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Episode 6: Why Did You Join?
36 Plays3 months ago
In this episode, the guys discuss their reasons for joining the military, how they landed their MOS, and thoughts on their service.
Good Morning, Gents! This is a podcast hosted by four Marine Corps veterans with the goal of uplifting men to be the best version of ourselves. In an age of high rates of suicide and depression, especially in the male population, we are taking a stand. This is a place that will cover all of the challenges and realities that we face in the current world, and how we can break down barriers to betterment for ourselves, our families, and the world.
A tragic suicide of our friend sparked an idea and experiment for us as we rekindled our friendship: A group text where we say "Good Morning" to each other every single day, and continue the conversation about what is going on in our lives, be there for one another, and spread positivity and reassurance. Men bear so much weight of responsibility in society that it is hard for men to have an outlet to express themselves. This has attributed to the vast number of suicides in the male population. We aim to cut those numbers down with this podcast. Between the discussions our hosts will talk about, and the guests we bring onto the show, we invite you to join us on this journey towards self-betterment for all.
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Theme
00:00:07
Speaker
Good morning, gents.
00:00:12
Speaker
Good morning, gents. We're back with another episode and we have the whole crew together once again. Today, we're going to be doing a really cool episode talking about why we all joined the Marine Corps. What made us go into the military?
00:00:32
Speaker
So I think we could probably have a lot in common with this
9-11's Influence on Military Decisions
00:00:37
Speaker
episode. And for our listeners who also served in the military, we probably have a lot of similarities in our stories and the things that brought us all together and what made us serve in the first place.
00:00:52
Speaker
I feel like most people our ages have some sort of distinct memories when it comes to our reasonings for joining. And I think a lot of it could definitely be tied to 9-11 with this whole ah war on terrorism world and how much our lives were affected by 9-11. So I'm just going to go first and roll with it. For me, I was eight years old, about to turn nine in a few days from when 9-11 happened. I was in fourth grade and I saw the World Trade Center coming down. My family basically
00:01:36
Speaker
pulled me out of school because all the kids got sent home. And, you know, I watched the towers come down and I'm a New Yorker. So it's like, you know, it hit me even a little harder. And for me, it was like just a realization moment. You know, I knew my father served in the military, in the Marine Corps specifically.
00:01:56
Speaker
And I was just shocked and just couldn't understand what was going on. But to see that these terrible people have done this horrible thing to us and, you know, murdered our people or innocent people. um it It made me question everything that I knew about life and, you know, this little security blanket that I felt over my my life.
00:02:21
Speaker
Like everything just felt so secure before then. And then it all just got shaken up. And I said, you know what, I'm going to take a stand and I think I'm going to go in the military when I, you know, turn 18. Uh, so from then on, I just figured I was going to go on the Marine Corps, just like my father. Uh, what about you guys?
Personal Journeys and College Life
00:02:42
Speaker
First off, how are you doing today? I'm doing pretty good. And this is Caleb from Nebraska. It's been a good week. It's been a good week.
00:02:50
Speaker
Bro, I'm doing better than a little foot right now. And for our listeners, the man is about to pass out on the microphone. He's worked at 24. What have you been up, right? Probably like 32, 33 hours right now. I got probably like three hours of sleep. I'm not going to lie. Like it was a pretty good night. That's like a nap. I know people take naps longer than that.
00:03:15
Speaker
so the man is he went straight into it because he's probably going to be asleep the rest of the episode and that's okay because you don't let the smooth sound of our voices carry him there right that's right that's right the monotone of the undertone gonna put you to sleep like white noise how was your week oh dude my week was great um I know, uh, I don't know if y'all did this, but I did check in with a couple of guys. I haven't talked to a while too, by the way. So I just wanted to get that out of the way from, uh, good. I got fairly decent responses. A good friend of mine from downstate. He reached out, reached back out to me. We've been talking for a few days now and and then another buddy of mine from North Carolina, he reached out as well.
GWOT Era Reflections
00:03:58
Speaker
so nice ah guys all right Before we start getting deep on why we joined, ah Tyler touched on a pretty good subject. there is We're all GWOT babies. We're all of the GWOT era. And for those who You know, but but what started at the GWOT was, was 9-11. And so I think it would be a good opportunity here to to go around and just say where you were and what was happening, how old you were when 9-11 happened. I know we're all going to have other reasons outside of 9-11, but I do agree with Tyler. That's probably a big defining factor with most people are our generation and even a little older. So, I mean, I can, I can start. Um, I was actually on campus June when 9-11 happened.
00:04:47
Speaker
What it is now the Education Center was my middle school, and we had a yo-yo man demonstration that day, that morning. Yo-yo?
00:05:01
Speaker
ah Yeah, dude, he was selling yo-yos. Anyway, I remember being in a, uh, in a classroom that was on that like Eastern side. And I remember like, there's a ramp going down and they kicked it on the TV, the entire base lockdown. They put AVs out at the front gate. They had tanks sitting on the parade deck. My mom didn't come home. So like 2 a.m. And like, um I was 11.
