Two, Three, Four Missions a Night: Ranger Regiment at War | Will Hutson

Retired Sergeant Major Will Hudson reflects on a 21-year Army career that took him from the 173rd Airborne Brigade and the 2003 invasion of Iraq to years of combat deployments with 3rd Ranger Battalion, eventually becoming a RASP instructor, LRS company first sergeant, and operations sergeant major. He also opens up about the toll that years of war, injuries, alcohol, and retirement took on his mental health, and how faith and personal loss ultimately reshaped his life. Today's Sponsors: GhostBed ⬇️ https://www.ghostbed.com/house FOR 10% off! For ad free video and audio and access to live streams... JOIN OUR PATREON! https://www.patreon.com/c/TheTeamHouse To help support the show and for all bonus content including: -live shows and asking guest questions -ad free audio and video -early access to shows -Access to ALL bonus segments with our guests Subscribe to our Patreon! ⬇️ https://www.patreon.com/TheTeamHouse ___________________________________________________ GRAB JACK'S NEW BOOK "THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN" ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/803651/the-most-dangerous-man-by-jack-murphy/paperback/ Subscribe to the new EYES ON podcast here:⬇️ https://www.youtube.com/@EyesOnGeopoliticsPod/featured Jack Murphy's book "We Defy: The Lost Chapters of Special Forces History" ⬇️ https://www.amazon.com/We-Defy-Chapters-Special-History-ebook/dp/B0DCGC1N1N/ Or make a one time donation at: ⬇️ https://ko-fi.com/theteamhouse Social Media: ⬇️ The Team House Instagram: https://instagram.com/the.team.house?utm_medium=copy_link The Team House Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheTeamHousePod Jack’s Instagram: https://instagram.com/jackmcmurph?utm_medium=copy_link Jack’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/jackmurphyrgr?s=21 Team House Discord: ⬇️ https://discord.gg/wHFHYM6 "Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio" 00:00 – Start 00:58 – Will Hudson’s Childhood & Joining the Army 05:20 – 9/11, the 173rd & the Road to War 07:15 – Combat Jump Into Northern Iraq 15:44 – Leaving the 173rd & Trying Out for Ranger Regiment 21:35 – ROP, Selection & Earning a Spot in 3rd Ranger Battalion 27:08 – Life in 3rd Ranger Battalion’s Mortar Platoon 32:57 – Ramadi: Nonstop Ranger Raids & Heavy Combat 38:17 – Balad, IEDs & Losing Jimmy Regan 42:04 – Rangers and SEALs Fighting Together in Sadr City 48:21 – The War Shifts From Iraq to Afghanistan 54:35 – Mortars in Afghanistan & Supporting Tier One Units 57:28 – Swimming Mortars Into Targets With SEALs 1:06:23 – Becoming a Ranger Mortar Platoon Sergeant 1:11:52 – Running RASP & Changing Ranger Selection 1:23:24 – Leaving Regiment & Taking Over an LRS Company 1:33:35 – Airborne School, Pathfinder & Sergeant Major Academy 1:38:22 – The 101st Airborne, COVID & Losing the Passion for the Army 1:41:34 – Retirement, Injuries & Hitting Rock Bottom 1:47:47 – Alcohol, Mental Health & Searching for a Way Forward 1:51:22 – Plant Medicine & a Life-Changing Experience 2:04:25 – Refined by Fire, Losing His Son & Finding Faith 2:15:21 – Closing Thoughts Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-team-house--5960890/support https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-team-house--5960890/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss.

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:00Speaker 04

  Getting into it with like a, an Iraqi artillery, um, like battalion and you know, the mortar platoon, you know, like I was in the 60s section at the time at the companies and you know, we were actually like shooting mortars at artillery pieces and you know, shooting, uh, which I felt, I felt like was pretty cool, you know, we're out there doing like direct lay missions with 60s and you know, hitting vehicles with, uh, you know, Willie P rounds and I had a, I had a 105 round land like, I don't know, four feet from me and it didn't go off, it was a dud, probably didn't vaporize, but the pucker factor was up for sure. That's, that was probably the, the biggest, you know, I'd say for like a contact that I, I really remember being like, okay, now we're really in combat.

• 1:49Jack Murphy?

  Hey everyone, welcome to the team house. I'm Jack Murphy, here with today's guest, retired Sergeant Major Will Hudson. Will served in the infantry in 173rd, jumped into Iraq during the invasion, and then he went over to 3rd Ranger Battalion where he served for many years, uh, becoming a RASP instructor, instructor eventually, and then taking a worse company, uh, and going on, uh, you know, as he made Sergeant Major, became the Ops Sergeant Major at Airborne School and finished his career in the 101st. Uh, so a really, I mean, you kind of had the infantry career, I guess. The only thing you didn't do was be a drill sergeant, you were a RASP instructor, that's the only difference. But no, that's great. Um, thank you for joining us, Will.

• 2:31Speaker 04

  Yeah, thank you for having me, I really appreciate the opportunity.

• 2:34Jack Murphy?

  Yeah, so, uh, start at the beginning, Will, tell us like, where did you grow up? What was your upbringing like?

• 2:40Speaker 04

  Okay, uh, so I was born in Kentucky, uh, that's where my dad's side of the family from, outside of Lexington. Uh, we moved from there to Texas when I was about four years old, uh, following my, my mom's family to Texas. Uh, lived outside of Houston in Pearland for the majority of my life before I joined the army. Had a pretty rough, uh, growing up, we were, we were super poor and had a pretty, I don't know, uh, kind of abusive growing, growing up childhood, went through my stepfather and stuff like that and had a pretty, pretty tough go of it initially.

• 3:13Speaker 04

  And it's kind of, I guess, what driven me, drove me to join the military is, you know, I, I was really a, kind of a lost cause, I was running around, uh, in the streets, you know, I was on my own from the early teens. I got my first apartment when I was about 16 years old with a couple of buddies and we were just, I don't know, what you would expect for somebody with no adult supervision, you know, for years and years on end, we were just drinking and partying and getting in trouble constantly. Ended up, before I joined the army, I was working at a, at a bar in Houston and bartending and just drinking non-stop, partying non-stop, and I knew that if I didn't do something, I was gonna end up in debt or in jail, and so I really was looking to do something different. One of my close friends I grew up with, Josh Gamboa, he was in 2nd Ranger Battalion, uh,

• 3:57Speaker 04

  he joined the army about two years before I did and, uh, he would come home on leave and you know, we'd do the usual, we'd go burn it down while he was home on leave and then, uh, I just kind of started getting more interested in what he was doing, he would tell me, uh, what it was like, uh, to be in Ranger Battalion, so I kind of had more of an inside look to what it was actually like to be in Battalion, uh, cause you know, my best friend growing up was there for a couple of years, and he's the one who actually, uh, kind of talked me into joining the military. Uh, I joined the, uh, joined the army and, and my plan was to try to get an option 40 contract to go straight to regiment, but it didn't work out because of the slots weren't available, he told me that he was, you know, he was good friends with, uh, the liaison that worked at Airborne School, which you know, is usually, you can just volunteer from

• 4:39Speaker 04

  Airborne School, uh, with the great liaison back then at the time and, and he can set you up and for, for me, that didn't work out because he was on TDY when I was in Airborne School. So I ended up going to the 173rd, which I wouldn't change, you know, for, for that time in my life, I, I, I had so much fun, you know, before the GWI kicked off, being in Europe, you know, I can, you know, in Italy, I was, you know, four hours in any direction on a train, you can be in a different country, I was, you know, snowboarding in the Swiss Alps and doing all kinds of outdoor activities, rock climbing, riding bikes, doing all that stuff, and, uh, I really enjoyed my time there, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world and, uh, kind of in that time, then there was a lot of guys from Ranger Battalion that were inside the organization, that was before the GWI kicked off, a lot of guys would

• 5:23Speaker 04

  kind of go out there to take a break, and so, you know, like, you had squad leaders, platoon sergeants, you know, battalion commanders, our major, a lot of people from regiment there, and so I always kind of emulated those guys and I, you know, I really wanted to be in Ranger Battalion from the get-go, but it just didn't work out, so I had them to look up to and so the first chance I got, I wanted to, to still try to go out there, so you know, I got to Ranger School and did all that and, and put in my packet, uh, once, once I made it back to the States, you know, after, you know, went to Italy, I, I, awesome time there too, we got to really do a lot of cool training, we were training in different countries, you know, going to Belgium and jumping out of hot air balloons and, you know, going, you know, I had probably five or six sets of foreign jumpings within my

• 6:06Speaker 04

  first year or two of being there, you know, just because we're always training with other countries and got a lot of opportunities to do a lot of really cool stuff and kind of, you know, we went to Africa, we went to Hungary, we went all over Europe, uh, all over the Eastern Bloc, training in different places, isn't it, inside of Italy itself, there's not a lot of places you can really do live fires except for the Italian base there, um, so you really have to go to Germany or other countries to really get into some of the more maneuver live fire stuff, and so we were, we were just on the road a lot and for me, that was great because I was seeing, I didn't have any dependents or anything going on, so anytime we would go somewhere else, they would give us time off to go kind of, you know, like R and R for a few days and explore and go around and I tried to take full advantage of that every chance I got.

• 6:48Jack Murphy?

  Yeah, it sounds like, uh, living the dream, uh, especially, you know, 20 something year old, uh, airborne infantryman.

• 6:58Jack Murphy?

  Were you there when, uh, 9/11 happened and did you see things change, uh, afterwards?

• 7:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's funny, actually, when, uh, when 9/11 happened, I was in Grafavir, we were doing training, 2nd Ranger Battalion was there at the same time as well, and so my buddy Josh was there and actually, uh, went over and was hanging out with him and he introduced me to the Battalion CSM at the time and told him that I wanted to come to Ranger Battalion, um, you know, and this was, I was, I might've been at PFC, I can't remember, I think I was probably a private or special, somewhere in there, and, uh, he told me alls I'd do is get to Ranger School and, and he would, uh, I think it was Sergeant Major Roberts at the time was the Battalion CSM. And, uh, and so he introduced me to them, had that link up and then, um, right as we were finishing, getting ready to go to Holmfield's do a box rotation, that's when it happened, and I had gotten a car accident in the rental car that I had, so I'd stayed back and was

• 7:50Speaker 04

  meeting everybody in Holmfield's and like that day 9/11 happened, and, uh, you know, we didn't, we didn't have cell phones, we ran that stuff and, uh, I just started seeing tanks rolling out, um, and parking on the corners of the bases for like force protection stuff, I was like, what's going on, I ended up going into shop at, somebody had AFN on and it popped up that the, uh, the towers were going out, I was like, oh crap, what's going on, you know, and then of course, everybody's like, we're going to war, you know.

• 8:15Jack Murphy?

  Yeah, like Starship Troopers.

• 8:16Speaker 04

  Box rotation, yeah. And so the box rotation got turned up a little bit, but we were like, man, I thought we were getting ready to go to war, we're out here training in Miles gear, you know?

• 8:28Jack Murphy?

  Yeah, um, so it sounds like, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, the 173rd kind of didn't get spun up until Iraq happened the following year?

• 8:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, yep. Yeah, we didn't, we, we never went to Afghanistan, uh, but I, I didn't go anywhere until we invaded Iraq and, uh, we were, we jumped into northern Iraq and were there, we did a year-long deployment and came home.

• 8:51Jack Murphy?

  Can, uh, can you tell us about kind of like, uh, getting ready for that deployment, preparing for it and like what the mission was, um, leading up to the actual combat jump?

• 9:01Speaker 04

  Yeah, for sure, yeah, we, we, uh, we were just doing a lot of, uh, you know, consolidated, we spent a lot of time in Germany because that's where we do all my maneuver live fire stuff, out in Grafavir, and so we were doing a lot of squad platoon company live fires, um, you know, going in and out of the box, just doing rotations, and then, uh, we ended up, you know, launching out of Aviano, so we had, I think, 15 C17s out there.

• 9:24Jack Murphy?

  Wow.

• 9:24Speaker 04

  That we, uh, we loaded up, we got the big, you know, steak, the surf and turf dinner steak and lobster tails and all that stuff and we didn't, you know, like, looking back on it now, it's, I don't know, I didn't think it was that serious, I was like, oh sweet, we're getting steak and lobster, I didn't, you know what I mean, like, I'm just ready to go do the thing, you know, and we all are, you know, our DCUs and all our plus-up stuff that we were, we were gonna go and, and, uh, I don't, we were only probably, I want to say we were in Algonquin for a couple of days, but I can't really remember for sure and, you know, we had, all, all the people were out there, AFN was out there reporting on everything, we're all, you know, getting, uh, geared up, but I don't know what was released and what, you know, because I was, I think I was a, yeah, I was a M5 at the time, I was a jump master, and so we were just trying to get everybody geared up and

• 10:09Speaker 04

  get every, everybody JMPI'd and on the birds and, you know, we were all camoed up and, uh, just ready, it was, the, the jump itself was, I really didn't know what to expect, to be honest, you know, we got on the birds and, you know, we didn't know if we're gonna, you know, the only thing that's in the back of my head is what was going on in Normandy, World War II and I, which clearly wasn't what we, what we came into, you know? But, you know, the, the nerves were up, all that stuff, we were packed in, everything that we had, that we were gonna live off of was in our rucksacks and 1950s and all that stuff and, and so we got, we got jacked up, ready to go and, and we got in the flight and we, I'd say we hooked up like...

• 10:49Speaker 04

  Probably 20 minutes out and, and at cruising altitude and then we went from like 30 grand all the way down to drop altitude and the doors opened and we were out, you know? And, uh, there was, uh, we didn't really get any contact on the ground. There was a massive air campaign that night. They were dropping bombs everywhere, fast moving, escorting us in. Honestly, we jumped into a massive mud pit and we spent the majority of the time just trying to consolidate everybody. You were just like low, low crawling through mud for what seemed like hours, you know, just trying to get everything together, trying to get everyone consolidated, you know, it was like a, just a real kind of crap show on the ground, like just mud everywhere. It was like knee deep.

• 11:30Jack Murphy?

  If I, if I understood you correctly, you guys flew from Aviano straight to Iraq?

• 11:37Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 11:38Jack Murphy?

  That's so like, such a crazy experience. Like, yeah, like you're describing eating surf and turf in Italy, getting on an airplane and the next time you touch ground, you're at a, in a muddy drop zone in Iraq. Like that's gotta be like a very weird sensation.

• 11:53Speaker 04

  Oh, for sure. And like I said, I didn't genuinely know what to expect. We hit the ground and you know, just in the back of my head, we were gonna be in a massive firefight. It was gonna be out of control, which really wasn't the case. There might, there might have been some small contact, but I, we didn't really get into gunfights on the drop zone. And I think, I feel like it was several days later before we really got into any, any type of mixing it up and tics.

• 12:16Jack Murphy?

  So you guys were, this was, um, if I recall correctly, it was designed as sort of like a classic, um, you know, flanking maneuver, the way we use airborne forces to envelope the enemy. Like you were inserted into northern Iraq as the force's main body was coming up from the south from Kuwait.

• 12:35Speaker 04

  Yep. Yeah. So we, we jumped into Urbil on the north side and, uh, secured air, airfield there and then started bringing heavies in. So they started landing equipment and doing all that stuff. And we spent several days that, kind of in that area before we started pushing out in the sector and, uh, you know, started taking, you know, we're taking over schools and stuff like that, try to find places for, uh, to live in, you know? But we left, we slept in patrol bases for, it seemed like, you know, I want to say we went like a good two or three months without, you know, like probably I had my first makeshift shower like 70 days in or something like that. My uniform was rotten off my body. It 'd stand up on its own. You don't really realize how bad everyone else stinks until you get that first. Then you cleanse it like, oh man, I can smell it now.

• 13:19Jack Murphy?

  What was, uh, the mission that they had you guys doing, um, during that time?

• 13:24Speaker 04

  We were just kind of in sector doing, uh, setting up, uh, blocking positions and, and things of that nature. Uh, we were doing some presence patrolings and, um, just trying to set up some sort of infrastructure. Cause like I said, we slept in patrol bases for at least a couple of months, you know, until we got into some hard structures and we ended up taking over, you know, like a company would take over a school and we'd set up the security perimeter and kind of launch out and do patrols from there. But our biggest problem we had was logistics, you know, which is always what drives everything. I mean, we were living off of a, a liter of bottle of water a day for, I can't even tell you how many months, you know? And it's like, really when the IEDs started kind of, um, ramping up, you know, nobody was really ready for them. We were just cruising around in

• 14:06Speaker 04

  soft skin Humvees. And, you know, once we started getting blown up in them, they're like, oh, we gotta do something about this. So we started putting sandbags in the floorboards and then eventually we got some Kevlar blankets to kind of outfit them a little bit, but we were really not at all prepared for that type of, uh, environment.

• 14:22Jack Murphy?

  That's interesting that the IEDs started up so quickly.

• 14:24Speaker 04

  Yeah. Yeah. I remember we get, you know, we were probably a few months in before we really started hitting some IEDs and we lost a couple of guys to, to that. And, um, that's really what kind of when we, the Kevlar blankets and stuff started showing up and we could kind of outfit the Humvees a little bit. Cause we really didn't have any protection outside of that and body armor, you know?

• 14:46Jack Murphy?

  And did you guys make your way down to Kirkhook? Was that sort of where you finished?

• 14:52Speaker 04

  We did.

• 14:54Jack Murphy?

  Yeah.

• 14:55Speaker 04

  Yeah. We made it down that area and I'm trying to remember honestly, man, cause it's been so many years now and so many fun has passed. But, uh, yeah, I think I would say around the Kirkhook area is kind of where we, we finished out and we, you know, it's, you know, first you find out, you, you think you're there for three months and six months and then, you know, it's gonna be 15 months. Nobody really has any idea. Uh, you know, so I think we ended up doing a, doing a 12, 13 months before we made it back.

• 15:19Jack Murphy?

  Any other memorable moments from that deployment before, uh, you guys redeployed back home?

• 15:26Speaker 04

  Um, for the most part, it was, you know, we spent, uh, a lot of time training. We spent a lot of time, you know, doing, uh, presence patrols, a lot of long, uh, long haul patrols and vehicles. Uh, we did a lot of foot dismounted patrols too, just based off, you know, when we started getting hit with IED threats and stuff. But really honestly, um, outside of a few, a handful of times, we didn't really get into a lot of heavy combat. You know, we, there was initially in the push, we, you know, we ended up like getting into it with like a, an Iraqi artillery, um, like battalion and, you know, and the mortar platoon, you know, like I, I was in the 60 section at the time at the companies and,

• 16:08Speaker 04

  you know, we were actually like shooting mortars at artillery pieces and, you know, shooting, uh, which I felt, I felt like was pretty cool. You know, we're out there doing like directly missions with 60s and, you know, hitting vehicles with, uh, you know, Willie P rounds and, you know, I had a, I had a 105 round land like, I don't know, four feet from me. It didn't go off. It was a dud. Probably had been vaporized, but the pucker factor was up for sure. But that's, that was probably the, the biggest, you know, I'd say for like a contact that I, I really remember being like, okay, now we're really in combat, you know? Cause up until that point, it just really didn't feel that way. You know what I mean? We were, I don't know, say it was maybe a three to four weeks after

• 16:52Speaker 04

  we jumped in before we really got into that. And, um, that was the first time I was like, okay, now we're actually in combat. Flights are flying, artillery rounds, you know, we're, you know, we, we shot all of our rounds out and we're like, okay, now we gotta break contact and go re, re plus on ammo. Um, I feel like that was really the first time that brought that lead in that we really felt like we're in combat.

• 17:16Jack Murphy?

  Yeah. That's pretty hardcore. Um, so you guys, or you, uh, ended up getting sent to Fort Polk after the invasion?

• 17:27Speaker 04

  Yeah. So after, uh, after we, um, came back from the invasion, I was on PCS orders to go to Fort Polk, but I had to go to a binocular route. Cause I was, uh, you know, it's, I was a, I went to the like staff sergeant board while we were forward deployed to Iraq. And, um, so like I was either, I can't remember if I, I was promotable for several months. I can't remember if I had pinned staff sergeant yet, or if I was still a sergeant promotable. But anyways, I had binocular route and I don't remember if we had to go to school back then yet or not beforehand. Uh, but anyways, I went to binocular route and when I was in binocular, I was started trying to put together a packet to go, to go to regiment, you know, and got in contact with in-service recruiter and started building a packet. As soon as

• 18:10Speaker 04

  I got to Fort Polk, the reason I was going to Fort Polk is originally I was supposed to be an OC, well, which is kind of strange as a new staff sergeant. It's usually a more seasoned guy that's going to be an OC, you know, so maybe OP for. But anyways, when I was heading there, they stood up the fourth brigade that sent them out in there.

