Why USAF Special Warfare?
EPISODE 23
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WELCOME TO THE TEAM ROOM FOR ANOTHER BRAIN CONDITIONING ONES READY PODCAST. ON THIS EPISODE WE DELVE INTO OUR JOURNEYS INTO AFSPECWAR. SIT DOWN. TAKE NOTES. MAKE A PLAN.
INTRO
Intro (00:04):
Trent Intro.
Trent (00:28):
Welcome to another podcast with your favorite team, the Ones Ready team. You're in the team room today and we're going to go on a caffeine fueled rant about why we love the Air Force, and why we love AFSPECWAR. But before we get to that, as always, we just want to thank you all for listening, subscribing, leaving your comments, whether they're nice or not. We appreciate y'all and make sure you subscribe. Don't just listen for free. That's cheating. So also, this wouldn't be possible without some friends. Well it would be possible without friends because they're not giving us anything. But go ahead and check them out. Good friends of ours, Strike Force Energy, they'll get you amped up Alpha Brew Coffee Company if you're a coffee snob. Eberlestock, if you're looking for a bag, if you're looking for equipment, they’re the guys I go to. So, you should to go check out Eberlestock. So that being said today, like I said, we're going to talk about why would you want the Air Force, what we loved about AFSPECWAR, and then we're going to get to some Q and A answer all your questions that we haven't already answered.
PEACHES’ STORY
Peaches (02:10):
Might have the record for shortest JROTC career in history.
Spec Ops community tends to attract certain personality types. Like Peaches.
Joined with a PJ contract. Ended up going CCT. Wanted to jump, dive, shoot, and work on small teams.
Sister service jobs didn’t appeal like AFSPECWAR did.
Brian (04:25):
Did you have other people in your family that are in the military? Because I honestly didn't know anything about like what free-fall was. I never met anybody that had jumped out of a plane, never knew anybody that went scuba diving before. And like, I didn't really know the terminology for any of that stuff. So do you have other family members that did that kind of stuff?
Peaches (04:43):
My cousin was in the Marine Corps. He was an F-18 pilot, so he was still doing pilot stuff when I came in. My uncle was a Marine. My grandfather was in the Navy. My cousin is in the Air Force and then my brother joined the Air Force as well, but he's younger. So it was, there was literally my grandfather, my uncle, my cousin and then me. But I mean they were Marines, they’re a different.
Aaron (05:20):
How were you even getting information? Like was it recruiters or job fair or pamphlets or what?
Peaches (05:53):
It was literally like the little, little tri-fold pamphlet that the recruiters give out and they didn't have operations recruiters.
TRENT’S STORY
Trent (06:49):
Almost a Marine. Ended up in the Air Force because they didn’t care if he joined or not.
Came in as a linguist, didn’t pass the screening in BMT. Became Weather.
Learned about SOWT in tech school.
Aaron (09:51):
Would you have joined as SR had it been a thing?
Trent (10:27):
Didn’t know that Spec Ops wasn’t the way Hollywood portrayed it. With no data would probably have been a cross-trainee.
Peaches (11:17):
That's the misconception that, that you're right. I don't know if it's Hollywood or just everybody, because I the same thing when I showed up to INDOC, I got all these, I mean there were some massive dudes and I'm like, what am I doing? I mean look at me and then, and then they are the ones that got attrited they were out. And so it's just interesting. Most of us are a smaller folk.
Brian (11:49):
Brian’s Wife knew Trent in Weather Tech School. Trent was a little nerd.
Brian was not a large person when he joined. Lot’s of big guys struggle through selection.
Trent (13:16):
Conventional weather was not checking all the boxes.
SOWT presented itself.
Trent’s not a planner. Takes advantage of opportunities as they come.
Peaches (14:38):
I just find it really interesting that you, you would do it over again. You'd be across training just because that's kind of counter intuitive to what at least I've said to people because we do get a lot of questions about people that are saying, Hey, I want to come in and do this and then I'll cross train. And just, and we've said it before, so much life can happen. There's limited slots. You're getting older, so there's issues.
Trent (15:08):
Not advocating planning to crosstrain from the jump.
There is a lot more information and mentoring available now that wasn’t there in 2003.
Brian: Why PJ and what made you confident that you could do it?
BRIAN’S STORY
Brian (16:04):
Wasn’t 100% confident in the beginning.
Had a big job opportunity. Very corporate and paid well. They tried to hire Brian and he said no.
