00;00;00;00 - 00;00;14;29UnknownWhere are your hosts, Aaron Backus and Jason Kindler? We like to sit down with our guests to hear their journey, their challenges, and how they impact the local community. So grab a seat. Tune in and let's get inspired by Jacksonville's everyday workforce. Welcome to Hometown Jacks.00;00;14;29 - 00;00;30;05UnknownMan, I'm excited about this one. My friend Tony coming in. Tony, compose. Thank you for being here, man. I appreciate that. Yeah, absolutely. On the podcast. And I'm excited about this episode because it's a topic, that a lot of us want to know more about.00;00;30;05 - 00;00;47;01UnknownAnd we're all proud of our veterans. Tony is a veteran and also in the reserve right now. Right? Yup. Do you call yourself a veteran while you're in the reserve or you're not a veteran yet? Do you can you can. Yeah. I just just call myself a reservist now. Okay. So you could be a veteran when you're in the active duty.00;00;47;04 - 00;01;08;05UnknownIt's more of an adjective, right? Yep. Okay. Well, we're proud of our veterans. And I'm dying to hear your journey on where you started, how you decided to get into it, what you've done, what you've seen. Some really cool questions. I have for you that might not sound the most, intelligent because I'm not a military guy, even though my haircut looks like it.00;01;08;21 - 00;01;26;18UnknownBut I'm dying to know, so. Yeah. Did it start? Did your family do you have a family history in the military? So I do a little bit, but not a direct family history, if you will, like. I didn't really grow up with it. Okay. Influence. Yeah. I just heard some stories about some of my great uncle. Okay.00;01;26;20 - 00;01;45;12UnknownYou know, that were in World War two. One actually a tanker. One of my, one of my uncles was actually a prisoner of war in Korea. Wow. Yeah. And so so you've talked to him like you've he's telling you about his experience? Well, I haven't really talked to him directly. Okay, okay. But I've been secondhand through my pap.00;01;45;13 - 00;02;04;05UnknownRight. You know, he's in a book and I can't recall the book right, right now, but he's, he's a little bit of his story is in there. Okay. Frankie. Frank. Pentagon. Okay. So very neat. So you had some some in your history, but no, like, my dad went into it. So I'm going into it. No, no, no, no, none of that.00;02;04;05 - 00;02;19;00UnknownSo yeah, just, you know, didn't really grow up with that as a, as an influence. I always, always admired it as a kid. You know, when, if you were to ask me what I was going to do. Yeah, I was probably five years old. My cousin would have told you he was going to be a dentist.00;02;19;00 - 00;02;38;06UnknownAnd he's actually a dentist right now. Oh. That's good. He knew right out of the gate. He knew. He knew pretty early. Yeah. And I always, I always was drawn to that. Most kids are about, you know, and and they've had an opportunity to do it, so. So I know you were a famous baseball player, so that started, what, before high school or in high school or what?00;02;38;07 - 00;02;57;10UnknownWell, famous is is a stretch. Yeah. But, yeah, I played my dad was a baseball player in college. Okay. And, and when he graduated, well, back up a little bit. My parents got married when they were in college. Okay. And, I was actually born across from the baseball. This is the hospital. And then the baseball field.00;02;57;14 - 00;03;15;21UnknownSo you're the one. It was destined. I thought you said you're born of the baseball. So that's another story. No, that's that is that's another story. But, Yeah. So I was destined for it. I guess I was, you know, my my dad and my mom, played big league softball, okay? You know? Okay. They played coed teams, so I was around that.00;03;15;21 - 00;03;34;04UnknownYes, anytime I got to do that. But dad also coached, okay, so I was constantly around it. My dad was big, big into it. When my pap is my grandfather, my dad, my dad's side. So was the military in mind before the baseball really ramped up in high school? No, I always thought my path was, you know, going to be like my dad's, you know?00;03;34;04 - 00;03;52;27UnknownYeah. It's like you, you put yourself in a position through hard work to to get, a scholarship. And. Yeah, ideally, I want to come down south. I had an opportunity to play like you, and I mean, all in. Yeah, but, at the time, that was my. That was my goal from probably ninth grade. Okay, okay.00;03;53;00 - 00;04;09;01UnknownOkay, then I didn't I didn't play any other sports after that. And what position were you. I was a shortstop in high school. Okay. And I played, mostly second base in college. Okay. I hopped over to shortstop for one year. Because. Because of some. Now, did you get a scholarship to West Point? So how did that work?00;04;09;03 - 00;04;26;21UnknownHow that actually ended? Was that your only choice made choice? Lots of choices or what? So I, I had a few choices. One of them, Methodist University in, in North Carolina, some, Western Carolina University, some of these doors started shutting a little bit. Right. And then, Duquesne University. Okay. Where I was gonna go. Okay.00;04;27;01 - 00;04;43;10UnknownAt a lot of my buddies, I played ball with those guys. Right? So I was excited to get in, but then I had an opportunity to. To visit West Point. Yes. So I check that out and just the quality of guys, and they were just pushing each other and. Right. And and just that team that's, that's why I want to be.00;04;43;10 - 00;05;01;22UnknownWell, that's a big leap though, from, from looking at normal colleges, playing ball and then playing ball at West Point. I mean, that's like, okay, I'm committed. I got to go in the middle. It's not just a four year, run. It's so, so, one of the things that they talk about and you'll see it now is that you could you could play, you could attend there.00;05;01;22 - 00;05;21;11UnknownYou don't have to play a sport that technically, although they say every kid that's an athlete, that's one of the things. That's right. Right. But, so every you could be there for two years and then leave before the first class of your, your junior year to opt out of your commitment. Interesting. Yeah. As soon as you commit to that, they call it affirmation day.00;05;21;13 - 00;05;39;20UnknownYeah, whatever. But, as soon as you commit to that, then if you get in trouble, you might be getting the ticket to at the time. We're deploying all the time, right. If you get in trouble to the extent where you kicked out, you're now a specialist in the Army. You're not you're no longer a cadet on on the path to be a second lieutenant.00;05;39;22 - 00;05;56;11UnknownOkay. You go you go into the army, and usually they pick. From what? From what we were told and what I've seen. They pick the first deploying unit that they can fit. Right. That's where you're going. Well, explain that to me though. So you go to West Point. Now West Point's in upstate New York. Yep. Cold. They're not upstate in New York.00;05;56;11 - 00;06;09;26UnknownIt's north of the hut. It's north of New York City. About an hour and 15 minutes. Okay, okay. Typically pretty cold south of Poughkeepsie. