Inside the Fight with 5th Special Forces Group | Drew Estell | Ep. 380

The Team House with your hopes.

Jack Murphy and David Park.

This is episode three hundred and eighty of The Team House. I'm Jack Murphy with our guest tonight, Drew Estelle. Drew served in fifth Special Forces Group. The guys most of our viewers know, they fixate on the Middle East, that's their aor and Drew did a number of deployments all over that place and today works on films, works on training with law enforcement, and number of other things. So we're gonna get into all that with Drew here. Thank you for joining us tonight.

Yeah, man, I appreciate it.

So yeah, it's it's great to have you on the show. Finally, So I'm gonna I'm gonna hit you with the first question, which we pretty much ask everybody, is if you tell us a little bit about your origin story, like how did you grow up, where did you grow up, and like how how did that sort of eventually take you

I was waiting for that one. I've been a fan of your podcast for a while, man, I think you've got some phenomenal people on here, by the way, so it's really cool to get to sit here.

So thank you.

So yeah, man, I grew up in Texas, Houston, Texas outside of it place called Spring And if anybody's from Houston, the way you know the area is by what high school you went to, right, They're like, oh, what high school? You know? So Klein Oak I grew up in that area right there on the northwest side. But yeah, so it's kind of funny. My buddy who is now also a Green Beret, Like we knew each other from kindergarten playing te ball and all that, and we're in elementary school.

So it was pretty neat. Man. But yeah, he's a good dude. He played football at Texas A.

And M, and then he joined and I joined after my third freshman year of college. We could call it.

Yeah, it sounds like a hell of a lot of fun. Drew.

I had a great time.

So the yeah, man, I grew up in Texas, grew up playing football, also played lacrosse, growing up, just normal family, good family, all that middle class, just your standard ship.

And then yeah, I went to a private school my senior year.

I got a scholarship because that's just the way Texas high school football works. Otherwise I probably wasn't going to college because I was an idiot.

And then yeah, it worked out really well.

I went to a small D three school called Marietta College my first year and I played football and I went to play lacrosse there too, but they dropped the program from like whatever, and I ended up leaving there and I went to Texas State University.

He used to be called Southwest Texas.

Well known for being a party school at the biggest party school in the state of Texas.

So as.

I got kicked out of there twice. I going to community college, and then I kicked out of a community college, and then I was like, you know what, man, I'm gonna join the army. You know, I think this is a good idea.

So I grew are any of those stories about how you got kicked out still classified or you permitted to tell some of those.

Oh yeah, dude, oh bro Okay. So I was in a fraternity for a little bit, and like, I joined a fraternity because my dad was like, hey, you're not playing. I went to play football at Texas State, but I couldn't. I had too many head injuries and injuries. And then they changed coaches, so I lost my transfer, like little offer and scholarship. And then so I joined a fraternity, and my dad's like, yeah, it's a good idea. Attorneys are good, not at this school, bud, you know what

His name is bj which I thought was hilarious.

And he did not and he touched me pretty hard and basically turned my face inside out, you know. He broke my tooth and everything. So that was a fun conversation with the dean. And then I had another conversation too where he's like, what are you gonna do with your life, you idiot?

I think I'm gonna join the army.

He's like, son, that is a great idea. You need to go do that right now. But yeah, I worked on Sixth Street in college if you're familiar with it. No, No, all the bars. So it's like Broadway Street, you know in Nashville, or like Beal Street Memphis. It's like the bar club street of Austin. And I actually worked for MTV. Oh really so yeah, dude, So like that TV show The Real World. Yeah, like what they do. And at the time it was a guy named Wes was on

And uh, the only reason was because Wes.

He and I looked a lot alike with that drunk girls would think I was Wes and then I'd be like I'm not and He's like, yeah, ladies, this is what I'm like. Oh God, here we go, right, So it was kind of he man. But yeah, I joined the army. I was. I had a great time before the army. I learned some valuable lessons.

To say the least, So what what year was it that you enlisted?

Two thousand and two thousand and five. I enlisted and I went to basic training in like January two thousand.

And six, okay, and what mos eleven X ray, which okay, so you were yeah, I didn't.

I didn't know what an extra. I just thought it was infantry. I'm gonna be an eleven Bravo. And I showed up and they're like, you're a mortarman. I was like, the hell is a mortarman? You know?

Like I don't know, and.

They were like, you're gonna like you know thing, and I'm like, no, I'm.

Not doing that. That's not what I signed up to do.

Because they wouldn't let me have the SF contract coming in because I had shoulder surgery from college football.

So I was like, no, I'm not going to do that.

I mean they would let me have the SF contracts, were like all right, well they come this, you'll just get it when you're in the Army, all right. So I was pretty pissed. I didn't know what a damn mortarman was. So I called my recruiter and was like you son of but just cussing him out. I don't get Joe Flores phenomenal dude. I think he's a sergeant major in recruit and he might have retired, but great, dude, man. And he was like, calm down, you're fine, you can

Yeah. Yeah, Well, to explain to some of the young folks out there within the infantry eleven Bravo and every Special Forces guy has at least their secondary mos is infantry eleven Bravos split into you know, riflemen and more. And that's what Drew's talking about. So I imagine that training though, must have really come in.

Handy down the line for you.

It did, because I ended up being an eighteen Bravo.

So I was like, oh, well, God has a plan that makes sense, and thank you.

I I know what.

To do with the little sticks and the you know, turning.

Thing and the whiz wheels and the hi fire direction center board.

That confuses the hell out of me. Yeah.

Yeah, So like I figured it out. I had a little leg up on the other guys, so that helped. That definitely helped.

So so two thousand and six you go through basic training and then SFAs the Q course all of that.

What was that experience like for you?

Yeah? It was, uh, it was good man. I you meet so many different people, right, But when I actually got into SF, I was supposed to go to Kelly Kelly Hill or something like that for I was supposed to stay on forbidding in third I d right, and I was gonna be eleven Charlie there. But I called the SEF recruiter like every chance I got during a t like the final hony weeks, and just left messages

You know, can I please?

And he finally I called and it was like he's supposed to be gone for the day he goes.

I just hear sor and So, and I'm like.

Oh, hi, master Sergeant, my name is So and So he goes. He just goes, God, dang it, are you That little idiot keeps calling me every day. I'm like that's me, you know. So he's like, if you can get here in twenty minutes, man, i'll give you a stuff contract. I was like, oh shit, okay.

So I went over like the one of the drill Sartens.

Who is this, you know, big old black dude from the city, you know, gold teeth and shit. And I was like, oh, drills are and I do just lied to him. I was like, So and So said you got to take me down.

There right now. He was like what. He's like, yeah, I listen, not Lake.

I can't for the life for me.

And he goes, he said, you by name, got to take me down there. He's like, he said my name.

I was like yeah. He goes, oh, oh shit, Oh okay, we'll get your ass in the truck.

So he drove me down.

