Jaws of DEATH

and stories from some of my buddies. This is this is a way for me to get closer to you as a listener and as a viewer, so that you could you could see a side of me that maybe you don't see just on the stage singing country music. Maybe you can get to know me a little bit better. And that's the reason for this podcast. That's the reason I've done all these episodes in the past, which started on my bus Wildflower on tour and a parking lot of some venue. We don't do that anymore. We don't

tour anymore. Yet, we will be touring very soon. And I say, it seems like I've been saying this over and over, like beating a dead horse. But it's not a matter of if, it's when things will get back to normal. I reject the idea of the new normal, the new way of life, the new way that we're going to live. That's not right right now. We're living in a current reality. The state of the world is very different right now. But we will return back to normal,

back to the old normal. And if you don't and if anyone tells you that we want, if anyone is telling you that we're about to enter a new normal, then you have to question their motives. You have to wonder why they want you to think that way, Because to me, this is a virus that eventually will go away.

We will conquer it like all humans do. And whether we find a vaccine, whether we find herd immunity, whatever, whatever that might be, and no matter how long that takes, it will go away and then we'll get back to normal. That's my little spiel for the time being. And and I'm excited. I don't want to do a long intro today because I have a really cool guest and we

got into some really good conversations. This episode is brought to you by Ye Apparel, the appair company that me and my brothers have right here in Central Texas, right here at the EEE Farm. Thank you for all the support.

If you have EEE apparel, if you suport ee apparel, we are honored and it is a big responsibility for me to continue to make a quality product and to give you my best opinion is about the world, so that you could be proud to represent YEEE and you could be proud to be a member of YE nation, part of an elite, elite club that I'm very proud of.

I think it's something that I never dreamed we could have something like this, something something that's much bigger than music, much bigger than any individual, and that's what EEEE is to me. Today's guest Mike Ritlin, an amazing human being. He is. He's a vet, but he has gone above and beyond. He served twelve years at the United States Navy Seals and he was part of an elite canine unit. He has a special relationship with dogs, and so you've

all seen service dogs and they're always amazing. It's always amazing to see a service dog at work. Well, you can imagine if you've seen any kind of service dog, you can imagine a United States Navy Seal service dog would be an elite version of any other service dog you've ever seen, and that's exactly what Mike has handled and it's what he currently does in his post combat work, and I want you to hear all about that. Ladies and gentlemen, mister Mike Ritlin, Welcome to the Grangersmith Podcast.

Did chant in d sel My Times and school long Line and by four of Pomp and Down going back Rangey Colation. I think I'll start with saying that through my travels, there's a question that comes up a lot. People say, besides Texas, is there a place that you've traveled to that you would actually want to live? So you need to think about like Colorado and there's those

are a lot of beautiful places. But what I usually tell them surprise, and I'll say Iowa, really because I think about those those rolling green hills of corn and those red barns and silos. And I've told my wife, I was like, you don't understand. Iowa is unbelievable, so beautiful in its own way. It's it's the most American state scenery. Yeah, I can imagine, And that's that's where

you're from. Who is and you know, one of the reasons why I feel so at home in Texas, especially in a place like this and where my kennel facility is is it's very similar to that. Yeah, And if you're driving down the road out in front of your place, or you know, the outskirts of the town I grew

up in, you wouldn't know which one is which you know. So, yeah, there's a lot of commonality I think, between between Texas and Iowa in terms of not just terrain, but you know, from a demographic standpoint, the morals and values of people, and the way people treat each other, the way people take care of their things, and there's just there's there's kind of a feeling of being home in both places

that exists. But it's neat that with the amount of traveling that you've done that you you recognize that it's pretty awesome, gossome man like justice for you. Last guest I had in here was Robert Overst. He's six eighths. He didn't break the bench. So Mike, thank you you drove. You drove up from Dallas, three hour trip to the e farm. First of all, thank you for driving up here. Thank you for your service. You have a one hell

of a resume. I was thinking, is there is there such thing as a former Navy seal or once Navy seal, always Navy seal. Yeah, I mean, first off, I appreciate the sentiment, my pleasure. I appreciate you bringing me down here. To me, it doesn't really matter. Okay. You know, I think most people don't use the term ex Navy seal, but some people do. Most people say former. Okay, I don't really look at it as a once a Navy seal,

always a Navy seal. I mean to me, military wide, if you're not on active duty, you're you're a former, a former action guy as it were. So you know to me that that's that's fine. I don't have a preference or or get my panties in a bunch if somebody says X or whatever. So so former Navy seal I start with that, because that is that's an elite title. No matter how you look at it, you're you're also multi time best selling author. How does it feel to

hear that now? It was probably crazy? Right, that's weird. You know, if you'd have told me ten years ago that I'd have written a book let alone it it made the New York Times and then written two more that did the same thing. There's no way to believe you. You You know, it's a it's a weird title for sure.

It's not something that comes up real often because I'm not an author in the traditional sense, like that's not what I do for a living, you know, So because I don't hear it or talk about it very often. When people do bring it up, it still kind of strikes me as a little odd. Sure it feels a little weird, but sure, but it's it's a it's a hell of an honor. It's a neat you know, a

neat group to be a part of. And I feel very fortunate, really, I mean, you know, I kind of stumbled into into the ability to do that, and I was just kind of the right place at the right time. They've been loden Rat had happened not long before my first book came out, and when everybody found out that there was a dog on board, they kind of lost their minds and were like, you know, wait, there was

a dog there, Like what was the dog? You know, Navy seals use dogs, and so, you know, I had just come back from being a trainer on the West Coast for the Seal Team canine program out out there, and it was just just kind of lined up. I was at the right place at the right time. So there's certainly you know a number of guys that have, you know, far more impressive resumes as it relates to everything, that probably have way more business writ in a book about that than I do. But but again, I just

I kind of fell into the right spot. Yeah, so you led me into the next part of your intro is your unique experience in a canine unit, an elite canine unit, and that I've kind of taken a deep dive in you these past few days prepared for this podcast. And uh, you know a lot about dogs. You have a special relationship with dogs. There's a lot of people that say they're they're a dog guy. Yeah, but you you have dogs that have saved your life that you look at as more than a canine, just as is

highly uh touted as a soldier a fellow man to you. Sure, I go through a lot of peanut butter, We'll put it that way. Yeah, the uh you know, I mean for me, it's uh, yeah, I grew up a dog guy. Being in Iowa. You know, if you've spent any time other than driving through there, most people know bird dogs and duck hunting is huge there, and so you know, just kind of having a healthy appreciation for labs and

just bird dogs and hunting dogs generally speaking. Growing up, that that kind of you know, manifested into an interest, uh, you know, early on in the early two thousands, excuse me, where it was actually on a combat deployment to Iraq where there was a marine dog just in the vicinity

that we were in. It. It wasn't even a dog that saved my life or any of my teammates' lives, but we had been in the same scenario that this marine outfit had been in, you know, countless times and never had a dog with us, and this dog indicated on an explosive cachet or booby trap rather, And for me, that was the kind of the light switch or you know, when my brain kind of clicked on of having an

enormous interest and passion for working dogs. Up until that point, I'd done a fair bit of you know, breeding and hunting with dogs in a host of different capacities and had a pretty significant amount of dog knowledge from an animal husbandry standpoint, but not so much on the training side. And so that that kind of was the catalyst to dive,

to dive rather really deep into the training component. And that was you know, in early O three at the start of the war, and then so from then up until you know, as I sit here now, it's it's just been something that you know, I've I've kind of lived and and uh and have never really looked back. But I was kind of thinking you might have you might bring a dog today. If it was the wintertime, I for sure would. Okay, yeah, yeah, probably maybe a bite suit too, would get you. Get you in a

bite suit and do some do some of that. I'm sure your fans would love that. So you have some major injuries from bites. I do, Uh, well, I guess I shouldn't say major. I mean I've had I've had my wrist broken, and I've had uh, you know, God knows how many times where I've been bit and you know, filaid open. But in terms of you know, life altering injuries, nothing,

I will say that. You know from doing bite work a lot, you know, being in the suit and where they're biting your elbows and forearms and and the you know inside your bicep and you know the nerves and tendons that that are in there that get you know, bit over and over and over over time. For sure, like my hands are numb most of the time, that they don't work that well in the morning for for a while. It's it's absolutely taken its toll physically on me.

