Veterans Archives: Preserving the Stories of our Nations Heroes
In a world where storytelling has been our link to the past since the days of cave drawings, there exists a timeless tradition. It's the art of passing down knowledge, and for Military Veterans, it's a crucial piece of their legacy. Join us on the Veterans Archives Podcast, where we dive deep into the heartwarming and awe-inspiring stories of those who served, no matter when or where.
Here, Veterans get the chance to be the authors of their own narratives. Through guided interviews in a relaxed and safe environment, they paint their experiences with their own words and unique voices. The result? A memory card in a presentation box, a precious gift they can share however they please.
But that's not all. These stories find a secure home in our archive, a treasure chest of experiences for future generations to explore. The best part? It's all a gift to the Veteran – our way of saying thank you for their service.
Tune in to the Veterans Archives Podcast, where history, heroism, and heartwarming tales come to life.
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Veterans Archives: Preserving the Stories of our Nations Heroes
Finding Purpose After Combat: Eric Corbett's Military Odyssey
From latchkey kid to combat veteran, Eric Corbett's extraordinary journey unfolds in this compelling conversation about service, struggle, and redemption.
Growing up in Florida during simpler times, Eric recalls drinking from garden hoses and wandering neighborhoods freely with friends - a childhood marked by independence that would later serve him well. After high school graduation and some legal troubles involving marijuana, Eric found himself at a crossroads that led him to Fort Benning and basic training in 2008.
What follows is a riveting account of military excellence and occasional rebellion. Eric quickly distinguished himself, competing for Soldier of the Year despite being a new recruit, while also finding himself in memorable predicaments - from smuggling apples during field exercises to evading MPs after a cab dispute. His deployment to Beji, Iraq in 2009 exposed him to the harsh realities of combat and the profound perspective it brings.
"You don't realize what you have until it's gone," Eric reflects, describing how witnessing life without running water, reliable electricity, or rule of law changed his outlook forever. His candid descriptions of transitioning between war and home life reveal the psychological whiplash many veterans experience.
The narrative takes a dramatic turn with Eric's account of the 2019 Baghdad Embassy attack while working as a contractor protecting US diplomats. "That's when it hit me. It's not a game," he recalls of the moment they were warned of incoming ballistic missiles.
Perhaps most powerful is Eric's recent transformation through sobriety. After years of alcohol-fueled adventures across multiple continents, he shares how giving up drinking in November 2023 has led to profound physical and spiritual growth. "There's been someone helping me, watching over me," he reflects, embracing a newfound spirituality.
Eric leaves us with hard-earned wisdom: "The decisions you make determine the outcome of your life. You control your own destiny." It's a powerful testament from someone who has truly lived on the edge and found his center.
So today is Tuesday, May 13th 2025. We're talking with Eric Corbett, who served the United States Army. So, Eric, great to see you this afternoon.
Speaker 2:Likewise.
Speaker 1:I know it was a little bit of a surprise, but here we are. Yeah, it's good, we're gonna rock and roll this thing. So we'll start out pretty simple when and where were you born?
Speaker 2:So I was born in Orange Park, Florida, which is in Jacksonville, on September, September 21st 1986. Okay, so you grew up in Florida, then yeah, I was there for a couple months, I think it was until I was like three months old, and then we moved to Orlando.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:And I grew up over in Oak Ridge area of Orlando. Here Went to Weingart Elementary, walker Middle School, okay, cypress Creek High School and then graduated from Boone High School in 2005.
Speaker 1:All right Brothers and sisters.
Speaker 2:I have one. I have two sisters, older sisters my full sister, jennifer. She's a year and six months older than me, or three months older than my oldest sister, melissa. She's my half-sister from the same dad. She's I don't know too much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah, older sister, dad um she's, I don't know too much. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, older sister. Yeah, they older sisters yeah, older sisters, I guess, yeah yeah, so tell me a little bit about, like what you remember growing up. What was it like, uh, growing up in in florida and being a kid?
Speaker 2:man, it was a lot different than it is now. Uh, no phones, so you were outside a lot. You know I was a latchkey kid so it was very independent. You know I was always out. You know mom just said be home when the street lights come on and that's it. So I was pushing those boundaries. But you know we'd walk miles from the house. You know, just wandering, doing stuff and getting into mischief and doing a lot being a kid being a kid man?
Speaker 1:yeah, not like today yeah, so did you guys drink from the hose too? We did.
Speaker 2:We drank from the hose, yeah, so when it was winter, you got cold water. When it was summer, you got hot water.
Speaker 1:Perfect, yeah, yeah, and I know, when I was a kid, we didn't let it run either. We just drank whatever was in the hose.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep, you taste that. You never forget that taste. No no, you don't.
Speaker 1:So how was school for you? What was it like?
Speaker 2:So elementary school, I remember bits and pieces of that there. It was fun. I was never really a big academic person, believe it or not. My sister, though, very smart, yeah, very smart. So it was tough following her shoes. I used to get a lot of her teachers you know those two grades behind her. I was like, oh, you're jennifer corbett's brother. And I was like, yeah, so they thought they had another genius on their hands and they're like, okay, good job, buddy.
Speaker 1:So nice try right. Yeah, you gave it a for effort, you know was that a lot of pressure for you, though, as a?
Speaker 2:kid. Sometimes it was when they knew who I was like right off the bat. They asked that question. So it was like, ah shit, but no, she was cool. She was always that way. You know Was never good with kids when we were growing up, you know, but she'd always make us play school. She was miserable Me and my friends. And now she's a teacher, believe it or not.
Speaker 1:Sounds like she knew what she wanted to do pretty early on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, moving to high school was a big change. We moved halfway through my sophomore year so I went to a school where I barely knew anybody, so it was kind of a shock. But you know I have very social butterfly battery, so you know it's pretty easy for me to make friends, get along and meet new people. Um, you know, blended well, but school was definitely not my strong suit. Graduated in 2005. There's some stories about that. Went to start a college at Valencia Community College. It was working full-time, going to school, had moved out on my own, like right at 18. You know, did that for a while.
Speaker 1:So is there a reason why, like you moved, you move right out? Just curious, because I see a lot, of, a lot of people like your age, maybe a little bit younger yeah for some reason, like right when they turned 18, it's gone.
Speaker 2:So I remember my you know I'm a stepdad. I always said that to you know, right, when you're, when you're 18, you're gone, uh. So I heard that from a young age. So it was always his instinct like, well, I gotta go. You know, it was kind of like graduation's coming up, uh, and then a bunch of my buddies had gotten a house. So I was like say less, let's do this. You know I was like so that was fun.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, I moved out a couple, like two month or two, after um graduation and uh yeah.
Speaker 1:Any good stories about the uh uh, about the frat house?
Speaker 2:oh, man, it was what, if funny, you ask. So it started. Yeah, it was exactly what it was. It was a frat house. Um, it was my buddy's parents had bought it and uh, it was over there off econ and 50. We're all going to school. There's some years gone by, well times. I got tough and you know.
Speaker 2:So we started dabbling ways to make money, and this leads into why I had to join the military okay um, so obviously you know, everyone was smoking pot ice in college, you know, and that's so we started selling pot. And uh, then the dea raided our house one time, and so then I moved to Gainesville, florida. You were selling a lot of pots at the DEA.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, it got better. It gets better. Hang on one second. I'm going to close this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, talk up. Hey, buddy, Curious old man. There you go, we're good. I'm just going to try and get in it. I might want to lock it because you'll figure out how to open it.
Speaker 1:There you go. It's a Pelican case for a reason. All right, one second here, okay. So the DEA shows up and you end up moving.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So then I kind of split the band up, me and two buddies moved to Gainesville. A couple buddies stayed down here. That's why I moved to Gainesville, started at Santa Fe Community College and old habits die hard, trying to make money, you know, pay rent, make this and so we started just doing the same thing up there again, because everyone was trying to go the legit way. You know, yeah, make some money and go to school. And those were tough when you're 18, 19,. You know, I think at this point I was, yeah, I was 21. I turned 21 up there in Gainesville, blast of a night. You know, everyone's 21 birthday is always something, oh, yeah. And so that was a time, my mom, we're just.
Speaker 2:Things were getting real out of control up there and my mom and sister came up to the apartment on a saturday unannounced and we were living at the time. We had a condo on the golf course, so things were, life was good at that age and, uh, you know, my mom found some things and we had a little falling out there and she, you know, made me make a decision, and so I saw the writing on the wall again with, you know the way things were going, and so I woke up one day and called her mom and said meet me at the recruiting station. And it took me about two and a half months to get clean from smoking weed without smoking weed. And I remember sleeping on my sister's floor in her apartment and I got up and just left that old life behind and was trying to join the Army. That's all I wanted to do was infantry.
Speaker 2:So I went to the Marines first. They couldn't get me out for like six months and this was right at the surge of the war, yeah. And so the army was like we can take you next week, but I couldn't pass the drug test. And so the day he took me to MEPS, like they were, I remember drinking a gallon, like a handle gallon of water. He's like you, you know, you better hope and I mean it took forever and but luckily, you know, I passed and the rest was history and on uh july 16 2008, I was off to fort benning ge, georgia.
Speaker 1:Oh nice, Nice, cool place to go in the middle of summer.
Speaker 2:It's a great place to go in the summer.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So that was a culture shock, you know, because I was 21. I think I turned 22 in basic training.
Speaker 1:So walk me through that. Like you get to basic training, you get off the bus.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we get off the bus, walk me through that.
Speaker 2:So now I'm getting ready to turn 22. And I'm with a bunch of 18-year-olds 17, 18-year-olds and it's like, wow, what the fuck am I doing here? And when you first get there, you're just going to in-processing and it's not that bad. Someone's trying to be tough and let's go, go, go. But that's just the beginning of you know what's to come. It's like you're you're getting all your medical done, you're getting you're issued your stuff and you know they shave your head right off the bat and you start getting, like you know your pts and uniforms right and then go go into your first like basic training unit. You know what's that shark? It's called shark attack. That was. You know that was a. It was like, it was a shock. Like what am I doing here? You know, because you roll up and it's just you know they got machine guns going there's, you know, frags going, there's smoke everywhere, there's music blaring, that's everyone's just yelling at you. So you're trying to like what you know. It's just it's overloading your senses, like you're in it right.
Speaker 1:You know right well, and you were used to being on your own, so this is a big change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know I was, you know I was getting ready to turn 22, and so I was kind of like, wow, this is. You know, what did I sign up for here? What is this man? And uh yeah then it went right to basic training, you know so what are?
Speaker 1:so what are some of the like? I don't know if highlights is the right word, but when you think about basic training, what are some of the things that like pop into your head? What are, oh man?