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, off of the Hudson River. So if you're going to West Point, you're career path as an officer, right?00;06;09;26 - 00;06;17;10UnknownSo explain to me what the difference between an officer is really and regular enlisted and like how that terminology works.00;06;17;13 - 00;06;38;29UnknownYeah. So you take a from a standpoint of responsibility, you take a different. Okay. So there's a, there's a different oath. And we'll go off the cuff here. Yeah, in front of me. But there's a different oath to, to, to uphold, uphold the Constitution, right. And obey the, the officers appointed over you or. No, that would be the president, United States.00;06;38;29 - 00;07;05;04UnknownOkay. Right. And really, let me back that up. You are taking an oath to the Constitution, okay? That's what it is. And then for, for an enlisted and then noncommissioned officer, which is a promoted, enlisted, you know, service member, they are taking an oath to uphold the orders of the officers appointed over. Interestingly. Right. So as a as an officer, a commissioned officer, you act on behalf of the executive branch.00;07;05;04 - 00;07;14;08UnknownOkay. Basically, and so you have a certain responsibility to. So it's all like hierarchy is being established right out of the gate.00;07;14;08 - 00;07;27;14UnknownIt doesn't necessarily mean that you mean may or may not see action because enlisted an officer. See action. Right. That's the same thing okay. It has nothing to do with that. It has to do with chain of command or level of responsibility.00;07;27;14 - 00;07;48;15UnknownRight. You know who who's got the authority, right. You know. So so how was, how was the four years at West Point? Was it a blur really hard. It was an absolute blur. I look back and and, try to remember remember some things. I was nose down just trying to stay afloat with grades. Yeah. And then, you know, playing the Division one sport there.00;07;48;20 - 00;08;09;01UnknownYeah, it's it was, it was the plus plus your military duties. Yeah. On top of that. Yeah. Not a lot of sleeping in, No, man, I think I think sleeping in was 615. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Yeah. 615 in the morning. Uhhuh. And even on the weekend, whenever the football teams went in the fall, football teams playing, there's a parade.00;08;09;03 - 00;08;28;06UnknownYeah. If it's a home game. Right. There's a parade there and they're starting that and they're rattling their stuff. The drums are getting ready. All the the bands getting so it's loud. Everything's about the. Yes. So like I'm thinking like like is your room have to be spick and span. Your clothes have to be perfect. Your bed has to be perfect.00;08;28;06 - 00;08;48;14UnknownLike all that's true, right? Actually, yes. There's a couple different ways they want you to make your bed. Okay. They tell you, but there's this thing called a green girl. Okay, I think I might still. That's what I like here. The inside information is coming out. Green girl is a comforter. Okay. A good green comforter. Yeah.00;08;48;17 - 00;09;08;07UnknownAnd, and, you know, at the time, I think that obviously got the name because women and go there was a right. Right. It had been there for a while. I don't even know where that came from. But so you go back to athletics. There's and this is another insider thing. Yeah. There's, course squatters, which are NCAA Division one players.00;09;08;07 - 00;09;29;23UnknownOkay. Football, baseball. Basketball. Right. Lacrosse. Right. Which they have a good team, too. Right. And then you have the sluggers. Okay. I've heard that. I feel like that's been in a movie or. Yeah, but the slugger is actually an acronym and that stands for Sleeps Under Green Girl often. Okay, okay. Green girl, that's the comforter. That's on our bed.00;09;29;24 - 00;09;46;28UnknownOkay. Well goes. You know I had experience with that. Had some roommates that I go to. I get a baseball at like 215 and that we get out right before dinner. Yeah. And I come back and I might have seen him before his last classes. I was or he he came back after his last class. I'd come back after baseball after dinner.00;09;46;28 - 00;10;03;13UnknownYeah. Still on the same spot. Yeah. So they got to do a little bit more sleep and then. Yeah. Then the athletes. Yeah. I mean it depends. You can get into different clubs. There's an enormous amount of clubs. Right. There's I mean you name it really there's combat weapons team. Right. You might be interested in that. It's a lot of the Delta Force guys.00;10;03;15 - 00;10;23;26UnknownIt's Swat team guys. We get cross train from people all over the place. Now, does, do you go and, like, if you go to West Point and you're going to be an officer after four years, is there different types of officers that come out, or are you all basically the same officer you can? Like I mentioned before, if I went to U and F and played baseball, I want to go ROTC.00;10;23;26 - 00;10;51;20UnknownI would be the same rank, same everything. Interesting. Second Lieutenant okay, as I was at West Point. Now, the way that they do it also kind of a neat fact is that they base the cohort, your group on the date that the West Point class, commissions. Okay. So we graduated May 23rd, 2009. Okay. And so every officer that was that graduated there and got commissioned, at like maybe UNF, right.00;10;51;23 - 00;11;04;16UnknownFlorida State, right. If they graduated like May 2nd. Yeah. For whatever reason, their commission date would be May 23rd. Okay. Because it's they just to pull them all their interest off of that. Like that doesn't see, I00;11;04;16 - 00;11;12;01Unknowndon't understand the way if you go to four years West Point versus, ROTC, it feels like West Point would have a little bit more weight.00;11;12;02 - 00;11;32;25UnknownNo, no, it does it. You can even go green to gold and you're still a second with. So guys that have spent ten years and they go, finish there, finish their degree or get their degree in the commission. Same, same. Okay. No, but what you get there is is a certain level of like a, like a network once you, once you start going through the, through the ranks and through career.00;11;32;26 - 00;11;48;08UnknownRight. And I think their goal really is not just to produce second lieutenants, but to produce leaders of the nation and general officers. Right. So what's the difference? What's the difference between a second lieutenant and a first lieutenant? I mean, what how does that work? And just just the, the color of the bar.00;11;48;08 - 00;11;53;05UnknownOkay. Okay, so you're answering to the first lieutenant is the second, not really.00;11;53;06 - 00;12;11;16UnknownOkay. Here's. Okay, here's. And so you have, you know, a second lieutenant, first lieutenant. Okay. And then the captain's really, really the one the the, the you start. Okay? Okay. Have a first lieutenant locks up a second lieutenant. That's just it's not good. It's not. It's not. You know, captain finds out about it. He's not going.00;12;11;17 - 00;12;32;02UnknownYeah, yeah. That's interesting. That's interesting. Well, let's see. Deserved it. That's really interesting. So four years West Point, you're graduating. Do you, do you have a pic of where you're going I how do you decide that next. Yeah we so that was all merit based okay. Off of your so is your branch okay. And so that's another thing too.00;12;32;02 - 00;12;55;02UnknownSo you get your branch first. So you get you to all these different branches. There was, I think at the time 14. So what were 15 one, three branches, meaning like Army, Navy. No, no. Okay. So infantry armor. Got it. You know, aviation, okay. Medical service corps, military intelligence engineers, all the different departments, more functions. Right.00;12;56;12 - 00;13;17;00UnknownSo you get to rank those from one to N, and then, you know, based off of where you are class rank wise, you could also up to, to bump yourself up higher. Yeah. To really get what you want. Right. You can trade