Delta Force Legend Reveals What War Really Does to a Man | PBD Podcast #873

0:00In the beginning of war, I wanted to kill everybody. Let's just kill them all. Did you have a reaction the first time? I fucking loved it. Are you kidding me? You loved it. So on any given day, what could be the high low number on people you guys took out? Who got time for all the counting? There's certain bad guys who are like, however the night pans out, like, I could really care if this guy lived or died the night. I was good at it. I could save lives every day. when I would go out, I felt like less guys got hurt. Where else should I be? Who else needs me more? What's the closest call you ever had?

0:39I know what I can do. You guys didn't have a chance to begin with. We dealt with a lot of people, family, kids. You come get a man of the house, he's got a family. You gotta deal with them, too. Were they as bad as the stories we read about? For real, they needed to die. I don't feel bad about them at all. Felt at ease. Like I knew maybe this is what I was supposed to do. I don't know. But we were decimating those guys. So I stopped counting on my first day.

1:18This has never been talked about before. So I know a lot of people that follow your stories closely. And you may get upset at me for starting with this. But I think it's very important for you. I doubt it. I doubt it. I want you to get upset. I want you to get angry at me. Okay. So here's a guy that's Delta Force, Sergeant Major, fully decorated. I contacted my guy that was former Delta Force. I asked him about you. He says, this guy's a full-on badass. All these things about you that scares the shit out of everybody, the enemy, right? Yeah. And you come in today, your only request from us is Pop-Tarts?

1:50Yeah. You ask for Pop-Tarts? Yeah, I like Pop-Tarts. Not even Pop-Tarts? Yeah. We've never had a Pop-Tart request. Oh. How long has that been a thing with you? Man, well, I love them brown sugar Pop-Tarts. The brown sugar Pop-Tarts. Yeah. Every time I talk about this, I'll get a, man, I got Pop-Tart underwear, socks. Literally? Seriously, right? Pop-Tart T-shirts. Like, people send me Pop-Tart stuff. But the Pop-Tarts comes from when I went out alone. I flew my pick, started out in Asadabad, and I told my boss, I was like, hey, we don't got no beef jerky. You know, we're who we are. You know what I mean?

2:33I know wherever the main hub is, right, Bagram, I know they got this stuff. And the other guys are just eating it up while we're out here kind of like eating vegetables. I don't even know what they are and some goat, you know what I mean? Like with some dude cooking it who's sketchy also. So I was like, he's like, if you want Pogi, you got to get it yourself. Schedule everything yourself. I'm not lifting a finger kind of deal. I'm like, I'll do that. I mean, what a good experience for me. So I scheduled the Chinook to come in, pick me and my pickup truck up. We fly us at night to Bagram, park at the chow hall, see my man, our squadron cook, like, yo, fill up the truck for the boys.

3:18You know what I mean? and then um so uh that's when they asked me to go on a solo mission i was actually kind of looting pop tarts at the time you know what i mean do you do you miss it like do you tell when i when i watch you here telling these stories do you ever like have you fully disconnected or do you still miss it and you're you're uh i don't know i think i moved on on a lot of stuff i mean uh when i retired i was talking to a friend and i'm like you know you know he was in ranger battalion with me and we were kind of like talking my highlight reel because I hadn't talked to him in a long time, what he'd been up to kind of deal, right?

3:56And I was just thinking like, man, what am I going to do now? You know what I mean? Excuse me. How am I going to be happy now? Would you resist? It's like 11 when I retired, like right when I retired. Excuse me. So right when I retired, right? And I was just thinking, what do I do now? Like, you know, after you chased Saddam or done some of these things, like, what do you do for happiness now? You know what I mean? Like, so, and he was like, wow, I feel sad for you. And like, we started laughing, right? And then I started thinking about it. And I was like, he's right. Like, what am I going to do now?

4:33Was he a former guy with you? Like, he was in Ranger Battalion with me. He was a Ranger. And what helped you adjust from that life to civilian? Because my buddy, when I talked to him, I had to go visit him in Madrid. He's like, you know, we call each other B. He says, yo, B, I can't handle this. So I go to Madrid. He's ETSing after being 20. He was also Delta. I showed you his pictures. So he was a B squadron guy. And he says, I don't know how to adjust. I don't even know how to. So what was your mechanism of adjusting from that fast life? Well, I think the big thing for me was I was working on the staff as an E9.

5:14You know what I mean? I just came from Baghdad, and I got to work on the staff. Like, what a smack in the face. You know what I mean? So in general, culture shock. You know what I'm saying? I go from doing whatever I want. You know what I mean? whatever I wanted to do, you know, 06, 07 to then I was on the staff and I'm, and then like, I never had an army computer. I had a Blackberry, you know what I mean? Like, I don't even know how to, I don't even have a cell phone myself yet. I never even had email yet, you know? So, um, yeah. So I'm on the staff and I'm just overwhelmed every day. This is incredible.

5:56Like I go from a life of being alone, going out, you know, being a leader, bringing out my guys, you know, uh, to like desk. Um, and like, I just hated my life every day. I was miserable. Guys would come in my office. I'd be like, state your business, uh, uh, too slow. Get the fuck out. You know what I mean? Like when you can spit it out, I ain't got fucking time. You know what I mean? And then like, I just always mean I thumbed down like we'd have new hires and like you'd have to thumb up or thumb down thumb down everybody that they face you know what I mean like this is post this is this is post you no longer being this is I still in the army yeah but you're now working headquarter yeah you're now working I worked on the staff and how long did they put you on the staff when you I worked there for like my last like four years holy shit so three so for you it was harder transitioning within yeah from being deployed to working on the staff yeah yes okay so then so then that means the transition for you when you got out you were did that kind of help you get ready to leave or not really so okay this is what leads me um one day i kind of had fun at work and i was like huh i had fun today i get home you know what i mean huh i have fun today right and then um you know i was like i wonder if i could have fun tomorrow right because all my other days fucking suck you know what i mean like it's army strong not army smart let's just be real clear here you know what i mean But so I was like, huh, I wonder if I could have fun.

7:41So I woke up the next morning and I told myself I was going to smile and have fun no matter what. And I and I remembered I used to be fun. You know what I mean? Like, you know, like I'm a little brother. I talk smack. You know what I mean? Like I was a ranger. They talk smack. Right. Like we have fun. We joke with each other. Right. You know how guys are. Of course. I realized I used to do this, but I hadn't been that person in a long time. So I told myself I was going to smile and enjoy my day and be positive and try to be positive. You know what I mean? And that was it? That was it. And so from there, by the time it came out for you to get out, did you try to go back and say, let me go on one more tour, let me get one more thing, or no?

8:25You already knew that they were kind of pushing you out. You know, the biggest thing you could know about the Army is to know when to say when. Know when to say when? For yourself. And you knew it? It's time for me. I was burned out. You know, they burned me out. They burned everybody out. And that's why your buddy has a hard time right now. He was burned out. You got to recover from it. You know what I mean? Risky behavior is from burnout. you know concussions causes risky behavior so like guys get out of control it's like well the guy's fucking mentally suffering but we can't talk about that right we can only talk about this guy's out of control so i knew it was time did they knock on the door or did you did they come to you and say hey uh no i was at 20 i was at 20 so really the way so you the way it went down is like I had one of those days where I was over it.

9:24So I went to the retirement guy and I was like, yo, if I retire right now, right. How much money do I get in retirement? And then, uh, I think they wanted me to like stay in and pull another job, another SAR major gig somewhere else, you know, dangling the carrot over my head with other fancy jobs you'll never get, you know what I mean? But, um, and then, you know, and then I was like, but you know, they wanted me to stay in another, you know, I don't know, you know, well, you did the SAR major academy. So you owe us time and you did. So they were dangling. After E9 though, what do you do after E9?

10:04Other E9 job, you just circulate. Is there a bigger E9? Like was there passion? You could be the SAR major of the army. That's what I'm saying. Was that in your mind? Shout out Mikey, who's now the SAR major of the army, my old neighbor. Mikey? Yeah. Would you have one at that job? No. I don't think you're that guy though. I'm not that guy. It's all operations. And then so I went to the retirement branch and I was like, you know, and the guy's like, I was like, tell me if I get out, like, you know, I don't know, whatever they wanted a year or two. Right. Or if I get out now and the guy was like, come back after lunch, Sergeant Major.

10:38Like, I'm like, huh. And the retirement guys are dicks. I didn't know that. You know what I mean? But I guess it's, you know, the army doesn't want you to retire anyway. Right. So that's what I'm thinking. So I go back after lunch and the guy like prints me two pieces of paper and he like slides them across the desk. You know what I mean? I'm like, okay, where's this going? So I look at one. I set it down. I look at the other one. I look at them together. We're exactly the same. He's like, there's no difference in the money. Staying or leaving. And that's when I was like, I'm out. Did you ever in your career get demoted or no?

11:14No. What is it with some of the best soldiers that are fighters tend to have a moment of their career where they get demoted? E5 to E4, E6 to E5. Super common. Look, I would say this is everyone. Okay. Let's just say, you know, a million people join the Army. Right? Okay. How many people separate from the Army under bad terms? 5%. You think 5 %? I don't know. I'm guessing. What is it? I would say everyone who leaves the army before 20 years is disillusioned about the army in some way. So everybody leaves the army with a shitty story. You were burned out. You know what I mean? Like, it's the most common story there is.

11:56It is what it is, you know? And guys always like, it's like they were being bad or something, but everybody has a limit. Most guys get in trouble for saying what's right. That's not in trouble in my book. And then so I would say this for like, there's more, you know, look, especially in the E9 ranks, there's more fucking wrangling to put someone down so you get the next job. Like, so it's the age old thing. I'd say 90 % of the people. No shit. I'd say 90 % of the people who get out of the army have an iffy story at best. You know, it's only the commanders that leave that get to write their books.

12:37I mean, think about, okay, let me ask you the question. another way how many people leave with uh you know the high school quarterback you know prom queen fucking story that are great how many people leave like that what would you say how many after that like you're talking about the album out of the million stories you said five five percent have a bad story what do you think have a good story when they leave oh no that would be different for me i think those guys a very high chance have a bad story well that's what i'm saying Like when you look at it, good or bad stories, you'll see that most people have.

13:12Who's the most successful guy that you went with that after the life? And I'm talking like tier one, like you. Mikey Weimer, Sergeant Major of the Army. And he was Delta as well? Yeah. Wow. He's a Sergeant Major of the Army. So what was different about Mikey? What is Mikey? So was he as crazy as you? Like was he as he was? Yeah. Mikey's one of the guys. He's done it all. He's legit. So how did Mikey transition from that fast pace to be able to handle the office situation? It took years probably to get there. And you've got to want it. I mean, think about this. If you really wanted to. Michael Weimer?

13:45Yeah, Mikey. You guys are the same age, yeah. Yeah. As my next-door neighbor. Interesting. So if you were to say, okay, this was different about Mikey than me, what would be different about his personality? He wanted that. He wanted that. Got it. You know what I mean? Think about this. And you knew he wanted that early on? No, he probably didn't even know he wanted it. I mean, I don't know. Maybe he knew he was born to be the sergeant. I don't know. I don't know. Mikey could tell you that. I can't answer for him. But what I could say is it's easier to adjust if it's something you want, ain't it?

14:19It's not so easy to adjust when people are forcing orders stuffed down your throat. And that applies in every aspect of life. One million percent. So I remember when I was sharing this story off camera with you is when my colonel came up to me and this E6, when I got the orders I wanted from Virginia, comes back. I wanted to go to Vicenza, Italy, DLI, Airborne, Special Forces, 18 Delta, 5th Group. I wanted to do all that stuff. And then, you know, last minute I'm like, I'm getting out. And I told my Colonel Peacock, I'm going to get out. My orders went to my buddy. He took the orders. He wanted to eventually be Delta.

14:59Six, seven, eight years later, I can't find him. I don't know where he's at. I was telling the story earlier to you. And he goes in. And for about five, six, seven, eight years, we were not in touch with each other. All the information I had, never heard back from them. How intentional can somebody be to be selected versus, because sometimes people are like, well, there's guys that are in Delta and they don't even know what the selection process is. What is your impression of what the selection process is to get into Delta? It's hard. It's hard. What do they look for? What do they look for? Oh, I had to explain to me like this once from one of the shrinks.

15:39If every human being is on a scale from like one to a hundred, right? Like they're looking for guys at like 89.7 to 89.9. And you got to fit in that psychological number or you're out. Like it's that simple. You know what I mean? and you have the mental whatever that is. I don't know. I'm not a shrinker or a doctor, but whatever that is, you got to fit first. So, like, guys that don't make it, I don't think it's no harm, no foul. You didn't fit the – maybe you were 89.91. Did you see a pattern amongst all the guys that were being selected, and were you ever in the process of selection or that you were not in that?