Speaker 2:so they, when you first got your issue gear and everything, they gave you a stencil and they were like all right, put your name on the stencil on the bag. And I was like, oh okay, so I only did it on one bag because I didn't think we were gonna need. I was like I'll just carry this bag. Well, you know, right, when you get off the the bus you know they're like all right, you have a minute to grab your duffel bags. At this point I knew I fucked up because only one of my bags had my name on it. Oh shit, yeah. I was like, oh shit, this ain't good. And so obviously no one found their bags and I'm under a minute because you know it's you're meant to fail, right. But when they came to, everyone found their bag and I only had one bag. You know, I just brought a little more attention on myself, remember that.
Speaker 2:And then, like the first couple days, like we're filling out paperwork, laying on the floor in the bay of the barracks room, and they were just, they just force hydrate, you right, it's like, well, you can only drink so much water before it has to come out, right.
Speaker 2:And um, I'm laying there and I was like I'm about to piss all myself here on the floor and I was like I'm a grown man, I am not doing that. And so I stood up and I was like real sorry, you know, I got a pain. He's like probably you need to hold it. I was like just we're past that point, there's no more holding it right, like I am going to pee myself right now. I was like I can't hold it, like it was. You know, trying to pinch the tip right doesn't work, man. You know it's not like the cartoons. And so you know he's everybody up, you know he's a restroom and so there's like five guys to like a you know one urinal trying to pee and all you know it's a big mess yeah and uh, that sticks out.
Speaker 2:You know there's a, so they don't let you eat. You eat when you eat, right, and it's. You don't sneak. You're not allowed to have food or anything, and you know they deprive you of food. They're probably asleep and it's just. You're in fort benning, georgia, in the summertime, coming from july august, so you know how hot that gets. It's terrible, it's miserable. We were doing a field problem. One day. I had snuck an apple in my cargo pocket, of course. Now, as we were sitting there waiting at the range in a fall asleep, just like half the other platoon does, because you're sleep deprived, you're hot, sweaty, we're getting smoked, we're low, crawling down this hill and as I'm low crawling, this apple comes rolling by me. I was like, oh fuck. I was like that's my apple.
Speaker 1:That's not going to be a good thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was like that's not going to be good.
Speaker 1:And I look up and there's a drill sergeant looking at me and he's like private, private.
Speaker 2:What is this and that'd? Be an apple drill sergeant, I'm sure you know.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, there was repercussions for that, yeah, but so you kind of stood out in basic training a couple times, yeah, but I was.
Speaker 2:You know, everybody does, yeah everybody does a little bit here and there. Um, you know I, luckily, luckily for me I have a lot of common sense, street smarts, so I can put you know two and two together and figure it out. I can read the room you know, realize quick, it's a game, you know, blend in, fit in where you get in kind of gray man in the shadows. Everyone has their fuck ups.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah, did that. Graduated on Halloween night, halloween day of 2008. Uh-huhhuh, yeah, from after graduation turning and then our turning blue ceremony.
Speaker 1:And how did your family show up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep, yep, yeah. My mom showed up. My uh, my dad, my stepdad and all that my uh, my dad's new girlfriend at the time, who would then later become my new stepmother. First time meeting her that was. That was wow, that was a joy yeah, man, so she looks. She looks like a witch. Right, she was just a little lady and we're standing there and this lady's just taking pictures of me to my side here. I thought she was snapping the guy to my left yeah you know, and she was just me.
Speaker 2:I was like who is this? My mom walks up, she's like meet your dad's new girlfriend. And she acted like you know, she had known me since day two, oh of life. You know, she was like I'm so proud and I was like who the?
Speaker 1:is this right?
Speaker 2:you know and uh talk about reading the room yeah, she could not, she was, she wasn't, she was one of those.
Speaker 1:She basically parked her broom out front. She did yeah, I got you, you know gotcha.
Speaker 2:It's. I'm here for a little bit.
Speaker 1:She was an odd one, Very odd, but uh how was that feeling, though Graduating and making it through basic it?
Speaker 2:was cool, man, cause it was the first time of something that I really ever felt a part of something right Like finish something through completely. You know, obviously you know you got high school and all that, but I never finished college, right?
Speaker 2:So it was like I was 20, I turned 22 at this time, so it was like it was an accomplishment. I was like, all right, this is cool dude. And so I was proud. You know, I was like this, this is something I've, you know. I remember when the war kicked off, you know, back in the iraq war 2003, I was like you know, I was like I want to serve my country one day. Yeah, and you know, then I got that chance too and from there I went, came home on two weeks leave for hometown recruiting, and then I went to Fort Riley, kansas. It was cold there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you weren't in Georgia anymore.
Speaker 2:No, I was not in Georgia anymore. And then I got off the plane there in Kansas, because November here is. You know, shorts and a t-shirt weather. Oh yeah, kansas, it was. Uh, it's like 32 degrees. That's gore-tex yeah, and I had just on shorts, flip-flops and a long thermal, I was like I'm did it again here I am with my one bag, yeah, exactly, and my apple yep, so I had.
Speaker 2:I had a suitcase this time, luckily, so I was able to like go inside and change to something warmer, and so I spent that that first thanksgiving away there, fort raleigh, kansas, at in processing, I mean, a couple other infantry soldiers. Actually, we spent our thanksgiving dinner in a strip club oh it was lovely nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a memorable experience it was did they have a buffet?
Speaker 2:no, it was a. It was a potluck oh, that's oh gross.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did not eat. Yeah, no, thank you in the room.
Speaker 2:You know it was a junction city, kansas, so it was not your finest establishments for food, and the women were questionable at best.
Speaker 1:So yeah, do they have a nice club like that right outside of Fort Leonard Wood?
Speaker 2:They always do yeah, yeah, that was a bring your own bottle thing too.
Speaker 1:You had to pay like 15 bucks for ice. You had to bring your own alcohol. Yeah, it was very strange. So, yeah, so you spent Thanksgiving in a strip club.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my first one there, 2008. Yeah, and so what unit were you with at Riley? So I was with the first entry division, but I was in the two 16 Ranger division. Okay, so I was there from 2008 to 2011 or the end of 2010, going into 11 ish. I did my first deployment with them when I first got into the unit. I got into so I remember showing up.
Speaker 2:Everyone got picked up by brigade and we were at our companies and all the platoon sergeants were coming in because there was like a mat. It was like they just got back from a deployment a couple months before that and we were gearing up to leave again in a couple months. Everyone was trying to pick their guys. This guy comes in in. He was like, who wants to be a sniper? And I was like, oh, that sounds cool. I was like I'll try that.
Speaker 2:You know like who's got a, you know who has a 300 pt score, and I, you know, at the time I was, you know, pretty fit still pretty fit now but I could run like the wind and you know push-ups and everything from basic training. So I had that and uh, so I got, I went and tried out with them, got selected by them and then just became hell, because I was the new private right. You know, this group of small guys already selected, you know. So I didn't go to a regular line platoon, I went to a recon platoon, um, so I had a lot to prove. You know, they just got back from deployment so you got all these young guns that are full of testosterone, that are like what have you done?
Speaker 2:you know, and yeah I'm like obviously nothing, I just fucking got here you're lower than amoeba shit. Yeah, man, I was like you know, and uh, it's a culture shock because you got these guys that you know constantly have something to prove and it's just like all right, you know.
Speaker 2:And it's like we buddy you're not you're not better than me, you know I got, I got, you know, always had that drive in me like I'm better than you, buddy, like you just do this, you know, yeah, and uh, yeah, so it was fun. And then I, so I ended up competing, uh, so all you do is like I, you know, quickly learning, if I don't want to do push-ups, I gotta have my face in a book right studying. And so I had this cherry it's called cherry get smart book and, uh, I just studied, that's all I did. So I ended up going to like soldier of the month board and I won soldier of the month and I was like, oh, okay, cool. Then they were like, oh, yeah, you know, eric, you did good. So I'm like, yes, yes, good, good, eric you know, right, good for me.
Speaker 2:They pat you on the head yeah all that fun stuff so then I went to, uh, I ended up competing for soldier of the brigade and I won that. And uh, I was like, oh man. So then I started getting a lot more attention. Right, I was like I don't want the attention, but people started I was like, oh, we got this kid, so soldier of the year was coming up. This was all within like a span of five months of me being even being in the army before I deployed, because I was, you know, I got there. I got there. I want to say you know it was obviously november, the end of thanksgiving, and then we deployed in august. So between like, field prep and all that, you know, ntc, there wasn't a lot of time for all this to be happening, you know. So I was like a kid who's only been in the Army for six months. You know, I went to compete for Soldier of the Year I was a PV2, and they were like what the fuck is this guy doing here?
Speaker 1:So you were like the definition, you were like poster boy for stud, like here's what a stud is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what they thought. And I was like, no, uh, I did that. And then I competed. You know, it was a whole thing. It was pt, test, land nav, uh, weapons, qual, kazevac lanes, um, there's like comms. It was like you know, you had to set comms up with all this stuff, and you know, then there was a board. I remember the board. It was like all like sergeant majors and like lieutenant colonels, that were your questions, because you were like it was soldier of the year, so it was from like fort riley. It was, uh, fort linderberg. It was like all of them in the first entry division, that's what we're competing for. And I remember sitting there and like, so I had gotten a notice by all these people. They were like where's this pv2? And so everybody was competing with like all e4s that were like four-year e4s and whatnot, and, like you know, the people that had been in the army for longer than a day. Yeah and uh, I was like me, you know, and I had the army bcgs at the time.
Speaker 2:So that was, you know, shaped, stupid, shaped yeah man look like a goof and uh, they're like this guy. You know I was, I was a soaking wet at the time. You know six to 175 pounds, you know it was like beanstalk yeah, maybe 175 pounds. And um, I got I got fourth out of that out of like 15 people and so they were like damn, that was cool pretty cool and for that, for doing that, I got to go to this school in fort benning.
Speaker 2:It was, uh, the raven school, so it was before drones. It was like the first set of drones, remember ravens were. It was like the, it was a spy. It was like the first set of drones, remember.
Speaker 1:Ravens were. It was like the. It was a spy plane, oh yeah, but you launch it Right.
Speaker 2:So I got to go to Fort Benning for that and that was cool. And then we, you know I got as soon as I got back from that we geared up for my first deployment and that was to Beji, iraq, northern Iraq.