• 18:26Jack Murphy?

  A, uh, for, for listeners, an OC is what observer, controller, they're like the referees in training exercises?

• 18:33Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 18:34Jack Murphy?

  Yeah.

• 18:35Speaker 04

  Yeah. And it's usually a more seasoned guy. So if you're a staff sergeant, you've already been a squad leader and done that time. So you can go out there and evaluate squads. Or if you're, you know, a star in first class, you've already been a platoon sergeant. So you can go out there and kind of show those other guys for observing them properly. And I would like say I was a new, a new staff sergeant. So more than likely I probably would end up, you know, going to an OP for platoon or something like that. But they stood up the fourth brigade at the 10th mountain there. And so anybody who was an infantry person showing up to Fort Polk just got followed into that because they were trying to fill a brigade, you know? And, um, so I got there and they're like, oh, you're a staff sergeant? Sweet. Here's a hundred privates. You're just gonna be in charge of these guys until more people show up. And I was like, sweet, I'm putting a packet in to go to, you know?

• 19:20Speaker 04

  And it's funny, the guy who showed up, uh, Joseph Montour, he was, uh, he was one of the battalion CSMs coming in. Well, he was my first sergeant in Italy and he grew up in Ranger Battalion. And, uh, I, I went and saw him and he pulled me in. He's like, oh, you're coming by battalion. I was like, that's awesome. Sorry, major. I appreciate you pulling me in and all that stuff. And I had already submitted a packet to go to rope and all that stuff, you know? And I told him, I was like, you know, I'm excited. I'm trying to go to Ranger Battalion. And he's like, that's awesome. He's like, well, you know, we'll see what we can do and get you there. And I was like, I already have a school date, but I didn't tell him that. I'm like, he'll figure it out, you know? And like a week later on in his office, he's like, he's like, hey man, what's going on? I see you got a school date. I was like, yeah, I didn't want to tell you that I'd already

• 20:02Speaker 04

  got a, a slot and end up in a bad position there, you know? I didn't want to tell you that you're wrong and that I was still gonna go.

• 20:08Jack Murphy?

  So since, since you were an NCO, this was like part of the deal. Like you need to go to Ranger school before you can go assess at rope.

• 20:15Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 20:16Jack Murphy?

  Yeah.

• 20:17Speaker 04

  Yeah. And I already, already had my Ranger's tab and so it wasn't a big deal. So I just really needed to get a packet. So I needed to get some letters of recommendation. So I got a couple of those together and got my packet, submitted all that up. Soon as, soon as I got approved and they gave me a school date and I, I went to rope, uh, not really knowing exactly what to expect to be honest.

• 20:35Jack Murphy?

  Yeah.

• 20:36Speaker 04

  Uh, outside of, you know, I, I'd talked to my friend Josh, but you know, he went through RIP and going through ropes, another animal in itself, you know? Uh, so I just tried to show up as ready as I could and got out there. And, and honestly, when I got to rope, I was really impressed by the professionalism and everything that was run by the course at the time. Um, you know, it was, I won't say what, it's more of a gentleman's course than RIP is, you know, you know, being into ICA of, uh, rasp and kind of at the transition between RIP and rasp. But I, you know, you know, the, back in the day, I mean, obviously you went through RIP. So like, if you can get haze for three weeks, you'll be okay, you know? That doesn't mean you're gonna be a good ranger. You know what I mean? So, uh, the proof is in the pudding when looking at the stats, you know,

• 21:20Speaker 04

  I think probably 85% or so of, of RIP students end up getting RFED. And I think we went two, almost three years before we RFED the first rasp one graduate, just because of...

• 21:32Jack Murphy?

  Oh, because they're better trained.

• 21:34Speaker 04

  Oh yeah. For what? And she just weed those guys out throughout the course. Instead of it being three weeks, it's eight weeks. The first three weeks is kind of like the common core, small unit tactics, land navigation, weapon systems, all that stuff. When you get into phase two, we give them time off, give them nights and weekends and it's marksmanship, mobility, breaching, all that. And if they're gonna mess something up, they're gonna do it while they're there. And so we weed all that, all that stuff happens while they're in the course still. And so we get rid of them before they ever make it to the battalions.

• 22:01Jack Murphy?

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• 25:38Jack Murphy?

  Yeah, I mean, giving them nights and weekends off is almost like part of the selection course, I imagine, because like you said, if they're gonna screw up, they're gonna start screwing up there.

• 25:47Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, for sure. Well, because when I do the in-brief as an COIC, I always tell them, say, "Look, man, you guys look to your left and right, because at the end of the day, when it comes down to the last week and you're going to the commander's board, the person to the left and right is gonna be the one who sells you out, because, you know, we're gonna give you the briefing, like, things you can do. You're gonna have your time off, but you still can't drink alcohol. You can't go party. You can't, you know, can't go to office limits establishments. And the person next to you is gonna be doing the right thing, and you're not, and they're gonna get mad about it, and they're gonna sell you out. And it's gonna just come up commander's board every single time, same thing. You know, guys are like, "No, I wasn't doing anything. Like, really?" And you pull up the computer, you go to Facebook, and you turn around, and it's them, like, partying down in Auburn, like, at Sky Bar. You're like, "Oh, so this isn't you?" Like, "Oh, this is awkward."

• 26:32Speaker 04

  I'm like, "Yep, I'm gonna tell you guys," you know? It's always how it goes, you know? They always sell each other out, you know? Because, you know, at the end of the time, we do course critiques and all that, and that's when all that stuff comes out.

• 26:44Jack Murphy?

  So, I mean, back in the day, what was rope like when you went through it?

• 26:50Speaker 04

  So, for me, it was, it was an eye-opener. And honestly, it was just because I had never had any experience with regiment outside of guys in the 173rd. And so, when I got there, I was, I felt like it was a really professionally-run course. You know, the cadre were professional. They weren't yelling and screaming and all stuff. Just like, you kind of go to the dry erase board, and it has time, location, uniform, where you need to be and when. And so, you show up that, and you do that event, and then they're like, "Okay, go look at the board. It'll be the next timeline," you know? So, it's like, you know, I feel like most guys stress out about the critical events, you know, the APFT, the five-miler, the 12-miler, all that stuff. Like, that first week is when you do all the critical events. But that's the easiest week of PT that you do there,

• 27:34Speaker 04

  is as a week you're doing those critical events, you know? Like, okay, now the critical events are knocked out. Now, we're doing PT with cadre every day. And, you know, like, one day, we did the gate-to-gate run. I think it was like a 12-mile run in uniform. We hit like six or seven obstacle courses, and, you know, all the cadre, you know, still to this day, it's always been, like, the cadre who worked there were, like, genetically superior to us.

• 27:54Jack Murphy?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 27:55Speaker 04

  You know, like, yeah, the super athletes always working there, you know? And guys that are, you know, they can deadlift 400 pounds, but also run a five-minute mile for five miles, you know? And so, trying to keep up with them, and it was really an eye-opener for me. Like, man, I don't, I don't know if I'm prepared enough to be ready for this, you know? Like, I, I've always had an issue being fast. Like, I can run the same pace for 30 miles, but like, I can't get any faster. You know what I mean? And so, speed's always been my biggest crux. I can always, you know, meet the standard, but it's always been trouble for me to get faster. And so, I, but I never quit anything. And so, I feel like that was a big part of the assessment, is, you know,

• 28:41Speaker 04

  they bring the psych out there, and they're watching you and how you're acting at all events, and how you're responding to things, and, you know, because I don't, I'm trying to remember if they did any of this, but I know that when I was working at RASP, we would, we would work some, you know, like, we would, you know, RASP 2 would come out of the field, and we kind of go out to coal range at the same time. RASP 2's doing their FTX, and RASP 1 is doing their, you know, land navigation and field training stuff at the same time. And the way it usually works is based off of, you know, let's say there's 10 officers in the class, then there will be 10 missions. So, each officer gets an opportunity to be a platoon leader, or company commander, whatever the case may be. And they're doing whatever mission. Maybe it's a, you know, down Black Hawk, or whatever the case is.

• 29:26Speaker 04

  But when they get out there, we give them, we give them like a squad of privates. And we're like, "Hey, you have got to teach these guys how to read a map, how to plot land navigation, and they will take to the points, and they're finding the points." And, you know, it's not necessarily like, can they find them? It's like, just assessing them as a leader.

• 29:43Jack Murphy?

  Right, right.

• 29:44Speaker 04

  A lot of times, what guys do is they just get mad. They take the map, like, "Don't worry about it. I'm just gonna do it." And they just take the dudes, lead them to the points, and they come back, and they fail. And they're like, "I don't understand why." Like, "Well, because you missed the whole point." The point was to sit down with the soldiers, teach them how to read a map, how to plot the points, let them lead to the land site. Even if they don't find the point, you can still re-correct, you know? Reorient them, try to find another point, all that stuff. And so, we, we would do a lot of that. And so, my point being is, when they would come out, so for, for the field problem, at the end of the field problem, they're usually out there for, I don't know, you're up for about 24 or 26 hours like that, just running through all the missions.

• 30:25Speaker 04

  And we come out, and we'll do something to just mess with them mentally. You know, we'll come out there and just start reading the APFT standards. And, and they would, and have them do like a minute of push-ups, a minute of sit-ups, and do like a half-mile run or something. Not because you're assessed, just to see if they're gonna be like, "Oh, what are we doing?" Or you're like, "Okay, everybody, everybody pack up, and walk them back to the barracks." You know, from coal range to back to the barracks is, I don't know, like 18, 20 miles. And just take off at like a, you know, really fast pace, doing like 10-minute mile pace. And they don't know it, but when you get a mile down the road, around the corner, the buses are there, just to see who's gonna, you know, overreact to what's happening. Like, "Oh, man, we're just gonna see how you're gonna react." The buses are right around the corner, you know?

• 31:11Speaker 04

  And, you know, we did some of that, but that's always like the mental piece to it, to like, see, are you gonna quit, and overreact, you know? Like, I was pretty beat up. I was, I went to the, I went to the feed store, and I got like horse liniments for racehorses, and it's like rubbing it in my skin. I was like, "I can taste metal. I can taste metal. I probably had too much."

• 31:34Speaker 04

  Just trying to, just trying to, just trying to stay healthy through the course. But, you know, I made it through. I was...

• 31:41Speaker 04

  Somewhere in the middle of the road, you know, I wasn't the best. I wasn't the worst, but somewhere in the middle. I got hammered in the board, just like, I don't think anybody ever leaves a rope or RAS two board feeling good. You know, even guys, you know, especially now, you know, guys, you can be a regiment for 16 years, go to RAS two and still get fired, you know? And so like, I, I know when I went to the board out, I was the very last guy. I was out in the hallway for hours, just pacing back and forth. I'm like, I don't know what's going on. They were calling down to three, seven, five. I, I didn't know this until later. Talk about two, sorry. They called me like, you sure you want this guy? I was like, well, I'm glad you told them that you did, because that's the only way you got here. Uh, so.

• 32:20Jack Murphy?

  And you get assigned to third Ranger Battalion right down the street. Did you go straight to mortar section?

• 32:27Speaker 04

  Yeah, I went straight to the mortar platoon. And I, at the time, you know, I can't, I don't know what year. I think it was around oh, three, oh, four, somewhere around there is when they went to the consolidated concept where the mortar platoon is all at HAC. And then you have sections that go out to the companies.

• 32:44Jack Murphy?

  Yep.

• 32:45Speaker 04

  Because we have all, you know, so the consolidated mortar platoon concept is we've got like 21 mortar systems, you know, we've got a 60 team for every platoon. And then we also have four eighty ones and four one twenties. And we have to be able to be proficient on all the systems at all times. And we just hash out. So like, at the time, coming as a staff sergeant, I was like the, originally I was going to BCO. So I was, I was like the B, BCO mortar section leader, but we still stay consolidated at the battalion at HAC for all of our, you know, our more tep events and stuff like that. But we've always done, we're, we do everything that a line platoon does during the training cycle, but then we do all the mortar stuff on top of it. So we kind of have to be a jack of all trades, you know?

• 33:27Speaker 04

  So we would go through squad, tune, um, you know, team squad, platoon live fires. And then when the platoons are doing between live fires, we'll put our, hash our guys out there. So they're going to the platoon live fires with the platoons as well. But at the same time, we're still supporting all the between live fires, uh, at the battalion level. So we're having to, to do all of our mortar mission on top of all of the other missions as well. So it's just a lot to stay on top of, and it was a lot to manage. But, um, one of the things I love more about anything in Ranger Battalion is your ability to just,

• 34:02Speaker 04

  do really anything that you can imagine. So any, if you have a good idea, that's something smarter, better way to do something, you can just bring it to the table. And as long as the commanders go with it, you can go forward with it, you know? When I was a mortar platoon sergeant, we had a lot of, you know, cause well, like when we were in Iraq, there wasn't a lot, there wasn't really mortar missions, you know? You might have one occasionally, but, um, you always had the 60 teams out, but there's still, we had so many assets and so many things. There's, it wasn't really a mortar mission. So you got to find a way to stay engaged in the fight. And so I started putting in, uh, climbing, I started, you know, buying equipment and putting in climbing teams. And we had our guys doing squadron interdiction and, um,

• 34:40Speaker 04

  that's where we really started to take off. Cause the issues we were having is, you know, we would come back from, you know, I'd have 60 teams out with all the platoons. And they come back from deployment after getting after it with the platoons the whole time, you know, there's 60 teams, but they're still just going out with the squads and doing the same.

• 34:56Jack Murphy?

  Right. They're putting them on Humvees, having them be like 50 cal gunners and all that good stuff.

• 35:00Speaker 04

  Yeah. Or they're just jumping in with the fire teams and running a gun with the platoons the whole time. They come back and they're like, hey, I want to, I want to, I'm going to go to, I'm reclass 11 Bravo. And I'm going to go to the platoons. And so we were just like losing guys left and right and trying to,

• 35:16Speaker 04

  it's hard, it's a hard sell, you know, it's like, we all want to do that mission, but somebody's got to do this one. Cause we're all infantrymen, you know, the only difference between 11 Bravo and 11 Charlie is the letter at the end of your MBS, you know what I mean? We all go through the same basic training, AIT, all that stuff. We just, at the end of AIT, they're like, hey, you're a Charlie. You're like, sweet. And when I came in army, we had 11 Charlies, Bravos, Mikes and Hotels, you know?

• 35:38Jack Murphy?

  Yeah.

• 35:38Speaker 04

  And it was just like, uh, wherever you landed it, you know? And, and so it was a hard sell. And so I had to find a way to keep guys engaged. Like, look, man, we have a really good mission set here. We just have, we have to have the intellect to, to incorporate it properly. So like at the beginning of every training cycle, uh, all the, the platoon leaders and platoon sergeants have an in brief with the battalion commander, just walking them through the training cycle. And how you're going to get after what you're going to do all the way until you get out the door. And so I would sit down, you know, about the platoon leader, sit down with the battalion commander. And we're like, this is our plan, you know? We're, we're doing, we're going to meet all of your requirements for the mortar mission, but we're also doing, you know, all the, all the live fires up to platoon at our platoon level.

• 36:22Speaker 04

  That way, if we need to go out in a unilateral mission to be up another platoon for you, we can do that. We're also putting, you know, climbing teams together and we're going to do, um, so we, our guys can provide isolation for the platoons. And then that's another problem that they don't have to worry about. So we'll do isolation. We'll handle squadron interdiction. Which in my opinion is where all the fun is anyways, you know, it's, it's cool to go in and clear a house, but doing SSC is not any fun. You know what I mean? But sitting up on a ladder, shooting people as they're running out the back door, or just flying around in a helicopter landing and smoking them as they're running off the objective is way more fun. Than spending all night and trying to do SSC and lay everything out and take pictures and grab hard drives and all that good stuff.

• 37:01Jack Murphy?

  Was it difficult coming in as, you know, as they say, an import into Ranger Battalion? And there's a bit of a stigma, but it can be overcome, of course. I mean, was that kind of a challenge for you at all?

• 37:13Speaker 04

  Yeah, for sure. I, I, it was always in the back of my head, but, uh, you know, just like, as we were talking earlier, you know, we were in three, seven, five at the same time together, you know? It's like, you're all so busy going so many different directions. You can be in the same battalion with somebody for eight years and not know them. Because every company, every platoon is, you know, because we're fighting as platoons and we're all moving in different directions at different times. And it's just hard to keep track. So I just try to show up and be humble and try to learn as much as I could. And, uh, just try to outwork everybody the best way that I had in my ability to. And, and my experience was within the training cycle and the deployment, nobody remembers that you're in import outside of, you know, the guys in my platoon obviously knew.

• 37:54Speaker 04

  But when all, all the companies you're working with, everyone just kind of assumes that you've always been there.

• 38:00Jack Murphy?

  Yeah.

• 38:00Speaker 04

  Unless you're jacked up.

• 38:01Jack Murphy?

  Yeah, yeah. I was going to say, I mean, that means you were doing a good job that you weren't like on the radar.

• 38:06Speaker 04

  Yeah, for sure.

• 38:08Jack Murphy?

  Um, what was your first deployment with three, seven, five?

• 38:13Speaker 04

  Uh, to Ramadi. I went with, uh, with BCO Ramadi. I think it was, uh, Rob Phipps was, it was Rob Phipps. And I'm trying to remember who the other platoon sergeant was at the time, Ray Barrett, were the two platoon sergeants.

• 38:25Jack Murphy?

  Yeah, Rob, Rob Phipps was one of my rip cad, right?

• 38:28Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 38:29Jack Murphy?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 38:31Speaker 04

  Yeah, I love Rob. We're still good friends today. And he was actually my first sergeant at selection training company too, when I was running RAS. Um, but, and, um, you know, I had a, that was a, an awesome deployment because we were just, I think there was three days, that entire deployment where we didn't do anything. And that was because we got stood down when the AMZ hit, it happened and we lost all assets.

• 38:52Jack Murphy?

  Oh, yeah.

• 38:54Speaker 04

  Cause they were doing that. And so we spent, you know, a couple of days just kind of hanging out and watching movies or whatever. But the rest of the time, we were just getting after it every single day. I mean, I think, um, we were hitting two, three, four missions a night, you know, coming back, uh, restocking ammo, everything, running back out. And we never stopped that entire rotation, just hit for the whole time.

• 39:16Jack Murphy?

  This is when they had you guys doing time sensitive targets, just back to back to back.

• 39:21Speaker 04

  Yeah, it was just nonstop, go, go, go the whole time, which was awesome. You're like, it's, one, I was just like, in my experience, like I, I really enjoyed my time outside of regiment and I had a phenomenal time. The ones that we third, there was a lot of great leaders, but combat related. Like, it was the first time I really felt like I was in combat. I was like, this is what combat's like. We're, you know, we're just getting out here and getting after it every single night. You know, we're getting in tics every night. We're getting, you know? But we didn't have a lot of, uh, you know, friendly casualties, you know, so we,

• 39:55Speaker 04

  we were doing it the right way.

• 39:56Jack Murphy?

  Yeah.

• 39:56Speaker 04

  We were still getting training in in between, you know, we were at, at Shark Base, using the range down the road. So if we were not on target, we're out at the range shooting. Um, you know, I had my guys incorporated with, with the platoons and doing everything. And we had a lot of trust with them. And, and, uh, we really, I don't know, it was a phenomenal rotation with me. And, you know, I, I'd still have a great relationship with Rob Phipps and, you know, he took us in and kind of took under his wing and really helped me out a lot there. I made a lot of really good, close friends on that first rotation.

• 40:26Jack Murphy?

  Are there any, uh, memorable, uh, combat missions you were on from that rotation?

• 40:32Speaker 04

  Um, well, there's, I mean, we, there was a lot of them. I actually, I, the only valorous award I have came from that rotation. And it was, we were, uh, I don't remember everything on, uh, all the specifics on it, but we, we were going to hit a target. Uh, we, we spent, man, we, we were doing everything out of strikers for the most part. We got helos a few times, but for the most part, we were launching strikers. But we were getting blown up every time we went out the door. I mean, we blew up so many strikers that we had started getting, uh, there for a while. We had, uh, had some, um, Bradley's coming in. I can't remember if it was a guy D or somebody was in there. They just brought those Bradley's in. I wrote in the back of the thing. I was like, man, this is the last thing. Like, you just feel like, I don't even know how to explain it.