00:05:29
Speaker
Well, I would have been turning 11 in October of that year. So I do think that like, that's a ah pretty big factor for people our age that if you think about it's 2025, there's people joining and enlisting that we're not born when that happened. So what about you, Brandon? Where were you when 9-11 happened?
00:05:51
Speaker
I was actually, what was I, I just finished all my work for the day. So I was working ahead. I was going to a private Christian school and, uh, we could work ahead and stuff like that. I was, I was kind of on break. I think I remember laying on one of them, like fold out chair, foam fold out chairs. And, uh, I was in the computer or the video room. I think I was watching a video on break and the teachers all started coming in the room classroom. I think I was like 10 years old, 11 years old or something. I was 11 years old.
00:06:22
Speaker
I just turned 11 that year. Yeah, it was kind of a scary, it was a small school, so not a lot really happening up here in Michigan, you know. I wasn't from a military family, so. But I remember watching the second tower, I think it was, is what they pulled up after the first one had been hit. We watched the second one. That's where I was at. You, Mac? I was in middle school. I was in middle school and...
00:06:47
Speaker
I don't know. I was like second or third period. And I think. Shit, man. I think they called us down to like the assembly area and the principal told everybody. And then we went back to the room.
00:07:02
Speaker
and they put it on the TV. And then we watched a little bit of it and then school went on as normal. I just remember there was the assembly to tell us. There was, we watched a little bit on the TV. I was supposed to have soccer practice that night. And I think I still went to soccer practice. I think my mom took
Identity and Purpose Post-9-11
00:07:22
Speaker
me. My dad was at work that evening. I had no idea if he was scheduled or if he just went in because of what was going on.
00:07:29
Speaker
But I don't know. I mean, it wasn't a big reason why. I mean, the war was why a big reason why I joined, but it wasn't that 11 didn't really. I remember why I was in school and that, but it's never one of those defining moments in my life or why I joined the military. It's just it's not one of those. I was too young and too immature for it to really sink in. It's it's not like being at the age I am now and.
00:07:56
Speaker
really being able to look back on what happened and take it in and be like, and understand the level of violence that was um when you're 12 or 13 years old. i don' I don't think I was mature enough to really, like I knew it was bad. I knew it was evil. And I knew that what I could hear and I could comprehend what was on the news, but I was also a young kid in small town USA.
00:08:25
Speaker
that had never seen a military base. So that's I don't remember. I know there's people that know exactly. You guys have pretty good recollections of it. I'm like, I was at school. That's not my best recollection of it.
00:08:43
Speaker
Yeah. No, I think I, I think I, uh, aligned with you and not understanding the gravity of what happened. The only reason why it's pivotal to me, I think is due to my family's service and where I was, you know, I started seeing honors that.
00:08:59
Speaker
I was was on base, dude. I started seeing you know neighbors packing packs and like not coming home for a year. Deployment started happening. I grew up around deploying ah deploying Marine Corps. I was a senior in high school and my neighbor stepped on an IED. like I watched him come home from you know from that. like I helped his wife like get his house ready from that. like that so i like There's a little Like, I'm with you as at 11, I didn't understand like what that meant on a global scale. But ah yeah, thank you everybody for sharing where where you were during that event. Again, I do think that's that's a part of our reason and maybe not be the major part, but I do think, I mean, we're all GWOT babies, so like,
00:09:45
Speaker
You know, without that without of it that event, we we wouldn't be who we are, I don't think. But Tyler, do you want to circle back and expand outside of just 9-11? You're leaning in it on Father's service and maybe a couple other things there? Yeah. So like at the time, I didn't really understand the who or the why.
00:10:05
Speaker
I just, on a very simple terms, I understood like, these are bad people doing bad things to innocent people of our country. And, you know, my father had served in the Marine Corps. He was, I think he was already in the Air Force at the time. um After my dad got out of the Marines, he went in the Air Force Reserves, um brilliant man ended up ah retiring in the Air Force Reserves.
00:10:34
Speaker
I did like 23 years. um That's including his police time as well. So he got double pensions. um But anyway, so I just grew up knowing that he was in the military and you know looking at his his picture in our office of him and his dress blues. And once 9-11 happened, I feel like everything just changed for me.
00:10:59
Speaker
like Me as well as so many other people just knowing like life was never going to be the same. I felt this calling to serve where I didn't really understand the purpose before and I felt like I had a perfect reason for Like a ah mission, you know, like I was this young kid with no direction growing up. I feel like I had a good head on my shoulders, but like 9-11 gave me purpose from a very young age. It's like it gave me something to strive toward. And that had always been the military.