You know. He's like, you need me to go in. I'm like no, now we're good. He said, just drop me off, but thank you very much.

Ill let him know.

He's like, yeah, you tell him. Tell him. I I was like, yep, absolutely, you know.

So I got my RUD down there and I got my contract.

It was really interesting because, like I guess, one of his friends was in town again, like massive dude, flame tattoos of his forearm, wearing a Harley Davidson's shirt, and they were third group guys, and he just sat me, he said, and he's like, you really want to join SF, and I'm like, yes, please, you know mattress Hart. And of course this other guy that's his buddy is just making fun of me the whole time.

I'm like, okay, this is this seems cool.

So I know exactly what you're talking about. That the little one story SF recruiting station on Fort Benning.

Yep, yeah, yeah.

I remember when I went in there because I was with three seven five at the time, and I went in there and said, hey, I'd like to do SF. I want to go to SFAs and I just remember, like, well, a couple of things. One of them was he said what mos is do you want? And I said, well, I'm pretty open minded. And then he asked me what my GT score was and I told him and he said, well, let me narrow your.

Mind a little bit for you. You could be an eighteen, bravo.

And then the second thing was when I walked out of there, just a smile on that guy's face. He was like he knew it. He's like, I got another one.

Yeah. Yeah, what year was that?

That must have been two thousand.

That was probably two thousand and six because I graduated the course in two thousand and seven, so I went. I went to SFAs the last class of two thousand and five, so it would have been five that I went in there.

Okay, gotcha nice dude, Yeah, I got a It's funny because I started out and I was an eighteen. I remember, you know, you get your little she you go through selection and you're like I did it, you know, and you go to the room. You know what I'm saying. Uh, So it's fun funny. Man. You know that guy Libelsburger that blew himself up in the tesla? Yes, he and I went to selection together and I knew him and we went to the Q course together, so like, you know, just notting.

A random factory. But when you uh fuck was it?

Yeah? You go through and they give you your moss and everything. It was like I remember taking the d lab and then being like are you retarded? I was like I think so, yes, you know, uh there's a high chance of this and they were like okay, well then I guess they looked at my GT score and we got our moss and like, you're gonna be an eighteen delta. I was like, I ain't get fucking wrong. There's no way I'm gonna be an eighteen delta. They're like and Arabic and I was like, no, thank you,

But we'll figure it out.

So I started out as an eighteen Delta and I remember the whole time in the delta course.

It was like me and like three former Marines and.

They'd always call us the Bravos, like, hey, future Bravos. You know you're up, you know, for like tea trible c and all this other craft you know, and surgical skills. And they'd be like like why do you call us future Bravos Because you idiots are all going to fail and we're all going to put you in the Bravo course, because you are retarded and we're.

Like, oh okay, cool sounds good, you know, and uh, sure enough.

I think three out of four of us end up failing becoming brothers.

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Again, it was good.

You know, God has a plan.

And I did a lot of medical stuff overseas man, and I think that really prepared me really well and my team is a great team. So got through the key course, did all that and called the long Bravo. Right. I was so happy to be an eighteen Bravo and out of Delta. However, I used a ton of medical especially on the first and second trip to Iraq.

It was a lot.

So so the I mean, how much of the Delta course do you think you did, like eight weeks or something like that.

There's A and P patho, which is like the first six weeks, and then there's is it surgical skills.

I think is right after that.

I got through surgical skills, yeah, something like with the hands on doing chrikes, chest tubes all that.

I was great at that, but you couldn't get.

Me to pass a written test, Like if you this pisce is me off, right, because have you ever seen the written test of the Delta. Okay, It's like here's a question, right, and they give you like a scenario, go, what's the best answer?

A only A and C, D and D, D D E or E all or like F all of the above.

And you're like what, like what what do you mean?

And they're like, oh, you're right, your answer was right, but this other answer was a little bit more right, And you're like, that's the stupidest shit I've ever heard, you know, So like that wasn't I was not a delta.

Obviously, so yeah, that's awesome.

But I mean, yeah, those skills came in handy later. The training that you did go through.

That's cool. So get the fifth group.

Uh do you go right to an ODA or do you have to spend some time on a B team first or how's it work? No?

I was I was really lucky. I went right to an ODA. I went to five eight four and then it was five through two four. Now it's five eight four again because numbers are hard, evidently, so they changed it again, like fucking commanders and their infinite wisdom.

I'm in oe R bullets, but they did that.

I went to that team, so the third battalion, and I showed up like you know every new guy does, Like the only.

Thing I can do is pass the eyeball test.

I obviously don't know anything, So I'm gonna show up in shape, you know, and whatever they thought me and be able to do, have a great attitude, you know what I'm saying, Right, mindset and do that. And I ended up going to two four the Halo team or eight four, and it was good. And I remember a guy named John Knipe wind Up worked for Magpole later he was on the B team. He's like, what team are you going to? It was like sor Matrix said

And I did. I got a really great team, very experienced team.

There were three of us new guys that all got there pretty much within like a month of each other. And yeah, the rest of the team was really experienced. We lost a guy the trip before Jason, so he was killed up there in julul Asida the trip before Jason Brown. And then so we were deployed in like two months by the time I got there. So I got there just enough time to do some some ranges.

I was like, okay, all right, there's low joint.

You know, we're where did you get the.

Point Julula Acida?

Back to the same point for them?

Yeah, back at the exact say, And they just kept going to that team house, you know what I mean. It would be us and then another team and then us, and then it was like a first group team and then us and then so it was enough fifth group team, so like we were there every other time and they'd have another team kind of fill in between.

Yeah.

So that was kind of our place. So they called it Firebase Brown.

What was the general like friendly enemy situation at that base? I don't think I've ever been in that area.

It was a really interesting because we're right south of Canikin and very near the curd airbline.

So the situation was was different.

We absolutely had a lot of you know, you had your oh man, you had your who the hell was I'm getting all confused from Afghanist and everybody else, but it was at j RTN was big up there. We had a lot of radiant influenced too, and we had your typical like you know, al Katas or whatever the hell you want to call it, you know, but it was very interesting because a lot of what we did we had to do. We had to work with the

Brief them, get ready going out.

We'd pull into the city and we'll turn around, look back down the road and they both have their guns pointed at each other on the trucks and we're like, oh, god, dang it, you know, like point your guns out, not at each other, and they're like no.

Then first, you know, like, oh god, dang it, fucking children.

You know. So middle was cool, man. We did some hits, got out the door, got a few people. There was a lot of infiltration into the police forces where we were at and the military, and usually I feel like with other guys that would say, hey, the police are really where you see a lot of that, and yeah, we did. We'd go after targets, you know, like this one dude and more Mohammed's or whatever the hell.

Went after him.

Well, I mean, he was a police officer that you know, was doing stuff and we went and got his ass.

They do come from, Like dude, came from base, Like oh shit, you.

