Ep 574: Guard Green Berets Have It Better - Doug Kiesewetter

Hey everybody, welcome back to The One's Ready podcast. You're in the team room, before we get into this next episode,

with Doug from "Sulflate" and AR Curious Podcasts, with love for you guys to go over to tastigames.com, check out some of their creatine gummies that they've got. They've got these bad boys, sour watermelon, really though, this is my jam. I take the creatine gummies for sure, but these new tropics are funny! I take them every day, those new tropics. I can't, I don't think I could do work without them.

“Like it's crazy. It's crazy. You need to get locked in, take some of those.”

So you guys can go over to tastigames.com, the grab any of those. No promo code required, just let

them know that we sent you at checkout. And then, you guys aren't tracking already, we have got the

Nashville operator training summit coming up at the beginning of May. We do have a special guest coming out there. So if you were interested in Seer, or what it was like to be a list of CCT, which you can also talk to me about it too, of course, but we're going to have one. And now, he's got the same thing as a J-TAC, CCT, was that? Yes. In fact, CCT's don't actually exist. It's just J-TACs. And then, but he's currently, he's an active duty special tax officer. So he, he went from

enlisted Seer to enlisted CCT to now, he's a special tax officer. So, and he's active, right? So he can give you on the ground current information like boom, if you have questions of what it's like from an officer's perspective, then you probably want to join us out there in Nashville. So he'll be out there to help instruct in mentor and all that kind of good stuff. So if you guys want a register for that, hit it with an operator training summit.com. I will also be surprised. I have

no idea who our guest is, but yeah, I'll see you all out there. Keeping a secret, shhh, I know I teach a legit. That's all right. All right, everybody. Enjoy this episode with Doug from Softly. I don't know. I can't believe he got a drink just in time. That and Doug stole the intro to the podcast. Welcome back everybody. It's Aaron. It's Trent and his peaches. We're here at the T-Roo. We've got our good friend, Doug Key Sweater.

He's got an amazing career inside Army Special Forces. He's got 21 years in the guard. So he's

“going to talk about how the guard is the best thing that you can possibly do because it's really”

close to being in the military, but not quite in the military. Doug, welcome to the podcast. How you do, brother? Good man. I feel like that's actually the most accurate cell of 19th or 20th special forces group. It's a hidden jewel and one students do an active duty rotation. They're like, hey, what's going on in 19th or 20th? And then they come over and they both love it and hate it. They complain constantly that it's not like being active duty, but then they roll around in the

glory of being an M.D. guard's guy. You know, hang with the boys three days a month, go on some climbing trips, deploy once every five years, but have like a six figure executive job somewhere in a white color world where his wife's not mad that they're living on ramen noodles. Tuts of people ask us about guard stuff. A lot of people ask us, we have a whole bunch of folks that head us up about army and everywhere. We want to help everybody. That's obviously why you're

on that and you're just a cool dude with a good mustache. So the main question I want to start with it's not the real army, right? Why the army? So 11 years of active duty, 21 years in the guard,

“take us back 32 years from now. What was the decision to get in the army and why special forces?”

So I was working in the oil field and I was drunk in my apartment at about one o'clock in the morning in a show called Inside the Green Berets came on and I was like, that job looks rad. Like, they're doing what I do. Mine is like, you know, in my head it wasn't like 20 hour days working with a bunch of Hispanics on an oil field, on an oil rate, but in reality it's like, but I want one for one trade. Yeah, one for one trade just a different partner for sure, right?

Like, it's 18 hours days with a bunch of dudes that don't speak English. It's the same job. You

guys are younger than I am, but are you familiar with professional soldiers.net? Yes. Yes. Yeah. P.S. Silver socket. We're going to, well, we're going to have to fight now. I'm a shadow spear god gang gang. Oh, so yeah, gang gang for sure. Yeah, they were there were competing message boards for dudes that were hopefuls in the soft community. And I went on those websites and got bullied by a bunch of old 90s SS dudes who were really mad at me for existing and asking

questions about becoming a Green Beret. Um, and a couple of them in the private messages slid in and were like, hey, dude, you have a good job. You have a college degree. If this is something you

“want to do, you should consider the guard. So I literally started calling recruiters, um,”

met a dude named Seb Summers, who ended up being my first senior on my first ODA in the guard,

who was backfilling a recruiter position in Jackson, Mississippi, like, just bumping it out for some work. And he, he literally met me at the airport and was like, yeah, bro, you can go to law school and be a Green Beret, totally possible. It's just sign on the dotted line. I was like, awesome. So I joined the Mississippi National Guard on a as a non-qualified Green Beret candidate, a call an in-coupies back then for like the Rep63 program, which is kind of like the guard's

version of 18 That'sery. And I started showing up for grill at an absolute dump, an old, like 70s guard armory and a place called, yeah, oh, I can't maintain in Grenada, Mississippi, which I is just absolutely the asshole of the world. That's normal. Grenada. Yeah, there's a, there was a legitimate ball into Grenada. That's crazy. No, Grenada, Mississippi, I want to actually have more dangerous. I would, I would like to point out though that the cadre of dudes that were teaching us how to

go to selection were a hundred percent macavisog vets, like it was Vietnam vets and Panama vets and Grenada vets. And they were all like they had Cadrex. They were, they were old bro. It was an old group of dudes that were just hazing the shit out of us and we showed up for drill.

