Mike Glover: "It Was a Good Run Killing a Bunch of Bad Guys" | Peak Points

This episode kicks off the Shawn Ryan Show's "Peak Points" series, where we highlight the most impactful moments from previous releases. We're starting at the very beginning with Episode #01, featuring former Green Beret and CIA contractor Mike Glover. For longtime listeners, this segment is a great way to revisit a Hall of Fame episode. And if you're new to the show, it's the perfect starting point to get a quick glimpse of this incredible story. Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors: https://patreon.com/vigilanceelite https://shawnryanshow.com/newsletter Please leave us a review on Apple & Spotify Podcasts. Vigilance Elite/Shawn Ryan Links: Website | Patreon | TikTok | Instagram | Download Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Shawn Ryan?

  You got out September 3rd, 2001. A week later, September 11th happens.

• 0:06Speaker 01

  We immediately deployed to Afghanistan. So I was in charge of all of them.

• 0:09Shawn Ryan?

  As a new guy.

• 0:10Speaker 01

  And they didn't want to be the guy that failed their mission and got an American killed. Had a catastrophic failure and crashed, $100 million helicopter, MH47. Our guys didn't even have uniforms.

• 0:22Shawn Ryan?

  What'd you think of working with the SEALs?

• 0:23Speaker 01

  It was a good run of killing a whole bunch of bad guys. A week later, Benghazi happens. The number one priority for me is...

• 0:32Shawn Ryan?

  I've been dying to ask you this question.

• 0:37Shawn Ryan?

  You got out September 3rd, 2001.

• 0:43Shawn Ryan?

  A week later, September 11th happens. The towers go down.

• 0:50Shawn Ryan?

  What is the first thing that went through your head? Knowing, you know, your primary mission was, or your primary goal was to become a Green Beret in special operations, kicking fucking doors in, going to combat, that whole lifestyle.

• 1:09Shawn Ryan?

  And then you immediately know we're at war.

• 1:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was, uh...

• 1:13Shawn Ryan?

  And you're not in it.

• 1:14Speaker 01

  The biggest kick in the balls that I've ever had because, I mean, backing up a little bit, I had the option to re-enlist. Obviously, I was on retention's radar for like, hey, this guy's an airborne Ranger qualified dude. He's an E5. I made sergeant when I was 20 years old. And so I was a team leader in the infantry, had good INCOERs. And so it's like, hey, man, this guy's a good guy we want to keep in the military. But I told them that I want sniper school and I want HALO school in route to 18th Airborne Corps LRS, or Long Range Reconnaissance, or Ranger Battalion.

• 1:57Speaker 01

  And I was adamant about that. I actually went into a sergeant major's office who was the military district of Washington. So he's a command sergeant major. He knew my uncle. And he said, Mike, what can I give you to stay in? I said, this is the things that I want. And he goes, which I found later, found out later is true, HALO or Free Fall School is not a reenlistment option. And it's not. Back then, you didn't, you didn't have a lot of incentive for staying in. So they used to give you schools to stay in. And I said, Sergeant Major, well, you can, we can make it an option, right? Cause that's what I want. He's like, Mike, I can't do that for you. I mean, I'll call and I'll try. And he did, but it's not an option. So a CSM even can't make it an option. And so I said, okay, that's, that's

• 2:41Speaker 01

  my, I gave the options on the table and they decided not to facilitate what I wanted as a dream. And so I decided to get out. I had a buddy who reenlisted with me that I went to Ranger School with, or reenlisted without me. And he went to third range battalion. He jumped into Afghanistan on October 19th, 2001. Son of a bitch. And so the moment it happened, I was actually in college and I had gotten out of the military, obviously, but I had transitioned into the National Guard component. Okay. So I'm sitting in a chow hall at Fayetteville Technical Community College, getting my

• 3:23Speaker 01

  associate's degree so I could further my education and saw the events happen. I did some crazy shit, man. I immediately started making phone calls. I went home. I packed a duffel bag of my equipment. I, I threw my battle dress uniforms, my camo uniforms in the, the washer and then dried them and was making calls like, what are we doing here? What's happening? And I was at the time, I was in 30th Heavy Armor Separate Brigade and I was in the scout platoon and I was a team leader. So I had a little miniscule position that could affect something, but I knew we were going to war. So I had a choice

• 4:05Speaker 01

  to make, which was real easy, which was I'm going back in the fucking military. Yeah. So on September 12th, like 09 in the morning, I'm making phone calls to get back in. I mean, that had to be like.