Speaker 2:Uh-huh Beji Iraq northern Iraq in 2009. So obviously, it was coming right out of the surge and we're up on the Beji oil refinery and it was like this oil refinery was like one of the largest ones in the country at the time and they were producing a lot of, but the Taliban owned it, you know, back in ISIS, right, so they were getting a lot of money off this oil refinery. So the unit before us out of Hawaii I think they were the Wolfhounds. They took a lot of casualties for it, like getting that back, and so we maintained it, for, you know, I think we were there for nine and a half months. You know, you saw a lot of wild stuff. Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so where? Like what were you near in northern Iraq? So I was in Mosul.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we would have been more north of that.
Speaker 1:Almost up to Erbil area.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you patrol all the mountains and everything. So I boarded up with Syria. There was a lot of Syrian fighters were coming through there and so we had to go check out these mountains and everything. It was lack lack. Remember Fobb Summerall? Yes, it was lack-lack. Remember FOB Summerall.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:That was our battalion FOB.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And so we were like our battalion had a nice little outpost and so we had a nice little base. We were our own little outpost. We didn't have a chow hall, so you were more of a cop than a.
Speaker 1:FOB yeah, we were a cop, it was in the military. Yeah, we were a cop, it was in the military. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, we had a surgeon.
Speaker 2:We had a mortar team, we had our recon unit and then we had two intel guys.
Speaker 1:A bunch of Haskell barriers and that's pretty much it. That was it, man Guard towers.
Speaker 2:So it was getting off, running and gunning all day and then getting back and it was like three months in, it was like three in the morning I got off, shout like off tower dude, and I was like I'm gonna take a shower and uh, you know, we didn't have incoming alarms or anything. Right, we're just our own little cop and then we start. But we're always like it was just, you know, something like that. They were always trying to attack this thing, to blow the pipelines and getting closer, closer, and I was like I'm I'm not gonna get caught like a pig, all lathered up it's a pile of rubble here.
Speaker 2:You know I was trying to enjoy like feeling clean for the first time in a long time, you know they just weren't having it they just weren't.
Speaker 2:They were just they were hating man, they hate us because they ain't us, you know, they just weren't having it. They just weren't, they were just they were hating man, they hate us because they ain't us, you know. Yeah, but it was, it was an experience, man, it was crazy. It's a lot. Um, you know it's, it's, I think you know it was the first time I learned that a lot of people over here take for granted you know the fact that they have running water or power and you know this. There's laws, that people follow the laws and they don't realize what it's.
Speaker 2:you know, how could you have it till? You don't?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think a friend of mine uh, when we were there, he uh, his cure was if we just showed him how to use toilet paper, they wouldn't be mad at each other all the time. He had this whole theory about that. But you're right, because until you've had to take a crap and a hole in the ground and that's the toilet, you don't get it. You don't get it.
Speaker 2:Or you haven't had a shower or you have to poke holes in bottles and like that.
Speaker 1:And, by the way, the water was typically yellow or brown and it tasted like diesel to me yeah, yeah, it wasn't filtered water at all.
Speaker 2:You couldn't drink it.
Speaker 1:No. You know, so Even the water they manufactured was.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:No good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's only been a matter of time before we all have something from that. That kills us off early, but you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, microplastics. Microplastics you know, yeah, microplastics, microplastics. I'm with you. So when you were there, did you guys um, this is a tough question, did you?
Speaker 2:bring everybody home from that. We did, we luckily we did. Yeah, the unit that replaced us, they lost. Uh, I was like four guys in the first, like two weeks, yeah. So it's it's about your posture and how you guys carry yourself. You know, and it's, if you become a soft, if you present as a soft target, you're going to be a target, they're gonna target, they're gonna hit you guys and you're not gonna what you do. So you know it really falls back to your training and you know your guys and it's. You know, even when, years later, I was running teams, you know, for the Department of State, it's you have to train with your guys. You know it's a constant turnover, but it's.
Speaker 1:You know, what's interesting is we were so we ripped with an MP unit out of Hawaii. They might have been infantry actually, but I mean we made it through our deployment. We didn't bring everybody home the same way they showed up.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But we brought everybody home alive and I know that like right after they got there they took casualties and I never understood that like it's your posture.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so like our, like now our platoon. We brought everybody back.
Speaker 1:Our our battalion did not right right, yeah, oh yeah, we lost in fact I, I lost soldiers who were part of my unit but had had deployed with other units to fill slots. Yeah and so, no, I totally got it. Yeah, but you guys all came back from that. What was it like for you to come back? You know, somebody listening to this may not understand that 24-7 combat. And then coming home like that's almost harder than going.
Speaker 2:So the hardest part was I had to come home with R&R Uh-huh, and that was hard. Me and my buddy Jesse were the last ones to go. I didn't want to go because going back, I was only going to be back for like two months. I was like I don't want to do this, but I also was like I want to go home.
Speaker 1:And that was tough. Well, that whole thing like in the back of your head when you're on R&R, like don't want to go back. Yeah, you know. You know I'll be honest with you as, even as a company commander, I came home for my two weeks. I saw Aaron graduate from high school but I didn't know what was happening. But I started having panic attacks and like I thought I was dying and I'm like what is going on and I can't not go back.
Speaker 2:I mean, these people depend on you. You have to go back.
Speaker 1:So what the hell do you do?
Speaker 2:So I get it Like that two weeks is good, but it's not good, but it just because you see, you know everything that you see in the first time you're there. It's like I made it home already. Yeah, I'm home, like I don't, like I might not get to come home again if I go back.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember, you know, like when I first came home, it was tough, it was tough.
Speaker 1:Well, and sleeping in a bed, yeah, taking a shower on a regular basis. You know, it's uh somebody. Some guy told me and I've used the quote a million times like the the only thing more difficult than deploying is coming home.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:You know especially that two week break. But you, but you did, you came home, you did your two weeks at home.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you survived it, yeah, and then went back, went back out with the boys again, you know to kind of you kind of get back in the groove of things pretty quick boys again.
Speaker 1:You know kind of, you kind of get back in the groove of things pretty quick, was there that?
Speaker 2:weird, like it's good to be back, kind of feeling. Almost it was because you know you, you got such a bond with that. You've been through war together, right, and it's something that nobody else that has gone through that will understand. You know it's like you meet like-minded people. You have that bond of someone you know has been through it. It's like me and erin, you know it's like you know we never deployed together.
Speaker 2:You, it's like me and Aaron, yeah, it's like, even though we never deployed together. You know it's like a brotherhood that me and him have. That, you know, nobody else would understand. A lot of people don't understand it's a shared experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:And so it was good to be back with the boys because, you know, you're literally blood, sweat and tears and you see everybody, this and this, and you're like damn. And then, uh, then we started gearing up to go home and I remember we were like the night before we were supposed to leave, uh, one of the heli we're at a different base and we're like downloading our guns, our ammo and everything and a helicopter got shot down and we were at a big I can't remember what base we're at that time. We're at a big base and uh't remember what base we were at that time. We were at a big base and they saw our major comes, like I need the recon unit. You guys got to gear back up and go back out and, luckily, like we were just like what you know, it was just deflating and they're like they told us on the ballot, you're going to be out there for three days. You know a he was like no, and he's like we're done. So they, you know it was kind of like deflated.
Speaker 2:We wanted to do it, you know, because, like those are our boys, those are like you know, those are barricades out there, right, but at the same time it's also like we we don't even have ammo and we turned, you know, we dumped off everything off, and so it was crazy. I remember, uh, when we're sleeping there and we're sleeping and like the, all the incoming rockets started, the alarm started going off, and we were just so used to we didn't even have alarms, right yeah, and so we were just used to like, does that thing stop? You know, no one got, none of us got out of the beds. You know, it was like dude, you guys don't understand.
Speaker 2:Man, if it's your time, it's your time, like yeah especially in the middle of the night, like if it's gonna hit you, like you just better hunker in place and just hope to god that's it. And uh, you know we were sitting that same thing. We're at the. We're at the. We came to a fob, like to the battalion, some fob, fob summerall, and we in the chow hall, and these arms started going off. None of us stopped eating. Just like what are you guys doing? They're like you got to get under the tables, you know. And we're like, what are we doing down here?
Speaker 1:Like what are you hiding? We're still eating. What's this going to do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, like you don't understand, this isn't going to do anything, right, right, and uh, that was. You know, that was an eye-opener for a lot of people too. And like, one time we tried to get on to that same chow hall and we didn't have. We didn't have real food, right, like we had a little pop-up kitchen tent but the cook we had we only got a food supply, like every other week, if that's like maybe once a month, where they bring a conics out to us, and that was it.
Speaker 2:You know, we threw all of our trash into this one. Constantly take it. We had to burn it, you know, and so we, like I remember my mom would send me like tuna packets, you know, and taking a month to get there to me, but yeah, and so we, finally we went to try and get the child one time, you know, we were filthy, we didn't have showers and so they wouldn't let us in. Remember, you have to scan your car, your cat car, to get, and even though you're in a combat zone, you know, and the guy at the door is like you guys can't come in, and we're like what the fuck are you talking about? Like we're coming in whether you like it or not, and this guy is sergeant, you know, and he's just chewing us out. We're all still privates at this time. There's a PSC still, so I was like you know, it was young and hungry. It's like motherfucker, I mean, you don't understand.
Speaker 2:And luckily, one way or the other, you're getting yeah, yeah and so, luckily, uh, so our major came walking by and like ripped them a new one. It was like these get like, because it was a cook, but they didn't do the cooking anymore because they had all the contractors that did the cooking, right. So they had to make these jobs for these guys to justify while they were there. And so he was like these guys are out here in the fighting a war where you're sitting here eating fat and happy every night. You know, they don't understand how good they had it on this fob. No, they had a full. They going in there. It was like disneyland. You had anything you could choose to eat from. You had desserts, you had sodas, you had drinks, like dude, we had a little hut that was, you know, like a 12 by 12 that was made out of plywood and we had, like you know, we had the essentials hot honey, buns, pop tarts, you know, muffins, that was it cool bars yeah, the little, uh, cereal jugs remember that.
Speaker 2:But the milk was the powdered. The milk would come out clumpy. You ever eaten clumpy?
Speaker 1:You do what you got to do.
Speaker 2:You do what you got to do it's funny.