Know, so yeah man, And they always try to blow us up and they end up blowing each other up and we're like, dude, you're not even hitting us, you know what I'm saying, Like you're just killing your buddies.

So I mean I imagine that like you guys had to be cleared to snipe the IED teams. But then there is like the inevitably there's going to be fallout from that if there are you know, military people on a base right next to you.

Yeah, and yes, And so we had to let them know what we were doing, which we didn't necessarily want to do, right, We had to let the command know. And as we let the command know, sorry am I not close enough to this link? As we let the command know, we went out one time to do it. So we took over a little checkpoint, we got out there, did it, and then the IA came out to do their own little ambush. And have you ever watched you know, the Iraqi army under nods and thermals sitting in an

It's like, oh, that's cool.

So another day in the life. They don't teach you that part in the Q course do that?

Oh, I know, they don't teach you that. They They

Of that in the QY course. Uh.

And So as that deployment went on, you guys, I've rolled up some bad guys and dealing with IEDs. I mean, how did things kind of progress as you got deeper into that deployment.

So that the first deployment, I think it was pretty standard. I think for me as a new guy, I was just trying.

To learn as much as I could. You know, I was the junior.

Bravo had a senior and just trying to pick up as much as I could from him. So I was learning, you know, base defense and operations and convoy ops and you know, trying to stay on top of it as best I could.

So for me, it was just a really good learning experience.

Yeah, we went after some people, but there was always everybody we went after, you know, they want war, and so it became like we're a swat team more than anything else. And now we got to deal with the Iraqi judicial system, which is not exactly stellar, you know what I mean, and corrupt as hell. So it's like they wouldn't even like really fight back a lot of times because they just needed to be like, hey, what's up, I'll be out tomorrow, like who cares, you know. And

They're like no, he's not armed. You have to actually take him in.

We're like, oh, this is stupid.

So we did all that, but uh, that was frustrating. That really was. However, it was good experience. We had some clearing ops.

We did get some dudes, and we did get some you know, we found out some very interesting networks, some things that were going on that opened up to see some of the connections. Especially the one thing that we kind of couldn't cross that line was a lot of the Iranian stuff going on, which I know you're very familiar with. But one thing that was interesting was on that trip and then the second trip. The second trip was Operation New Dawn I believe. Oh okay, and yeah.

It was just it was a very interesting seeing that.

I think that was my first introduction into I don't know, maybe the politics of it, or a larger scale strategic you know, kind of looking stuff, you know, instead of just what you see in front of you.

And the ROE at that time prevented you guys from really actioning the Iranian targets.

Yeah, because when we'd send that up, it was always hey, don't mess with that, that's not for us. We're like, okay, cool.

You know.

So that worked out well.

Yeah, So I.

Was like, well, can we just like put an idea out, you know, because these guys are good at blowing themselves up. May just put one in front of this bus and called a day, you know what I mean. So, but now there's.

Nothing I like. I like your thinking, Drew, good initiative, but they shut you down. That sucks. Yeah.

So afterwards you get deployed, redeployed back home, back to Fort Campbell, and now you're going through the whole training cycle with your team, and I imagine they're sending you to MFF and all that stuff too.

Yeah, So went to MFF, went to SODAC at Fifth Group, and as you know, Fifth Group my personal opinion, like I know some guys some other groups, they do great stuff.

I think Fifth Group really with our.

Sodac and Sephaic, they'll run a phenomenal course like I've seen some of the other courses out there and talk to people and it's like, I feel that Fifth Group does a really good job of stuff like that. So I went to SODIC like a week after I got back. SODIC two at Campbell did that that was given to MFF as we got right as we got a new captain me and like we sent four guys to Halo School at the same time, and uh, we weren't supposed to get all of us in.

But like one of.

Our old teammates, what was his damn name, al he was at the Halo committee as an instructor, and he was like, just send him to get him in and shut up.

He walked by some dude and was like, uh, he goes.

Oh, you're fat, get out, and then he.

Was like Drew you're in. I was like yeah, you know, like.

And then some guy didn't have something and he was like, all right, out of here, ship bag, you know.

And then we all got in the course, which was super cool.

But we had our new captain, phenomenal officer, phenomenal team leader. He had up be a Battalian commander later on did really good stuff. He's a company commander and Battalian commander.

A guy called friend. Have a lot of respect for his name's Bill Heffron.

He's out now, but uh yeah, I remember we go to Halo School and our team Sartant was an old school team, Sarten and redneck as hell.

And he's like, hey man, you.

Break that cat and in right, we were like, okay, sounds good, dude, you know us cat and bought drinks.

We go out and hang out and do stuff and it was a great time.

Man.

We had we've got real close to the four of us, so three new guys and our new captain.

So that's cool.

Yeah, you're right, that's very rare for like, you know, almost half a team to go to the school at the same time.

Oh yeah, yeah, we were very fortunate to be able to do that.

So but yeah, man did that had some other stuff in there, and then not too long after that we went back again. So we went right back to the same place and we had our second deployment there, which I kind of already touched on. Was different because it's new Dawn. It's supposed to be the draw down, and we're doing less. We're letting them take the lead. So it was a lot more advisory missions. When we did

That was much more seeing the effect of how you train your.

Guys and then going out with them, you know what I mean, and seeing how that works.

Like, yes, they're different. You know, we're not working with I saw off Iraqi Special Operations.

We're working with Iraqi Army and you gotta just you know, set your expectations and you know, can't I get him to do this? Did they complete the mission? Did they go out the door? Did they do what we told them to do? Well?

They did and that was good, you know what I mean.

Uh we had I got yeah, I ate a charge on that one pretty good.

On that deployment. I got knocked out pretty good. But it was fun. It was a good time.

You got too close to the breach.

Well, I didn't know the breach was going off because my junior brother didn't fucking say shit. So we uh, he got so excited. We we pulled up to this house, you know, and outside the courtyard and I'm in the truck and I'm the gunner, and I'm covering this second story as they you know, line up with the dudes and so I remember two of our guys are standing there at the end. They're going to breach the gate. So I'm covering, you know, like the fifty calve on

It was like it was like a casualty.

Event at that point, and I'm just you know, they're like, hey, Drew, you okay, and I'm like yellow seven. They're like, what the fuck are you saying? You know, I don't know. I was out, But then our teams are was pissed because he didn't call breach, so he thought an ID went off and we were all messed up.

And I just remember it being like, I was just so excited to breach a gate. I don't I don't know, you know what I mean?

Yeah, I have control, yeah, pretty much.

But he said all that in his head, not at bottom.

Radio's So thanks a lot, jerk.

So and you, I think you mentioned that you got to use some of your medical training on these first couple of deployments. I mean, was it mostly on you or on HAMSA or how did that work out?

So we, uh, we had a lot of guys on our team that had We had several guys that started out in the eighteen Delta Couruse and we had two medics. At one point we had lost two of our medics, so I became the medic on the team.

I carried the medbag.