because when you, when you graduate, you will have five active years. Okay. In three reserve years, most, most other commissioning sources.00;13;17;00 - 00;13;37;03UnknownIt's four and four okay okay. Right. So is that pretty much the same way it is today? Yeah. Interesting. And I, I, I traded my three years of reserve to active so that I can get armor. Okay. So you were eight right out of the gate. You committed to eight? Yeah. What? What drove you to armor?00;13;37;03 - 00;13;55;18UnknownAnd what is armor? I'm assuming in a tank. In a tank? Yeah, I actually wanted to. Yeah, I actually wanted. I like the cavalry mission, so. Yes. And, that's reconnaissance, security stuff. And that's what I ended up doing. Through most of my career, I was a my father in law calls me a tankless tanker, okay? Because I never was on a tank.00;13;55;20 - 00;14;13;29UnknownOkay, okay. Yeah. So on the basic course, you get to do that, you get to drive tanks, you get to shoot them, you get to do all that. Right? And then depends on your unit, what platform they're on. Okay. And I, I had never been on a unit that was armor, okay? I was, I was kind of on an island because of the armor guys.00;14;13;29 - 00;14;34;17UnknownSo there's an infantry in armor? Yeah. They kind of in the same division. They're both. They're both combat arms and both. Yeah, they're both, you know, largely, you know, going to be doing the majority of the, the other work in a, in a combat, like direct action. Okay. Okay. So there's all these animosity there.00;14;34;17 - 00;14;50;22UnknownSo. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. Rivalry, I get that. But the infantry guys look at me and they know I'm an armor guy. And the armor guys look, I mean, yeah, he look like an infantryman because all my badges and tabs and stuff, and. Yeah, I was on my own little island. Oh, man. Special from the beginning. No, not special, not special.00;14;50;24 - 00;15;13;09UnknownJust. Yeah. Not understood. Yes. Right, right. So you graduate West Point, you say I want armor upgrade and then I then, you know, you have eight years. Yep. Okay. So take me step one. You literally graduate. You sign up for eight years. Where do you go next? What do you do so you can, based off of your report date for your basic officer leader course.00;15;13;19 - 00;15;34;04UnknownYou've got to eat some time. You got some leave. You can do 60 days of leave. Okay. Up to. Okay. And in preparation for your, for your report date for your basic course. Okay. So if it's later than that, then they're going to send you to do something to eat that time up. Right. And so like I went and what did I do.00;15;34;11 - 00;15;56;27UnknownSo giving you a little time off after you graduate to relax and everything in 68, you got a report. It's time for action. Yep, yep. When you say basic basic training. No, it's not basic training because technically the commissioning source puts you through that in one way, shape or form. Okay, okay. When you say that. And so when I mentioned the branches of the armor signal that they have their own basic, officer leader courses, okay.00;15;56;28 - 00;16;11;07UnknownInto that. Okay. Yeah. So so you did in there. So, you know, from there and then you get you graduate that okay. You know, do well and then you can go to some additional schools if it lines up with, with what you got going on. Right at00;16;11;07 - 00;16;17;17Unknownthe time when I graduated, in the time my cohort was doing this, everybody knew they were going to get deployed.00;16;17;17 - 00;16;34;11UnknownIt's just a matter of when. And so sometimes, you know, you get to your unit and they'd be like, hey, congratulations, nobody's here. You're getting on a bird and you're going to meet your your unit downrange and be prepared. You're probably in a platoon. And for some guys, would they just came back, right. So you'd have a whole train up.00;16;34;11 - 00;16;53;00UnknownRight. But it so as a as a mix. But you knew when you got to your units likely going to be, probably like 12 months or less, that you were going somewhere. And that was where kind of the state of affairs, where the world was at that. Yeah. I mean, we were we were still in Iraq and we were still in Afghanistan at the same time.00;16;53;01 - 00;17;07;24UnknownOkay. Okay. So was that before we got Saddam or was, that was it was after that. After that was the, I think the new Dawn mission when we were right before the new Dawn mission, we were trying to pull all that stuff out of. Yeah, of Iraq and. Yeah. And give it to the Iraqis. Yeah,00;17;07;24 - 00;17;08;09Unknownyeah.00;17;08;16 - 00;17;28;10UnknownSo you did that. So what? I'm trying to. I'm trying to get to the point where you, like, knew you were headed off to deployment, like. Yeah. How did that where did that that time frame go. You know, there's a there's a chart out there that, that you kind of get privy to. Yeah. You can get that based off of your access.00;17;28;14 - 00;17;48;12UnknownRight. Yeah. You can get out some awareness. But I knew I knew a couple months after I got to my unit that you were headed out for sure. But, I mean, I heard rumors before that. Yeah, but then you hear for sure that you're going, pretty pretty shortly after I, I would is it true that most would you want to write me.00;17;48;14 - 00;18;11;23UnknownMost people want to. That was the that was the most, at least on not the family side, but the, the the the work side. Yes. The most fulfilling time that I had as a as a combat platoon leader in a deployment. Okay. You get the focus on that. Like you know when you're back, back home, there's a lot of administrative distractions.00;18;11;23 - 00;18;31;07UnknownThere's, there's a lot of family requirements which is, is good. It's, but as far as the, the focus of the mission fulfillment. Well I would imagine, you know, not being in the military, it's, I a similar to being in a fraternity for four years. You become very close with the guys. Is that kind of right for sure?00;18;31;07 - 00;18;48;06UnknownYeah. Yeah. You know, you got, you know, my wife is, you know, she, she was an Army brat. So she all her life, all her childhood, she was moving everywhere, right? So she had a bunch of people that she knew. And it's a the military is often a family business, right? There's a lot of people there.00;18;48;06 - 00;19;06;03UnknownSo there are generational tours that that serve. And sure, a lot of the kids that she grew up with and serve themselves, and so we already had this ready made network right of people pretty much any place that we wanted to go. Right? See some people that she hadn't seen in a while and then, you know, just have a good time.00;19;06;05 - 00;19;26;10UnknownSo speaking of your wife, where did she fit in to the with where you did you know her while you were in West Point? Yeah. We, we met Thanksgiving of my first year with Jake called senior year. They called first senior year. Senior year at West Point. Okay. So we met in Carlisle when I was visit family.00;19;26;10 - 00;19;44;16UnknownShe was visiting her family. Okay. That's that's how we met. Okay. And she always tells me to tell the story. Right. So. Well yeah. Yeah. Well that's a specific to obviously work. Yeah. That's where. And then we, we started dating. She was coming from the baseball game. Yeah. You got to see some of that. So she was local to to New York in that area.00;19;44;16 - 00;20;07;02UnknownShe wasn't actually so traveled the state of Georgia okay. And so but in the beginning of the season, like right now, you, these northern teams will start coming down. Okay. Gotcha, gotcha. That's okay. So she was it was a short drive. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Right. Right, right. So you're doing that and you're dating. And do you guys get married before you get deployed?00;20;07;04 - 00;20;25;03UnknownWe did. We did. We ended up just made sense. So for a lot of military and military couples that decide to they want to get married, they just go to the courthouse and get justice of the peace. Right. Some some were open about it. So yeah. Right. Right, right. But yeah, we were we were pretty open about it.00;20;25;03 - 00;20;43;21UnknownSo we called our actual wedding ceremony, a reenactment, right? Right, right. That's funny. Yeah. So, yeah, we we did that just because it made sense for the. Well, when you say it makes sense to people that don't know, like, it's just like, yeah. So I'm going to be gone. Could be gone for a year, year and a half or whatever.00;20;43;23 - 00;21;05;07UnknownYeah. That's that's that's speed up the decision. Exactly. You know, so we, we knew we wanted to be be together and, and when you have an impending potential deployment, you knew it's going to happen. Right. And things just situation makes you makes decisions. Yeah. Quicker. Absolutely. The the healthcare aspect of it. Yes. The basic allowance for housing but bump right.00;21;05;07 - 00;21;29;15UnknownPurchase a house. Right. So that that's right. Oh that's awesome. That's awesome. So tell me about your first deployment. Where'd you go? RC East, what we called it, regional Command East. It's coast Patea and Petco. They called PTK. Okay. There's a lot of different words for different place, but those are provinces. It's it's eastern, so it's really close to Pakistan.00;21;29;22 - 00;21;31;07UnknownOkay. On the coast? Yeah.00;21;31;07 - 00;21;49;01UnknownAre you familiar with Lone Survivor in that? Yes. Yes. Yep yep. Nuts. Oh, that was all right. Well okay. There was a little bit further west, but okay. Right there. Okay. Was about where I don't I'm not an expert in my geography, but I'm thinking that the. You were on the coast there, that kind of where you know, so coast.00;21;49;01 - 00;22;10;22UnknownWhen I say coast, it's, it's it's a province. Got it. Okay, okay. If you watch Rambo. Yeah. That's where he drove the tank. Okay. And of course. But, so, yeah, that's, that's where we were. It's very, very much the Wild West. It was, but that's Pakistan, which is supposed to be our ally at that point.00;22;10;22 - 00;22;14;17UnknownOr not really. Yeah. Yeah, right.00;22;14;17 - 00;22;31;14UnknownNot really. So kind of a staging point to go. There's a lot of, you know, I've heard I've had general officers come in and, and, and speak on that in an open forum with, you know, Pakistani officers in the, in the crowd got a little tenuous. Yeah, yeah. When you called it out.00;22;31;14 - 00;22;52;12UnknownBut I mean, we knew that we knew that the enemy is infiltrating from Pakistan to Afghanistan. Oh, what? I didn't really recognize the border. There's a lot of. There's this tribe called the coochie tribe. Yeah. Ku chai. Right? Yeah. And they just went where they needed. Oftentimes they would they would go to different times of the year that made sense for them, for their livestock.00;22;52;13 - 00;23;12;27UnknownYeah. And certain times of the year, it was tough to get around anywhere because you have tiny roads that collapse very easily. And they have a wadi that if it started raining, it goes from three feet to ten. Interesting. And so there's really only one route. And so and then the one route could be dangerous because everybody knows it's the one route.00;23;12;27 - 00;23;32;15UnknownYep. Right. Right. Yeah. So what this talk about like like what what was your standard firearm? Did you have an M16? I mean, did you have a pistol? Like what? What is. Yeah. At that time, the M16s were largely phased out, except for the Marines. Okay. We call them muskets. Okay. Okay, okay. So we I used their success.00;23;32;15 - 00;23;52;07UnknownNo, no, no. So we, we had enforcers and back then those before they upgraded them to the, fully automatic. Okay. They were fully automatic, I think in Vietnam. They brought it, brought them down to three, burst. And then it became fully automatic again recently. Okay. But, yeah, that's the, the M4. Does it kind of look like an M16 now?00;23;52;07 - 00;24;15;18UnknownLike. Yeah, it's shorter. Okay. The shorter you can collapse the the bad stuff. Yeah, but. Yeah. M4, the nine mil Beretta. Okay. That, myself, my medic, and I think level 14. Sergeant, if we had one for I would would wear. Right. But I was in a lot of, you know, our primary mission, our security was always important, but our primary mission was to help the people.00;24;16;10 - 00;24;37;09UnknownHelp, you know, govern themselves. Right. In retrospect, there probably be a lot of there's I'm sure there has been a lot of writing about this, but I think we tried to, overlay our way of doing. Right, right, right on to a place that had their own personal right. Right. And it made it very difficult. But but we gave it a we gave it a shot.00;24;37;16 - 00;24;59;15UnknownReally, the goal was there to, to hand it over to the Afghans. And to make it, make it in a suitable place for them for security had set them up for success. So we, we had been training them to, for supply chain logistics. Right, right. Everything like that, not just tactics. Right. You know, how do you if your Humvee brakes or whatever.00;24;59;15 - 00;25;20;03UnknownRight. How you get in that part. Right. Right. Oftentimes it would take a while and they didn't really have a process for that. So it wasn't just the combat missions. It was, you know, a holistic. So I'm envisioning kind of desert atmosphere. And you're in a kind of a tent city that's surrounded by, oh, some sort of a wall.00;25;20;03 - 00;25;39;13UnknownI mean, I'm thinking of what I see from this. Yeah, it's it's, so we call them Hesco barriers. Okay? And sometimes you have a big, big concrete Jersey or Texas barriers. Right. But hesco barriers where they collapse and you get open them up and you just get a a back, backhoe and just dump sand. And I don't think there's rocks or whatever in there.00;25;39;15 - 00;26;00;26UnknownThe terrain was eerily similar to the National Training Center. For where? In California. Right. And when I spent a little bit of time in Arizona, when you go to Arizona, Tulsa. Or is it Tucson? Yeah, Tucson. Right around that area. Yeah, it was almost similar. Yeah, that's what it was. It was very dry, a lot of shale.00;26;01;24 - 00;26;27;21UnknownYou know, sparse vegetation, red, you know, mostly brown. So. So when you're walking around and you always have your firearm os the rifle and the pistol. Yeah. Even if I go to the gym. No, I mean, some even. You're on on the, you know, you're can't I just usually carry my sidearm. Right. Okay. Yeah. So. But yeah, you're at the gym, you're the, the CP, which is the command post.00;26;27;24 - 00;26;46;13UnknownYeah. Anything you need to do for planning and debriefing. Right. You go to the, the chow hall, right? Food. Right. Any, anywhere. You're you're around, you're you're going to you're going to be rocking something. Now was where you learned how to use firearms. Was that the training? Right after West Point or were you learning that during this point?00;26;46;15 - 00;27;07;06UnknownYeah. So the commissioning source will teach you how to do that. Okay. And so we used M-16s. Yeah, yeah. And the old we had, we had the old Vietnam, gear at the time. Which I'm still using the rucksack from, like