You know, there's there's no two ways about. It's just that amount of bite pressure on any appendage over and over. I mean, it's it's like a boxer or a football player or you know, a catcher squatting, you know, banging his knees up me. It's the same kind of thing.

It just it just runs you over after a while. So, but the thing with getting bit is is an interesting thing because it's not really a natural component to life, right, is that most people, you know, most people are actually pretty physically capable of defeating a dog, but have no idea how to do it. Their mentality is such that when it's happening, they panic. It's it's very similar to people that can't swim very well and they're in the water.

That that panic mentality is usually what takes place with with human beings when a dog is trying to attack them, and so you're not thinking straight, you're emotional you're panicky, there's adrenaline, and you do a lot of the wrong things, and so, you know, getting to a point where you're comfortable being bit, you know, plays a huge role in being a good, good dog trainer from the decoy side.

But when you are in that frame of mind, staying calm and thinking your way through everything and getting to the point where you're minimizing damage and neutralizing the dog, and that's what you're thinking about, not how bad it hurts or the holy shit, there's a dog biting me or whatever. So obviously there's a huge difference between training and having a padded suit on where they can't you know, hurt you nearly as much versus not having that equipment

on and being bit. But and your bites were not with a suit, Yeah, I mean the ones. There's been a couple with equipment on that the dog bit hard enough to where it went through the equipment and still still opened me up. That's pretty rare. Most dogs don't bite that hard. But you know, the equipment is designed to keep you from being injured, you still feel it.

You still get marked and bruised up, and your skin gets pinched and broken, blood vessels and things like that, But no that like where my wrist was broken, and you know a number of other times I've been, you know, completely opened up, has been working with a dog. And it's always my fault, you know, right at the end of the day. It's it's me not reading something right or putting you know, you know, trying too much, too fast with a dog. I'm not you know, close enough

with relationship wise. You know, it's usually a combination of a few of those things that leads to the dog deciding you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna take a shot at the title and then you end up getting bit. And where do you neutralize a dog? I'm sure that's a huge conversation. What what what body part do you go after to neutralize a dog? It's actually a great question.

It's one that not too long ago, Tim Kennedy had a run in with a with a neighborhood dog and I don't know if it was his child or a neighborhood kid or whatever, but there was this huge kind of going back and forth on what he should have done or didn't do or whatever, and I just I offered my advice again from somebody who has been in

that situation more times than most people. And it's really not too dissimilar from a human being, right, is that if you look at, say the concepts of jiu jitsu, you know what's the primary two things that are your goal. It's body control and take their air away. You know, just like a human being, a dog that gets their air cut from them can't fight you, it can't hurt you.

You know, the only you know, the main difference between dogs and humans that way is that the dog's mouth is their primary and really only weapon, and it's far more devastating than most human beings anything. Right, So you know, my recommendation for anybody is if they have a collar, you're in business. If they don't, it's harder, you can still maintain the same thing. But if they have a collar, you know, don't pick a child up because no different than if a human being was trying to attack, you

wouldn't pick the kid up. And now you're hamstrung. You can't defend yourself or the child as well. So you know, get the kid behind you, get in front of them, close the distance between the child and the dog, and now you're grabbing the dog. You want to get body control and the dog grab the collar and choke them unconscious. You know when people get bit and they start smacking the dog or gouge and eyes or grabbing their ears or trying to pick him up by their nuts or whatever.

You know, for a tough dog that's dedicated, those things are only going to make him angrier and probably more

dedicated to hurt you or whoever he's trying to attack. So, if the dog doesn't have a collar on the same thing is that I want to get body control, and by body control I put to you know, grab the dog if he doesn't have a collar, grab his skin with both hands, pull him in to you and straddle his back hips and then at that point pick him up by his tail if he has a docktail, pick him up by his back legs right at his stifles, and lift his back end up off the ground again

if he doesn't have a collar. If he has the collar, choke him out. If he doesn't get control of his back end lifted up off the ground, is it that way at a minimum, he can't get back to you. Sure. The hard part with that is if the dog is dedicated and has a hard mouth and is trying to hurt you and and accomplishes that is it. Again, most people they get bit, they pan and things of that nature. So it's a lot easier said than done. You've got to keep a cool head and if you do get bit,

don't let that deter you. Stay dedicated to that process and you're you're you're only going to be able to maximize your percentage chance for taking as little damage as possible. You know, that's that should always be the goal. That sequence isn't a guarantee that you're not going to get bit or injured. It's that's your best bet to to stay out of the dog's mouth as much as possible. Because what I can tell you from experience, whether it's a nasty hunting dog that you know, there's there's farm

dogs around here. I'm sure that that are man eaters that would give people a run for the money, that

could probably take people's lives. When you have a dog that's in that, you know, whether it's incited by prey drive or it's you know, it's just a naturally truly forwardly aggressive animal, you know that dog is pretty hard to deal with, you know, and if you don't have the ability to do that they're going to get the best of you, so it is important to keep a cool head and and and realize that, you know, the gimmicky tricks of well, I'll just you know, I'll shove

my forearm into into his mouth harder, or I'll stick my hand down his throat. It's it's kind of akin to saying, you know, I'm gonna grab that that chainsaw and stop it from moving right, you know, it really is. I mean, they bite hard enough to break bone, you know. And I'll show you some some pictures of some live bites after this. We won't post for you guys, unfortunately, but you know it's it's legitimate, like life altering damage.

When you have a dedicated dog that's, you know, hell bent on hurting you and gets a hold of you, it's it's pretty rough. I thought I had it bad with a mean rooster at hold will get you, you know. So that's what I was gonna ask. If you've ever seen a bad guy successfully cutralize a dog. Oh, absolutely, it does happen. I mean a gun. Yeah absolutely. I would say that it's it's rare, it's excruciatingly rare, but it does happen. You know, the dogs are are not invincible.

Usually when it happens is you know, somebody who is physically very capable and is usually on something. You know, they don't feel any pain. Their their state of minor mentality is completely whacked out for most people that aren't used to being bit, you know, and can't keep that level head when they do, that's all they think about, you know, and you know, it's mind boggling. Sometimes you'll see people that you know, a guy that's you know, the size of your last guest, you know, or you know,

some assemblance of that size. You know that that will hand six cops their ass, right, you know, in a fistfight that can't get control this guy, and then they pop out a little sixty pound female mal and on the guys like no, you know, and it just lays down and says, I'm not messing with the dog. So they are a very different, you know, less than lethal mechanism for maintaining you know, order and apprehension in criminal scenarios.