Speaker 1:We were at the store at the hotel and they have the little plastic things of cereal and I was explaining to my wife that I lived on that. Absolutely no, I'm not going to lie. The fob I was on was huge. Yeah, it was a city. Yeah, right, we were outside the wire every day, yeah, but you went back, you went back and you slept kind of comfortably and you had a chow hall. Yeah, a lot of our sister units did not have that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, man, even, even people, you know, experiences may differ, right, you know and uh, I wouldn't change it, though. You know it was. It was. I had some of the best times with my guys. You know, some that aren't here anymore.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, and you make those memories and bonds and it's you know, it's brotherhood well, and then when you get back together, right, it's like you were never apart, you never apart it just fits right back in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, but but back to the coming home. Yeah, so you're part man, uh. So I came remember, so I I'd gone home two months prior or two, two and a half, three months prior. And uh, so my and we were coming home for like two weeks before we went on r? R, and so I, you know, I told him it's like you know, you don't need to come out there. So like it was kind of surreal, though, coming home to like no one. Yeah, but it was, you know. But I knew, because I knew I was coming home anyways. But it hits you when you're, you know, everyone comes out together and you know, you walk out and there's like a whole room of people just like accepting Like welcome home. So it was pretty cool, mm-hmm, accepting like welcome home, so it's pretty cool. And then it just turned into you know, we got, you know you get opportunity infantry boys and you get home. It's a whole different ball game.
Speaker 2:You got a little bit of money in your pocket and it's, it's watch out, you know. And so we, uh, I remember that first night we got back to the barracks and everyone got their rooms and we got trashed Right. You know, it was just a party, it was like that, for you know a minute.
Speaker 1:It becomes a habit. It's what you do, right. It's what you do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because we were getting ready for the, you know, to go home on our families for the two weeks, and so it was just you know chaos and everyone knew it. You know chaos and everyone knew it. You know the commanders, they all you guys know it is.
Speaker 1:It's like welcome home boys, and you just don't do anything stupid. Yeah, yeah. Well, I spent my first 16 years enlisted yeah, so I get it, yeah, exactly no, you gotta, let you gotta, especially the infantry, yell at the boys you gotta let the boys yell and put their hair down.
Speaker 2:Man, yeah, you know, it's you, kate. People don't understand that because, like it's you cage us up for so long. That's all we do is we? You practice and prepare and you train to. Just you know. Violence, violence, violence violence violence and it's like you know what do you think's gonna happen? We drink sometimes. Things get violent.
Speaker 1:Well, I think the other thing, too, that people don't get is that um infantry, especially like even the military police. We had guys that were just a nightmare in garrison.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but they're great overseas. But those are the guys I want with me.
Speaker 1:That's the guy I want next to me when the shit hits the fan right. Yeah, yeah. So yes, we want to put you in a box and say break glass in case of emergency. Exactly.
Speaker 2:But until then you come home on your two weeks after deployment. How was that? It was wild, it was good. Then the integration was kind of weird. You wake up and you're like where am I at? It changes, it changes scenery. It takes a while to let your hair down for the hairs in the back of your neck to stop standing.
Speaker 1:To quit freaking out because you don't have your, your m4 yeah, I.
Speaker 2:So I did that on rnr. My mom's got a story about that because, uh, you know, like the first night there and she popped the door open to my bedroom I was staying in and I freaked out because I didn't know where I was at. You know, it was just that and it was out of instinct and I freaked out and I was like my gun and I couldn't find it, didn't know where it was at, so I was like finger gunning her, you know, and it was a panic attack. It was a full-blown freakout. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, even you know. Still then, a couple times, coming home, you know where's my gun, shit.
Speaker 1:Sitting down at dinner right.
Speaker 2:You're like oh, my, somewhere, you know, yeah, yeah it goes away after a while.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it does.
Speaker 2:You know it takes some time and so from there, I uh, I got, I got stationed at fort benning, georgia uh-huh and so I moved there at what's the third id, uh.
Speaker 2:Third id, uh. First of the entry division. I started out in uh of the entry division. I started out in uh alpha company. That was baker company. Yeah, I was a baker boy. I was there for a while leading up to our first deployment, or just to my first point with them. And uh, I was at e5 at the time. I got, you know, I promoted e5, I was getting ready to go to the e6 board. I was, you know, I was riding this wave of everything. I was doing good, and then it didn't change and I got a little bit of trouble.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what happened?
Speaker 2:I'll tell you. So a bunch of the guys had gotten promoted and you know we're a couple weeks out from deploying. You know all of our stuff is in the connexes, it's waiting there. So we're t-minus days, you know, and it was cinco de mayo weekend and uh, arriba, yeah right yeah, a few margaritas yeah we had.
Speaker 2:We had a bunch of margaritas, you know, and unfortunately that was the problem back then was, you know, once you start, you can't stop. You know, it's just keeping going. And so we went out and a bunch of us, we got a van back on the post and the time was when the you know before you could get ubers and all that. And you know, credit paying, credit cards was still a thing, but they wanted cash because they were scamming you. You know, they were, yeah, ringing you up for this much, saying, hey, that's, that's $20 extra. You're like what the fuck? But you couldn't pay it or you had to pay it Stop. But you had to pay it.
Speaker 2:And so we get back on the post and we're at the barracks and he wouldn't take credit card. He's like no cash, only it was payday weekends. We all spend money at the bars and everything Going to four-day weekends. They at the bars and everything going to four-day weekends. They get a mile right. So we I was like, all right, I'll go, I'll go with him to get the atm, the money at the atm. We go to the first atm and there's no money. It's like atm out. It was kelly hill atm, so it was the only one up there everyone's using everyone's using it.
Speaker 2:So we go to another atm and it's not working. I think I was partially, I think I can't remember it was like that was, it just wasn't working and how much I was like like entering my pin number correctly, right. And so I remember I was like man, I'm gonna run from this guy and the cab driver. Before I did that, like I was trying to pay with my credit card, I was like here, just take this pay, I'm gonna pay with the credit card, pay the credit card. He's like. He's like no, no, no cash cash. I was like no. So I was like I'm going to call your company, I'm going to pay this. And so then he got violent, right. So we got in a little scuffle in the van. So I grabbed my card and I was like, after I was talking to some buddies in the middle of our quad bay and you know I used to smoke at this time I used to smoke and I'd see this spotlight hit me. It's like hey, you. I was like oh shit, you know, I see it's this. It's a cab driver and it's a cop. He's like stop right there. I was like not tonight.
Speaker 2:Then I threw my cigarette down and I went on a foot, a little foot run, oh boy, oh yeah. So it's obviously a foot pursuit and suit uh ensues. And next thing, I know it was big, there's cops everywhere and it was like I remember running through the woods and luckily, on kelly hill, I knew those woods like the back of my hand. I knew all the goat trails we could just run. And yeah, you know, back then I was, you know, at that time it was probably one 180, 190, 180 190.
Speaker 2:That was, you know, lean run, it was 26, 20, yeah, 26, probably. You know it's prime, yeah, and uh, I'm not gonna cut you, no, never. And so, uh, I can't, I make it. You know, I had a, had a collared shirt and a hat on, I had an undershirt. So I ditched the collared shirt and the hat and some bushes. I was like I'll come back and do this another day. I was walking up in my barracks and I was like I made it and this cop in this Staff, 3dnco, pops up and they're like you. I was like, oh, hey, and like, hey, what's your name? I made up some fake name, you know, and yeah, that's a great idea you know it gets you better.
Speaker 2:Yeah and uh. So I told them they're like what are you doing? I was like oh, I was trying to get my charger out of my truck. I got in a fight with my girlfriends, I'm deploying again. I made this whole story up and uh, he's like oh, you have a good night, good luck. And I was like you too, officer, because he asked me if I knew a sergeant corver. I was like I don't and you didn't.
Speaker 1:I didn't, that wasn't a lie, right, I didn't I told no lie, yeah, but it's just my name.
Speaker 2:and uh, so the next morning I wake up and I hear this on my thump, thump, thump on my barracks door and I was like fuck, that happened.
Speaker 1:This was not a dream. It was like.
Speaker 2:Friday morning I was like fuck, fuck, fuck, and so I instantly text my platoon sergeant. I was like you're going to be getting a phone call from the MP station and I'm sorry. And so our barracks rooms were on the outside the hall was on the outside, you know and so I peeped through there and it was a whole MP unit and they were in full battle rattle. They were in their SWAT gear, their riot gear, and so I latched the door and they're like come out, sergeant Corbett, and I was like I'm coming. I was like I need to use the bathroom and put some clothes on. And so as soon as I opened the door, they just hogged, they bum-rushed me, beat the shit out of me, hog-tied me, you know cuffed and stuffed me.
Speaker 2:So they carried me out, you know, like a pig and it was like a parade, you know, down the hall, down the outside corridor to the cop cars. You know, yeah, you were becoming a cautionary tale. That's your boy, yeah. And so, yeah, I go to the MP station and of course I knew not to talk. I was like I know nothing of what you speak of. I wanted to know my lawyer yeah, because they were trying to charge me with criminal charges, and so I went them. I wanted my lawyer yeah, because they were trying to charge me with criminal charges, and so I went back, they released me and then, because they had nothing on me yet, and so that night I was in my barracks room and I get called to come back. You know, like you need to get in uniform and come back to the MP station.
Speaker 2:And so I walk into the MP station and that cop that I first encountered that asked me if I knew sergeant corber was the one that was waiting to receive me. Oh, yeah, he was probably not happy. He said you're sergeant corbett, huh, and unfortunately, I said that's what the name tape says and he was not happy with that and he threw me up against the wall and like me down of my blouse and everything. And he was like I want you to unblouse your boots and pants and take them off. And I was like I knew I was fucked. Everyone that was in the cab was there. They all gave statements, couldn't get out of this one. So I look at this guy and he actually told me to unblast my pants and boots and take them off and I was like well, buddy, I'm not wearing any underwear. And he's like well, what does that have to do with anything? And I was like I don't want to make you feel inadequate.
Speaker 1:Well, you're just scoring targets.
Speaker 2:Dig in my hole with this guy, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you've hit bottom and continued to dig.
Speaker 2:Oh man, that's me like yeah, it's one of my downfalls, not anymore if you're gonna do it.
Speaker 1:You're gonna do it. Right, you gotta go out big yeah and so I got thrown in jail.
Speaker 2:You know it wasn't my first time going to jail. You know I've been. I got arrested in gainesville, you know, there a couple times before. But, uh, I digress. You know, um, you know I wasn't perfect growing up, yeah, but I'm doing right now, but uh, yeah, so I spent. You know, I spent four days in jail there, which was it was like a little vacation. You know, I've been way worse.
Speaker 1:You know, like this ain't nothing, yeah.
Speaker 2:So got out of that, got deployed and while we were on deployment I had to bring a copy of my packet and they asked me if it's like two weeks in and I thought it had gone away. I was like I'm going to ride this out, man, yeah you figure out.
Speaker 1:Deployment saved me, right yeah.
Speaker 2:And I get called from, a little runner comes in. He's like BC wants you in his office now. I was like, oh, oh, fuck. And then they're like do you have a pack? You have a copy of your packet. And I was like, yeah, like we need it because they didn't have one. So I ripped out a bunch of pages. Right, this is all I had. This is what I brought with me.