Aaron (17:10):
That's not a good interview strategy. But yeah, I'd say no, I don't think you're going to get it. If that's the answer if you say no, that's a bold move. It's not a good answer to that question.
Brian (17:31):
Brian couldn’t see himself stuck in an office all day. Decided to join the military.
Army recruiter told him to join as a tank guy or infantry instead of trying to be a Ranger. Nope.
Being on a ship didn’t sound like fun.
Ended up with the Air Force. Saw a video played on a VCR (google it). Showed PJ’s jumping and rescuing folks. Brian was sold.
Didn’t think it would be as hard as SEALS or Green Beret’s, but trained hard anyway.
Didn’t know about the paramedic, diving, shooting, or HALO parts of the job.
Brian was the first person he knew from back home to do any of those things.
Aaron (20:39):
Aaron tells a story about a PJ candidate that made it through INDOC without really knowing anything about Pararescue. Kinda like Brian…
Brian (22:14):
Brian trained really hard. Didn’t show up with his skateboard…you really need to listen to this part to do it justice.
Peaches (23:27):
All right, Aaron, you're next buddy. Did you always know you wanted to be in the military?
AARON’S STORY
Aaron (24:03):
Came from military family, wanted to be a journalist. That’s different than just writing in your journal apparently.
Never seriously considered the military before 9/11/2001.
Considered Ranger and Force Recon. Luckily his Dad talked some sense into him.
Basically Chief Ron Thompson’s picture on the tri-fold convinced him to go for PJ.
Peaches (26:25):
But I imagine with your, your brothers, because you've got a family full of military that they probably influenced you quite a bit.
Aaron (26:34):
Aaron failed to convince any of his younger siblings to join the AF. This is why we have Spec Ops Recruiters now.
We learn the definition of journalism.
Q&A
Trent (28:11):
Let's start the Q and. A. I'll start it off because the first question we have on here is a, an SR related question. Unless somebody else wants to take it. No. @ryan_howlett asks, does SR still forecast weather or did they drop the weather capability altogether? We don't forecast but we collect. So easy answer. I think we've answered that a few other times. I'm not mad at you, but we don't forecast anymore.
Peaches (28:52):
So we got this a lot as well. Everybody is being affected by COVID-19 right now. So gyms are closed, pools are closed which is obviously affecting people's training. But has any of this affected the pipeline A&S or any other follow on training? That's probably a more of a question for Trent.
Trent (29:19):
It is having an effect. Everyone in the chain is working really hard to keep training going.
Peaches (30:04):
We are still shipping candidates.
Brian (30:23):
We’re still shipping folks and conducting training.
Aaron (31:07):
We’re still conducting training. You might have to quarantine.
Trent (31:34):
Don’t let outside factors influence you to do something negative…like quit.
Brian (32:12):
Next question is from @robertorodrigueziii, what items are allowed at A&S boots, recovery gear, supplements. And if you guys have anything on that so I can answer some of this. So as far as boots are concerned, you guys are allowed to wear whatever boots as long as they're within the AFI 36-2903 is Dress and Appearance to standards. So you can look that up. It's open source. Rollers and lacrosse balls: I know they're issuing a lot of stuff over there now. You can do all that. And last I heard as far as supplementation and the only thing that you were allowed to use was whey supplements. If you guys are watching this on YouTube, you're in A&S go and drop down in the comments below or just put it out there so people know what the current standards are. But that was the last time that I heard was whey protein was the only thing that you're really allowed to use and like a multivitamin.
Aaron (33:50):
So by the end of the pipeline it, there's actually less wiggle room because you're issued everything by then. So the way that it works at the very end of the pipeline for gear specifically is that you're actually given the gear, when you go through the apprentice course, you're actually given all of your gear. That's yours before you go through the apprentice course. So everything you graduate with, you don't turn anything in anymore.
Trent (34:26):
I want to ask this next one to Peaches just because I want to, it's from @bobkillack. What is it like working as a CCT attached to an ODA?
Peaches (34:36):
It's kind of like any other SOF team really, whether it's ODA, SEALs or our international partners you're going as a single element to go support these guys. And generally I can't think of a single team that I've been attached to that has not treated me almost better than their own people as weird as that may sound. It's just because it's like, it's like when you have a guest that comes into your house, you want to make sure that they're comfortable, that they're feeling welcomed, that all that kind of mushy stuff. They don't know you a lot of times unless you happen to work with each other and training during exercise or a pre prior deployment, they don't know you. So there's some inherent trust that already exists because you're a SOF dude. Exactly. And so, because I'm going to tell you what, you show your ass on an overland movement or out on the range. Like if you show that you're not comfortable on the range and you're unsafe, like you're done, there's no like, Oh, I'll get better. That's it. You're out. So there's that inherent trust.