00:11:42
Speaker
um i I said from a very young age, like I was going to go and serve my country. And I just stuck with that my whole life and just, you know, made it my mission to to go on the Marine Corps.
00:11:55
Speaker
And I think it served me for the better. like Say what you will about the global war on terrorism, but I think just having like a so such a specific mission to accomplish like a ah really, I guess, honorable, motivating profession that makes such a character out of somebody, it I feel like it served me for the better.
00:12:24
Speaker
Um, it, to this day, it it affects the way I, I operate my, my daily life and my attitude and how I achieve things. And I feel like it's served me for the better. Um, but those, those early days of, of the war on terrorism, I just remember like.
00:12:51
Speaker
being a kid and just trying to fathom like what was going on. It was it was really strange, just like not understanding why anyone would do this to us. And I remember like once we you know invaded Iraq, I remember being a ah little kid, like playing in my yard in the snow. And then my dad like came outside and was like, hey, we just caught Saddam Hussein. And I'm like, that's awesome.
00:13:15
Speaker
you don't really fucking know the ah complexities with all this. Like, you know, this person's good, this person's bad, but you don't really get like what everybody's done. You know, just those those early days of the war on terrorism were like a little bit of a blur, but at the same time, like it was it was just very simplistic terms. Either way, it it completely shaped my life from the moment 9-11 happened. Gotcha. I think similar to you,
00:13:43
Speaker
Well, different paths, different paths. But similar to you, I've got parents who served, right? Dad was a Marine, mom was a Marine. They met in Okinawa. I was born in Okinawa, like, you know, that was destined to be a Marine, like, but I don't think I wanted to be a Marine, like, growing up. Like, there was nothing that called me to serve growing up, but there was nothing that called me to do anything growing up, I think is the bigger issue.
00:14:13
Speaker
Um, like I didn't take the ACT or the SAT like I, I planned on community college and then going to a four-year school and getting a degree in project management and you know just doing something. But like I had no idea what I was gonna do. I completed my associates and I ah started working with an officer selection officer out of Lincoln, Nebraska, and I was gonna transfer into University of Nebraska-Lincoln. My little brother called me and he had kind of flunked out of his first semester of college. He was using my mom's GI Bill
Military Experiences and Growth
00:14:51
Speaker
And he had to pay it back. And he was like, dude, I can't go. I i can't go to college and I can't afford to pay it back. He was working at Dunkin Donuts. I was like, screw it, man. Let's send list.
00:15:04
Speaker
So you know I kind of went through a ah bad breakup from a long-term relationship. So i I enlisted out of no North Platte, Nebraska and I went to North Carolina. I helped him lose weight so that he could ship and I shipped out of North Carolina and Honestly, I didn't know I needed it until I got it. If that makes sense. Like it wasn't something I hunted out. It wasn't something that like, Oh, I should do this. It was a, I didn't really know what I was going to do with my life. So like, uh, like, yo, am I going to work as a project manager or or should I just do a degree, do some, some Marine Corps time. Cause my parents did like, I felt a weird obligation that I needed it to.
00:15:51
Speaker
And then he called and it was just a triggering event that like, screw it, we're enlisting, enlisted. And like, that's one place where like, removing house to house and growing up and just being a jack of all trades. That's one place that I found that I could step in and just thrive regardless of what I did.
00:16:11
Speaker
And it, it was, it was truly like a finding a home and just, uh, you know, we're going to circle back, but a brotherhood, a group of friends, you know, I moved every couple of years. So like, I don't have a good reason why I joined the Marine Corps, but I have the best reason why the Marine Corps was good for me. Like it's what, it's what I, what what I needed. And I didn't know I needed it at the time. I just thought I was helping out my little brother. How old were you when you joined? I joined late. Yep.
00:16:40
Speaker
I joined like, I went to bootcamp at 21. Tyler, were you were you young? I enlisted at 17. Okay. As soon as I could, I took, dude, I took shots, like too many shots after bootcamp graduation in Myrtle beach at the house of blues. And I was beached Roy for that, you know, no alcohol for the entirety of bootcamp. And then it was 22 when I enlisted y'all are young. Oh, you're the old man.
00:17:15
Speaker
I have four years of college under my belt, bitches. That's wild. It's wild to think because, like, I remember I turned 21 when we were on our one of our, like, ship exercises before deployment. Oh, one of the PDPs. Yeah. ever And I it was my 21st birthday and I was only able to drink fucking water out of my damn canteen. Like, this is great.
00:17:46
Speaker
You know the first time we drank together, Tyler, you know what it was? Probably Portugal. Yeah, but me and you didn't drink together in Portugal. We all went out. But yeah, we went all we all went out. But like, I don't like I wasn't with you guys. I don't remember who my battle buddy was. But I only went out one night and then I traded someone to I took someone's last duty and let them go out that last night because I was already told I was going ahead of the ship. Remember, I stayed in front of you guys. But the first the first place me and you shared a beer, Tyler, was in Ireland on the way home. On the way home. Holy shit. I was just talking about that four hours we spent Ireland today. That was the most satisfying fucking drink I think I've ever had in my life.