“I think I showed up for two and I hadn't gone to basic training yet and they basically told me”

that I was going to be there bitch like because I hadn't been to basic, I wasn't allowed to do any of the real training. So they just made me like clean toilets, Terry gear, putting my sights on trucks. And I was like, this is dumb. Why am I going to try to delay going to the basic if this is going to be my life? Like I did not sign up to do this. So I decided I wasn't going to law school. I was just going to go straight into the pipeline. So I changed my debt date like almost a year

and went to basic as fast as they would. So that I didn't get continually hazed by a bunch of bitter 80s. It's a pro. Is this the Ranger Regiment? This is crazy. The guard is wild. It's weird that you can show up there and start working. I'm air quoting everybody. Did you have a uniform bro?

Never been basic. You know like yeah we're going to pay you but you like you haven't been

a basic yet. You haven't been to any of the 18 series courses like but you have one of those slots.

“So like I think it's good that they were like hard on you and obviously you made it through”

basic but they have like a separate pipeline because I know our guys the guard guys they're really particular about who they're going to send into our pipelines because like Mississippi Guard is paying for it right like all your TTY money and all the other stuff like what does that look like from your end for the the preparatory phase? So I'm not sure who pays when you say the guard is wild. You are 100% correct and every state is doing things a little differently. So in Mississippi

there's a battalion over structure because it's a first battalion of 20th group and because there's

a battalion over structure they actually run a training detachment. So the campaign has probably at any given point 50 maybe more non-qualified guys that are actually on their books. They come in from other units in Mississippi. It's a full time stood up training detachment with like slotted cadry. In North Carolina where I was at we run special forces readiness exercises for anything like you can be a geek off the street can be in the guard you can be an active duty

marine we don't care come spend the weekend with us we'll put you through your places do a bunch of evaluative stuff and when you become eligible to go to selection or come to the organization

very heavily based on how you're slotted for an organization right? So like if you came in as a

“rep 63 like I did and you go straight to basic training and then straight to the special forces”

pipeline all of that money is paid for by the federal government. If you come in from a conventional unit in the guard go to an SFRE get told that you're you know going to be candidate go to selection get selected come back to your unit a lot of your schools are being paid for by the unit of record not as an original payment thing. So like it gets really crazy the funding is weird basically I just

tell guys to ignore it like there's always money in the banana stand if there's not then they're

just going to make you sit somewhere and wait you know it was in the banana stand. Dad I burned it down I burned it in the banana stand down I'm so glad you made an arrest of development reference that makes my my day so it's just a really weird sequence you know. Yeah so like you're

“training with with old Vietnam McVee saw dudes you go to basic training you get into the pipeline”

was there anything surprising because you already been on I forgot what year was this ish look the internet this is 2004 five yeah okay I had some inkling of what was coming um but

I mean so I just sent my oldest steps on off to basic on an option 40 contract um and

the thing that I told him and I don't know how it is for you guys because y'all went to like gold faucet basic training like 50 air force where everybody knows you know yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah there's there's the regular water the still water and the bubble water yeah you got to have options yeah Chris beat water I uh I told him that the big that hit me the the hardest about going to basic was like in my head I was super motivated to do a thing and the goal was the thing and it

stayed that way the entire time through multiple issues with failure there were a lot of setbacks that were self-induced like all I wanted was to be a green beret there was nothing else so it was gonna settle like the score um going to basic I was surrounded by some of the absolutely most retarded humans I mean that is kind when it's possible but it was it was the lowest IQ pool I had ever been in at that point in my life like there were kids that had gotten waivers that

would like wet the bed every night um you know just it was the height of G1 too so like I'll give it a little bit I'll give it a nod I did the fact that yeah I won't take anybody but it's like you know like East LA gangbangers kids from you know like no running water houses in Mississippi and and you know I'd been led to believe that real sergeants were smart and then I realized that they're the top one percent of NCOs that weren't smart enough to dodge real sergeant duty

you know like they're not dumb but they're also not like the actual pride of the army

“so it was a disillusioning experience but one that I needed and frankly I think”

I had my pride crushed over and over again coming into the army thinking that I was something and then realizing that I was nothing and having people that I didn't respect put me in my place over and over it was a good lesson because I needed like I needed to be able to be like hey my shit does stink I make bad decisions not everything that I do is the right thing and sometimes I just have to listen to some dude that I don't like tell me what needs to happen

and then I need to do it without arguing man that's a that's a incredible contrast from

the way I felt when I came in and how old were you when you when you joined 23 and that and that might actually have something to do with it you'd be in 23 I was 17 and I was the complete opposite going oh I don't know that I belong here and then as you you know started here and started getting humbled I started down here and started getting up as I saw people quitting and not being able to handle things and I'm like oh okay well maybe I maybe I do

have something maybe I maybe I do belong here and I can do this job you know it's interesting I don't I don't know that I've ever talked to somebody at least openly and admittedly had been like yeah I came in and I got humbled for day one well I think it's interesting I don't know

made David Gogg and so this is a hundred percent record right now and now that David Gogg he's just an

“ad so I'm not talking about our U.O.B.R and I'm talking about a dog or a dog I'll be you don't talk”

about pipeline students Douglas but you guys you guys are all very professional and very good nature of athletes man like I my CCT lost up pistol during a tick in afghanistan in no nine then the face that Jared made was the face that we all made and we proceeded to extend the tick for about two hours while we looked for his pistol like he was riding a dirt bike he had locked a bail on his leg holster pistol went missing somewhere and we went like hands across

afghanistan in the middle of the tick he'd go find this pistol because in the army if we

was pistol like everybody in the chain of command is going to fire our team you know like we're

going to be in such trouble and I remember thinking that like like unnamed CCT was like he was