But but you know, just like with human beings or even you know, our best special operations soldiers, you know, they there are times where where they don't win. It's rare you know, overwhelmingly they're they're far more successful. But you know, yeah, there are times where whether it's a collar or somebody just has the ability their their hands and grip strength is enough to where they grabbed them by the throat or you know, can can injure the

dog enough to you know, to neutralize that. What I will say is that whether it's a home invasion scenario, a law enforcement and military or whatever, is that even in the instances where the dog is defeated one, it never happens fast. And even if the subject is you know, utilizing a firearm, what it's doing is it's still giving you an ability to to now neutralize you know, that that person as well. So yeah, there's a lot of things he's not paying attention to. You know, all of

his focus, excuse me, is on the dog. So even in you know, overseas scenarios where the guy's armed and you know, dumps a bag into the dog and shoots and kills them, which again doesn't happen often, but in those instances it's still now you've got you know, four, six, eight, ten guys who now have the jump on this guy, and he's not going to last much longer than that,

sure makes sense. Have you ever heard of them, say, I don't think it'd be as much domestic wise, but saying a terrorist in Islamic terrorists, do you have you seen him train for dogs? Not really, but I do know they like to target them, right for sure? They do. I mean no different than you know, say in World War Two, where they you know, had to had to redo helmets and and different rank and insignia, you know, markers and devices on their stuff to not say, hey

that's that's a captain, let's take him out or whatever. Similarly, yeah, they they many times are targeted, you know, more so than than than even the human counterparts, because they know what they bring to the table. In terms of training. No, I've never seen you know, really any any effective countermeasures and and you know, honestly there there really isn't, you know, other than what they already do. I mean in terms of just fighting them the way that they fight us

and whatever. You know that that's about as good as you're going to do. There's not really you know, some unique trick or tip that you know that it's going

to give people the advantage over dogs. And it's why they're they're really so so useful, frankly, is that you know, if you look at the scope of mankind combating one another, you know, in an age where you know, from the Stone Age all the way up until present day, we've got you know, billions of dollars of equipment, and you know, laser guided munitions and night vision and thermal and you know, helicopters that do amazing things and and all that kind

of stuff. You know, the one thing that's still used in combat other than human beings are dogs. You know, from from day one up until present day. I mean, you know, for our own own nation's most elite special operations forces, to use dogs out in front of them tells you a lot about the efficacy of them and how well they work, because soft units don't use things that don't work, you know, and so the fact that they use dogs is as much as they do and have as much success with them as they do, I

think speak volumes to their efficacy for sure. But that is uh, that is so cool man. Uh. Yeah, just the fact that, like you said, it's just a it's a it goes through history of mankind using canines in warfare. Yeah, for all different reasons, whether it's reconnaissance or sniffing out bombs or even you know, World War Two that was probably the most wide array of of practical applications of them. I mean they used them as messengers as you know,

medic carriers that you know, they moving equipment around. Uh, you know, guard dogs, sentry dogs, detector dogs. I mean, unfortunately, it's it's uh, I hate even even mentioning it because it's it's such a black eye on humanity I think. But a lot of Russian and German forces would would strap you know, suicide vests onto dogs and send them

into opposing tanks to knock them off of of their tracks. Mean, they would train dogs to you know, to just run straight towards the tank and then they'd blow themselves up and disabled tank, which is is a horrible thing to imagine, but not surprising, but not surprising and given given the

other atrocities that they committed. But but you know, it does speak volumes though to the versatility of dogs, and they've just they've been used in so many different capacities and still to this day, you know, I mean there's insulin resistance dogs and therapy dogs of every magnitude you can think of. I mean, they just there's so many, uh you know, different elements of our society that they've been plugged into that that they've made, you know, life

changing differences in a very positive way. They're just, you know, man's best friend. I think as interstatement, absolutely it would be it would be really hard to go through this interview and not bring up buds. Yeah, and and uh, you know, hopefully we'll have many more interviews and you guys comment below if you want to see more. Mike, but I want to know I heard that you you know, he's this kid from Iowa. You read the magazine, Yeah, about the Navy Seals. And first of all, where were

you swimming in Iowa? The first question. Yeah, just in a swimming pool, not in any big body of water. I mean there's there's a few lakes and reservoirs and stuff. There's not a ton of water in Iowa. But I grew up competitively swimming. My dad wrestled in high school with Dan Gable, and you know, I was such a

powerhouse wrestling state for decades. His knees and just entire lower body was pretty shot, and so he was doing a lot of swimming at the time, while we were growing up as kind of a you know, physical fitness rehab, you know type of mechanism, and so we just all

kind of gravitated towards that. And so because of my interest in the water and being competitive swimming all growing up and you know, being a part of competition sports swim clubs and things like that, I had kind of a natural inclination towards the Seal teams because they're the you know, the premiere maritime special operations unit. So you know, spending a lot of time in the swimming pool was obviously very different from combat diving and swimming and being

in the ocean. My first time of actually being out in the ocean water was at Buds. You know, we'd been to you know, Cocoa Beach, Florida or whatever, and I'd been you know an ankle high water as a kid or whatever. But yeah, my first time actually being out in the ocean was was at seal training, and very different experience. There's not a black line to guide

off of. There's waves hitting me in the face, there's a swell and a current that's messing you up on the swims and whatever, and so, and I'd never really swam with fins either, so you know, for me, it was it was a hell of an adjustment to to now, you know, swim and open ocean water with fins and having to guide, and it was a very different experience. It was humbling, frankly, because I was not very good at it. As good of a swimmer as I was,

I was not a very effective combat sidestroke swimmer. Yeah, I mean, surprisingly, some guys showed up. I think, you know, we had guys that, you know, were Olympic Olympic caliber swimmers. I was for sure not that. I mean, I was competitive, but not at that level. And so you know, those guys showed up and it was a breeze for them.

Some other guys, you know, could barely swim. But I think it's almost one of those things where if you're in really good shape and you're competitive and you've got you know, strong genetics, you're almost better suited to not have all these bad habits of not using fins, and you know you can. It's kind of like shooting, if you know, teaching somebody who's never really shot, they don't have any bad habits as a kid that they picked up, so they're they're a little bit easier interesting that way.

But but yeah, it you know, back to your question. It you know, I was not exactly a breeding ground for for Navy seals. There's not many of us from there, but but you know, it just it kind of seemed like like the natural fit for me. So two part question, did you think you were ready for buds? And then are you uh, sort of to both? You know, yeah, I mean I was confident. I you know, I had

started training for it when I was a sophomore. I originally started doing martial arts and this was before M m A existed and so it was kind of ahead of its time. It was it was a female, a female instructor that was was based off of Okinawa and karate. Shout out to to Pam Hammers, who was she was a stud. I mean she put the fear of of everything in me as a high school kid. And she was, you know, a five foot three, you know, one hundred

and twenty pound woman. But but you know, she ran this dojo that that was underground, Like it wasn't a commercial. It was out of out of her her basement, you know, and it was word of mouth. And she had to you know, accept you in and it was it was pretty hardcore for for its time, and we did you know, Filipino stick fighting and French foot fighting and wrestling and

boxing and some jiu jitsu. It was. It was a form of that, guess was probably more like judo, but it was just a kind of a nice mix of a lot of different things, you know, the way MMA is now. And this was before you know, any of that, ever,

before the UFC even was in existence. But so you know, having that as kind of the backdrop with which you know, between discipline and you know, having a strong mental capacity and you know, using a lot of kind of the traditional martial arts philosophies towards working out and training and taking things serious and being disciplined and things of that

nature helped out a lot. She was really hardcore, The group was really hardcore, and so using that and then you know, still swimming a lot, and I you know, started running a lot and really preparing. So I spent you know a good portion of my high school years, you know, training constantly to go there with that as

my focus. You know, so when I showed up also not really knowing what to expect I was seventeen, you know, I turned right after I turned eighteen, I went to boot camp and so I was, you know, the youngest kid in the class, and you know, it was kind of a deer in the headlights a little bit. But you know, for me showing up and then taking the test and seeing you know, out of out of you know, quite a few kids that tried, and most of them didn't even pass the screening tests, and I passed it

what felt like relatively easily. Was a pretty big confidence boost too. It's not a hard test, but I think doing it in succession and the mentality or the mental pressure of like, holy shit, I'm in the Navy and I'm trying out, you know, to go to the seal training, and you know, it was a lot for young kids at that age, and so you know, most guys didn't make it. I passed it on the first time, and so then when I when I showed up, you know, it was humbling. I mean, there's no such thing as

showing up in good enough shape to make it. I mean that's one of the things of seal training that, without question, I think is probably the most important thing for anybody that wants to go is to realize is the better shape you're in, Uh, you know, the less mental pressure there's gonna be and and you know, the less you're gonna have to rely on your mind to get you through a lot of training, but without a doubt.

