After he gets done with that New Georgia campaign, he gets a letter. So, this is back in World War II, sorry. Um, he gets a he gets two letters. They're backdated 14 months. One letter is from mom and dad. One's from his fiance.
0:12First letter, mom and dad are getting divorced.
0:16>> Second letter, fiance's leaving him.
0:18>> Oh, Jesus.
0:19>> Then they come around and they're like, "We're taking volunteers for a dangerous mission for guys that have extensive jungle warfare training." And he's like, "Don't have anything else to go home to?
0:27[ __ ] it. Why not?"
0:29So [snorts] they're, "All right, get on the boat." Okay. So he gets on the boat.
0:33They're taking him to all these different islands. He go He winds up in Australia. He's like, "Where the [ __ ] are we going?" [laughter] Next thing he knows, >> weirdest Japanese ever.
0:41>> Yeah. Remember, dude grew up in a log cabin in Michigan. Like, next thing he knows, he's in [ __ ] India.
0:47>> Like, what the [ __ ] is going on?
0:48>> Shot.
0:48>> Yeah. They start training for more jungle warfare in India. And then he figures out like, "Oh, here's the mission. We got 3,000 guys, including you. We're going to walk from India into Burma, into the jungles of Burma, >> and you're going to go fight the Chinese while they're in Burma.
1:07>> Full-on guerrilla warfare tactics. Your whole mission, >> prevent the Japanese from taking out China. China's basically cut off. We need to establish a foothold in Burma so we can establish the Burma road to get supplies to the Chinese so they can defend against the Japanese. Because if China falls, Japan and the Nazis are going to have a direct like highway between them and it's gonna be awful for the war effort. So, we're gonna send you 3,000 guys into the jungle. Just go [ __ ] up the Japanese as much as possible.
1:33>> 3,000 guys to stop the connection of the entire Eastern world.
1:36>> Now, the problem is they can't get supplies into China, >> right? So, how you going to get supplies to 3,000 guys that are trying to fight a war?
1:44>> Air drop them.
1:45>> That's all they do. They live in the jungle for seven months straight while they're getting airdrop supplies conducting guerrilla warfare operations against the Japanese.
1:53>> 3,000 guys against how many would you say?
1:56>> I don't whatever the [ __ ] the Empire of Japan had.
1:59>> And they were just in there wreaking havoc the entire [ __ ] time. And I get into like the different major battles they had. But >> uh that this unit's called Merryill's Marauders. Uh General Merrill was the guy in charge. And this would later go on to become the 75th Ranger Regiment.
2:14Mhm.
2:14>> So this is like the predecessor to the 75th Rangers. So these guys were functionally special forces at the time and he was selected because of his experience inside of the dangerous mission. They ask for volunteers for another more dangerous mission inside the dangerous mission. Nobody volunteers. So he gets volunttoled, you're the guy. He is the platoon leader for the INR platoon for the whole element. INR is uh intelligence and reconnaissance. [clears throat] >> So he's a scout platoon. So, he's like 30 m ahead of the rest of this element.
2:44>> In the jungle.
2:45>> In the jungle. Moving forward. He's the eyes and ears.
2:47>> Is that where they came up with long range?
2:49>> Uh, >> that's LAR. Long range reconnaissance patrol. That's Vietnam.
2:53>> Okay.
2:54>> Um, but yeah, this is basically where this all stems from and starts.
2:56>> Was he at the middle of that one, too?
2:58[laughter] >> What?
2:59>> Coming up with LARP in Vietnam.
3:01>> Oh, yeah.
3:01>> Is that where this is going? He was the guy that invented that there, too.
3:04>> Uh, he didn't he he didn't coin it, but I he pioneered the [ __ ] right? So, uh, while they're in he's [snorts] in Merryill's Marauders. [ __ ] lost my train of thought. My bad.
3:15>> So, he was going ahead 30 miles.
3:17>> Oh, so he's ahead like 30 mi. So, and there [snorts] this is such a historic military unit and they did so much [ __ ] while they were there. I had to like stop reading his books and doing research on him. And I had to go and read a book just on Merryill's Marauders. Okay. And Merryill's Marauders has a book. It's about This is about 3,000 dudes. This is all talking about here's this entire element moving through and here's what happened. Like they're not really talking about individuals and he's just a platoon leader.
3:48>> Mhm.
3:48>> Like he's not a big he's not important.
3:50He's not a general. He's not a colonel.
3:52He's not an officer. He's not in charge of [ __ ] He's in charge of 30 guys. In this book, he's named 14 times. And on multiple occasions, his platoon saved the entire element of 3,000 guys. The official historian for Merrill's Marauders equated one of his actions to the Battle of Thermopoly [laughter] and goes on to explain, "King Leonitis fought on his own soil. This guy fought on enemy soil in the jungle. King Leonitis lost all his men. This guy didn't lose a single guy."
4:22>> Do we have tape of this guy talking like being [snorts] interviewed?
4:25>> He doesn't even have a [ __ ] Wikipedia page. It's [ __ ] crazy.
4:29>> Did you hear about him from that book?
4:31Is that how you found out about him? I got an email saying, "You should look into this guy." And then I looked into it and every anytime I get an email like that, I just Google it. I was like, "There's no Wikipedia for this guy. What the fuck?" But the nickname, the fighting preacher, was so compelling that I just kept [ __ ] digging deeper.
4:46He wrote memoirs later in his life, but they'd been out of print forever. I finally tracked down a copy of his book and then like went back pulled all the all the stuff I could find from like National Archives, his award citations and everything. Like I crossverified everything and it's like everything he says he did in his book he [ __ ] did.
5:05>> And then he's in I'm just doing math in my head. He was 31 when he went to Korea in 1950 or 51. So by the time Vietnam's popping off, he's in his mid-40s. One of, if not the most common DMs I get on Instagram are many of you asking me what my favorite books are. Well, today's your lucky day because if you use the link in my description below to join my newsletter, I'm going to give you my top 10 book recommendations right now. Also, if you'd like to join my clipping community for a chance to make money producing content from the show, you can do so via the Discord link in my description below. And finally, you can
5:37join my Patreon for early uncensored releases of the full episodes via the Patreon link in my description below. As always, please take one second to hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. I really appreciate that. Also, the like button is a big help and you can join my newsletter via the link in the description below. So yeah, so then he finishes up with Merryill's Marauders. World War II ends. He goes, does the Korean stuff, gets pushed down the peninsula, overseas, >> does the Korean stuff, >> oversees the last bayonet charge. After that, he gets shipped home.
6:03>> From here, he decides he's just going to finish out his career in the military.
6:06He's already been in long enough.
6:08>> Yeah.
6:08>> So he goes, he basically helps rewrite the book on jungle warfare. He's working at the Pentagon for a while, and then he gets uh he's like, I I hate this. I hate paper pushing stuff. I want to go back.
6:18So he goes out to brag and he's like I think he's 44 at the time and he's like I'm sick of having to walk everywhere cuz Merryill's Marauders walked he's his platoon scouted over 1250 miles of jungle.
6:33>> My kind of guy.
6:34>> So he's like I'm I'm tired of walking everywhere. I want to jump out of planes. So at 44 he becomes a paratrooper and then they're like hey you want to become a Green Beret? He's like sure.
6:44[laughter] So then he becomes a [ __ ] Green Beret in his mid-40s. Oh my god.
6:49>> And then Vietnam pops off and he doesn't talk much about what he did in Vietnam, but he was sent over to Laos as a green beret to be a technical adviser to the le oceans on how to combat communism, which >> technical advice.