00:18:39
Speaker
I've never heard a quieter airplane in my life after that. There was ah only there was only two sounds you heard on that aircraft snoring and that every once in a while you hear somebody puking in the bathroom. um just and The amount of sleeping meds that were in everybody's system and then the the right to go down Guinness out the tap. like Dude, you remember those old Irish guys we were talking with at like 80 years of combined service?
00:19:10
Speaker
I'm looking at those two. Yeah. I remember getting Irish coffees, dude. I was. Yes. That was wild. Yeah. I was just telling that story today. yeah Well, shoot, man. I guess I can take it from here on why I joined.
00:19:27
Speaker
I mean, mine's kind of cliche. I joined at 17. You know, I was, um heard that one already tonight I was, I was a recruiter's wet dream. You guys wet dream. or I went at 15 and he's like, grow up a little bit. You know, I didn't know what to do. I was just itching to get out of my hometown. You know, get hair on your balls. That's what he said. He's like, wait till your voice drops a little bit.
00:19:51
Speaker
Um, and but no, I, I started, I started really, uh, I joined like the late entry program. I was still 16, dude. I did only a whole year. I was like, but at a young age, I always wanted to join the military. You know, my, my father wasn't in the military. My mother wasn't in the military. Um, few of my, my grandfathers were, but.
00:20:11
Speaker
But my grandfather, my one grandfather, I never knew because he died when I was like six months old. And my other grandfather, he was. Shoot in the air force in the fifties, you know, a different timeframe. I did have an an uncle that I looked up to though. He's ah a Vietnam veteran. and He was a truck driver in Vietnam. So that kind of kind of swayed my, my decision to become a truck driver when I joined the Marine Corps. But joining, uh, joining the Marine Corps was something I knew I always wanted to do. It wasn't the army. It wasn't the Navy. It wasn't the air force. It was.
00:20:38
Speaker
It was Marine Corps all the way. Why? I don't know. Maybe it was that ah dang rock climbing dragon commercial we all seen, you know? Oh, man. The demon slaying badass. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. My little my little was brother just turned 20. And I asked him if he's ever seen the Marines slay the dragon commercial. And he was like, no, what's that? I said, whoa, wait a second. Pull it up on YouTube. That one got so many guys.
00:21:08
Speaker
Yeah. Here's your, here's your hip pocket class for the day. Marine. If it's not going to drop panties, it's going to slay dragon.
Life After Military Service
00:21:16
Speaker
Yeah. sword exactly Let's do it. I mean, that's just something that just kind of got me, you know, ah plus, I mean, my cousins and I, we always played. We're just always playing tag in the woods, you know, with wooden rifles we made or sticks that we thought looked like weapons. Um,
00:21:38
Speaker
And then, I mean, there's something I always tell everybody is like, i've I've done everything I wanted to be when I grew up. You know, when I was a little kid, I wanted to be a firefighter, became a firefighter. I want to join the military. So I don't know what I want to be when I get older. That's why it's weird right now. You know, you do something so young in life. You don't know where the rest of your, your life is going to take, you know, cause we didn't, I didn't have a foundation when I joined. It was just high school Marine Corps.
00:22:04
Speaker
But I have to agree with Tyler, it really shaped my life on on how I live it now. And it's it's definitely helped me pull myself out of, pull myself up by the bootstraps and get some stuff done, become a better man. That's about all I got on that one. I feel like no matter, well, Mac. Go ahead, Tyler, it's all you, brother. I was just gonna say, I feel like no matter what stage you're at in life and whether you set out to accomplish This goal of going in the military because of, you know, 911 or whatever other reason like it's just important to always have a goal and something to strive towards, like for me.
00:22:49
Speaker
I always knew, even while I was serving, that I wanted to get out and you know pursue filmmaking. Even from a young age, like I knew this was like my other dream in life. So once I accomplished my one goal, I was like, okay, once I get out, I have to accomplish my other goal. So it's like it's it's nice to have a secondary part to my life where I still have something to strive toward. And I feel like this is something that is a major issue for people getting out of the military is like,
00:23:23
Speaker
they they go into the military, maybe some of them didn't even plan on going in and it's just kind of where they fell in and they don't really have some kind of life goal or something that they're setting out towards and then they get out and then they just feel like they have no meaning in life. So what can you say towards that? Dude, um I've had, since I got out in 2016, I've had seven jobs.