the Vietnam era, which is your is your gear or your uniform hot?00;27;07;08 - 00;27;25;14UnknownI mean, or is it breathable with the hot, humid air or. You have to wear the. It's gotten a lot better. They've. Yeah, they've, they've got it to wear. They've got these little, little plastic pieces and like, almost like a brush bristle. And then a piece of like a netting. So it'll keep it away from your body.00;27;25;14 - 00;27;42;23UnknownBut at the time it would just press on to you. Yeah. And you're sweating all the time. Yeah. It's, it's hot. Right, right. Yeah. Right. What's your. So you said there's a gym like you're literally trying to maintain a normal schedule of working out eating and then going on, a mission, then coming back, that sort of thing.00;27;42;27 - 00;27;59;25UnknownYeah. You know, that's how a lot of us decompress. Decompress. Got some anger or whatever. And and also to this really, you know, you got you got a job to do, you got a little bit of downtime and then a lot of guys, you know, you have the thousand pound club competition if you want to do that.00;27;59;25 - 00;28;23;10UnknownRight. Stuff like that. Right. Just try to get try to get big and make your, make your uniform fit a little tighter. Hat. Can you communicate with home regularly? Yeah you can. We had we had access at that time. We had access to Wi-Fi was it was intermittent. They would if something bad were to happen. In an effort to just squash any communication.00;28;23;10 - 00;28;44;09UnknownYou get it. Get ahead of a notification. Right. They would blackout. Right. Okay. But yeah, that, so is there a level in this deployment where you were in this camp? Always a level of paranoia, like something's going to happen or you this this place was relatively safe or what? I mean, you're you're at a place where it's a big target.00;28;44;09 - 00;29;04;22UnknownSo juicy targets we got we got incoming mortars and rockets and stuff like that. So that happened at this place. Okay. Interesting. Yeah. So sometimes the mortars would come in and just be raining. Raining rocks down, right? Yeah. I can remember sleeping and sleeping in the we call it the beehive. It's like, basically just right, right, right, right.00;29;05;00 - 00;29;28;23UnknownWith, with, with, Kygo, split units, right to, to heat and cool and then dividers for guys bunks and stuff. Right. And and I was in a bit of a boom. And then the twins answered, I, I think it's income. No, it's fine. And then and then the booms got a little bit louder. Right. Oh, shit.00;29;28;26 - 00;29;49;15UnknownRight, right, right. So, well, but a mortar is basically, like a propelled grenade that lands and then. Yeah, I mean, so it's hitting something. It's not exploding in the air, is it? You can set it to do that, I believe, but we, the mortars that they were shooting. Yeah. The mortars. Oh shoot. Shoot. Pretty high angle.00;29;49;28 - 00;30;11;06UnknownAnd let's, let's, let's trajectory for. And the blast will actually come back okay. Whereas so if you're doing a that's interesting thing blast analysis. And you look at there's a, there's a you know it's a mortar right. And you see a blast with the if the dirt's going that way. That's the direction it came from.00;30;11;07 - 00;30;34;15UnknownRight. Interesting. Right. And if it were a artillery piece, it explodes here and the dirt goes that way. So that, that that's where it is. There much defense that you can do over more with this. They had this the system called the LCM or. Okay. Shoot what it stands for. It's a radar system. Okay. Well, it would it would be able to identify the point of origin and then estimate point of impact.00;30;34;18 - 00;30;59;05UnknownAnd so with that data, you can even potentially get some fire back there and some people. Yeah. And and and find these guys. Yeah. Yeah. They were wiring in a lot of different ways to, to do things. They would they would have just things set up to where it'd be a timer, on a, on an alarm or just a rudimentary water timer.00;30;59;05 - 00;31;18;27UnknownThey would, they would have something drip, drip, drip, drip until it's heavy enough to, to set something down, to ignite it, right, to initiate it. And so they could set it up right. And then they're gone. Right. Right. Hour or two hours. Right. Right, right. And, Interesting. So with that, your accuracy is pretty sparse. Right? Okay. I've got a lucky shot.00;31;18;27 - 00;31;35;28UnknownI got you. So how long are you in this deployment in Pakistan? Essentially, no, that was a we were in western Pakistan. That was in Afghanistan. Okay. So that we were at a place called Camp Clarke. Yeah. Coast. So I was there for about four months. Okay. And it Vinnie was born. Oh okay. Okay. We didn't expect him to be born.00;31;35;28 - 00;31;56;22UnknownBaby was born. And, at 28 weeks. Okay. Three months early. Okay. And, I was a tough to Kelly. And initially, I was just going to wait until we got him out of that. And then Nikki, but, you know, she wasn't feeling well, right? And then just to talk to my, my, my boss, and he's like, let's go.00;31;56;23 - 00;32;16;05UnknownRight. So I went stay there for four months. Took care of the brought Vinny back home. Kelly was is in a good spot. Yeah. And went back interesting. So we're back. But this time I went to a short period of time the same place. Okay. But we had a another unit that was a little further west place called Kabul.00;32;16;07 - 00;32;34;17UnknownOkay. And that's where I was a combat outpost. Wilderness. Okay. Okay. So that's where I was for the second, the last portion. So going back to what come back means, I mean, it's not as simple as just running down to the airport and coming back. Right? I'm assuming it's a pretty extensive journey, like going to the airport like I was.00;32;34;23 - 00;32;57;27UnknownYou have to go to Germany first and then come to us. Is that how it works? Yeah, there's a staging bases. Okay. Send you to. Okay. My weapon was still over downrange. I didn't I didn't redeploy with a weapon, so it was actually pretty easy to get. Okay, okay. So I think I just took commercial air to somewhere, and then I and I went to Kyrgyzstan, which is which is the intermediate base.00;32;57;27 - 00;33;20;17UnknownAnd then that's where they process you in, and, and they get you on a flight to Bagram. Okay. And then, then back to my interesting, interesting. What do you do with your gun? Why you come back. Do you, hold them. They, they have, lockers for it. Okay. They have lockers for it. You just you leave it there is it pretty much assumed if you're having a child, that you have the option to go back?00;33;20;19 - 00;33;41;04UnknownIs that a pretty normal expectations? It is a, it's mission dependent. Right. But they a lot of, it's we try our best to get guys back, right, right, right. We had in my case, there was there was some backfill. There was a couple lieutenants they were able to backfill. So okay okay. So let's talk about that.00;33;41;04 - 00;34;07;01UnknownThe forward base that you went to next. So we're in that was deeper. And that was really close to where actually bin laden when they almost got him, they, he scooted that right out of that area. Okay. And it's very close to the top of the car where the lone survivor happened. Okay. And so that that was a place that was a place we got and we got indirect fire all the time.00;34;07;01 - 00;34;25;29UnknownInteresting. It was right off of the road. Okay. It wasn't an awesome spot. I was actually an old Soviet base. Okay. That we repurposed. Okay. So heightened, more heightened awareness there than where you