Speaker 1:Sorry, right, sorry, there's pages, what they gave me I don't know.
Speaker 2:so I give them that and I'm standing in his office and they're all up in there and I was like shit, what am I going to do? I'm in my head, I'm thinking I've got to get out of this. I've got to get out of this. And so, as you know, I'm sure you've done many of Article 15s.
Speaker 1:Yes, and he goes. You know I've been a victim of a couple of them.
Speaker 2:And he goes would you like? You know you have a right to an open trial or a trial by court-martial. And he expected me to just open trial with everybody there. And I said I want trial by court-martial, knowing that if I went trial by court-martial they would have to send me home to an actual court Right, but at that same time they would have to send everybody home that was involved, including the chain of command. Yeah, and so I played my last card. Did they call your bluff? He said get the fuck out of my office. So I went back to my bunk.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh.
Speaker 2:And I was sitting there and I was like, oh, you did it this time, eric, and 10 minutes go by and this, this runner comes and he comes, he's like he wants you back in his office. I was like fuck. And he, I walk in there, you know, and did the whole position of attention right reporting his word, sir.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah, the whole thing yep, because you think you're fucking slick, don't you? I was like no, sir, and he goes this is what you're gonna do, because you're gonna accept this, this court or this article 15, and you're gonna go on probation. He's like you're gonna move companies. You're gonna go from someone from baker company to alf company. You're not gonna get a deployment award, you're not gonna get a badge for this, so you're gonna to get nothing. If you can go six months without getting in trouble, he's like this whole thing will go away.
Speaker 2:So I took that deal. So I didn't lose any pay. I did no extra duty. All I did was I couldn't get I didn't get a deployment award, whatever. I had a couple of those already. So I was like yeah, inshallah, and I had to had a couple of those already. So I was like yeah, inshallah, and uh, I had to do a bunch of extra duty details, like, like, I wasn't on extra duty, but like that, like they had this event. It was like a battalion fob event. So I helped set that up right, which is it, but that was the only thing I did. I changed companies, couldn't get in trouble, which was easy because I was on deployment, so there's nothing there I had to go to go to. So when this whole thing first kicked off before deployment I had to go to ASAP Alcohol Solicits Abuse Program. I checked in for it Did one meet. We were getting ready to deploy right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So when I got there I had to introduce myself and it was like a celebrity. They were like that was you.
Speaker 1:It made post, so everyone knew your, everyone knew the whole post knew what had happened and I was like that was me.
Speaker 2:It's kind of hard to call that a fuck-up, isn't it? Yeah, so I, yeah, yeah, exactly. I was like success right and so when I got back I was an ASAP failure labeled ASAP failure, because I didn't show up to any more ASAP appointments when I was deployed. So then I had to complete ASAP again. I was successful at graduate at that, awesome Made that. And then they made me the company UPL Idiots.
Speaker 1:What were they thinking? What were they thinking? What were they?
Speaker 2:thinking right yeah, any of whom did that deployment came home. That's when I met aaron, so I met your boy yeah yeah, we didn't like him at first, and then we, then we hit it off.
Speaker 1:Those are the best friends, yeah I think of the ones you don't like when you listen yeah it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was kind of like he was this guy, yeah. And then we you know what was that? 13 years later how many years is it now? Yeah, so then me and him got an apartment together. We moved out of the barracks, that was fun. It's probably where the lesbian couple name comes from.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So yes, we did that for a while. Used to race home to scare each other oh, tell me about this. I don't know about this oh man, I remember one time I I was hiding behind the couch and I popped up and he, like, his ankles broke and he hit the ground. I used to hide behind the doors I'm like when you wait for him to walk in, to hop out and scare him. I ask him about it sometimes.
Speaker 1:yeah, I'm going to. In fact, when I leave here, I'll probably be on the phone with him. If he's not calling you again, we'll see what happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we did that for a while. Then we had we bought all of our furniture warehouse a scratch and dinch warehouse, you know, down the street from us, uh-huh, it's all hodgepodge stuff done together, you know, but we were in our 20s, you know.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, you buy where you can.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we bought this bar that we found on like Craigslist so we had this little. We had like a little sunroom in our apartment but then there was a we found like this corner bar that we ended up putting in there. It was a blast and we had, you know, saw Snow in Georgia for the first time. With him there we were living at that apartment. Uh-huh, that was cool. And then he, aaron, moved in with Mark and Mike and all of them out to the house, and then Buddy Gessner ended up moving with me. For a while Him and his wife were splitting. His wife slashed my tires because affiliation, I was away so I had gotten called out. Here we go. So I had gotten selected to go be an OC out at NTC. So I had to go for 30 days, right, because at this time I was a staff sergeant, right. So, with all these mess-ups, you did something right.
Speaker 2:I did something right.
Speaker 1:Staff sergeant and you're an OC at NTC. That's not nothing.
Speaker 2:That's not nothing, man. I had some clout, I was good. I was a good leader. I like to think I am. I've been told there's always room to improve and be better.
Speaker 1:The funny thing is I've met a lot of people in the military and some of the best leaders were like privates three times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you gotta fuck up the move up, man right and so you just never had that part happen I got lucky yeah, I got lucky I.
Speaker 2:I got arrested one time in in uh, manhattan, kansas, when I was in the first ID and I'd gotten detained because I got in a fight at the bar and I'd gotten detained and luckily the cop that arrested me recognized me and he was like who knew my squad leader? And this guy was like fresh out of the academy and he's like you're Dearden's private. And I was like fuck. I was like why does this guy know my squad leader? Right? And he's like I'm going to let you go. He's like but I'm going to tell your boy. I was like do whatever the fuck you want, as long as I'm not going to jail, man, I'll do the push-ups, thanks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course I got smoked for days after that.
Speaker 1:the funny thing is, like you never you've never flown under the radar, I think as much as you probably tried yeah, you've never done it, but it's never really harmed you yeah that's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, I think you know you've had some experiences they made upstairs is, you know, saved me a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's, you know, he's my guardian angel looking out for me every day. And uh, so where was it where we're at? So aaron had moved out, aaron moved out, you're, yeah. So I was at ntc. I was a guest, I see, at ntc, right, and so that was real. You know that was an interesting time. Um, so my stepdad started going through some you know a bunch of things at home. So you know, home life was not doing so well with the family. You know trouble in the home front and uh, you know, I was drinking heavy and I was partying a lot but, you know, was crushing life. I was in E6. I was in my prime, I was having a blast, I was hanging out with women, I made friends everywhere. So NTC was different.
Speaker 2:It was cool, but it's crazy being an OC, because you're by yourself in the middle of the Mojave Desert, which is huge. It's easy to get lost out there and you don't have a lot. It's like you gotta use your instincts a lot to travel throughout there and find places and you have to be competent, right, you have to make your way around, cause there's no road like there's goat trails for you to drive on, but it's there's a thousand that lead everywhere. So you have to be able're going, because you'd like you'd go out for a 24-hour period and then you'd come home. You get two days off.
Speaker 2:That's how they run their ocs, you know it's it's was it 21 days straight, though, and there are 14 days, 14 days straight, you know, but it's just like a week week lead up and breakdown, and so we did that, and so when we got done, we had a week. They messed up our flight, so the unit out of 3rd ID got to go home, but we all the OCs had an extra week there. So me and two buddies were like well, let's go to Vegas. What could go wrong? What could go wrong? Right, okay, vegas.
Speaker 1:Vegas, okay Vegas.
Speaker 2:Vegas. So we make it out of Fort Irwin. Fort Irwin's in the middle of nowhere. The only town right outside of there is called Barstow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm familiar with that.
Speaker 2:And it's just a dump. And so we got this taxi cab driver to Well, when we decided we're all E6s, right, so there's only there's like a couple E7s, there's not anything really anybody can say to us right, Like there was no restrictions. We had a week left. So it's not like you can't, no, you must stay here. It's like you're a grown ass man.
Speaker 1:Go do what you want.
Speaker 2:Go do what you want.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Exactly. So we catch a cab to Barstow and we're at this truck stop and we're trying to figure out what to do, how to get to Vegas, and we're looking for cabs and everything and not a lot of cabs there at this truck stop, right, right. And so this Greyhound driver overhears me talking inside the store and he's like, oh, I'm heading to Vegas if you guys need a ride. And I was like absolutely. And he's like, oh, I'm heading to Vegas if you guys need a ride. And I was like absolutely. So he was cool as shit and we could clearly tell we were in the military. We all had high and tights and everything. And he's like if you guys want, you can grab some alcohol. You just got to stay behind this line on the bus and you can drink. Why not Shucks? So we roll up to Vegas.
Speaker 2:The one of the guys that went with this he had been there uh, marco, he'd been there a couple times, so he's familiar. So he's, you know. He got us a hotel where he goes like all right, we're gonna stay here using points and everything. And so we pull up to the hotel and it's a greyhound and all these foreigners come up and they're like waiting to see who gets off the bus. You know they thought we were celebrities or something. Nope.
Speaker 1:It's me, your boy. Did they take your picture?
Speaker 2:Surprise, so they were a little let down, but Vegas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how long were you in Vegas?
Speaker 2:Like four days. Wow, Four days too. Two days too long. You do a lot of damage in four days. It was.
Speaker 1:It was fun. Yeah, give me some of the highlights.
Speaker 2:Oh, I find there's some stories there. Night one we get there and I was like, oh, you know, it was like a candy shop. It's like this is so cool, this is God. What year was this? This was 2000, 14 or 15. Maybe the end of 14 going into 15. I have to look at a picture on Facebook and go to this strip club, you know, and it's like kid in a candy shop and the women out there, gorgeous right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is not. You know, this is not the strip club outside of Fort Leonard Wood.
Speaker 2:Exactly, I wasn't in Kansas anymore. Right, wasn't at the Thanksgiving strip club anymore. Yeah, we ended up getting tossed out of that strip club, not because of me this time because of my buddy, marco.
Speaker 1:He was doing things he shouldn't have been doing doing things.
Speaker 2:You know, he you know there's no sex in the champagne room right you know, oh man, it was just a, a drunken blur like the whole time. Like clubs, the bars, the rooftop pool bars, the casinos, like yeah, and you're not married at this time.
Speaker 1:I'm not married at this time. No, so you're plenty of women.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know met other women there and, having a good time, met my buddy, matt there. Uh-huh, this goes back to my first matt lost his legs. Right at the time when matt got blown up, we didn't know he lost his legs right. Matt got airlifted out. He was my roommate then, right. So I knew matt well. We were privates together. We can't you know me, matt, jesse and zach. We were like we're four boys, you know tight and uh, matt drove from utah and met me in vegas. It was the first time I'd seen matt since you know his legs, since got blown up, and uh, when he took his legs off and it freaked me out, lost it, yeah, because it was like my boy. And then he took his legs off like lieutenant dan and he fucking chased me around the floor and I was like I was like you know, that's my boy and uh, well, you didn't know yeah well, I knew I didn't.