• 41:15Speaker 04

  I was like, I don't know how people do this every day because, you know, when you're in the back of a striker, it's pretty smooth sailing. You can still see what's going on. You have a, a feel, but like, when you're in the back of that Bradley, I was like, man, I feel like I'm going to die every second that I'm in here. I don't know what's going on. It's loud or bouncing. I don't, you know, I can't see anything. I don't know what's going on. Um, but yeah, we, we hit, we were just getting blown up nonstop, going out the gates, blowing, you know, hitting roadside bombs, blowing the wheels off strikers and then going into recovery operations. And, uh, so we're doing a lot in strikers. And when we went on the, on this one, uh, this one target.

• 41:49Speaker 04

  And there was, at the time, me and my PL, Tony Keller, were, at the time, we were, we were kind of doing, running the mobility for them. So me and him were kind of heading the, heading up the, kind of route clearance stuff and, and running the vehicles, manning the, you know, all the RWSs and drivers and gunners and TCs to just get more guys, guns in the fight. And so we, we went on target. One of the squads had gotten pinned down and they were trying to break contact, but they couldn't because we were, we were getting a lot of heavy gunfire. So I jumped on the Striker. I went and, went and took my Striker

• 42:32Speaker 04

  to basically block, block them off. And both my, mine and my PL's RWSs went down. So we're on top of their like free gun and he's free gun is 50 cal. I've got a 240 running off the side and we're just, we're just trying to lay down suppressive fire in order to get the guys so they can break contact to get out of there. And, and so I just basically put myself in, in front of them and was trying to, to let the Striker eat all those rounds and just laying down as much machine gun fire as I could to help them break contact to get away. And, um, once we were, we were get them in safe position, load them up and start working our exfil plan, we were, we were able to get out of there without anybody really getting hurt.

• 43:13Jack Murphy?

  So I imagine that, you know, you're kind of off to the races at this point. You're that, that generation of guys that you probably deployed like every six months going forward for the next, you know, eight years or whatever it was?

• 43:27Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 43:29Jack Murphy?

  Um, what, what was the next, uh, rotation for you?

• 43:33Speaker 04

  Uh, went to Blod, I think for the next two rotations, if I remember correctly. So it was Ramadi, then two back-to-back Blods. Uh, so I was with Biko and Ramadi and then Charlie Company, uh, for the Blod rotations.

• 43:49Jack Murphy?

  I was only in Blod once, so I have very little experience. Um, but there was a, what, what was the big, like, super jock that was down there?

• 44:01Speaker 04

  Yeah, I don't remember the name of it, but yeah, that's where the, the main, the main jock was, was there in Blod.

• 44:08Jack Murphy?

  Uh, and what were you guys doing there? I mean, was it more, uh, time-sensitive target strikes?

• 44:14Speaker 04

  Yeah, it was a combination. We, we got a decent amount of air assets. So we would, would, it was a combination. We, I'd say 50/50 between using Strikers and using air assets, you know? Obviously if we were, uh, we're, we're Strikers, things were a little more slow going. You know, obviously when you get that helos, you get out to the X or do an offset. And so we stayed pretty busy doing that. Um, or, yeah, so it was, I'm sorry, I went to Blod and then it was Biop. Yeah, sorry.

• 44:40Jack Murphy?

  Okay.

• 44:43Speaker 04

  And we, we didn't get into a, a whole lot. I mean, we got in a decent amount of, uh, ticks that rotation. Um, that's actually, if I remember correctly, that's the rotation we lost Jimmy Regan on, uh, from Charlie Company. And, uh, that was a, that was really, I, I'd say my first, where I was like right there in the middle of it when it happened that I really, you know, had lost somebody for the first time. And, uh, we, I honestly, we didn't even really know what was going on. We had, uh, we were, we were driving down the road and, uh, in Strikers, we had an ID. Um, we knew that there was, so basically what happened, the explosion that happened and it kind of breached the, the back tailgate and Regan had taken some shrapnel basically like up underneath of his body armor and he

• 45:28Speaker 04

  was having labored breathing, all that stuff. Doc Melvin was taking care of him. They got him all packaged up. We set up HLC, bris game and got him, they evac them. And then we just continued on the target because we were on our way to target. We did the whole mission, came back. Still, nobody knew what was going on. We're coming back and then we came back and I think, I would say, uh, Merritt was there, you know, as a battalion CSM. He was there at Blod and he had like had everybody in formation. We pulled back in the gates. We're like, well, I guess we know what happened. You know, we came back in and, and we had lost Regan.

• 45:59Jack Murphy?

  That's terrible.

• 46:01Speaker 04

  Yeah. And then, you know, from there, it's like, you know, the next day or so, everybody's kind of working through that and then just getting back on target.

• 46:10Jack Murphy?

  I was going to ask, was it tough for the platoon to kind of maintain their focus in the aftermath of that?

• 46:17Speaker 04

  Oh, for sure.

• 46:18Jack Murphy?

  Yeah.

• 46:19Speaker 04

  Yeah. Cause Jimmy Regan, he was a team leader at the time and he was loved by all the guys and they were all super close, you know? I mean, you know how tight it is inside the battunes and I, like, I knew him, but I didn't know him the way they did, obviously. And so they were, they were pretty beat up about it for sure. They were struggling.

• 46:36Jack Murphy?

  And, and how did you kind of see that evolve throughout the, the rest of, the remainder of that deployment?

• 46:42Speaker 04

  Uh, for the most part, you know, it's like you kind of just put your nose back to the grindstone and you don't, you know, we do everything. We don't ever do anything mental health related and, you know, and how to, how to deal with stuff properly. Just shove it down and deal with it later when you come home and, and you don't still deal with it then. It just comes out in the wrong time when everybody's, you know, three quarters of the way through Bala Jameson and then it all just falls apart then, you know?

• 47:04Jack Murphy?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, you know, we'll, we'll have to circle back around on that one. Um, but, uh, then the next one was, uh, Biop?

• 47:14Speaker 04

  Biop, yeah. And that was a, a pretty interesting rotation because at that, that deployment, we had split the, the strike force was half SEALs, half Rangers. And when we got there, uh, for that rotation, we had basically spent, I want to say like a week, maybe almost two weeks where we were just doing static operations, just doing rehearsals non-stop. Um, just trying to get everybody on the same sheet of music because we didn't, we didn't have an opportunity to do that prior to the rotation until we got on the ground. Um, so we're just working through TTPs and, uh, the way we kind of mitigated stuff is they would do isolation, we would do assault and we would flip-flop on the next target. So we didn't have, you know, guys running through buildings at the same time.

• 47:56Jack Murphy?

  Yep.

• 47:56Speaker 04

  And, uh, and there was some, and a lot of egos getting in the way, obviously. And then, you know, we had like, one of the, one of the unit guys came down as LNO to kind of bridge the gap and, and try to help with that situation. And, you know, just a lot of, I don't know, like, cause, cause it wasn't still Team Six guys. It was like they're vanilla SEALs or I don't know what a term we want to use for the regular SEALs. And, uh, there was a lot of guys who had been SEALs for a really long time, but, you know, I had, one of the guys was, uh, you know, he, one of the, the main team leads is like, I've been a SEAL for 13 years. It was my first deployment.

• 48:33Jack Murphy?

  Wow.

• 48:33Speaker 04

  You're like, okay. And you're like, well, we got privates over at five deployments.

• 48:38Jack Murphy?

  Was the, was the conflict, um, like on the leadership side or on like the enlisted side?

• 48:46Speaker 04

  Um, I think more, more on the enlisted side. And it's just more, you know, it's, you always got to get past the egos. Is it Rangers or is it SEALs? Who's better? Who's not? And it's at the end of the day, it's just like, hey, man, we got a job to do. We just need to get out there and do it and put all the BS aside. And then, you know, it takes, after the first week or so, I think we were running pretty smooth and, uh, things are going well and we're going on target and we weren't having any issues. And like I say, I think flip-flop and isolation and assault is really what helped us out there. Um, so we got into some, we got into some pretty bad, uh, some bad ticks. We got in a really bad one, one night when we were in, uh, we were in Solder City. And at that

• 49:29Speaker 04

  time, we had, uh, we had to take two tanks and two Bradleys just to go into Solder City because the EFP threat was so bad.

• 49:38Jack Murphy?

  Yeah.

• 49:38Speaker 04

  That they just were there to eat EFPs. And so we would, we would forward stage in the green zone, pick up the Bradley and tank escorts to move to target. And we, we got in the green zone and we were waiting for escorts and they got in there and then, you know, like we were having, one of them were having transmission issues and they couldn't take off, you know, because you have to have two tanks because one's got to recover the other if something happens. And same thing with the Bradleys. And we sat there and we're just burning hours and hours and hours. And we were getting ready to come up on daylight and finally we just took off. We're like, we're rolling without the, the tanks. And we got out and then like, I don't know, 10 minutes into that movement, one of the Bradleys went down. So then we were down with the Bradley. It's like, all right, man, see you guys. We got to go. And, and we were, we kind of burned the target on the way in and

• 50:22Speaker 04

  we just started, we started taking gunfire before, before we ever got to the target building. And so we were in pretty, pretty heavy gunfire the whole way out there. And like I said, we were at that time working, half the strike force was SEALs, half, other half of the Rangers. And, uh, we got into some pretty, you know, in Solder City, it's just like any major city. There's like really tall buildings everywhere. It's, it's very chaotic. Um, and it's just really difficult to figure out where everything's coming from. You have, what guys were doing is they were had, had kind of weapons stashed on top of all these buildings and they would run up there, they grow weapons, start shooting from the top of the buildings and they would just go across, streetwalk with no guns and then go to the next building, run up to the top. So you're, you're not shooting an unarmed

• 51:07Speaker 04

  civilian as they're crossing from building to building, you know, and kind of playing that game. And, uh, yeah, I don't, I mean, we were just, we were in heavy gunfire for a really long time and we were, we were, I, I, all of like, my RWS got completely shot up. All the placards on the vehicles were shot off. Like we were just.

• 51:25Jack Murphy?

  Man.

• 51:26Speaker 04

  In it the whole time. Yeah. And like you could see, uh, you could see friendly helos coming in, like adapts would come in to try to support us. And then you see just like tracer fire just tracing it through the sky. And it's, you know, so they were, you know, because.

• 51:39Jack Murphy?

  Peeling off, yeah.

• 51:40Speaker 04

  The daytime at that point, not at night, like where we should have been, but we got stuck in the green zone, waiting for, uh, the vehicles to get fixed. I never did. And so we ended up hitting, hitting the target around daybreak or a little bit after. And so we were just in the middle of the day fighting, uh, in Solder City, which is like worst case scenario. And going back and looking at ISR footage after the fact, it just looks like the entire city just erupted on us. And, uh, we ended up getting what we were, you know, going for the target, got what we were supposed to get there. And then we exfilled and made it out of there without anyone getting shot or hurt, which is a godsend in itself, you know? Um, but we, we were, I don't think that's just a testament to like regiment and the adaptability and being able to, to, to, to come together and work

• 52:25Speaker 04

  teams that quickly and, and, uh, learn, share TTPs, all that stuff, and then just keep going. Cause we actually got a really good tight working relationship. You know, it's just like anything.

• 52:35Jack Murphy?

  By the end of the deployment, yeah.

• 52:37Speaker 04

  Yeah. You get past everyone's egos. Like this gets hands down best gets I've ever seen in my whole career for that rotation. And it was just like Ranger privates making fun of SEALs, SEALs making fun of Rangers. It was awesome.

• 52:51Jack Murphy?

  I'm surprised they let you guys do them. I know the commander's got a leery of platoon skits as the deployment's ground on.

• 53:00Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah. That was great. The guys go and made a bunch of big fake mustaches and put them on and they run around like guns flagging each other in the face pretending to be SEALs and you know, the guys were like pretending like, oh, I'm gonna shoot this light out like

• 53:13Speaker 04

  go through like five magazines and just trying to shoot one light and throw rocks. So like, we can't get it to go. I don't know what to do now. Yeah, just like letting Ranger privates be privates and doing cool things that they do.

• 53:25Jack Murphy?

  I, and as, you know, the, these deployments are going on, are you noticing any difference in how the, the conflict in Iraq is evolving?

• 53:37Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, for sure. I definitely realized that, you know, like for all the, you know, the years that I was there and then I'm busy, you know, it's like, I want to say from probably oh, five to about 2009 or so, it was all Iraq heavy, you know, and then it shifted and then everybody was getting after it in Afghanistan. Cause you know, it used to be just one company would deploy to Afghanistan. They'd sit in Bagram and plan a mission for two months that they would never go on. And you know, everybody's just like hitting the gym, comes back 40 pounds heavier.

• 54:11Speaker 04

  Super Jack, like, oh, you guys just came back from Afghanistan. Uh, you know, and then, then it shifted to Afghanistan and then it was crazy Afghanistan from like, I don't know, like oh, nine to 11 or so, and then it started shifting back to Iraq and then we closed Iraq out. And so I feel the years that we were in Iraq, uh, over there, cause I, the majority of my deployments, I did in Iraq. I did a couple of Afghanistan, Afghanistan rotations towards the back end when things kind of shifted over that way or were getting heavier in Afghanistan. But Iraq was, was awesome because we were just going out constantly and going after targets constantly. And we got so good at doing, you know, time sensitive targets and, you know, the, just the ability

• 54:53Speaker 04

  and the trust that like squad leaders had and, you know, like the whole ground force commander concept, you know, we were doing things in regiment with, with lieutenants and captains that, you know, they were doing with the battalion commanders in the regular army. And it's just because the trust was there and we had so many repetitions doing it. And we had so much, you know, going into 2007, 2008, guys are, you know, they're already like 10, 11 deployments in, you know?

• 55:18Speaker 04

  They've got a wealth of knowledge and we never lose anything. The other part of that is like, as we're rotating through battalions, you know, if I'm in 375, 175's forward, I'm a platoon taking this, you know, the same, going to the same outstation. I'm in my office on the red line, talking to the platoon sergeant who's on the ground there. I know everything that's happening. I'm reading their con ops. We have access to their portal. We can see everything that's happening. So there's no loss and fidelity and you're able to keep track of everything that's going on and try to stay on top of everything that's happening at the same time. So it's a smooth transition, you know? Usually you'll send your weapons squad leaders forward to go do an inventory and everything. And then you're high fiving on the ramp. You're leaving there, coming in, you go load up on ammo and you're going out on target. But you already know what's going on.

• 56:00Speaker 04

  Because your platoon has been in communication with the platoon that's there for the whole last month leading up. So you're tracking everything that's happening. You're looking at the con ops. You know, everything that's, that's going on. So that's another thing that, you know, regiment has over the, you know, for quote unquote, the regular army. Because, you know, if I'm in the 173rd and you're in the 101st and I'm back filling you, it's this whole big thing to change over and equipment and vehicles. And we're just following on forward equipment and we're talking to the people every day that we're going to swap out with. So we just have a lot more insight to what's happening.

• 56:34Jack Murphy?

  Yeah. I mean, I remember that they knew well ahead of time where every single platoon in the battalion was going and preparing for that specific mission.

• 56:43Speaker 04

  Yeah, for sure. And like I say, like if you're, you're the platoon in 175 that I'm, I'm relieving, I'm on the phone with you and we're talking on a daily basis. We're on communicator chat and I'm looking at your con ops. We know what's happening. So there's really no loss of information there.

• 56:59Jack Murphy?

  Uh, and then what came after a biop?

• 57:03Speaker 04

  Um, I think I ended up going back to the lot again.

• 57:08Speaker 04

  And then I want to say, then we kind of started shifting towards Afghanistan and I did, you know, I, I did a, a few rotations in Afghanistan, did a Bagram, I did Bastion. Bastion was, that was, uh, that was one of the, the crappy rotations, just because the sustainability wasn't necessarily there. We didn't really have a QRF. Kandahar is kind of where, where, uh, all the magic was happening. They were kind of the main effort for that rotation, which is weird because I was with Charlie Company. I was with three Charlie and Bastion and one and two Charlie were in Kandahar and they were kind of the main effort. So I had my platoon split.

• 57:46Speaker 04

  You know, I had all the 60 teams out, but I had, you know, my two big gun sections. So I had one with my platoon leader in Kandahar and the other one with me in Bastion. And my guys in Kandahar were getting after it, man. They were just doing squadron addiction and isolation and climbing teams and doing all that stuff. And we were all just kind of sitting around and bashing. We couldn't really launch because we didn't have a QRF and actually got into it pretty bad with the first sergeant on the ground there. Because he wanted me to bring my whole platoon to just be QRF for that rotation. And I was like, I'm not doing that. And he's like, yeah, you are. You work for me. I'm like, I don't work for you. I work for the battalion commander. And he had like

• 58:23Jack Murphy?

  I'm sure he loved hearing that.

• 58:25Speaker 04

  Yeah. Old Craig Bishop, count on him. But yeah, so we had, uh, yes, we got, we got into it and it was just like a professional thing. Like at the end of the day, I get what you're trying to do. You're trying to get your, your guys out on target, but I also have to look out for my guys too. If I spend the entire rotation of guys down here just doing QRF, we're all going to get out of the army when we get back, you know? And so I've got, I've got to look out for their wellbeing, but also I still have a mission, you know, like it wouldn't be the first time that we would be forward deployed and something happens, you know, we still have platoons in Iraq and something happens in Iraq and I got to send a big gun section on a C130 to go to Iraq to react to something there. I have to be prepared to do that.

• 59:03Speaker 04

  And I can't do that if I'm stuck doing QRF for a company. And, uh, so we got into it and, you know, I had, I was like, well, if you really feel this strongly about it, you know, we can do a BTC with the boss and my PL was in Kandahar and we got in, uh, had a BTC with the battalion commander and I laid out the reasons why I didn't think it was a good idea. And he laid out the reasons why he thought it was a good idea. He sided with us. He's like, that's dumb. I'll just send another one of the Charlie platoons down there if we're going to do that. And, you know, that went over about like you had expected.

• 59:33Jack Murphy?

  Like a lead balloon.

• 59:35Speaker 04

  Yeah. Didn't like that at all. And like I say, I wasn't, it wasn't like an ego thing. I was just genuinely like, hey, man, we have a mission the same as you guys do. And I'm just doing my part. So is what it is.

• 59:46Jack Murphy?

  When you started doing these Afghan rotations, were the mortar section able to kind of get after it and do their, you know, mortar job a little bit more often than they were before?

• 59:58Speaker 04

  Yeah, for sure. And we were always trying to find more ways to get the mortars on the target. Cause a lot, you know, a lot of times it just comes down to like carrying, you know, you can always, you move easily with 60s, but with 81s and 120s, it's a whole nother animal. We're trying to figure out ways. So we're outfitting the ATVs with 120s and trying to figure out how to get them out. And, but you know, cause you can, you can get a, get a, uh, two or three, uh, ATVs and set a, a 120 up on them and ammunition and put them on the back on 47 to roll out that way. We were using the, uh, the fast rope, the senders, the Fred's devices, you know, that the K9 use.

• 1:00:35Speaker 04

  And we were taking 81 systems and putting them inside of SCEDCOs and using Fred's devices. So we could fast roll with the 81s, trying to figure out a way to get in those. And that was working well. And always just trying to find new, unique ways to try to get to target with the system. So we get support in a way we do, you know, but it always comes down to like weight. Who can carry it?

• 1:00:57Jack Murphy?

  Sure.

• 1:00:57Speaker 04

  How you're getting it there, you know? Cause without trucks, it's, it's, it's, it's pretty tough to get the big guns out with, you know, the equipment, all the ammunition requirement. You with 60s, that's fine. You know, you, you can hand carry 60s. You know, the platoons, every, you can get everybody around. They consolidate the rounds to you, you know, all that stuff, but it's a lot different when you're dealing with the big guns.

• 1:01:17Jack Murphy?

  I, I was going to ask, were you guys ever able to slam some targets with the 120s?

• 1:01:23Speaker 04

  Yeah, for sure. There was a few times that we got, uh, got into stuff with the 120s out in Afghanistan.

• 1:01:30Speaker 04

  And man, we just, I, I would say we were really, really proficient just because we did a lot, a lot of, uh, we did like a lot, a lot of.