“dedicated to looking forward I think didn't seem that worried about it he was very low stress he was”

still doing his job everything was cool and I looked at my senior Charlie and I was like hey man I'm gonna ask a really obvious question but I shouldn't ask but is that our pistol or is that the Air Force's pistol and he was like it's the Air Force is not just a dude fuck this if we get that shot out here let's go home like bullet the Air Force deal with it and we said something to our CCT was name I will not say and he was like oh yeah cool man let's go back and I was like awesome

he seems very relaxed about this and everyone her team was like getting hives it's like scratching about it they're like yo we're gonna be in a lot of trouble over this he like sent an email up to Bogram and they sent some other CCT on a ring flight with a new m9 with a handwritten note from the commander that was like please don't try to lose this one or please try not to lose this one or whatever and like he's got a pistol again and I was like bro are you in trouble he's like no like no it was

just a pistol sometimes you lose a pistol what do you want me to do it you're in a tick it's a combat loss like boom that's it but taking the stress off of the end user and putting the stress on those guys to be professionally excellent like the best communicators I ever knew with CCT's they were very aware was going on they were probably I'm gonna say this and it's embarrassing probably but they participated more actively in mission planning than anyone else on the team just because

“it was important for them to understand what was on the ground what was in the air how they were”

managing everything I mean they're great dudes um I feel like the quality variance of afsock is narrower than the quality variance of use of sock like use of sock if you shake up a group of use of sock dudes who gone through a selection course you're going to get a fairly broad one to 10 scale of quality you're not you're not gonna be consistently you know you're gonna meet some of the best dudes in some of the worst dudes you've ever met but you don't want to introduce your wife the

any of them but it's a numbers game you know you guys are significantly larger than us and you know so and you can ask anybody anybody knows what a greenberry is what a ranger is what a seal is only only now like in the last maybe year or people starting to go like oh yeah and people have known about Paris you for a long time but I'm not sure anybody knows the difference between CCTs and J-Tex when you try to explain to people what the difference is people like I

like the hamster wheels spinning tapping the CCT J-Tex for like the vast majority of any army guys that's ever run across these guys it's the same thing yeah and to them they're all 13 foxes they're like yeah that's just like our our fisters right and I'm like no it's already here there's an anglico right yeah and and the biggest thing is is trying to tell people not just army but air force as well that J-Tex is a qualification not an actual job and that the J-Tex on our team

style like exactly the same as having a CCT I agree now there are some there's some seals and some rangers and in 18 series dudes that are J-Tex qualified that would argue that but if that were the case

oh I know we would never have we would never have it there would be wrong yes they would be wrong

here I mean the fundamental biggest difference correct me if I'm wrong and I'm always open to being wrong because I'm retarded is you guys can run an airfield a CCT can like run an airfield

but it's it's minimal it there are some exceptions in the way that if they have been trained in

landing zones safe the operations then maybe but it's only for that one airfield where as I can go to any any LZ any airfield and just our work and they they cannot they're limited to whatever that

“is and that was which is a very useful tool when you have to get a team out of somewhere right”

like I've watched sealed teams get stuck and Sam birds not be willing to land on a known air strip just because there isn't an air traffic can troll tower and you know NSW has to get involved to get them to land the bird yeah yeah it's bad I remember and I won't say what country in

Africa but if I was not an LZ you know a CCT we would have been in some shit because we had to get

out of an airfield and we had a yeah it wouldn't great so but the one thing that I do want to go back to you're talking about all the the characters that you meet up with in you know bootcamp and that kind of stuff I don't know if you have seen one punch dead on I'm sure you have is he the worn-off sir he's the vet yes yeah what has the faces or smooth yeah and he nails the characters perfectly you have and of course I'm blanking on some of the names but uh of course I'm blanking on some of the names but uh

he's fantastic but he's he hits the gambit of all the different personalities and characters

so you may not know craftin that's his name so you see somebody like craftin you're like

I don't know craftin it's not his name but I know that I know exactly but I met that guy yeah exactly it's wild that he's able to do that I don't understand how like

“I think that the same people and I was gonna touch on this earlier and I if it's why I asked”

why I started to talk about how professional um the you know air force soft community has been in my mind but like uh I it feels to me I remain convinced that Yususaku is screening for a degree of socio-pathic narcissism in the process like a certainty that we were made to do this job a certainty beyond all reason like we're confused with the whole series of people telling us we suck we're like yeah they like me I know they like me I'm gonna keep doing this the thing you

know I like I don't one of my buddies has a podcast called lesser non operators and he brought Roth Jensen on this last week and it has been an emotional journey of trauma looking at all the pictures that he posts of Roth Jensen because Roth Jensen I mean I was convinced

“that Roth actually loved us but he did things that ruined our lives over and over again like just to win”

this look you have the use of relationship with another dude in the army special forces community oh and all of those dudes were like our stepdad's they were all like oh you don't have to do anything today because command said you guys could all be in pluses he's like then if somebody opted not to do anything they would torture you worse they like lock you in a room like how do you like not doing anything for 24 hours in a room by yourself and you're like I don't think this is what the command

are written you know like dudes learn they're less than really quick everyone trained together no one said I want to do my own thing you know like but Jensen like they've got a picture of him with his dog standing by the gate pit and I was like oh Gunner he shouldn't have given pit every morning and then we got to roll around in it and everybody's like look at that fine green beret with his dog and I'm like they're both terrorists and we all got merciless so the air force I

just want to clarify something the air force also attracts sociopathic narcissist but that they figured out the process is if you just keep them super comfortable if you give them those hotel rooms in that bubbly water and keep them nice then they're way way easier to manage right like the army you're still in the army and they treat you like crap and then that sociopathic narcissism rears it's ugly head and then that's where you get problems so you know we're all we're all improving

our fighting position we just do it a little more desperately than you guys do you guys act for something to improve your fighting position and the chain of commands like all that makes sense you guys should have that and we ask for it and our commands like keep them hungry keep the light off and they'll grow yeah I mean I don't it's definitely unique approaches it's interesting because

were given to them you know when you look at SW they have a pretty traditional upside down like well