And by lost, I mean like they had to go back to this base to cover something with like finance, and some popped up, so I filled in for him.

But a lot of times it was just medical stuff.

They'd get blown up and they'd call us and we'd rush over there, you know, and like do it we could.

Usually they're putting out IDs on each other or whatever.

But so I mean with that, like, for instance, one time, we had a guy that's pretty messed up, so I got to amputate his leg, and I remember the CF metics were there, the conventional dudes. He's from a mid team, and you know, he was a little overwhelmed and he's like, hey, guys, we gotta here's what we got to do. And it took about ten seconds. And I remember one of our medics was like, get out of the way, like we're in charge, and I think he was very like appreciative

A if I was ever like, hey, echo, how do I get this.

He'd be like, you're gonna do this, you will learn and I'd be like a child, just like, you know, I don't want to, and then I'd do it, you know. So we were very good about teaching each other how to do stuff like you had to be very very self sufficient, and that's something I was very grateful for our team startants on that team between Lee and Doug that they really made sure of that, and the teammates too, you know. So everybody had to do their own radios.

You knew how to fix it and get back up, you know. I mean there was nothing like you don't get to call somebody else.

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So it was very very good about that on our team.

Yeah, so that's awesome. Yeah, there's only twelve of you. You're not getting anyone else.

Yeah. I think we only ever had on that team maybe ten or eleven. We were never full with twelve that I can think of. Maybe at one time, but one time we had eight guys on the team and we went to Afghanistan. Wow.

Yeah, and so after that, rotating back home and what was kind of like the next sequence of events getting jocked up to go again?

I imagine, Yeah we did.

I had a jay sitting there to Jordan. Cool was that after the second point that was in twenty ten, I went to Jordan. I think that was a phenomenal time. Like I really really appreciated going.

To Jordan and doing that.

Jaysa.

We worked with a company of their.

Special forces guys and it was a Mere Hasham, so the King's youngest brother, Prince Hashim Amir Hasham a Mere stands for Prince. It was his company. So we got to work with him very closely. And he was a phenomenal guy. And he had two odas that we were working with. One that was like younger guys and less experienced, one that was older guys and more experienced. And it was really cool seeing how they did stuff and just you know, they're Jordanians. You know, they're Jordanians special forces.

Gonna go see Sy.

It's like you're gonna learn some shit, Like this is stuff that ten years from now you're really gonna appreciate. And they were absolutely right, Like it was phenomenal and we did a lot of stuff together. So I loved that trip. We stayed at Casotic if you've heard.

Of that, that's what they do, Like it's a huge facility.

Yeah, it was like brand new, they just built the barracks.

So we stayed there during the week and then we stayed at a ridiculously.

Nice hotel in downtown and I'm on on the weekends.

I don't know how we got that approved, but there's always a warrant somewhere, you know what I mean, who knows how to do that crap?

But yeah, man, it was.

It was a really good experience and I had a lot of fun there and then Le Specie. We did two trips to Iraq. I did a Jay said I think in twenty ten, which was I think it was between the first and second trip.

Shit, I can't remember. Yeah, it was between the first and second trip because.

I met my wife when I was in Halo school on the weekend out in San Diego.

So yeah, out of the tried.

It bar absolutely not fuck no, the one that.

What is it?

Miller owns No, yeah, dev group guy owns the Trident bar out there?

Oh does he?

Yeah? Yeah? Yeah everyone wife had tried it. What's what's up? True?

No?

Did you okay?

Fair enough? Yeah?

No.

We met it on Halloween of all things.

So she, uh, she was a very respectable lady, and I didn't know what that meant. I was like, what do you mean, We're not like, you know, She's like, no, dumbass, like no. So I had to keep you know, calling everything, and it worked up. We we end up getting married.

Man, so that's great.

But yeah, that was so Yeah, that happened between the first and second trip was Jordan. And then after the second trip, yeah, we went to Afghanistan. There was some other stuff in there. There was some j sets. I missed one because I went off to a school I went. We went to Afghanistan in twenty twelve, which was a really good trip for me because I was the fox on that trip.

Okay, so do you want to tell the listeners what the fox is on the team.

Yeah, So the fox on the team is your intel sergeant, right. And if you look at kind of like the hierarchy on the team, you have your captain and then sometimes you have a warrant officer whatever that means, and then you have your team sergeant, right, And so below that is your fox, and it's generally a more experienced guy that's been on the team before. And it is a position where not on every team, but for a lot of teams, if you're the fox, you're going to be

I don't know, dude.

We're like, bro, He's like, I can on the trip. Uh yeah, but.

Uh where in Afghanistan did you guys go?

Kundus?

So okay, So, I mean that place got very hot at one point.

It did. And we were the first team to be in Archie and a mom Saheb, so we had a team before us. They built the teamhouse and they situated themselves right in between these two districts called Archie Archie and a mom Saheb. Archie was to the east and a mom Seebe was to the west. Just north of that was the border, right. So for us, the biggest thing going in it was it was a black hole.

So for us, there was a lot of unknowns.

And right before we got there, there was like a YouTube video of then like stoning a chick. There was like, you know, reports in Archie they the Taliban killed all the police and then stole their vehicles and had a parade down the main road and like made everybody come out and if you didn't, they cut their heads off. And I was like, okay, cool, So this is gonna be a good time, you know. So that was very interesting though being the Fox. I was not a school

So we just had our ink blot strategy.

We're gonna start here, we're gonna go visit this, We're gonna get to know this tribe and these people you know, and like these guys or whatever their names were, and how they're all related whatever, and then we're gonna go down here to this part right, And there was a lot of Taliban influence, right, but there's a lot of other stuff too. You know, who who's the Uzbek guy that like was also the terrorist organization working in there. It was.

I know exactly what who you're talking about. Yeah, they were fairly dangerous, as I recall.

Yeah, they were kind of like the big hitters, smaller organization, serious stuff. We had a lot of them in the area too, so that was interesting and we got in some firefights. You know, we got some dudes, We had some suicide bombers at the gate, you know, things like that. So it was it was a very formative time, and I think mainly because my team Sergeant Dug at the time, someone I respect almost more than anybody I've ever met.

For our lives. And I was like, okay, no pressure thanks.

Uh so, you know, but that was I'm sorry, I'm sorry to interrupt. But the group I think is Islamic Movement of Uzbeccistan.

I am you.

No, Maybe there was somebody else that was like something network maybe not was it Hakani?

Hakani was in Pakistan? That was south?

Yeah, God, what was the name of that?

Maybe that is a.

Man. Honestly you said it. I probably wouldn't remember now because it's been so long. Yeah, the but yeah, Doug, I remember him saying that, and I always took back to like, Okay, my goal is not to see her and bore you with data and tell you where everything's at, is to give you obviously your most likely are most dangerous and then make sure we're all prepared as we go out right. So it was it was good, man,

I think we got you.

Okay, Okay, it's just.

My computer then, So that was it was really good for me.