were before. Yeah. You know, my, when I, when I got in there, my, my first sergeant, I was the XO for the. So I was a platoon leader.00;34;25;29 - 00;34;49;03UnknownAnd then I went home to take care of the kiddo and and Kelly. And then I came back and went a little time and stuff, and then I got, executive officer position was the second command. So we in charge of computers and another one called Daisy, smaller one. That was one platoon element. And how many people are is that, that you're in charge of was, about that time?00;34;49;03 - 00;35;11;24UnknownIt was about 150. Wow. Wow. 150 people. But, you know, it was. But are you taking the place of somebody who left and then you fill in the charge? My job there was basically managing logistics. Okay? Ensure that the base was running, make sure we got, the other things. We need the fuels. Right. Yeah. The food's coming in right personnel wise.00;35;11;24 - 00;35;33;09UnknownOkay. All the widgets are accounted for, right? Like that. Right. And so that was the that's what's always amazed me about the military is that it seemed like the greatest planners and organizers, like there ever is just, strategic fill in the logistics of everything, like, you know, that's where that's where the the professionals are, are separated.00;35;33;09 - 00;35;52;26UnknownRight? Right. Six. That's a lot of a combat arms. Guys are willing to to admit it as much, but but I see it. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So you're at this base. So have did you ever go out on a mission where. Yeah. So we had to go up to DC to go check on those guys and get the we call inventory.00;35;52;26 - 00;36;12;06UnknownSo we I mean, property was everywhere. When you're in the middle of a fight, and you're, you're constantly doing, doing stuff. You guys are out there, shooting up the bad guys. Yeah. You know, sometimes, you know, accountability is is great. And, but the organization sometimes gets to the wayside and some of the, some of the items you don't need as much.00;36;12;06 - 00;36;28;06UnknownRight. So some of the property was it was a challenge to find it all, to find it and get into the right place and things just to make sure it was set up for the next unit that's coming in. So whatever they sign for everything, they know where it is. Okay. That's good. That was a large part of what I did when I came back.00;36;28;06 - 00;36;49;19UnknownIs getting prepared for the for the rip. Okay. So relief in place and you were I'm assuming you're wearing bulletproof vest all the time there, right. No, no, I'm on the base now. Kind of like like I said, when I first got there, my first, my first sergeant was talking to me about, he's like, all right, well, the the rockets and mortars usually come from that.00;36;49;19 - 00;37;08;19UnknownReally. Okay. And there's the, there's the chow hall. This is our CP. There's a little walkway here. What you want to do is go get down. Just take it. Take a quick peek, take another peek and then walk across because these frigging rockets come right down this alley all the time. You talk about that so nonchalant. You know, it's, you just got to.00;37;08;22 - 00;37;26;21UnknownYou just got to. You got to get used to it a certain thing. You get a turn off in your brain. I remember when I was a platoon leader, that was the. That was one of the missions, you recall at 525. So, yeah, five meters around, and then you look 25m around and you step out and there's no thing.00;37;26;21 - 00;37;44;13UnknownAnd then we started this guy started getting into some fights here and there. They started things started to happen. And you're like, all right, you really look right. What do you mean? Like for bombs they plant in the ground or something? Yeah, a lot of times. Then if you set a pattern they're going to identify that. Right. They're going to set a pressure plated bomb right there.00;37;44;14 - 00;38;03;27UnknownWe they're likely going right out. Right. Or they may set an obstacle. And they know. Well, these guys usually stop about 50m out and then they get this, their spacings about 25 to 50m. And so I'm going to set these up. So when you're looking around like all right well I can't see anything. Here we go.00;38;03;27 - 00;38;21;16UnknownStep look good. All right. So this thing you're talking about that's pretty calm, but I'm assuming that's got to be pretty excruciating. What was a certain switch? That was the time that I can remember. The switch was just. I got a job to do, I can't. Yeah, I do the best I can with looking around and. Right we.00;38;21;19 - 00;38;36;20UnknownSo yeah. Yeah. If it's my time is my turn. Right. And that's a lot of people. And there's a band of brothers seen Lieutenant Spears. It was. I love Band of Brothers. So Lieutenant Spears comes out and there's a lot of Hollywood is when they're brothers. Yeah, I think they do a really good job. Oh, they did?00;38;36;20 - 00;38;56;18UnknownYeah. But, he comes out and the good guys are in the foxhole, and they look a little scared. And he's. He's looking at him. He's like, what's what's wrong? And he's like, how do you do it or something or whatever the exchange was. His response was, problem is that you think you're still alive. You're dead. Right? You just got accepted it.00;38;56;20 - 00;39;21;25UnknownI remember that, but how true that is. Interesting. Whether or not people have that, that thought, that clear thought or not, that's that's the mental shift that you have, right? Right, right, right. It's the mental shift. Yeah. Wow. In a lot of cases, it's pretty heavy. Yeah. So you you fired your arms at enemy. Yeah. So you asked about, officers and enlisted.00;39;21;25 - 00;39;44;24UnknownWhen you're training up, when you go through the schoolhouse, they say if you're if you are firing your gun, you're doing it wrong. And, and so that's a lot of us, we're kind of bred in because we have so many people with us that that do that. And we our job is to coordinate. Our job is to is to give commands and bring in aircraft and assets to be able to get the thing done.00;39;44;26 - 00;40;05;13UnknownThe thinkers you're you're you need to be the thinker. Why? Things are the clear, the clear thinker without any distractions. Oh my guy shouldn't be worrying about what I need to line up and right is this where's this guy? Like, maybe get behind cover. There's a guy over there, you know, 12:00, 400m. Yeah. You got to identify.00;40;05;20 - 00;40;36;08UnknownYeah, whatever. Yeah. So that's. But yeah, I did fire it a few times, and a lot of times for me, it was was, was the security, you know, we got into a little bit of a fight and, and, you know, saw some, saw some guys, and we were trying to move from one place to cover to another and I was on the radio and things, and, and, you know, one of my my first port officer, I wanted him to move.00;40;36;10 - 00;40;58;28UnknownSo I just like we normally do a cover, and I just set a bunch of rounds and set, and he started firing me. Yeah, but, Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's. We had mortars with us, handheld orders on the unit. So there's different ways to do mortars. There's, I think, you know, the stand, the distance, this typical one.00;40;58;28 - 00;41;19;28UnknownThere's different sizes 121. Yeah. And then 81 and then you have a 60. Okay. So the 60 millimeter mortar can be used directly or you can have a bipod. Okay. So we because of the nature of we dismounted and things and it was easier we had we had a during way lay you set it down. You have the little thing.00;41;19;28 - 00;41;43;23UnknownYeah. And and yeah this