• 4:18Shawn Ryan?

  At the exact same time that's happening, two completely separate emotions. One, you know, tragedy. We'd just been attacked and a lot of people died. On the other hand, you know what that, what comes after. And everything you've ever wanted to do since you said you were 10 years old becomes a reality and you're not there. I mean, that had to be, was one more overpowering than the other.

• 4:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was, I mean, I felt for the people, obviously. But I knew that I was in a unique position to make a difference in the fight. Because I was, I was an NCO. I mean, I was a non-commissioned officer. And I knew that there was an opportunity for me to get in the military and, and fight and get some vengeance. And that's what I wanted to do. I joined the army to fight. The reason I got out, because there was no fight to be had. If there was a war or there was something going on, I would have been in it. You know, I, I think something important to note is the biological instinct in men, most men, the men I associate with, to fight.

• 5:33Speaker 01

  I mean, I, it's not, it's, it's to fight each other in training, because that's what we do as kids. We fight and we, um, we grow up in those environments where we're displaying our masculinity and there's a whole bunch of psychological and physiological things that are associated with that. And I don't think we grow out of that. We grow up and we want to fight and defend. That's what men do. Um, and so it definitely was part of my, uh, character and my DNA. And I don't think it was fake. I, I think it was something very real and I wanted to fight, so I, I had to go back in.

• 6:11Shawn Ryan?

  How'd you get back in?

• 6:13Speaker 01

  It was a battle because the Army didn't really know how to handle a whole bunch of dudes who were prior service guys that wanted to go back in.

• 6:20Shawn Ryan?

  Was there a lot of guys that wanted to come back?

• 6:22Speaker 01

  There was a lot of guys. There in that time period, a lot of people who were prior service, who had gotten out, I mean even older guys who had gotten out, wanted to come back in and serve. So I had to go through the whole process again, which was.

• 6:36Shawn Ryan?

  Holy shit.

• 6:37Speaker 01

  I had to go through MEPS, you know, as an E5, going back through MEPS. You know, the whole duck walk thing, all that stuff. I had to go back through all that to get back in. And they had a program, which is kind of similar to what's called 18x-ray now, where you can come in off the streets and try out for selection. And if you make it, they'll send you to a special forces training. And if you don't, you simply just go back to your sister unit. Or if you don't have a unit, whatever your job is, they'll find a job for you in that position.

• 7:13Shawn Ryan?

  Now, how old are you at this point?

• 7:15Speaker 01

  At this point, I'm 21 years old.

• 7:18Shawn Ryan?

  You're 21 years old.

• 7:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:20Shawn Ryan?

  You just saw the towers come down.

• 7:22Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 7:22Shawn Ryan?

  And the only thing on your mind is I gotta fucking get back in there.

• 7:25Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 7:26Shawn Ryan?

  No shit. I mean.

• 7:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:30Shawn Ryan?

  Wow, that's, I mean, that's.

• 7:33Shawn Ryan?

  That's a lot of courage.

• 7:34Speaker 01

  I was young. When I hit the ground, I mean, I was running. We immediately deployed to Afghanistan.

• 7:40Shawn Ryan?

  How many guys are on your team roughly?

• 7:43Speaker 01

  Well, I think at that time, maybe 10.

• 7:45Shawn Ryan?

  10 dudes.

• 7:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, most attachments are light by nature of guys coming and going. And like I said, my 18 Bravo senior was in surgery. So he had to get a surgery, recover. And so we deployed that year to Afghanistan with a little bit of a light package.

• 8:10Shawn Ryan?

  What year?

• 8:11Speaker 01

  Uh, this was oh five, early oh five.

• 8:14Shawn Ryan?

  So that's a hot year.

• 8:15Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 8:16Shawn Ryan?

  Um.

• 8:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:18Shawn Ryan?

  Now, are you doing, are you running Indig?