And so it sounds like it was or it became primarily like a counter narco mission.

Kind of. We didn't encounter the drugs where we were at per Se. It was all the getting the financial aspect of it. But we also had a lot of pockets of ie D makers. And there was this one guy we called his name is like doctor Z or something, you know, he was a and we were very unsure about him. And I remember, you know, the B team and one of the sergeant majors being like, I don't agreere about that guy. He's probably just a little T Taliban. I was like, no, man, I don't. I don't know

Right, They're not necessarily true to believers.

They might just be bored more than anything else or adventure seekers kind of like a gang member.

And then your big T Taliban. How we looked at it.

Was these are your true believers, right that this is a real mission for them, and this is a purpose so much more formal, okay, And from what I've seen, it kind of pushed him into that big T you know kind of classification, and we really wanted to stay on him, and I remember just being real dismissive about it. Nope, that's not it, Nope, it's fine, whatever, And I gave a lot of pushback on that.

Well I kind of find out, you know, I was right, you know, as we went on.

He was a very big player in the North for the Taliban, right and then also you know everything that was associated with the Taliban and the other people too.

He had a lot of the money. He also organized the different ID.

Cells they were making the command wire and mote initiated IDs as well as pressure plate IDs and so that trip we had multiple IDs that I found out that we did our signet back, you know and talk to people and they're like, hey, man, listen to this, and it was the icon's chatter and the dude's talking from all the numbers we give them and it was literally being like, hey, I can see these guys right now, Okay, go ahead do it. And it's like it's not working.

And we were very lucky we spotted him.

We got out, we set out, you know, did all of our stuff in our sweeps.

A lot of times it was our Charlie.

Aaron is a super interesting guy, right like he was a marine and then he was a cowboy before that, like an actual cowboy like Yellowstone. You know, he had drove cattle like in Montana and Kansas, and then he is out now and now he was a smoke jumper in like Montana, right, Like you're like, what he raises horses? Right, He's the best dad ever. Like him and his wife are just phenomenal parents too, Like incredible, You're like, what how did make people like you gonna? But uh?

He and I would actually go up and get the I eds.

And be like you know, like old school that yeah, with the stick and the knife, you know kind of deal. But yeah, man, it was. It was good. We had a lot of I ds, a lot of Man, my computer just froze on like the worst picture ever.

It looks like.

Who we got you?

Can you guys hear me?

Yeah?

Yeah we got you fine.

Back now?

Yeah? Yeah we never lost to.

Yeah I saw the computer freeze like the worst moment in time. But yeah, man, it was. It was really good. He was a phenomenal guy. And we'd go clear these IDs and everything and all that. We got a few firefights on that trip, pretty good. We had a suicide bomber. I remember it came to our gate, you know, as we're trying to get in our guys that we're training up to handle some of this.

I guess something happened.

We heard it outside and we saw this dude running and our ALP Afghani Local Police ALP commander ended up shooting at this dude and he's like running away. So I just grabbed my sniper rifle and ran up in the towers and I think I got maybe the record for like the shortest sniper kill in Afghanistan, so which is funny. I think it was like twenty yards away. I was like, okay, but yeah, that's my big sniper

It was like I said it was.

I think when I look at that deployment, when everybody hears what SF does and they look at all these different things, I think that really embodied that a lot. You know what I mean, Like you are going out, you have to be self sufficient. There's only you know, there was eight of us and we had ten third ID kids, like five infantry and five tankers and like a medic.

You know, attached to us and like an extra intel person to help me out.

We also had a CST team with us, so but that is your and it was just us, you know, like someone would getting firefights. The Germans would come up and help us if they were in the area. But it's going to take people you're looking at people get on the ground you're looking at a couple hours to get to you, you know what I mean.

So that was that was awesome.

I love that trip. I loved everything about it. It

You're having to develop all of your own intelligence, and I think, yeah, you're right. A lot of people don't realize that. They think, like, oh s f the CIA must come with a big binder full of intel and just like here you go, Drew. You know, it doesn't work like that. You guys hit the ground. It sounds like in this case you had very little in terms of intelligence and situational awareness and all of that had to be built out.

It did. We had a guy on our team who was who kind of took over that human role that level three, right, So the guy who goes out and he builds the networks and his sources and everything. He and I never really got along that will. However, I have immense respect for the guy. He did the phenomenal job, right like he was that that was his thing that he he really got good at and he's gone on to do better things and bigger and better things in

It's so funny how it works, Drew and and it's because the fox and the humans, and they do have a different job, like the Fox is more of an analyst, whereas the humans are talking to people. And I've seen that dynamic before where they don't necessarily get along with each other.

Yeah, and we well it started before that, you know what I mean, Like when I was just a Bravo and he was an echo. Like we're just very different personalities, right Like I'm not your average eighteen fox, like I have going to the Sief and I was an assaulter and that's that's my mentality, right Like later on I went over there, I am an assaulter. I'm not a sniper, dude.

In mark places for us.

And it actually got us onto a named objective for you know, some some of the higher level dudes of Jaysock, and we actually got to pass that off and they were like, we're gonna go hit. It's like we could just call him and he'll come in, you know what I mean, Like he's one of our sources now, you know, Like I think that's a pretty big deal to do like that. Again, he killed it, man, you know. But

You know.

When we left, there's kids playing outside with their families, you know, and it was like, all right, man, we did something good here. And we had people actually come up to our gage just to give us stuff and be like hey, thank you, like and it wasn't like the typical It was genuine, you know what I mean, Like, yeah,

So that's cool.

Yeah, it sounds like reminiscent of you know what you hear about those sfobs and Vietnam, you know, where they really ingratiated themselves with the local villagers and become a part of that kind of community.

It did, man, we were we had some very close relationships and alliances with the people there, to the point where if we were with some of our alp and as a firefight, they weren't running away.

They were they were staying there with.

Us, and they were looking out for us, which I thought was very He's like, oh, that's not everybody's experience, you know, like they were bought in. They were with us. So that was really good.

And so after this deployment, you're going back to the mother ship at Fort Campbell. Is this when it starts coming into your mind, You're thinking you want to make the jump over to the A one to five.

Yes, I knew I wanted to.

I still did two more small deployments before that. I wanted to do something different and go on and try something else. And I always knew A one five, Like, I just thought that was cool. Man, that's very much what appeals to me. But I went to the B team after that, and while I was on the B Team, I don't think I spent more than a week actually

Man's cool.

It was right after I left, that's when they attacked the base and McKinnel got killed. So that happened, like I think within like weeks after I flew out, and we've been saying the whole time, like, hey man, security here is not good, dude, but that integrity is literally over half of that base is rank major or higher. So it's all it's generals, colonel's, lieutenant colonel. I didn't know there's that many damn colonels in the Army first

I just wore civilian clothes the whole time.