16:22I never did selection or anything like that. So who does selection? Is it all ex-Delta guys that do selection or current Delta guys? They run their own selection. I mean, it's a task. You'll do it. So let's just say if I do Delta and they may come to me and say, hey, Pat, we like the way you think. We want to bring you to be part of the selection process. Who gets that job to select? Yeah, that's like the crown jewels. You know what I mean? Really? Oh, yeah. So was Mike Parker? It's the only secret in the Army. Are you being serious right now? Yeah, I'm being serious. The only secret in the Army is the selection process.

16:57Why is it such a big secret? I don't know. because you're dealing with human beings at the highest level. I'd keep it secret so the Chinese couldn't steal it from us. You know what I mean? I mean, I don't know. Super soldier shit. Who the fuck knows? When you went through the selection process, who interviewed you? Well, the unit runs all their own stuff. So the Army, you know, they have shrinks. They have, it's all internal Army. But is it a recommendation? Is it kind of like, we got this guy here, John McAfee. I think you guys are going to like him. You guys got to talk to this guy. Does your E9 or your first sergeant make that recommendation?

17:39There's no one talking about it. First off, they screen your packet, and that allows you to go to selection, and then you got to walk. You got to do the whole selection. So you got to walk the walk first. How long is the selection process? It's like a month. something like that. So you went to Ranger school. You also went to Special Forces school. So is it like a school you go through, or at that point they already know you? It's a selection. It's a selection. Just like, you know, when you go through Rangers, I went through RIP. Now they call it RASP. When I went through Special Forces, they call it the Q course, you know what I mean?

18:17Like SFAS back then. I don't know what it's called now, right? So it's its own selection course. Would you be able to speculate what they look for? Like if you were to say, I'm speculating that they would look for this, this, this, and that. Yeah, not a shrink, but I would tell you this is what they're looking for. A man who won't drive himself is not worth driving. They don't want that guy. A man that'll drive himself into the ground, they want that guy. Tell me more. Well, that's like one of the things they always say. You know, if a guy's not worth driving, I'm not driving him. But if a guy is worth driving himself and he's a true professional and he'll work hard and he'll do stuff, that's the guy we want.

19:01So it's not really, I don't, you know, the, you know, the world these days, like I get all these questions these days. What were you thinking? I was thinking fucking survive. You know what I mean? Like, so I don't think there was a, I don't think there's like a, maybe from a psychologist, there's some like a psychologist could tell you a deep level stuff. But I think it's simple. It's like they're looking for guys who want to be there, want to do. You know what I mean? Like doers. That's what they're looking for. I always say this is like every team I've ever been on, I'll take all. You take kids out of school, I'll take all the bored underachievers out of school that are problem kids.

19:42I'll take every one of them. Why is that? Because we'll make an army out of them. Because they're bored because they're not engaged. Okay, so that's one. Bored? Bored underachievers. There's tons of them. It was me in school. You know, I got like C's. I didn't want to be in school. It's stupid. You know what I mean? So the reason why, this is so interesting to me because I have a lot of guys, John, that their dream was to be Delta. And they did, they were gunko soldiers, ran 12 mile, two mile, 12 minute, two miles. They did the 82 pushups, 82 sit-ups, and they did the correspondence classes. They did everything you asked them.

20:19and they were early, late. They did everything you wanted them to go. They had no problem going to the back 40 regularly. They would do all that stuff. And it was their gym. You want me to get deployed to Camp Casey? You want me to go over here? Anything you said they would do, but they never got selected. So it's not like they were not doers. Yeah. So, you know, do they? They didn't fit between 87.7 and 89.1. You know what I mean? That could have been one point off, and they don't get the nod, I guess. I don't know what the Army does. So when you went in, was it like a dream or was it like, all right, it's a job.

20:54All right, this is. I had no idea. There was no internet. Like, I didn't know what I was doing. You literally had no idea what the. I mean, like, you hear rumors, but, like, no one knew back then. You didn't know back then. I didn't know back then at all. Like, no one knew. Yeah. Like, the internet has changed the game dramatically, you know, but I didn't know shit about shit. I just figured I was in seventh group and, like, I don't know, these guys. But it wasn't the first guys that came and talked to me about selections. There's other selections in the Army, the guys that I tried to recruit me for.

21:26Not for Delta, for other things. Yes. What would be other things? What would they be? I don't know. I didn't go. But that guy's kind of recruiting pitch sucked. You know what I mean? What was the second guy's recruiting pitch? It was like, I was like, so what would I do? And he was like, you would have great job satisfaction. I was like, I mean, I could make brake parts in a brake factory and like that too, but it doesn't mean I want to do it. You know what I mean? He was like, you would have. That's what he kept saying to me. Great job. He had no answers. Like he couldn't even tell me. So what sold a guy like you with the second time?

22:05Man, these guys like said they kicked doors. You know what I mean? Like at least they gave me an answer. You know, I felt like the other guy just talked in a big circle. Who wants to work for people like that? John, when that process happens and you're being selected the second time, what does the unit say? Do they just say, oh, John got, you know, he went to a different unit. What's the language they speak at the unit? And do they tell you? Like, I got a call yesterday. A pretty big business event is taking place. And this lady tells me, hey, you're going to be a part of this if you accept it.

22:36I'm on a contract with them. But if you do this, you can't talk about this, this, this, this, this, and that. And she ran through the entire thing with me. I said, okay, great. It's like a secret, high-level secret clearance for business. So do they tell you, if we go through this process, you can't talk to your wife, you can't talk to your friends, you can't tell them this, you can't tell them that, you're going to go and you're going to disappear. What happens next once you're selected? All that. Yeah, you disappear. You already nailed it. Wife? I mean, yeah, your wife knows. I never really told my mom because my mom would have told everybody you know what I mean so I never really told my mom but she would come to my house and be like I had a beard and just trimming my beard at my nipples with scissors you know what I mean in the field and I come home and she'd be like you're in the army and be like I'm in the army here's my ID card you know what I mean so you're in the army your grandfather was in the army and he was clean shaven.

23:44You're in the army. I'm like, I am in the army, mom. But that's really all I told her. So you didn't want to tell mom wife knew. How did, how do they know that wife's not going to say anything? Do they tell you, you can tell your wife. There's briefings. It's very, do they have a briefing with her or? Oh, of course. Oh, seriously. Of course. So first processes conversation with you. second meeting is with you and your wife or no no no no no there were as you are kind of like getting ingrained there's like meetings and stuff you know like you know and then i'm sure it's look i was pre-social media you know what i mean pre-cell phones paper army it was different back then god only knows what they got to tell people today shit you know what i mean like god only You know, I was like, so, so much simpler back in my day.

24:35But what, what, what, how do they know that a wife of a soldier that's about to go Delta is loyal to the secrets that you're committing to? So let's just say the marriage doesn't work out. She's going to go out and tell him that. Not my job. I don't know. And whoever's dealing with them wives, good luck. I just want to go on the range and blow shit up. I could care less. That's kind of how you looked at it. Oh, could care less. Got it. I was skydiving. You know what I mean? I love that. I was shooting every day. You know what I mean? And then like after we get on shooting, it's like, hey, Pat, you want to go do jujitsu?

25:07Let's go. You know what I mean? Was there a personality pattern with guys that were in Delta? Like were they all fairly charismatic, charming, entertaining? Because even when I talk to my buddy, he says, you can tell stories better than anybody else he's met in his life. Was it kind of like, because when I sit down with mobsters and I sit down with guys that became underbossed, like Italian mafia when you talk, one of the things all of them have in common, they're all great storytellers. Yeah. They all know how to tell a story. They all know how to kind of walk you through what happened, why they did it.

25:38Was there a pattern with all of them having charisma and charm and personality? Yeah. You know, look, it's 88.7, 88.9. Like, it says that these guys are so similar. Like, but I will tell you, this is like, I always felt like for me, I always felt like I had to work hard every day to be where I was. And, but I did feel like those guys you talk about, they're got their Boston marathon t-shirts. They got, they do all the pushups. They do all the sit-ups. They're faster than any human being I've ever seen. And like, you see them and you see these guys at selection. It's like super intimidating. Cause like, well, I'm just working hard to be here.

26:18You know what I mean? And like, these guys are doing all this shit. And then when you pass selection, I don't know where they go, but a lot of those guys go away. But there is, I'm telling you, genetic specimens there. These guys are just, I can't say enough good about the guys they select and the guys that are in the squadrons. They're so fucking good, so talented. And I always felt like there was stuff I was good at and what I was not good at I worked on every day. So I didn't have any weak points. You know what I mean? I did the stuff that I sucked at every day. Such as? Oh, man, no. Okay. the obstacle course like i never run an obstacle course in my life you know what i mean and the army has some but it's more of a joke than like it's run the oath course ah you know what i mean it's more of a joke than anything uh they got legit ones with high ropes and like i didn't know how to do this so i came in like last and you know my counselor had to tell me like we've never letting anyone go for the O course before, uh, you, you could be the first.

27:24Then like, I'm like, no, this ain't happening. Right. So, uh, every weekend, Saturday I'd come in and run it. And then I sought out guys that were like way better at it than me, like best guys in the building. And I would just approach them in the hallway. Hey, could you show me this? And I'm like, I go run it. And I'd get like, and then when I realized is my technique was bullshit. It's not that I lacked the strength or the cardio, you know what I mean? It's just like, I didn't know where to put my hand and how to swing from here to here, like simple stuff, you know? And then by the end of it, I think it was raining and like, you know, like the end of training, like it's competitive, this is like Jedi shit.

28:08You know what I mean? It's a tight window. Like, you know, guys are, You lose a point, you're in third. You know what I'm saying? And, like, I think I finished, like, third. It was raining. Guys had, like, spun off the track. You know what I mean? Because it was wet. But I had done it so many times. I just kind of breezed through, right? So I tried to always work on what I was weak at. I heard one of the – when we did the aerosol, the last thing I had to do was the 50-mile ruck march that they do in Kentucky, you know, Fort Campbell. Hardest 10 days in the army. So funny. You're so funny. And they said, hey, you're a big guy.

28:47Let's give you the saw. And I'm like, all right, I lift weights. I can bench three plates. Give me the saw. I got it. Not a problem. And I go through this. And at the end of it, the guy says, look, whatever you guys do, don't lay down. Just don't lay down. Don't lay down and go to your barracks. I'm like, my body can't handle it. I go lay down. My body is literally frozen like this. They had to come and put me in warm water to kind of loosen up. It took about 30 minutes, right? But I heard one of the things they did is, you know, maybe this is even special force, or maybe this is not even selection for Delta.

29:19The 40-miler where they give you, you know, 13 maps or 12 maps or whatever it is, what is that all about? Yeah, that's what that's about. You've got like 13 maps. I don't know. I don't remember. But, yeah, it's something you've got to do. And it's a lot of maps. You know what I mean? And like, they'll give you a point and you're like, and you know how big the map sheets are. I'm not joking. And you're like, buy stocks to sell. You might be missing the opportunity. You're not repositioning. my guy says now is the time to go all in. Real traders still hear the noise. They just know when to stop listening to it.

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32:05oh crap i gotta go two map sheets over to this point you know what i mean and i get the walk in the states yeah it's in the states uh okay so then listen you you're not a dummy i know sometimes guys are like well i'm just a regular guy and those are some of the most brilliant guys in the world the guys that try to tell you how dumb they are there's some of the most brilliant guys that are high EQ. You're not going to choose Delta guys who are, oh, just go kill people, and that's all we're looking for. There's no way in the world they're selecting people like that. I'm assuming you guys are some of the most brilliant guys out there that have a balance of EQ and a balance of IQ.

32:42Would you agree with a little bit of that? Yeah, I think you're right on that. It's hard to find people like that. Yeah, yeah. That's what they're looking for. That's that window. You know what I mean? 88.7 to 88.9. Whatever it is. And I could have got the numbers wrong. He could have said different numbers too. So prior to being selected, did you already have a highly decorated career? No, I was just a new guy, regular guy. You know, look, I've been through Ranger Battalion. I did my five years. I did, well, four and then like four and a half. Like the SARM major was like, you got to go work in the Army somewhere.

33:18I was like, I didn't want to leave being a Ranger. and I didn't want to end up in Korea, nothing against Korea, but like I had no want to go there, you know what I mean? And that's what it seems like they were sending people because that's where they send people, right? So I had no desire. So I was like, I'll try this special forces thing. And then I've been on a team. I went through the Q Corps. I was on a special forces team like not even a year. And then I was like, this looks cool. And I went. They told me about it. I was like a new guy, you know what I mean? So nothing. Like there was nothing in the past.

33:53I had no words. No nothing. I mean, no. I had nothing. I remember they would say, guys who would come back from Camp Casey, they would say, there's rumors in Camp Casey. If you get a certain STD, they keep you there for a year or two years until you get cleaned up. I don't know if you ever heard the story or not. They would say some stuff. They would scare the shit out of you. They're like, dude, you do not want to go to Korea. And if you go there, don't do anything because some of the STDs, they don't have anywhere in the world. It's like an epidemic. They don't want to release it to the world.