7:06>> Have you ever heard of MVOG?
7:08>> I have heard of that. Remind me though.
7:11>> M Visog was the Green Berets that were basically operating in Laos and Cambodia >> waging a shadow war against the Vietnamese the entire time. Like the most dangerous [ __ ] combat you could imagine. Super insane attrition rate.
7:26Like I'm assuming he was doing that, but I can't verify it. But he was over there for [clears throat] um he was over there for his first 12 months and then they're like, "Okay, you can go back home now or you can extend for 36 months and we'll fly your family over here and they can live here too." So he flies his family over. [laughter] >> He stays there for like the additional 36 months and it's like, you know, you're bringing your family to a war zone. Like what?
7:50>> Your videos.
7:51>> What do you do to make what do you do to make it up to your daughters and your wife when you bring them to, you know, Vietnam during a war? Like how do you make a kid happy? You buy him a pony, right? You get him a dog. They're in Southeast Asia, so he gets him a monkey.
8:03>> Oh my god.
8:04>> Spunky the monkey.
8:05>> Spunky the monkey.
8:06>> Spunky the monkey because that's what this story needed. And uh yeah, ends [clears throat] up uh finishes out finishes out his career in Vietnam.
8:13Brings his family and the monkey back home. Keeps the monkey forever. And then uh goes on to become I forget the title, but basically the campus religious leader for Texas A&M for 13 years >> after all that. Still the chaplain.
8:26>> Still the chaplain.
8:26>> Oh my god. This is him. Logan Weston, Medal of Honor, Silver Star, US military, man of God, and uh >> yeah, >> badass [ __ ] >> Can you pull up my Instagram? There's a picture of him with all of his medals.
8:40So, he got given the Distinguished Service Cross. He was supposed to get the Medal of Honor for repelling that attack of 700, but the commander that kept arguing back and forth with him basically made sure he didn't get the uh that that post. No, next one over.
8:54>> No, other one. Sorry. Right. There you go. That's all of his medals. The [ __ ] shadow box. It's as tall as he is. He's got over 200 a 200 awards and commendations.
9:05>> When did this guy pass away?
9:08>> Uh he lived to be like 86, I think.
9:10>> All right. So maybe like 20 years ago.
9:12Yeah. Yeah.
9:13>> That's an insane stack.
9:16>> What got you into telling these stories?
9:17They're so compelling. I mean, you do so many of them across military history. I started doing, you know, I mean, the whole YouTuber thing, like I didn't do it on purpose. It was an accident. I told you I made a I made a video about a a grocery store and I got 12 million views. And then I was like, "Oh, well, I guess I should keep doing it." So then I made like a couple more videos. And then, you know, I'm just looking for any ideas to like crack jokes and be funny.
9:38So, I made a video about how the Marine Corps is the craziest branch of the military. It's not even a branch of the military. It's a cult.
9:45>> And I, you know, did a little quick three minute video of all the little crazy [ __ ] they do. And uh people loved it and they were like, "Oh, now do army infantry, now do army mortars." So then I started doing these little three minute videos on jobs and then that kind of turned into like five minute videos on equipment. And then one day I just like covered one dude one dude's war memoirs and people loved it. I didn't think people would want like a 40-minute video, but it performed great. And then uh I just I kept doing it and I mean over time I mean obviously you look for more purpose for doing something other
10:17than I enjoy getting views and likes and clicks.
10:20And uh I think the purpose has just kind of turned into, you know, we don't celebrate war heroes anymore. Like we used to have war heroes in World War II. Like you'd earned the Medal of Honor, you'd come home, you'd go on a war bonds tour. People knew who you are. You were a celebrity.
10:35>> We celebrated Brave Madden for doing incredible things and being selfless.
10:40And >> we did it a little bit in Korea and then we kind of quit after Vietnam. I mean the fact that you know Balon World like >> you know what I mean but like there's no GWAT guys that have notoriety like that.
10:53There's nobody from Desert Storm.
10:55There's nobody in any of the wars that we like celebrate and hold up of like this is the example of what you should and could be. And you know I think it's extremely impactful especially for kids growing up having war heroes to look at and be like I want to be like that guy.
11:10>> [ __ ] yeah dude. No, you're making an amazing point. And I forget who I had in here recently, but this came up and I couldn't agree more. It's like I don't have any problem like I I think it's great when you know there's a great athlete or stuff like that and you look up to him or you really like Daniel D.
11:24Lewis as an actor and you look up to him that's awesome. But like in society I think like people who make the ultimate sacrifice and understand how the world works because they go over and see the things that we're lucky enough to not have to see here because there's guys like them doing that. I mean, you're telling me that story from a guy from three generations ago across two generations doing wars. I feel like I was [ __ ] there. Like, people should know what was his name? Logan Weston.
11:48>> Logan West.
11:49>> Yeah. People should know that name.
11:50Like, that's I I completely agree, man.
11:54You know, it would be a great thing to look up to in society.
11:56>> And everybody wonders why like, oh, none of these kids take pride in being an American. Half these kids think America's bad or evil or whatever. And it's like, yeah, cuz you've never heard any stories of anything. Like, >> you know what I mean? Like, America has so many heroes that have done so much incredible [ __ ] and nobody teaches you that.
12:14>> Yep.
12:15>> Yeah. Some of the some of the I saw you guys did this, too. I really admired that. But you guys had in a World War II veteran >> on on Unsubscribe. Really really cool.
12:22He just passed away, right?
12:25>> Well, we had a couple in a couple summers ago. One of them left like one of his Purple Heart like I guess momentos here. It was really cool. But, you know, you're sitting there and you're like, these guys are 100 years old and they were just thrown into a situation when they're 18, 19, 20 and they had to figure it the [ __ ] out. And I'm just I don't know. It's a strange feeling that you understand, but it's like the gratitude you feel that people were able to do that and pull that off, no questions asked, is pretty [ __ ] immense.
12:55>> Yeah. And I mean, I don't know, the cool part for me is like I mean, I get tons of emails, tons of comments, but like some of the emails I get are crazy to me. Like I've had I've had wives reach out to me and say that she started watching these videos with her husband and she her husband served 15 years in the Marine Corps and she's like I understand my husband better.
13:15>> Wow.
13:16>> After watching your videos.
13:17>> Wow.
13:18>> Or my favorite ones are >> hey my dad served in the military for a long time. He's passed away now but he never talked about it. He fought in Vietnam or Korea or World War II and The unit that you talked about that this guy was in, that was my dad's unit. I had no idea. He's I learned so much about my dad. I had no idea what a badass my dad was. Thank you. Like >> that's cool.
13:43>> It's It's cool being able to show somebody like, "Oh, you know, to you, dad was just the guy mowing the lawn in New Balances, but your dad was a [ __ ] badass at one point and they went their whole lives never knowing that." And now they do. That's really cool to me.
13:58>> That's really special. And I think, you know, you talk about how we stopped doing it as a society, like propping these guys up and everything, but like the US military to me never stopped having amazing people in it or amazing talent and being badasses and stuff like that.
14:11>> They quit caring because of money.
14:13>> What do you mean?
14:14>> I mean, the US government switched over to fractional reserve banking and they could just print more money to fund wars and they didn't need to anymore. The reason the US government was promoting these people was to bring them back to sell war bonds cuz they needed money to go fight the [ __ ] war. And as soon as they said, "Oh, what? We can just print more now?
14:34[ __ ] promoting these guys. Who cares? I don't need" But you know what I mean?