00:23:52
Speaker
You know, I've gotten many certificates, I've started school dropped out of school. Now, currently a VSO I don't. I honestly don't have a goal right now. Like, I just I work to work, I do it to support my family. That's what I saw my dad do so that's But I'm going to do granted he stayed in the same job for a long time. But this is kind of where I've been in life. Very similar vote. But I've only had two jobs since getting out. And then I had some like reserve time while I worked a civilian job and and still did Marine Corps things deployed. It's hard to explain to people that the the feeling of feeling lost after your transition
00:24:39
Speaker
it's hard to conceptualize that for somebody because like most people they set out for a job and that's their goal is the job to earn the dollar But like when you when you lose leave the service, you lose kind of leave something bigger than yourself. And when you join privatized or you know private corporations or even local municipalities, like the same sort of bigger than yourself doesn't really exist anymore. And that's hard to replace.
00:25:10
Speaker
Um, I have focused in on a goal though, but it it has nothing to do with like my profession. It's just like being a, uh, like a strong Christian father and strong Christian role model in my household. Um, that's, that's my goal. Um, a job is a job, you know, and until, until I'm wealthy and beyond belief.
00:25:32
Speaker
I will never be passionate about working on something. It's just not something that, you know, I'm i'm hardwired to, to do. I just, it's not there. Um, I enjoy my job, but it's not a passion and and, and I'm not going to set goals around my job because my job could be gone tomorrow and I can't have to find a new job. And that's, that is what it is. So do michael yeah, my, my, my goals are, you know, my family and, and,
00:26:02
Speaker
how I want them to come up in this world and the life I want to provide for them. And I will do what it takes to do that. you know Picking up garbage cans, working for a railroad, um it doesn't matter. Well put, man. Well put. Well, Mac, give us your- Why did you join? Why did the 22 year old man with a college degree go enlisted? Woo, man.
00:26:30
Speaker
So, my dad served, my grandfather served, and uncles that served. I had a great uncle that was at Pearl Harbor. um One of my uncles, I remember, had the EGA on his arm, on his forearm on the outside from Vietnam.
00:26:49
Speaker
um It was so, his skin was so tan and leather. You couldn't even tell it was an EGA anymore. oh So I just grew up ah around people that had served. Of course, dad being a trooper, just like it is today, a lot of those troopers are veterans as well. They they had all served in some capacity or another.
00:27:18
Speaker
Um, and my, uh, like I said, my mom was raised, my grandpa did 20 years in the air force. And so it was just, I'd go to my grandma's house. My grandpa's dress blues hat was, um, his cover was hanging with the other hats. And, you know, I was so always around it. Like the military was normal. Um, but I don't know. I.
00:27:42
Speaker
After college, or before college, I talked about, I didn't really know what I was gonna do with my life in high school. I didn't have, I was like, oh, the day, like, I wasn't from like, when I was younger, like, that thing was always in the back of my head, like, hey, I wanna wear a badge, I wanna be a trooper, I wanna catch bad guys. That was always there, but it was never like a hard set, like, that's what I wanna do. I was always that person that was like, what else is there? What else is there? Is there something else? What else is there?
00:28:12
Speaker
And so I knew the benefits of going to like the national guard or reserve unit before college and getting college paid for this, that or the other, man, I've pussied out. And I was like, yeah, I'm just going to go to college. i I'm just going to go to college, do the college thing. So I went to college. It was awesome. And I will tell you in the four years of college, I didn't want to think or consider going into the military.
00:28:43
Speaker
I didn't even think about being a cop. I'd given that up. I was like, no, I don't want to be a cop. I don't want to go in the military. I didn't have a clue what I wanted to do, but I mean, besides you drink beer, or chase women and work at my easy ass job at a gym.
00:28:58
Speaker
um know what it was going to do, man. And one time I was thinking I was going to move out West, um, to like Colorado and work out there doing something. I know I didn't want to work inside. I knew I want to do something like park ranger, guys, stuff like that, man. I was the hippie part of me was very relevant in those days. And, uh, when I got towards the end of college, things were coming into play. The economy was tanked. Um,
00:29:29
Speaker
No jobs. If you wanted a job when I was coming out of college with a four year degree, it would have been more financially stable to continue taking school loans out and make more money that way than to actually go into the job market. um People were going back to school for their masters because you couldn't find a job worth of shit to survive on. And I'm like, I'm done with fucking school. Like I'm ready to do something.
00:29:59
Speaker
And man, I was. I was just up one night and I just like, I was like, man, fuck it. Let me look in the Marine Corps. My dad was in the army uncle or had some uncles in the army. Grandpa was the air force. I knew for sure. Shit. I didn't want to get on a Navy boat. Uh,
00:30:19
Speaker
That's a fun joke for all of us. And ah I was like, all right, fucking Marine Corps. like They're supposed to have the longest training, the hardest training. I was a fit dude. I was an arrogant. I'm like, I can do this shit. So I went to the recruiter. The recruiter, this is this is why I never went to OCS. I go to the recruiter, tell him everything. He's like, you got to go talk to the officer. I'm like, all right, cool. No idea. like What that means. Do I wore sweat pants and like an armed arm or a hoodie to the officer's office? And I do the interview and they're like, you ever smoked weed before? Like, yeah, I was in college. Of course I smoked weed. And they literally were like, we can do better. And I was like, I don't know what that means. I don't fucking care. And so I went back to the enlisted side and he was, he's telling me and he's like, well, you know, it's not a big deal. I could talk to him, blah, blah, blah.