is one of those times where I was directing the interest fire on that and now I, I now I understand if you ever listen to, you know, Sean Ryan, I don't know if you've heard of that. I mean, he's got a podcast. I mean, he's ex-military and his episodes go three hours. Now I understand why he's military guys, man, you could like, I'm just eating it up.00;41;43;25 - 00;42;04;06UnknownThe guy. That guy has, they way more intense experience that I'm not even going to sniff him. Right. Those guys. Do you know, I've got to. I got to play around and do some pretty fun stuff with those guys. We're we're just about right, right? Right, right. Yeah. So let's fast forward. So, when did trial number two come?00;42;04;06 - 00;42;28;24UnknownWhere you where you deployed then to, or were you back? No, we were we were back. So I got to see child number two and three. I got to see Leo. Okay. And Andrew. Okay. So he was. But you were still active. Both of them. Right? Okay. Yeah. So he was born in 2013. Okay. Yep. So that was, we were still at Fort Benning, so there's, there's a periods of time in officers.00;42;28;24 - 00;42;51;10UnknownThere's like cycles that they go through in like, mini reunions, if you will. Right. And so I just we just talked about go and do two things fighting bad guys do that and then come back. And then you go to the next higher level education. Feldman or my case, it was maneuver captain's career course. We went there at Fort Benning and we decided to to, take it.00;42;51;11 - 00;43;12;10UnknownI took an opportunity there where there was a a master's degree in producing. Okay. So I stayed an extra six months to finish that and then know what the Ranger school or the airborne school want to have. Leaders course. So there was a lot of schools. Yeah. So in the whole time that I was down there, we had we had Leo and he was born right before I went to Ranger school.00;43;12;10 - 00;43;32;11UnknownOkay. And so the what's interesting to me is that there's a lot of continued learning while you're in the military. There's probably a stigma out there that they just work with Huck and Huck and heavyweight around do. And you don't know, like he does. Like, I don't know, but like to me, it's like you're in a continual process of education and higher learning and things along.00;43;32;11 - 00;43;49;04UnknownThose are really is a profession. Yeah. We invest a lot of money as a country into it. Yeah. There's a lot of thought that goes into how applied military power and in a very precise way and, and, and mass and do it safely and do it well. How you get religious. I mean, there's a lot that goes into it.00;43;49;10 - 00;44;09;05UnknownWe're out of all the places you've been, what stands out in your mind like, wow, that was an amazing place. So actually the the place where we had, Julie, which is the same place, where we had Leo. So we went we were at Fort Benning and went to Fort Bragg, 82nd Airborne Division, and we went I went to Iraq.00;44;09;05 - 00;44;28;27UnknownI came back, and then I went back that we we got an opportunity to go teach at Fort Benning up there. And that was an awesome spot because we had all been through, pretty crucial times in our careers. And we had a chance to a lot of the neighbors, same rank, same point in their career. Kids around the same age was just great.00;44;28;28 - 00;44;46;11UnknownYeah. So that's what I think of fondly of that, that place for sure. What about like, I'm thinking like a destination and you travel. It's like, like you're like, wow, this place is crazy. All the Navy and the Army do it a little different. Yeah. And the Coast Guard's even better. Yeah. All right, so they have all the beaches.00;44;46;11 - 00;45;05;10UnknownThe Navy usually has some pretty good spots. Yeah, the army makes a lot of noise, and we just put that in enough to just put them in the woods. So I noticed one thing that stuck out on your resume is top secret clearance. Like, when did you obtain that? When I was a, when I was an instructor.00;45;05;17 - 00;45;26;17UnknownAnd then I maintained it, throughout. And to get that was like, hey, I want the top secret I'm willing to go through and to have the you had to have, a justification for it. Yeah. And then it was an additional part of that that I think is important for people to understand because top secret, you think you have access to all these secret things just because you have a top secret.00;45;26;17 - 00;45;44;09UnknownRight? But that's not true. There's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of sub programs. Yeah. One of them, they're compartmentalized. Okay. And it's on a need to know basis. Right, right. So there's things out there that I have the top secret clearance, but I'm not read on to. So top secret. Do you still have it?00;45;44;11 - 00;46;08;08UnknownOkay. So is that a continual vetting process is going to need to know what are you doing the renewal process. Everything okay. And just it does is there's a source to the information. And so it protects that. So yeah. And so if you have a critical source that's feeding you this information, and you don't have the guys trustworthy enough to hold that and, and interesting.00;46;08;13 - 00;46;29;08UnknownRight. It gets out eventually. It's going to get back to that guy. Yeah. That guy. Right, right, right. So that, that that source might be a three letter agency. American military might be something else. But wherever it is, it protects that. So yeah, it's interesting. What's so interesting? I know you you hit on it once, but have you ever had a chance to work with the special ops guys?00;46;29;10 - 00;46;48;06UnknownYeah, I worked with some Ranger regiment guys were some, some Seals and some guys in Iraq. Yeah. When? Toward the end of Obama's tenure, I think in preparation for whoever is going to run, you know, after. I think it's Hillary, right? Yeah. Yeah. Then what do in my opinion, they didn't want to do anything to really mess that up.00;46;48;06 - 00;47;09;03UnknownAnd, yeah, I know, you know, we had an opportunity. We had opportunities to get after ISIS, right? We were we just held back right? We were secure in securing the area. We were securing, Camp Taji. Yeah. And we were training Iraqis, all those Iraqis that we trained in up fighting. Yeah. In Mosul. Yeah. During and they, they liberated Mosul.00;47;09;03 - 00;47;31;25UnknownInteresting. Yes. And there's just so much stuff that, I could go through, but I want to hit on two things here before we wrap it up. So third child came you. That's it. You have three. You're good. Right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. How like, we're there was a couple things I want to hit on. First of all, you said airborne.00;47;31;25 - 00;47;49;02UnknownSo you know how to jump out of planes. Yep. Okay, so it's just like you see on the movies where you attach your thing on the side and you run out the back. So that is one way to do it. There's other way. There's out the side of the door and you're talking about static lines. Yeah. Right. And then there's another way to do it, which I only got to play around with.00;47;49;02 - 00;48;03;17UnknownBut guys like Sean Ryan, right, right. He has all these guys on, they do it for real. And they did it all the time. And those are free fall guys. Yeah. So I got to play around with that. I got to go to that course. Yeah. And learn how to do it. Basic you know not not any, any special guy with that.00;48;03;27 - 00;48;22;10UnknownBut I give me an appreciation for it and. Oh, static, a static line stuff is is dangerous. And in its own way, the free fall stuff