14:37But that also before fractional reserve banking and they could just have an infinite money printer. If you wanted to go fight a war, it had to be a reasonably popular [ __ ] endeavor because you had to sell war bonds to fund the [ __ ] right? Like how many people would have bought war bonds for Afghanistan?
14:54>> Guessing not a lot.
14:56>> Not a lot.
14:56>> I'm guess Iraq maybe. Mostly because of 9/11, but like >> Iraq they would have printed them. I mean they were doing freedom fries and all that [ __ ] >> Yeah.
15:04>> Like Iraq they would have sold a bunch but Afghanistan they wouldn't. So it like I think that [ __ ] up all the society. It has ton of downsides cuz you know at least you had the population backing the war.
15:15>> Yeah.
15:15>> And care. Now, we fought a lot of wars over the years that usually just through like over time and not really having a plan eventually like we have to leave and we lose or whatever. But what I always say with that is it's not it's not because of the guys who are there that aren't capable. It's because a bunch of people in suits in DC who now have infinite infinite money to [ __ ] vote and print print money for wars.
15:37It's like, you know, they make bad decisions and they play war games that they don't have the balls to go out there.
15:42>> They're not handle.
15:44>> They're not allowed to win. They're not allowed to.
15:46>> The Marine Corps could steamroll any country in the Middle East in [ __ ] a week if they wanted to. Like I I had a I had an apprentice that had actually served 20 years in the army and he came in, got out of the military. He was my apprentice for a while. Great guy. And he would tell me stories about how like he was remembers being in a Humvee on a 50 cal and they start taking enemy fire.
16:10He's got a [ __ ] 50 cal and somebody with an AK-47's shooting at him from up on the hill. What do you think he did?
16:15>> Had to radio in to ask permission to fire back.
16:18>> No, he had to tell somebody in the Humvey, "Hand me my M4 because he wasn't allowed to return fire with the 50 cal because it wasn't fair. [ __ ] that [ __ ] Blow the [ __ ] hill up. Who [ __ ] cares?"
16:32>> Yeah, >> I didn't do that. [laughter] >> But um >> shoe first. Apologize later. Um, >> this is also why you don't know about Norman Schwarzoff, cuz they probably [ __ ] hated him cuz he won too quick.
16:44>> Yeah, that's that's a he won too quick.
16:47>> Oh, the guy who did the first school for it. Yeah. Like I my deployments were in this weird space. Um, Iraq as it was coming to an end as they were getting ready to shut down bases was much more urban than everything else. And Afghanistan when I was there was literally the wild west. Um, not long after I left, they started having, you know, drones in the air, these things called G-Boss towers that could see you and they give their interpretations of interactions and things like that. Like we had a bigger gap and like it I also want to say like I actually found the exact number of guys that we lost on my deployment to
17:26Maria and it was 10 guys that we lost.
17:28Um, and I I I don't I don't only reason I don't say their names is because it's not my place. I don't know who all will hear this. I don't know where this will be where they'll be when this finds them. And I don't want to say anything that could, >> you know, cause any type of thing. But, you know, it's just I just took a moment to reflect on it. Um, you know, we we lost a lot of guys and because of that, so many other people had to step up too and that included my friend Wendell Archer and Wilson, other guys who um were put in these situations you can't imagine.
18:01And I constantly think about it now because my children at the age to where you know I was and uh I've thought for a long time like you know did we win? What did it look like? Who did I fight for?
18:14>> I could have solved Afghanistan in 5 minutes. That's what I always say.
18:17>> How would you have solved it?
18:18>> I would have um so there's only one place in the world where you can actually uh grow and sell pharmaceutical grade pop uh poppy and that is um New Zealand. The other place is Afghanistan.
18:30It's part of the golden triangle, right?
18:31>> So, what I would have done is I would have paid uh pennies on the dollar more than the Taliban was to basically cut off their funding resource, then take that over and then harvest that and provide a legitimate economy for the people because they weren't doing it because they wanted to. They were doing it because the threat of death and then that would have forced the Taliban out, cut all their funding operations done.
18:50>> Built the economy.
18:51>> Built the economy. Yeah. Like it's not that complicated. Now, does that get, you know, to people at home thinking about this like, well, Poppy can be turned into heroin and a whole lot of [ __ ] Can that get bastardized in a way that it turns into like ground zero for a black market? Like it did.
19:05>> That's what it is now and that's what it was. But like you could also wean them off of that. Like if the long-term goal is to not have that, >> obviously you can change that. But if you're paying pennies on the dollar more than a war for 20 years, like I remember like we were doing a buyback program and we would like go up to them. This is this is like literally what I was ordered to do. They're like go up and offer them basically 75 cents on the dollar. And I was like, I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that.
19:31>> I have a question. What is winning then?
19:34>> I never [clears throat] Everybody says America's never hasn't won a war since World War II or whatever, blah blah blah. Like what is W like I don't What was the winning in World War II?
19:44What do you mean?
19:45>> Like what what did that what did that look like? I mean, there's two arguments. One, we showed up in their country with guns and they couldn't do [ __ ] >> Two, we forced their government to sign a treaty.
19:57>> Yeah.
19:57>> Okay. Well, >> that's >> if the government doesn't [ __ ] exist anymore because we overthrew it entirely or it just never had one, >> what other options are there for winning other than we showed up, walked around your countries with guns, and did whatever the [ __ ] we wanted the entire time we were there until we decided to leave, [sighs] >> right? I think it's a matter of what happens when either we do leave or the shooting stops. Right? So in Afghanistan to look at the a modern day example, it's like >> there's a badly executed pull out obviously not the fault of the guys there at all >> and we left all the weapons behind. The
20:33guys that were in charge 20 years ago became in charge again and it's and there are people that felt like wow it was just time is a flat circle. Whereas when you finished World War II, you took out the Japanese emperor, you took out the Nazi command, you made them start a new government, you have a new problem with an old ally that now you have a cold war with afterwards. But like effectively the moment of like the world's fastest growing GDP trying to start a forefront war and take over the world all at once with whatever his [ __ ] ideas were, that was stopped. I would describe that as a win >> for sure. But then the question is like,
21:08so the hinging point is like, can we teach this group of people to rebuild a society that can be productive again? What do you do when you can't?
21:18>> That's hard.
21:20>> We shouldn't have ever left Afghanistan.
21:22>> That's it.
21:23>> Yeah, I was going to I was going to ask you what >> hard stop. We should have never left. Um there's a precedent. We didn't leave Germany. We're still there, right?
21:30>> We didn't leave a bunch of countries around it. Vietnam, Korea, we're still there. Um Japan, we still have a marine base there. Um both of them have become world superpowers. Japan and Germany alone in technology, innovation, society. Um because we were there to stop a power vacuum to be being created. We should have kept a base in the north. Well, one in Kandahar and then one up in the north. I think around Bram probably would have been a good spot off top of my head. I I don't really know that area that well, but I mean, Tyler Vargas Andrews, who was on Shawn Ryan, who's a very good friend of
22:05of ours, um, >> amazing, >> amazing, tough as [ __ ] One of the best people out there.
22:10>> Um, when you hear the way he was hemmed up.
22:12>> Yep.
22:14>> And the way I wasn't, like they had ID, they had intelligence, they knew what was going to happen, and they're like, "No, no, no, no, it's not that." And like literally as he I'm gonna steal this from him because I think about it all the time. He said it was like if someone filled this room with sand. That was what it was like. The amount of people that were trying to get through to leave.