• 8:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, part of the job is running Indig. I mean, when I reported, uh, as, as an eighteen Bravo, I was in charge of about a hundred and forty-four Afghan commandos.

• 8:31Shawn Ryan?

  Holy shit. So there are ten guy, there's ten SF guys.

• 8:35Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 8:35Shawn Ryan?

  Running a hundred and forty-four man army.

• 8:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, and basically I was the commander of them. So I was in charge of all of them.

• 8:42Shawn Ryan?

  As a new guy?

• 8:43Speaker 01

  As a new guy.

• 8:44Shawn Ryan?

  Holy shit.

• 8:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'll never forget. He said, hey, your, your guys are formed up waiting on you. Waiting on me? Yeah, you're the eighteen Bravo. Get out there and, and be their commander. Because everybody else had other stuff to worry about, you know? I mean, the eighteen Charlies had to run the firebase, which is a full-time job of the, you know, base security and the actual physical structure, the generators, the water system, everything, the commo, base defense. The commo guys are.

• 9:15Shawn Ryan?

  What are your living conditions like?

• 9:17Speaker 01

  Shit, I mean.

• 9:19Shawn Ryan?

  Tents?

• 9:19Speaker 01

  Living on a cot, uh, living on a cot surrounded by stacked sandbags in a concrete-ish, just mud, mud hut.

• 9:31Shawn Ryan?

  Okay.

• 9:31Speaker 01

  On the second floor of a, a little structure.

• 9:34Shawn Ryan?

  So you're way the fuck out there in a, like, at your own firebase. There's no PX.

• 9:39Speaker 01

  Nothing.

• 9:40Shawn Ryan?

  There's no chow hall.

• 9:42Speaker 01

  Nothing.

• 9:42Shawn Ryan?

  None of that shit. Are you eating local food?

• 9:45Speaker 01

  Mo, a lot of the time we were, or Mirmite, or MRE. I mean, we were the furthest northern firebase on the, on the border with Pakistan. Uh, and we had really not a lot of support. I mean, the closest support was J-Bad, which is still hours away. I mean, if something, if something went bad.

• 10:07Shawn Ryan?

  So how trained up? You show up in country, you're looking, you're the, now the commander of a hundred and forty-four Afghan force.

• 10:18Shawn Ryan?

  How well are they trained? Did you, did you guys, was there like a changeover from another, another team or are you starting from scratch?

• 10:25Speaker 01

  No, some of them were trained up by prior ODAs. I think first group was there before us. Before that, there was another third group team. And so they had a little bit of training. But that's, I mean, man, when you're talking about Afghans in a rural province of Afghanistan that have no education, have no aptitude, don't know how to read, write. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's all relative.

• 10:56Shawn Ryan?

  I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but I'm assuming the first thing you want to do is figure out what they're actually capable of doing.

• 11:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, you have to, no matter what the, the condition or the situation, when you come into a new firebase or, or fall into new indige, you gotta vet them. You gotta put them through some kind of process to be able to see what their current capability is. We did that. It wasn't much. So we started from scratch.

• 11:28Shawn Ryan?

  Wow.

• 11:29Speaker 01

  We were doing small unit tactics every single day. I was doing small unit tactics with them every single day that we weren't operating. And this would be the force, not only, this is before Afghan commando units, Afghan border police, Afghan national police. This is before all that. So they didn't have a job. Their job for us were, they were Afghan commandos working for special forces guys. We paid them directly cash. So these were our first line of defense and QRF if anything went wrong.

• 12:07Shawn Ryan?

  So you show up in country, you gotta get to know these guys. You gotta train them. You gotta figure out what their capabilities are. You gotta improve those. How long do you have before boots on the ground, first operation?

• 12:23Speaker 01

  Well, I mean, again, that's relative as well because when you infill into a remote firebase, the one we were at in the middle of nowhere was surrounded by high ground. It was just a couple Americans in the middle of the Wild West. So, we were getting rocketed, we were getting reports of attacks and all these things that were happening. So, we were in it. We were in the thick of it already. But, I mean, we didn't have any time. It was immediate. I think we went on an op two days, three days after we hit the ground.

• 12:59Speaker 01

  Immediately went and did a link up with one of the Afghan seniors or Afghan elders in a village. And that's a movement to contact. I mean, you're just rolling, hoping you're not going to get blown up, hoping you're not going to get in a tick with the guys that you haven't vetted yet.