00:31:18
Speaker
and i'm And I'm sitting there like I remember my dad talking before I came in. I'd say I get into this and I like it and I do 20 years. Wouldn't it make sense for me to, I don't know, at least have some enlisted so enlisted time, no matter what, to kind of understand who you're leading. And then he was like, I mean, we have that. It's called being a Mustang. And he explained it to me and I was sold. I was like, cool, sounds awesome. Let's do that. Like knowing that at the time being smart enough to know that
00:31:54
Speaker
I could go be an officer later down the road if I wanted to make a career out of it and it would be more respectable to go that route than it was to be some hippie ass college student that jumped straight into an officer's and you got to salute me because I wear this fucking brass on my shoulders like go fuck yourself.
00:32:13
Speaker
Um, I'd rather earn my fellow Marines respect over actually just tell it saying a piece of paper makes me better than you. Um, I still don't believe in it, but whatever. And so I, uh, I just signed the paperwork, dude, and it was in the lead entry program for six months.
00:32:32
Speaker
And during that time, um, my ex wife and I were dating. And a couple of weeks before, and I went a couple of weeks, fuck couple of days before I shipped off to bootcamp, found out she was pregnant and went to bootcamp. And I was like, all right, well, I'm actually glad I have a job now with healthcare. So thank God for that. And that was it, man. Like the, and I knew.
00:33:02
Speaker
That whole thing in the back of my head of, hey, you you're going to end up being a trooper. and so like That always sat with me. ah I just think growing up idolizing those guys and being around those guys and have gone and worked shifts with my dad before, I think that it was cemented in there already. I just wasn't willing to accept it yet.
Military Roles and Deployments
00:33:22
Speaker
And that was another big reason is I knew going to get four or five years in the military after being a dumb ass hippie in college, that would a square some bad habits away, clean up some of that bullshit. I'd learn how to be more of a professional, um especially in the Marine Corps, because we do have the highest standards.
00:33:45
Speaker
And um I knew on the application process going in to be a trooper that I would need that. I was not going to get into a good state police without those kinds of standards already being met once before. And so, um yeah, that's that's really why I went. it was it It wasn't something like I'd always thought about it, but it was never anything that I was going to pull the trigger on. I wasn't in in college, dude. It wasn't even in my wheelhouse. I don't know if you guys ever knew this when I was in the schoolhouse. Uh, my first set of orders were to second Marine division. I was never coming to the new. And then they ended up getting changed for dude that when they knew I had a kid.
00:34:34
Speaker
Um, there was another guy graduate at the same time as I was, and he ended up, they changed our orders around. So I went to the mu and he went to second Marine division. He ended up with two or three combat to flip deployments, I think.
00:34:49
Speaker
Um, which is something I kind of always held a grudge against. I was kind of knowing that there was a war going on. Like that was one thing I'd accepted like, all right, let's go. And then getting to non-combat deployments. Um, uh, that's something I kind of always struggled with dealing with, especially getting out.
00:35:09
Speaker
is I never got a combat deployment. So it was kind of like, man, what did I really do? Um, but that's, that goes along with the struggle of transitioning out. I'm glad you brought that up. And there's two things I want to touch on here. One, I wanted to gauge with everyone how you ended up with your MOS. Um,
00:35:35
Speaker
I will speak from my own experience. um When I was growing up and what I initially set out to do when I went to the recruiter is I wanted to be a grunt. um you know I wanted to be infantry, wanted to serve on the front lines and you know everything I knew about the Marine Corps. When I was going in, it was such an influx of people and they were all trying to be infantry. And they basically said, okay,
00:36:06
Speaker
you can go into delayed entry program, but if you wanna go infantry, you have to wait a year and a half. And I was freshly turned 18 and I was basically like, hey, fuck that. Like I want to go in as soon as possible. So they're like, okay, we can give you a couple options. And basically the next thing that landed for me was I was trying to shoot for combat engineer.
00:36:35
Speaker
And for whatever reason, because the way you can't choose your specific job in the Marine Corps, I ended up just getting armor and I just rolled with it. But it's, it's so weird because like a lot of my friends who went in the military at the same time as me who went in the Marine Corps.