34:20I'm like, oh, my God. You know, they would scare the crap out of it. I never heard any of that. I heard it was cold. And I'm like, I don't want to go somewhere. Imagine being outside where it's cold all the time. Like, we did that once in a while in Ranger Battalion. It sucked. You know what I mean? I didn't want to go nowhere cold. So what was the first mission you went on where you're like, I can actually do this. I'm capable. and people saw that, you know, John Shrek McAfee is special when it comes down to the moments like that. What was the first moment for you, first one you got deployed in?

34:53Man, I don't know. You've been on a lot of interesting. Yeah, I would say this is like when you get out of training and you get to your team, like I felt like I was personally capable. You know what I mean? I could handle firearms. I could skydive. I could handle myself, right? But I didn't know how all of it worked yet. Does that make sense? So I felt like I came really well prepared from training, but I really didn't know how to apply. To a real-life situation? Yeah, to like any situation. Because speed accelerates or because it's like? No, because like, you know, it's like, look, I bet for you it's like college.

35:40right? You go to marketing school, but when you get your first marketing job, this is where rubber hits the road, right? And like, you might have to do stuff that works that no one ever told you about. And you might, you know, the stuff they told you about may or may not work, right? So it's, it's kind of like an experience thing. You know what I mean? But I did feel like I came well prepared from training. Got it. So training gets, and you're selected, you're in, what happens next? Do they tell you, John, you're going to XYZ? Well, you go to a team and then you got to make your own way. You know what I mean?

36:15It's one thing you got in this world and that's your name and try not to fuck it up. You know what I mean? And is it like, here's where you're going? Or you're waiting? Are you waiting on a call? No, you're on a team. You work with these five guys, four guys, three, whatever, all the time. Are you here? Are you in the States? Are you out somewhere, you know, on a mission all the time? Well, you're based out of the States here. You know what I mean? What percentage of time are you spending here? What percentage are you? It's all cycles. The Army does cycles, you know, like, and you know this. It's quarterly or the government cycle.

36:52You know what I mean? So it's all cyclical, just like the Army does. Is it a regular schedule? Are you at a regular unit, like going to PT with everybody else? Are you? Yeah, so it's a regular job. There's a place you go to work every day. you know what I mean? And then kind of my day-to-day was I would come in around 6. I would do cardio till about 7.30. I'd walk to the chow hall. I'd eat breakfast. And then at 8 o 'clock, we'd shoot till about 10.30, right? We'd be on the range, whether it's shooting, blowing stuff up, just some type of training, mostly shooting. And then 10.30 to 1, I would do jujitsu.

37:31I would sometimes work out and then I'd go to lunch and at one o 'clock we shoot till like three or four and then you could go back to the gym you could go for whatever and then I did the O course once a week generally I got in the pool a couple times a week man you know what I mean so my day to day schedule was cardio in the morning shooting then jujitsu and weights lunch and then shooting and then I'd go home or do something else. Is that all of you or that was your schedule? Well, that's pretty much the schedule. I mean, you could do whatever you want. You could just show up at 8, right? But that's kind of my personal schedule.

38:11Okay, guys, so it's not like it's a, is it fairly an independent, decentralized, without somebody holding you accountable? Hey, John, get off your, where were you at? You are accountable at all times. There is no not accountable in a job like that. And is it a well-known military base you're at, or are you on a— I live in North Carolina. Fort Bragg. Yeah. Got it. Yeah. And are you going and eating with other guys from different units and just regular, like you're going to regular chow halls? Man, I eat breakfast and lunch in the chow hall generally, because you're right there. Dinner, you usually get somewhere else.

38:48And when other people ask you, so what do you do for a living? What's your MOS? What do you say? Dirt Farmer. Dirt Farmer. Yeah. I use that for a long time. But then if you're talking to a couple of the guys, do they know or nobody knows? I mean, you know, pre-beards day, you know, like no, before guys started having beards when I had a beard, like nobody knew. Like even my mom didn't believe I was in the Army. You know, after Afghanistan, when everyone has a beard, like you could pick these guys out amongst paratroopers for sure, you know. Got it. So now, it's not like the army is trying to hide it as much as they claim.

39:28It's like this elite organization that nobody knows about. It's not like the Fight Club. Wink, wink. If you're in it, don't tell anybody. It's just between us boys. The internet ruined it. The internet ruined it. I think so. The internet ruined everything. You can't keep a secret. Seriously. You think there's real secrets with the internet and shit? Was it the internet or was it that one Delta guy that wrote a book about it? like what it is to be, I don't know what the name of the book was. You know who I'm talking about? No, I don't read them type of books. You know what I mean? And then guys were upset.

40:01They're like, why would he write this book? Why would he tell our story? There was some controversy tie behind it. I look at it this way. My brother, my own family, like once they found out what I did, they have a million questions for me, right? There's nothing I would say to them that I wouldn't say to you. You know, there's nothing, I'm not divulging secrets. I'm just telling you about my life. And, you know, the officers can write their books, but yet the guys can't talk about it. That seems ridiculous too, doesn't it? So I just look at it this way, man. I just try to tell my stories. I would want my kids to hear this, you know.

40:41I would hope that, like, my stories and loving the Army, I hope I'm spawning a whole generation to join. Matter of fact, the army should be paying me for recruiting. Where's this, where's these army dollars at? You know what I mean? Like that's how much I love the army. So like, why shouldn't I talk about it? You know what I mean? And then look, you know, I was, I would thank everybody I ever served with. I'm so grateful in so many ways, but you know, like, look, if I can't talk about it, who should, you know what I mean? Because there's so many guys like your buddy who, well, they're not well adjusted yet.

41:16You know, like, you know, there's, I hear there's, I don't know where this is, but I hear there's veterans that don't like fireworks. I mean, I used to get mortared and rocketed. Boy, I will buy a thousand dollars worth of fireworks from South Carolina where the good fireworks are. We're going to have a good time, you know, like, but like, look, I hear there's guys that, that, you know, that have those things. And it's like, it's not all bad. You know what I mean? And so if I can't tell my stories, well, who should? Who you want talking? Do they tell you don't talk or no? Do you get calls and say, hey, stop talking?

41:51You're talking too much? No, no. I've never, they've never messed with me at all. I think it was this book, Inside the Delta Force by a guy named Eric Haney. O2. So I don't know when Facebook and YouTube came out, but some of the guys you talk to, they'll say, hey, you should never talk about what's going on. And, you know, there was some criticism behind the units. I'm trying to see. Was this guy, can you go up a little bit? Go up the other way? Yeah, if you can. Key operations. Haney shares a first handbook of grueling, highly selective training. He recounts several major deployments. Yeah. So when I talked, like at least at that time, it was like, why would this guy talk about it?

42:28So, okay, so you're at a regular unit. But the commanders and generals can write about it, and that's okay. It seems like a double standard, which the Army says it doesn't do. Was he a commander or general? or? No, he was an enlisted guy, wasn't he? What's this thing say? Special Force Operational, more commonly known as Zeltorz, in recent years he has been writing on terrorism. Go a little bit lower to see his military career. Haney joined the Army in 1970. B Squadron. B Squadron? We found the problem. Look no further, friend. B Squadron? So what's the difference? Tell me about is there anything to it or no?

43:06What is B Squadron to be a part of? Oh, A Squadron. A Squadron. Got it. I mean, it's the first letter of the alphabet. A number one. You know what I mean? I mean, come on. You know what I mean? Did you want to get B's in school or would you rather had an A? You know what I mean? I get it. But is it like joining the Navy SEAL versus being SEAL Team 6? Does that kind of look A and B? Take those words out of your mouth. I'm not even going there. There's no comparison. Between Delta and Navy SEAL? No comparison. Tell me why. Well, any day of the week, I say this all the time, any day of the week a Navy SEAL could go to unit selection and become a unit guy, and if you've crossed over, talk to them, they'll tell you.

43:49And plus, I'm an Army guy. I should be giving the Navy SEAL shit. You know what I mean? It's my job as an Army guy, and it's their job as Navy guys to give it back to me. You know what I mean? That's the way I see it. So, yeah, it's not a comparison. Come on. In what way, though? In what way is it not a comparison? It's not a comparison. And they'll even tell you. Like, read their books. You know what I mean? They'll even tell you. Be specific, though. Tell me, because you guys are more capable in, you guys show up better in. The unit was made to be self-sustaining. They need nothing. The SEALs were not.

44:32and this kind of weakets them because they need augmentees to do odd jobs where we have all our we talked about this the engineers the prime power we have all these people it's the way the army's made you know what i mean it's the way it was designed it's the charter there's a charter it's all written down if someone cared to read it which i had to as a sergeant major they would that figured all this out, but I hate to burst anyone's bubble here. You know what I mean? Were there any Navy SEAL guys that came through to Delta and you were like, all right, good, respect. All of them. All of them respect.

45:10Yeah, all of them that's crossed over. Look, you make it to the unit, you get my respect right now, man. I love them fucking guys. You know what I mean? Did anybody do the opposite? Did anybody go from Delta to Navy SEAL? You can't do that. Why can't you? You tell me. this is what I've been talking about

45:29the charter the charter yeah so it's just the way it is it's the way it was built like it's not my fault I'm just telling you how it was written what is the history of like Delta when did it happen and how did it happen was it something that you probably read it in that book you can't tell me you don't know how it happened come on come on John I wasn't around then. Okay. But do they tell you the history like this? Yeah. It started because of the desert, desert eagle, desert. Basically, when they went to go save the hostages in Iran during Reagan, right? The aviation, a helicopter hit an airplane.

46:12They like burned to the ground or something. And this is what spawned. We need a more professional force. Right. Right. And the unit had been training for that. But that's where like it all starts to come together. Now, the unit had been created for counterterror stuff. You know, SF teams were doing it. The unit was doing it. I don't know. I don't know how it even got there, to be honest. This way before my time. I probably was told to read about this and forgot. So you're probably putting me on the spot. You know what I mean? But I probably should know. But, you know, it was it was made somewhere in the 70s or something.

46:48I mean, I used to look at all the old pictures of the guys who made it. You know, a lot of bad hair and mustaches through the 70s. You know what I mean? I mean, I had a mullet in the 80s, so I had bad hair too. But a lot of cool pictures, a lot of cool guys. Can you spot a Delta guy? No. So it's like if you— But, hey, I could spot every Navy SEAL. You know what I mean? Navy SEALs, CrossFitters, and vegans. You know what I mean? They'll tell you. Come on. Yeah, vegans, Navy SEALs, vegans. And CrossFitters. Yeah, that's right, CrossFitters. Okay, so walk me through, maybe share with the audience the story of what happened with Saddam Hussein.

47:26We were out there looking for him, and you got a bunch of things. You even had, I think, one of the hats that he had. Yeah, so there's a picture where he's, like, shooting a Mauser in the air. I had that hat. I gave it to Zach Bagans at the Haunted Museum. Yeah, that's the, yeah, where he's holding the thing up. Um, yeah, Saddam, um, you know, one of my day jobs was to coordinate intelligence, um, between the government and us. Cause we just, the war requires bodies. You know what I mean? I, this is something no one really understands is the war requires a lot of bodies. I mean, look, I know I talk about my stuff and what I did, but for me to even roll out the door, you know how many people it takes.

48:12I mean, you know the Army, right? There's intelligence. The engineers had to build the place for me to stay. The intelligence needs to lead me to a target, right? So many people. But I had to read all these reports and kind of figure out, you know, who's what. We ended up getting, like, his tailor, his butlers, his bodyguards, the deck of cards. We got a ton of them. The other squadrons got a ton of them. the unit kind of cleaned the deck, I think. And then, you know, I always thought the Saddam capture was really on a timeline. You know what I mean? And the timeline was for Junior, I think, more than anything else.

48:58Uday? Huh? No, no, Junior, Bush Jr. Oh, Bush Jr. Right? Because if you start a war but you don't get the guy you're after in your term, that don't look good. So I always figured, like, we had to finish this for him. You know what I mean? No, I'd have done anything for the guy, but I always felt like that was kind of like the deal. You know, there's a timeline on this. You know what I'm saying? And timeline meaning, like, if the next administration comes, it may have shut down and the mission wouldn't have been accomplished. Shut it all off. Legacy and all this stuff. Yeah, we're almost there, and they shut it all down like they do so many times.

49:36How do you see the comparison with, you know, Saddam and maybe what's going on right now with Iran and how they took out, you know, the supreme leader and they took out all the leaders, the mom, the dad, you know, everybody. Do you see a correlation? Come on. I don't believe taking out Saddam Hussein made this world a better place. I loved being in Iraq. I had the time of my life. I say this all the time. However, I don't believe strategically the test of time. It wasn't a great idea. You know what I mean? So the test of time will show how we fucked this up. But I don't always believe we make great decisions.