• 13:18Shawn Ryan?

  Holy shit. We're talking two fucking days.

• 13:21Speaker 01

  Two days.

• 13:22Shawn Ryan?

  And you're out the door with them on a movement.

• 13:25Speaker 01

  Yeah. We had no choice.

• 13:27Shawn Ryan?

  How did that go?

• 13:28Speaker 01

  It went uneventful. We had activity, but nothing significant happened, luckily for us. And we just started building more rapport with them, vetting them, training them, and improved our situation over time.

• 13:44Shawn Ryan?

  So, you're out, you meet the village elder, you come back, you debrief. Are you happy with what you've just been handed with the 144 guys? Or are you going, "Holy shit, we have got a lot of work to do"?

• 13:57Speaker 01

  No, I will say, here's some, just a little bit of forward history on the guys that I train. Those same guys that I train had worked with special operations, including special missions unit from the Navy.

• 14:13Shawn Ryan?

  Okay.

• 14:14Speaker 01

  Prior to working with us. So, there were some good dudes. And when I left that firebase, a guy by the name of Rob Miller ripped into that firebase and was with those guys as an 18 Bravo from 3rd Special Forces Group when he was killed and earned the Medal of Honor, posthumously, of course. And...

• 14:39Speaker 01

  Those men, those Afghans that were with them were the Afghans that I trained that were trained prior. And so they were squared away. I mean, they had a heart, they were disciplined, they wanted it, man. You were impressed with them. Yeah, I was impressed. A good example was, they instinct- instinctively knew when, or if there was a potential significant act gonna happen called Sig Act. And they would immediately get to the high ground, and they were good about displacing themselves and then talking to the local community. Because you have to understand that these people lived in that same community.

• 15:19Speaker 01

  So they knew everybody around them, and they didn't want to be the guy that failed their mission and got an American killed. So they had buy-in. So yeah, I was impressed with them. We had a lot of work to do, obviously. But they had a good base, and all the guys in Nuristan Province that I operated with that were Afghan. In the village of Nurey and Asadabad and Barakout, all great, great men. What are these guys carrying? Do they have nods? Do they have helmets? At this time in the war, no nods, no helmet. We eventually evolved into that, but we, we were straight AK-47s and flip-flops. Oh, man.

• 16:02Speaker 01

  I mean, it was, our guys didn't even have uniforms. They were rolling around in whatever we can get them. I actually exploited a program that was a nonprofit that was providing clothes and toiletry items to soldiers overseas. And got this nonprofit to send me helicopters full of equipment to be able to outfit my Afghans with just clothes. With just toothbrushes, because they didn't have it, and we weren't paying for it. So they needed stuff. I mean, it's so funny seeing these dudes running around Harley-Davidson shirts and flannel jackets and USA ball caps. But we had to do what we had to do.

• 16:47Speaker 01

  You finish that deployment, you come home, what's next?

• 16:52Speaker 01

  I get back from that deployment and Iraq was getting bad. And I wanted to go to school. So I went to put my name in the hat to go to SEFA-TAC, which is Special Forces Advanced Target Reconnaissance, Target Acquisition, Interdiction, Exploitation, a whole bunch of words and an acronym that doesn't even look right. It's SEFA-TAC, whatever. People call it SEFA-TAC. And it's our CQB Advanced Schoolhouse for Haas's Rescue, for Direct Action, for Vehicle Interdiction. We learn all that stuff there. It's, I believe, an eight-week school, maybe nine weeks, so it's pretty long.

• 17:37Speaker 01

  And it is the minimum qualification that you need to serve in a Commander's and Extremist Force, which there's one of those per group, which is a reinforced company that's designed to conduct Haas's Rescue and Crisis Response across the world.

• 17:55Shawn Ryan?

  How much CQB do you have? What's your background in CQB before you show up to that school? What is the basic kind of mold for an SF guy?