So that that's that's what I want to go deeper with. Uh, We're gonna take a quick break, reset these cameras, and then I want to dig into that go hang on. So physically you think you're ready. Mentally you think you're ready. You're you're you're swimming a lot, You're you're practicing martial arts, probably running. I'm sure you're running a lot. Get physically ready, but the mental part that's what gets everybody. Yeah, there's a lot of strong guys. There's a lot of good swimmers.

There's a lot of guys that could run miles and miles and miles. But there's got to be and this is a way I love talking about this on this podcast with elite people like yourself. There's got to be a switch in your brain that goes when you're your body's at the limit and there's there's all these little neurons firing off going uh, nope, now you're gonna you're gonna break, You're gonna get sick. You're too cold, you can't,

this muscle is gonna tear you. You got pneumonia. There's all these little neurons fire and saying stop, stop, stop, But you have a switch. Did you realize you had the switch then? Or was it later in combat or was it was it earlier as a kid. When did you figure out, Mike has a switch that takes me to a new level past my physical capabilities. For sure, it was well after. Unquestionably, I didn't join to to

not do that. I didn't join to quit. My dad and both my parents were never like overbearing in terms of their expectations, and I think that that was in a healthy way. It's part of why I didn't want to let them down. It's just because they you know, they didn't put unrealistic expectations or you know, super hard on me if if I didn't make the grade with

something or whatever. But to me, it's the realization that I've come to years later, and ironically enough, it's from working with so many dogs over the years at high levels,

is that it's genetic. Because I was an instructor also my last three three and a half years in the Navy, and so being a seal instructor on the other side of that curtain is an interesting component to it because you know, we've all been through the training and now when you're hanging out with the wizard behind the curtain and you see a lot of the things that you didn't realize took place, you know are both fascinating, but they're also very insightful in terms of what you learn

about yourself from having been through it, and you're, like, Jesus Christ, we did that, you know. I mean, like, even as an instructor, putting kids through hell week is exhausting, and you're only working an eight hour shift, you know, and these kids are doing it for six days straight.

And so But in terms of the genetic component, I truly believe that both in human and dogs, there's such a high number of parallels when it comes to performance, and that one percenter type of mentality of having a basically a complete disregard for for your own life is that that that is inherently not genetically normal for any living being, right is because you know, our genetic code and makeup is such that self preservation and the ability

to perpetuate our gene pool is our primary focus. Right. Survivability of a species is the number one thing that all species are are designed to employ, and so just having that mentality is genetically not conducive to the survivability

of a species. So to me, it makes sense that you know, when you're looking at human beings or dogs, is that that that disregard and saying, you know what, even though i know I'm heading into somewhere where you know there's a high probability I'm going to lose my life, I'm going to fucking do it anyway. Is that that isn't normal, and it can't be normal for human beings to survive and continue to exist. And so as much as I'd love to say that you know, I'm a

tough guy, I'm not. I mean to me, the guys and the dogs that make it through that training and have that that disregard for their own safety is just a genetic mutation, frankly, and I do believe it's an abnormality or a mutation in this case in a good way sort of you know, in that if you don't have that, you're not going to be able to do that, and most people don't have that, which is why most

people don't make it through training with dogs. It's the same thing most dogs, you know, when you get in their mind and I pick a fight with them and I make them understand that I'm here to snatch their soul, most of them say, you know what, I'm not doing this anymore, and they pack sand and they and they quit.

The ones that don't are incredibly rare. And even when you're breeding for that, I mean the luxuries I've had as a dog trainer and breeder, and you know, fancier of different working breeds as being able to selectively breed unlike human beings. And so even when you take you know, a male and a female that have that trait at a very high level, they're offspring, most of them don't

have it. You know, even when you're doing it generation after generation and you're playing god and being able to pick you know, the genetic combinations properly, it's still a very elusive trade in something that's really hard to replicate. Not the answer I was expecting, very convincing, and I'm pretty sure I believe you because you're very convincing, But to be a one percenter on this earth. You got to be born with it. I think that's that's your argument.

What if there's someone out there that goes, how do I mentally train myself to become a one percenter? And is your answer? You can't. You got to be born with it. Yeah. I mean to me, you're you're not a very good motivational speaker to a big craft. Well yeah, I mean tough shot right, like, but that's not what you're known for anyway. No, I mean, no for sugar coating. Well, I mean to me, if motivational speakers worked, there wouldn't

be of them, true, if in a million books. Yeah, I mean like if if Tony Robbins, you know, if one of his seminars worked, those people wouldn't ever need to come back and they would be able to go teach everybody else, you know. So yeah, I mean I truly think is it like with dogs? You know there's so many parallels between humans and dogs. Is that you know most people with dog training, is that it takes that same kind of level of dedication to truly have

a trained dog. I mean, yes, some people get lucky with that that unicorn that doesn't really need to be trained and just picks things up and as a dream dog and whatever. But those are outliers most people, just like with working out or getting a black belt in jiu jitsu or being a great chef, you know, is that there there are elements to that that just require a lot of repetition and dedication. And unfortunately, human beings

aren't typically that dedicated. You know, if you look at the mass population, there's more lazy people than there are not uh, you know, And I would pose kind of the same question to you being in the entertainment industry.

You know, there are people American idol I think teaches us a good lesson in humility that way, and that you know, there's some people that work their entire childhood and their parents get them the lessons and that you know, that's what they want to do, and they work their ass off and they get the training or whatever, and

they still just absolutely suck. Yeah, you know, right. So you know, to me, it's it's the same is that because to me, people talk about motivation, and you know, motivation peters out and everybody, you know, and that's where discipline comes in, right, And and so where discipline comes in is that's you making the concerted, conscious decision to say, you know what, this sucks, I don't want to do it,

but I'm going to do it anyway. To me, While you know, on the surface that may seem like a choice, I truly believe that that that the you you and having the ability to make yourself do things that suck is genetic, you know, because most people can't do it. And again, the motivational speaker thing, if if you could motivate and convince somebody to put themselves through that, there'd be way more seals, entertainers, black belts in jiu jitsu,

successful entrepreneurs. Everything is that you know that that small fraction of the percentage of the population that truly says there is no plan B, there's no safety net. I'm gonna do what I set out to do, Come hell or high water, You're gonna have to kill me, you know to stop me. Is that there's just not many people that truly have that when it starts to suck, I can't argue, man, you're right, and uh yeah, it's

in the in the music business as well. You know a lot of people will ask where does it take and can do they have what it takes, and the true answer is I usually know off the bat you don't. Yeah, and sometimes they do. Yeah, But but are you willing to do what no one else is? And that's not that's not a matter of work ethic. Really, it's not a matter if well, I'll just stay up all night and work that that doesn't wait to doing what no one else will ever do consistently. And yeah, maybe maybe

you're just born with it. I cannot argue with that. Yeah, I mean again, you know, having seen so many people, you know, give you the lip service of no. I know, you know, and again as an instructor, I saw it time and time again, you know, with an eighty five percent attrition rate. You know, you see these kids who for years have been training for something finally are given the shot. They come and in the first few days

ring the bell and quit. And the first thing that they say, five minutes after they could, well, I'm coming back, motherfucker, you could still be here. How does that happen? I always wonder that, how do you do that? Yeah? It happens every class. Yeah, I mean, so it's just why do you do that? Again? I think it's you know, it's a it's a mental lack of capacity. But why do they even go through that? How have they how have they not learned that they're not capable of that