50:18We do our best. No one's got bad intent. You know what I mean? But at the same time, shit still gets fucked up. So I don't know. I don't know how Iran is going to pan out. I don't think anyone does. You know what I mean? But I will say this is the capture of Saddam, I do believe, was always a timeline, some type of timeline. And then at the same time, you had emerging threats. You had Zarqawi growing and in the background and, you know, other stuff going on, the insurgency in Iraq. So there was other stuff bubbling in the background. At the same time, you know, we had a focus and capture Saddam.

50:58And would you guys get briefings and say, here's what you need to know about this. Here's what we need to know about this. Or was it, okay, this is what we need you to do. Was there a briefing of explaining who the enemy was? No. Look, I, there was no intelligence. There was no human intelligence. No intelligence agency had intelligence agents in Iraq. There was no intel at all. Seriously? Seriously. We did operations to gain intel, which is backwards in special operations. And we used to have, I used to think about this. We used to talk about this. Like, so you want us to go out there and get this guy so we can find something out.

51:35And then that's just how it works. And then we, look, man hunting is like a sweater. You're wearing a sweater. If I was to pull the right thread or the perfect thread off your sweater, the arm might fall off. I'm looking for that one thread, but how many threads are in this sweater? Thousands. And then, you know, so the intelligence agencies might say sources are worthless and we're not doing it. We're in the army. We're running every thread to ground, period. So a form of Delta is also playing Intel? Always. Are you also playing the role? You always got to have your own Intel. I mean, how are you going to...

52:19Are you reporting it up? Always. There's no... This is all 1 ,000 % oversight at the highest levels. No one wants unit guys running around not being checked. How did you guys view the CIA? Who was the CIA to you? I mean, you all obviously have strong opinions about the Navy SEAL. What did you guys think about the CIA? I don't work there. That should tell you something. I thought I wanted to work there at one time, and I thought that would be my future. I just work for them the rest of my life and that, and then I won't work for the government again. For the government or specifically CIA? Any part of the government.

53:00Why is that? Because I've seen them in action in war. You know what I mean? I just know too much about how this works. So I wasn't impressed, obviously, and I felt like all forms of government. I also feel like not just the intel piece, but the nation building piece. I feel like the State Department failed Iraq also. It's not the Army's job to reorganize everything. You know what I mean? So I feel like there is a lot of failures. Okay. So let's go there because what happens, you know, we have the greatest military in the world. We do. What do we do if guys like you don't want to serve? because a guy may listen to this and be discouraged to want to serve because, like, I don't ever want to work for the government.

53:49If John Shrek McAfee is saying this, McPhee is saying this, what am I going to be doing, right? I don't know. Everybody's got dreams. Maybe someone was born to want to join the FBI. I would tell you get in there right now. Go be the best. Whatever you could. I would never discourage anybody, but at the same time, I don't want to do it. Just like I don't watch TV. I don't watch the news. You know what I mean? It's just what I do. Even until today, you don't watch TV or the news? I stopped watching the news in the war years. They were wrong so much. I just turned it off and never looked back. It's funny.

54:22My friend said the same thing. The guy I'm talking to, he said, we would watch the news and we're like, no, they're lying. That's not happening. We're here right now. That's not taking place. I just woke up and this is what your baby milk factory. I wouldn't call that green sludge baby milk. You know what I mean? Like, and our chemical guy couldn't even figure out what the fuck it was. So it definitely wasn't baby milk. You know what I mean? and I'm like, that's it, man. You guys are wrong. It's fear-based bullshit. I turned it off. When's the first moment you had where you're like, these guys are full of shit?

54:52Who was it? Do you remember it? Man, there was a, we raided this place. It had this green sludge. We left, gave it to the army. I was, we've been out all night. It's morning time. And then like my boss says, hey, we got to turn around and go back. and I'm like, uh-uh, we're going to bed. Uh-uh. And he just starts laughing. He's like, turn around. So I turned the vehicle around and there's a mushroom cloud in Baghdad. Place blew up somehow. I don't think baby milk is volatile at all. You know what I mean? Do you? Have you ever seen baby milk blow up in the microwave maybe? I don't know. Who reported that?

55:34Who reported that it was baby milk blowing up? The news. It had to be CNN because it was the only real news back then. So they're reporting this. You guys are, now, at that time, are you guys coming home and watching the news to see what's going on, to see what's being reported, or no? You are. Yeah. Because you're doing this. Let's see what they're going to say. They play it, you know, in the operations center. They're playing the news at all times, you know what I mean? At the operations center. Of course. And why are they doing that? Are they just trying to see? Everybody, look, CNN was on all the time back then.

56:06You know that. Everyone just watched CNN. Right. Especially in the Army. You think the army is going to tell you what's going on? We're watching CNN. No shit. But I realized they were just, it's just lies. Did you ever have an experience with the CIA where you're like, I can't trust these guys? Yes. What happened? Stuff. So much stuff. I don't even remember, but yes. And that's what led you to not trust in those guys? the energy I'm getting from you is there was there there is a level of frustration or not even frustration lack of trust for them that's slightly above everybody else would you agree with that or no I don't trust them why you know what I mean well first off like a lot of them are through the war years they're just college kids they were recruiting kids right out of college you know to be got it you know the next thing is I thought um beginning Afghanistan I think these like mid-level guys or station chiefs or, you know, whatever, right?

57:08Just a little above case officers. I think they thought Afghanistan and Iraq was going to be like France after World War II. They were going to be in chateaus and their best clothes and they're going to be cheersing and, you know, down with whatever. I don't know what the fuck people would even say at a party like that. You wouldn't get me in those clothes. But that's what they thought. And then here we are, you know, rocketed every night. You know what I mean? Like mortared, rocketed, especially in the beginning of Afghanistan. Like they're rocketing you every night, mortaring you. So they didn't get what they bargained for.

57:45And a lot of them were just kids. Like, I mean, how do you blame? I don't blame anybody. You know, everyone had good intent. But like, you know, some 23-year-old girl, they recruit out of college. Now she's in Baghdad trying to run sources countered as our cowie, who's just going to kill you. If they even get whiffed, you talk to somebody. Come on. It's ridiculous, right? So it's, I don't think there's anyone has bad intent, but it's several layers of kind of, I don't think they really had a good plan. And you'd think like, well, who would have the good plan? Well, if they don't got a good plan, who's got a good plan?

58:22And then you realize, like, well, we're the only ones, like, kind of doing what we say. What were some of the unconventional ways you got intel? I don't even know what that means. Meaning, like, if I go in, find somebody that is, like, I remember you told a story about Saddam had this one girl that he liked a lot and she wasn't that pretty. So he went to the husband and, you know, you got, so what was unconventional ways you got intel? Yeah, wives, the tailor, his butlers, like, I don't know if there is an unconventional way. I mean, I don't even know what that means. Just any way to get it. Any way to get it.

59:05And the reason I said, look, and if they got beef, if someone's husband wants to sleep with someone's wife and you're going to tell on these guys, like, okay where they I don't care how we get these guys they're on our list we need to go get them if that makes sense so it's always a never-ending we're getting these guys to answer these questions it's a it's a puzzle piece you know what I mean and we're just filling in these puzzle pieces one guy at a time and then I would say this is like everyone thinks like you need these these guy's got these massive secrets no i just need to know who who owned the truck you were in because we already know most of the story who owned the truck all these questions what we're looking for is like they're just silly benign questions you're not gonna die for that achmet owned the truck like i don't know you know what i mean like so you know these people think there's this like you've really got to get like answers out of these people.

1:00:09Most of them, I'll just tell you if you're right to answer the right questions. Cause you know, they think you're going to, a lot of times people think like you're going to kill them or they're being robbed. Like, you know, how many, I can't tell you how many nights we raided houses in Baghdad and the family was relieved. We weren't Iraqis because Iraqis will also rob you. So they're just relieved to deal with Americans, you know, And the questions we ask, who owned the truck? You know what I mean? Who did you meet with yesterday? Right? Like, these are nothing questions. So when framed correctly, the guy will just tell you.

1:00:47I tell you, I used to do this all the time. You know how to get a guy to tell you who he is? I'd walk up to the guy, and I'd hold my little pictures up to him. I'd give him a really stern look. And I'd be like, fucking Saddam. And you know what the guy's going to say? No Saddam. No Saddam. Mohammed. I'd be like, he's on the list. Get him out of here. Next guy. Saddam. No Saddam, right? Like the best way to do it is accuse him of being someone you know they're going to put to death. They'll tell you who they are. But if you ask them their name, they're going to lie to you. I used to do that all the time.

1:01:26So the reason why I ask this question about the unconventional way of getting intel is because CIA is not capable of doing what you guys are capable of doing. To get the intel, one must fear for their lives to eventually give the information. Would you agree, like some of the higher level intel? Handmade in Portugal. Their craftsmanship is a way of life. For those who move through life differently. From sunlit decks to nights that never need an occasion. Every detail is considered. Every step, effortless. crafted from fine suede and built with builder technology designed to move with you because true luxury isn't about being noticed it's about how you feel when you arrive the flb icon loafer made for the life you've earned buy stocks to sell you might be missing the opportunity now might be a good time now's the time to go all in real traders still hear the noise they just know when to stop listening to it.

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1:04:34I mean, you know, if you're going to play that game, you know what I mean? You better play it to the end as a terrorist. You know what I'm saying? If you're going to play it or if they. No, they have to play that game. They're playing the terror game. They know we're coming after them. You better play your part to the end. You know what I mean? John, what's a one-on-one face-off you had with a guy, an enemy, that he was sizing you up that you're like, I don't think this guy's scared and I got to make a statement. Did you have a lot of those moments? Never once. Never once. You ain't sizing me up.

1:05:05I'd already put you down. What are you talking about? Why would I let it get this far? Really? This is how you survive. Why would you let anyone square up on you? Such a bad idea. I already stopped this. At what point? But if you're trying to get information out of me, you kill me. You didn't get anything out of me. If a guy squares up on me, I'm going to put him down. I could care less what he knows right now. If a guy squares up, you're putting him down. Yeah. Let people threaten you during war? That's a risk you and your guys can't take, especially in small teams. I wouldn't even let that happen.

1:05:38Or if a guy wanted to square up on me, I'd already be gone. If I was alone, I wouldn't even allow it to happen. So why even get there? What's the closest call you ever had? I know you probably had. I'll tell you the worst thing is the mortars because you could hear them coming in and they're coming crump and they get louder. Crump, crump. You know what I mean? And then, you know, they'll land them in the camp sometimes, you know. One night I think a ranger was injured trying to pee and a mortar round came in and shrapneled his man part. Stop it. You know what I'm saying? That's rough. But look, I think that's the worst stuff is you're just, you know.

1:06:18And I got to the point where guys would be like, what are we going to do? I'm staying in my bunk. If it hits me and disintegrates me, I'll never know anyway. I'm going to sleep. That's all you can do. So I would say the mortars and rockets are like the worst. You know what I mean? The mortars and rockets. Yeah. And when you say small team, how big were the teams? Three, four, five? Yeah. I mean, it depends. War requires bodies. You know what I mean? We could be down to two waiting for people. Like, we could have however many, you know. So always small teams. I went out alone a lot. I worked with, I would go out with other guys, you know.

1:06:56But generally speaking, you know, like very small teams, couple guys here or there. You prefer going alone or would it? Yeah, I'd rather go alone. Why is that? Because this is going to go my way. You know what I mean? When you're with a group, I think you end up having a group dynamic. and I think you overlook a lot of things that you would look, well, you would look at very critically when you were alone. Like when I was alone, I learned 100 to 1 over when I would go out with like a dozen guys and we're going to raid houses. Like who wants to oppose us? You'd be stupid, right? But, you know, when you're alone, you can't be taking those risks.

1:07:40So it's always different switching gears for me anyway. You know, and when I was with a group of guys, like, there's two of us. I know what I can do. You guys didn't have a chance to begin with. Yeah. Do you remember the first time you took somebody out, took one of the enemies out? Man, the Battle of Tora Bora. Like, I don't know how many people. I mean, you can probably Google how many people we killed the first day, but it was like too many to count for sure. Is that your first ever? Yeah. Yeah, my first time in battle was the Battle of Torvora. Did you have a reaction the first time? I fucking loved it.

1:08:19Are you kidding me? You loved it. It was great. I mean, I didn't know. Honestly, I didn't know if it was incoming or outgoing. I was getting mortared. I didn't know. I mean, another guy. But I thought it was great, man. I kind of like, I don't know. I felt at ease. Like, I knew maybe this is what I was supposed to do. I don't know. But yeah. And then, like, yeah, we were decimating those guys. so I stopped counting on my first day. And this is still with a small team that you're taking a bunch of people on. It's not like you're dealing with a big team. Yeah. So on any given day, what could be the high loan number on people you guys took out?

