards um but like like I stayed in the beginning at this whole situation made us like that much stronger and I think that's what was really blowing the command or the prosecution's mind is like they kept trying to do stuff to us and we were like you're just making us stronger that's it and we I mean we are so tight right now that you know and thank God and we're we're just you know we feel blessed um that we are and we're we're continuing you know to stay sort of stay in the fight and like I said you know expose exactly what happened because it needs to be because the biggest thing is like we sort of described before I hadn't there was I had no pattern of any of this beforehand I'm like I had a pretty good reputation a pretty good solid career and this happened so this can happen to us this can happen to anybody and that should scare you uh and we want to make sure that doesn't happen to anybody else yeah no for sure here in in all of the details now and not having known a lot of them it is it's [ __ ] scary for sure um what what would you say um to the SEAL Teams on your behalf and how how do we as a community move forward from something like this you know and first off I I freaking love the community I love I love the guys the boys working right now all the sled dogs and platoons and the guys that are training like I would just say keep doing what you're doing I mean I had guys coming up to me um afterwards and they're just they're conflicted um I would just say you know trust your your leadership the pure platoon Chiefs um that they know what they're doing um and keep taking the fight to the enemy I the last thing I want is for my situation to make guys question on what what they're doing overseas you know and I think whether you like the president or not he has shown that he is backing the Warfighter on this and I hope that gives guys the confidence when they go over there that you know this country does have their back uh I think as far as repairing the community um I think it's going to take some time I think it's going to be a couple years of some pain but I do think there's they're starting to make the right steps Admiral green just got relieved I think he was a huge problem um so he actually got relieved and not uh I think they're doing it the uh polite way by saying he's stepping down a year early but it's pretty much getting relieved I think he lost confidence in the uh the guys um with his decisions I think that is the correct you know first measure to take and then uh you know I think the senior leadership should really take a you know strong hard look at themselves and how they're conducting business and how they're treating the guys who are out there doing the job um and it's just a it's going to be a top-down effort but I think we're gonna you know we'll be fine it's the teams yeah we bounce back from whatever yeah yeah amen well I'll tell you man it's uh it's been a [ __ ] absolute Delight having you on uh I can't thank you enough for for taking the time out of your schedule to come here and and tell your side of the story there's not an ounce of Doubt uh in my mind that that the the listeners are are going to both love and appreciate uh you know getting your your story told firsthand and cutting through all of the he said she said [ __ ] so um it's it's been great great talking with you I would love to have you back at some point when you get closer to the to the book and the foundation up and running and kind of talk about those things but I I can't thank you enough for coming and appreciate all that you've been through and all that you've done oh I appreciate it man thanks for having me out and it's been awesome yeah absolutely my pleasure uh with that I hope you guys have enjoyed I also hope that uh if you're still listening that you've uh entered into this conversation with an open mind you know to me that's an important element and it's hard to do sometimes I think when when we're so politically charged as a society through social media and regular media cable news Etc where we have these preconceived notions of what we think happened based on what somebody told us that has you know no intimate first-hand knowledge of of anything in a situation I think that's how something like this happens and so I hope that um that you know all of the the questions and uncertainties that people have had about your story uh and this this trial in this case from the get-go of how it could have happened and how it got to that point I hope that your questions are are largely answered I know mine are um you know and it puts me uh in a good good mental place and puts me at ease knowing that that you came out on the other side and that you kept fighting and and that ultimately the truth got out and things happened that the way they did so um [ __ ] good on you and again thanks uh thanks for coming appreciate it brother yeah as we wrap up here I want to take uh a final closing minute to thank our three awesome sponsors which is origin Labs maker of Jocko all of Jaco's products as well as boots pants geez and a host of other supplements great products that I use on a regular basis bubs Naturals which 10 of their sales goes to the Glen Doherty Memorial Foundation phenomenal collagen powder and MCT oil powder that I put in my coffee every single morning last but certainly not least Black Water ammunition uh lots of good products coming from from them in the future there are indeed development team has come out with some some really uh Kick-Ass Blaster food if you will with uh with rifle ammo pistol ammo uh and shotgun ammo as well as some uh some pretty gnarly 50 cal rounds but uh they've had a gracious donation to Eddie Gallagher's family as well as sending out some product and we're appreciative of all of our sponsors so thanks to all three of them again for supporting the podcast uh for you the listener as always thank you we could not continue to bring you this platform if it weren't for the hundreds of thousands of people that pay attention to my dumb ass so I appreciate you guys tuning in uh as always and uh until next time this is mic drop [Music]

Channel: Mike Ritland

Views: 631,198

Keywords: Eddie, Gallagher, Navy, SEAL, Mike, Ritland, Mike Drop, Podcast

Id: kZqQjYqR96E

Length: 176min 6sec (10566 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 13 2020