I guess it's not an upside down it's an actual pyramid where there's a small amount of dudes doing

“the mission and a large support cast right and I think within the special forces regiment is kind of upside”

down and that we have a lot of dudes doing the thing and not that many people supporting the operation from a logistical standpoint because we're supposed to do it ourselves like we have all of our little shops in the team and we're supposed to take care of ourselves but not having people there to do the work for you it introduces a series of like shortcuts and criminal behaviors where you're like oh we can't do all these things so like I'm gonna have to have to win

out what is real and what is not to figure out ways to do this more quickly um we have to figure out

ways to eat without having almond resources like okay well we're going on the local economy and we're hiring cooks and we're doing all this stuff and everybody's like how do you get away with that and you're like I didn't know we had an option like no one brought us food so we just

“did the thing yeah like we have this box of money and no one said no and it felt grab right”

yeah and it's cool I was going to say I was going to make the same 8K for the last month that we've made a million times you guys spent 8K on gravel and also you have a cook that lives in the teamhouse how does that work out we're like well yeah the gravel is getting delivered so take it easy the cook works the cook lives with us for free he's he benefits from our protection look what are you how are you guys paying oh no no he's not paid

well that sounds a lot like slavery like no no no no no no no no no he's the he's the same it was time we're pregnant that's his thing that's his thing what he won years in the guard it's obviously the best part Trent's hate Trent has hate in his heart for anybody that's

in the guard because they're always just happier individuals when you decided to make the move

“over what were the things about the guard that you were like man this is it this is why I'm going”

well so it's funny for me I came in as a guard guy and I wanted to be active duty I looked at assessing a assessing my attempt to make a curtain has failed so you guys can always make fun of my poor engineers here and how long you were gonna go before you're like we can't you know with that son there we go so I was convinced when the war was going on I was like I'm going to get 20 years back to duty as a guard guy and I tried but ironically enough like living in the gray

in that area is it's beneficial and it's also stressful and a lot of guys ask me like a a fairly large Instagram I mean large for me Instagram following and I get a lot of younger dudes asking like oh hey how can I be in the guard and have a job and you're like look during the training pipeline you really can't do both your focus on on something career driven and it's hard on you it's hard on your family you certainly aren't going to be able to hold down the job run your

on company whatever it is it's just too much but once you get out of the training pipeline you know if you're in schools if you're deploying there's things that you can do remote work wise that you know like I I'm definitely like I was more productive for softly on Iraq deployments than I was at home just because I had less distractions I had time that I could allocate specifically for work and writing blogs and you know social media engagement

I had four hours a day to train you know like it was like there's a lot of time to focus on things I wanted to do but I do tell guys that like on active duty there's fairly accepted I'm slots like there's downtime there's cycles there's like hey we expect you to spend time with your family during this time frame don't come into work or when you're teaching at the schoolhouse like there are windows of intense time where you're teaching and then there's times

where it's like you don't have to come into work for three weeks or weeks like you know be with your family and that's great it's really nice you can pretty much guarantee that you're going to get three weeks of Christmas unless you're employed but they you know like you're going to get block leave you're going to get the take vacation you're going to get four day weekends every other month three day weekends every month there's a tempo and a career path in active duty

when you're in the guard trying to hobble together work the most you can hope for as a year

to pursue a career in soft wants an HDR job it's some administrative job that pays you and gets

“you active duty retirement but like every person in HDR jobs fairly miserable they might pretend”

but they're all just like they have clocked in their office and they're like counting down what it takes to get to 20 years of active federal service meanwhile everybody else kind of like dances in and dances out and they're like I'm going back to my cop job that everyone's like like guys he's got it yeah they took the worst part of active duty which is 24 hours a day seven days a week of managing you know guys that are not doing the guard job and it just makes

them way worse I do want to give clarification correct corrected me on the group chat and the the comment section loves it when I'm wrong so I'll get ahead of this one I would have said you're active duty you were in the guard for 21 years you have 11 years of active duty service that's that was my bad man it's very tough are you mister softly did you start the company how

“does it softly things start so it's an interesting story that I suppose I can allude to the”

facts of I not who started softly but I was around when softly started one of my best friends who is now more in the public light have you guys met Brent Phillips before he's a bar sock guy who then went to another organization for a period of years and he founded softly he called me we were both cadry at go up and he was like hey I want you to do this thing with me and I was like bro like I'm running a gym like I have started this other nonprofit I'm doing guard work and

contracting in Africa I don't have time to start a company and I don't think a fitness company is even going to be successful like but I'll help you because you just sold your gym and I was like so we will film all the content that you want to film in my jacket we're gonna have t-shirts like

we're gonna be operator do what what I'll see what do you cough this will never work that's never