00:36:57
Speaker
who ended up choosing infantry and getting to go when they wanted to leave. They ended up just sitting their asses on either Pendleton or Lejeune for their entire enlistment, didn't get to deploy at all, and they just sat on a base and just did training and, you know, a bunch of bullshit. Meanwhile, I went in as a pogue, as an armorer, and I ended up deploying as soon as possible, got to go to Afghanistan,
00:37:27
Speaker
I got to go out on convoys as a machine gunner. like I got to do so much more than the guys who went in as infantry that I knew. and you know It really is just luck of the draw. like You don't get to choose your path, really. like you can You can try to shape how you go in the military and what that's going to be like, but especially like back when You know, war on terror was still going on. We're in Iraq and Afghanistan. like it's It's just luck of the draw. You don't really get to choose if you're going to go or not.
00:38:03
Speaker
um You might choose infantry and just get shafted your whole enlistment, or you might be a pog and get to deploy the whole time. like I did my Afghanistan deployment, and then immediately upon getting back from that, got sent to the MEU and did my ship deployment. like My entire time was either deployment or training for deployment.
00:38:26
Speaker
And I just got super lucky with that, but I wanted to see where you guys were with that and like how you got your jobs. Yeah, I can I can lean in on this one quickly.
00:38:37
Speaker
um yeah so my My mom was, ah she was a logistics, she was MIMS when they were called MIMS and then um then she went, worn off surround and she went over to TMO, but she had a ton of friends in the log field and she knew that 0431's promoted quickly for that aspect. She, she kind of coached me and my little brother to go 431. That way we can get promoted quickly and not stall out. And, you know, you hear so many terminal dances or, you know, whatever it may be, it's service terms. um And, you know, denied reenlistment due to it. I got to do cool shit, even though I was an embarker. My, my pre-deployment workup
00:39:25
Speaker
For SP bag taff was with like I spent more time on with the forceful tune that I did with anybody or with with that Bravo company, Recon. I get to go do cool ass shoots, cool ass shoot house stuff. So I'm with you, Tyler. It doesn't matter what it was. You are, I think it's luck of the draw. There's not a lot of, ah not a lot of Marines that can say they stood on the shores of Tripoli. and I've got sand in my safe from the shores of the Tripoli. Like I smuggled that shit back. Like, hell yeah.
00:39:58
Speaker
Dude, we all, I mean, everybody's story, you got something cool everybody did, you know? Like shoot I wound up going to a place on campus, you know, one ever heard of out of school house. I went to boat school. I got to break in zodiacs, like outboard Johnson engines, you know, in in the bay over in courthouse bay. Not a lot of Marines even know where that's at. You know, and I learned, we didn't even have a single truck. I was a motor tee guy first unit. We had no trucks. I was under the coast guard. I was in a coast guard unit, bro.
00:40:32
Speaker
I have a Coast Guard ribbon because of that unit.
00:40:37
Speaker
Oh man, it is nuts. You know, I got to play with like mini guns and like sayings, like everything the Marine Corps didn't have that the Coast Guard had. I got to play with it. You know, we got to do a Zodiac boat maintenance, got to do boat PT, which really sucks. Don't recommend to anybody.
00:40:58
Speaker
Um, and then after that, I mean, I stayed in school houses and then I moved over to, uh, combat engineer school. And then I got to blow everything up and shoot at officers with Sim rounds. You know, like, I love my first four years in Marine Corps, even though I knew I wasn't, I wasn't going anywhere. It was, it was, it was insane. And then I go over to the wing and they're like, Hey, you want to go on a view? Like, sure.
00:41:28
Speaker
But I think my time in service was awesome because I never really did anything truck driver related But did everything truck driver related how'd you end up in? I'm cam back I You know, I was told by my recruiter that I was I had an MP Contract and I was like, all right cool. I'll go be an MP. Let's do it um And then literally like three weeks before they were like, oh we don't have that contract I don't fucking know. I didn't ask questions. I'm like, all right, well, I'm going in. What do I got? Am I options were weatherman or com cam?
00:42:06
Speaker
and i was like cool learning to work a camera sounds fun let's do that and like the way the recruiter was he was like you've seen all the videos like how the fuck do you think we get those videos over and i was like that makes sense yep someone actually has to take the photos and record all that shit that we see that's cool and hell-raising let's be that guy let's go there so I had never heard of it. Didn't know it was an MOS. Most people don't know it's an MOS, but if you see footage from overseas or training or whatever, it's coming from a combat photographer. So I did it and jumped in that shit. um I haven't touched a camera since I got out of the Marine Corps and I still understand how to do it. That's that it surprises people to this day when somebody who's big into cameras and photography starts talking.
00:43:01
Speaker
And I can comment on it. I mean, I know the basics. Most cameras these days are different than what I use. It's already so far gone um and so much upgraded. You don't even have to be a good photographer to get a good picture anymore. But that's how I ended up in it. But I ended up, I'm i'm happy with the choice because I never had the same day, two days in a row.