before they start? Yeah, I mean, you know, that's something I can't answer. You know, I really I don't understand it. I've never understood it. I've tried, and you know, I've talked to you know a number of kids who you know, and that's not a decision that it's it's like deciding to not play baseball this year. I mean, that's a life altering decision that you are going to regret for the rest of your life, rest assured the rest of

your life. Well, and you know, above and beyond that is that you know when you go from there like it's not well, let's kick you back in training and give you another shot, Like you're going to go to the fleet and chip paint for four years, you know, and and live on a on a prison ship basically,

you know, being the lowest of the low. You know, you're an undesignated seaman, which you know how many jokes can multiple meetings, but yes, you go to the fleet and you're and you're basically a worker bee, you know, for several years. Most of the guys you know, and so uh, you know, that's a pretty miserable existence and

they know that going in. I mean, I think that the seal teams are are a unique bunch in that, you know, unlike the Army or the Marines or Air Force or whatever, is that if you don't make it in their special operations co versus, you generally go do

things that are are somewhat similar. You know, maybe you're an infantry if you didn't make it through rangers or you know, Green Breay Q Course or whatever, well then you're you know, you're in an infantry unit or an armored division unit or something like that, and you're still going into combat and doing a lot of the same things, maybe just not at the higher level. Marine same thing. Like, you know, you're going to be an infantry if if you if you don't make it in the Navy, like

your life is going to be vastly different. You know, you're going to be wearing you know, hayes gray dungarees and you're out, you know, swabbing decks and cleaning issues and floating around, you know, the world miserable for several years. And so you're you know to know that, and it's not like that's a secret. I mean, they know that

that is their fate if they if they quit. And I think what it always boils down to is mental pressure, you know, whether whether that's manifested through environmental environmental conditions like cold water, or stress and mental pressure from the from the staff, or the anticipation of what's next, or you know, watching the sun go down and and knowing it's it's about to get real miserable cold and you're going to be laying in the water, and you know,

there's there's a million mind games that the staff plays, you know, with with the students to test them over and over and over. And it's not uncommon to see, you know, that one of the cadre, whoever's leading an exercise or an evolution, say okay, you know, pick your boats back up. We're going to run down to somewhere that's six miles away. And they start running and guys quit and then they put the boats down and turn around and come back. They weren't even going to go

down there. They just made it seem like, wow, they were going to do that. And that happens all the time, whether it's you know, doing a big loop on a on a run where you pass where you were supposed to turn in and stop and yep, all right, we're going to do it again. You know, you're like Jesus, that was four miles. We've got to do that again. And they only go for two or three hundred yards and they see guys quit and in that little amount of time of knowing, Christ, we've got to go do

that same four mile run again. But then they don't even do it, or you know, having guys march out into the water and then lay down in it, you know, and do surf torture and do that. You know, they go out into the water, they come back, they go out, they come back, and you'll get guys quitting on the way back out there all the time. And then that ends up the group didn't even go back out there. They just pretended to send them back out there. So you know, I mean to me, it's just it ultimately

always boils down to mental toughness. And again I think, you know, we're disciplined, and mental tough toughness kind of crisscrosses is in that genetic arena of you know, it's either there or it isn't so which one can you cultivate mental toughness or discipline? I think you can. You can teach people to be disciplined to a certain point. But what I've learned again and Dogs, is that you know, genetics are are the thermometer if you will, you know, it is the bar at which you are always going

to be limited by. Right. So take Muhammad Ali. You know, why do we know his name. It's not because he had a great coach and worked hard and you know, started early. It's because he had the genetics to when he applied those things allowed him to get to a level that is world class. And so I think that again and Dogs in with people, it's the exact same thing.

Is that you could use entertainment or sports in any sports as another you know, kind of gateway to that is that if you have the genetics and you put the time in and have great coaches and start early, and do all of the things that that are required to get to that world class level, you'll get there. If you don't have the genetics, all of that and and every you know sports camp, you know summer camp, and you know three week spring spring break training seminar

with Peyton Manning. It's not going to turn you into that if if the genetics just aren't there to support it. So so you're saying David Goggins, who I don't know. Maybe you know David, I actually don't, and I've never met I don't think I've ever even met him. You're saying all the squawking he does on social media about people need to get hard and tough en up, he's just speaking to nobody. Because the less well you're born with it, you're not going to be reformed by somebody

like that. I would say largely, yes. Are there some people that, without a doubt, guys like JOCKO or Dave Goggins or Tony Robbins or any of the people that you know, use a lot of that you know, mentality and kind of you know, almost soapbox preach to people that way. Are they positively impacting people's lives? Yeah? I think they are, sure, And I think that there's some people that they they actually probably make a significant difference.

And are they turning zeros into heroes? No? Again, if they were, there'd be a fuck ton more heroes out there, you know, But to me, it's it's kind of ignorance is bliss in a way, and that I see it in dog training. A lot a lot of people will sign up for my online online dog training. Not a lot of people, but a number of them will sign up for it and not really use it. You know, they'll sign on a couple of times to watch a few videos. You know, they do a session here or there.

It makes them feel better about being a dog own. It feels good, feels good to hear Josh go tell you to Yeah, get to you know, it makes you feel good type of sure you're watching it and post it, you know, with your nine followers, and and you know, and it makes you feel like you're you're you're part of something, and it gives you purpose and and you know,

I'm not knocking that to me. It's just if you're trying to get to a level of world class, whether it's special operations or super high level dog training or you know, touring. You know where you're selling out thirty thousand, you know audience venues, and you know at that level you know, or you know you own an eight or nine figure business as an entrepreneur and you've built several of them, you know, with a lot of these, like

entrepreneur clinics and stuff. Is that if it was a matter of just listening to this guy and trying to apply that, then there'd be way more of them in every industry, in every walk of life. You know. So you're not trying to come up with a self growth book anytime? Well, I think I think if I do

this episode, for sure just you know, canceled all the orders. Well, and it also I hate to call anybody out here, but it also just high highlights the fact that and if you're writing a personal growth book, you're you're trying to make some money. Sure, nothing wrong with that. Yeah, you're trying to get some clicks, make some money. But but but those guys probably know Tony Robins goes to bed every night and knows exactly what he's doing. He's

saying all the right things. Sure, are people digesting it? Probably not? Sometimes, yeah, but probably not. Yeah. I think you know, again, most most people are probably somewhere in the middle where that you know, maybe they pick up a couple of things that that for sure improves their life in certain ways. You know, it's not me, you know, knocking some guys, I mean to me, guys like Tony Robbins. You know, he probably positively impacts fewer people than jock O,

Dave Gog and things like that. But I'm not just saying that because they're you know, brethren of mine. I think they've walked it, you know. To my knowledge, Tony Robbins's business is built off of his ability to tell you that that you know, he can teach you how to run a business, right, you know, whereas you know, these other guys have have proven over and over and over,

you know, of of walking what they walk. But I still think, uh, you know that that that only goes as far as as what the person's genetic capabilities are are willing to allow them to go. It's so true, man, It's so true. So me and you similar age. I think you said high school ninety six, Yeah, I was ninety eight. And our generation, which is you know, parents in the Vietnam era, grandparents World War Two. I always think that our generation has seen the biggest demasculation for

sure in our culture. And how do you see that playing out? Is there is there going to be a wave of masculinity that rises again or does this keep going till everyone is neutral? Yeah? So to me back to you know, my I think mother nature trumps everything. You know, is that you know that adage and I'll probably mess it up, but it's hard times create strong men. Strong men create you know, good times. Good times create week men. Week men create hard times, you know, And

it's just this cycle that keeps going through. Is that if you look at human history at least as well as we know it how it's been recorded, which you know, who can debate it, that's just what it says. It doesn't mean that's exactly how it happened. But you know, I think we all live in an information age that's digested enough to understand that that's a pretty true representation

of mankind. And so to me, there is a point in every society and every empire and every you know, cultural section of the world that that kind of goes

through that cycle in some way. And so to me, you know, the d masculation that we've experienced over the last few decades has a shelf life, you know, because America as a country, I mean, you don't have to look very far even now, christ within the last few weeks that things can get gnarly pretty quick, and there's a lot of other places on the planet that you know that have truly brutal dictatorships that you know, I've gone and fought against and seeing when when it's true

evil that's in power and they decide, you know what, we're going to stay in power and we're going to keep things the way they are. You know that there's a there's an element of your society that has to rise to a certain occasion. And we can only soften ourselves so much for so long before somebody is going to say, now we're going to own them, and they will, whether it's China, Russia, a combination of several other countries.