“gonna work what you're telling us military dudes that have a fitness thing and they may”

have t-shirt not bro come on well it's funny right because like I learned pretty much what I know between the guy who owns the gym where I was I was trying to start this gym and Brent I learned everything I knew about programming from those guys and we wrote yeah we had two programs when we started we had one for guys who were on a team and a program for guys that wanted to be on a team I was pretty much it it was a selection prep and a hey you got a team you want to get jack

they sold so well for Brent in the first like month he was like we got to go online because we can't sell PDFs because then we're gonna be like mount tactical and like all of our programs are gonna be in every team room for free because everybody shares information you know so we're like on me thought read it guys we can go for yeah 100% oh my god so we I mean I was around for all the formative parts I was like I was on camera even at that point when I didn't work

for the company because I was a guard dude who didn't live underneath a protected identity so I was like a white side soft dude who was kind of deploying kind of not deploying but had taken some liberties with my my end-day status my part-time soft status I'd been in men's health for like an article about yoga and pretty much my chain of command was used to seeing me in and like I was able to thread the needle of the media before some of my peers did a much

worse job of it like I was like hey let me clear this by the PAO's office let me make sure that command approves of what I'm gonna say here and also I'm gonna be doing yoga and men's health articles it cool and you know they're like yeah sure just don't be gay don't reflect you're saying that your command was supportive of this it was a guard thing and you wouldn't know how my command

was supportive of it dude third group saw so the yoga articles the first thing I ever really did

and it kind of fell in my lap a friend of mine who wrote a book called the comfort crisis reached out to me and asked if I wanted to do this thing I wrote an article thinking they want to be to write it not knowing that Michael Easter was supposed to write the article and Michael was like well you just did my job for me so like let me pitch it and see if they'll print it they liked it enough that they were like let's do a photo shoot with you and some of your friends and I asked the

lady who ran my yoga studio in town if she could find guys that wanted to be in it you know that were like yoga instructors one of whom was an active degree third group guy he tried to co-opt

like whatever this guy wants to do but then he ran the article past the third group PAO and the third

group PAO absolutely obliterated it they chopped it up changed everything they were like this can't be printed but it wasn't bad at all it was just a PAO being a PAO like we're really no good old invasive but because their group sent me an email saying that I couldn't publish the article I was annoyed so I reached out through my chain of command and went direct to an O6 and the O6 was like fuck them things you can do whatever you want it was like you got my command

approval to do it everybody's like the article wrote was good you didn't say anything in the

“appropriate and you're a part-time guy like you should be able to make a living when you're not”

in uniform and he's like you're not in uniform in any of the pictures you're just talking about what you did when you were like deployed and what was good for auto regulating your stress and he was like

this is fine and so he sent an astingram to third group as an O6 and was like whatever this

dude wants to do we bat the PAO and I back it up well there is no like there was no twin through PAO it was just some angry O6 that was like dim for telling him he can't do what he wants to do and that's what we call pushing the risk up which is the correct thing to do instead of pushing the risk down to your junior officers and your junior enlisted and frankly I think that if you're doing good stuff nobody's gonna get in your way I think that the catch here is that's actually

not true that's right friends is correct what I mean more specifically is if you're capable of polyticking and presenting your case well and you can pitch it to someone it's I firmly believe

“it one of the most important parts of having a successful soft career is finding yourself”

patriarchs like going in and making friends with someone who's a command sergeant major or a higher level officer building a personal relationship with them and then sharing your opportunities to succeed with them and asking for advice and having them feel like they're mentoring whether it's your success or not the fact that they are guiding you and giving you advice along that path a it's a good sound check for you and whether the thing you're doing is actually good or not

right like I'm in a lot of group chats and a couple that are meaningful full of good dudes that I

respect and I'm asking them all the time like when we did stuff it softly I was always like

hey how does this make me different from the people we we hate we don't like a bunch of dudes that are stealing their dead friends and their uniform for dollars but like where's the line where is it what I'm doing different than from what they're doing and they're always like we're helping people or you're like offering these services you know both for free and for a fee but like you're not actually leveraging names places you know things like that you're prepping people on the okay

but I need those checks I need to have groups of people to tell me whether the things I'm doing

“or bad or not I need to be willing to listen and a lot of the time to transplant if you want to do”

something good and it's questionable or no one's done it before you you need to have somebody with a little bit of political weight they're like they're they're weight behind it and say hey we really like this thing you know like we're gonna and I knew we were good when we had the group commander come down to give us a pet talk at a remote company when I was an album or on North Carolina and my buddy Brian and I were both like Brian was my videographer and I was the face of softly

and he came in and he was like look this is one of the best companies in the group is like look you guys have got your own PR team right here he's like you got you got dog he got Brian like you guys are basically the face of the regiment based on the videos those dudes are making and they're all good and they don't embarrass us you know he is and when you're I was like sir is it shocking I don't know what to say you know that was really close here yeah I was ready to get

straight roasted um I don't I don't know the only reason to begin with that I was the face of the brand is because I was the only person who could be on camera without risking my military career and that forced me to be on camera more which in turn made me better at being on camera and honestly because I stayed in the guard throughout the last year stretch of you know softly

to do things that were too crazy or embarrassing or whatever I wouldn't do it just because to me I still value my service I'm sure it's a hot button topic for you guys being an afsock but like watching the comments of people rooting against America and this Iran thing right now is like I get it if there from another country like okay well you don't like what we're doing I get it you have say what you want to say but watching Americans be like I'm rooting for Iran and those