22:37It's like it was unstoppable. And you see that and you see the impact that it's had on that part of the world where things are, you know, it might look good for the influencers they're paying to fly out there, but it's not a good place to go. You know, I don't care how much the Taliban's cutting you a check for to go roll a blading down the one road they have. It's not a place you want to be.
22:58Um, but we have created another power vacuum in a very dangerous part of the world again. Yeah, it's an interesting argument with the bases and stuff and I could I could see a good argument there.
23:09But when it did when they did decide to basically like get out and now you're postc career veteran watching this who was there and fought battles and lost friends and lost friends after >> to suicide as well.
23:23>> Double >> over over double um since since I left the service 2011. The first suicide was in November of 2011.
23:31>> Wow.
23:31>> And again I don't want to not going to name names. It's not my place. Um >> that and it just continues to happen since then. um >> what's going through your mind when you watch him pull out in August 2021?
23:44>> I was in a much better place uh personally um you know because of uh a lot of things I had done. I had started you know when I got out in 2011 I realized no one was coming to help us. And so I started working with nonprofits. I started trying to basically do what I do now but I wasn't making a living doing it. I was just I was the only guy who knew how to do the GI bill. I was the only guy I knew about benefits, nonprofits that'll send you to ride horses if you want or hyperbaric oxygen therapy or you can put magnets on your head, whatever. I was like doing all of it. And I worked with a nonprofit for
24:18about six months and I started like basically auditing and using anything that I could to make my life better. Um, and I wasn't like this will make me 100% better, but what if I get like 15 to 20%. You know what I mean? like what if I can start chunking together patchwork um a path towards healing and you know ultimately it's because of my wife and my community and the people I was surrounded by that put me in a place to where I was um able to not have the impact uh really be detrimental to me and about a month later I went to Mexico and and did psychedelics I believe it was that year or maybe it was a year I can't remember
24:56it's either 21 or 22 when I did >> and what did you do specifically >> the thing that everyone talks about now. I did I gain and DMT, but back when you had to lie about it and not tell people. We had to get medical exemptions on our passports, all these different things through an organization called Vets. Um, >> which was a life-changing thing for me >> and it to obviously like it helped you tremendously.
25:19>> Yeah. No, it it's it's one of the single greatest things I've ever done.
25:22>> Was it immediate or was it a gradual improvement afterwards? Immediate.
25:26>> Immediately.
25:27>> Why do you think it was so immediate for you?
25:30I mean, so Ibeane is um it's outlawed in America. It's because it's it has been shown to have 100% uh effectiveness in opioid cessation. Um it attacks all the addiction centers of the brain.
25:41>> Um >> can't have that.
25:42>> Can't have that. Um uh and it basically wipes you clean. Um and it is not a fun experience. There's a documentary about it on Netflix called In Waves and War.
25:52It's the same organization I went through. Um basically it shows you all the good, bad, and all the things you need to see. M >> and for like 8 to 10 hours you're swimming in deep water with weights on and you're blindfolded and I don't want to go too much into it just cuz it's very it takes a long time but like for me what I kept seeing was a photo of my wife and two daughters and it was like fuzzy and unclear and as it got closer to me like it would become more clear and as it got closer these moments of trauma throughout my life would kind of appear like on camera roll of your phone. I would spend time with it and go
26:28back down in the medicine and come back up and purge. [snorts] Um, they say it's a physical manifestation of trauma that you're purging. And I hadn't eaten in 12 hours. And I don't know what came out of me, but something came out.
26:40>> And you wake up the next day, you're like trying to stand up and can't cuz like your brain's like literally brand new. And then we took a day and then we did DMT, five MO DMT the next day.
26:53What was that like?
26:56>> They they call it the God molecule for a reason. Um it takes you to the eternal.
27:01Whatever people want to call it, that's that's where you go. And um you know, it helped me to put all the like I like gave me the pieces for the puzzle and DMT put them in place.
27:15>> And um that's crazy. That's that's probably the craziest thing you've ever done. Was it the kind of thing where when [snorts] you're forced to I was just thinking this when you were describing the IV game part where you're forced to kind of see these traumas and live in them >> during that period. Is it like it's not just facing them but then also like having you get like some self forgiveness out of it like it's it's in the past or >> Yeah. I mean I mean it was a combination of like my life growing up through having you know an alcoholic father who's abusive and all the different things that come with that and um and
27:46then like you know all the stuff that made me good as a marine made me bad as a person. my ability to carry around trauma and compartmentalize it, >> put it away in the rucks sack, keep moving.
27:59>> Well, eventually it gets heavy and I had been carrying stuff for too long and I'd not put it where it belonged or spent time with it and understood it or losing my friends or [clears throat] what could I have done to be better? Could I have called this person, texted this person?
28:14How did how did I not know, you know, anything stuff like that. And so, you know, when I did that s the ceremonies, it was just it was unlike anything else.
28:27I mean, it's why I'm excited that the VA's working with HHS to fast roll it. I mean, we just talked to the secretary of VA about it. They're literally laying out a plan.
28:37>> Um, >> it's some something I think really needs to happen.
28:40>> What he said about IB was weird to hear.
28:43>> What was that? He had like uh he was kind of explaining it like he was he was also a chaplain forever. So he was like very much like not bought into the idea but he was talking to like psychologists and the psychologists were telling him like >> I thought it was [ __ ] at first like I've done research they're like this is legit. Yeah. Yeah.
29:01>> And he had given, you know, this anecdotal example about how some people needed to actually have IB done multiple times because they had so many different issues that they had to work through that they didn't even know were like part of the problem. So like one dude would go in and you know, hypothetically speaking, it wasn't just something that happened in his military service, but it was actually something that like happened in his childhood. And that first session only got him through whatever the issues were in his childhood. and then he had to do another session to get through the stuff after
29:33that and then >> it fixed him. So that was interesting to hear.
29:38>> It's it's it's interesting to hear him take like a very clinical approach to it in a way where he's like we can't just throw veterans to the wolves of this. The reality of it is not everyone needs that much. Um that's kind of like the highest level.
29:55It's it's bleach, right?
29:59Um, and there's other there's other psychedelics that have been shown to be just as effective. MDMA, ketamine, um, psilocybin, things like that. That's what you're supposed to do. I skip those steps. I don't recommend what I >> shout out to Jared Taylor from Black Rifle Call. He called me like the end of September. I was like, "What are you doing?" I was like, "I'm mowing my yard." I was literally mowing my yard.
30:20And he's like, he's I'll never forget this. He goes, "Do you have a passport?"
30:23Like a grown man. [laughter] And I was like, "Yeah, I have a passport." And he goes, "All right, you're going to go to Mexico in a month." And I was like, "How do I take off work?" And he goes, "You'll be fine." [laughter] Cuz I was working with him at the time. He's like, "You'll be okay." He's like, "I own the company." I was like, "Yeah, that was a dumb question. I wish I hadn't said that [laughter] out loud." Um, but he sent me and a bunch of guys down and I was there with some dudes who done uh psychedelics before. Derek Carver is a good friend of ours. World champion powerlifter. Has one leg. He looks like the thumb things
30:53from Spy Kids. Oh.
30:54>> Minus a digit. So he's just a big fist and um we took the medicine. It's weighed. You you're hooked up to an EKG.
31:03You have a they drug test. You do all these things. You're under care of a doctor and everything. I don't know if we got to look at him and he takes off his leg and he goes, "Won't be needing this." And I was like, "Oh [ __ ] this is about to be gnarly."