• 1:01:42Speaker 04

  I'd say just our platoon would shoot like what a regular, we doing one train, like one training event with like a brigades ammo allocation would be for like an entire cycle, you know? We would completely shoot the guns. I was a lot of problems. Well, I have so many TBIs, you know what I mean?

• 1:02:01Jack Murphy?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:02Speaker 04

  But we had, you know, because there's, I think they've got it figured out now and I, I know this happened kind of after my time, but back then we didn't, you know, like the bot for Carl, Carl G, you're only supposed to shoot what like eight rounds a day or something like that?

• 1:02:16Jack Murphy?

  Yeah, we never followed that.

• 1:02:17Speaker 04

  Yeah. Well, like, you know, I shot like 500 120 rounds in a day.

• 1:02:22Jack Murphy?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:23Speaker 04

  You know what I mean? And you talk about like, I mean, bleeding out of your nose and your ears and trying to put sentences together at the end of the day, you know?

• 1:02:29Jack Murphy?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:02:30Speaker 04

  Doing those J8 thunders and all that stuff, you know, because we'd support all the JSOC and that's the other part of it is we have to be ready to go support anyone at all times, you know, and the mortar platoons are really got leveraged a lot during my time and after to go and support the tier one organizations with that stuff. We got spun up more than once, you know, when I was there to, to go, uh, to go do stuff like we end up going doing underways with SEAL Team Six guys and, you know, planning for, for missions to go out and do things with them. And that was another thing that, you know, we, we kind of had to figure out on the fly. I got, I got, we had just finished doing platoon live fires. I got a phone call from my first sergeant. I hadn't slept, you know, Jim Anderson calls me and I hadn't slept in three days because I've been out supporting two live fires. And

• 1:03:15Speaker 04

  I'm like almost home and I'm like, he's like, I need you to come back to work. I'm like, and I'm, I barely made it home. Like, I don't know if I'm going to make it back to work. He's like, you gotta come in. I was like, all right, man, I'm going to stop and I'm a slam monster. And if when I get to work, we're going to have a real conversation. You're going to have to go fight in the courtyard, you know? And so I get out there and, and I get back to work and he's like, hey, he, he tells me like, hey, I need you to get two teams together. There's going to be some guys flying in here tomorrow to pick you up and you're going to get right on to what you're doing when you get there. I'm like, okay. So then I do the, I'll start calling guys. I'm like, hey, man, just meet me at the closest place you can. I don't expect you to come into work and I'll just kind of give you a heads up. So you can go take care of your family, get your stuff together

• 1:03:57Speaker 04

  and we're bugging out of here tomorrow. And, you know, we, we get our stuff packed up, you know, I come home, tell my wife like, hey, I'm leaving. I'll let you know. I don't know when I'm going to call you. I don't know, you know, the usual, like, I'll be in touch. I don't know when, but I'll figure out what I'm doing and I'm getting there and I still won't be able to tell you what's going on. So it's just the usual. And so we got some team guys flying to our, to the airfield there on Fort Benning, pick us up. We filed the damn neck. And then when we get there, then we get right on to what we're doing. And then we start trying to figure out like, okay, so we got to figure out how to, how to, how to swim in with mortar systems. And so we're going to have to do a beach assault, you know, finning in with these guys. And the plan was we're taking H sacks,

• 1:04:40Speaker 04

  there's big cigar boats to a certain distance out, then we're getting into Zodiacs and we're taking that to a certain distance out. Then we're about to click or seal off, then we're finning the rest of the way in. And, um, like, okay, so I started going down, just take me to your warehouse and let me see what I can get my hands on. And so like, I got, okay, we can, they had dive bags. We could put the tubes in so that work. Um, and I was like, uh, I'm like, how, what are you guys doing for your body armor? They're like, we're not taking body armor. I'm like, weird. What can I do to put my body armor in? They say, give us bags. And I got a bunch of Alice packs from them. We cut all the pouches off, camp dried the crap out of them, waterproofed them, then put dive bags. We took our, our body armor put inside the dive bags and you could zip them up. You can, you know, you

• 1:05:25Speaker 04

  can let air in or out to make them buoyant. So basically the idea is your body armor goes inside your rucksack. You can fin behind it. It gives you ballistic cover to the front. They have the dive bags with, you can put your guns in, you can shoot through. So we can patrol with ballistic covers to the front with the dive bags and fin in that way. And then as soon as we hit the beach, then we can pull out, throw your kit on, put your helmet on and, you know, start moving. And you're like, that's going to take too much time. Like, look, man, if we can't keep up, then we can have this conversation. We're not going anywhere without body armor. That's just how it's going to be. And I was like, okay, whatever. And then, you know, we go out in the water and they try to, they try to drown this for like a week. And that was the other part is I had no idea what we were,

• 1:06:07Speaker 04

  what we were doing until, because we didn't get right on till we got there. And, and, uh, they told us what was going on. I was like, well, this is some information would have been known. Like, I don't know what it takes to be a strong swimmer in SEAL Team Six, but I can tell you what it takes to be a strong swimmer at the range. I mean, you gotta swim across this pool like 50 meters and you're good, you know?

• 1:06:22Jack Murphy?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:06:23Speaker 04

  I'm feeling the, the, the swimming, uh, is a little higher level here. So I didn't

• 1:06:29Jack Murphy?

  I think so.

• 1:06:29Speaker 04

  End up having to bench a guy because like, you know, again, he was a strong swimmer for the army, but not for the Navy, you know?

• 1:06:35Jack Murphy?

  I, I was going to ask, was this part of the like contingency planning for the hostages down in Colombia? Is that what this was about?

• 1:06:43Speaker 04

  Uh, this is actually in Africa. We were planning for targets in Somalia and, uh, we ended up doing all the train up for it, but not actually executing because that's kind of around the time that the Captain Phillips stuff kicked off. And that's when they kind of redirected to going after all the pirates off offshore. Um, but we were planning on really going into Somalia and hitting a target. And, uh, so that's what everything we were training up for. And we've spent, you know, a week out there and they're just out in the pool trying to drown us every day. And, uh, we, we managed to get through that. Then we started doing underways with them and, you know, it was middle of winter and we're out in Virginia Beach in dry suits and H sacks and doing all this

• 1:07:25Speaker 04

  stuff. And just going out and doing training missions every day. We ended up capsizing some boats and doing all that good fun stuff. And we actually had a pretty good training rotation with those guys spent. It was actually the only time that when I was in 375 that they went to NTC. It was while I was at Virginia Beach. And so we, we definitely got over on that. The guys were out at NTC and I was like hanging out at Virginia Beach eating tuna steak every night, you know? But, uh, we, we did our training. I won't say we were there for about, roughly about a month and then it transitioned battalions. The QRF mission went to 175 and Charlie Harp was the mortar team starting at 175 at the time. So I just gave them my packages, everything that I had built and what we were doing and I gave

• 1:08:07Speaker 04

  it to them and they picked up the mission and just kind of ran with it from there. But we were able to, we, we were able to kind of circling back to the whole, the original conversation is how adaptable everybody is, is

• 1:08:20Jack Murphy?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:20Speaker 04

  You know, we were able to go and incorporate and just, you know, hit the ground running and figure out like, how do we make this mission work? They'll think, okay, so now we got to get, you know, get rucksacks and cut the pockets off of them, streamline them and make them waterproof and get a dive bag to put a body armor in and, you know, get, you know, bags to put the mortar systems in and be able to patrol in and out and do those. Uh, and the whole time we're keeping up with all these other guys and they're just out there, you know, basically with, with their, their weapons and fins just, and we're dragging all this other stuff. We're still able to keep up with them in the water, you know?

• 1:08:52Jack Murphy?

  That's wild to me that you were swimming in with the 120s.

• 1:08:57Speaker 04

  No, we were 60s. We had

• 1:08:59Jack Murphy?

  Oh, that was the 60s. I was going to say, I thought you said 120s earlier. I was like, that's pretty crazy. Still with this, was still with the 60s. I mean, the, the tube, the base plate, the bipod, all the rounds for it. I mean, that's a lot of weight.

• 1:09:12Speaker 04

  Yeah. And so that's the other part of it is we had to figure out a way to get that stuff into bags with body armor and everything to get it out there. So everybody had a rucksack kind of maxed out with everything that we could carry.

• 1:09:24Jack Murphy?

  Wow.

• 1:09:26Speaker 04

  And so it was good, man. It was a, it was a great, great training event. I would just call it that because we ended up, you know, not going out and executing the mission, but it was a really great cross training event. We got to do underways with the guys for, you know, basically a month. And, um, we had a lot of really cool experiences and, uh, you know, it was like the, one of the guys, you know, one of the guys who was like my swim buddy was like, he'd been on the teams, I don't know, for like 20 years, old salty. You know, like I, we were on, we were on the boat and, uh, uh, I think I need to switch this microphone. I think it's about to die.

• 1:10:01Jack Murphy?

  Uh, it may have switched automatically, actually.

• 1:10:04Speaker 04

  Yeah. Okay. I was just still picking it. Okay. I just

• 1:10:07Jack Murphy?

  Yeah, we can, we can hear you.

• 1:10:08Speaker 04

  Okay. Yeah. So we, uh, you know, he was, he was an old salty guy and we, you know, it's funny. I was, you know, busting chops because we get, we get back to the team rooms after training all day because we, we went head on to a wave and capsized a Zodiac. And I'm, you know, I'm talking trash. I'm like, you guys are supposed to be the most elite SEALs in the Navy. I don't know a lot, but I know you go head on to a, head on into a wave with a Zodiac. It's going to flip. So we're trash talking, going back and forth and had a good time. Uh, I, you know, I've always had good experience with, with the guys when we worked them in the past and I always keep that going forward, I feel like.

• 1:10:49Jack Murphy?

  And then you did a bag room rotation. Was that like pretty much just a training rotation? Or did you guys actually get shot out a bit?

• 1:10:59Speaker 04

  Yeah, it was. It really, we didn't really do much of anything. We just trained, trained and trained. And that's kind of like where we worked out all those TTPs with the 120s. We were just trying to find stuff to keep us busy. And so we were outfitting them with a, you know, taking the ATVs and setting them up to 120s and working with the Fred's devices and tower training them and getting them on birds and trying to fast rope with them. So like in the event that we do get out, you know, we're going out and hitting a ridge line somewhere. Like we can take some big guns with us out there to do the mortar support. You know, we ended up launching or doing anything, but that's where we were able to work a lot of that stuff out.

• 1:11:34Jack Murphy?

  And during this time, you worked your way up to mortar platoon sergeant?

• 1:11:41Speaker 04

  Yeah, I was a, I was a squad leader in platoon sergeant and the mortar platoon there.

• 1:11:46Jack Murphy?

  And that's Tell us about that.

• 1:11:50Speaker 04

  What's that?

• 1:11:50Jack Murphy?

  Can you tell us about that kind of stepping up? And I mean, that's a, that's a big promotion for an NCO.

• 1:11:56Speaker 04

  Yeah, for, for me, it was, uh, it was awesome. I love, I love being a, you know, squad leader, section leader, whatever term you want to use, but I, I really enjoyed it. Uh, I really, I like the flexibility of just being able to work with all the companies. Cause I, I really did. I got to deploy with every, you know, I deploy with half company with Charlie company with Bravo company. You know, there's different personalities and all those different companies and, uh, but I really, it gave me a, a bigger picture of everything that was going on. Cause you know, when you're in a platoon, you just kind of see what's happening and you don't necessarily even see what's happening in your company. You really just see what's happening in your platoon. So it gave me the ability to see all that stuff and, um, Chris Castle was my platoon sergeant at the time. And, uh, when he, he left, he ended up actually going to the unit and retiring from there.

• 1:12:40Speaker 04

  Um, but when he was getting, getting ready to leave, you know, I was, I was the senior, I was, uh, I was this, the senior guy in the platoon, uh, left there to, to take over. And, um, there was, there was a few times where I ended up taking over the platoon kind of inadvertently. Like, you know, Cass got mono one time.

• 1:12:59Jack Murphy?

  Yeah, yeah. Acting, acting platoon sergeant.

• 1:13:03Speaker 04

  Yeah. Like I came to work one day and, and he had ended up, he got sick out at the range. And like, I thought he was going to die. I'm like, dude, you need to like see a medic. We were just doing live fires out there and he just looked like he was dying and turned out he had mono. And so like, we were in the middle of a live fire. He left and he couldn't come back to work for like a month because he had, you know, had mono and it's contagious and all that stuff. So I immediately took over and ran the platoon for a month. And so like, I, I kind of got that under my belt beforehand to kind of, I don't know, it's, it's a little nerve wracking. There's a lot more.

• 1:13:39Jack Murphy?

  OJT.

• 1:13:41Speaker 04

  Yeah. Well, there's a lot more to being a mortar platoon sergeant or is the being a regular platoon sergeant? Because you know, you're managing, you know, 1260 teams that are going to 12 different out stations. You got two big gun sections you have to worry about. You have ammo allocations in all these places. You got, you know, 15 out stations you're worrying about, like what, what everybody has, what they need. Um, I'm also running CSAR teams and doing all this other stuff. And so I felt like it's, it's more akin to being a, you know, to be in a first sergeant or even a CSM than it was to be in a platoon sergeant. Cause I just have so many people in so many different places, doing so many different things. And, uh, so it was a little nerve wracking, but luckily for me, like I will say, like, uh, Jim Anderson, I learned so much from him as he was my first sergeant at the time.

• 1:14:22Speaker 04

  And, uh, he was really like, when it came to administrative stuff, he was wire tight, man. I learned a lot from him, uh, being able to, to track and manage and do a lot of that stuff thanks to him.

• 1:14:35Speaker 04

  But yeah, I was, I was excited. I really wanted to take over the platoon. And when I got the opportunity, I definitely jumped at it. Um, and I think that I always tried to, to leave things better than the way I found them. And Cass did a great job, but I just felt like I needed to carry the ball and do something different, you know? So when I took over the platoon, that's kind of like when we started really incorporating the other stuff where we were getting into the squadron interdiction and isolation and trying to find different ways to get the mortar systems on target and going and working with the other tier one units. And that, that wasn't like, because I set that up, obviously it just happened to be the right place, the right time when we got spun up to go do that stuff. And, uh, we were always really successful and, and I feel like the platoons, it just kept getting better even after I left.

• 1:15:19Speaker 04

  You know, when I went over to assessment and selection and then, you know, like I, you know, like when Sandusky was on here, he talked about a lot of that stuff on your podcast, the stuff they were doing in Syria. And at the end of the day, the line platoons were running log pack for the mortar platoon and the mortar platoon was just after it with tier one guys. And so like, I think it's, it's hilarious looking at it from this vantage point now. Cause you know, it's like, everyone always wants to talk trash about the mortars, but they were the ones out there getting after it.

• 1:15:44Jack Murphy?

  Yeah, Will, you'll, you'll like the, the interview we did just prior to yours with, uh, Eduardo, who's a 275 mortar guy in Syria, tells a lot of those stories. It was pretty cool.

• 1:15:55Speaker 04

  Yeah. And like I said, I love, I love that, man. It made me so happy to hear all that, you know? I'm just glad someone kept the ball moving forward after we left, you know? It's always about innovation and how can, how can you best support the team? How can you best support the commander, you know? Cause

• 1:16:11Jack Murphy?

  You, you mentioned that, uh, earlier, you told me that, uh, Mike Edwards came and took, took over after you left. And I think he continued that track too, from what I recall.

• 1:16:21Speaker 04

  Yeah. That's great because we were trying to figure out, cause the, the, the next obstacle was like, how do we get guys to free fall? And I don't know that he did, but you know, Mike Edwards, you know, he was a, he was a free fall guy, tandem, did all that stuff. And so he was definitely the perfect guy to try to figure out that package. Cause you know, when you start thinking about how are we going to incorporate these guys with the tier one units? If they're doing a, doing a hey ho to get a target, you know, like how are you going to get guys with mortars? You know, on a hey ho, if you don't have anybody fill in those slots.

• 1:16:49Jack Murphy?

  Same issue you had working with the SEALs. Like how, how do we get mortars to a SEAL target?

• 1:16:54Speaker 04

  Yeah, for sure. And so I, you know, I was really happy to hear that people were carrying the ball forward and continue to innovate.

• 1:17:03Jack Murphy?

  And so the next stop for you is, uh, RASP instructor?

• 1:17:08Speaker 04

  Yeah, I took over as the RASP one NCOIC, um, right after the transition from, uh, RIP to RASP. Like, uh, Tyson Crosby was, was running, uh, was running RIP and, and the transition to RASP. And I took over shortly after him. And, uh, that was a really, a really great job, but also probably the hardest job I've ever had. Just because as the NCOIC, I'm just always there, you know, like with the cadre, you know, I have, you know, I've got, uh, phase one cadre and phase two cadre. Phase one is all, all the small unit tactics, uh, you know, weapon systems, land navigation, all that stuff. And then we need a phase two, we've got marshalship, mobility, breaching.

• 1:17:50Speaker 04

  And so like, when you're in phase one and you're in cycle, you're getting, you're working your butt off constantly. And when that hands over to phase two, then you're off, you're taking it easy, taking time off, same thing. Phase two, when they're handing back off to the next class, you know, they, there's a lot of time off. Was it into I see, I'm just always there. Um, I think the two years while I worked there, I, the only time I really got off was Christmas because we got Christmas access. We put everybody out on Christmas access for the rest of time. I'm just there always. And you know, uh, that's the, the RCO's number one stateside priority is RASP because he needs people, you know? And, uh, it was really awesome working there when, when Merritt was the RSM.

• 1:18:31Speaker 04

  It was really terrible when Belik was the RSM, you know, when I was, you know, cause

• 1:18:38Speaker 04

  Belik was my first sergeant.

• 1:18:39Jack Murphy?

  He was my, yeah, he was our first sergeant. Yeah.

• 1:18:42Speaker 04

  You know, it's like, I can't get away from this guy, you know? 175, everybody's like, finally, and then he came to be the RSM. We're like, no, he's back.

• 1:18:52Speaker 04

  You know, but he came down, he would fire me constantly. Like he would come out there in front of the whole formation and nuke me. I'm like, I'm fired guys. I'll see y'all later. And I'll come back two hours later. Like, okay, I'm hired back. Then everybody else do the job. So I'm here again, you know? And, you know, cause that's just how Belik rolls. But it was, it was really, it was a really great experience. I really enjoyed it. Um,

• 1:19:12Speaker 04

  just the, my biggest, uh,

• 1:19:16Speaker 04

  my biggest, biggest obstacle there was probably trying to, trying to change the culture. Because we were again, kind of coming from RIP and going into RASP and guys were used to, I don't want to say it, but you know, at the end of the day, you, there's just a lot of hazing going on. And at the end of the day, if, if you could survive three weeks of getting hazed, then you could graduate. And when we were going to RASP, like we're trying to make this like an assessment and selection that, you know, will really give us what we need. We're, we're trying to get guys better trained, you know? It's not just about can you do hard things, but can you do it the right way? You know, and getting it more into advanced marshalship. And we want to get a guy. So when he shows up to your squad in the line battalion, you can deploy with him and you can go forward.

• 1:19:58Speaker 04

  Obviously he's going to have to incorporate in the team, but at least he knows how to, you know, he knows how to. To at least handle his weapon, you know, collect, cause at the end of the day in basic training, you don't really learn anything. You know what I mean? Like going through marksmanship at RAS, they really learn how to shoot. You know, they're actually learning how to zero their optics during the day, during night, how to shoot with lasers, how to, you know, move it in teams and do it all that stuff. And we did a lot of really good, you know, our ammo allocation for RAS one class was a hundred thousand rounds of five, five, six and 50,000 rounds of NML for two weeks of shooting. You know, and so we put a lot of rounds downrange for those guys. And same thing with the breaching course, all assault breaching, we did all of it, you know,

• 1:20:41Speaker 04

  mechanical explosive, like everything you could, you would do or assault on target outside of like master breacher, doing like wall shots and that kind of stuff. But all your assault breaching, they got a really good grasp on it. Same thing with mobility, they can drive home bees, they get licensed, they know how to learn how to break modulate, how to recover vehicles, do all that stuff before they ever get to the battalions, you know? And so we were putting a lot of effort and emphasis into making, you want the guys to be strong and hard and do all that stuff, but you also want them to be able to, you know, make decisions uh at the right time, be able to, to do things the right way, you know, be safe. You know, when you're handling the weapons, when you're handling explosives, all that stuff. You, like I say, we work all that out while they're at the course.