“do you should never have been flying and I'm like I want to fight everyone you know like I'm like”

come to my house you should go look right now you can go look on our Instagram page I posted a

real yesterday and it's it's funny the connections of course you always make it about yourself

somebody else talks and you internalize and you're like oh we do the same thing we started this when we were active doing we always had those guardrails and played by the rules and even though we're retired we still follow those guardrails you know we don't try to like break news or we don't from we're here to help people prepare for the pipeline and of course there's stuff that we have to talk about whether it's an influencer going to assessment selection or changes in the

pipeline or whatever else like we want to give you the best possible just just give you the information and let you decide we have a real right now the only thing I said was like listen we're not here to give you updates on a rant but there's a rescue effort going on this obviously hits close to home air force rescue forces are the lead of that event they've already picked

up to pilots they're currently searching for the third right the comments on that real are absolutely

ridiculous to your point it's like oh who are they going to pick up the terrorists the people

“dying dying in a war for Israel you know like okay man like here's the thing those dudes”

are in the arena and they're doing some crazy shit and frankly this is the first time in like my lifetime where there's been not my lifetime but in my service period where there's been an inherent risk to pilots in some capacity so watching people want to argue about pet exits statements about whether we have you know air superiority or air supremacy and I'm like who cares like who cares we have planes working and they are Americans and they are doing things

and now they're at risk oh it's because they bomb the school you don't know that really you don't know anything that you're talking about what we do know is that a bunch of dudes suited up and gotten slow moving helicopters and we're willing to run around at low altitude to try to retrieve pilots who are having the worst day in their life and the guys in the helicopters are heroes and they're doing some of the like heaviest work there is and it's impressive like don't need to shit on it

like okay fine go talk on the White House's page but like these dudes you know they're like all these guys are betraying their country and I'm just like man so I like I bring this up to say that I am still proud of my service and I'm still proud of my peer service no matter what negative things or what negative administration implications are tied to service some of the last people that I know that are focused on like actual duty and brotherhood and holding each other

accountable or that dudes that I know from soft and frankly some of them aren't very good being held accountable but right like I don't see a lot of other places where dudes are are holding each other and caring for each other and saying hey man you're screw up right now

“like you need to get your shit together you know I I know that that wasn't that atmosphere when I”

came up like my first divorce was was my fault you know and I had a bunch of dudes it were just like

man maybe you should drink more like you know or if they didn't think that then they just get space between me you know I mean like there wasn't it was like hey cool let's go out and burn it down like you things are tough burn it down harder bro and I feel that like we generationally have kind of grown into more contentlet and the responses like I mean I think that you're on a path that's gonna end with you eating a gun

like I respect your choice if that's what you're deciding you're gonna do but you got three kids and like maybe maybe we should get you some better life insurance or you make that decision and some help you want to see if you want to see us like actress go to therapy maybe get on testosterone because you feel depressed and your numbers are like 10 you know I think breath work right like maybe maybe do anything that that is a great objective look at it is

you know we see in our peer group all the time you know when I was growing up that was it was

go to work it's not that way anymore and that's a good thing it's a good thing to look at your bros and get a peaches and trent have hit me up and just been like hey man so this isn't

“working you should not do this anymore because I won't I won't be your friend if you don't”

figure this stuff out you know what I mean which we all needed that right pretty sure said I'd get dibs on your guns that's what I told you that's what I told you I told you I told you

I'm not voting accident trentary first for your voice that's that's all you need is a

staunch conservative saying that he has guns on the internet there's the two hot butt niches that we can't talk about I think so you know it's with all your engagement the training space man this is obviously something that we do here everybody poo poo is this new generation and says that there's not dudes that are going to be willing to stand up and answer the call man we saw it on the app and Venezuela we saw it on midnight hammer we saw these 23 24

year old dudes that got in got through these pipelines and then went out and just did great work what what do you think about this this new generation is it completely lost I have thoughts none of which

or I can air on this podcast but I will say I see a generational shift in attitudes in a gap

generation so like the younger kids right now 16 17 18 year olds are pretty much fed up with

“what we what our generation what our parents generation have created and our I mean honestly”

a lot of our app at the towards what our parents have done right like I mean we sit around and complain that the boomers hold all the well and they don't want to share it and all this other stuff but like we haven't really done much about it we all pursued our passions like our generation was like hey I'm just do what I want to do not really get a care about running for office or changing the direction of things like I just want to be left alone and I see a lot of younger kids they're

more passionate about making a difference or changing a thing maybe not always in the most productive

age but they are young so what do you expect um I don't know to me the thing that I see is the hardest part about this is that in our in our generation the guys that came in a lot of ways were intellectual like they may have been like the military made them gave them a physicality that they didn't have before the military they came in at like 120 hundred thirty pounds they may have played some sports but they weren't particularly athletic and the military created a competitive environment

with a real goal to be physical because it was it helped your job it helped your brothers but guys consider around and talk about caught and meachy and you know like have debates about existential topics that had no real bearing on raining they weren't all meatheads you know guys had to learn languages guys were smart not universally but more like a fairly large percentage smart phones and the state of our schools have really driven down a desire to learn like a

passion for the arts interest and then carry out their hobbies yeah that that immediate gratification like you don't need to be curious and and look at anything you can you know you don't even need to back in the I didn't know idea who the stoics were for you know half of my adult life will now people can just go on to supergrock and go hey tell me what the stoics thought they can be like okay and you don't have to read Marcus a really usersanica or any of the others

which requires I'm eating through a whole bunch of stuff that you don't really understand and reading it over and over again I mean like what what do be mean by this you know like instead of super weird language right and your interpretation is different in my interpretation as well so we can argue about it and then have a better clarity together about what we think is going on there right it's like arguing scripture and all other stuff where it's like um this it creates

a better sense of self and a better ability to interact with other people so like I don't worry about the physicality despite the downturn of the physical metrics in this generation