Brian (36:16):
That was my whole experience too. As far as like a younger guy though. Well I was a little bit younger. You're a little bit, if you're a Master Sergeant showing up, they already assume that you know everything. But as a senior admin showing up you really have to prove yourself, especially when you're going out with any of those teams. And like you guys said, if you mess up one time, it's just like that, but it's always that butt sniffing. Like dogs or whatever, nothing company competition. When you show up, there's trying to feel you out and see like, is this guy cool? Can we handle with them? And they invite you to like go do whatever, hang out, shoot, and you have to perform or get kicked out.
Trent (36:54):
Well, yeah, that initial trust was built by your career field through experiences that everybody's had so that the pressure is on to not be that person, that jacks it up. That ruins it for everyone.
Aaron (37:19):
And you could have just said Aaron Love, we all knew who you were talking about. Not really that cool. So anyway, from @embraceyourthought, how do operators avoid complete exhaustion, fatigue and burnout? I'm assuming this means just like in general, but I then, I started reading this one and I thought about jujitsu about what it is you need to step on the gas and when it needs to step on the brakes. I think what it's trying to say is from embrace your thoughts. How do operators avoid complete exhaustion, fatigue and burnout?
Peaches (37:48):
That's a good question. We do it by a good Commander, a good senior enlisted, a good Troop Commander, a good Troop Chief, try and manage the amount of time that guys are away and at their job. And if we know a guy had a really hot deployment, we'll kind of take him back and just not, not coddle him or anything like that, but just keep an extra eye on them, that kind of stuff. Then after you've been on team for a couple of years and you go do an instructor gig for four years now is generally what the instructor, three years. So you go three years being an instructor you get a lot of home time, got a lot of time to heal both physically and mentally and work on your family and education if you guys want it to. And then you can come back to team and start crushing it and then you could go be an instructor or go kind of do a staff job or something like that. Again, just to stay in the game longer if you will because you will get adrenal fatigue. Like, I mean we just constantly pumping adrenaline and you do run that risk of having adrenal fatigue after when you've been doing this since the civil war.
Peaches (39:26):
This is from @sergeant_mcgettigan, who's the coolest on this podcast? Cause it sure as hell isn’t me, Brian. Nope, definitely on me. I think it's Aaron. I mean he's the one that Brian is up to date and all the kid talk and stuff. I take personal offense for that. I've never felt so personally attacked. I had to say it exactly like that. Just so you guys didn't think I was the coolest one. So I know it's not me cause I've got way too many knife hands.
Trent (40:26):
Alright, moving on. So it was Brian anyway from @jmb2373. What is the difference between SR and SR seal team? I'm not sure that I understand this question. Within the Air Force we're going to do a Special Reconnaissance and Surveillance and all that other stuff that comes along with it for the Air Force. And first that's part of a global access team, which includes Combat Control, PJs, and TACPs. Whatever the SEALs are doing out on their boats and what missions they're getting after. I'm not a hundred percent sure on but we have different areas of focus. So, don’t ever compare me to a seal ever again (sarcasm).
Brian (41:19):
From @lifalexis, how do you ever come negativity from your family or friends? I kind of am going to assume that you're talking about people you tell them that you're going to go for PJ, CCT, or Special Operations and they're like, well, we don't really see you doing that kind of a thing. That's not really your thing. Or do you really want to do that? Because my parents and a lot of people said the same kind of thing. They're like, you want to go do Special Operations. That is a really big factor in driving me to do the things that I did and practice as much as I did. Because I was like these people don't think that I can do it but I am going to freaking do this no matter what people say. So maybe it was a little bit out of just hatred for whatever they were saying and like anger towards their negativity. That drove me a little bit there. That wasn't just the only thing. But just kind of let it fuel you. And show them that they're wrong. You don't have to be that person that you were because they see you as kind of like a kid or they see you as the person that they grew up as. And some of those things that you did that were kind of down when you were younger. I know everyone has their own little stories when they were kids and stuff, but that's what they see you as. And as you continue moving through your life people will view you in a different way based on how you approach yourself. You always get a new start whenever you get to a new unit. And that's kind of what we use to kind of what you used to say. Obviously some of your reputation still follows you, but should I see the person that you are when you show up and they'll know that you're, you're there to work or you're there to Slack off. So once you get to basic training or selection, you're that new person that you want to be, you're carrying the lessons that you've learned as a kid and everything, but you're that new person and you are driven or confident or however you want to change yourself, you always have a chance to continue improving.