1:08:57There was hundreds. There was hundreds. On any given. What's it say on this thing? Hundreds. Like, I don't even know. I didn't count. Like, I'm going to tell you, all these guys counting, I don't even know where the fuck this comes from because, like, who got time for all the counting you know what i mean like i don't think uh guys that count have seen it like much bigger many more bodies mass casualties i don't think they've seen those things you know what i mean um but like so many it's not even funny did you did you see like are there different ways people react to it or is it pretty much all the same um okay i think if this goes right for you i think you'll never have a problem with it and i try to do this when a guy when one of my guys shot somebody in the moment i tell him this is exactly what i expect of you this is good work right you need to hear that on the spot okay next i would try to if i had time cut off the shirt and look at the shot placement because as the as the boss yeah i'm in charge of the marksmanship you know i mean we need to see if these rounds are where they should have been you know so i would check the marksmanship on guys and i would show him these shots are perfect keep doing what you're doing couldn't have done better and then when we get back i'd make everybody drink even the guy that don't drink grab a cup i give a little a little drink to everybody and we toast that guy'll never have a problem after that you know but look i'm telling you it works you don't anyone that's worked for me you don't see them complaining about ptsd you don't see me screaming about it you know what i mean now i've had every symptom and one and like here i am i live on bonus points you know what i mean so uh but uh you know i don't think it's a huge deal i think it's a human condition and there's a way to deal with it and deal with it correctly so we can all move on is there a is there a positive of natural high?

1:11:04Were you on more of it or no? Man, I tell people this all the time. You might have to do stuff sometimes you don't like. And then other times, that same stuff, you might like it. Right? It's the times you like it that you should be concerned with. It's the times you like it that you should be concerned with. Yeah, there's certain guys I could have really cared less what happened to this guy on certain nights. You know what I mean? One of your guys. Mostly bad guys. Okay. You know what I mean? like there's certain bad guys where like however the night pans out like I could really care if this guy lived or died the night you know what I mean and there's other times where like man you feel for people and you know you gotta think like it was we dealt with a lot of people family kids like you come get a man of the house he's got a family you gotta deal with them too you know what I mean what was that like if you just took somebody out the wife is sitting there how do you handle that Well, it depends on how it's going down.

1:12:02Some of them wives go nuts. Like, they know without this man in the house, their life is over. You know what I mean? Just culturally. So, like, that didn't always go great. What could that look like? Just a ton of screaming, trying to scratch up your face. Like, I mean, you don't understand what they're saying, but you kind of know what they're going through. Did they ever take out guns themselves and come after you? Yeah. Yeah, I seen a lady whip out an AK once. It didn't go well for her, you know what I mean? I'm assuming she's no longer with us. No, we didn't. We just lumped her up a little bit, you know what I mean?

1:12:37We didn't have to shoot her. So most of the time you guys didn't take out the wives? No, no, we're not messing with them at all, you know what I mean, or the kids. But you've got to come get this dude out of this house. We've got questions for this dude. You know, and a lot of times these guys would bring their families to gunfights, bring them out on the streets and like, you know what I mean? Why? What for? Cowards. As a shield? Yeah, shields. Coward. I don't know. Crazy, but you'd see it all the time. So when you hear stories about them using their own family as shield, there's credibility behind that.

1:13:13Yeah. Yeah. Kids, including kids. Yeah. How did you guys handle that? Oh, yeah. You work around it. I mean, do they grab rifles? Are they combatants or not? Say the kids grab rifles. Well, that's their choice. You voted. You chose poorly. Got it. So if a nine-year-old kid picks up a rifle. And he wants to shoot you, you're not going to shoot him back. What movie was it? It was in one of the scenes. I don't know which American Sniper it was where there's a scene where that happens with the kid. Okay, first off, if a kid had an AK and I was 300 yards away on a roof, Like, I wouldn't shoot him. You know what I'm saying?

1:13:57It's only if you're close. It's only if you're a threat. Because everyone carries an AK. And every adult male should have an AK in Afghanistan and Iraq. They're not really civilized places. You know what I mean? And the policy was, even these generals who now say America shouldn't have guns, even those guys' policy was you had to leave one AK per house per male. They got to defend themselves.

1:14:31The moments where you had a young kid that have an AK with them that tried to defend the family, you're like, listen, if you're going to take me out, I'm going to take you out. Did those land with soldiers in a different way or the same? No, you're trying to kill me, I'm going to kill you. I mean, everyone takes it differently. I look at it this way. you pick up a gun and you point it at me and you're about to shoot you already voted against me i'm gonna vote against you got it it's that simple i mean what else do you do you want to just stand there and die watch it happen you want to just watch all the way till the bullet hits you you know i don't would guys ask you this question what to do in those moments or it's instinct um no a little of both it depends are we just sitting here waiting for this to happen or Or did this just happen in front of us?

1:15:20So there's this side of you on the podcast side, right, where people watch you and you're extremely entertaining, right? Yeah. But the guys that you talked to who were with you when you were in the game, demanding, pushing, challenging, high expectations, how different is the John today from the John at 30 years old? And if I'm in your unit. man I was just peachy are you kidding me right I have a hard time believing that yeah I was the best ever in my mind just ask me I don't know yeah I was wherever I lost my smile is when I became an asshole and I was an asshole for years you know what I mean I tell people all the time I lived at rock bottom for years you know what I mean I thought it was my normal uh yeah so uh i would say like uh i was an asshole for years i was and but you know i mean think of this you know i i think what happens is you always want to do right and then shit happens maybe right maybe wrong i don't know no one's got bad intent shit gets fucked up right but the army will convince you that you were the bad guy here and you know what sometimes that's not true right and sometimes like sometimes you are the bad guy so I was an asshole for years um you know I drank I hated my life loved war hated coming home pretty simple if they would have just left me in Baghdad I'd have been fine the whole time no shit so I didn't want to come home like at that time were you married with kids Yeah, yeah.

1:17:06I had little kids. I was married, about divorced. My personal life was a shit show, so I just engulfed myself in work. How'd you manage that? Like, how did you manage the scene? Forget about the wife, the kids. How did you manage the relationship with the kids? You mean war? No, no. Like, while you're— You mean war? Yeah. How did I manage my relationship with war? I just stayed there. Missing the kids. Was there any, like, did you, in your mind, like, was there thoughts of your own kids? In my mind, if I don't go to war today, we're not going to win this war. What else matters to me right now?

1:17:47Anyone else going to do this? Anyone else raising their hand to do this? So the guys that raise their hands are very few. We're busy. You ever seen the movie A Few Good Men? Is that that lawyer movie? You ordered your code red. Have you seen it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Long time ago. Do you remember like he's saying, you don't know what this life is like. You go around to an office and all this other stuff. You don't know what men like me do and da-da-da, the speech. I'm not going to get into the speech. Do you agree with him? Like there are certain things that the average. I mean, at times, I mean, you know.

1:18:22I'm not talking about the code red part. I'm talking about like. Yeah, for sure. Look, I look at everything as right and wrong. There's always a right thing to do. You know what I mean? Try to do that. You know, and then I would also say this in beginning of war, I wanted to kill everybody. Let's just kill them all. Get it over with. How old were you at that time? Did you want to kill everybody? I don't know. 26, 27? No, let's see. 2001, I'd have been 31. 31. 30, 31. And you just want to kill everybody? Everybody. Let's not even play games. Your eyes go two different places. Yeah. One eye you have is just a fun guy chill.

1:19:01One eye you go to, like you're locked in, right? The level of intensity, I can see it sitting in front of you. Yeah. Was it the level of intensity 24-7 with you when you were at 31? At that phase, the first time? Yeah, for sure. Always, level 10. How much were you drinking at that time? Oh, a man. Yeah, I drank about two bottles of Crown a night. A night? Yeah. And then I go hit the strip clubs. Every night? Yeah, most nights, yeah. In Baghdad? Oh, no, when I was home. Oh, when you were home? Yeah. And this is, you're living with your wife, but you're going and hitting. Yeah, I was kind of divorced and single then, yeah.

1:19:41Got it. Yeah. So two bottles of Crown a night, and you're hitting the strip club. Yeah. And then you're at the. I'd eat a few Ambien, too. Yeah. And then you're coming to do cardio at 6 a.m. Generally, I'd like, sometimes I'd drink a bottle, take my Ambien, and then I'd just wake up at the strip club, and it'd be time for me to go in and do cardio. I quit drinking for a little bit, and my God, the guys that worked for me were like, we need you going back to drinking because morning fitness is worse when you're sober. I was like, yeah, tough shit. You know what I mean? But, yeah, I used to drink a lot.

1:20:22When I was deployed, you know, I didn't drink as much. I'd probably only drink like, I don't know, maybe a half a bottle a night. Maybe not every night. Because, like, I was the guy to go out alone, so I'd go get all the booze for everybody. I'd just go down to the Christian district, buy cases of booze, bring it back to the house. Right? Rule number one, not supposed to drink. Dumbest rule ever. Someone's got to blow off steam in here. Otherwise, you end up having trouble down the line. Tell me more. Well, I mean, if you got, I mean, think about it. If you just, if there's a major battle, the Army had a major, think about this like 100 years ago.

1:21:04They'd have a major battle, right? After the battle, they're all going to get hammered, high five, talk about their stories with each other. This is called therapy in my book. And then the next day, they move on. Like the Army allows for no venting. You can't tell someone you're burned out. You can't tell someone. The Army accounts for none of that. They don't care about you. Keep your mouth shut. Do your job. Buy stocks to sell before the end of the week. You might be missing the opportunity to hear. Now it might be a good time. The mind that says now is the time to go all in. Real traders still hear the noise.

1:21:38They just know when to stop listening to it. Find and research opportunities to fit your strategy with thinkorswim trading platforms from Schwab. Discover features like robust charting, nearly unlimited customization, and built-in risk management technology. Plus, get 24-7 support from real trading specialists. That's Schwab Trading. Learn more at schwab.com slash trading. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks.

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1:23:58Okay, so while you're out there, what are you doing with girls? I mean, were there any girls? Are you finding nothing, right? Who cares? No, no girls. Who needs girls? It's ridiculous. There's a war going on. You could kill people today. You're worried about girls? Yeah, but you're drinking. If you're drinking, like guys get drunk, They're trying to find a girl. Were guys trying to go find girls or no? Overseas? Yeah. No. Why would you want one of those girls? That doesn't even make sense to me. Tell me why. I mean, guys would go to anywhere and they would want to get a girl. Besides, they're like dirty.

1:24:35Besides, they need shoes. I mean, that's just a couple factors off the top. Not that I'm a germaphobe, but that's the first thing. You know what I mean? And then, look, I always felt like it was surreal. Like we'd go with these towns like Afghanistan or Iraq. It was surreal. We don't live like this. We don't live nothing like this. So it was always so surreal. I kind of almost, I don't know, it's like, it almost was like it's some type of narrative play. You know what I mean? Like it was surreal. Like whatever happens to these people has nothing to do with my life, who I am, you know, my family, my, you know what I mean?

1:25:21So it was like surreal to me. A lot of times, like I was just indifferent maybe. Yeah, to stay in that, say, you know, 31 years old, specifically that John, where you're like you were an asshole and all this stuff. What was it working with you? Like are you hard charging throughout the day and then chill at night? Is it like two personalities? Is it three personalities? Who am I dealing with? I don't think there's any chill. You know what I mean? 24-7. Yeah, I don't think I could chill at all. Matter of fact, I didn't sleep either. I'd probably sleep like four hours, three hours a day. Why sleep more time for drinking?

1:25:59You know what I mean? You're not joking. You're actually being dead serious. I used to do this all the time. All the time. I tell people this all the time. I mean, I should get that crown royal. today's sponsor brought to you by hey and if they sponsored me i'd probably need like a 10-year contract to get my money back out of them you know what i mean do you still drink today or now i do drink man oh i stopped drinking for a while um years i stopped drinking and i didn't do no alcohol and then like here's why i see it booze wasn't my problem so like i like socially to have a drink you know what i mean but like when i'm at home or anything i don't really drink that much but if i go out we're socially we go get lunch i'd love to like get done with jujitsu i call it stinking drink and like go get some lunch and have a cocktail right after jujitsu with nothing in my stomach you know what i mean so i love this right afterwards yeah yeah stinking drink i love Stinking drinking.

1:26:59So going back to if I came to your unit and I'm working with you, the unit, you're my guy. What's your expectation for me every day? How are you treating me? I'm one of your guys. Yeah, first off, you're going to get treated the best you've been treated. I don't believe in stupidity and leadership. I don't believe in bad timing. I don't believe in emergencies. Let's just kind of smooth out the playing field, and we got to do what we got to do, and we got to do it. That simple. I don't fuck with nobody. I ain't micromanaging you. Now, if you're a performer, the more you perform for me, the more slack I'll give you.

1:27:38And what does performance mean? Performance kind of works this way. Credibility equals freedom to maneuver. That's what guys used to say. Credibility equals? Freedom to maneuver. Got it. So if I'm doing a good job for you, I have a little bit more flexibility. Yeah. Yeah. You could be late. You could miss a day at work. All you'd have to do is tell me, yeah, go do your shit. Get out of here. However, you're habitually fucking shit up. Like, I will have some solutions for you that are going to be cruel and unusual to you. Such as. The army says if it looks stupid and it works, it's not stupid. You know what I mean?