31:16>> And it just changed everything. It just changed everything. Um, and so instead of, you know, I'm I don't want to seem like I'm stumping or like grifting or shilling, whatever for administration.
31:29>> Um, >> I don't I don't like red or blue. I do like Doug Collins a lot because I've seen them take input from the veteran community and be like, "You're right. We were wrong." Or like, "Yeah, we should do that." I've never seen a VA administration do anything like that prior.
31:46>> Like he's like, "Yeah, you're right. We should look into this. I'm partnering with Health and Human Services to figure out how to do this. The end.
31:53>> That's great.
31:54>> As opposed to like, well, we'll see.
31:56Because most people most people take that job as like whatever. It's like a career. Thank you.
32:02You served. Here you go. Run this thing.
32:04>> You didn't quite make it to president.
32:06>> Yeah. You didn't quite make it.
32:08>> You're in the line of succession. You know, a bunch of people got to go, but you're still up there. But, um, you know, he's a pastor. He just retired uh from the uh from the military and like he just wants to help. Like he he went from having a really good life in North Georgia to living in a condo in DC. Not exactly a good trade.
32:27>> Also [snorts] didn't realize he was in the line of succession.
32:30>> Mhm.
32:31>> Kind of threw me off trying to film a podcast for the first time with multiple Secret Service guys staring at me, >> not laughing at any of my jokes even though they landed with everyone else in the room.
32:42>> Yeah. We're getting to the point I was trying to make these guys laugh stonefaced the entire time. Couldn't be done.
32:47>> Secret service agents.
32:48>> Yeah. Nice and serious.
32:49>> Couldn't be done.
32:50>> No. There was It was funny that apparently we were all inside, but the street was blocked off and everything.
32:55Like one of our friends was like, >> "I'm just going to see my friends."
32:58>> Wait, what? The street was blocked off.
33:00>> Yeah. Uh Trout when he came in, he's he was like there was just a dozen cars apparently a half dozen cars outside. So like >> Well, they're not [ __ ] around, I guess, since 2024.
33:10>> I mean, they're Yeah. No, they're they're serious and like protect this man at all costs, but like it's just um I I I don't know, man. It's, you know, PTSD. People have a lot of meanings for it. They call it PTS, PTSD, whatever you want to call it, I don't care.
33:27>> Um I think, uh when you come to the realization that the memory of who you were before the trauma is better than the reality that you are, it's almost impossible not to hate yourself. M >> cuz you can remember everything before the thing that happened. Whatever it is, a car wreck or you you know something traumatic happens, you lose someone close to you, you go to war, whatever it is, doesn't matter. And that's that's where that thing comes up. [snorts] And you know, for me, I was just carrying it for such a long time and I was kind of patchworking myself together and trying to help people. And that all led me to
34:07the veteran with the sign stuff because I was like, what if I open source this [ __ ] What if what if I call myself war fighter and like I refer to myself in the third person? What if I wear the same thing every day? What if how would he [snorts] look? Oh, he would wear this shirt. He would write stuff on cardboard because that's what veterans do. He's a homeless veteran. Okay. What what if I partner with companies that will help this? What if I get the word out? What if I talk about how June is me men's mental health month? What if I talk about, you know, this thing or this event, whatever is happening? And if I
34:38just keep doing this, maybe maybe people will find out about stuff because everyone's always asking me, "Zack, how do you do this veteran thing? How do I get my benefits? How do I get counseling?" Whatever. Why don't I just lean into that, >> right?
34:50>> And that's literally what I did. Like there's >> that was what, like seven, eight years ago you started >> 2020, March, the first the first one I ever made. Um, it was like the last before the the two weeks, you know, the the stopped the curve.
35:03>> Yeah, we stopped the curve.
35:04>> It was two weeks in Iowa for real.
35:06>> Yeah.
35:07>> So, I hear >> Yeah. Tennessee. We had It was a long two weeks. [laughter] >> No, it wasn't. Um, so, uh, it was like the week before the young lady was cutting my hair at the time. We were trying to like spend money in the local economy. [snorts] I went to her and I was talking to her about this idea and she was like, "That's a good idea." And I was like, "Will you take my photo?"
35:26And she's like, "Yeah, sure." And [laughter] so I went out went outside the barber shop. She took my photo and it said, "Drink water, take motin, and change your socks." And the caption said, "Cov remedy." Unironically, it would have worked.
35:39>> It would have worked. You were early.
35:41>> Yeah, I was a little early. Um, but that's the most common thing people say to you in the military if you're hurt.
35:46Drink water, take motin, change your socks. Right.
35:48>> And so I did that and then I just kept making >> versions of that. And I was talking about Tiger Kings, you know, stuff that was like culturally relevant, >> making like inside jokes about the military and, you know, for like the first 90 days, some people got it, some didn't. My wife was like, "Stop trying to make, you know, your friends laugh."
36:07Like 10 people laugh.
36:08>> You're embarrassing me.
36:09>> You're embarrassing me. There there's always the embarrassing curve, right?
36:11There's the They'll say it now like, "I always believed in him." But there's there's a few text messages you go back.
36:17>> I don't mind being embarrassed.
36:19>> I don't mind being embarrassed in a new car. [laughter] But um I remember there was this guy who got relieved. His name is Captain Croer.
36:29[snorts] He was actually here on the in New York. He had a vessel that responded uh when they had the the what are they called? The the medical ships. I can't remember what they're called, but there was a bunch of them.
36:40>> I know what you're talking about. Yeah.
36:41>> They were stationed right outside here.
36:43And he was trying to get help from the Navy. And they [snorts] were actively suppressing his request for assistance.
36:48He's like, "I've got a ship full of six sailors. we're trying to help with all these, you know, medical ships. I need help. And the Navyy's like, "No, you don't." He's like, "No, no. I I really need help." Blah, blah, blah. They ignored every single time. He eventually released it, I believe, to CBS.
37:03He then got relieved of his command. And as he's leaving the ship, which is the equivalent of losing a base, which is a big [ __ ] deal. Um, there's going Captain Croer and the whole deck is shaking >> like as he's walking off. And I have this one I saw this one video. It was on like bar stool sports and all this stuff. They're like Captain Croer and like I'm getting chills even think about it. It's a great [ __ ] video. And I saw that and I was like I don't really do anything political. That's not really political. That's just a good leader.
37:34And I looked at Christy. I was like, "Hey, I have an idea." And I like wrote it down real quick. Got her to take my photo. And at that time I had turned off all notifications on everything and I was like, "I'll just, you know, I have a ton of stuff to do. I'll give this a day." And um I waited 24 hours. I got back on my phone and I refreshed it. And I didn't know this until that moment, but Instagram will only cap out your notifications at 100.
38:00I refreshed it and it was 100 100. And I was like, [clears throat] "Whoa, that's crazy."
38:05>> I [snorts] hit it again.
38:06>> Add some zero.
38:07>> Yeah. 100 100. And I did it again. And every time I did it, it kept doing that.
38:11And then I went to [clears throat] my followers. I was like, "Oh no, we might have a problem here. Comments are through the roof. things are going up and then I was just like, "Okay, what do I do with this?" And I just keep moving forward.
38:24>> Just ran with it.
38:25>> I just ran with it. And then, you know, eventually you like, you know, you like meet somebody, you DM them, and you're like, "Hey, you do this thing, I do this thing." Because you don't That's That's honestly the hardest part is finding people that do the thing you do.
38:39>> Is that how you guys met DMs?