• 18:06Speaker 01

  Usually at the team level, you learn, it's called SEFAWIC. You learn basic CQB. Sometimes it's Strongwall. I think at that time, it was probably Strongwall, real basic CQB. You don't learn Points of Domination. You don't learn Haas's Rescue considerations. Maybe a little bit, but it's not, there's not a lot of it. So at the basic team level, if you don't have a SEFA-TAC-qualified guy, you might not know a lot. You might think you know a lot, but you really don't. And I thought I knew a lot, but I didn't know anything. I showed up and didn't know shit about CQB until I got there. I knew how to shoot.

• 18:49Speaker 01

  I was a decent shooter with pistol and carbine, but I didn't know much.

• 18:53Shawn Ryan?

  After that school, let's fast forward to the next deployment. Did you utilize that a lot, or was it back to?

• 19:02Shawn Ryan?

  What you were going before?

• 19:03Speaker 01

  No, it was, in fact, I was in Charlie Company, Second Battalion. The CIF was Bravo Company, Second Battalion. One company designated per group, so they were right next door. So I used to see those dudes come in and they had longer hair, they had cooler uniforms, they had better guns. And I wanted to be in the CIF. At that time, you had to have two years team time to even think about going in the CIF. But I had a real good rapport with my company sergeant major, and he went next door to take the CIF. So he was the, he was my sergeant major, he became the CIF sergeant major, and, you know, long story short, I wasn't supposed to go to CIF as a new guy with only a year and some change on the team.

• 19:44Speaker 01

  But I went to Sephardic and came recommended out of Sephardic, and so they pulled me over. I mean, I wasn't supposed to deploy to Afghanistan for another year. But I went next door and I was in Iraq a month later. I mean, out of Sephardic, I'd, from that trip, I came back, I went straight to Sephardic, which is two months. I had 30 days and I was straight back in Iraq.

• 20:06Shawn Ryan?

  So you did a nine-month deployment, come back for roughly 90 days.

• 20:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:13Shawn Ryan?

  Two months of that is...

• 20:15Speaker 01

  Training.

• 20:15Shawn Ryan?

  Becoming an assaulter at the highest level, and then you redeploy.

• 20:19Speaker 01

  Yep. Redeployed in Iraq for a counterterrorism mission, which is all CQB.

• 20:24Shawn Ryan?

  Did you have any, did you, were you married at the time?

• 20:28Speaker 01

  At the time, I was married, but I was married young and didn't, I mean, to be honest...

• 20:36Shawn Ryan?

  Came secondary to the mission.

• 20:37Speaker 01

  Absolutely secondary to the mission. We barely knew each other. I mean, on the ground, I had a couple months with her. So it was, it was turning and burning. In fact, I had a hasty marriage because I had, saw some dudes get killed, killed our trip, you know, operation, I was part of Operation Red Wing that trip, and we had a couple other Chinooks that were down, we had guys that we lost in the company. So it was a bad trip, it was a bad year. A lot of Americans were killed that year.

• 21:06Shawn Ryan?

  It's a fucking small world, you know, the fact that you were there, I came there right after that, which means we were there at the same time, and as we talked a couple days ago, you, you met my fucking best friend who just passed away.

• 21:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:25Shawn Ryan?

  It's fucking crazy.

• 21:26Speaker 01

  It is crazy.

• 21:27Shawn Ryan?

  It is a small world, man. But.

• 21:32Shawn Ryan?

  So you did utilize, sorry, sidetracked there, but so you did utilize that school on that next deployment?

• 21:38Speaker 01

  Every operation.

• 21:40Shawn Ryan?

  No shit.

• 21:40Speaker 01

  I explosively breached every other target, every other night. We went out every night, sometimes twice a night, going after bad guys. And it was, it was a real active campaign. It was us and I believe SEAL Team Eight, and we did joint ops where it was like, like two SIF guys and five SEALs. And we went out with our indige and conducted counterterrorism missions.

• 22:05Shawn Ryan?

  What'd you think of working with the SEALs?

• 22:09Speaker 01

  My first impression of them weren't great because we had a few interactions with them where, I'll never forget, you know, at the time, I was, I believe, still in E6, I hadn't made E7 yet, but I had combat rotation behind me and I was on my second deployment and had been in training for years, had been in the military and the infantry. And so I had a background.