1:28:20But like, yeah, a guy couldn't pull a pin on a fast rope and he blamed it on his gloves and made him wear his gloves like nine to five for a week. I don't care if you got to pick your nose, wipe your butt. These gloves will never be a problem for you again. And they weren't. You know what I mean? I read a story about Tim Kennedy. If you want to play this clip here, Tim is telling a story about who you were. I don't know if you've seen this or not. go for it. John McPhee, former Delta Force operator, amazing war fighter, a storied career at the unit. He was my boss. John was a force. He's one of those guys in garrison.

1:29:00He is not a fun human to work for. He's definitely not one that you want as your personal mentor about how to be a good human. But you put John McPhee in a case in glass that says break case of war violence and you break that, he is one of the greatest war fighters to like walk during G-Mot. We were a hammer in that first deployment. John, you've never seen that? I think I've seen some of it, but I've never seen this clip before. I told you I was an asshole. You know what I mean? And then, yeah, I was good at my job. You know, like, look, I came from, like, kind of fucked up childhood. You know what I mean?

1:29:39So, like, no one ever showed me how to have good relationships, right? So as soon as war started, and my, I would say this, if you had a good marriage, you're lucky your marriage survives the war. I mean, because think about it. It's like going to prison. You can call home, but you ain't going anytime soon. You know what I mean? And then think about what you're doing on the other end, right? And guys say this all the time, right? Like, then they come home, they got to sit at soccer games, and it's like, well, I didn't want to do any of that. I just wanted to go back to war. You know what I mean?

1:30:12I'm not going to sit here and lie and say, like, oh, I was a great father. I went to those soccer games. Bullshit. No dude wants to sit at those soccer games. Let's be honest. A. And then B, I just wanted war. I was good at it. I could save lives every day. When I would go out, I felt like less guys got hurt. Where else should I be? Who else needs me more? You know what I mean? And I think people don't realize the focus that it takes. But I'm not the only one to have that kind of focus. Because look at these CEOs of these big companies. Some of these, you know, I don't know, like that's all they do.

1:30:51You know, and their kids will say they weren't a great father. You know what I mean? So I'm not going to sit here and, you know, say I was a great father and, you know, lack the responsibility of my focus, my thoughts, my everything was about war. And if I wasn't there, who was? And if I'm not there helping people, who's going to help people? Right? And that's where my thoughts were. Did everybody need to know how to fight? Was everybody fairly a fighter? No. War requires bodies. We only need a couple fighters. You know what I mean? And we need a couple smart guys, and we need a couple mechanically inclined guys, and we need a couple, you know what I mean?

1:31:33I mean, this is a team sport. It truly is. Got it. So it's not like Tim Kennedy was in the UFC at one point. He was fighting. There are stories about he was going around telling everybody, I can beat you up, I can beat you up. Is that a true story? Yeah. Yeah. It didn't go well. What happened? Yeah, he's like, I don't know, one night, like one of the helicopters got bumped, right? And like, you know, we have packages. You know, certain teams always ride on the same helicopters. You build these habitual relationships. So the helicopter pilot feels like he cares about you enough to come get you in bad situations.

1:32:10so like we build these kind of packages and like have these habitual kind of you ride on this helicopter helicopter goes down for the night i tell him to stay back right and i was like hey get the gun trucks ready just kind of in case we need you you're gonna have to roll in trucks and come save us right and but he wasn't the only one there's a bunch of like his the whole the whole helicopter you know what i mean so we lost like however many guys ride in the helicopter for the night. Right. So we had to do more with less on an evening. Right. So he had to stay back. And then when I get back, you know, he's kind of like kicking rocks and he's just a young kid.

1:32:47You know, I would say this at that point in my career, I hadn't dealt with any like younger kids in the army to this point. I'd been surrounded by what we called lifers. The guys are just, this is my life. This is what I do. I'm good at it. You know what I mean? And the lifers, aren't really hip to new guys, especially younger new guys when you're more senior force. So, you know, I mean, I don't mind these guys. He's a young kid, right? And like, he's really mad about it. And I was like, man, you want to kick my butt? And he was like, yeah. And I was like, well, you meet me in the dojo tonight at like whatever, whenever we get done.

1:33:27And he's like, okay. And then, you know, so he comes in the dojo. And then what I did is like, I knew he would do this and I knew he would accept the challenge so before I even asked him I was like hey who wants to kick his ass and everyone raised their hand and I said be in the dojo this time everyone literally wants to kick his ass oh yeah because because why he was being obnoxious yeah just kind of like kind of I don't know just a little immature then you know what I mean kick your ass I'm tougher than all you guys like that kind of a man well no just kind of like complaining about having to stay back.

1:33:59Like, you know, immaturity is really what we're talking about. So he comes in the dojo and like 15 people are standing in there. And I said, we're going to fight in order of rank. And like he handled a few guys, like the first few guys handled them successfully. You know what I mean? But the lesson was you can't beat us all. And this is a team sport. What a good lesson. And then by the time it got to me, I put him in the sand and he's bleeding. And I just whispered in his ear, I hope we don't got to have this talk again. You know what I mean? And then me and the guys walked out and left him in there.

1:34:36You know what I mean? Was he the best fighter out of everybody? Oh, for sure. So you guys. Yeah. So he is better fighter than all the guys in the room. Everybody. But he's not better than 15 guys at once. What a great lesson. Yeah. What a great lesson. Yeah. You need a team to do something big in your life. For real. Can't do it alone. And then what happened? What was his attitude afterwards with everybody? Did he also earn his respect from others? Are you like? Yeah, yeah. He earned respect. He got better after that. And he's grown. And, like, I talk to him now. He's great. But, yeah, back then it was like my thing was this is a team sport.

1:35:17You know what I mean? Not one of us can do this alone. Not one of us. yeah he's a he's also was he also delta no he was just uh i was when i was in uh seven special forces oh okay so he was special forces he wasn't seven yeah we were in seventh group would a personality like him ever been uh selected into delta and maybe if he would have tried out he could have been there but he didn't so we'll never know and maybe he's not a 87.7 you know what i I don't know. We don't know. I'm not a shrink, not a doctor. By the way, you know when we all woke up one day, this was, I don't know, sometime last year, oh, you know, we officially have Maduro, and he's going to New York, and da-da-da-da-da.

1:36:00The U.S. did this operation, and they went in, and we heard about all these different things and how they did it, right? Yeah.

1:36:09First off, way to go, boys. You know what I mean? I couldn't be prouder. Literally. Oh, hell yeah. And was it your guy? Was it Delta? Well, I don't know who it was, but whoever it was, you know what I mean? Way to go, boys. This is the Super Bowl, you know what I mean? Yeah, because when I read this stuff, it says Delta was involved. Two Delta Force squadrons had been moved into the region ahead of a raid, one of them in the Middle East, North America. And they were flown in by the 160 Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the Night Stalkers, and, of course, we hear the stories. But a project like this that is that successful, and then all of a sudden he's getting all this oil and the deals and stuff that he's doing, I'm talking about Trump, then you have Iran, the right that you do.

1:36:55How different are those two missions for somebody that spent a lot of time in the Middle East? Well, I would say this. One is in our hemisphere and one is not. That's the way I look at it, right? Like, look, we should be working this hemisphere. We should be better friends with everyone in South America. We should be better friends with Canada. We all live on this side of the world. We should all pull the rope together, more so than sending shit halfway around the world, right? And then geographically, they got their own issues. So I see it as a geographical issue and maybe a where to stand in the world of helping your neighbors more so than helping people that don't live in your neighborhood.

1:37:45That's kind of the way I see it. Okay. So, you know, let's just say somebody comes in, the president comes in and is saying, we're shutting down all our military bases outside of the Western Hemisphere. Is that a good move? No. Why? Yeah, I don't know. You know what I mean? I would say this. We should have never gave up Balad in Iraq. We should have never gave up Bagram in Afghanistan. Because think about this. We would have a major army base on both sides of Iran right now. But that's the mindset of it. And I had to throw mines around it and told the locals, mess with us, and you'll just get blown up walking through the minefield.

1:38:29We won't even have to shoot you. Save bullets, you know. And then just have these bases full at all times. Why are we giving this property back? We took it. Why are we giving it back? And think about this. If we would have kept the base in Iraq, you think ISIS would have took it? You think ISIS would have took Iraq if we had a base there? You know what I mean? You think the Taliban would be as adverse friends to us? Because I know we're friends now, air quotes. But, you know, why couldn't we keep a base in both one of these countries? We took that ground. And think about strategically where we'd be now.

1:39:11I think we make a ton of mistakes. And I think our political cycle is way too short for most of these guys to make good decisions, which goes back to the Saddam conversation of there was a timeline on it because of politics. And we should be playing a much longer game. It's not possible because presidents change. You've got eight years max. Then typically we go like this. And the next guy that comes in is like a complete different philosophy. Pulls the plug. Yes. You go back and forth. Correct. Unfortunately, that's how the Constitution has been created. Correct. To change that is a lot of amendments that you need.

1:39:48I don't know if it's two-thirds or not. Well, I don't think that needs to be changed. I just think someone should have a long-term strategy, and we should be following that somehow. We got all these smart people in government, yet we ain't making greater decisions. So are you in the mindset? Because you're saying, let's just focus on Western Hemisphere. That was part of your first. to, you know, but then you're like, Hey, we should have had one on each side of Iran, put mines and come mess with us. You're going to blow up. We're going to kill you. It's done. So go ahead. If you want to do anything right, we should have never given up the basis.

1:40:20Okay. Would you consider yourself a non-interventionist or a person that protects the country? And we need to intervene at times. I'm a realist. And the truth is if the fight's going to come to you, You want to fight it in your yard or someone else's yard? It's that simple. But the way they fight is different than the way we fight. They'll come in, you know, like the way China fights is they'll send spies to work in companies to get intel from us and, you know. Well, that's a different type of war. You know what I mean? Now you're, but this is another long-term plan I don't feel we have a good strategy on.

1:40:58You know, China is a separate issue from Iran, but I would tell you this. Stay on Iran. Let's stay on Iran. I would tell you, I personally think, and like, I'm not a, I'm not anybody. This is just, I'm not a doctor. This is just my opinion. Iran's in the perfect place to get a never ending supply of guns and money from Russia and China. They got Saudi boxed in. Right? Always have. Which means the Israelis are boxed in. when we took out Saddam we took out the only opposition to Iran so having said that right it's it's it's a it's a shit show and until something changes it'll continue to be a shit show and then the culture you know and I mean come on they've been charting you know saying death to America for years.

1:41:54You know what I mean? That's generations of hate, you know? And I hope these kids today with the internet start to see that this is all bullshit. This is people playing you for power. It's not about religion. It's about money and power. Don't, don't ever forget that. You know, it's not about religion. It's about power. You know, that's not going to change that, that depth, hatred, animosity, you killed my dad. I'm going to seek vengeance. When you're not paying attention, I'm going to send my kids to your country. They're true believers. When you're not looking, I'm going to blow your shit up and kill everybody in your family, and I'm going to go to heaven and meet my 72 virgins and meet my, that's the mindset.

1:42:37You're going against that kind of an ideology. So are you in this school of thought with Iran where if we don't do something to them now, long-term we're going to face severe consequences. Well, they'll do something to us. Or are you like, no, leave them alone. Let them do their thing. I already said whatever they got going on. Obviously, you can't leave them alone because they got their fingers in a lot of stuff. And that's the game they play. And if that's the game they're playing, well, they want to play whack-a-mole, you might get hit on the head with a hammer. You know what I'm saying? Look, I don't know what the right answer is.

1:43:15I'm not a scholar, not an expert, but I would say this, is it's not going to end until you can somehow cut off all the guns and money that come to Iran, the support they get from these other countries. Until then, it's on. You know what I mean? And they know it. Right? Because it's, and then, you know, the next thing is, is like the religious part of the world. You got the Sunnis versus the Shia, you know? So I don't know how to win Iran. I don't know what the best answer is. I would tell you I think one of the things we should have done already is, look, two Russian guys in Adidas track suits and a Range Rover are going to drive in Iran with a bucket loader and try to dig up that nuclear material.

1:44:04Why ain't we seized that shit? Let's get that off the playing field. so it ain't, you know, 20 years from now, someone dug it up and they now have the fuel. Now they just need rockets or something. I would have secured any nuclear material as soon as possible. Buy stocks to sell before the end of the week. You might be missing the opportunity to hear. Now it might be a good time. My guy says now is the time to go all in. Real traders still hear the noise. They just know when to stop listening to it. Find and research opportunities to fit your strategy with thinkorswim trading platforms from Schwab.