Speaker 2:I knew I didn't know how bad it was, I didn't see him right like I'm you know man, matt went through it.
Speaker 2:His wife at the time had left him. He was, you know, because he was having reconstructive. He went through so many surgeries and uh, when we finally realized it shattered all the bones in his feet when it happened, so vibrations he was, he was a gunner and shot all the bones at his feet and he uh, so he lost both legs. And seeing him then it was like fuck man. And so when we went out, he went out with us and we were at the bars and uh, I remember somebody said something and I fucking like somebody was like because he so he was wearing jeans at first, he was real self-conscious, he was fresh but had his legs right, so he couldn't walk right and everything.
Speaker 2:And so somebody said something to him and uh, I remember I almost lost my shit in in this bar, vegas, and this guy was like you know, he fucking lost his legs and just. And the guy was like I'm so sorry, I didn't know. And so, matt, or he went back to the hotel room and he changed into shorts and he like cause, I was like that's my fucking boy, yeah, you know. And I was like fuck you, dude. And like I mean, the bar was pretty empty at this time. It was still early for a Vegas bar, but it was like you know.
Speaker 1:You see, I was like that he's right like this man lost.
Speaker 2:He gave his, you know he gave so much of his country and you know, but it was a blast.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure matt went home with a girl that night too, like I was just man, because I, once this initial shock had gotten over, you know it was just like we're back together. Yeah, and so he was. He needed that because he hadn't had. He went through. You know, his wife left him, took all his money left, took the dog. He was in Walter Reed. It was a horrible story. I was like he's going to fucking kill himself. There's no doubt. Now he's married, he has a beautiful baby.
Speaker 1:It's amazing what can happen. You survived Vegas.
Speaker 2:I survived Vegas. I remember the last day it was just so hung over and we had to get back to post. We made it like just at the nick of time to like get our flight. We met them at the airport uh-huh and, uh, I remember sitting there on the on the plane, finally, and we're just like I need to go home. You know, just like shriveling up was like your body's going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I need to go home you know, and that's just, that's all we did. We just drank, yeah. And uh, yeah, I went back to fort benning and then I I ended up getting this loft downtown fort benning. Single e had this old loft. You know it was like 900 square feet, it was badass. It had like 20-foot ceilings. You know, it was like 100-year-old floors.
Speaker 1:It was cool man. It was a model movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it was cool, and I had the bar that me and Aaron had in there with it, you know, oh so you kept the bar. Oh yeah, yeah, I got the bar and the divorce when we split. Yeah, so he would still come over, obviously on weekends and stuff.
Speaker 1:He had visitation of the bar he had visitation rights.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so living in that loft, I lived there for a year before I got out and that was cool man. It was like my last year in the Army and I just went all out. Man was new. I was getting ready to get like I was getting ready to get out and I remember my last six months. I came down on drillers and I came down on drillers before, but I was able to get out of them for an extension like I did a year extension. I'm how the contract worked. I got out of them and I came down on them again. I was coming up on reenlisting and I was like I'm not fucking doing this. I'm like I had buddies that were drills and this was like hearing the horror stories. It just got horrible, yeah I was like I'm not doing.
Speaker 2:They were working, you know, 15, 16 hour days, sometimes 20 hour days, like consistently. I was like, because there was a shortage, I was like I'm not doing this and so I signed a deck. I knew I wanted to get out. I was done, right, there's no more wars going on, done. I was like I'm not a kid, I wasn't, I wasn't a garrison soldier, no right. And uh, I got, I got us into some shit, you know, I got to be.
Speaker 2:That wasn't fun, you know right and so I remember we had to go to the sergeant major's office and he was a new sergeant major. He came from regiment and he thought he was his top dog. He was fucking overweight, right. So I think I was 29, right, so I had some years on me, right, but I wasn't, so it wasn't just a nobody, I was, you know, I was a full-grown man you've been around been around the block and, uh, I remember sitting in his office and he's like, because I had signed the dex thing, he was pissed.
Speaker 2:I was getting out. Oh yeah, pissed yeah. And uh, except like I was getting out, oh yeah, pissed, yeah, I was coming up with my first look for E7, and they're like you're going to get it, look at your thing, you're going to get picked up. And I was like I'm done, I did my obligation, man. I was like what do you want from me? And I had buddies that were contracting already. I'd seen that they were making the money and I was like, yes, bingo, that's what I want.
Speaker 2:And so, sitting in his office, and he's just ripping me a new one, and I was just, it was like two hour long, just session. Because his first thing you know you're gonna be begging me to get back into my army. You know this is all. You're not going to be nothing out there and I'm going to do everything to prevent you from coming back into this. And he said what are you going to do when you get out? And I said I'm going to go be a valet. And he said, excuse me, I heard my platoon sergeant behind me. He goes oh fuck, here we go Yep.
Speaker 2:I was like'm gonna go park cars in orlando, sir, because when I was in college, the first time I used to park cars, I knew I wasn't gonna go park cars right, yeah, he didn't even know you exactly.
Speaker 2:He's like I don't know, you jacked from shit and uh, that ensued to where. It was just a beratement, you know, and I was like I was like further validating my reasons of why I'm done. Yeah, you know, I was like I'm a grown man and you're talking to me like that and I was like further validating my reasons of why I'm done.
Speaker 1:I was like I'm a grown man and you're talking to me like that and I was like I could come over there and just beat the shit out of you. How would you like that, or you?
Speaker 2:could just shake my hand and wish me well, and so he stripped me from my platoon. He put me in the S shops, but everyone knew who I was. I'm a nice guy, right, I get along. People make you know I don't burn bridges until it's time to burn bridges, and then I blow that bitch yeah and uh yeah.
Speaker 2:So the platoon sergeant I had is he's like dude, is like Just text me in the morning, let me know you're alive. I was like, right, thank you, but I did have to do staff duty a lot, right. So I was always on staff like once or twice a week, but that was it. I didn't show up to work like they didn't. No one fucking cared.
Speaker 2:So I was like I'll take this deal. It's like, yeah, man, so like I literally did nothing the last six months, you know. And so I was on staff duty one Sunday night it was football season and it's MP stationp station like we need you to get a hold. It's like three, it was midnight or something before that, like right after yeah, it must have been like like right after football's games were getting over, so probably like 11 ish, right, right, I get a phone call and they're like we need you to get a hold of your, your battalion commander. And I was like, oh, okay, I was like why? They're like we can't, you just need to get a little battalion commander.
Speaker 2:I was like, okay, call him, no answer. And so I called them back and I was like, hey, this, you know, he's not answering. Like we need you to get a hold of your brigade sergeant major. And I was like, fuck, I'm not calling that guy. So I call brigade staff duty, you know, and I'm like like, hey, you guys need to get brigades, our major, to call the ap station. And they're like why? I was like I don't know they won't tell me, you know.
Speaker 2:So they no one could get like. No, the brigade couldn't get a hold of anybody right. And so what had happened was our same battalion starter major had gotten picked up on a domestic abuse of his kid, and who did he see come pick him up from the mp station staff. Sergeant corbett picked this guy up and I was like well, well, well who's gonna be begging who for what?
Speaker 2:yeah, and so it was just the humiliation on his face and I was just like, yeah, and we're getting back on post that. So they were like, all right, we need you to come pick him up and uh, because they couldn't get a hold of anybody, right?
Speaker 1:so I had to go pick him up.
Speaker 2:So when I got back to uh staff duty post you the next morning, the BC, a commander, everyone comes to me he's like do not say a word and I was like okay maybe too late yeah.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I was like yeah, yeah, sure, I didn't, I was already done. What can you do to me? There's nothing you do. So as soon as I got off, I walked right over to the company, to my boys, and I was like, guess what? I was like yo, how's it feel to be a piece huh yeah, yeah, who's parking cars?
Speaker 2:yeah, right, so that was the, that was the chapter of that, and uh, I never even got. I never got an ets award. I never even got. I never got an ETS award you just sort of they just I got nothing wow yeah, one of the one of the one of my, one of my buddies had a plaque made. But the army, they're like S1, they yeah fuck it.
Speaker 1:I know they did you know, you want to know the secret about an ets award means nothing well, usually the person who got it wrote it. I'm just gonna be honest that's how that works, yeah I was an hhc commander before I retired exactly, so no, I, a lot of them are, uh, are written by the person who received them. Yeah so, yeah, so, yeah, so you get out and then, so, then I got out.
Speaker 2:So you're still not married.
Speaker 1:No, not married. You made it through a whole like military career and didn't get married.
Speaker 2:I vowed to never marry anybody in the military. Uh-huh. I made a vow to myself that I eventually ended up breaking that. If I didn't love this woman, I would not marry her. Breaking that. If I didn't love this woman, I would not marry her. Uh-huh. So then I went to Conrad.
Speaker 1:I've got to ask another question, though. Did you buy a car at 37% interest and 100,000?
Speaker 2:miles an hour.
Speaker 1:No, no, no Okay.
Speaker 2:I did buy a truck, uh-huh, I bought a truck after my first deployment. When I moved to Fort Benning, georgia, I bought my first truck, okay, for $. I bought a truck after my first deployment, when I moved to Fort Benning, georgia. I bought my first truck for $24,000. But I had my deployment money and I put a big chunk down from that. Yeah, and I think my mom co-signed for me, but I had it. I think my payments were like $350 a month or something.
Speaker 1:So you didn't do any of the typical stupid stuff?
Speaker 2:No, Financially, for the most part I was good. Yeah, for the most part, I was good For the most part. I know a deal and I know a deal and I know not to sign at 37% interest, but I had plenty of soldiers that did that. Oh yeah, it was like taking them back in there. So then I got out.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then I went and tried out the selection process for contract. I had a lot riding on that. Our class group started with 54 people people and only 22 of us graduated right, so you got it's not back. Then. It was a lot harder, right. You start off with like your PT tests, your weapons, quals, and then all your tactics and everything and learning how to do. It's a 45-day school. You know you could drop you at any day. 45-day school, they could drop you at any day. And so I passed that.