• 22:34Speaker 01

  I'll never forget, one of the young SEALs being told by one of my guys, who was a senior guy, oh my god, I was the most junior guy in the SIF. A SIF, a commander's in extremist forces filled with the most senior guys in the group. I think my detachment years later, everybody made Master Sergeant the same time.

• 22:54Shawn Ryan?

  Wow.

• 22:54Speaker 01

  Like an entire senior team with guys with multiple deployments. I had the least amount of combat. Guys on average had three or four rotations, and this is early GWAT.

• 23:05Speaker 01

  He said, hey, maybe you should hang out with these guys, because, you know, we could do some cross-training and maybe teach you guys some things. And he said, what could your guys possibly teach mine?

• 23:16Shawn Ryan?

  You gotta be shitting me.

• 23:17Speaker 01

  He said that. And. And I was humbled to the fact that a lot of my own guys were so senior and already legends in the community. There was already stories about them. So I paid attention. And we had a lot of experiences like that with the young SEALs, but some of them, a lot of them weren't. I mean Jeremy Wise, who eventually went to work for the CIA and he was, he was killed unfortunately in a suicide bombing. He was there. He was great. A couple of guys that are now in other special missions units were working with me and they were great. So I didn't have a horrible experience, but it was different. I mean, a young SEAL coming

• 24:01Speaker 01

  out of training, 21, 22, and even at that time, I was 26 at the time. So it was different. But we got along good. I mean, we didn't have problems with operating with them. And we had a lot of action. We had a lot of fun that rotation.

• 24:21Shawn Ryan?

  What is your next assignment? So you're at the, you're at third group. You go to the CIF. What comes next?

• 24:29Speaker 01

  Another, another rotation in the, in the CIF. I mean, the CIF is a grind. I did three CIF rotations to Iraq back to back. Going to war, coming back, going to war, coming back, going to war, coming back. I eventually moved up into reconnaissance in special operations and became a sniper, went to sniper school, went to free fall school, and started specializing my efforts on long, on the long gun. So between unilateral operations, which is working with task force, the joint task force, I think at the time, we were working with Tom Di

• 25:09Speaker 01

  Tomaso, who's a famous Black Hawk Down platoon leader, and he was a special missions unit commander. We, we operated under him and under task force 16, which is Stanley McChrystal's big.

• 25:25Speaker 01

  You know, kill, capture conglomerate of the best units in the world. We were part of that effort when we went out and crushed bad guys for years. I mean, it was a, it was a good run of killing a whole bunch of bad guys. Yeah. Uh, so I did that for three rotations in a row. You've got a hell of a career, man. Yeah, thanks, man. So you leave there and then? So I leave and start grinding to build up this unit, hire and fire a couple guys and

• 25:57Speaker 01

  build up a skill set for special reconnaissance in the continent of Africa to be able to respond to crisis that potentially happened. And there was no, there was no, at the time, organization that was covering down on Africa because it used to be third group's responsibility, but because of the war, we had a change in, in hands and change in responsibility. So we stood it up. It was a grind. We got validated by Special Operations Command. And that was ironically enough, September 1st of 2012, we got validated.

• 26:43Speaker 01

  And a week later, or September 11th, Benghazi happens. Mm-hmm. I had already been notified prior to Benghazi happening that my team and myself was going to be the first guys into Libya to run what's called a 12-weight program, which is a congressionally mandated counterterrorism program to counter al-Qaeda.

• 27:06Speaker 01

  Which therein lies the Benny, therein lies the point, which is before September 11th, 2012, I had already been identified, we're going to go in there, stand up a counterterrorism force to counter al-Qaeda. So it's often been said that, hey, oh, there was no threats there. There was threats, there was bombings, there were shootings, there was attacks on, on the UN, foreign nationals, ambassador, embassy staff. So I was getting all those intel sit reps before that happened. And then obviously that happened and it changed everything.

• 27:49Shawn Ryan?

  Where were you when that happened?

• 27:51Speaker 01

  Ironically enough, I was back in a special missions units compound, doing a cross talk brief with basically a key leader engagement with the team lead from Team Libya that had been designated and me and the other guy from my unit, because we were former unit members of that unit, we were there doing a cross talk. I'll never forget, I went, I went there and met up with the J3, which was at the time a Colonel, and he told me last night, this just happened and this is what's going on.