And I was told like, don't tell anybody a rank, like whatever you do, don't talk because don't never respect you or listen to you. I was like, okay, cool. So, like the one person that knew was like the base commander and a couple of the colonels. Everybody else was like, oh, Drew, we how do we address you. I'm like, Drew's fine, you know.

Like, so they were like, I got a beard, That's all you need to know.

Say that again. Sorry, you just.

Say I have a beard, That's all you need to know.

Something like that. But I told him I'd be like, oh, I'm in the Coast Guard and they were like what Coast Guard?

Like yeah, Coast Guard Special Operations. You know, like we got like there were a couple of people who actually.

Believed it, but it was like, you're such an idiot, no one's gonna believe that, you know. So, uh but it was good man. And then uh so I did that for a little bit and that was interesting because it's just it's writing reports. But then in my off time I'm going and doing these kind of things. You know, in a vehicle with maybe two other guys driving around the city.

And then yeah, man did that.

I came home for a few weeks and then I immediately went That's when Syria was kicking off. So I went to Turkey and I was Task Force Turkey, so.

And it was pretty much just me so from fifth grade.

There was another guy there before me, but he was kind of it wasn't really his job, but they sent me over as because they're like, Hey, just did this for Nagada. Now you're gonna do it for our battalion commander and group commander. So you're gonna report back in Turkey and you're gonna set up all the training bases in Turkey for our guys. You're gonna help understand the people that were bringing in from Syria. You're gonna do this, and you're gonna work closely with some agency people and

I briefed a lot of politicians.

I briefed colonels, generals, senators, and I had to know what was going on on, and I'm really actually there was a female agency lady there, and I'm very grateful for her. She was very good at her job and she always helped steer me in the right direction. But I was like, I don't know if I trust you, right, so I'm gonna go back And they're like, no, that sounds right.

Whereas like other people were trying.

She'd be like, hey, y'all ought to look into that a little bit more like okay, cool.

Yeah, she's trying to help you.

She genuinely was, and I really appreciate her.

She might have been pulling one over on me the whole time, I don't know, but I feel like it was just with everything going on, I felt like she truly was a team player with everybody and wanted to do the best and she helped me out a lot.

And so were you mostly just kind of like briefing these visitors coming through on like the situation in Syria at that time, or was it getting more intense than that.

It was a little bit of both, but mainly what our unit was preparing for. So here are the training sites we've identified, Here's how we're going to bring them in. Here's how I'm going to try out a time. Once that kicks off, you'll see as many odas, here's how we're going with recruitment, everything else, and who are identifying and here's how we feel about this. Right, So we

To get what they want from the United States.

So, for example, I'd be sitting in meetings and again I don't know why the hell I'm in this meeting, but I was sitting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Interior Affairs, and they're asking me questions and giving me information. I'm like mm hmm yeah. In my head, I'm like, I'm gonna have to google that later. I don't know what the hell that means, but like, I'm gonna put this in report and to

And when I would ask questions, they would actually go.

Out in the hall and they would call Ertuwan is see the Prime Minister or president depends on what years is because he just goes back and forth, right because he's a dictator, so like as he does all that, they'd be calling him.

They'd be like, here's what we think. I'm like, do you just call Ertuwan? You know what I mean?

Like, what am I doing here? I shouldn't be talking to you. I'm ann E seven dude, like I'm a sergeant first class. But it was it was really interesting. So I would be taught. I'd have to coordinate with them, and all showed Turkish soft a little bit, and then a lot of what to get back to your question, sorry, A lot of what.

I would do with the.

Congressmen and women and the senators was we just have to be available for their questions. And I really only had one that showed up ready with questions that genuinely wanted to know what was going on and.

Had a clue. Other than that, I couldn't.

I can't say enough negative things about congressmen and women that showed up over there.

It was very disheartening, you know what I mean.

It was very like oh wow, and actually so an example for it, we're in a meeting.

You matter if I.

Tell this story, please want to do?

Okay, So we go in and do this briefing, right, and at least one of the names out of it for people and all this speaking probably infer what's going on.

So we go in and we're giving our briefs and everything.

I do my part, and I'm in there with the commander of a special operations unit.

He is there, he flew in just for this.

I'm in there with an agency lady and then his sergeant major that's there also, that's been there with me, right, And he's talking given the brief and he's like outlining the map, here's what we have, here's what we need, everything, and I never forget this congressman. It's like he's like, well, what do you mean you need this? And that He's like, sir, we got this, and he's like, why can't you just see him and shoot him.

He's like.

Because there's clouds, sir, Like they can't see through clouds, you know, And like everything was like talking to a child, you know. And he goes, I need so many ISR birds with this capability. Right, And this guy's the head of like that thing in Congress, and I'm just sitting there the whole time, like and that. The commander guy's getting mad, veins running out of his neck right, and he's.

Just like you can tell he's frustrated.

And he's like, well, I don't know what ISR means, but I got some I got some drones.

He want some drones? He goes, I got some withhistles on him. You want that? And the guy's like, yes, I would very much like this.

Like he's like, how many knee you know, like, I'll get you some son, how many in meat? And he's like, for the third time, like twenty six of them because I did to put him here, here and here.

And he's like can we do that?

And some guy's like, oh yes, Congressman, we can do that. He's like, all right, I'm gonna get him for you, right. Well, then he makes this joke. He got real serious real quick because he made a joke and he's like, here, we're in this part of Africa, we're partnered with the French, this and that, and he goes, ah, the French, huh.

And you just saw this conversation. J melt into his seat.

He's a big old fat boy too, and he just melted like he couldn't get small. Okay, thank you, you know. But like we walked out of there and this dude like grass and brought the arm. You know, he's a big dude.

He like grassed me.

I'm like, oh shit, I do something wrong, and he's like, listen to that.

Man makes decisions that affect people's lives. And I was like, I don't know if I'm supposed saying anything.

I'm just like and he just goes just walks out, and I was like, okay, like sounds good man.

So but yeah, like it was.

It was very interesting seeing that and then all the behind the stuff too, then going to the embassy and having to interact with them between Department of State, you know, the Paul Mill officers, the people running us AI D like that was a big issue back then, you know.

What I mean.

Like, and obviously that's popped up in the news. We had a lot of issues with USAID and what was going on. It was obvious they were just shoveling money straight towards you know, all these terrorist groups in Syria. They were just giving them free money and supplies and everything else. It was crazy. So it was it was very interesting. I determined politics probably weren't for me.

You know what I mean.

And yeah, man, the massive disconnect between the people who are making these decisions and what's going on on the ground.

Yeah, they they live in a different world, Like they don't. They literally live in the high tower looking down on everybody else, you know, Like I mean, you could have stories for days on this stuff. But it's like that

A little bit.

Yeah, yeah, the fat man behind.

The really good people.

Yeah.

And how do you like what you're was that when you kind of like left Turkey and kind of like what kind of state did you feel like it was in as you were leaving out of there?