Who knows that it could be a complete self destruction within our own way of life looking at the way things have been going. Uh, you know, but again, the rest of the world and human beings are opportunists, opportunistic in nature. You know, a lot of you know, other nations are very vulture like in the way that they view things and are just waiting for the right opportunity to say, you know, we're going to take everything that

we want from there. And people that are so naive and head in the sand to think that that can't happen like it's happening all over the world. It always has and it always will. You know, violence and you know, physical altercation is truly the gold standard. At at some point it will come to that. It's coming to that. You see it in Seattle as an example. You know this,

you know Chas and now Chop and whatever. Is that the fact that we have a society where the police is saying, yeah, we're just not going to do anything about that. I mean, that's that's kind of the start of the dominoes falling, in my opinion, and that if a society is willing to just let people take the country over that way, Like, look what's happened there, that's a microcosm of what the entire country will be if it continues to go down the road that it's been

going down. Is that a group of people is going to realize we can do whatever we want, you know, and then they're going to go do whatever they want and now you're you know, all of your rights and

don't say this word and stop bowling. All that ship is going to go right out the window, and you're gonna have groups of people doing exactly what they're doing in Chop, which is killing each other and running a brutal dictatorship and having you know, guns and walls and you know their own secret uh, you know police or enforcers that are running around, you know, doing what they want, and it'll turn into you know, a brutal regime type of environment if nobody decides, you know what, we can't

let this go on any longer. That's that's unfortunately we're going down. So good man, so good. And you have probably had the gift. You don't look at it as a gift. You didn't then, but I'm assuming you have looked in the eyes of someone that's that told you through the eyes, I want to own you without you, without it, and most people haven't. Most people haven't seen that staring them back in the face. Absolutely, And I wonder if that would change people's opinions. Yeah, if they

had that, that that gift that you've had. I think that by itself, without the context of the greater gravity or you know, heaviness of what's going on around you, I don't think would, but for sure it would, it

would help, It would prove beneficial. But I think, you know, until you've seen I think the real brutal violence and anger that exists in some people towards you, irrespective of what you try to convince them otherwise, or if you're willing to negotiate or give ground, compromise, whatever is that, there are certain people that there is nothing you can do or say that's going to change their mind that they want to, you know, remove your life and existence

from the planet, whether it's you as an individual, you as a as a society, as a nation, as a state, whatever you know, and until you've seen that, it's impossible

to realize it. And it's also unfair and unrealistic for those that have experienced that to expect people to understand what that's like, because they're just not going to no different than you know, a child that's never been out of Iowa, you know, that spent his entire life in a in a small podunk town in Iowa, and it's like trying to expect him to understand what being street smart in Harlem is like, Like, he's just not going

to know. And if he goes there, he's he's going to get he's going to get owned because he just doesn't know any better, you know, And unfortunately we've been riding off of the coattails of the greatest generation in World War Two, and they did, you know, springboarding off of the great Depression, surviving that overcoming World War Two. And then you know that that shelf life of success

is starting to expire from from what I see. And you can only ride the wave of a generation who's willing to walk the walk for so long before you've got to answer that that call to and and you know there still are people that do it, but there's not enough. There's people they're willing to just lay it, lay it down. I I one a preference. I don't even want to come close to match anything you've ever done.

But the tiny, tiny, minuscule story I could tell you is that, you know, one of our entertainment towards in Iraq, we were playing a concert and suddenly in the middle of the concert, there was incoming because as we heard the music cued some bad guys and as we as we got into the bunker, I thought, for the first time ever, I thought, somebody's trying to kill me because they hate me because of who I am, because of

my culture, and that I dwelled on that thought. That was the weirdest feeling to know that someone hates you and they've never even met you. Yeah. Well, and to me, that that kind of I think exemplifies you know, that context that I was talking about is that it's one thing for somebody to look at you and you can tell, especially if you know all of the other information surrounding supports the fact that they're actively trying to take your life.

But that that changes everybody, you know, for sure. I was very different from the first time I went overseas and faced you know, other human beings that you know, and being in a in an area where you know the majority of the population is actively trying to take

your life. When you're in that environment and you know bullets are flying by your head and you're in a helicopter that almost gets shot down, and you know you're going through areas that you get ambushed and somehow make it out alive at one hundred percent, changes that the same way it did to you And to me. You don't have to be a professional soldier or a combat veteran to experience that. I mean, people experience it on

the street. You know. Obviously it's it's different circumstances, but that principle is the exact same you know, once you've seen that, it it changes people for sure. We've talked another thirty minutes. Can take a quick break, be right back. Our granddads were both cooks in the navy in World War Two, no doubt. And that's and I heard you say that, and then you you also said the same thing.

I thought that a cook is not what you think it was when you're on a ship and uh in World War two, because my granddad told me stories of he was in the Pacific. I believe your your granddad was on the other side and in the Mediterranean. And my granddad had told me stories of kamon causes coming in and taking out the gunner. So he's now he's in. Now he's sitting in the turret, you know. And it's it's a You're right when you said it's the greatest generation.

And they did what they did because they had they had no other choice. Yeah, you know, to me, it's it's interesting. I was listening to your last guest. You guys talking about you know, not having a plan B. That's where we were as an entire society, you know at that point, is that is there there wasn't a well if we don't do this. It's no, we have to go do this or or the world will cease

to exist as we know it. You know that literally you hear existential threat gets thrown around, you know, constantly nowadays and overused. But but it truly was that back then.

And you know, to me, what's interesting is the entire nation, you know, banded together and everybody you know, had had that collective mentality of you know, we're all going to do what we can to the best of our ability to support you know, the mission, and the mission was to was to go defeat Japan and Germany, you know, or the access powers at least, and you know, for for them to be able to accomplish that and go over there, you know, we even though you know, combat

deployments are they're tough, they're stressful in their own right. It's it's a little bit of apples to oranges to compare you know, wars in Afghanistan and interact compared to World War Two. However, you know, we at least get a rotational break, right. Granted, some guys are going for thirteen fifteen months at a stretch, but they still get

to come home. I mean, some of those guys went over there for four years straight, right, you know, and there wasn't satellite phones, there wasn't internet that you know, they got a handwritten letter out you know once in a great while, or got something when they could or whatever. But you know, they basically went over there saying we'll come home when the job is done, you know. And that's hard to even wrap your mind around, but I think very similar to the mentality that you guys are

talking about. Without that mentality, you're you're not going to be successful. You know if if you go over there and you know you can retreat. I mean it's the Viking adage of burn your boats, right, yeah, is that you know, when you get over there, you know us us sailing back home isn't an option. So we're going to take over your entire entire country. Is is kind of how you have to look at it that way.