38:42>> Yeah, that's cool. just it's it's it's literally like how much do you charge someone for an ad or like what's a company you should work with or is this even a company like there's like there's no one who's like oh I know this blah blah blah and so I'd met um Donut Operator and Brandon and then they told me about the the podcast they had and it was coming up and they're like oh there's a fat electrician and his videos are being sent to me on the regular like all the time the marine videos they're like you should talk to this guy I was like who is this who is this guy you know it was just and then
39:15>> this YouTuber now >> this this YouTuber no it was it's just a thing where like you become aware of certain people in your space and stuff because >> you know you are the company you keep you know and um we just all started hanging out and then like slowly but surely like I just started to realize like you know all my friends are kind of like uh you know the verses are different but the chorus is the same you know what I mean?
39:38>> Yes. And like we just started hanging out like one by one by one and I had a podcast where I was interviewing people on my page called After action and me and Nick had hung out several times. We done a bunch of you know unsub adventures, different things and he came in town and we just started talking for like four some odd hours. I I don't know. We ordered tacos like halfway through >> good tacos get some people going.
40:03>> Yeah. It was me, him, and Blas who's also part of Underwhelming.
40:07And then he's like, "That's probably the best one we've ever done." It was just It was just good. Like we just really hung out and then like we both thought about it and then it's like, "Do you want to keep doing this?" And he's like, "Yeah." And he's like, "Well, let's start a podcast." And he's like, "What do you want to name it?" And I was at his house and I was just like [snorts] >> underwhelming. [laughter] I was like, >> "So you're taking on another pro." I mean, that's amazing.
40:30>> Oh, he's he's fine. He He takes on 20 to 40 projects.
40:33>> A lot of projects.
40:34>> Yeah. Yeah. Good [clears throat] for you, man.
40:35>> And then we just, you know, we just kept going. It's it's fun, >> you know. It's like old dad, new dad or newer dad. Um it's just kind of like us navigating life and trying to figure things out and it's just it's just fun.
40:49>> Well, I think it's two things. The thing a obviously it's you know you scratching the edge of like things that you're familiar with the worlds you know and there's a lot of other people from those worlds who are looking for you know something they can relate to but then b like you guys are like so representative of like the every man out there. You think and say the things that people think and say and they're like ah that guy speaks for me. That's really like that's the vibe I always got from like unsubscribe watching that from afar.
41:15Like it's like you said, it's guys hanging out and everything, but there's like an element of just like this is just like me and my boys hanging out too. It's really [ __ ] cool.
41:24>> For for military people, I always say unsubscribes like the smoke pit.
41:28>> The smoke pit, >> right? Like it's where everyone gets around, rips a butt, and is like the [ __ ] was that about? You know, [laughter] but you know, cuz it's just it's just boys hanging out and you know, they all have like Elaine, Nick's history, Brandon's guns, Cody's cops, right?
41:42Eli's [clears throat] streaming everything. And it's so it's just like I don't know. And then it's kind of like Wish version Avengers when you look at it cuz like [laughter] they like made this universe and somehow like I wound up a part of it like you know like the Hawkeye.
41:58>> The Hawkeye.
41:59>> You're famous for the donkey story.
42:00>> I am I am famous for Yeah. What's the donkey story?
42:02>> I can tell it. Yeah. Let's tell it real quick. It's not quick though.
42:06>> Well, let's go then. We got time.
42:08>> All right.
42:09>> All right. So, first off, the first time I told this story, I've been talking [ __ ] to Nick for like a year. We're at Shot Show one year and Nick's like, "When are you on Come on." This is my Nick voice. When you come on, unsubscribed. I'm like, "I've got the single best story. I'm only going to tell it to you and Joe Rogan." And you're like, "Okay." And he's [laughter] kind of he's so And he's like, "Don't tell me now." And like this is also like at 2:00 in the morning in the Venetian like we're >> Oh, hammer.
42:35>> It was shot show. So, we're like, I got to sorry I'm I don't want to drool, but like we're we're exhausted. There's people everywhere. It's sweaty. It's a whole thing. All right. So, my first appointment town called Garmms, right?
42:47And uh we had inserted and we were trying to establish like an area of operations. We're moving through like buildings and the buildings over there are like courtyard style.
42:56>> So, like your kitchen is an individual building and your bedroom is individual building and so forth and so on. So, like we finally found like one good spot. We're set up and I'm doing Post and like for anyone who doesn't know Post is you're just looking out a hole rethinking your life being like, "Holy [ __ ] I really wanted to be funny in high school." Like, "What am [laughter] I doing here?"
43:17>> Like you're just sitting there and we're all all the Marines are in this one building cuz the rest of them are like either blown up or we had blown them up or they had blown them up and so we only had like one good structure. So, there's like 30 guys in there like laying on top of each other trying to keep warm.
43:31I'm looking out a hole. My friend Zachary Group is looking out another hole. We're both on 240s down this main thoroughfare like right in front of us.
43:38Crossover fields of fire, intersecting fields of fire. We're ready. Machine [snorts] guns. And like we're saying like dumb [ __ ] You're just trying to stay awake. You ever you hit that spot where you're like, >> "Yeah, yeah, I know what you're talking about."
43:49>> You're like, "Yeah, dude. When I get and it it sounds like old timey, like when I get back to the world, you know, things will be different. I'll see my gal."
43:55Like you're just like It's not like that, dude. When I get back, I'm going to get so drunk. I can't wait. I'm going to eat like fried chicken or whatever.
44:01You're saying like I'm going to start a business. I'm going to do this. He's saying stuff and you know, we had told the people not to move around at night.
44:10We're trying to stop movement of the Taliban. All these different things. And um we're trying to stop them from basically creating bombs and like don't do it. Don't do it. We even put pamphlets out. Like I said, nobody knows how to read so we just covered the area with [laughter] paper. We just played it on the radio. We did everything we could. And so we're standing there. It's late. It's really late. It's not that far. Um we're very close to the road.
44:34It's like from here to a little bit further than that wall. And uh we see these two military age males and a donkey starting to walk down the road.
44:43And I call up to the post. I'm like, "Hey CG, COG is post one. Roger. Uh we got two military males moving from east west and move down the road. What do you want to do? I'm on my way over." And he like comes over from the other building.
44:57He's like looking out the hole and he looks at the hole and he goes, "Listen, they do anything. They do anything at all. You [ __ ] smoke them." I was like, "Roger that." And I hit the 240.
45:06I'm like, "I'm about to go to college for free, [laughter] right?" And I'm there. I'm there. We don't even need NVGs. It's there's there's no noise or light pollution there. If there >> don't have NVGs.
45:18>> We also don't have NVGs, right? It's it's a budgetary issue.
45:21>> Equipment makes you weak.
45:22[clears throat] >> Chessy Puller said that. Equipment makes you weak. Move forward. Right.
45:27>> Um, so I'm on the 240, he's on the 240, and the COG corporal the guard's like, "Uh, what's what's going on?" I'm like, "Nothing, nothing." And they get like right center. So like me and group like we're locked on. [laughter] We're like ready cuz what comment when they plant a bomb, this is very well known. This doesn't release anything. The way it works is like they it's not a oneperson job.
45:50>> You basically get paid for what you're doing. There's one guy who gets paid to dig the hole. Another guy comes by. He puts the item in the hole. The third guy gets paid to cover it up >> basically. So they don't want to lose like one go they have like oh we still have the holes out there. We still have the bombs out there. Cover them up. So like we thought they would come by just scoop some stuff or just drop some stuff off whatever.