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1:46:51Doesn't sound like we succeeded the last time when they said we shut all the things down and, you know, be, you know, all the stories of, yeah, they're never going to have nuclear weapons again, but we're back at it again. So probably that mission wasn't a successful mission. I don't know. As long as that material is out there, it's for grabs, isn't it? I think. They could hate us all they want, right? Fly your drones, shoot at the Navy ships. It's all nuisance stuff. That nuclear material shit, that's going to be a problem if it don't get fixed now. At your peak, like I'm talking about 31, 32, 33 years old, that John McPhee.

1:47:33If you had a team to go in there, what do you think you guys could accomplish? We'd go get that nuclear material. You would get the nuclear material? Look, I think the whole reason they hate us is because we've been fucking around there for years, right? Like, you know, if you read some older books, Game of Nations, stuff like that, like we were messing around with Syria, all of them post-World War II, and I think we've kind of done it to ourselves. And that's why I'm a big fan of leave them alone. If it's not a problem. Even now. Yeah, leave them alone. Leave our RGC alone. Well, okay, you mess with our ships, shoot their ship down.

1:48:15Your plane flies near our plane, shoot that plane down. Mess with it at all, it's going to cost you. However, let them go. Seize the nuclear material and let them go back to doing whatever they're doing. But seizing the nuclear material is a big mission. Okay. How many people are in the Army right now with nothing to do? We're paying them right now, aren't we? You're saying put troops on the ground. You're for that. I'm for getting that nuclear material. That means putting troops on the ground to dig it up, to seize the material? I say yes. Do you think the president is afraid of doing that because he promised no troops on the ground?

1:48:54I don't know what that guy does. I don't even watch the news. I don't do politics. I could care less. But it's military, though. This is military. Yeah, but this is decisions he has to make, and that's political. Got it. But if you were there, you would say, let's get that nuclear out and then leave them alone. I mean, think about this. If they had no fuel for this nuclear rocket and we destroyed their whole program, what's our beef now? If you're claiming that Russia would provide it to them, wouldn't Russia be able to provide them whatever they want? I don't know. Even if you got them. It's like if Russia wants Iran to be stronger because they're a good ally and they sell them the Chevy drones and all that.

1:49:38Well, if they were going to sell them shit that had done it before now, I'm thinking, and that hasn't happened, so whatever stopped them before is stopping them now. Here's the deal, that the material is the problem, right? Because you could build a rocket. I don't think anyone in the world cares. Most governments have rockets, right? I mean, I don't own any. You own any rockets? But most governments have rockets, right? So that's not a big deal. The problem was the nuclear thing. Okay, let's take that off the table. Now what's our beef? The reality is, what, are we just going to fight indefinitely?

1:50:15I mean, come on, man. Since I was a kid, we argue about the same shit. Iran, the border, fucking health care, the VA sucks. All these things have never changed in our lifetime. We've never fixed anything. Shouldn't we start to maybe look at these things and go, how do we fix them? How do we fix this shit? You know what I mean? If the beef was the nuclear material, well, then let's get that shit. If the beef's something else, well, then what is the beef? What are we going after? What's the goal here? If Saddam would have stayed, you think they would have neutralized the ROGC? What do you think would have happened if Saddam would have stayed?

1:50:55I mean, I would have empowered Saddam to do whatever he wanted to do. Why is that? Because he kept them in check. As long as they were fighting Saddam, they didn't have the bodies, the manpower, the money to bring the fight around the world like they have. Now they're unchecked. They can just do whatever, right? I lived in Iran when he was attacking, and everybody in Iran was worried about Saddam, especially after the Shah was gone. He saw a massive opportunity. Khomeini does not rule a nation, let alone his military. He's not a military leader. Let's go. And he was on offense mode for I don't know how many years, like back to back to back.

1:51:34This is in the middle of the 80s when this was taking place. And you said that Saddam had a lot of Christians around him. Why is that? What was the story about him? Martyrs. Martyr stuff. What do you mean? Well, as a Muslim, if I martyred myself and you, I go to heaven. Christian kills himself and you. Christian goes to hell. Who's less likely to kill you? A Christian. So he was like his butler, his tailor, his if you touched him in any way, clothed him, fed him, those are all Christians. Because he trusted Christians. Yeah. And, you know, during his time, there was a massive Christian district downtown Baghdad.

1:52:19They've always been there. I mean, Assyrians, our old country. Yeah, yeah, seriously. Yeah. Now, I doubt how many are left after ISIS, but they probably didn't do well then. Did you, because you said, what, you guys captured him nine days after you left Iraq or something like that? Yeah, nine days after I went home for Christmas. Yeah, their squadron got him. Did you ever deal with Uday, his son, or no? I only seen his body dead. You only saw his body dead? The guys that killed him, I had to watch his bodies in the hangar, him and Ucuse. Were they as bad as the stories we read about? For real, they needed to die.

1:53:00I heard a story about them. I don't feel bad about them at all. Matter of fact, the planet is way better without these two. So they were more brutal than their father? for sure how did that happen so it's their psychopaths they just you know uh man they would just snatch girls off the street and like have them in the perfume palace like i talked to a girl that when the americans like came in iraq they freed her and she was like 18 she had been there since she was like 12 wow you know what i mean uh so they would just rape and murder and whatever the fuck they wanted. And is that because they felt empowered by the dad that they can get away with anything?

1:53:43I don't know what these psychos are thinking. Don't be getting me inside their head. These guys are sickos. I don't know what they think. I heard about a story about an Assyrian wedding in Iraq and the wife, the bride was the hottest girl in town. And so Uday shows up with his crew to the wedding, shows us guns. He says, I need to take the bride for one night and you guys will get her tomorrow. The groom, the husband, jumps in, boom, kills him right there at the wedding, takes the girl, next they brought the girl back. These are the types of stories you hear about this guy. Yeah, that's what they did, man.

1:54:18Like, I don't know what those guys thought, but they were bad news. They were bad news. No one needs to be treating people like that. You know what I mean? And Saddam wasn't like that. I don't know. I don't think Saddam was like, I would consider them like psychopaths where I would consider Saddam a dictator. You know, like he killed for control. I think these guys, sport and pleasure. You know what I mean? And I believe there were drug addicts also. These guys. Yeah, like white powder, whether it's meth or cocaine or whatever. There was a movie they made about him. I don't know if you've seen that.

1:54:56You watched the movie about Uday. Can you type in Uday Hussein movie? and it's actually by pretty legit act. It's a phenomenal movie I watched. I don't know how many years ago. Go a little bit lower to see. Yeah, that's that one right there. The Devil's Double. What a good name. Yeah, The Devil's Double. Yeah, the military commander Uday Hussein and his body double. I interviewed the double, by the way, like eight years ago, seven years ago. Very interesting story. You talked to his body double? What did that guy have to say? Dude, it was some like. I mean, I was sure that guy was scared of him also.

1:55:30You know what I mean? Scared shit. Everybody scared of this man. It was a, yeah, it was a very interesting conversation. What year is this? How long ago was this? Five years ago? Okay, five years ago. Talking to him and what role he had to play and how they would use him versus the other one. But, yeah, I mean, Uday, those guys, so you saw them. By the time you saw their body, they were dead. They were already killed. And your guys killed them? You're A or B? A. A. Okay, so warfare. How much of warfare changing do you sit there and like the strategies for you guys would change? Everything right now you hear is drone, drone, drone.

1:56:10Ukraine is supposed to be destroyed by Russia. And I know, shit, they got the best drones in the world for a couple thousand dollars. Iran, they got these drones for a couple thousand dollars. Is it changing like dramatically? Yeah, I think warfare like I experienced is going to be different in the future for sure. Do you think Delta Force will still be needed with the way they're doing it? 1 million percent. Yes. Tell me why. Man. I mean, until you can get robots that can, I mean, I think the goal with warfare is robots, right? Like why lose people? We could then war indefinitely. No one gets hurt.

1:56:48And we could all make money on war, right? Because war is a money-making business. I'm not dumb. So I think it's the way of the future. But I always think there's going to be, you know, the need for a unit to be able to pull stuff off that no one thinks is possible. And so you guys would just simply adjust with the weapons to use and whatever. Have you heard about these new Dragon Drones? No. Is this it about Dragon Drones? Watch this. I love the sparks. So it just comes in. Yeah. This is genius. Maybe play the one I sent you because the other one gives a, explains what it's capable of doing and how different it is the ones Russians make versus I just texted it to you.

1:57:37You should have it somewhere there. So dangerous, right? Did you guys have to deal with this back in the days or not really? Yeah. Man, we had them airplanes who crashed. No one could fly them right. We crashed them all the time. Like we had kind of similar small stuff, but nothing like as effective as they are today. Like nothing like this. This came after my time. With the audio?

1:58:29I mean, this is some different kind of warfare, right? I'm telling you. Do you look at this and say, this is cool shit? Yeah, hell yeah, it's cool as shit. Really? Hell yeah. The average person may look at this and say, dude, warfare is changing. Well, okay. I think the Russians are still fighting a World War II style war in the sense that they don't give a shit if they lose 20 million people. And I think that's how they think. So I think their warfare is different than the way we see warfare. You know, we're very objective focused where, you know, we take this, we take that, right? We're moving.

1:59:06We're on the move, right? I think the Russians are, you know, Stalingrad. If you take all the World War II examples, their kind of military doctrines throw bodies at the problem. Lots of bodies. Yeah, it's like he doesn't care right now. He even said all the rules are, I think Zelensky said yesterday or two days ago that the way Putin's leading all the rules in war are off the books now. Do whatever you want to do. They just surrendered. 250 Russian soldiers just surrendered and said a bunch of things. How do you think this one's going to end? Obviously, this is very different than Iran. How do you think this is going to end?

1:59:46uh well putin's probably honestly like look ever since they found what is it 15 trillion dollars of oil and gas under ukraine they went from zero on the oil charts to fourth in the world in potential i think he wants to carve off a slice of that for russia and he needs like warm water ports and he needs pipelines and shit. And if he had the Don Bass, he would have some of that, right? So I think he's looking for a negotiation to carve out, you know, a couple trillion dollars off the top for himself. For himself? Well, for Russia, whatever. You know what I mean? You know it all goes to his pocket.

2:00:29I mean, that's why he's the richest man in Europe now. Emmons Linsky, right? Two richest guys in Europe. You hear people saying that, but who knows if it's true or not? who do you trust more? Do you trust him or do you trust Zelensky more? I mean, I don't trust either one of them. It's a fool's game, trusting these dudes. Are you kidding me? You know what I mean? I mean, I'm not saying we shouldn't have allies and be good to people, but like, you know, I'm saying trust but verify. Always, you know what I mean? Period, end of discussion. Yeah, it'll be interesting on what happens, you know, with these guys and how it ends up ending between the two?

2:01:10Because the days of, do you think like in the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years, possibility of maybe even the next 6 to 12 months, any possibilities of somebody using a nuclear warhead? I think that's always a possibility. But I'm talking about like the way that it happened. Like, you know, Truman eventually called the shots and we did what we did. Do you think the tensions are at a level right now where Putin may sit there and say, you guys want to play this? No problem. NATO wants to expand to the east. You guys didn't keep your promises. I'm going to show you what I got. You think it will get to that point in our lifetime?

2:01:45Not with Putin. Putin's smarter than that. That's a no win. That's a no sum game. That's not how to get half of$15 trillion. That's how you get zero of that money. So I don't think Putin would do that. But I do believe any one of these rogue states warring anywhere in the Middle East would love to detonate a nuke anywhere they could. You know what I mean? So I think it's a very, look, I think the world now is crazier than the world in the 70s, in the 80s, in the 90s. Like there's so much going on these days and it's going so fast because of the internet truth, you know. all of it. So I think the next five years are going to look very different.

2:02:38You know, I would say this is like, look, I also think we need to have good friends in this world. You know what I mean? Like good friends. And we have the biggest economy in the world. It's the biggest weapon this world's ever seen. Let's pay the people that like us to do nice shit for us. And let's have friends. And the people that don't like us, don't give them no fucking money and ignore them. End of discussion. Right? But we keep giving everybody money, and we know you give Iran money, where's that money going? It's not going to the people. They're not buying blankets for babies. They're going to buy fucking weapons, and they're going to go to China and get more AKs so they can get them to Yemen because they're trying to box the Saudians from every angle.

2:03:26Right? So it's a never-ending, and it's a geography problem, I think. Second Amendment is coming up lately where guys are saying, you know, originally when the Founding Fathers came out with the Second Amendment was for you to be able to defend yourself against a tyrannical government, right? You're not going to do shit today with M16, you know, against the government that if they become tyrannical, right? Do you agree that maybe we need to extend the Second Amendment? Some people want to take away your gun. Some people want to take away anything you got. some are saying maybe civilians need to be able to have a little bit more than just M16s and good weapons.