And you know, there was I think a certain innocence in naivete that existed between and some could argue that whether or not it's good or bad, but of kind of state run media doing maybe a little better job of protecting the country from some of the you know, the the realistic truths of combat and you know, crossing over into into Vietnam, where I think America really kind of lost its its innocence as it relates to its understanding of what war is really like. You know, again,

you could argue whether it's good and bad. I think

there's there's pros and cons to both. But but back then when there was there was still kind of that you know, hey, this is this is what we have to do, and everybody was behind it, and it seemed like, again neither of us were around then, but it seemed like much simpler times back then, where it's a lot easier to just unite everybody and right, you know, there's a common enemy and there wasn't all this division and infighting and and you know, now I feel like, you know,

we're getting ready to repeat the Civil War almost, you know, and that there there's you know a lot of debate. And one of the questions you hear, you know, in reference to World War two is, you know, in terms of Nazism, is how did that happen? You know, most people like, how could a country have ever, you know, gotten to a point where they're willing to do that

to another group of people? And I see a lot of scary and stark parallels to to what you know happened back then versus what happens now, and that you've got a significant portion of our population that that is okay, you know, with with the opposing side being brutalized and even celebrating it, you know, because they disagree with them politically,

And to me, that's that's poisonous. It's dangerous, yeah, you know, and you get to the point where where you you lack empathy for for people that oppose you politically, to the point where where you're okay with their rights being taken away, with them being you know, attacked on the street because they, you know, are wearing shirts or hats

of of whatever their their political party is. And to me, like, that's a slippery slope if I've ever seen one, and that you know that that's not not too many steps further. And now you've got internment camps and concentration camps and and things like that. I just I worry that that we've kind of numbed ourselves to to a side of empathy that human beings should should have more than they do. It's a valid worry. My other granddad was in Europe.

He was flying a B twenty four out of Italy, and so I read his flight diary, ever, read every every mission many times. And unfortunately, after he died, it was the first time I really dove into that. I never talked about it when he was around. Uh, but but those missions he was so scared, you know, if he's going into the oil fields in the Ploeesi or or or you know, hidding Munich, and he had fighters

and and and U it was. It was terrible. But as scared as he was to go back up again on another mission, there wasn't a maybe I'm gonna call him sick today. There wasn't another option. And and sometimes he just did it because he had to. That was all he could do for him and his guys. And and the other thing was every once in all he would say something like miss the target really bad. Today,

I feel terrible. We missed the target really bad. And I thought, I thought to myself, in those little words, what he means is probably got a lot of innocent people today. Yeah, And that's just the way it is in war. And today that wouldn't fly, for sure. You couldn't say that, you couldn't do that. There would be an investigation, and that was just the way that it was back then, because that's all there was was black

and white for sure. You know, to me, the where I worry I guess about, you know, the the transgressions that have taken place or or the regression rather that that we've delved into as a society as it relates to combats is trying to regulate certain things. You know, and I've talked at length, you know a number of times about you know, kind of my view on foreign policy is really not too dissimilar than that of a

street fight. Is that you know, let's say you're you're walking by a in a staffablishment and there's a brawl going on, and you decide to walk in. You going in there is going to cause problems. You not going in there is gonna is going to cause problems. You know, there's nothing that you can do or not do that isn't going to piss somebody off and help somebody else out.

But the problem is is that you know, no different that if I you know, get attacked on the street, or or somebody you know, tries to break into my house, is that you know, that isn't the time for trying for me trying to be a gentleman about it. Yeah, you know, and I I look back at you know, as a civil war Lesson learned to come to Sherman, you know, of being of the mentality of and you know he went to Atlanta and basically burned the entire city down. Is that you know at that at that time,

war is horrible, you know. And and when you tip for tat and cat and mouse the way that we've done in Iraq and Afghanistan, you get a lot more of your own side killed, You get a lot more of the other side killed frankly than you know, than than what you should or need to And it really needs to boil down to is that, you know, you used to diplomacy and negotiations and compromise until you know

all of those options are exhausted. And once it gets to that point where war is the only option left and you have to employ, you know, your armed forces to go fight another country's armed forces, at that point you take the gloves off and you do absolutely whatever you have to to end it as fast as possible. There is there is no good way to fight a war other than to make it as brutal and as fast and just done as quick as possible. That's the

only thing that's going to minimize damage as best you can. Like, it's going to suck. People are going to lose their life, and there's going to be some some innocent people lost. But when you look at Afghanistan and you've got, you know, going on twenty years of sustained combat there and and you know, countless lives on both sides and trillions of dollars, and and you look at at what really has been gained, and it's it's hard to have a very posi of

answer with that. Is that, you know, you've got to just decide, I'm not going to go to war unless it's absolutely necessary. If it is necessary, we're going to go over there and we're going to absolutely fucking destroy you guys, and that's it, you know, And as soon as it's done, we're going to leave. And then you know, if you mess with us again, we're coming back over. And the same thing. Sherman was considered a hero after

what he did. Yeah, matter how long you think Sherman would have lasted on Twitter these days, yeah, I mean he'd be in Levenworth put making the big rocks in the Little rocks Man. What what to comes to Sherman did was so far off the grid from what anyone could possibly understand in warfare today. And like you said, though, he did what he had to do. Yeah, I mean

because it was stalling at that point, you know. And and you know, the Civil War lasted five years as it is, hundreds of thousands of countrymen were lost on both sides. Yeah, and you know, you get to a point where it's like, you know, ripping the band aid off almost it's just you know, shit or get off the pot. Like at some point you've got to just say, you know, we're here to accomplish a mission. We're going

to do whatever it takes to do that. And one of our biggest problems as a country is utilizing politicians and people that have no experience and frankly no business directing or dictating rules of engagement or how to conduct yourself as a professional war fighter to people who are

professional war fighters, you know. And that's one of our biggest hamstrings and detriments to our armed forces is outsourcing that tactical control and you know, looking to Dad for can I do this type of mentality that ultimately just ends up causing way more more harm than good because those those guys have no business directing troops. They don't know what it's like to be there, and frankly they they don't really even understand the implicifications foreign policy wise.

To me, it's no different than calling a plumber. And when it gets over here, I don't know shit about plumbing, but I'm going to tell him, hey, be careful with that pipe. And what I'd really rather you not use that ranch. You hired him to do a job, Let him do his job. I mean, that's what the military is. Our job is to go overseas and break shit, you know, And so don't send us over there until you need us to do that. But when you need us to do that, send us over there and let us do it.

And if it if it just stays that simple, uh, you know, I think far less problems would be had. I truly believe that some of life's most complex problems actually have the simplest solutions to them, and that being a classic example of it. We want to we want people to go get the termines out of our house, but not tear up any of the dry wall. Yeah, I mean, it's there's a million analogies you could use it in all other walks of life that you don't

do it that way. Yeah, right, Like I'm not going to argue with a brain surgeon on how he's going to take a tumor out of my head. Yep. And I don't care if he's a nice guy. I mean, while while we're on the topic of, you know, hating politicians because they don't like, you know, the way that they conduct themselves or what they say. Like, I don't give a shit. If he does a good job and he does what needs to be done, I like him.

You know. If I've got I need a full knee replacement and the doctor a prick, I'm not going to switch doctors because I want to like the guy. I don't. I don't care if he's good at what he does. But you know, unfortunately we have a problem with being able to separate those things at a high level nowadays. But what does the American flag mean to you? It's not a trick question, Yeah, I mean to me, it's

it's opportunity. Is the first thing that comes to mind, really is that, you know, it's a combination of freedom and opportunity. Freedom is dicey though, and that when I look at our country and I think, you know, what, what does a truly free society look like? You know, twenty twenty United States of America isn't what I think of.