is dangerous in a whole nother way. Right? Right. And there's a whole nother. But I know one thing you did. I think it was last year where you were able to go in the reserve over to Normandy.00;48;22;10 - 00;48;37;29UnknownTell me a little bit that that's got of. Yeah, that was an amazing opportunity that just this just fell in my lap. A guy that, had a son that was graduating high school was supposed to go and end up lining up directly with that weekend. He couldn't. So, like, fortunately for me, but unfortunate for him. Yeah.00;48;38;01 - 00;48;58;25UnknownGot opportunities on the 80th. Yeah. And so it was a big, big thing. So you were in a plane and you, reenacted one of the routes and jumped out? Yeah. So they actually have a you could do it next year. The. And right here in Palatka. Yeah. There's the round canopy parachute. Right. And they're all over the country.00;48;58;25 - 00;49;18;03UnknownAll over the world. Right. They, they they send guys over there and they, they, they train them up over here and you can jump out. Yeah. We didn't do the English Channel one, but they did. And so they load it up exactly where they would have blown it up. Yes, yes. And then flew over the English Channel jump right around where the 82nd Airborne Division.00;49;18;04 - 00;49;37;16UnknownWow. So they were and they jumped a couple of different places. Yeah. Mount Saint Michelle. Yeah. Which is like this castle. Yeah. In the middle was beautiful. Yeah. Did you did that, like, was it pretty, like, what's the word I'm looking for? Pretty daunting. Like, when you're like, wow. I'm kind of. It was really. I mean, it made you special.00;49;37;16 - 00;49;56;19UnknownIt was special. It was, for a paratrooper. It was. It's like a pilgrimage year. Yeah, that's a good point. It's. Yeah. You get an appreciation for it. What those guys did well representing them. Oh, yeah. And I and I know we shared there's, there was a podcast about D-Day, and people don't realize how dangerous that was.00;49;56;19 - 00;50;16;09UnknownLike, you're jumping out and you're getting shot at. Planes are running into you. Yeah. And then if you make it through all that, you may get, like, the Germans flooded an area. Yeah. So a lot of people, guys would drown because they would be fully packed and land in this waters in the early days of parachuting. Now we do a little differently and we can we can jettison, we can release our equipment.00;50;16;09 - 00;50;31;09UnknownGot it. And you can still put stuff in your pockets. But they didn't have that red duffel bag. But then they're like, I'll put grenades here, but let's have a little bit of food here. Right. And then, the the pilots that got that mission were junior the, the, because they knew that that was a suicide mission.00;50;31;09 - 00;50;47;12UnknownAnd so a lot of them were kind of freaking out a little bit that, you know, way too fast. Yeah, some way too high to low. Right. A lot of their gear was just ripped off of them. Jumped out. Right? Germans flooded that area. And so unfortunately, like, all that weight that was on them, they just couldn't get out.00;50;47;12 - 00;51;04;15UnknownYeah, a lot of a lot of them drowned. Yeah. But it was pretty amazing. No, it was incredible. Yeah. Well, the last thing I want to hit on, And you reminded me of it when you came in as your interpreter story. I thought, that's really cool. So tell us. Tell us how that. What happened with that said that.00;51;04;17 - 00;51;43;10UnknownSo the, when how we how we came up. Yeah. Well, what how do you knew him? And then he came and he was I see, he was my interpreter as a platoon leader. So platoon leader, like, about 25 guys. Okay. And like I said, we had an interpreter. Theoretically, they had their own guide. Okay. You know, so our like I said, our mission was to to build the country back up, to establish relationships and connections and try to, you know, improve security here and see who's who or how we can help and then and then provide, like I said, provide security.00;51;43;10 - 00;52;06;13UnknownAnd so you establish these relationships with these different guys. There's some shady folks. So I relied on him a lot. Right? I mean, that had to be a huge trust thing. He knew he knows Pashtu he knows, obviously Dari and he knows everyone, I can't remember. Sorry. I mean, but, the, I mean, the the amount of trust I would think you would have to have because, you know.00;52;06;15 - 00;52;32;02UnknownRight. And he and us, because he, he would have to go home every so often. And he he intentionally dirtied his clothes and, and, he would, you know, I would make sure the guys knew, like, don't say hi to him. Right? Right. Because because it wasn't a it wasn't a glorious job to have when you go home to know that there's a this guys got killed.00;52;32;02 - 00;52;53;14UnknownYeah. Because you're an interpreter for the Americans. Right. And they kill him. Right. Exactly. They. And in some brutal stuff. Right. But, yeah. So he had to have a lot of trust in us. Yeah. To some, some units, some amount and some units. That's half now. It was bad then actually left them on, on some objectives or whatever.00;52;53;14 - 00;53;12;27UnknownThings kind of went sideways. Yeah. And because things get a little crazy and they came back and got them, but. Right, right, right. So you know, there's so he ended up coming to America. So yeah, when he, he showed his I knew I trusted him. Yeah. And I and I thought he was he was a good dude.00;53;13;08 - 00;53;34;21UnknownAnd through his service to our country for, like, how many years was he for doing that? At least four years. Wow. Getting paid dirt, right? And risking his life and risking his life. Yeah. And so he would he asked if if I could help him with the Special Immigrant visa. We had a discussion, and that was a process to get those guys over here.00;53;34;27 - 00;53;55;00UnknownThat that would basically served our country. Right. And so I helped them get over and and he got his, his whole family over eventually. Awesome. It was a little bit of when you say helped him, you kind of sponsored him. Helping with paperwork was a it. There's a whole process. Okay? He worked a little there, a little thing you have to write off and some just some documents.00;53;55;00 - 00;54;14;00UnknownInteresting. And so interesting. Me and several other people was just one of many that kind of helped him out. But, they. Yeah, he's he's great. He's doing great here. Yeah. And the United States. Yeah. You said he had his flannel shirt on, so. Yeah. Yeah, he's a truck. So he owns a trucking business. Was a Thunder Express, okay.00;54;14;03 - 00;54;40;09UnknownAnd, he's doing a really? It's in local to Jackson, Texas. Okay, great. I'm trying to get over here. Yeah, yeah. Wow, man, what a neat story, man. I could go on for hours here, Tony. And thank you for, you know, talking about some sensitive things and also kind of explaining the military because, you know, guys like me just have ultimate respect for our veterans, that have done this and really just have a thirst for the details.00;54;41;09 - 00;54;52;09UnknownAnd we could go on for hours. Yeah, lots more details. And, I'm sure that I give it a couple of them up with this. All right. Oh, man, that was great. Well, it was an honor, man. Thank you for talking to me, I enjoyed it.00;54;52;09 - 00;55;06;17UnknownThe Hometown Jack's podcast is recorded and produced by First Coast Mortgage Funding. Located in the heart of Jacksonville. Do you want to be our next guest? Visit our website at Hometown Jack's podcast.com. We can't wait to hear your story.