46:09We're waiting and they just stop and then like we're looking at him and he's like what's going on? I was like oh I don't know.
46:15They're just kind of standing here.
46:17They're looking around and then one guy goes to the front and then one guy goes to the back and the one guy goes to the front takes the donkey and he puts it like this like he is headlock >> and like a guillotine and he locks it up and and then the other guy takes his shirt and puts it in his mouth and he starts [ __ ] this donkey.
46:37>> I swear to God I swear to God this is verifiable by every person I was with. I swear to you I swear to you this happens. And I and I go, "Oh my god."
46:46And group goes, "Holy shit." And then people start waking up. They're like, "What's going on?" I'm like, "Cog, COG."
46:51He's like, "What?" And I go, "You got to get over here right now." I don't say it over the radio because this stuff's documented. And he like looks through their hole. He's like, "Oh my god, he's [ __ ] that donkey." [laughter] By this point, every Marine in the room starts waking up like, "What the [ __ ] What the [ __ ] going on?" [laughter] And so they start looking out of the glory hole, right? The first glory hole.
47:10And he's like, "Oh, OH MY GOD." SO ALL OF THEM ARE LIKE THEY'RE MOVING AROUND.
47:14I remember guys are moving around machine gun barrels be like, "Holy [ __ ] [laughter] Holy shit." Eventually called the lieutenant like, "Sir, sir, wake up.
47:22Wake up. Wake up." He's like, "What's going on?" I was like, "They're [ __ ] donkey.
47:24>> They're [ __ ] a donkey, sir." He's like, "No, they're not." And he's like, "Oh my god, they're [ __ ] a donkey."
47:28This is a well educated man, too.
47:30[ __ ] [laughter] a donkey, right? And uh I was like, "Sir, let's kill him."
47:35And he's like, "You can't kill him.
47:36There'll be blood and [ __ ] everywhere."
47:37[laughter] This guy [ __ ] his donkey for like a long time. Arguably way too long to be [ __ ] a donkey, right? Cuz you feel like if you're going to [ __ ] a donkey, you're in and out. No, this dude, he was like slapping on the ass and his friend's holding it. And then after finally it just it stops. It just stops.
47:56And CJ's like, "What's going on?" I was like, >> I stopped. He's like, "All right, let me know if anything else happens." And then I was like, "Rogger that." And I look up. Then they [ __ ] swapped. Oh [laughter] my god.
48:09>> So, and that was the moment that I knew we're not going to be able to teach these guys democracy. [laughter] >> So, so yeah. Um, so I told this story on Unsung. It's one of their most popular episodes [laughter] to date. And so I tell this story on stage in Nashville and the crowd just explodes. And [sighs and gasps] the the [laughter] it was it was the first time Unsub also ever did two shows back to back. So we do that and then Nick looks at me. He's half in the bag.
48:40He goes, >> "You got to tell it again.
48:43>> We're going to act out the donkey story next time." It was his idea. And I was like, "What?
48:47>> Who plays the donkey?"
48:48>> Our friend Rich. [laughter] >> He hates it.
48:52>> He hates it. But Rich was also half in the bag and he's like, >> "Who's [ __ ] the donkey?"
48:56>> Both of us. [laughter] And he's like, "I'll be the donkey." And so now it's an integral part of the show where it's like a leading up point [snorts] because where Nick tells the story and then Nick leads into it and he's like, "You guys want to hear a donkey [laughter] story?"
49:09So I travel the country telling the story about two guys [ __ ] a donkey and I [laughter] >> Your sweet wife loves nothing more than hearing 2,000 people [laughter] scream and lose their [ __ ] minds >> when her husband has to go out there and tell a story about two dudes [ __ ] a donkey.
49:28>> Yeah.
49:30It's all right. Puts up with a lot.
49:31It'll be okay. It >> pays the bills.
49:34>> It pay It does pay It does pay the bills. It's just >> God. That's incredible.
49:37>> No. And she's It was funny cuz like for a while she was like searching my friends and being like, "Maybe one of them will tell me Zach's lying." And like they've all come to the house been like, "No, it happened. It was super [ __ ] gross."
49:48>> She keeps hoping. It's the only time my wife has been like, "I hope my husband's stealing Valor. [laughter] >> Maybe this is all made up and maybe it's all a dream." It's not made up. It's not a dream. Sir, get over here. Where are they? I can't say.
50:01>> Sir, you know. Well, but yeah, it's >> Yeah, I mean, there's other stories.
50:05They're They're not like that.
50:06>> That's next level. I never heard anything like that before.
50:10>> No, it's Yeah. So, that's when people are like, "Wow, you know, what are the people like over there?" And I'm like, "I got a story."
50:15>> [ __ ] donkeys.
50:16>> I got a story for you.
50:17>> We heard about some other [ __ ] over there. It's not great either. That's been well documented on this podcast, but >> yeah, it's it's very well documented.
50:22The guy who made a documentary about my um [snorts] deployment uh to Mars, his name is Ben Anderson. He used to work at Vice News. I don't know if he still does. Um but he also made a documentary called This is What Winnings Look Like.
50:35The trailer is probably the worst thing I've ever seen. I don't even want to say it, but basically talks about the head Afghan police chief at the time says, [sighs] I'm gonna be vulgar, but it just is what he says. He says, This is the head of all Afghan police.
50:57This is the very intro to the documentary.
51:00Like um they're uh rationalization and normalization of the the behavior they do is beyond anything that I could even really understand. Um but yeah, >> I don't know how you get that out of society because of how deeprooted it is.
51:17And like I said, >> they also don't like homosexuality. They hate gay people. That is a I've they've tortured, killed.
51:25>> All goes back to I had to go through this. You have to now too.
51:29>> Yeah.
51:31>> Yes.
51:31>> But I think you I mean there has to be like all abuse a strong power dynamic and getting off on that power dynamic there beyond just like I went through this so you will too. And you know, it's not one or two guys who were in Afghanistan coming in here and telling me this. It's everybody.
51:51>> Dude, they would try the ANA would try and like be like, "Hey, we got to go talk to people." Be like, "You're not [ __ ] talking to anybody. You're stay over here. Stay right here." You know, >> they're like, "Oh, no, no, we need to talk to No, you don't. They don't." I mean, there's there's tons of stories um you know, of it happening. Uh I mean, >> there was a Army E6 that got like >> Oh, yeah.
52:09>> removed. There was a It was a like famous court case. This is years ago, but there was an Army E6 that beat the [ __ ] out of his INA like equivalent commander >> and he got fired and I believe he got I believe he got separated from the military because the official stance of the US government was we need to respect their culture.
52:29>> Yeah, he came in uh he came in on them in a gang rape situation and he he actually stopped it and uh they punished him for it.
52:37I've had people in here who went and stopped those situations and they didn't get punished. But that's crazy. That's [ __ ] crazy.
52:43>> Yeah. No, we were they were never allowed to be out of my sight. They were always around us. Um, you know, [snorts] our Afghan army counterparts at le counterparts, at least the ones we worked with, I didn't have any situations like that. I wouldn't allow anything like that.
52:57>> Were you warned about that before you went there?
53:00>> Um, no. I mean, the first deployment we didn't work with them, but the second deployment they were like literally left seat, right seat. They were with us everywhere.
53:09>> So, how did you find out about that culture?
53:11>> Um, >> they talked about it.