• 28:31Speaker 01

  And so I, I stayed an extra few days to assess the situation and to get tied in because at that point, it was my unit's responsibility to react and respond outside of obviously the primary main effort, that unit that I was in's responsibility of, of responding to that crisis.

• 28:54Shawn Ryan?

  So was this happening, was Benghazi happening real time when you found out?

• 28:57Speaker 01

  Yes, yeah, it was happening in real time. It had, it had, it was, it had, it was still active and it was still happening and I was watching on ISR things, things unfolding.

• 29:08Shawn Ryan?

  Jesus Christ.

• 29:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:11Shawn Ryan?

  Is this what ultimately led you to separate?

• 29:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, so that's exactly right. Long story short, I deployed to Libya soon after that and stood up a 1208 program and

• 29:29Speaker 01

  We had all the right things done to go after the guys that were responsible for the killing of the four personnel that were killed in Benghazi. You know, Ambassador Stevens, Smith, and then Glenn Doherty and Tyrone Woods. So, we went there, I was deployed there for over six months. I busted my ass and tried everything I could to kill or capture those guys with obviously other special operations units that were there. An other, one other special operation unit that was there. And we offered up a full platter.

• 30:12Speaker 01

  Kill, capture, bilateral mission, unilateral mission, whatever you want, we'll do. And we were told that the political climate wouldn't allow for it, so we're not gonna do anything.

• 30:22Shawn Ryan?

  Yeah.

• 30:23Speaker 01

  And so, let's just say I was disgruntled when I came back. I had a lieutenant colonel that I was co-located with that was a reserve officer from Africom who was a fucking piece of shit, who was drinking every night, getting drunk, who didn't give a fuck about the mission, who was making excuses every single day about not wanting to work, not wanting to do the op. And so when I get back, I said, "Go fuck yourself."

• 30:50Shawn Ryan?

  God, are you serious?

• 30:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:52Shawn Ryan?

  You know, I know, I know how fucking tough that can be. I mean, I didn't, I didn't watch, I didn't, we didn't have Fred feed or anything like that, but to watch an event going down, I mean, that's one of the most, when you know you can fucking help, it's one of the most helpless feelings in the fucking world. And I've experienced that as well. We were working with a foreign counterpart and should have been on that fucking op, but we weren't and their helos went down and we listened to the entire thing on the fucking radio and, and then we saw them when they got back. And, I mean, and the event that you had to, you know, stay on the sideline for is, I mean...

• 31:39Shawn Ryan?

  I could see how you could be that disgruntled. I mean, you got out with 18 fucking years in, right?

• 31:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 31:46Shawn Ryan?

  Two years to retirement.

• 31:48Speaker 01

  Yep, yeah. I got back, um, I did get recruited by the CIA at the time. They recruited me for a job.

• 32:01Speaker 01

  And I had finished my college degree, my bachelor's degree.

• 32:06Speaker 01

  The year prior to that. So that was a prerequisite to become a staffer for them. I came back with the anticipation of doing that job, but the sequester happened, which was a stop loss on all, or a hiring freeze on all jobs. So I wasn't able to do that job. Which kind of fucked me up, you know? I was prepared to do that. So I transitioned off active duty and then went into the National Guard component, where I took a team in Texas, a 19th Special Forces Group. And was just waiting on the word.

• 32:40Shawn Ryan?

  In field craft, it seems like you guys do a lot of prepping. And are masters of it. And I don't know about you, but a lot of the clients that I've had think that there might be something they need to prepare for. They think something might happen, not necessarily the end of the world, but they just want to be ready in case of a natural disaster, an EFP.

• 33:09Shawn Ryan?

  There's a thousand different scenarios.

• 33:12Shawn Ryan?

  What would you say for somebody that's completely green, they don't know how to shoot, they don't own a gun, they don't have food storage, anything? What would you say the number one priority would be? Where do they start?

• 33:26Speaker 01

  The number one priority

• 33:29Speaker 01

  for me is personal defense. Because, you know, the first principle of patrolling is security. And if you can't secure yourself, you can't secure your family. You can't take, you can't defend your life, you can't defend your family's life. So I would say it starts with a personal decision to Buy a firearm, learn how to utilize a firearm and carry that firearm daily.