I think that was twenty twenty fourteen. It was either twenty thirteen into fourteen or fourteen into fifteen, because I felt Christmas over there. I think it was thirteen, man, I don't know. I'm sorry it was one of those years it was Christmas, because I remember I was. I flew home for like three days for Christmas and flew right back right. I almost got arrested coming home too,

Yeah, yeah, so tell us about that.

So people aren't familiars. Sephardik is a school. It's considered like assaulter school. It's about eight or nine weeks for you spend the first two weeks on the flat range shooting. We shoot about one hundred and fifty thousand rounds between fifty guys in ten days, right, and we'll start with fifty and in my class we've bumped down to about thirty five by the end of that first two weeks. And then after that you're doing CQB all day every day, you know, minus Sundays, and if you suck at it,

You're working on breaching.

You know, you're doing breaching charges, mechanical breaching, you're using quickie saws, you're doing broco toorches. We're going elsewhere to like old Rundown prisons and stuff like that. So it's a very very intensive school. I'd say it's probably the best school in the entire military, right. I don't think you can top it. It's everything that commercials make the military out to be. It's that, you know what I mean,

I'll never forget him, this dumb ass. He just grabbed my neck.

Instead of doing what we all had done. He just dropped to his knees and cranked my neck down. Well when he did, he cracked or broke two of the vertebrate and then herniated three of the discs over So it's pushing on my spinal cord. So when it came time, and that was in the first couple of weeks. So when I got to the shooting the stress test on the flat range portion on week two, when I bring the rifle up, I couldn't see my sights because my

And then uh, actually I was high as hell and I.

Started beare solutions in the things. But yeah, man, it was it was good. I did a deployment before that, and then we figured all that out so after the fact, but I went the second time I passed, and then I did a deployment and then that's when we figured out what happened.

So, wow, where did you go with with the sith?

Bagdad?

Okay? Cool?

And I mean yeah again, didn't they used to call a one to five like bag dad swat?

Yeah? Yeah, dude, Like back in the day Task Force Rapptor. You remember those days. Yeah, when we were in like those guys, they were going out every night hitting two, three, four buildings.

You know that.

There's a video on YouTube with like the Team America song. Yeah, pretty much do the mini guns and everything that's them. But when I was there, it was, you know, we're just mostly doing training stuff. I rack a died down. We tried to get out the door a little bit. You know, not a whole lot happened, did a lot of training and just kind of hung out and doing standby for the crisis response for US.

Okay, anything happened.

We got to be wheels up in three hours ready to go to an embassy to evacuate it or whatever. Our guys did go to the US embassy in Baghdad and help and reinforce them when they were the riots and everything going on around it.

But really not a whole lot of that trip.

It was just really good being with the dudes and seeing how that works, and then just getting really good at uch do. Like you know, this man in fifth Group, like, we're not like other people. If you got downtime, you better be in the gym or be training. You know what I mean, Like, you better be improving yourself somehow.

And I was their mission. They worked really hard and train all the time.

Their mission is like I don't mean to short change it at all, but like it is a little bit more focused than an ODA that's like all over the place.

Yeah, it's very narrow, right.

You have the ability to specialize, and I think that's super cool. Like you specialize in CQB, you know what I mean. Personnel recovery is part of that, you know, evacuating embassies. But you are assaulters and heavy hitters and hard and fast, you know what I mean, And you're doing hostage rescue and everything else on a regular ODA. You've got to understand your networks, right, you got to do that. You've got to develop all your own intel. And we do that in the Stiff too, but not

You got to do the normal FID thing. You got to do all this different stuff.

Whereas you know, if there's like five pillars to the missions you have when you're an A one five, you're only doing like one or two of them, you know, compared to all five or six or eight or however many there are.

You know what I mean.

So yeah, and after that was when they realized how jacked up your neck was, and.

Did you have to be medically retired because of that?

I did. They gave me the opportunity. So at that point, I had had quite a few injuries. I've had shoulder reconstruction, I had both my knees done. I've had left ankle reconstruction. I have a broken neck that they fused, and also my L four and L five is broken, which I'm not letting them fuse my lower back. Like the doctor who fused my neck was like, don't do your back. Whatever you do, don't let them touch your shit. I was like, okay, cool. I've got a lot of TBIs too,

Which is cool.

But I actually wanted to go to the Army Marksmanship Unit is really where I wanted to go. And if I can just finish my time at the AMU because I love shooting like that would be awesome, but they did not. They wouldn't allow me to come over because I was at E seven. They like it to come over younger. So at the time, whoever's running and said no, And I just decided, hey, man, if I'm gonna stay in the military, like, I'm not staying in the military if I can't deploy, you know. So I wanted to

In Walter Reed Hospital. I was laid in the bed and I was making a.

Website on Squarespace and like, oh, and I'm like applying for an FBI.

In you know, and I'm like, what is this?

And that's because you're already having to like kind of come to terms like I'm not going to be a soldier anymore.

What am I going to do?

Yeah, I don't like knowing. I don't like not knowing what I'm doing. Right, I figured I think had something the military teaches you, well, if you just wait, you know, like the army will tell you what you're doing and you're probably not gonna like it, but if you're proactive about it, you can kind of control where you go and what you do. So I've always wanted to, you know, I thought it was cool to have a training company

You should. You should absolutely start a company and get out and train.

I think you do.

Okay, you do well?

He was like, all right. So I remember I was sitting in the bed, you know, just high as hell, dude, just misspelling everything. Danny came in. He was like my escort and he's like, what are you doing because he hadn't even seen me yet. I think he saw me like when I came out of surgery, and then he's like, okay. He went and got breakfast and came back and he's coming in ready to make fun of me, and he's like, what are you doing. I'm like, oh, I starting a company.

So fedanyl kicking that ass.

Oh yeah, and so tell us about Bear Solutions, what that company is, what it's sort of evolved into, what you're doing with it today.

Yeah, man, So Bear has been great.

I've been very fortunate, very blessed about a lot of people in the industry.

You say, hey, man, you're doing good stuff. Let me help promote you, right, let me do this. We've grown very well.

So one of the things that the number one thing we do is we do training. We do firearms training. We teach you how to shoot. We teach you how to shoot fast and accurate. Right, it's got to be a balance, Okay, like accuracy accuracy without.

Speed is kind of worthless, you know what I mean. So we got to be fast while we do it.

And then so we teach pistol one, pistol two, rightfle one, rifle two. But we also do a lot of courses for law enforcement. We do CQB courses. We've done hostive rescue courses for people. We've done a lot of CQB courses where I keep it just two man CQB.

Especially for those patrol officers.

You know what I mean, getting in and going and knocking it out and do what they gotta do. We do consulting and we've done a lot of people. We train some really cool people, got to know some awesome people. But number one what we do is training. After that, we also make products. We just came out with our first belt, which is a you know, tactical style belt called the voy Tech belts spelled wosh Tech, but it's pronounced void tech. It's a Polish word. Have you ever heard of voy Tech?