There's a lot of things that you're not allowed to do. Unfortunately, that that it frankly breaks my heart that, you know, myself and a lot of you know, countrymen of mine have given a fair bit for But I still think it's the It's the best and freest country on the planet. And I'm very proud to be an American. I'm proud

to have fought for it. But it does worry me how much of our freedoms and liberties have have gone to shit, especially here recently with Corona and you know, and race protests and riots and things of that nature. But so, why is that flag starting to represent racism? Well to me, it doesn't represent it to me, yeah, absolutely, But why is that getting that perception? So I think, you know this, give you we'll go back almost do a little history lesson here. I guess I think that

I love history. I think the nineteen nineties and bear with me, it's kind of a long long tail on the kite if you will. But the nineties, I think when political correctness started to creep into our society and as it relates to children, is that you know, like with most things, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Is that you know, abusive parents and things

of that nature. The desire on a society and a government to try to mitigate those types of things turned into an over correction of of now micromanaging parents and school administration's teachers, et cetera. You know, all of the unit, the family and community unit that has the ability to impact and raise children the way that they need to be raised i e. Productively and be an asset not

a liability was severely diminished. Uh. Again, the intentions were good, I think, but when you when you overcorrect to a point where now you're the intend the opposite intended consequence is taking place. Is that that's when there's a problem. Is there wasn't a happy medium approach. And so now can't spank your kids. You can't say this to them, You can't ground them, You can't take anything away from them that you know they can sue you for taking the cell phone that you pay for away from them.

You know it's gotten so ridiculous. Is that now you have generations and you know people always ask, you know, what's it going to be like when these entitled generation whatever grow up? Well, now you're looking at it. Is that you've got a society where somebody's bowling me. Let me whine about it to somebody and they'll make it stop. Somebody picked on me for this, Let me let me tell on them. Somebody stole this from me. Let me

just go report them. Is that, you know, we've micromanaged and helicoptered two generations of children to a point at which now they are just you know, born and bred and conditioned into a victim mentality? Right? Is that is that I don't I can't solve any problem on my own. Right, Is that I'm going to get in trouble if I punch the bully in the face, I'm going to get in trouble. If I solve my own problems, I need to go to my mom or my teacher or whatever.

And so you know, to me twenty years later, is that now you've got adults who are entitled who every time that there's a problem, Is that instead of trying to work it out, is that they throw a fucking temper tantrum like you're seeing right now. Is that they just go demand that well, you know, I want this and I need that, and you need to take this down.

And that offends me, you know, in all of this other stuff, because they've been taught that for the last twenty years and so you know, now we've created this environment where where that thrives. And so to me, it's not that now all of the sudden racism exists. I mean, if you look at the historical context of our country, I mean, as of nineteen sixty five, you know, at least on a large scale platform where it was accepted, it stopped. You know, Yeah, there were pockets here and

there that have slowly dwindled over time. And yes, there's pockets that still exist. But guess what, there are pockets of that that exist in every society. You know. I can tell you as somebody who's been to other places, you know, and not even just saying against me, I mean seeing the way certain groups are treated in other countries, and these are their own own citizens, you know, makes any of the worst travesty you've ever seen in this

country look like a fucking picnic. You know, it happens, you know, and we still have the freest, most democrat, radically balanced, middle of the road society out there. But it's unfortunately the entire world, in the entire world, unfortunately, it's not getting better. It's getting worse because of this this entitled generation that that is now uh you know, the participation trophy crew that that thinks that uh, you know, they ought to get paid just for for showing up,

you know. And it's it's gonna come to bite us in the ass for sure. Again. It has a shelf life, and there will come a time much sooner than later that that the country, mother nature, the planet whatever is going to self correct in some way, shape or form, and it's gonna get back out of out of balance. I'm I'm afraid you're right, and it's it's maybe that's the wrong choice of words. I'm happy that that I believe that you're right. It's going to get worse before

it gets better, I believe. And it's going to hurt to rip that band aid off, But I do think that genetics and and mother nature will correct itself, like you said, and and Mike, you you're active on social media, you have a really good podcast called mic Drop, and

I've listened to a bunch of those episodes. And what you're kind of known for is you speak the truth through common sense the way that you see it, and you're not filtered by trying to win people over or win an election of some kind, or make a whole bunch of money, by the way. I hope you do. I hope you do make a whole bunch of money. But but you're not filtered by any kind of other reason besides just seeing things through common sense and and

and that. So many times I just wish people could could put all their their other motives aside and just see the basics. Let's just look at things the most basic way. And uh. And I'm just so grateful man that you that you are a voice out there for people to listen to. Well, I appreciate that very much.

I you know, my my intent was starting it was excuse me, essentially, that was that, you know, I'd been on a number of other podcasts where it was, hey, you know, we don't want to talk about this, or hey, my sponsor, you know, wants us to stay away from that or whatever, and it's just like you know for me, like I don't take the approach of you know, the Howard Stern shock jock where it's you know what, what can I say that's really going to piss as many people off as possible? How can I get a rise

out of this group? Or you know what can I say to get everybody to click on this and watch this? Like nothing could be further from from my intent as it relates to that. It's just while I don't go out of my way to piss anybody off, I just I'm not concerned if I do, you know, And so Ill said, yeah, So I mean it's pretty liberating that way.

And again like I'm not going to just run my mouth if I don't have anything to back it up, Like I'm not just going to say, oh well, you know, throw something wild out there and not have you know, at least I've spent some time thinking about it, or I've talked to X Y and Z. You know, I've I've had some remarkable people on the show over the last couple of years. And I'm actually working on a book.

It'll be you know, amusings of Mic Drop type of type of politics book where it's it's kind of taking a little bit from all the different people that I've interviewed and the subject matters of expertise that they play a role in, and kind of combining it all into a lot of what we're talking about here today and just kind of land it all out there of how this country has kind of turned into what it has and you know, what we need to identify to ultimately

fix it hopefully. But so and you don't come across as an idealist, which at the same time becomes dangerous on either side being an idealist meaning I believe this no matter what, no one will ever change my mind. That's just how I was raised, and that's how I believe you're more of a This is the way I see it, and this is what I've learned in my in my life, and and this is how firmly I believe this because of essentially street smarts and it's just

it's it's really helpful. I also want to say for the listeners here, what is what would you tell them is the the first place to go if they want to find out more about you? Like, what's the what's the direction to go to? Sure, so if you just go to Mike Ritland dot com, that's kind of the hub that has everything else. The shirt that I'm wearing teamdog dot Pet. Yeah, that's my online training that you know, is primarily what I'm focused on now from a dog standpoint,

other than the other projects that I've been doing. So teamdog dot Pet, Mike Ritland dot com, tricos dot com. On social media, it's just at Mritland on Instagram, tricos or or Team Doog google searching either one of those last,

but certainly not least. I had the distinct honor and privilege of being a part of founding the Warrior Dog Foundation back in twenty ten, where we've at this point taken in almost two hundred dogs in the last ten years of and these are all dogs, mind you, that you know, are ones that they're kind of the hannibal lecters of the dog world, you know, they're ones that we're going to be euthanized if we didn't take them.

So they're a handful most of the dogs that I've been bit by outside of the equipment, and unexpectedly from my standpoint, are most of those dogs. But it's something we're very proud and passionate about, and so Warrior Doog foundation dot org as where you can check that out and hopefully help support the cause, because, like I said, we are kind of the last last ditch effort for all of the dogs. They'd all have been put to

sleep if we hadn't taken them. And we take them from police departments, military units, federal law enforcement, customs board, patrol, you name it. So you know, a lot of dogs have come through and we've been able to rehome some of them, reunite some of them with their handlers, you know, or at a minimum at least give them, you know, kind of the out out to pasture, you know, type of type of environment and let them just be a dog and live out their life the way they need to. Well, brother,

thank you for your mission. I'm a dog lover myself, so thank thank you for that. Thank you for your service to this country, thank you for your your brutal honesty that we all need to hear. And thank you for driving three hours now up here. Man. I appreciate it, and I hope that you guys comment below if you want to see more. Mike and I hope that we get to do this many many more times over the years. My pleasure. Thanks for having me. I'm stoked to see

you start a podcast. It's allright, heck yeah, brother, Appreciate you, all right, See you guys,