00:43:27
Speaker
um You guys know, I mean, I was everywhere all the time doing God. You never knew when I was going to pop up. um We'd be with the wing, we'd be with recon, we'd be with the grunt units. I never even knew how we ended up out with some of these teams or whatever. like We just got scheduled to go with Omar. We'd go all the trainings I went to. We did the VBSS training to
Reflections on Military Service
00:43:53
Speaker
CQB training. to i mean we The first time I ever saw a flash bang, I was standing by, I think Styx was on the rafters with me. Maybe it was Smallwood.
00:44:04
Speaker
I can't remember which one of those other teams was on this, the rafters next to me. And I'm like looking through my camera, no big deal. I didn't know they were going to throw a flash bang. And the first time I've like recorded a shoot house, they were recording it for training. And so I'm trying to help these guys out and like jokes on me, they threw a flash bang right underneath where I was standing in the rafters and do that fucking thing went off. And I was, I was lost in the sauce for a minute. Uh, so, you know, you're like, I got,
00:44:33
Speaker
the ah i don't know it it turned out to be awesome flying on c one thirty s between spain in italy and like um'm being the only passenger because so fucking colonel wanted me over in Italy with him and I was back in Spain. And so they were like, well, that plane leaves tomorrow. So climbing on a C one 30 and being the only passenger on the C one 30, besides the crew, like that, that should happen all the time or jumping on a Huey because somebody wants you somewhere and you're the only one going. So like that shit was fun. All right. One quick question before we, we wrap up into some closeout stuff.
00:45:17
Speaker
Would you change anything about your service? I take a combat deployment. Honestly, there's nothing I'd really change about it. I'm content with what my service was. I wouldn't change a damn thing, man. I got lucky. um ah You know, there were certain things that I wanted for my time in.
00:45:37
Speaker
And I didn't quite get to do those things, but at the same time, like I got very lucky with what I did get to do compared to a lot of guys. And I'm grateful for the experiences that I've had. And I wouldn't give those times or the the people I served with up for anything. I wouldn't change anything about it. I wouldn't change how it ended and I would have stayed in.
Dream Concerts and Conclusion
00:46:01
Speaker
I can agree with you there. All right. Quirky close outs. Quirky close out. gar um What do you got? I'm going to go first to give you guys some time to think. Okay.
00:46:16
Speaker
if you can only go see one concert for the rest of your life. What is your one bucket list concert? And you can pull somebody back from the dead if you need to. Oh, easy. So my bucket list concert, and this is going to tell a lot about me as a person, Blink 182. I need to see them. I am pop punk all day long, dude. Well, Blink 182 is currently still playing. Would you like take them for like like in their prime. I'd go to that concert with you. I would go now or in their prime. Either way, their new music they're putting out is still great. It's still pretty good. If you have not listened to the new album, it's great. So I would take them now. They still play the same songs. I would take them now. Go to that concert, bro. I know. Hey, I almost had Tara talked in to go and see him in Paris last year. Oh. Oh.
00:47:13
Speaker
Kids are not quite old enough yet for her to travel internationally. So slamming. Oh, man. dude Music is ah be so difficult, dude. You know, the music guy, too, man. I know, man. There's like some bands in North Carolina, which I could go see again, even that I played with or shared the stage and play with them. But I shared the stage. with them but Let's see here. Who would I go see? You know, honestly, I'd i'd like to see Motorhead.
00:47:42
Speaker
like back in the day. Motorhead. Yeah, that's a good one. OK, Mac. Bro, I'm sitting on it like I'm i'm kind of bouncing around between fake hair, loud voices. Or the original. I mean, do if I got to dig it, if I got to go do it and if I can bring him back from the dead and see him in his prime. I may not fit in with the crowd there, but I'm going to pop.
00:48:16
Speaker
yeah yeah that's scar because it doesn't matter dude to this day you put a Tupac song on anyone that knows anything fucking knows the words hell yeah my answer has been consistent from the get-go and this isn't just like if i could go see a concert this is like if there was any moment where if like if you were to give me a time machine and I had one opportunity to go back in time to a single event. I would go back to Wembley Stadium 1985 and go see fucking Live Aid and go see Queen yeah perform Live Aid. Freddie Mercury is the fucking goat. I would fucking kill to watch their performance live. That it that would just be the the greatest moment of my life.
00:49:11
Speaker
yeah okay but Caleb, I think I listened to my chemical romance because I knew who I love. Yeah, dude, I still. Sucker blast. I like all that like emo shit from the fucking early 2000s. That's the best. Like Hawthorne Heights. Yeah. Well, it's been real. It's been good. We kind of went down a little memory lane, kind of went down a why we serve, this has been a good intermediate episode for our listeners out there. Next week's episode, we'll dive back in on ah on a life topic. you know We decided to make this week lighthearted or you know not not something that was heavy, um just to make sure that we keep a good mental headspace and you as a listeners don't burn out on what we're talking about. So I hope you guys have enjoyed
00:50:08
Speaker
All right. Later, gents. Good night. Take care, guys.