• 1:21:22Speaker 04

  So like I said, I think we went three years before we RFAS the first RAS one graduate.

• 1:21:27Jack Murphy?

  Oh, really?

• 1:21:29Speaker 04

  But like everything that we were doing, um, because we weed those guys out while they're in the course. You know, the, the battalion CSM's didn't necessarily like it because they just want bodies. I, you know, my biggest problem there is, you know, I was a sergeant first class promotable, just getting, you know, get screamed at every day by battalion CSM's, by the RSM. Like I have a company commander and first sergeant and I have my own battalion CSM. You guys can talk about no, they're coming straight to me and just nuking me every chance they get. You know, especially you come down for the RAS boards, you know, because it rotates through the battalion, change the commands, come for the rest of your boards and they always make sure to swing by my office, let me know how they feel about me and what I'm doing right or wrong every chance they get, you know? And uh, so it was hard, but it was, it was also well worth it.

• 1:22:13Speaker 04

  I had really good chain command too, but.

• 1:22:16Jack Murphy?

  I, I was going to ask, what, what was your biggest leadership challenge running that big machine?

• 1:22:22Speaker 04

  Uh, the biggest thing there was just trying to make sure that um, the cadre got what they need. You know, cause it's, it's also, you know, part of it is making sure guys get what they need as they're coming in and when they're leaving and the.

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• 1:24:37Speaker 04

  Count of cadre that had come into me that had been in battalion for like seven to 10 years that never received a PCS award, didn't get in an NCOER, never got a plaque, never received anything from their battalions. I'm like, man, we are really missing the mark here. You know, and I, I fought through that as a platoon sergeant in line battalion as well, you know, like we never put guys in for service awards, you know? You can be in the same company from private to first sergeant and never PCS, but everyone else in the army is getting a PCS award every two to three years. We don't think Rangers need that. It's not important, right? You can still do service awards for those guys every three years, but people just aren't doing it. You know, it's just taking the time to take care of their people. And so like, I get a, you know, staff sergeant in a sergeant first class company who's been in battalion for,

• 1:25:21Speaker 04

  you know, seven to 10 years, he's never gotten a service award. He's never gotten, you know, didn't get an NCOER. I'm like, you haven't got an NCR in two years? Like what's going on? So like that kind of stuff, you know? So I, I had started working, uh, you know, we started doing dog X's and stuff like that at um, at coal range, uh, just to try to generate some funds. And I made sure guys left, they had a really good plaque, they got a good PCS award, you know? If, if they never got one before, they got one for me when they left. And you know, the, the plaques we were getting made were really good, you know? I, I was getting them made at Stanley's framing, but when I took them to like bidding awards and asked them like, what would you charge for me to make this plaque for like 1,200 bucks? I'm like, okay, well Stanley's making them for $250. It just takes them six months to get them done, you know?

• 1:26:05Speaker 04

  But he was an old three, seven, five guy too, so he took care of us. But I made sure that they, they got what they needed. But we also use like you buy boots with them, we'd take care of the cadre and make sure that they're getting that family, you know, because the other part of that is that's your break. You're getting a break from the line by go be working cadre, but it doesn't matter if you're working 16 hour days, six days a week for two years, you know, like I was, thanks for the break.

• 1:26:28Jack Murphy?

  I mean, you, you hear, you hear that from the uh, special forces guys that get assigned to SWIC and they'll, pretty much all of them will tell you like, I have less time at home here than I did when I was on an ODA. I think that kind of like gets lost. A lot of people don't realize how difficult it is to work one of those training jobs, whether it's rasp or being a drill sergeant or, you know, Q core sky or whatever it is.

• 1:26:53Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's, it's, it's tough to manage, man. And it's because you, at the end of the day, you still have to produce. You still have to get everything done, but you just have to be smart about how you rotate people in and out, make sure people are getting taken care of. Cause the other part of that is, you know, this might be the first time these guys have been around their wives every day for eight years. You know, and so, you know, that has its own things you have to navigate there, you know? Like it's, it's, you know, you guys have kind of been dating a lot over the years, but you haven't really been home, you know?

• 1:27:21Jack Murphy?

  Right, like we're married for the first time.

• 1:27:23Speaker 04

  Yeah. And so then you start having, you know, the kind of family issues that we're not used to dealing with because you're never home. And so like, you're always kind of making up and breaking up, you know, in between rotations. And so being home every day brings its own challenges. And then, you know, guys start getting into the alcohol and start having issues there. And you know, it's the same problems that I've had in my, you know, I was going through it too, you know?

• 1:27:46Speaker 04

  But it's definitely a unique problem set that you don't really think about. And I don't know, man, I, I've always kind of had imposter syndrome in every, every stage of my life, everything I'm going through, you know, I never, I never felt like I really belonged. I was just like, I felt blessed to be around giants that I never really felt like I fit in, you know? And part of that was maybe because I was an import and whatever. But it's hard to feel like you belong to an organization when it's never okay to leave until you're told to leave, you know? And so like, if you want to go to another selection or you want to do something different, it's like you, you can, you can stay until you're RFAS or you get told you have to go find a job.

• 1:28:28Speaker 04

  But if you try to do anything outside of that, it's difficult.

• 1:28:33Jack Murphy?

  Yeah, I, I also noticed too, like just how transient it, it all seems. Um, because the, the personnel rotate so quickly in Ranger Battalion that you can be in a platoon and it's like, oh, a band of brothers and all this, everything's great. And you know, I want to stay here forever, but in reality, two years down the road, that platoon is almost unrecognizable because the personnel's have changed over.

• 1:28:56Speaker 04

  Well, the, the other unique pressure cooker of the Ranger Regiment is it's the only organization in all special operations where you have to go back through assessment and selection every single time you take a new duty position. So like, if you go from private to sergeant major, you can maybe go through assessment and selection four times, you know? And it doesn't matter like how good you are, because at the end of the day, when it comes to your board performance, it's the personalities in the room, because everybody looks the same on paper. You know, everybody looks exactly the same. Um, and at the end of the day, it comes down to the personalities in the room and your board performance. And it doesn't matter like what you've done for the last 10 years and how good you are and how amazing you are. If you have a bad board performance, then it's all for nothing, you know? And that brings its own special pressure cooker.

• 1:29:40Speaker 04

  And you know, I can speak to my, personally, when I, when I made the eight list, there was, it was, uh, as I was leaving three, seven, five, finished my platoon time, going to RAS, I, I made the list, there was, I want to say like 86 guys that were competing for, you know, 16 companies. And this is over like two or three lists, but I'm saying there was that many promotable sergeant first classes assigned to regiment. You know, I'm like, okay, well, we only got, there's only 16 companies. So what are we going to do with the 86 guys? And it puts a whole nother pressure cooker to like, you know, you have to be better than everyone. You have to, you know, people start being cutthroat and start doing things, you know?

• 1:30:21Speaker 04

  So it's like, it's own level of, you know, there's only so many platoons, there's only so many companies, there's only so many battalions, you know?

• 1:30:30Speaker 04

  And it's uh, yeah, it brings its own level of stress to an organization that's already a pressure cooker as it is.

• 1:30:39Jack Murphy?

  And you and, I mean, it ended up working out for you, right? You were first sergeant at a LERS company?

• 1:30:44Speaker 04

  Yeah, and so it was good for me. And so after I finished my time as into IC, you know, I talked to all the battalion CSMs and there were no companies opening up for at least two years. And I had already been a promotable sergeant first class for like 22 months and I was getting ready to pen E8. And I was like, dude, I cannot, I can't plan platoon live fires and airfield seizures for another two years and just try to survive and then get a company, you know? And so I just started shopping around and talked to the RSM, I talked to science CSM, I was like, hey, I'm gonna look for a job. Are we good? And they're like, yeah, you're okay, you can look. And so I think Sean Curry was the branch manager at the time. So I called him and and the LERS company was available. And it's actually my PO when I was a platoon sergeant in 375 was the company commander for that LERS company.

• 1:31:28Jack Murphy?

  Oh, wow.

• 1:31:29Speaker 04

  And he read you to leave and he's like, yeah, they're looking for somebody. And I was like, awesome. And so he put me in touch with the battalion CSM and Colonel Cogbill was the battalion commander. The way the LERS company was then is you were in Arista Squadron, which is a cab squadron, under an MI Brigade that fell under the Corps Headquarters, just kind of the whole intel piece.

• 1:31:50Speaker 04

  There. So we were under MI Brigades initially before we went directly to HHBN Corps. But so Colonel Cogbill was the RS8 when he left. And he was the squadron commander for there. So and the brigade commander for the MI Brigade was in was an old regiment guy too. I think he was a company commander. I can't remember. But anyways, my, my point being that I had a they were very interested in bringing me out there. And, and so I had the ability to go take there. And I was like, man, this is awesome. So I can go take the LERS company and

• 1:32:27Speaker 04

  so I went out there and as soon as I got to the LERS company, you know, Colonel Cogbill was like, all right, I'm gonna get you to freefall school. I was like, awesome. So I finally, I was like, I re-enlisted for this regiment twice.

• 1:32:40Speaker 04

  I finally left and now I get to go to freefall school and freefall JM, you know, outside in the Army. So I got to go to the freefall.

• 1:32:46Jack Murphy?

  That's pretty cool. As a, as a very senior E7 or?

• 1:32:50Speaker 04

  Yeah. Yeah, it was funny when I was going through the basic course as a first sergeant and then same thing going through the freefall JM courses. They're like, well, you've been sending a first sergeant out here. I'm like, yeah, man, I'm for a LERS company. I'm just happy to be here. Trying to build a program.

• 1:33:07Jack Murphy?

  So yeah, tell us a little bit about, was this the Arista company at Bragg? Like where, where were you guys at?

• 1:33:13Speaker 04

  I was at Fort Hood. So the LERS companies were at Fort Bragg, Fort Hood, and I can't remember where the other one was. Oh, at uh, in Washington. And so it was the three Corps Headquarters where they're all at. And so we were in contact with the other companies, just trying to figure stuff out. And that was a whole nother animal that I had to try to tackle and figure out. And when I talked to the battalion CSM, he's like, as soon as he found out I was coming, he's like, there's an there's an E8 running the company who was terrible. He's like, I'm walking across the street and I'm firing this guy right now. And I'm putting one of the platoon sergeants in charge of the company because you're inbound. I was like, okay. And so he went and fired the guy. I showed up, but there was a, one of the platoon sergeants was running the company.

• 1:33:53Speaker 04

  And my handover consisted of I got an Alpha roster with names on it and social security numbers. And so I basically had to build everything from the ground up. And there's a lot of, when you really start digging into the mission set and the metal tasks and everything that has to be done with the LERS company, it's pretty overwhelming, you know? You have got, just the insertion and extraction platforms alone requires a ton of training, you know? You've got, you know, you gotta think about mountaineering, you have to think about waterborne stuff, you have to think about, you know, static line and freefall operations. And so the way, we had three platoons at the time, and the, the best way we were able to get after it is I just kind of set up like one detachment was the air detachment.

• 1:34:35Speaker 04

  One was mountaineering and the other was water. And you guys will be the SMEs at everything. And then inside of each detachment, there was like basically three teams. And then, you know, you have an air team, a mountaineering team and a waterborne team. And they just based off the mission set, do what they need to do with the platoons kind of managing the SME for each of those. And, you know, because just, just managing your freefall program in itself is a lot more difficult than most people realize if you haven't been a part of that, you know, and know what it needs to be like a true or pro level one train up and what it takes. And then once you're, even once you go through a train up, you're only good for six months.

• 1:35:14Speaker 04

  And you're really only good for like four months where you really start trying to have, you go amber and start trying to do another jump trip and do all that stuff to do a full mission profile. Hey ho. It really takes a lot to get there, especially as you're still trying to figure out, we were just trying to figure out how to get guys to school, you know, like we, I can't even talk to you about a full mission profile. I only have people can jump out of airplanes yet, you know? And so we built that whole program and started getting guys into freefall school. And then I made friends with the, the guy who managed all, all the freefall billets for all the guys in the pipeline. Because, you know, USASOC was kind of doing freefall for all at the time.

• 1:35:51Speaker 04

  And a lot of guys were getting hurt on the way in and like one week out, they would just drop off. And so I got a contact, I was like, look, I've got 15 people ready to send any day. I was like, so I could contact him a week out. And he's like, all right, I got three slots. You're good? Yep. And I would send like two to three people every single class because they were just people that were falling out of the pipeline that couldn't make it. And started sending those and started getting some JAMs. And then we were actually started actually getting some jump trips in and started getting guys ready. To where we could actually do like, you know, full mission profile, hey ho jumps. And then at the same time, we're also managing people, get guys to as many like small boat courses and anything we can do, any mountaineering courses we could get guys to and just trying to figure out how to get after all the insertion and extraction platforms.

• 1:36:36Speaker 04

  And then you have to go through all the communication stuff, you know, which was great because we had an entire platoon full of communicators, which was amazing. And my platoon sergeant, he was like a super salty, like staff sergeant, but he was like the USASOC commander's RTO. So he knew all the systems inside and out. And he was really smart on everything communications. I mean, he was the kind of guy that could just MacGyver stuff. You're like, all right, man, I got this radio, a pack of cigarettes and a battery. And he's like, all right, we'll get up here in a minute, you know? He, he'd have Netflix playing somehow. You're like, I don't know what you did, but it's amazing. And he did a a really a lot of good stuff and really helped the platoons how to, to train them up on all the communication platforms. You also have

• 1:37:21Speaker 04

  a mobility detachment. So I actually have 88 mics in the company for, for like large truck movements and then have my own rigor detachment, which was amazing. My own rigor detachment. And we were the only unit on Fort Hood that was jumping, obviously, because it's a mechanized installation. So it was awesome. I had, I had my own, my own rigor shed and my own riggers to, so the riggers could, you know, they can make pouches for us. It was all the stuff that you, you wanted a rigor to do when you're not jumping. But they are also like, all they had to do was support our company. There was not like, you know, they're getting pulled for, you know, like the the riggers are dealing with the battalion worth of dues. They're only dealing with one company, you know, like 130 people. And so it was great. We really were able to get a lot of cool stuff done.

• 1:38:06Speaker 04

  We did, we actually deployed, we deployed too, but we did like, I deployed to Kosovo for like a peacekeeping operation for just under a year. But what we did get to do while we were there was training, like we got to go out and do our LERS mission, like we were, like we would do overseas. But if you get compromised, it's like by a dude on a bicycle, there's not like worried about somebody actually getting shot up. I was like, we're going to Kosovo? There's still, I didn't even know we were still in Kosovo, to be honest. Because, you know, everything that had been happening in Kosovo had been over for like 15

• 1:38:39Jack Murphy?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:38:39Speaker 04

  years. And so it was great. We got to go over there and we would do everything like we would do, like we're going to do a real world LERS mission. And briefing up to two star without a tie in, two star general. And so we would do the MDMP process and everything like we were gonna do an actual mission and just brief all the way up to two star level and then just go do it. But, you know, if you get compromised, you don't have to worry about anybody getting taken.

• 1:39:04Jack Murphy?

  So you kind of, you used it as like a training event, essentially?

• 1:39:08Speaker 04

  For sure. And we came back better trained from that rotation than, than ever before, because that's all we had to do was focus on training all day, every day.

• 1:39:16Jack Murphy?

  And so for folks listening to this who don't know, LERS is long range reconnaissance and surveillance. Were these operations you guys were training for? Were they sort of like the traditional six to eight man LERS team digging out hide sites and keeping overwatch on targets and that sort of thing?

• 1:39:34Speaker 04

  Yep. And we would just go out, set up, you know, set all, set up on the borders and stuff and just send intel back and, you know, doing

• 1:39:43Speaker 04

  you know, working on guys' abilities to take pictures and send that back through a tough book, through the radio and get imagery back, real world, you know, like ground assets, providing, you know, pictures and videos and things like that, just working through all that stuff. Because, you know, there's a whole lot of technical stuff that you have to be good at with the communication side on that and field expedient antennas and how you're carrying it and placing it and, you know, work through all the logistics of trying to keep guys out there for a certain amount of time. Because you know, in the, in the real world mission, you're supposed to be like 50 to 100 Ks in front of the flot for a real true LERS mission, you know? Which I don't think anybody would ever buy the risk on. That's why the LERS companies always go down. Because really, the only way to really get guys out, that is to do a hey ho.

• 1:40:29Speaker 04

  Because partisan link up, no one's ever going to buy off on that. And the only ones doing those kind of hey ho missions are going to be with the tier one units, you know? So I appreciate that I got to hold that position and train up for it. But also in the back of my mind, knew that we would never actually launch out on the real world side of it.

• 1:40:46Jack Murphy?

  I and then your next you got promoted to Sergeant Major and that was that the next assignment airborne?

• 1:40:54Speaker 04

  Yes, I did. Yeah, I did. Three years as Lurch Company first sergeant and then I went to airborne school and I was filling the bill because the Ops Sergeant Major position at airborne school was actually an E8 position. It's just like a sergeant job and I I made the I honestly, I didn't want to. I didn't want to go to the Sergeant Major's Academy and I I don't know if you know Roy Young, but he was he was the battalion CSM and me and him are really good friends. But he was he spent the majority. He grew up and he was in ACO three seven five as well, but he'd probably gone to RRC by the time he got there. He spent the majority of his career at RRC and he left RRC after being the first sergeant there and took the Ops Sergeant Major at STB. But he was the battalion CSM when I got there.

• 1:41:40Speaker 04

  And he's the one who talked me into to go in the Sergeant Major's Academy because I had you had when I don't know how it works now, but when when I was getting looked at, you had to actually opt in to to go to be eligible to go to the Academy and I just denied it every year. And he talked me into doing it. And so I put my packet in, I got selected and I went to USASMA from there, but I worked as the Ops Sergeant Major for a little bit and then I took over as the master trainer for Jump Master and Pathfinder branch. And was just kind of, you know, going TDY with those guys and you know, helping fill the billets all throughout the the services for all those jobs. And then I took the

• 1:42:20Speaker 04

  I went to the USASMA from there, did Sergeant Major Academy and then I ended up going to the one hundred and first being Ops Sergeant Major. But my time at airborne school was actually really good. I, you know, I got through a lot of cool stuff. The downside of it was you know, to be an instructor at Jump Master and Pathfinder, you have to go back through the course. And then you have to get eighty percent or better on everything. And I don't know the last time you got GMPI'd on the clock. Like you were going through as a student, but you know, I had been a jump master for ten years and it was a humbling experience. To go back and you know.

• 1:42:49Speaker 04

  And then you have to learn all the classes and be able to like, you know, be able to give GMPI procedures verbatim. You know, you have to, you know, teach drop zones and do all that stuff. And so I really had to buckle down and get, you know, re-blued on all that stuff, learn it and then really have to go out and kind of as the NCOIC there, you have to, we also validate everyone else's courses from that school, you know, because you know, you used to saw guys at Jump Master course and we have to go out and validate their courses, you know, it's the other Pathfinder schools and stuff like that. We'd have to go out there and make sure they were doing things right. And so I spent a lot of my time doing that kind of stuff before I went out to the Academy.

• 1:43:29Jack Murphy?

  You know, on that note, you know, the Army, just like the Army mistakenly shuts down worse elements and then stands them back up. The Army stood down the Pathfinder course out there at Benning. Do you think that was a good idea or a bad idea was was something lost in doing that?

• 1:43:49Speaker 04

  I definitely do. I feel like the Pathfinder course was really good. I mean, there's so much learned there. I don't, you know, I've done some real world sling loads. And the training that I got at Pathfinder course is what really like set me up for success for that because they teach a sling load, a sling load course, I think at the Ranger Schoolhouse. And it's not anywhere near the is in depth. Same thing as Air Assault School. I had the luxury of going to Air Assault School as a forty year old Sergeant Major because I went to the one hundred and first. And that was a complete waste of my time. But, you know, I was going through the course. Just trying to do the right thing, you know, but my point being is that like you you learn how to do sling loads in Air Assault School, but you don't really learn how to do sling loads.

• 1:44:31Speaker 04

  You know, you learn how to build a bundle, but you don't really understand the

• 1:44:37Speaker 04

  the to the level that you really need to.

• 1:44:39Jack Murphy?

  Did you guys do bundle drops in Pathfinder also?

• 1:44:43Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 1:44:43Jack Murphy?

  Yeah, yeah, I thought so. Yeah, like DZ operations and all that stuff.