The Bearjack no World.

War Two, he's the one that carried the artillery shells. Yeah, yeah, yes, yeah.

Did drank beer? Killed Nazis? Like did?

How do you not love that bear? You know what I mean?

So we named it after that. So but yeah, that's our first product. We have some building off of that. We have some others coming out too. We do the YouTube thing and everything else, which brings us to bear Cinna. So Bear Cenna is our video production. Uh. My business partner with that is Thomas ch phenomenal guy man. Just he's been to film school, he does camera work for He's been on Netflix, He's worked on Netflix project, He's done music videos, he's done all kinds of stuff. Man,

So we're almost done with that.

We're just getting special effects done and then we're gonna submit it to film festivals. So yeah, so.

It's like an actual like short film with a plot, but it's sort of showing the tactics that you guys teach.

Yes, it's about eighteen minutes long.

Cool, so it does have a plot, right, And we filmed it over about a week at a private school in around the Nashville area and then also some other locations. Right.

So that was super cool. We use that. We did, I mean tons of stuff.

Dude, we uh make up artists, you know for the blood and the gunshot wounds, blanks and gun I mean, dude, it was sick. So it was It's a very big learning experience, I'll say that much.

Yeah.

Well, I mean I was gonna say, man, look at all this new stuff that you're learning. Not exactly uh, just a big dumb eighteen Bravo here putting some things together.

Trying to Yeah.

Yeah, I have a lot of really awesome people around me, which is great. That've taught me a ton of stuff. You know, Tom, I feel sometimes I don't know what Tom works with me because sometimes be like, ugh, you know, he's just like, oh, you idiot, you know, like think about this, you know, and he's like explained to like, oh okay, I get it. So it's been really neat man, and that's worked into some writing, you know, doing some stuff and everything else. But so yeah, so we do

So that's called AgNIC and we have that over there.

Super cool.

So we'll have some links down the description for the viewers or listeners. You can go and check out Bear Solutions and some of these products that Jre's talking about.

Is there anything else you want to talk about? About?

I don't know, service, military service or post service, what you're doing today, anything that I didn't mention.

Yeah, So it's I think the thing is that you never know where life's going to take you, man, Like I mean, look where you're at. Dude, You're sitting in a big leather chair, you know what I mean, you brought in thank you sitting in that sucker, you know, and you're in a fifth group, you know, I mean running a podcast and all the incredible like stories you've done. You're a journalist, man, Like you've done incredible things, right, they're probably not what you were thinking about.

And you're in the military.

No, But for me, if you were like, hey, man, someday you're gonna be on a movie set, you know. Like I was just up in Utah and I'm working on this movie right now, and I got to be in the movie, which was super cool. It was also terrifying because like there's real actors and they're like, oh, you're so and So's buddy, aren't you.

I'm like, oh, I know what that means. You know, I expect it. So I was like rehearsing and practicing, and.

I was with this guy, Jeff, and Jeff is he does a lot of casting for Clint Eastwood's movies and he's name was phenomenal guy, right, And so we do these video calls where he's like coaching me.

I'm like okay, and He's like, Ah, that's not bad. I'm like just.

Saying it sucked, Jeff, just tell me it sucks, you know. And so but you know, it went well. You know, they told me I did a good job. I was like, oh, thanks god. You know, so actually in it doing that. I'm not trying to be a big action movie star by any means, but it was a neat experience.

I recently too, I tech advised on a film over the summer, and just because they needed a body essentially to do it, I ended up having like a very small role, microscopic role, but I have one line where I tell someone to shut the fuck up or I'll

It was kind of the same in this thing.

It was they were like, hey, you're gonna play Kenny the gun store.

Guy, and I was like, okay, I do that.

Yeah, all right, fair enough. Yeah you type cast me for that, you know, so but I got to call somebody a stupid, stupid moron or something dumb motherfucker or something like that.

I was like, oh, cool, have your your mug of coffee and be like, well, actually, if you knew anything about forty five ACP, you'd know, yeah pretty much.

Yeah, you know, red shirt just be like slow down and get your hits, you know, like but oh man, yeah, it was fun Dudel.

Yeah.

The funny thing about these I'm sure you saw it too, Like I was just kind of blown away, like being on set, like all the moving pieces.

It's like a large military operation exactly.

Yeah.

It was like everybody has their roles and doing this, and I'm like, oh, that's S four, that's S three, you know, like that's S two. You know, there's this you know, like it's they all have their pieces and they're all working together, and you have these guys in the top there's making sure everything's doing what they need to do, and it's very interesting.

I was like, this is just like a military yeah yeah.

Yeah yeah, and it requires the other commonalities, like it requires everyone doing their job, like everything has to line up to get that shot. Yes, right, Yes, it's a lot, and it's a lot of people and a lot of technology working together to get that like one moment and I found that.

Yeah, it's very similar to what you experience in the military.

It is. It's kind of like that, but just add an HR element and then you have a movie, you know what I mean, Like like, you can't what do you mean, I can't call that person retarded? And they're like, you can't talk like that. That's me.

You're like, okay, Yeah, the unions are are a different thing. We don't have that in the military either. I think we have a question for you, Drew Sure from our Patreon folks.

This is Damn Bash. Ask him who his second favorite Border Patrol firearms instructor is from the Casa Grande station.

That's a very specific questionry Dan, It's uh, it's either it's probably Darling, because I know who my number one is, so dude, Darling's my boy.

Dude, He's uh, dude, those guys down there at Cassa grand Dan, Darling, all those guys phenomenal dudes. I've gotten a lot of Border Patrol guys. I really really really enjoy the Border Patrol guys like they are hilarious.

So they're really good dudes, very professional.

They do a really good job.

So I drew anything else before we get going, anything that I failed to ask you.

I don't think so I kind of just started.

Going with it.

So I hope that's cool.

So no man other than that, dude, Uh yeah, I'm just kind of a husband and a dad first, and I try and do all this other stuff.

I got a daughter and uh, one thing you may.

Not know ifnybody's listening, if you ever go to dance competitions, you might see me there, okay, because I my daughter's in dance and I'm a dance dad, so I will say hi if you're over there.

So, which is awkward as ship for a guy like me, but I love it.

So that's awesome.

Man.

Well, Drew, thank you for doing this man taking some time out of your day.

Really appreciate it. And thank you everyone who joined us tonight for the show. And we'll see all of you next time and make sure you check out Bear Solutions again. There'll be links down the description for you, guys.

Awesome. Thank you very much, Jack. Thanks guys.

Hey, guys, I want to tell all of you today about a new newsletter that we're launching that encompasses both the team House podcast, the eyes On podcast, and the high Side News outlet, which I run with Sean Naylor. The newsletter is gonna be once a week. It's going to come into your inbox and you're gonna get the most current podcasts on eyes On and the Teamhouse and

What you're gonna get. So this is a once a week email.

It'll slide into your inbox and it will have you know the greatest hits that week.

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