• 33:57Shawn Ryan?

  What firearm would you suggest, starting with pistol or rifle?

• 34:00Speaker 01

  I think universally, you know, I carry different guns for different reasons, but universally, a Glock 19 is probably the staple concealed carry pistol.

• 34:12Speaker 01

  In contracting, we carry Glock 17s typically, but Glock 19s is the right frame size for most, it's the right size frame for concealment, it has the most accessories per gun in the industry. It's a good platform, it's reasonably priced, and I've used a Glock 19 when the military got them in special operations, and I've seen them, I've seen them throughout my military career, and I've never seen one fail. So, a single action, only Glock 19 is the start point.

• 34:48Shawn Ryan?

  I would definitely agree with that. It's like the Toyota Corolla of handguns.

• 34:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 34:54Shawn Ryan?

  They just never fucking die.

• 34:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:57Shawn Ryan?

  But, and then, so next would be...

• 35:06Shawn Ryan?

  So you would say pistol, and then move on to rifle?

• 35:11Speaker 01

  No, the next priority for me is med.

• 35:13Shawn Ryan?

  Med?

• 35:14Speaker 01

  Med, absolutely. Thirty thousand people a year die in vehicle accidents, I wonder how many of those could have been prevented? I mean, 400 idiots a year fall to their tree stands and hunting and break their legs and do dumb shit. So we're prone to accidents, we're prone to trauma, and I've treated trauma in real life, I've saved people's lives with tourniquets. Tourniquet, which is a $29.99 piece of equipment from North American Rescue, which we sell on our website at PhilcraftSurvival.com, is the number one piece of equipment in med that you need to carry. Stopping an extremity wound, a traumatic bleed from a femoral or brachial artery is life-saving.

• 35:59Speaker 01

  If you don't do that, you simply just go to sleep and die.

• 36:01Shawn Ryan?

  Are you guys teaching med?

• 36:02Speaker 01

  We absolutely do, yeah. We teach T-triple-C Tactical Combat Casualty Care, which we were required by our contract to train. We teach a course, certified T-triple-C course through NAMT, the certification on tactical med training, trauma training. I just taught a CPR lifesaver course at my tribe expo recently. So, we frequently teach med and I expect that if in contracting in austere environments, we are required to carry a tourniquet, based on our own understanding of what we could run into, that a civilian should do the same.

• 36:43Speaker 01

  Whether that's in your, inside your waistband, because we do sell an inside the waistband tourniquet holder, or that's inside of a bag, or inside your vehicle, somewhere within arm's reach, where if you're experiencing trauma, you could save your life.

• 36:58Shawn Ryan?

  Interesting. What, so number three, what would the number three thing be? We got pistol, we got med.

• 37:06Speaker 01

  If we're talking about equipment, specific things that you need to carry,

• 37:12Speaker 01

  the next piece of equipment would be the way in which you carry it, which would be the bag in which you carry. A lot of people don't think about it, but the extension of your capability of what you can carry on your person is limited. You can only fit so much shit in your pockets and your pants. And if you have a bag, meaning an everyday carry bag, that might be your purse, your purse, your European man satchel. It sets you up for an extended capacity. That's how we look at vehicles. I mean, if I have a med kit in my back pocket, that's a minimalist, you know, low-vis med kit, well, I want my fucking car to be an ambulance. I want there to be enough med equipment to treat my family, myself.

• 37:55Speaker 01

  And then you upgrade that to your house as well. I want a damn hospital at my house. So, having the ability to carry all their stuff is super important. And in that bag, I would definitely include a survival kit, a modern survival kit, that That has the staples of survival, including the ability to contain water, purify water, start a fire, signal, communicate potentially, sat, iridium, VHF, UHF, the list goes on. Gummy bears. Gummy bears at a, you know, that are fat free, that have lots of carbs, lots of sugars, lots of calories, they're survival bears, is what we call them. They're survival bears.

• 38:39Shawn Ryan?

  No matter where you're watching Sean Ryan's show from, if you get anything out of this, please like, comment, subscribe, and most importantly, share this everywhere you possibly can. And if you're feeling extra generous, please leave us a review on Apple and Spotify Podcasts.