• 1:44:47Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 1:44:50Speaker 04

  And so like, man, it's so there's a lot of information and, you know, I think a big problem with why they want to get rid of Pathfinder schools because honestly, the graduation rate's not great, but it's because it's a really tough course. You know, it's not physical, physically tough. If you go out and do some stuff, but it's mental, you know, like drop zones. Pathfinder is hard. You get into a lot of like really complicated math and get into the weeds on some stuff. I was like, man, I don't know if I'm ready for like calculus and trigonometry and all this stuff we're getting into for you know, I had to, I would work, you know, we were all burning the midnight oil, you know. Uh, staying up till two in the morning studying, doing flashcards. I had no, I took no time off when I was there, you know.

• 1:45:34Jack Murphy?

  So you go to the Sergeant Major Academy and get assigned to one hundred and first. What was that job?

• 1:45:43Speaker 04

  That was good. I was in third brigade. The battalion I was in, it was one one eight seven. And I was the Ops Sergeant Major there. So I I took that job and it was good. I mean, I enjoyed it. I had a really good relationship with the with the battalion commander was was really great. We got along great. The two field grades for the S3 and the battalion XO, we all had a, you know, the whole top five battalion CSM. We all we all got along great and it was a good job, but it was my first time ever being on staff. And to be honest, I completely hated it, you know, being inside of a office with no windows, staring at a computer screen all day, just dreaming about what it was like to go out and train again, you know.

• 1:46:25Speaker 04

  And just managing military, you know, borrowed military manpower and taskings and, you know, all the stuff that nobody wants to do. And but I had a lot, like I said, I had a really good chain of command. My commander was really leaning on me for like trying to build a marksmanship program for him and, you know, just because of my background and the stuff I had done and trying trying to make things better and everything was going really good up until COVID happened. And that was about, I don't know, about a year after I I had been in position and COVID happened and then everything changed, you know. All the deployments, training cycle, everything came off came off the table and it's like COVID's the new enemy and we're fighting that and we were turning the post into like

• 1:47:10Speaker 04

  an NBC environment, setting up decontamination stations and worried about stuff that we didn't need to be worried about that had absolutely nothing to do with Army. And the other side of it is I just was like, you know, I got, you know, I'm getting the military, the BMM tracker for borrowed military manpower and I'm pulling the first sergeant in. I'm like, hey, man, do you know that you've had a guy that's been out on the gate for two and a half years and he's ETSing? And he's never done anything but work on the gate. I'm like, it's rhetorical. I know that you don't know that that person is in your company, but that's what we're doing here is we're going to sit down and talk about this because we have people that have joined the Army to be an infantryman. And they came to Fort Campbell and they checked ID cards for two and a half years and they got out of the Army and that's how

• 1:47:55Speaker 04

  that's our calling card from, you know, that's how we're getting people back in the Army. And, you know, it's like all that kind of stuff. It just

• 1:48:03Speaker 04

  I don't, I it broke me to the point where I just didn't want to like it to like set the life out of me. I just was not.

• 1:48:12Jack Murphy?

  It was like being so feeling so far removed from the men, I guess, after everything you did.

• 1:48:17Speaker 04

  Yeah, for sure. And you know, it was funny when we we finally got to go do some platoon line fires. I was like, sweet, at least I can go out there and walk the lane and set the talk up and do that kind of stuff. And, you know, you get a little, a little glimpse of like what it used to be like. And then you're back in the office, stuck to the computer all day. And it just was kind of not for me for sure.

• 1:48:37Jack Murphy?

  And and then, you know, you guys get schwacked with COVID, which kind of upsets and ruins everything that you guys had planned. Um, tell us about the lead up to retirement as you are getting towards your twenty now.

• 1:48:50Speaker 04

  Yeah, for sure. So when for basically COVID happened and I had had, I was having a lot of issues with like I had seven surgeries, two bone grafts from like a motorcycle accident I got into. And I was having issues with my nerves. And so I went to get a nerve study done and the doc was telling me that he's like, hey, I want to initiate a a med board on you. He's like, if you keep doing what you're doing right now, a year from now, you might lose the the use of your hand. And I was like, well, I've never been more miserable than I am in my entire life than I am right now. And there's nothing to look forward to. So I was at twenty one years. I'm like, let's do it.

• 1:49:31Speaker 04

  MEB, let's go. And I went back and I told the boss, I'm like, hey, just heads up, they're initiating MEB. I'm not fighting it. I got him.

• 1:49:40Speaker 04

  I was just not happy. I was in a terrible place.

• 1:49:44Speaker 04

  My mental health was in the trash. I was drinking every day. Like I was completely miserable. I felt like I had nothing to look forward to. The stuff that I was going through, like I would go to the brigade S3 shop and there was a there was a dude in there who was transitioning to a female that was like six, four, two eighty, looked like Lou Ferrigno with a boob job. And it was like, this is not the Army that I joined. He's running around telling everybody, you're going to call me ma'am. I'm like, there's no amount of plastic surgery known to man that will ever make you look like a woman. I'm sorry. Just because you're crazy doesn't mean that I am and I can't work in this kind of environment. And I was just like, ready to be done. And so when he initiated the med board on me, I just, I was like, let's go.

• 1:50:26Speaker 04

  Um, you know, my wife got a little nervous, you know, as to be expected like because the other side of it is going through an MEB as a Sergeant Major, like, you know, going, they put private still drag it out over eighteen months. Like I was like out of the Army in ninety days from the time they initiated the

• 1:50:43Speaker 04

  Which I, you know, I was fine with. I'm like, let's get it over with. I'm ready to get out of here, you know? So I just went hardcore. As soon as, as soon as I found out I was gonna go to the MEB, I went straight to the TBI clinic. And, uh, uh, and, and did the full work up there because they have the Intrepid Center there because Fifth Group's there. And, uh, so I went to the Intrepid Center and that was awesome. It's really what helped me out the most, probably on the backend. As I went to the Intrepid Center and they do like an intake with you where they have, uh, doctors from every specialty. You know, they have like eight different doctors in there and they bring your wife in there for the intake because they know you're gonna ask questions. You're not gonna be honest, but they know she will be. And so they ask her the hard questions that they're not gonna get the right answer from you, like,

• 1:51:23Speaker 04

  what's going on? How are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? You know, headaches, all the stuff that you're gonna lie about. She's there to keep it straight and they really helped me out a lot because I had basically nothing documented in my records, anything from TBIs from any of this stuff, you know, because you know how it is overseas and you get knocked out, something happens, like, we, we didn't have digital records back then. Sometimes it makes in your records, sometimes it doesn't, but at the end of the day, you don't want it to be because you just wanna keep doing your job.

• 1:51:48Jack Murphy?

  Yeah.

• 1:51:50Speaker 04

  So I, basically they helped me get everything documented and, uh, to get everything set up and uh, it's really what helped me on the VA side. When I went and to did, to do my VA physical, you know, I had no issues. I got straight through, you know, got a hundred percent, no problems. And the guy actually doing my, actually worked out because the guy who did my physical was, uh, he was an old two seven five medic from like the eighties. They had become a PA and got out, that stuff, but, um, the Intrepid Center was great. They did everything they, they thought they could do, um. They, you know, they tried to do art therapy and all that stuff and that really, really worked. What I, most of the, what I got out of it was, uh, I got an AlphaStem machine because I, you know, I got set up with the Care Coalition through, uh, US SOC while I was there and my Care Coalition rep actually,

• 1:52:35Speaker 04

  I was using AlphaStem machine at, at the TBI clinic and that was the only thing that was helping my migraines because they gave me all kinds of, uh, migraine medication.

• 1:52:43Jack Murphy?

  How does, how does, uh, how does that machine work?

• 1:52:46Speaker 04

  So it's, it's, it's got a, it's got leads that go, that clip onto your ears and it also has probes that you can use and they clips onto your ears and it uses, uh, different, uh, wave functions that come through and that it works with different frequencies and it will, if, if I had a, if I felt a migraine coming on or something coming on, if I put it on initially and like it would completely neutralize it if I caught it beforehand, but also will help you sleep, it'll help you calm down, relax, uh, a lot of the same stuff. And it just works the frequencies that it's, it's basically running through your head, uh, through your earlobes. And, um, it was, it was awesome. It was the only thing that was working because all the medication, you're only supposed to take the medication like once a week, twice a week, something like that.

• 1:53:30Jack Murphy?

  Right.

• 1:53:30Speaker 04

  But I was having like every single day.

• 1:53:33Jack Murphy?

  And the migraines are related to the traumatic brain injuries?

• 1:53:36Speaker 04

  Yeah. And I didn't, you know, I didn't realize how many I was having until they maybe like keep a log and you think you're like, I don't know, I'll have a couple of weeks and you're like a couple, maybe three or four a day. And then you're like, you know, because it's all the same stuff, you know, like you're drinking all the time and you're also dehydrated and is it the migraine or is it the alcohol? Is it the, you know, like it's, you know, your system's so jacked up, you know, you're also been a human pin cushion your whole life. And you've had, you know, like how many, you know, I got smallpox and, uh, what's the, what's the one with all the boosters?

• 1:54:07Jack Murphy?

  Uh, anthrax.

• 1:54:08Speaker 04

  Yeah, like five, six anthrax boosters. I don't know, like all that stuff. Definitely played, played a key role on it. I had dysentery a couple of times, you know, I had dysentery in Iraq and Africa. Uh, my system was all jacked up and all that combined with the TBIs and all the other stuff. I was just trying to find a way to like, like I couldn't, I could not get to sleep at all without either taking meds or drinking. It was the only way, even if I only got a few hours of sleep, it was better than no hours of sleep. And so like they helped me with the AlphaStem machine and I, I couldn't get one through our channel. So I, I talked to my US SOC rep and he was actually got, uh, used, uh, Care Coalition paid for one and got me for it.

• 1:54:46Jack Murphy?

  That's awesome.

• 1:54:48Speaker 04

  And the TBI clinic, like I say, they really do, they do a, they try to help, but there's a lot of stuff that they just, you know, there's only so much medicine can, can do for you until you really take the holistic approach, which is more kind of like after retirement is where I really started figuring that stuff out. So after I retired, then I started going to seeing a functional medicine doctor. And, um, when I started seeing a functional medicine doctor and getting all my blood work done and getting, you know, I got like, my, like my testosterone level had been down in the two to three hundreds for over a decade. And, uh, you know, a lot of it was from the TBIs, had jacked my whole system up.

• 1:55:27Speaker 04

  And, uh, the doctor, I was like, I will literally do anything. Y'all try anything, just help me feel better, you know? And she's like, yeah. She's like, I have a plan. She put me on all these crazy diets. I did everything she asked me to do for a year. And still couldn't get my testosterone levels up above like two thirty, two forty. And then she's like, you're a good candidate for TRT. So then she put me on TRT just to get me to the normal ranges like five, six hundred. Like normalcy. And then also got all my vitamins and minerals test done and got all my vitamins and minerals where they needed to be, got my hormones in balance. And then I was like, after about a month, I was like, oh man, I'm sleeping. I'm feeling better, like all these things, you know, because your, your hormones affect your sleep, your immune system, your, you know, your.

• 1:56:08Jack Murphy?

  When your testosterone is off, it throws off everything else. It's, it's weird.

• 1:56:15Speaker 04

  And there's just so many things that like, you know, the army won't have any, they won't touch it. The VA won't touch it, you know, so it's just have to, gotta figure this stuff out on your own, you know? And so I started seeing a functional medicine doctor and she helped me start figuring all that out, but that only helped part of it, you know, that helped, that helped me to get my systems running and doing what's, but it didn't help what was going on between my ears, you know? And so like I started, uh, I just, I was spiraling hard, honestly, like I had been, I'd been drinking a lot and I, that happened all the, all the whole backend of my career. After I left regiment, you know, it's like, it's easy when you're in regiment because, you know, you're, you're home where you can actually be home and do stuff like a couple of months a year, you know?

• 1:56:57Speaker 04

  You have block leave on the front and back end, but even in the training cycle, you're gone, you're doing stuff all the time. So if you're burning it down for a couple of months out of the year, it's not a big deal, you know, like you're, but you know, when you stop deploying and then you're home every day and then, you know, like weekends and nights turns into daytimes and forty weekends. And then before you know it, you're cracking a beer at lunch and then before you know it's breakfast and then you're just drinking all the time and that's exactly what happened to me. And after I retired and got away from it, uh, I was just drinking every single day and it was happening earlier and earlier. And I went over, uh, well, you're in cybers, you know Pete Ficini?

• 1:57:32Jack Murphy?

  Yes.

• 1:57:34Speaker 04

  So like Pete, uh, I bought a, a house in Pete's neighborhood and I was over at Pete's hanging out and, um, we were hanging out over there and, uh, I ran into a ranger buddy of mine and that was visiting and he asked me how I was doing and not like really how I was doing, not like the, just trying to be nice. I was doing, I was like, I'm doing terrible, man. Like I'm, like I'm having suicidal ideations. I'm drinking every single day. I feel terrible. Like I don't, I don't, I will do literally anything to feel better and I just don't know how to shake, you know, I tried to shake an alcohol. My wife had given me ultimatum more than once.

• 1:58:09Speaker 04

  And like, I'm like, look, I, I had sat down with her and I was like, look, I don't, I'm not drinking because I wanna be drunk. I'm like, I just wanna sleep. I'll do anything just to get a couple of hours, even if it's three hours, it's better than no hours. And I'm like, I don't know another way to sleep outside of taking sleep meds every day and Ambien's not any better than alcohol, you know? And so I, I saw, I was talking to him and he's like, dude, he's like, you need to go do, we need to get you down to do plant medicine. And I was like, well, what's plant medicine? And he's like, he's like, uh, well, you know, you gotta, you know, he tried to start breaking it down to me and I was like, well, let me stop you right there because, you know, my wife's been a nurse, you know, for twenty years and she's have a lot more questions that I'm not gonna be answering. I was like, will you be willing to come over to the house and talk to Lindsay for a couple of hours?

• 1:58:54Speaker 04

  He's like, yeah. So we went back to the house and he gave her the whole spiel and everything with the plant medicine stuff. He put me in contact with a guy, uh, named Dr. Polanco, who was a neurologist who'd been working with just soft guys for the last fifteen years. Um, using Ibogaine and five MEO DMT to help with TBIs and PTSD. And I, I talked to him on the phone and kind of told him everything that I was going through and he's like, you're a perfect candidate. Um, so, uh, I'll put you in touch with, uh, Special Operations Care Fund. They're the non-for-profit that'll pay for your trip. Uh, the SOC, uh, the, the Special Operations Care Fund rep got ahold of me. They basically just, uh, sent me a check. Um, I deposited a check in my account and then I just paid, uh,

• 1:59:38Speaker 04

  uh, Dr. Polanco's organization's, uh, the mission within is the name of the non-for-profit that they use. And then, you know, within a couple of weeks, I was down in Mexico. Uh, it was me and, and, uh, Five other guys and there was a, uh, two unit guys here on seven, five guys before that. And I think three seals and me, and it was the same for all of us. We're sitting, we, we get there. We fly into like, we fly into California and we get, uh, we get linked up and then we drive across, uh, close to Tijuana and go to the, go to the house here inside of a, it's basically a big house inside of a gated

• 2:00:18Speaker 04

  community. And there's a, there's a retired, uh, SEAL Team Six guy who like lives in the house and handles the security and does all that stuff. And you go in there and, uh, it's the same story. Everyone's just like angry all the time. No one can sleep. Everyone just wants to feel better. We're all losing our families. It's just like the same story. Um, we sit around, we kind of share a little bit about what we're going through, not really what we're going through, but like all of our symptoms, like I can't sleep. I've gotten migraines, all this stuff. And, and, um, when we got there, they set us up, they did a urinalysis, we did an EKG to make sure that we're having any heart issues, make sure we're not on anything that was going to interact with it, you know, cause some guys are, you know, they're really struggling. Some dudes are on ketamine and cocaine and drugs and all kinds of stuff, just trying to make it through the day.

• 2:01:03Jack Murphy?

  Yeah.

• 2:01:03Speaker 04

  And so that's just to clear all that, make sure you're not on anything. Um, and the other thing was because Ivo gain is a really strong stimulant. And if you have heart conditions or you're already on stimulants, it could be bad. And, um, so, uh, basically it's, it's a, you know, as part of a, a root of a tree that grows in Africa and, and the Boeotia tribe uses it. They use it for kind of those, those people use it for like becoming man ceremonies and like to go to speak with their elders and we're just trying to figure out how to live our lives. And that's what we're using it for. And then they grind it up and put it in gel caps. You take the gel caps and, you know, the place that I went, we're hooked up, uh, you're hooked up to an EKG, you get an IV port, there's a neurologist and

• 2:01:46Speaker 04

  two nurses there. You're basically in a hospital bed inside of a house and, uh, the, the doctor and the nurses are there with you all night. If you need your bed change, if you need fluids, you know, they're there to respond to everything. Um, so it's really a clinical environment inside of a house. And, uh, I took the, I took the plant medicine and I was, you know, I was kind of freaking out to be honest, because I was the last one that it really, it really, uh, started to work on. So like everyone is starts just kind of, uh, going under and they're breathing, having it going crazy. And one hour goes by and then two hours goes by and then three hours goes by. I'm like, oh man, I'm freaking out because like I took the same dose as everybody else, but I'm just like, I'm like, I could go drive a car right now. And I, I, you know, bring them back in, they're talking to me and they ended up redosing me.

• 2:02:31Speaker 04

  And then within like five minutes I was out.

• 2:02:33Jack Murphy?

  Whoa.

• 2:02:34Speaker 04

  And I was out with, for probably 18 hours I was under.

• 2:02:38Jack Murphy?

  Holy shit.

• 2:02:40Speaker 04

  Yeah. And so like I, the other part of it is like, I start hearing the next day, people are getting up, moving around. I'm like, they redosed me. I'm never coming out of this, you know, I'm going to be in it forever, uh, which is just, you know, it's all part of being in, it's all part of being in your own head. But, uh, part of the plant medicine, as they say, you get, you get the experience that you need, not the one that you want. And for me, it takes you directly to the trauma that causes all the issues that you're dealing with. And for me, that took me directly back to my childhood. And I don't have any issues talking about this stuff. Cause you know, I, I wrote a book. It's actually in the process of getting edited right now and be publishing it all. So everyone will be out there to hear about it. But for me, it took me straight to my childhood. And you know, when I was, when I was a kid, um, my stepdad used

• 2:03:23Speaker 04

  to get drunk, high, beat the brakes off me like every single day. And I remembered all that, but he was also molesting me and I didn't remember any of that. And it was also getting my sister and, um, I didn't remember any, I'd blocked all that part out. So like no amount of therapy or anything ever would have helped me because I didn't know it happened. I had completely blocked it out of my head. And for me, what I had to do was go back and re-experience it and make peace with it. And the way the medicine works, it takes you directly to that point. And you have to make peace with it. And if you don't, it just starts twisting you inside and out. You'll start throwing up, you'll start crapping your pants. You're just, it will turn you inside out until you finally submit.

• 2:04:02Speaker 04

  And then like peace kind of just like washes over you and you feel safe and clean. The best way I can explain is it's like 30 years of therapy and one night with yourself, you know, cause like you can, you can go to any place, any, any taste, smell, thought, anything you've ever seen in your entire life. It's all in your brain. It's just whether you have access to it, but it's all there, everything in your, like you can remember it. It's just whether your brain gives you access. Well, when you do plant medicine, it just removes the veil. And then you can go directly like, go to any point in your life. And it's like watching a movie in 4K. And I had to go back to those things and re-experience it. And you know, I, I hadn't cried in 30 years. And then I

• 2:04:45Speaker 04

  cried for like 24 hours straight, like deep body shaking, soul shaking, like release of just trauma, just coming out and pouring out and pouring out. And you know, like I, the other part of it is when you come out of it the next day, um, there's a therapist there and she's also done the plant medicine. So she kind of helps you deal with the things that you're going through. And you know, I told her what's going on with me and she's like, you're probably not, she's like, you may or may not like to hear this, but you know, if it gives you any peace, 85% of the guys who come through this program all had the exact same experience as you, you know? And so when you realize that like, you know, the majority of guys in special operations are just like hurt kids, you know, we learned how to compartmentalize

• 2:05:28Speaker 04

  stuff when we're in grade school. So watching your buddy die on target and growing right back out the next night, it's way easier. And so that, I don't know, good or bad, but it did make me feel a little better. I wasn't alone going.