2:04:05Where do you stand with that? It's America. Freedom of choice. It should all be legal. Even if I want to have bombs or nuclear or any of that. Well maybe not nukes. You know what I mean? Maybe you need to give like fingerprints and like a background check for the nuke. I don't know but I think look this is America everything should be legal. I don't think anything should be illegal. We're going into the future this is freedom of choice. You know what I mean? I don't think anything should be illegal. And I think the government should be traditionally in the business of, like, doing stuff like this to make money more so than whatever the taxes.

2:04:42You know what I mean? Have you seen what this guy Palmer Luckey is doing with drones? Never heard of it. Are you following that or no? No. Palmer Luckey is a billionaire who all of a sudden got into it. And Drew, you know,$2.9 billion Navy submarine shipyard contract. Days after Lucky, Paul and Lucky, joins Pentagon Weapon Group. So he's creating a company that's building weapons now. Oh, is this the guy that's got like this helmet that can see dudes in the next room? Yes. Yo, I want that. I think this is the guy. Hey, Palmer Lucky, send me one of these. Yo, I need this. I've heard of this thing.

2:05:20But I didn't know who he was. Yeah, so some of the stuff that he's doing, if you, the one, and Drew specifically put the,

2:05:36go up a little bit, go up a little bit and see if it's that one. Go up one more. Is this the one? No, no, that was not it. Yeah, it's like ego vision or something, right? I forget what it was called. Buy stocks to sell before the end of the week. You might be missing the opportunity to hear. You're not repositioning right now. My next is now's the time to go all in. Real traders still hear the noise. They just know when to stop listening to it. Find and research opportunities to fit your strategy with thinkorswim trading platforms from Schwab. Discover features like robust charting, nearly unlimited customization, and built-in risk management technology.

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2:08:21Yeah, this helmet Eagle Eye Helmet Eagle Eye Helmet I need this Eagle Eye Helmet You're going to notice a drone picks up a guy behind that container over there and what's going to happen is when he walks behind that container I'm able to continue to see where he is and what he's doing. So here's Ghost X is the drone that's watching. So just watch for a moment. So the blue force is my friendlies. So see that little right-hand corner where it sees behind the containers? They're tracking where the bad guy is. They're tracking where my guys are. And then watch when they go behind the container. So I can actually see through it and watch.

2:09:00Now they're engaging the guy over there, and he's down. So this is a system that allows everybody to basically be operating is one. You know this guy? Can you hook me up? You really want to? Hell yeah. Yeah, of course. I'd be wearing this around the neighborhood walking my dog, you know what I mean? Like, come and get me. If you had this while you were out there, how different would it have been for you guys? Oh, you know how great it would be if like you put on like your night vision, for lack of a better term or whatever it is, and like you see like bodies where people are even through buildings or behind dumpsters or whatever, right?

2:09:39But think about this. What if all 10 guys have the same view? Like, this is incredible. This is like Star Wars shit in my book. And it would be great. Like, this is a competitive advantage at the highest level against your enemy. Well, you know, okay, you're in the army, right? I tell people this all the time. You know what an op order is? No. Organized cheating, right? So when guys used to say, you game the shit out of this, You know, guys will be like, you gamed it. That's why you did this. You gamed it. Like an op order is organized cheating, i.e. gaming. Like it's the way the Army does best.

2:10:15Get used to it. You know, it's the way of the world. Yeah, I mean, this guy, this 34-year-old entrepreneur billionaire who came up with the product Oculus is now using the Oculus VR, is now using this to create military weapons for the U.S. government. Love it. This is going to be one of the biggest players. So if you see him right, that's a bad picture. Wikipedia could have chosen a better picture for him than that one. Yeah, for sure. For sure can somebody update that picture. But, yeah, if he's watching, you know, let's get one of those goggles for you. Last but not least, today with you, you know, you have kids, you have family.

2:10:56Are you in touch? Do you have a relationship? Yeah, yeah. How did that happen? How did that happen? Dad was doing that, now it's good. How did you do that? Oh, man, it just takes time. You know, I mean, it's not as great as I'd like it to be, but maybe one day, you know, we'll be we'll be good. You know, it is what it is. I'm I'm I'm always positive. I always try to be positive. If if I if you call me, I'm going to be positive. You know what I mean? So it's like the way I see my children is lead by example. You know what I mean? But this is the way I see life in general is like, you know, the kind of, you know, living a better life is, you know, the best thing you can do, right?

2:11:44Because people all the time, like your enemies, right? They really want, you know, we want revenge. We want this. Cool. I'm living a better life. You know what I mean? I just flew here from Tuscany. You know what I mean? I had the best time of my life. So it's like I'm living the better life. You can be mad at me for it. And then since I've been living a better life and people see that, you know, a lot of people, you know, I'm positive. They want to talk to me. You know, we'll have fun, you know. So when it comes to my kids, like they know I'm here for them. They call me. You know, I get them cute pics from them.

2:12:19You know what I mean? I'm happy. But they're also of the age where they're adults and like they're in the middle of their lives. You know what I'm saying? Are you a grandpa yet or not yet? Yeah, I'm a grandpa. Yeah, I got two grandkids. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's cool. That's why I say I get those cute pics. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's cool. That's a, it's interesting going through the process. You know, we have one of the guys out there. You met him. You spoke to him. Had a guy on the neck. One time, one of his daughters, she was 16 or 17. He's like, look, don't call me again if you're going to get deployed again.

2:12:56and he was like shit you know he's always out there right don't call me again because we have to go through again of you know as a kid worried about what to do and all this stuff if somebody if when somebody would get into delta and let you say the guy wasn't married would you encourage marriage or would you tell him to put it off until he's done with delta what was your position it really doesn't matter that's what they'll tell you most guys are married right uh you go through a divorce they do not like that um because that could get messy and that's a reflection on them right but uh i would tell a guy don't get married i would tell most kids these days don't get married you know what i mean in the military any kid any kid any kid seriously yeah tell me why um yeah for a man what are the benefits you know someone's gonna take half half a nothing whatever you got later like it's ridiculous have a solid prenup in place there you go so with a prenup you would do it no you still wouldn't do no it's a waste of time there's no there's no reason today in my book to get married for anyone it's just where the world is you know because you live together they're still going to take half your shit you know what I mean and the way I see anything in life is I choose to be here I choose to stand next to the people I want to stand next to right and I'm ride or die like I will stand next to you you know uh I think you know people say they're ride or die like I've had people tell it to me and I was like not happy to hear it from people because on the ride or die spectrum, I've chose death a couple times.

2:14:47You know what I mean? So I know what ride or die means, and I know people say it and don't mean it. Right? So I would tell people, marriage, what for? What for? You know what I mean? Or wait till you're older. Wait till you're, you know, like no one really understands the level of focus. Like, and I'm not the only one. I'm not the only one, but guys like me, the level of focus. I mean, imagine you find that one thing you're good at, and you think lives are based off of you being at work or not. We're playing a game of life or death here. This ain't like I have to pay the IRS more money or any whatever, right?

2:15:32This is life or death. And when it comes to that game, like, you know, I would say once you've played that game, everything else is kind of bullshit. We don't have to take it so seriously. Right. And having said that, there's no advantage in these situations to being married for a younger guy who's so focused and so ingrained and believes so much in what he does. Go do that. Don't distract yourself with something else. You know what I mean? Stay focused. Do your shit. You're 54 years old right now. 56. 56. I'm sorry. 56 years old right now. What's your greatest accomplishment? Me? Yeah. What do you think?

2:16:19Man, I just came from Tuskeny. I keep saying this. It was bucket list, man. I had the best time. That's cool. I stayed at this villa. It was the papal hunting grounds for hundreds of years. Napoleon rode his horse from one end of the property to the other. It was just absolutely incredible. So, man, I've been just trying to check off this bucket list little by little every day. you know like don't wait till the end of your life pro tip don't wait till the end of the life for the bucket list do it now while you got a chance you know so i'm bucket list and shit yearly man i i'll tell you i tell people i live on bonus points you know but it's a it's a choice i made years ago to either smile and have a good day or i can frown and be an asshole you're still young 56 is young i know man i can't wait there's a lot of living still a lot of living you know that i I've become a world champion in this jujitsu.

2:17:19Is that really a goal? Yeah. Yeah, I've been trying for years. You know what I mean? I ain't got there yet. Well, last year I got disqualified because I'm too bad for jujitsu. But this year maybe I win, maybe I won't. You know what I mean? You got disqualified last year? Yeah. What did you do? Pretty much nothing, but the guy rolled over. He soccer faked it. He was like, oh, my back. And I'm like, well, if this guy's injured, I'm moving on. I'm healthy. and like I got disqualified. But this year maybe I get it, you know, but it's the journey for me. You know, I love jujitsu. I love, I say this all the time.

2:18:00I think guys forget about things they love and they focus on reliving their pain, right? Like there's a time in your life where you were at a low point and this song meant something to you, right? don't listen to that fucking song anymore and remind yourself of the lone point find new songs find a new high point don't relive your pain and i'm not reliving my pain guy i'm moving on right so uh kids you know you could play peekaboo with a kid 200 times and they think it's funny every time right are we so different than kids that there's stuff that'll make us laugh over and over because whatever that is, find it and go do it.

2:18:41Jiu-jitsu makes me happy. I do it all the time. I hunt, I do jujitsu, I do bucket list stuff. I was just at this villa, you know what I mean? Uh, so there's so much good, you know what I mean? That, uh, like I'm just, I tell people I'm so much good. I'm living on bonus points. Are you, are you, uh, uh, how do you make money right now? Is it just a retirement, the pension that comes? Uh, I get army retirement, uh, and I teach people to shoot. Oh, that's right. That was in that documentary where you were listening to the heavy metal song in the car. I made that heavy metal song on an app. You know what I mean?

2:19:15I made a whole workout list, death and destruction. And I listened to it when I work out. Seriously? Yeah. I made my, yeah. I mean, it's not. Yeah. Yeah. It's called Green Eye Devils. Yeah. You were singing along, but you know, the lyrics, all of it. I had a AI make it for me. Makes sense, yeah. So I've made a ton of songs. I think this is pretty cool. Because like, okay, all things being equal, these songs are almost as good as anything I grew up on the radio with. But it's the words I like, you know, like helicopters coming in, snipers, night vision, guns. Is that like you're literally making your own playlist?

2:19:56Yeah. Like it's not like, hey, this is my playlist. No, this is your playlist. Yeah, I think there's like 17 metal songs. It's an app called Suno. No, no, I know. Trust me. We were one time in a car, and my dad was freaking out. Vinny makes a song, and my five-year-old, he writes the songs. Brooklyn's like, oh, my God. It said my name. Green-Eyed Devils. Maybe it'll pop up. Is it on YouTube or no? No, I don't think. It's just on this app. I tell people to go to my thing on the app and listen to it if they want. Did you upload it on YouTube or no? Maybe you need to do that. I don't know. Maybe.

2:20:33but uh yeah i made all my own songs right let me see if i can find it i'm like john shrek mcphee on suno oh that's it wait that's it i found it so let me send it to you that's sick if you go on youtube and you type in green eyed devil you'll find it yeah but uh yeah and there's a whole playlist of like i call it death and destruction but it's like workout music like you know like kind of like 90s metal-ish you know 2000s metal play the first no no top left it's a short yeah there you go by the time you see us it's too late that's the best part green yeah it's my jam devil's out for the night oh shit i love these songs the enemy called you guys green eye devils yeah yeah yeah yeah so that's the enemy called you green eyes yeah the bad guys call us green eye devils because like when you got your night vision on, you see the green glow on the face.

2:21:41So the song is called Green Eye Devils. Yeah, Green Eye Devils. That is so cool. That is so cool. And so do you do anything? Do you write? Do people follow your substack? Is there a podcast? Are you doing anything or nothing right now? I mean, no, not doing nothing right now. Any plans? I wrote a book a while ago. It's at a finishing editor right now. But I wrote a book. It's a fiction book. It's kind of about my first deployment of how I went out alone and stuff like that. I made it a fiction book, and it's kind of got like a subplot. But I wanted to write a fiction book about every deployment with like a bigger so what to it.

2:22:25You know what I mean? But I would like to write some books maybe, but we'll see. The stories that you have where you can turn into all the stories? Well, I've had book meetings with a lot of these book guys. I had, I think, 37 total. And, like, I didn't find anybody I wanted to talk to. You know what I mean? I'll introduce you to somebody. Okay. I'll introduce you to a guy. Talk to him. He's a business guy, very successful, probably worth$50 million. And he knows everybody in Hollywood, agency. And I think you're going to like the guy. And, you know, he knows all the agents and all that stuff, all the managers, all the publishers, and see where it takes you.

2:23:04And he's the kind of guy you would like talking to. Yeah, let's go. Yeah, I'll listen to you. Brother, this was amazing. Thank you. Really enjoyed it. Yeah. And for the audience watching this, stay tuned, because I think there's going to be more stuff coming out with John here. But your story's fascinating, man. This was amazing. Thank you, man. Thank you. Yes. Take care, everybody. Bye-bye, bye-bye.

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