“I think we're just literally where we're a few weeks of exercise away from getting those numbers”

back up you just got to get people out and doing stuff I'm more worried about people from an intellectual standpoint being curious and wanting to do things and understand things because they feel like they have all the tools necessary and they don't have to be curious or you know creative um that bothers me but again like old man yelling at the trees or whatever girl like I understand but I'm in that point um and so for me I think one of the things that we

am in really good shape we may have still run in six minute miles still can lift her heavy like

yeah I ran into 2123 5k on my second 5k of the day um like last week so I'm still in

“pretty good shape oh you should just fight my weathering sense of self that said I couldn't do it”

yeah I wonder if I can do this no you can't you pussy you know like that's what that's amazing me that goes yeah my grandfather's approval from the grave yeah I said it's one of my my good friends and officer that I used to work with and awesome dude he hit me up and he's like hey man sorry on the podcast like I'm like you're still getting after and I was like yeah it turns out that my willingness to be in really good shape had really little to do with the job and much more

to do with my narcissism so I mean to me I always said I'd hang this burrs up when I wasn't

used for anymore which is why pivoting into more leadership roles has been easy just because I'm like okay like mentoring offering some advice like you I think a lot of guys were really confused when I left to my group to go teach at OCS and and then they were even more confused when I was happy to be there what I was like no this is great like that's chain of command I've had you know awesome people I'm working with the students are all very much wet clay like

there's a lot to work with you know yeah and I don't necessarily go into the whole you know this this next generation is is hopeless or I'm kind of like that and maybe maybe it's because the four of us are in an echo chamber right you guys were soft laid us with one dready us with a operator training something right because we are essentially surrounded by young motorbikes creation that are motivated they're in shape they're incredibly smart they want to get better

they are curious they're curious because if they weren't they wouldn't be talking with us right

“and so I think so again maybe that's an echo chamber but I have a lot of hope for the next”

generation because they are they are better than the four of us were when we joined I think it's on us like when I was talking about Ralph Jensen and you know all of the guys who were my softseek had her it like I am not embarrassed to say that I was raised I was raised soft like I come from an upper middle class family with you know single income mom who's a stay at home mom a dad who worked his ass off divide for us but like we had things we went on

vacations we lived well I joined the military because I wanted to prove something to myself and my family that you know I wasn't soft that I wasn't weak I had so I worked in the oil field like I was I had something to prove and you know the guys that took me under their wing and basically they they formed me from soft baby poo poo into some sort of you know recognizable dried yeah that sense of message but they took time to do that right like the hazing the things

“that they were doing I think it shocked people the level that they went to to make an impression”

on us but I needed that blunt for trauma to be shaped I needed to have an accelerated promise cycle where I was torn down and rebuilt and I appreciate the time and care and effort that they put into preparing me for the much greater stresses that I was exposed to standing on my own leaving it and I think it like we can throw our hands up and say these kids aren't ready and they suck

and all that other stuff but like that is our failing not their failing and so for me when I never

worked a selection of glad because I don't love making a decision on who and who isn't who isn't going to be a good addition I do like taking someone who's been told they I've been told their qualified and training them molding them equipping them and giving them chances to figure things out on their own and I also don't have a problem admitting that somebody's just not going to get and be like hey man like I get like you seem like a good person or honestly you seem like a

bad person like we made a mistake you know this dude doesn't belong here there's like a whole pattern of deceit you've been away to see people for so long right but it is on us to teach those

your shoes these are the mistakes that I made I would love for you to not make those mistakes

“benefit from the things I learned and and you're going to make some mistakes is probably won't”

be the ones I make you know like um I think we have the tools to raise uh to make the regiments that the respective software regiments that we come from better um the real question is are we gonna stand up to it are we gonna fall into the 80s and 90s that were like oh these guys are nothing like they didn't they didn't live as hard as we did and I'm like god I hope they don't 'cause we're stupid you know showed up for PT every morning stinking a booze think about how

much faster I would have been if I hadn't been drinking till three in the morning you know

admiring a sea section scar dude it's sharkies and North Carolina okay that's that's that's

yeah fairville or a Mississippi story both places both tracks both are equally relevant

“oh yeah I do want to say the last thing before we have to hop off that you have to have”

that humility or like you said that thing where I I've said that before like it took a pile of dudes to turn me into a halfway decent worthwhile human right and I think one of the arguments that we have with a lot of dudes is they're like well I did all these things and I and I and I and it's like bro like you got you got to you got to step back a little bit and and realize that the person that you are today wasn't just you like it took a whole bunch of mentors and a whole

bunch of dudes to get you to where you're at there might be like the one-off exception where it's like that dude would have been that no matter what but without that humility you

will always look at that next generation as soft because then all this other stuff because

your your bros around you are working to make it better for the next generation and all you see is that and you're like well it's not as hard for them so I was extended a lot of grace I mean I may have met all the hard standards that were required of me coming to the pipeline or the schools that I went to but it wasn't until I reclasses in 18 Bravo that I realized that the standards were them like I was happy to pass until I met a bunch of other dudes who were

very motivated all of whom who gone on to do amazing things in army now um we're like no no no we're competing to do 100s like why would we want to pass we want to get perfect scores and I was like oh so I started to compete for the top of things and it was way easier than being stressed out about whether I was going to fail or not you know like being mad that I get a 99 is way easier than being scared that I'm going to get a 69 you know like so a change in attitude helps but

grace is just none of us deserve to get through based purely on the things that we did or things we didn't do so grace is extended it's part of the brotherhood is realizing that guys that are coming through are are good candidates like this guy will make a good teammate and it's my job to like craft him it's harder when you're dealing with officers because you're like a lot of a lot of very low caliber individuals are going to look to you to make every decision

at this point and I don't trust you to make good decisions so like having to enforce to officers that for the rest of their career everyone will be looking at them as the gold standard and it's like hey if you want your subordinates respect your PT has to be higher all of your academic stuff