• 2:05:40Jack Murphy?

  Um, there's that documentary on Netflix about the SEALs going down there and doing this. And there's a guy they interview in the documentary and he was actually a ranger, as I recall, and he, he says something during it. He says, "Without child abuse, there wouldn't be special operations." And that was like a very shocking thing even for me to hear, but there's a very, there's a very hard truth in that, I think.

• 2:06:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, for sure. Cause like I say, it's, it's, you learn to compartmentalize when you're in grade school.

• 2:06:10Jack Murphy?

  Yeah. And the resiliency and yeah.

• 2:06:13Speaker 04

  And so doing it as an adult just comes second nature. It's not a big deal. You know, you're like, I, you know, I was

• 2:06:20Speaker 04

  compartmentalizing stuff just to show up to class, you know, uh, in elementary school. So like doing it to go on target is like, it's a feature by then, you know? And so that, that's really what gave me my life back that moment. And that was like January, uh, 2021, cause I retired about six months before that, like July. And, uh, I, I went down to Mexico. I did that experience. Um, you know, it's, it's the same thing for all the guys. We all, we all went through it and you know, everybody shows up, they're angry, they got scowls on their face. And but by the time we leave, everybody's just hugging, I love you, man. It's so great. You know, you just feel like you get

• 2:06:58Speaker 04

  your life back in like one night, you know? Uh, so Ivo gain makes you deal with the problems. And then the, the five MEO DMT on the backend was kind of like a warm hug, you know? It's like the next, you go through the whole next day you process. And then the next, the following next day, you do the ceremony for that. And for me, it's just, I had to, I had to like experience, the first thing I saw was like my stepdad's face. And then like it, I felt like complete terror and then nothing. And then warm, it felt like a, the best way I can explain it is felt like a warm hug from God that came across my entire body that made me just feel at peace and finally safe for the first time

• 2:07:39Speaker 04

  in my whole life. And I came away from that experience, just a completely total changed person.

• 2:07:46Jack Murphy?

  Wow.

• 2:07:46Speaker 04

  And then I came back and you know, my family, you know, my wife's a God sent, she stuck with me through all of it. She, she, it's really what gave me my relationship back with God, you know? Like I, I grew up in the church, but I had a really bad experience. Cause like, you know, my dad and my grandfather were both ministers, but in my, my opinion, they were both false prophets and doing one thing around the pulpit and doing another thing in real life. And, and so I had a lot of church hurt and it really opened me back up to where I was able to reestablish that relationship with God. And I really like just started reading the Bible on my own and really understanding it. And like, okay, so I just had a bad experience. It wasn't that, you know, cause I, I cursed God a lot over the years,

• 2:08:31Speaker 04

  going through all that stuff, all the things I went through. I was just like, you know, if there was God, how could this stuff happen to me? And I got my life back, you know, it took me all that time and I finally got my life back. And I get home and I was a completely different person overnight. The other thing with Ivo again is it takes away all your addictive qualities. So if you're addicted to drug, if you're a heroin addict, you never want heroin again. If you're an alcoholic, you don't want alcohol. If sugar, all of it, you don't want any of it. As long as you come back and you do reintegration properly and you establish new habits, you know, like, like for me personally, when I would start getting amped up, wife could see it and she'd be like, hey, calm down. Just go sit in your room, put your headphones on. I put like spa music on and just relax, do some breath work for a few minutes and then I

• 2:09:15Speaker 04

  would be good to go. Or before I would just be like, get amped up, like time to go hit the bottle, you know? So I can calm back down. But you establish those new habits and it's what really fixed me, you know? And then I, you know, it's been six years and I don't drink at all. I still, I don't crave alcohol. And it's, it's what, what really dealt with from drinking every single day to, you know, I haven't touched it really in six years and I don't crave it. I don't want it. Like, um, but it really just helped me get my life back, helped me get my family back. My, you and my boys were young and, uh, really get to experience them. Cause I was retired and then, you know, went through all that. I got my relationship back to God, got into church, started getting my life back together. And then, um, at

• 2:09:58Speaker 04

  some point me and my wife both decided we were going to sell everything, buy an RV and just travel across the country. And that's what we did. And we sold everything and we just lived our best life. And we traveled across the country with our, it was me and my wife, my two sons and our two dogs. And we bought an RV and we just cruised and we went to, you know, all the national parks and held our bucket list places and spent every single moment with each other, every single day, just being present, experiencing everything. I feel like all the time I had lost, I was making back, you know, from all the deployments and all the time. And you know, all the time in my life I had just lost just from not being present, just being drunk or being passed out or, you know, causing problems at home.

• 2:10:41Speaker 04

  I was trying to get all those moments back and it gave me memories that I'll never forget. And then through that, we went on our RV trip for almost a year and we ended up selling where we're at now. We're in, you know, just outside of Huntsville in Somerville, Alabama. And, uh, we found this place, we're on an eight and a half acre little homestead here. We've got chickens and ducks and pigs and goats. And, um, you know, just trying to live our best life here, but.

• 2:11:07Jack Murphy?

  Hey man, you're, you're in Huntsville and you're a jujitsu guy. Do you know, uh, Michael Case?

• 2:11:15Speaker 04

  Michael Case, I don't.

• 2:11:16Jack Murphy?

  He's a, he's a 375 guy.

• 2:11:19Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 2:11:19Jack Murphy?

  And I, I, I'll, I'll have to talk to Mike, but I think he might be involved or even own a jujitsu dojo out there.

• 2:11:30Speaker 04

  Okay, right on. Yeah, for sure.

• 2:11:32Jack Murphy?

  We, we pull, I'll pull up his info for you.

• 2:11:34Speaker 04

  Yeah, no, please.

• 2:11:37Jack Murphy?

  Um, so you mentioned that you have a, a book, um, that's on the way. What, what's the title? Can people preorder it?

• 2:11:44Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's, it's, uh, it's called Refined by Fire. Um, I've got the first six chapters back from, from the editor. Uh, we're working through it. I just started establishing social media pages. I can send that to you. But, uh, once the book's through.

• 2:11:57Speaker 06

  Making plans with asthma can be awful. It always goes from, that sounds fun, to in this weather, what if my asthma acts up? I got tired of saying no, so my doctor suggested Dupixent. I'm Rachel and I'm sponsored by Regeneron in Santa Fe to share my story with real patients like me.

• 2:12:11Speaker 01

  Dupixent, Dupilumab, is an add-on prescription maintenance treatment for adults and children six years and up with moderate to severe eosinophilic or oral steroid-dependent asthma that's not controlled with current asthma medicines. Dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems.

• 2:12:23Speaker 06

  Dupixent helps people breathe better in as little as two weeks. And now I don't even think twice about saying yes to plans more, rain or shine.

• 2:12:30Speaker 01

  Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions can occur. Get help right away for face, mouth, tongue, or throat swelling, wheezing, or trouble breathing. Tell your doctor right away of signs of inflamed blood vessels like rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, brown or dark colored urine, tingling or numbness in limbs. Tell your doctor of new or worsening skin symptoms, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor.

• 2:12:50Speaker 06

  Do more with less asthma. Ask your asthma specialist about Dupixent by name. Visit dupixent.com or call 1-844-DUPIXENT.

• 2:12:57Speaker 00

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• 2:13:28Speaker 00

  911, what's your emergency?

• 2:13:31Speaker 00

  Please help us. They're everywhere. We think they're murder hornets.

• 2:13:35Speaker 03

  911 Nashville returns.

• 2:13:38Speaker 02

  It's a homicide detective down here. Three bodies on the ground.

• 2:13:41Speaker 03

  With emergencies of biblical proportions.

• 2:13:44Speaker 02

  All sins swarms upon you and upon your people.

• 2:13:46Speaker 03

  That's one of the plagues for by law. And somebody's unleashing them on Nashville. Brian Phillippe joins 911 Nashville. All new Thursdays on ABC, next day on Hulu.

• 2:13:57Speaker 04

  Thing, we'll start pre-orders as we start the process. Um, but it's called Refined by Fire. And it's really about my entire, my entire memoir from like childhood through present day. Uh, I lost my seven-year-old son eight months ago, uh, to cancer and part of our, like, we came, we settled back here in, in Alabama. Uh, we started living, um, living our best life here. We, we found a great church. We started doing everything really, everything was going perfectly. And then, um, one day my son came to, to the breakfast table. And you know, I trained both my boys in jujitsu and everything. And the night before we were at training, he was kinda, he had rolled his ankle and was kinda dragging his foot around, but, uh,

• 2:14:41Speaker 04

  around the house and, and I was like, hey, what's going on? Is your foot, um, are you dragging it because you hurt it, you know, at jujitsu? Or is it just because, you know, you're having issues? And he's like, I don't know. It's fine. And he went back to pretending to be a dinosaur or whatever. And then the next morning at breakfast, he reached for his glass with his right hand, like he always does, take, take a drink out and, and he put his hand down and switched his other hand and started around. I was like, that's weird. I was like, can you not grab your glass? He was having issues with it. So me and my wife took him out in the garage and started doing like some mobility stuff with him. He couldn't keep his balance. His grip strength was off. He was definitely having some neurological something going on. And so we ended up, my wife took him to the ER and then she called me and, uh, they did like a, what they call like a dirty MRI, just a quick one

• 2:15:23Speaker 04

  for a couple of minutes, just to see if there's something going on. Cause he was presenting like he had a stroke, basically. And, uh, they found a mass in his head. And then so they told us we needed to do a sedated MRI and we left for, uh, St. Jude like the next day and did a sedated MRI and found out that he had a DIPG brain stem tumor, which is like a fast-growing, fast-acting, uh, brain tumor that there's no known cure for. And, uh, they gave us a prognosis of nine to 12 months and we got six. And we did, uh, and we went through everything with him, uh, to try to, to do things the right way.

• 2:16:01Speaker 04

  And, uh, we completely changed everything. We did everything holistically. We, you know, we went through radiation at St. Jude for three months, but, um, I, I did so many, as a family, we did so many things to try to, to try to, to help his health. We, we did, uh, we hired functional medicine practitioners that were helping us that way. Um, I, we did a lot of fundraising. Uh, I got, got with some donors that helped us, you know, I've got, I've got a hyperbaric chamber in my house that, uh, we were using for his treatment. I, uh, we were doing hydrogen therapy, pimphmat, we were putting him on a strict keto diet. Um, we were using cannabinoids. We were like a deuterium depleted water and chlorine dioxide solution. And it's like every, every,

• 2:16:47Speaker 04

  everything that we were doing independently can cure cancer on its own. And we were doing like eight or nine things all combined together at once. Then we brought him back to almost a complete and total full recovery. Um, and then he contracted RSV and then he crashed and within like a week or two, we lost him. And then, uh,

• 2:17:06Jack Murphy?

  What, what is RSV?

• 2:17:09Speaker 04

  Uh, it's a, what's RSV stand for? It's the, it's a, it's a respiratory virus. Um, like, but it's a respiratory virus that he got and he has a, he had a, a gene deletion in his body that didn't allow him to detox properly. So he wasn't able to detox it and his, uh, basically he just kept, he would, uh, he would, kept getting snotty and would end up getting phlegm and he couldn't generate enough power to cough the phlegm up. And we were having to suction him and, uh, he just, just kept crashing from there. Then he stopped eating and then, you know, he was getting calories in and he had already lost a lot of weight from all the treatments that he'd been through. And we had a really, really hard six months. Um, but he almost, like I say, he almost made a full, complete recovery.

• 2:17:54Speaker 04

  And then we ended up for his seventh birthday, we took him and, uh, we, we took him down to Florida and had an awesome weekend on the beach with his brother. And we went to, uh, to Alligator Alley because he loved reptiles and, and spent the day there. And we went and did a Komodo dragon experience at the Birmingham Zoo and had awesome time there. And his cousins and grandparents came up and we had that whole week of just the best week of his life. And then he, he crashed after that. And, uh, we lost him. And really the book is about my whole experience from all of the things that I went through, childhood trauma and abandonment issues.

• 2:18:31Speaker 04

  And, you know, really about my walk with God from the time I was a kid till present day and how he was there with me the entire time. And I just, I didn't realize it. I had to walk through all that stuff to really find out. And honestly, I feel like my son, he was just like my own little guardian angel here. He was the one that really brought me back to God because he would, he asked me all the hard questions constantly. He, you know, he was six years old and prayed like a seasoned preacher. He asked me all the questions that I'd have to get into the, to end of scripture and really dig in. And to get him the answers on, he would tell me when we were going to radiation, he had to go under, um, anesthesia every single day. So he, five days a week for six weeks, he was under anesthesia doing radiation.

• 2:19:15Speaker 04

  And, uh, every time he would go under, he would tell us it. He's like, he was good to go. He saw Jesus on the other end. Uh, when he was under that and he was fine. And, you know, it broke my heart hearing that because like, I'm glad you're seeing that, but at the same time, I'm not ready to let you go. And I do feel like as we get closer to the end, kind of the veil gets lifted. Um, and we get to see more and know more. But, you know, he, he saved my life. He brought me back to God and he is, I'll never know this side of heaven, the amount of people he's brought back to Christ, you know, like ranger buddies that I've had some conversations with and talked to about the gospel. And, you know, I can remember when we were at St. Jude, going through the worst of it, one of my, my ranger buddies called me up and asked me, um,

• 2:20:00Speaker 04

  how was going? And I told him, it's terrible, man. He was like, I, it's like I wake up before everybody wakes up and I cry for hours. And then I deal with the day. And then once everybody goes to sleep, I'm crying again. And like, I'm doing everything I can. I'm praying to God every day. Just, just to give me what I need, just to get through today. And he's like, well, I don't know how you do it, man. I'd, I'd be, I'd be gone. I'd be drunk, pass out and dead somewhere. And I was like, I would be too, man. Uh, if it wasn't for my faith and, and that's what really keeps me going every single day. And he's like, well, I don't even believe in God, but I pray for your little boy every day. And I was like, well, you're halfway there. I can get you across the finish line. Yeah.

• 2:20:40Jack Murphy?

  I'm sorry, man. I mean, that's, that's as bad as it gets. Um, but it sounded like you, your son made, uh, his peace with it and understood what was happening.

• 2:20:50Speaker 04

  Absolutely.

• 2:20:51Jack Murphy?

  Yeah.

• 2:20:52Speaker 04

  Did. And, uh, you know, he, you know, there was multiple times through that process before we went to St. Jude, our church had a big thing together. Where they brought everybody into the church and we anointed him with oil and prayed over him. But Wyatt thought everybody was coming in so he could pray over them. And so he got up on stage and started praying over the congregation.

• 2:21:14Speaker 04

  And so like, he's just, that was just him, you know, he was, uh, always a firecracker, always, you know,

• 2:21:22Speaker 04

  he knew way more than, uh, he should have at his age. And I, and I genuinely believe it's just because, you know, like I say, as, I think as you get closer, the veil gets lifted. And he just had more knowledge than I could ever attain in a lifetime.

• 2:21:37Jack Murphy?

  Wow. And so you guys are still down in Huntsville and now you are a jujitsu instructor?

• 2:21:45Speaker 04

  Yeah, so I coached jujitsu pretty much full time. I do it every day, but Friday and Sunday at Gracie Baja in Huntsville. So I'm one of the one of the main coaches up there and teach about, you know, about 15 classes a week. Plus, you know, my training days too. I'm up there 18 to 20 classes a week or so. And then when I'm not there, I'm here during the day. So that's usually most days I teach a couple during the day, but the majority of them are afternoon and tonight because that's, you know, most people are, you know, the kids classes start around three o'clock and they go up through the evening with adult classes. And so I teach then and during the day I'm doing stuff here on the homestead. I'm homeschooling my other son Cole. And so I do homeschool with

• 2:22:28Speaker 04

  him and there's always, you know, like I say, we got a ton of products. I spend all day to day building a chicken coop, you know, for for animals out here. So there's plenty to keep me busy around here.

• 2:22:39Jack Murphy?

  That's great. And we will, we'll put some links down the description of this podcast for all the people who are listening and are interested in following up on on that and interested in pre-ordering your book when it's available.

• 2:22:52Speaker 04

  Yeah, that would be amazing. I appreciate that.

• 2:22:54Jack Murphy?

  Will, thank you so much for sharing your story with us from front to back. I mean, it's amazing.

• 2:23:00Speaker 04

  Thank you. And I really appreciate the opportunity and I hope that the message I get across here more than anything is, you know, all of my experiences, I've, I'm just humbled to be, to be able to walk amongst giants for the times. I don't want anybody to think that I was in, you know, in here by any means trying to to toot my own horn about anything because I don't ever felt like, you know, like I said, imposter syndrome the whole time I was a Ranger. I never felt like I really belonged there. There's so many amazing men there. I was just really, really humbled and honored to be a part of the organization while I was there. I really, I really hope that, you know, my story can help other people. There's, you know, because it's not just Rangers, it's not

• 2:23:44Speaker 04

  special operations guys, everybody, we're, we're all stressed to the max, like across the country, you know, whether you're a doctor, a nurse, you know, a high level executive, we're all facing the same struggles, you know, we all have imposter syndrome. We're all just trying to do our best to just make it through the day. And that's really why I wrote the book is just, you know, whether you're a veteran who can't sleep or you're a high level executive, just trying to make it through the day, or you're an ER nurse coming off shift, you know, there's, there's always an answer. Like, you don't have to take your own life. You don't have to drown yourself in booze. You don't have to turn to alcohol and drugs. Like, you know, God's there. You just have to, you just have to let them into your life.

• 2:24:32Jack Murphy?

  Thank you, Will. And please stay in touch. Anything before we get going?

• 2:24:38Speaker 04

  That's it. I just want to really say I really appreciate the time. I really appreciate the opportunity. I really hope that everyone gets something out of this. And I really hope that once my book, my book should be available pretty soon. I'll send you the links to try to follow up there and hope that I can help people with that. That's, that's really my only, my only goal is to try to, to share my son's story because, you know, his life was short but very large and to try to share the gospel with as many people as possible. And thank you so much for the opportunity.

• 2:25:11Jack Murphy?

  Yeah, thank you, Will. Thank you for reaching out and doing this. And for everyone else out there, like I said, there'll be some links down the description and thank you for joining us tonight.

• 2:25:22Speaker 04

  Thanks, brother.

• 2:25:25Speaker 04

  Hello, everyone. If you're hearing this, you are not a member of the Patreon. You can get your hands on ad free episodes that come out early and you can ask us questions. Maybe we'll answer them. You can also watch the Team House podcast completely ad free and early and you can

• 2:25:42Speaker 06

  also watch it live as we interview our guests. And it's the best way to support the channel. So if you can, if you're open to it, you can go to patreon.com slash the Team House. That link is in the description. We appreciate the supporters and we hope you would consider being one. So it's patreon.com slash the Team House. Thanks, guys.

• 2:26:05Speaker 06

  Making plans with asthma can be awful. It always goes from, that sounds fun, to in this weather, what if my asthma acts up? I got tired of saying no. So my doctor suggested Dupixent. I'm Rachel and I'm sponsored by Regeneron in Santa Fe to share my story with real patients like me.

• 2:26:19Speaker 01

  Dupixent, Dupilumab, is an add-on prescription maintenance treatment for adults and children six years and up with moderate to severe eosinophilic or oral steroid dependent asthma that's not controlled with current asthma medicines. Dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems.

• 2:26:31Speaker 06

  Dupixent helps people breathe better in as little as two weeks. And now I don't even think twice about saying yes to plans more, rain or shine.

• 2:26:38Speaker 01

  Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help right away for face, mouth, tongue, or throat swelling, wheezing, or trouble breathing. Tell your doctor right away of signs of inflamed blood vessels like rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, brown or dark colored urine, tingling or numbness in limbs. Tell your doctor of new or worsening skin symptoms, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor.

• 2:26:58Speaker 06

  Do more with less asthma. Ask your asthma specialist about Dupixent by name. Visit dupixent.com or call 1-844-DUPIXENT.

• 2:27:05Speaker 00

  Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds up to $200,000 right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 2:27:37Speaker 00

  911, what's your emergency?

• 2:27:40Speaker 00

  Please help us. They're everywhere. We think they're murder hornets.

• 2:27:44Speaker 03

  911 Nashville returns.

• 2:27:47Speaker 02

  It's a homicide detective down here. Three bodies on the ground.

• 2:27:50Speaker 03

  With emergencies of biblical proportions.