53:14>> Without going too specific into it, we we were working with some um intelligence uh assets internal to the Marine Corps that just gather intelligence and he would honestly teach us, this gentleman would teach us some of the things about their culture to like he's like he would literally be like, "No [ __ ] this is what happens here." and he would explain things to us because like you hear things and like you read things and the only real cultural training we had prior to that was there was this like professor from like UNC Wilmington or something. She showed up at the Marine Corps, showed the Marine Corps base
53:46theater at Camp Wune and she was like, "This is how you tell this from that."
53:50And she like talked to our whole battalion and she like played Aladdin and said like how none of it applied to like the Middle East and I was like, "Yeah, we know." Like [laughter] she was like she's like, "This isn't real." And I'm like, "No [ __ ] genies aren't real.
54:03Holy [ __ ] that's Robin Williams isn't over there." I was just like, "Damn, they really make anybody a professor these days." They literally cut her speech short because it was just like insane. Um, but there is some cultural training stuff that goes into it. But like honestly like the majority of the things that we would do would like my thing was like I was always worried about the kids in particular the the young girls because like one of them there was one I took a photo with my first appointment just reminded me of my daughter >> and um I gave her some Skittles once when we were walking by. I just gave her
54:35some Skittles and her little brother came up to her and like started hitting her with a stick. And so I walked over there and I was like, "Hey, what's up, bud?" And I cracked him in the head and I was like, "Come here, John." Is our interpreter. I was like, "You tell him that if he ever touches his sister again, we'll come back and he'll regret it for the rest of his life." And John's like, "Don't worry." And he [laughter] he's like, "Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, boom." And he's like cracking his knuckles. And he's like, "I told him."
54:58And the kid started crying. And so I gave the girl a bottle of water and stuff because there's all sorts of things societally about them. Like if you interact with females past a certain age, they're outcast. All those different things. um they're used as like property. That's how women are treated once uh girls become women. It's just it's rough. And [snorts] so um you know, and then you hear people talk about like things over here in America and I always feel like I'm just putting on my grizzled veteran hat. Like people have no idea the things to which the rest of the world is society. Um talk
55:32about equality and stuff. News flash, no one's working as [ __ ] hard as we are at it. like we are winning in every nothing's perfect. I'm not saying that.
55:40I would never be that [ __ ] stupid.
55:42But everyone's like, speak of the devil.
55:45>> Um, everyone's um like, you know, you have no idea. Blah blah blah. I didn't get this. I didn't get that. It's so hard. And I'm like, I don't know, man.
55:54You ever seen a young child get beat because she had Skittles by her family members who treated her like she was less than?
56:01>> You ever seen all the different things that happen over there? And you know, that's that's what's tough is I think I that's what I think about when I think about, you know, people that are still there. I think about the ones that uh that don't really have a chance at a life because we're not there anymore.
56:19That's why we shouldn't have left. We created a massive power vacuum.
56:22>> Just a safe haven for terrorism and narco drugs.
56:26>> People got killed, too. People who helped out. I mean, the best way I think to explain it is people like ask how bad Afghanistan is.
56:34I'm like, this is how bad it is. We're withdrawing from a country. We're leaving it. People are literally holding on to a [ __ ] airplane that deep down inside they know they can't hold on to, but they're still going to [ __ ] try as it takes off. That's how bad it is.
56:51>> Yeah, I remember that video.
56:53>> Like that's that if you ever if anyone ever needs anything, be like, "Is it that bad?" That's how bad they're willing to be. Maybe I can hold on to it. Maybe it'll land when we get out of here. Who the [ __ ] knows? But I'm going to try. I'm going to try to hold on to this C130 as long as I can because it's better than what's back there.
57:09>> Yeah.
57:10>> Yeah. It still gets me that one.
57:13>> But I mean, guys, we just did like three and a half hours.
57:16>> Oh, >> we have to do this again sometime.
57:18>> Yeah.
57:18>> You guys are [ __ ] awesome.
57:19>> I was telling him he's doing an Iowa run. We'll take him out to CPU.
57:22>> That would be cool.
57:23>> Yeah. Yeah. You ever seen?
57:25>> No. I never been out to Iowa.
57:28>> Dude's crazy.
57:30>> He can He can throw He can throw his wedding ring in the air and shoot a 9 mm round through it while it's falling.
57:38>> Do we have a video of this?
57:40>> He has it. He has it in super slow-mo, high speed.
57:43>> Yeah.
57:44>> The first The first time >> be born with something for that.
57:46>> The first time I met him, I didn't know what to expect. I thought it was going to be like a dude perfect situation. You sit out here incredible.
57:53>> I'm He's like, "Pull your pistol." I pull my pistol out. He's like, "Shoot at a target." I go, "Okay." Ding. I shoot at the target. He's standing right here next to me.
58:02>> He goes, "Okay, shoot at the same target in the same spot." I'm like, "All right, that's weird. What are you doing?" I shoot at the same target at the same spot. He just wanted to see where my brass was ejecting. On the second shot, he steps back, kicks my brass into the air, pulls his gun out from concealed, and shoots my brass.
58:20on the first try and that's how I met him.
58:23>> Dog, >> go to his Go to his shorts.
58:25>> Yeah, go to his shorts.
58:27>> Go to his shorts.
58:28>> Shout out to the boy.
58:29>> Do popular. Should we do popular?
58:32>> Hit popular on shorts or >> Yeah. Okay.
58:34>> The problem is [clears throat] there's so many. Um >> uh do one with a pistol.
58:39>> Dude, hit your brass.
58:42>> Do that one.
58:43>> Yeah, that one's at the washer. Classic.
58:45>> Wait, it just went off it, >> I think. Yeah. What happened?
58:50>> Go [snorts] to Oh, it might do that.
58:52Yeah. Hit it and then it might Yeah. No.
58:56>> Yep.
58:58>> No.
59:00>> That's one bad wire.
59:01>> And he wears [ __ ] sunglasses doing it.
59:03>> Yeah, >> bro.
59:09All right. So, they're going to eject the washer out from behind him.
59:12>> Yeah.
59:13>> His cameraman's going to throw it.
59:16>> Yo, that's some Spider-Man. Also, why filming? Shout out Dalton for throwing it and filming all at the same time.
59:21>> That's Spider-Man [ __ ] No.
59:32No [ __ ] way.
59:34>> Yeah, >> bro. Is that AI? No.
59:39>> No.
59:39>> I've seen him do it.
59:40>> I've seen him do it >> in person several times.
59:43>> He didn't even [ __ ] touch it.
59:44>> Yeah.
59:46Nick, didn't he buy the slow motion camera just to counter all the comments >> just to do this [ __ ] Yeah, >> because people didn't believe it.
59:52>> Oh my god.
59:53>> Yeah. All right. Yeah, I would love to come see that.
59:55>> Me and him outdid Mythbusters in an afternoon like this is this is Jesus of Guns right here.
60:03>> Show another pistol war where he's just [ __ ] tearing it up. Do that one uh far far left. That one.
60:09>> How do you slide move so early?
60:13>> Okay.
60:17What the? It's It's a lot better with sound.
60:21>> With sound, it's >> Oh, wait. We got to take it off cuz it's >> Yeah, you have to take the sound.
60:27>> Yeah, let's mark that cuz it's copyrighted. But I I mean, I can see it with this. That's just like That looks like some dude, some kid in his basement who's played Call of Duty non-stop for 11 years, except this is real. Thank you guys for checking out this clip. If you haven't already subscribed, please subscribe and hit the like button on this video. It is a huge, huge help. And if you'd like to check out this clip's full podcast episode, that link is in the description below or right here. And finally, you can follow me on Instagram and X by using the links in my description below.
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