Speaker 2:And then I had to wait like two no, a couple months. I was waiting on my security clearance and by this time I'd gotten my clearance but I had to go back to recall, so it was like another month. I had to go back for a month of recall and I did that. And this was at Christmas time, cause my mom yeah, my mom and stepdad came up to see me before I left again, cause then it was Christmas, so that was pretty cool for her to do that. Yeah, she's been there. My mom's been there a lot. She's definitely my. She's there for you, yeah, so go to recall. Then it comes to contract and we're flying. It's christmas. This guy that I'm with his name's jeremy, he uh. We go out to this bar and he gets fucking roofie right. This dude gets hammered I think he is I don't know, but it's like we're.
Speaker 2:We didn have any drinks, but this guy gets cranked.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm like Jesus Christ dude. I had to get him back to his room. This is my first bit of contracting. Then we go to Amsterdam. We had a layover from Virginia Beach to Amsterdam. Spent Christmas Day in Amsterdam walking around there that was pretty cool seeing that and then showed up to Iraq again and then got acclimated to the teams, Got on my furthest on the ambassador's protection team. So I stayed the whole time. Started off as a boot, again All over, had to prove yourself all over again.
Speaker 1:Had to prove yourself all over again, had to prove yourself all over again.
Speaker 2:And I rose up pretty quick there which you know, luckily and so I became the 13 alpha shift leader. So I was like an advanced shift leader for the ambassador's production detail. So that was. I started making some real money. You know, I had my first six-figure income job and I was like hell, yeah, you know my first six-figure income job and I was like hell, yeah, I had my first deployment. I was like I had more money to do with at the time and I was getting ready to come home on leave. I knew it was coming up soon, like 30 days out, and I had nowhere to live to come home to. Right Before I left, I had put all my stuff in a storage unit and so that's how I bought. This house was online, sight unseen. You got real lucky.
Speaker 2:It didn't look like this oh, okay. Yeah, I did all this and I, sight unseen, bought it the day I got home it wasn't signed and then moved in, you know it was all closed off. In here it was.
Speaker 1:You know, it was my first, my first house, yeah, and I, you know, I bought it before the covid, so I got it for really cheap and um so what was it like as a contractor going into theater, and you know, I know what it's like going in with the full force of united states Army behind you, but you don't have that necessarily as a contractor. When I was there, they did some pretty terrible things to contractors when they caught them.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, exactly the shit I saw there.
Speaker 2:Man with that fucking wild, I've sat in the meeting, in the living rooms of the taliban leaders and, like jay shaladi, and like I've been in, like by myself, uh, arranging these meetings for the ambassador, and you're sitting there reading these thought reports and they want to, you know, chop, they want to chop your head off. And here you are. You know, little eric, yeah, it's just me, a medic, because at the time when I was running the advanced team, I'd have to get there x amount of time before the ambassador go clear everything up, check out who I'm supposed to be checking with. And I mean, they could have easily snatched me up, rolled me up, and at the time all I had was, you know, I keep a glock in my, uh, my waistline. I had my, my low pro plates on, I had an ear pro, you know, and I had a had my radio tourniquet on my on my side, little med pouch on my back, you know yeah but if something kicked off, I'd have to fight like all I have is my clock, my glock 9.
Speaker 2:You know it's not much, no, it's an ak-47. So you have to fight your way back to your car. You know which could be a ways. And it's scary, it's fucking terrifying sometimes.
Speaker 1:Well, I think what people don't understand too is when you get your head cut off on the internet, they don't just chop your head off. They saw your head off because it hurts more. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's not one quick swoop, it's a saw. It's terrifying.
Speaker 1:I remember spending my whole deployment. That's what I didn't want to have happen to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I can't imagine as a contractor.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't have the force of the Army, you know, because you're there on your own, your own free will, so you're it's. You know you can't give a bug out bag and you know like the constant always taking rockets. Um, you know, and it was, there was a. The year 2017. When I was there, 2017 and 27 and 20 2018 was a really fun year. It was a party. There was just a blast, right, it was like a college frat campus. You go out and you do your work all day. The contractors though. We weren't allowed to drink. Obviously, there's ways around that.
Speaker 1:Rules are made to be broken. Right Rules are made to be broken.
Speaker 2:It was just a party man. I bet everybody was doing it. It was a blast. Money was great. You could like making killer money. It was girls. I was dating this girl out there.
Speaker 2:You know a little blonde haired girl, and so it couldn't anything, couldn't? Life was good. I had the house I come home for, you know, 35 days at a time, and I had roommates. I'll just go party. And you know, I had going out to downtown and just was living a great life.
Speaker 2:Man, um and me and uh, the me and me and four buddies three buddies, four was totaled. We're contracting, was that it's 2019? We went to, uh, the 75th anniversary of normandy, uh-huh, right. So my buddy, so it was me, my buddy nick, my buddy scott, my buddy emilio two weeks in france and I thought vegas was a shit show. This was a shit show. Yeah, it was. I mean, it was just a blast, right, we met. We made so many good people look going into the uh, as soon as we fly it like we'd fly in. So it's me and emilio. We meet up in the uk and we went on this bar crawl. It's punk crawl in the uk and it's classic eric fashion. But I remember waking up the next morning and the phone just ringing right, I'm like what the fuck is going on here?
Speaker 2:I thought I was still in baghdad, I will yeah that's how drunk I was still that's pretty drunk, pretty drunk, and what's my buddy emilio calling the room phone? He's like dude, we gotta go, man, we gotta go. I was like, oh shit. So I hop up and I go down there and he, he's like he doesn't remember much either. So we start going through our phones and there's videos and pictures.
Speaker 1:Oh no.
Speaker 2:And it's like the Hangover.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:At one point I had a Mamba line behind me going down the street of like 30 people bar hopping and I'm like I got a whistle. I was like what the fuck you? I was like what the fuck.
Speaker 1:You have no recollection of this None.
Speaker 2:Wow, and there's so many. There were so many pictures and videos. I don't remember a thing from that were in there and it was just like Jesus Christ Doing shots with girls, you know like it's like, oh, buddy, and they're all on different bars. It was like time stamped, time stamped. So then we get to. We took the channel from the uk over to france. Yeah, the tunnel, underground tunnel, it's pretty cool. So they had, they served alcohol on the channel.
Speaker 1:So winning room, yeah who are you not to have a couple of days?
Speaker 2:so we start started drinking again. So me and him get there, we meet up. We took the train into Paris and it was cool. I was seeing different countries, I was showing around, it was cool to see and the architecture there is amazing. So we meet up with our buddy Scott, and then our buddy Nick meets up later and we meet him up and the party ensues. It carries on right. So now all four of us are together. We went out and got hammered. We went to the Roland Garros tournament, the tennis match over there, okay. The French Open, yeah. So we got to see Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras. It was cool, right, we did a lot of stuff when we were in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Then we went out to Normandy for the actual anniversary. Right, it was just wild to see, but it's a party. It is just a freaking party. They fly in all these US soldiers in the city of Tafir I can't remember the name of the city it's just a drunk fest. Everyone is just hammered for like four days, and it was nuts.
Speaker 1:And you're already coming off of them. Oh, they didn't come off of anything, I just kept it going for two weeks.
Speaker 2:Right, right and.
Speaker 1:How are you not dead?
Speaker 2:Correct, correct. I don't know man, big man upstairs, he's got some plans, big plans.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But so we did. So Normandy was over. We went to two Women's World Cup soccer games. When we were there, got naked in front of the Eiffel Tower.
Speaker 1:Because why not?
Speaker 2:Why not?
Speaker 1:It's the Eiffel Tower. Because, why not? Why not? It's the.
Speaker 2:Eiffel Tower. That's where people get naked. Yeah, why not yeah. It was a blast, though. We had so much fun the best trip I've ever been on with the boys. We still talk about it sometimes.
Speaker 1:It's like you're like oh fuck, don't think you could do it again. No, no, no no, you definitely wouldn't change it.
Speaker 2:I remember when I was trying to leave Paris. Charles de Gaulle Airport is horrible, so I hate that airport. Yeah, I've been there and I'm coming like I'm still hammered. I got the bubble guts. I remember sitting in line, like in this cubicle line. I'm like there's no, I'm about to shit my pants because the beer shits and I was like gosh, damn it. I'm like trying to hold it together. I'm sweating. Finally make it through security. I run to the bathroom but I get to my gate and I'm like I need to upgrade my ticket like it's 1200 dollars, sir to first class. I was like I don't fucking care, it's like I need to lay down, I need water.
Speaker 1:Please accommodate my request, I will pay you handsomely, I will pay you handsomely, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I could see just the sheer shame in my eyes of like, please, please. They granted it and ah, man yeah.
Speaker 2:It's good the trip was over. I came home Mm-hmm, oh man, yeah, it's good the trip is over. Came home, and then, december 31st 2019, I was back in baghdad, iraq. It was a typical morning. It was my buddy, scott's birthday that day and we're like talking about we're gonna do this for his birthday that night. You know, not like we could go anywhere, but we had, you know, the us embassy compound. Everybody had like sda, it's like small apartments, yeah and uh. So I'm back in my room, you know, and I just got done from like getting all my paper submitted for the day for my team and everything. And the alarm starts going off. And it wasn't an incoming alarm, it was like the like secure in place alarm.
Speaker 1:I was like what the fuck?
Speaker 2:is this it? It was like nine, nine, 30 in the morning, 10 in the morning or something. And uh, so I turned my radio on. I'm like, is this a drill or something? You know it wasn't a drill. This is when they attacked. They tried to overrun the embassy in 2019. And uh, so it got real it. You know. They were burning down the gates and everything. They're burning everything. They're catching our fuel points on fire. It was crazy, you know. It lasted for three days and we evacuated everybody off the compound except for, like, essential personnel. So all the contractors were left, you know, and that was it. And it was long nights, long days, and it was, you know, the rockets after rockets, just consistently rockets coming in, and I remember we were like this is the beginning stages and they killed solomony. Day three. That's when it ended. And when we killed solomony, the reason solomony was coming was he was coming to see the final stages and they were going to kill.
Speaker 1:They were supposed to overrun the embassy yeah, they killed him right on the tarmac, didn't they? Yeah, they did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was pretty cool, but they were supposed to overrun the embassy and, like that was supposed to be, it, kill everyone in the embassy, and so we had something better for him, yeah, and, but it was, you know. So, just like that it ended Like they all dispersed, but then it was just the threat. So we used to have to pull guard on the ambassador to like 24 7 and my team were guarding through the night, you know. And uh, we did shifts and so we're on shift and I get a. I get a call from the eoc, the mvops it was the operation center and they call my state, my, my state phone, like that, because you get issued a, you know, secure phone, everything, like you need to get the ambassador awake now, like it's their white house.