• 2:27:52Speaker 02

  Alson swarms upon you and upon your people. That's one of the plagues of the Bible.

• 2:27:57Speaker 03

  And somebody's unleashing them on Nashville. Brian Phillippe joins 911 Nashville. All new Thursdays on ABC next day on Hulu.

• 2:28:12Speaker 06

  Making plans with asthma can be awful. It always goes from, that sounds fun, to in this weather, what if my asthma acts up? I got tired of saying no. So my doctor suggested Dupixent. I'm Rachel and I'm sponsored by Regeneron in Santa Fe to share my story with real patients like me.

• 2:28:26Speaker 01

  Dupixent, Dupilumab, is an add-on prescription maintenance treatment for adults and children six years and up with moderate to severe eosinophilic or oral steroid dependent asthma that's not controlled with current asthma medicines. Dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems.

• 2:28:37Speaker 06

  Dupixent helps people breathe better in as little as two weeks. And now I don't even think twice about saying yes to plans more, rain or shine.

• 2:28:44Speaker 01

  Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help right away for face, mouth, tongue, or throat swelling, wheezing, or trouble breathing. Tell your doctor right away of signs of inflamed blood vessels like rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, brown or dark colored urine, tingling or numbness in limbs. Tell your doctor of new or worsening skin symptoms, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor.

• 2:29:05Speaker 06

  Do more with less asthma. Ask your asthma specialist about Dupixent by name. Visit dupixent.com or call 1-844-DUPIXENT.

• 2:29:12Speaker 03

  Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds up to $200,000 right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 2:29:43Speaker 00

  911, what's your emergency? Please help us. They're everywhere. We think they're murder hornets.

• 2:29:51Speaker 03

  911 Nashville returns.

• 2:29:53Speaker 02

  It's a homicide detective down here. Three bodies on the ground.

• 2:29:56Speaker 03

  With emergencies of biblical proportions.

• 2:29:59Speaker 02

  Alson swarms upon you and upon your people. That's one of the plagues of the Bible.

• 2:30:03Speaker 03

  And somebody's unleashing them on Nashville. Brian Phillippe joins 911 Nashville. All new Thursdays on ABC next day on Hulu.

• 2:30:18Speaker 06

  Making plans with asthma can be awful. It always goes from, that sounds fun, to in this weather, what if my asthma acts up? I got tired of saying no. So my doctor suggested Dupixent. I'm Rachel and I'm sponsored by Regeneron in Santa Fe to share my story with real patients like me.

• 2:30:32Speaker 01

  Dupixent, Dupilumab, is an add-on prescription maintenance treatment for adults and children six years and up with moderate to severe eosinophilic or oral steroid dependent asthma that's not controlled with current asthma medicines. Dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems.

• 2:30:43Speaker 06

  Dupixent helps people breathe better in as little as two weeks. And now I don't even think twice about saying yes to plans more, rain or shine.

• 2:30:50Speaker 01

  Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help right away for face, mouth, tongue, or throat swelling, wheezing, or trouble breathing. Tell your doctor right away of signs of inflamed blood vessels like rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, brown or dark colored urine, tingling or numbness in limbs. Tell your doctor of new or worsening skin symptoms, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor.

• 2:31:11Speaker 06

  Do more with less asthma. Ask your asthma specialist about Dupixent by name. Visit dupixent.com or call 1-844-DUPIXENT.

• 2:31:18Speaker 03

  Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds up to $200,000 right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 2:31:49Speaker 00

  911, what's your emergency? Please help us. They're everywhere. We think they're murder hornets.

• 2:31:57Speaker 03

  911 Nashville returns.

• 2:31:59Speaker 02

  It's a homicide detective down here. Three bodies on the ground.

• 2:32:02Speaker 03

  With emergencies of biblical proportions.

• 2:32:05Speaker 02

  Alson swarms upon you and upon your people. That's one of the plagues of the Bible. And somebody's unleashing them on Nashville.

• 2:32:12Speaker 03

  Brian Phillippe joins 911 Nashville. All new Thursdays on ABC next day on Hulu.

• 2:32:26Speaker 06

  Making plans with asthma can be awful. It always goes from, "That sounds fun," to, "In this weather, what if my asthma acts up?" I got tired of saying no, so my doctor suggested Dupixent. I'm Rachel, and I'm sponsored by Regeneron in Santa Fe to share my story with real patients like me.

• 2:32:40Speaker 01

  Dupixent to Dupilumab is an add-on prescription maintenance treatment for adults and children six years and up with moderate to severe eosinophilic or oral steroid-dependent asthma that's not controlled with current asthma medicines. Dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems.

• 2:32:51Speaker 06

  Dupixent helps people breathe better in as little as two weeks. And now, I don't even think twice about saying yes to plans more, rain or shine.

• 2:32:58Speaker 01

  Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help right away for face, mouth, tongue, or throat swelling, wheezing, or trouble breathing. Tell your doctor right away of signs of inflamed blood vessels like rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, brown or dark-colored urine, tingling or numbness in limbs. Tell your doctor of new or worsening skin symptoms, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor.

• 2:33:19Speaker 06

  Do more with less asthma. Ask your asthma specialist about Dupixent by name. Visit dupixent.com or call 1-844-DUPIXENT.

• 2:33:26Speaker 03

  Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds up to $200,000 right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 2:33:57Speaker 00

  911, what's your emergency?

• 2:34:00Speaker 00

  Please help us, they're everywhere. We think they're murder hornets.

• 2:34:04Speaker 03

  911 Nashville returns.

• 2:34:07Speaker 02

  What's a homicide detective doing here? Three bodies on the ground.

• 2:34:10Speaker 03

  With emergencies of biblical proportions.

• 2:34:13Speaker 02

  I will send swarms upon you and upon your people. That's one of the plagues of the Bible. And somebody's unleashing them on Nashville.

• 2:34:20Speaker 03

  Brian Phillippeach, 911 Nashville. All new Thursdays on ABC, next day on Hulu.

• 2:34:32Speaker 06

  Making plans with asthma can be awful. It always goes from, "That sounds fun," to, "In this weather, what if my asthma acts up?" I got tired of saying no, so my doctor suggested Dupixent. I'm Rachel, and I'm sponsored by Regeneron in Santa Fe to share my story with real patients like me.

• 2:34:46Speaker 01

  Dupixent to Dupilumab is an add-on prescription maintenance treatment for adults and children six years and up with moderate to severe eosinophilic or oral steroid-dependent asthma that's not controlled with current asthma medicines. Dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems.

• 2:34:57Speaker 06

  Dupixent helps people breathe better in as little as two weeks. And now, I don't even think twice about saying yes to plans more, rain or shine.

• 2:35:04Speaker 01

  Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help right away for face, mouth, tongue, or throat swelling, wheezing, or trouble breathing. Tell your doctor right away of signs of inflamed blood vessels like rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, brown or dark-colored urine, tingling or numbness in limbs. Tell your doctor of new or worsening skin symptoms, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor.

• 2:35:25Speaker 06

  Do more with less asthma. Ask your asthma specialist about Dupixent by name. Visit dupixent.com or call 1-844-DUPIXENT.

• 2:35:32Speaker 03

  Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds up to $200,000 right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 2:36:03Speaker 00

  911, what's your emergency?

• 2:36:06Speaker 00

  Please help us, they're everywhere. We think they're murder hornets.

• 2:36:10Speaker 03

  911 Nashville returns.

• 2:36:13Speaker 02

  What's a homicide detective doing here? Three bodies on the ground.

• 2:36:16Speaker 03

  With emergencies of biblical proportions.

• 2:36:19Speaker 02

  I will send swarms upon you and upon your people. That's one of the plagues of the Bible. And somebody's unleashing them on Nashville.

• 2:36:26Speaker 03

  Brian Phillippeach, 911 Nashville. All new Thursdays on ABC, next day on Hulu.

• 2:36:38Speaker 06

  Making plans with asthma can be awful. It always goes from, "That sounds fun," to, "In this weather, what if my asthma acts up?" I got tired of saying no, so my doctor suggested Dupixent. I'm Rachel, and I'm sponsored by Regeneron in Santa Fe to share my story with real patients like me.

• 2:36:52Speaker 01

  Dupixent to Dupilumab is an add-on prescription maintenance treatment for adults and children six years and up with moderate to severe eosinophilic or oral steroid-dependent asthma that's not controlled with current asthma medicines. Dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems.

• 2:37:04Speaker 06

  Dupixent helps people breathe better in as little as two weeks. And now, I don't even think twice about saying yes to plans more, rain or shine.

• 2:37:11Speaker 01

  Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help right away for face, mouth, tongue, or throat swelling, wheezing, or trouble breathing. Tell your doctor right away of signs of inflamed blood vessels like rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, brown or dark-colored urine, tingling or numbness in limbs. Tell your doctor of new or worsening skin symptoms, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor.

• 2:37:31Speaker 06

  Do more with less asthma. Ask your asthma specialist about Dupixent by name. Visit dupixent.com or call 1-844-DUPIXENT.

• 2:37:38Speaker 03

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 2:38:07Speaker 00

  911, what's your emergency? Please help us, they're everywhere. We think they're murder hornets.

• 2:38:15Speaker 03

  911 Nashville returns.

• 2:38:17Speaker 02

  What's a homicide detective doing here? Three bodies on the ground.

• 2:38:20Speaker 03

  With emergencies of biblical proportions.

• 2:38:23Speaker 02

  I will send swarms upon you and upon your people. That's one of the plagues of the Bible. And somebody's unleashing them on Nashville.

• 2:38:30Speaker 03

  Brian Phillippeach, 911 Nashville. All new Thursdays on ABC, next day on Hulu.

• 2:38:43Speaker 06

  Making plans with asthma can be awful. It always goes from, "That sounds fun," to, "In this weather, what if my asthma acts up?" I got tired of saying no, so my doctor suggested Dupixent. I'm Rachel, and I'm sponsored by Regeneron in Santa Fe to share my story with real patients like me.

• 2:38:57Speaker 01

  Dupixent to Dupilumab is an add-on prescription maintenance treatment for adults and children six years and up with moderate to severe eosinophilic or oral steroid-dependent asthma that's not controlled with current asthma medicines. Dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems.

• 2:39:09Speaker 06

  Dupixent helps people breathe better in as little as two weeks. And now, I don't even think twice about saying yes to plans more, rain or shine.

• 2:39:16Speaker 01

  Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help right away for face, mouth, tongue, or throat swelling, wheezing, or trouble breathing. Tell your doctor right away of signs of inflamed blood vessels like rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, brown or dark-colored urine, tingling or numbness in limbs. Tell your doctor of new or worsening skin symptoms, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor.

• 2:39:36Speaker 06

  Do more with less asthma. Ask your asthma specialist about Dupixent by name. Visit dupixent.com or call 1-844-DUPIXENT.

• 2:39:43Speaker 03

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 2:40:12Speaker 00

  911, what's your emergency? Please help us, they're everywhere. We think they're murder hornets.

• 2:40:20Speaker 03

  911 Nashville returns.

• 2:40:22Speaker 02

  What's a homicide detective doing here? Three bodies on the ground.

• 2:40:25Speaker 03

  With emergencies of biblical proportions.

• 2:40:28Speaker 02

  I will send swarms upon you and upon your people. That's one of the plagues of the Bible. And somebody's unleashing them on Nashville.

• 2:40:35Speaker 03

  Brian Phillippeach, 911 Nashville. All new Thursdays on ABC, next day on Hulu.

• 2:40:47Speaker 06

  Making plans with asthma can be awful. It always goes from, "That sounds fun," to, "In this weather, what if my asthma acts up?" I got tired of saying no, so my doctor suggested Dupixent. I'm Rachel, and I'm sponsored by Regeneron in Santa Fe to share my story with real patients like me.

• 2:41:01Speaker 01

  Dupixent to Dupilumab is an add-on prescription maintenance treatment for adults and children six years and up with moderate to severe eosinophilic or oral steroid-dependent asthma that's not controlled with current asthma medicines. Dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems.

• 2:41:13Speaker 06

  Dupixent helps people breathe better in as little as two weeks. And now, I don't even think twice about saying yes to plans more, rain or shine.

• 2:41:19Speaker 01

  Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help right away for face, mouth, tongue, or throat swelling, wheezing, or trouble breathing. Tell your doctor right away of signs of inflamed blood vessels like rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, brown or dark-colored urine, tingling or numbness in limbs. Tell your doctor of new or worsening skin symptoms, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor.

• 2:41:40Speaker 06

  Do more with less asthma. Ask your asthma specialist about Dupixent by name. Visit dupixent.com or call 1-844-DUPIXENT.

• 2:41:47Speaker 03

  Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds up to $200,000 right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 2:42:18Speaker 00

  911, what's your emergency? Please help us, they're everywhere. We think they're murder hornets.

• 2:42:26Speaker 03

  911 Nashville returns.

• 2:42:28Speaker 02

  What's a homicide detective doing here? Three bodies on the ground.

• 2:42:32Speaker 03

  With emergencies of biblical proportions.

• 2:42:34Speaker 02

  I will send swarms upon you and upon your people. That's one of the plagues of the Bible. And somebody's unleashing them on Nashville.

• 2:42:41Speaker 03

  Brian Phillippeach, 911 Nashville. All new Thursdays on ABC, next day on Hulu.

• 2:42:54Speaker 06

  Making plans with asthma can be awful. It always goes from "That sounds fun" to "In this weather, what if my asthma acts up?" I got tired of saying no, so my doctor suggested Dupixent. I'm Rachel, and I'm sponsored by Regeneron in Santa Fe to share my story with real patients like me.

• 2:43:08Speaker 01

  Dupixent, dupilumab, is an add-on prescription maintenance treatment for adults and children six years and up with moderate to severe eosinophilic or oral steroid-dependent asthma that's not controlled with current asthma medicines. Dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems.

• 2:43:20Speaker 06

  Dupixent helps people breathe better in as little as two weeks. And now, I don't even think twice about saying yes to plans more, rain or shine.

• 2:43:27Speaker 01

  Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help right away for face, mouth, tongue, or throat swelling, wheezing, or trouble breathing. Tell your doctor right away of signs of inflamed blood vessels like rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, brown or dark-colored urine, tingling or numbness in limbs. Tell your doctor of new or worsening skin symptoms, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor.

• 2:43:47Speaker 06

  Do more with less asthma. Ask your asthma specialist about Dupixent by name. Visit dupixent.com or call 1-844-DUPIXENT.

• 2:43:54Speaker 03

  Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds, up to $200,000, right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 2:44:26Speaker 00

  911, what's your emergency?

• 2:44:29Speaker 00

  Please help us, they're everywhere. We think they're murder hornets.

• 2:44:33Speaker 03

  911 Nashville returns.

• 2:44:36Speaker 02

  It's a homicide detective down here. Three bodies on the ground.

• 2:44:39Speaker 03

  With emergencies of biblical proportions. I will send swarms upon you and upon your people.

• 2:44:44Speaker 02

  That's one of the plagues from the Bible.

• 2:44:46Speaker 03

  And somebody's unleashing them on Nashville. Brian Phillippe joins 911 Nashville. All new Thursdays on ABC, next day on Hulu.

• 2:45:01Speaker 06

  Making plans with asthma can be awful. It always goes from "That sounds fun" to "In this weather, what if my asthma acts up?" I got tired of saying no, so my doctor suggested Dupixent. I'm Rachel, and I'm sponsored by Regeneron in Santa Fe to share my story with real patients like me.

• 2:45:15Speaker 01

  Dupixent, dupilumab, is an add-on prescription maintenance treatment for adults and children six years and up with moderate to severe eosinophilic or oral steroid-dependent asthma that's not controlled with current asthma medicines. Dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems.

• 2:45:26Speaker 06

  Dupixent helps people breathe better in as little as two weeks. And now, I don't even think twice about saying yes to plans more, rain or shine.

• 2:45:33Speaker 01

  Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help right away for face, mouth, tongue, or throat swelling, wheezing, or trouble breathing. Tell your doctor right away of signs of inflamed blood vessels like rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, brown or dark-colored urine, tingling or numbness in limbs. Tell your doctor of new or worsening skin symptoms, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor.

• 2:45:54Speaker 06

  Do more with less asthma. Ask your asthma specialist about Dupixent by name. Visit dupixent.com or call 1-844-DUPIXENT.

• 2:46:01Speaker 03

  Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds, up to $200,000, right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 2:46:32Speaker 00

  911, what's your emergency? Please help us, they're everywhere. We think they're murder hornets.

• 2:46:40Speaker 03

  911 Nashville returns.

• 2:46:42Speaker 02

  It's a homicide detective down here. Three bodies on the ground.

• 2:46:45Speaker 03

  With emergencies of biblical proportions. I will send swarms upon you and upon your people.

• 2:46:51Speaker 02

  That's one of the plagues from the Bible.

• 2:46:52Speaker 03

  And somebody's unleashing them on Nashville. Brian Phillippe joins 911 Nashville. All new Thursdays on ABC, next day on Hulu.

• 2:47:07Speaker 06

  Making plans with asthma can be awful. It always goes from "That sounds fun" to "In this weather, what if my asthma acts up?" I got tired of saying no, so my doctor suggested Dupixent. I'm Rachel, and I'm sponsored by Regeneron in Santa Fe to share my story with real patients like me.

• 2:47:21Speaker 01

  Dupixent, dupilumab, is an add-on prescription maintenance treatment for adults and children six years and up with moderate to severe eosinophilic or oral steroid-dependent asthma that's not controlled with current asthma medicines. Dupixent is not for sudden breathing problems.

• 2:47:33Speaker 06

  Dupixent helps people breathe better in as little as two weeks. And now, I don't even think twice about saying yes to plans more, rain or shine.

• 2:47:39Speaker 01

  Severe allergic reactions, including skin reactions, can occur. Get help right away for face, mouth, tongue, or throat swelling, wheezing, or trouble breathing. Tell your doctor right away of signs of inflamed blood vessels like rash, chest pain, worsening shortness of breath, brown or dark-colored urine, tingling or numbness in limbs. Tell your doctor of new or worsening skin symptoms, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. Don't change or stop other treatments without talking to your doctor.

• 2:48:00Speaker 06

  Do more with less asthma. Ask your asthma specialist about Dupixent by name. Visit dupixent.com or call 1-844-DUPIXENT.

• 2:48:07Speaker 00

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 help make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval. 911, what's your emergency?

• 2:48:41Speaker 00

  Please help us, they're everywhere. We think they're murder hornets.

• 2:48:45Speaker 03

  911 Nashville returns.

• 2:48:48Speaker 02

  It's a homicide detective down here. Three bodies on the ground.

• 2:48:51Speaker 03

  With emergencies of biblical proportions. I will send swarms upon you and upon your people.

• 2:48:56Speaker 02

  That's one of the plagues from the Bible.

• 2:48:58Speaker 03

  And somebody's unleashing them on Nashville. Brian Phillippe joins 911 Nashville. All new Thursdays on ABC, next day on Hulu. I felt a jackhammering pain in my jaw. Like someone sawing my bones.

• 2:49:12Speaker 00

  Barbed wire in my shoulder. Like a cattle prod in my hip. Like I put my foot in a blender. Pain is different for everyone. But where pain starts, Gernavix Suzagecogene begins. Gernavix is a non-opioid 50-milligram prescription tablet for adults with moderate to severe acute pain that reduces pain signals before they reach the brain. Before those signals tell the brain to feel Like I punched an angry beehive. And pain reduction can finally begin. Do not take Gernavix with SIP3A inhibitors. Avoid use with grapefruit or liver problems, as these may increase side effects. Tell your doctor about all your medicines, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.

• 2:49:49Speaker 03

  Gernavix may make certain medicines and birth control less effective. Side effects include itching, muscle spasms, rash, and elevated muscle enzymes. To learn more about Gernavix, ask your doctor. Call 1-833-589-PAIN or visit gernavix.com. In business, there's the easy way with Staples or the hard way. Hard means Jen, did you get the weekend specials menus from the printer by any chance? No, they said they'll be done on Monday. But they're weekend specials. Easy means Staples Same-Day Custom Printing, where same day means same day. Hard means

• 2:50:22Speaker 01

  Our new brochures are back from the print place.

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  So how do they look?

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  Well, our logo is brown.

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  But our logo isn't brown.

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  It is now.

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  Easy means custom prints, perfectly printed. Don't choose hard, choose Staples. That was easy. Shop Staples online, in-store, in the app.

• 2:50:37Speaker 00

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 help make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.