“has to be better you have to be ahead of planning you have to be leading from the front and you”

know I think a lot of young lieutenant have trouble grasping that that is true but the ones that admit themselves to it and see the fruit of that effort are glad they did because it makes the rest of their trajectory across their entire career path a lot easier but as enlisted guys we get a few gimmies you know like we get we get a grace period and a lot of our you know I mean I for one I have a very high threshold for tolerating candidates to pity just because I'm like oh man I don't

remember the things I said and did you know like they don't know any better of course the sunglasses and the mustache or the thing that they're interested in right now but like when they don't realize is yes the sunglasses and the mustache are me giving a middle finger to a conventional military that I don't want to be beholden to but they were owned and there's a lot of scars and a lot of bruises and when you're an e-fuller just came into the regiment wearing a giant mustache

mustache everyone just kind of credits your track record and they're like well we know

his mustache is out of rids but uh at least he's not in the clinic for venereal disease you know like we'll take a whins I'm taking where you can go follow Doug over a Doug the elephant slayer check him out everywhere he's over at softly he's not he he may not have found it or at least he didn't say it but I have my you know thoughts I will say this I ride for the brand I uh I left softly four years ago and it's still it's still like it's my baby

bright and I started a podcast together recently just to kind of get the band back together

“and like I work at retilia full-time now we make objects mounts and things I think we're the”

best opic mounts in the business but small startups from my jam you know like I just I like having my wheel like having driving steering wheel in my hand makes a big difference and like working with good people so softly if you're looking to get I mean I don't I don't want to steal business from anybody but I think we have the best programs you know and we're fairly pragmatic I know not to go down another rabbit hole since he were trying to take me off his podcast already

but like I just have a hard out I have a family and toddlers and stuff you guys just sound as long as you want brother we might have the room we might have to pick it well you yours your heart out in 30 seconds no it is not yeah so I'm looking at the clock let's make it sure um I I uh I think that when it comes to training for the pipeline everyone is tempted to over-trained because they listen to other people tell them what the standards are and the standards seem

superhuman because whatever it is that some dudes wrote down as an arbitrary standard is superhuman but I think it's worth noting that like every one of us started somewhere well below the standard and we learn how to increase training volume and work capacity across sometimes carefully crafted sometimes like bumblingly directed at us training um and I think the tools are there now for us to do better than that to to actually have a real program and so like I encourage guys like

don't buy off more than you can chew too early you know lean in slowly and build because it's a 20 year career and a lot of dudes are going to get broken off by trying to push too hard to fast

“and the only way to be in it and be good for 20 years is to just consistently add to”

not take away your your own capacity dog you tend to agree brother we always try to end on some

advice that's great fitness advice for everybody that's out there training we've said it to the same people that we talked to so we align there what other advice would you have for anybody trying to do one of these crazy superhuman absolutely impossible pipelines is they're starting their journey out you're on the back end of it now you know 21 years in the guard and everything that you're doing with every other thing that you've got taken up your time what advice would you give to those folks

that are at the beginning of their journey it's only hard in your mind and it's only hard because you've never done it before but if you think about it everybody who did it before you had none of before either and the people that you tend to listen to about how hard it is are people who want to sing

they want to pat themselves on the back and the reality is that there's a broad spectra people

that made it through and when you're like I don't know if I can do this guess what every single person that came through that had a moment like that or a bunch of moments like that and so look at the goal you will accomplish a goal like regardless and stop feeling sorry for yourself you know just be like okay yeah I knew this is going to be hard it's definitely hard it's sucking for me and it's sucking for other people and just keep a positive attitude right like it's in your

head if you can have a good attitude about something that sucks it sucks way less so true I mean it doesn't mean yeah it's kind of like lying to yourself right like this is really funny it doesn't mean much coming from a guard guy though everybody understands that he's just happy all the time because he's not full time I'm just saying I told you he hates guard guys that's his real

“much better so happy yeah look at how easy this this dude has good attitude his life is just another”

guard too Trent there it is okay you sweater thanks so much man we appreciate it love the

the second you started to talk about like man we are totally aligned on all this stuff if you ever

“need anything for me yeah we we love having yon what hit that podcast that you said you just”

started a new podcast plug it rather oh it's called AR curious and literally we just talk about

guns and other bro stuff I was here it starts laughing we're like hey what's the it's a

“gas name we can come up with that gun related AR curious is pretty good that's a pretty good one”

so go check out AR curious make sure to follow Doug over at Doug the elephant slayer for everything

he's doing a done open invite you come back on whenever it is that you want and man we we just

“appreciate him I'm going to throw an out it was awesome they do well get to hunt sometimes”

it will right me with a good time brother I'm actually curious not just AR curious I will check in his comments this isn't it's a good super awkward for your life no it well it's the understanding chicken game yeah all right y'all why is everybody so fast to leave this thing I'm trying to do the clothes Douglass go follow up or not how jackfruit tree check the victory you can find everything they're operator training some at Nashville coming

up we might have a pop up so go follow up there and then we'll see you out there everybody thanks Doug you're the man we'll see you next time see you guys later