Speaker 2:I was like fuck. So I went and got the agent. You know we had a state department agent. I was like, uh, hey, marcus, it's the eoc, we need to get the ambassador up now, you know. So we get down. We had to go into his kitchen and that was like his secure room that we had, because they didn't have any safe room like real hard safe room. Their buildings were hard room, like the whole construction of it were designed for rock, like to take impacts and stuff.
Speaker 2:And uh, after benghazi they learned that you know, big lesson yeah, I was deployed for that. I got spun up for that to go to benghazi, but we got. We got called off at the last minute for that too, shucks. So we wake him up. We're in the kitchen and we're taking notes and he looks at me and he's like can you write? I was like what the fuck is this guy?
Speaker 1:He's like yeah, I can write. I'm not a fine animal Write, I was like, can you write, not a caveman yeah.
Speaker 2:Write strong. I'm like taking notes from the scribe and they were gonna. That's when they were gonna hit the embassy with ballistic missiles for retaliation. And there's a White House. They're like you guys are going to get hit with ballistic missiles tonight. And I was like holy fuck. And that's when it hit.
Speaker 1:I was like it's not a game, it's not a game.
Speaker 2:And so they had the whole compound for days after that was up and down for ballistic missile threats. At this point they were able to stall it for the night and they didn't know when it was like imminent threat, right. And so that's when they arranged the whole thing with um, not al-sad, yeah, al-sad, one of the air bases that they hit, they hit the air base with the missiles but it hit the tarmac where there's nobody out.
Speaker 2:Yeah right, tit for tat, we give a lot of money for that. And uh, that's when I met my ex-wife out there. She was in the reserves out there and I should have kept walking.
Speaker 1:I should have kept just didn't have it into you and you're not too right just didn't have it in me not to taught me a lesson.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't have it in me not to Taught me a lesson. I wouldn't change it, though I wouldn't change that experience. I'm glad it happened, you know, because we did have some good times. But after the embassy got attacked from there I got stuck out. That's when COVID happened and so I got stuck. I couldn't come back into the country. I got stuck out for almost a year, like 346 days.
Speaker 2:I made a lot of money that year but, um, yeah, and so we were together, me and her were out, we were together out there the whole time. So it's like a trauma bond, right. I knew it wasn't a real thing, but it was a trauma bond. It was like I had protection for her and like it was that instinct of protection, right.
Speaker 1:It sort of felt real though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it felt, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, and so that whole year we're out. Like you know, she obviously had her place. I had my room in the barracks. I stayed in. You know I'd go hang out there every now and then, but the constant rockets that were coming in and, like the constant rockets that were coming in and like the constant threats and you know things, tensions were high in the city, like all the checkpoints were on fire, like it was. It was a crazy, crazy time and uh. So then when we ended up coming home, that's when we went to my buddy Tim's wedding, officiated his wedding, so I stood up there for, you know, 150 people and one got ordained online. How cool is that? I married one of my other best friends so well married him and his wife.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he didn't actually marry him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he wishes that'd be completely different yeah, aaron won't let that happen no, no, not at all but so then you know, things with me and her started getting a little serious, more serious, and she ends up moving down here with the kids. Her kids had three kids and the youngest one was my. It was like my, my shadow, my twin man. You know we were cool, me and her were thick as thieves. Yeah, you know, the two other two were great as well and we all had a great relationship. It just didn't work out. So we opened the pizza shop together UR Pie Pizza. So that's when we became franchise owners. I quit, so a contract was coming to an end and this was the next chapter was pizza franchise.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And ran that for two and a half years, up until now, you know. And so we're at it now, today's modern day, and it taught me a lot. I did a lot with the community, did a lot of great things around town, met a lot of amazing people, you know. Unfortunately, it just didn't work out the way it was supposed to work out.
Speaker 1:Well, it probably worked out the way it is supposed to work out.
Speaker 2:Well, it probably worked out the way it is supposed to work out, don't you think I think it did, man, I think so. You know, after the divorce with me and her, yeah, this is the next chapter of my life that needs to go. You know, it's like this. This last year has been my most developmental years in my adult life that I can ever have. That I've ever I've had so far I've had yet. I've learned so much about myself.
Speaker 2:I've did a lot of work with, like therapy, you know, ate a lot of magical mushrooms, found some stuff about myself yeah you know, um, but I've grown as a like, not just human, as a man, right, got rid of a lot of these habits I had, you know, through my marriage and I see that you know now that it's over the lessons that it taught me and the growth that it's allowed me to do. You know I learned a lot about myself, about what I want, what I don't want. You know it's been this.
Speaker 1:Last year has been it's been a blessing and a heartache at the same time, but it's been a good thing.
Speaker 2:Life happens. My not sweating, the small stuff is paying off.
Speaker 1:A famous guy once said that life is about 2% of what happens and 98% about how you deal with it. Right, yep, and that dictates it. So I want to ask a question, though. Every story that we've talked about involved getting hammered and getting drunk and going out and partying. Almost every story yeah, they've been great stories. We're sitting here right now. We're drinking.
Speaker 2:Make gold to zero.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so when was the last time you drank?
Speaker 2:November 13th 2023. So what happened? Well, aaron came down to visit me. Uh-huh, and prior to this, obviously, when Aaron had been sober for, I think, a year at this time, and prior to that, I remember I, I, he, you know how he was you know he's out of control. Yeah, I went to see him when that time went to see him and it was just pounding beers smoking up like it was just back to back.
Speaker 2:I was like jesus christ, like what is going on, man, and uh, I said some things to him as brother, brother yeah and kind of, and then, as you did, as did as well, that kind of resonated with him and it was like man, two people I adore in my life are both hitting me with something the same thing, like maybe I should check it out. So Aaron was here. He'd been sober now for a year or some. Change, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a year and a couple of months, yep.
Speaker 2:And it was the family trip you guys were on and I was, when he came to meet up with me, I was already drunk, like I was already like I was working all day, you know. I had like, yeah, and he's like, just try it. And I really, you know my marriage with my ex-wife, you know like like the cops had been involved, right, not anything that I've ever done, right, uh, they were. It wasn't because they were being called on me because I was being the bad boy, you know she, you know she had me swatted. Uh, you know I got scar on my chest from her, from it's the whole thing. And I was like you know, there's a common denominator with this alcohol. Now, before her, when I drank, you know I I've lost some great women too due to drinking. You know, because once the, it's a everything's a story for me, it's how much, how can I make this the best story ever and how far can I push the limits? Right, and I don't do that anymore. So he said, try it for a week. I was like I can do a week and I started thinking about it was like what was the last time I would drink? I hadn't drank in a week, right.
Speaker 2:So I was like, and uh, I mean, there have been times, you know, when I was contracting, but this, at this point, I've been with my my wife at the time and it was like we were like old in water and it was. You know everything. Every time we'd get drunk, it was just a fight. You'd be sitting there. Sky looks pretty today, does it really? Though? Okay, here we go. Right, you know everything.
Speaker 2:And it was just miserable at the time, and I saw photos of myself where I just looked like, shit, miserable. Face was just so fat and puffy, my eyes were drooping. You know, I had skinny fat, just didn't look good. Yeah, and uh, I went a week and I was like, let me go two weeks and let me go three weeks. And you know it's been, you know it's been ever. You know it's been ever since then. Now there's been a handful of times where, at like a social event where I've had a drink in my hand, I can't like, I just can't, like, I don't even want to finish them anymore. It's like, you know, if you have a drink, it's like, ah, I'm good, it bloats you up right away. Yeah, you know, so it's been great, lost a lot of weight, like we're off the bat, 15 pounds without drinking. You know health issues start going away. Sleeping better there's been. I mean I drink the McUltra Zeros. You know I smoke pot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I've never seen anybody smoke pot that became an asshole right away. You know what I mean Exactly, right, like you become an asshole when you drink, when you start drinking, man.
Speaker 2:I've never seen anybody blow through a red light, kill a family of four and not remember it. Smoking pot, Right, but alcohol can tell you how many times I've woken up and been like you idiot. You drove home last night. I want to remember that.
Speaker 2:How fortunate have you been all this time I've been fortunate and I took it for granted, you know, and now it's like I'm a big advocate. I see a lot of people that I still know and I hear them complain about things and I'm like, stop drinking. And they just, oh, I don't even drink that much. I'm like all right, I'm just telling you the keys, Like you know.
Speaker 1:What does that much mean, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, especially it's a lot of buddies that we all went through the same thing. You know, it's like I'm telling you, if you just cut that, see mental health therapist, get some like talk through what happened man, get some help, your life will change.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dramatically.
Speaker 2:And I like the last couple of months. You know I really had a like with Aaron. You know, talking with Aaron like with God, you know like starting to like really get like. There's been a lot of things that have happened in my life that there's been someone helping me, watching over me yeah, you know it's kind of the timing of everything going on right now.
Speaker 2:I don't really believe in coincidences anymore. It's not a coincidence, it's your plan, set and stunt like your plan. It's just your story unfolding right and it's follow the wave. You know, listen and ask for guidance and, yeah, things have been changing for the better for me, man I think your mom said, um, at one time when she was looking at making a change at work.
Speaker 1:She would talk to somebody and said this isn't how I saw my life, this isn't my plan. And they were like, well, maybe your plan's just messed up, maybe this is God's plan. I think that that's true. I know that something's going to happen, but how and what aren't necessarily my business, like I got to kind of go with the flow on that yeah, yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:You know, once I've been more acceptance, like the last month and a half, a lot, of, a lot of crazy things have happened for the better, you know yeah I learned like, especially the last year empathy, compassion.
Speaker 2:You know humiliation was a big one for this year. You know that was. It took a lot. You know announcing. You know I made that Instagram the closing of the business. You know the restaurant, and uh, I could have easily taken the route of just closing the doors and putting a sign on the window and saying see you later. But you know I went. I had a lot of people that helped me along the way to get to where I've been so far, and so I owe it to them to be transparent and thank everybody for what they've done to help. That was my humiliation. Part of life, to humble. But with that I guess you asked me earlier to give a piece of advice everything I've learned so far.
Speaker 1:To kind of set the stage for people listening. That is, you know, we've talked about a lot of stuff, A lot of stuff that's probably not necessarily easy to talk about. But yeah, when we leave this conversation, what is it you want people to take away from this? What's the message?
Speaker 2:The biggest message I can give is that everything you do, you got to do it a hundred percent. You make mistakes in life. You don't get the not everyone gets a fair shake, good hand dealt to them, but it's about. The decisions you make determine the outcome of your life. You control your own destiny. So if you sit around and do nothing, you're going to have nothing. But if you can control your outcome and what you can do, you control your destiny. You can help shape the path of what you truly want.
Speaker 1:Alright. Well, thanks for taking time out today to talk to me. I really appreciate it. Thanks for being such a good friend to my son.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course.