Trent (43:20):
Yeah, I would say if anybody brings some negativity like that towards you, it's probably their negativity is their problem and it's their feelings of inadequacy or fear or whatever that they're thrown out there and it's not, it's not your problem. So don't take it personal. Don't, you don't have to hate your friends just because they say something like that and they always use that tone. I love the way you said that Brian.
Aaron (43:48):
I was going to say the exact same thing as you try. I'm just like, Hey man, that's a them problem. That's not a, you problem. Like bringing that negative. It's like, are you sure you want to do this? I don't think you cannot. I'm just like, this wasn't like a conversation. This was me letting that I'm going to go do this. You can either support me and be my boy or be my friend and come with me on this journey or not. Either way. I was just letting you know. So it's always one of those things where when that negativity gets put in your life, I'm like, Hey, that's a you problem man. I'll be here when you get done. But yeah, I laughed because I was like, Ooh, I can't wait to say this and then you stole my thunder. So now I'm just stupid. It's payback.
Peaches (44:24):
This one's from @caden_wgc, do you get to work a lot with physical trainers and on base?
Aaron (44:36):
We got them on the team. It's not just, it's not on base. It's in the building that we have offices, they just work there. It's not a base asset. It's a unit asset, so, yep.
Peaches (44:46):
Preservation of the Family or the Family and the Force. I always mix up the F's, but it's huge. I mean it's a whole, it's a whole psychiatrist, social worker, doctor IDMT physical therapist, sports medicine, chaplain, nutritionist strength coach. I mean it's, it's an incredible asset that we get to take advantage of. It's pretty awesome.
Aaron (45:14):
Yeah, it's great. This is my favorite question that came in from @imnotgonnatell, what is Trent’s spirit animal and why is it a Platypus? So go with your spirit animal if it's not a Platypus. What is it? First off my spirit animal is a coyote because I'm not good at planning, but I'm a survivor.
Aaron (46:03):
Brian, what's your spirit animal?
Brian (46:15):
I don't know. I've never really thought about what my spirit, I haven't either. I'm glad you didn't ask me honestly.
Trent (46:21):
What's your spirit animal?
Aaron (46:30):
The Orca, it's the killer whale. It's the Wolf of the sea. It hunts with its boys all the time. It murders for fun and it is vicious. It's really smart. It figures out how to just merc people and it, it travels in packs. Orcas are really, really bad ass. Don't, don't be fooled by Free Willy. So, from @sono_fander, what was your Holy crap, I'm not in training anymore. This is real moment?
Peaches (46:56):
And I'm going to try not this to make this sound like a cringy war story at all.
Peaches (47:20):
We have range time, right? It can be two hours, four hours, whatever. And that's, that's either out shooting, maybe that's working with aircraft calling and close air support, but it's generally a two to four hour block and that's it because you got to get off the range and the air and training and you've got to let other people get on, right? So being used to that and then getting in a firefight that lasts around 36ish hours you like after the first four or five hours, you're like, Holy cow, man. Well this was fun. And you're like, Oh yeah, that's right. I'm still in it. So a lot of training scars that I removed immediately.
Aaron (48:13):
Yeah. I this is not my story. I was involved, but I will recant it. So last time I was in Afghanistan we got a call. It was really close to us assuming alerts. So we assumed alert and then right away we had to go on something. Worst possible scenario that we were riding in helicopters, the Valley was above the helicopter. I don't know if you can, people above a helicopter is a bad thing for a helicopter. Nobody should be around like above the big choppy thing cause all you could throw a rock and take a helicopter down at that point. So no kidding. In a Valley. We had to hoist some guys in, take somebody out and then leave the Valley. It was very intense, a very, the very first thing that my young team member on the bird said to me, he was like, Holy cow man, this, I thought this was training for a second and as we were going around and picking everybody up and leaving, I realized that it was real world and it threw me for a loop and I was like, yeah man, it's wild? But he was like, hey man that was really wild. I thought that was training until the very end and I was like, okay, cool. Cool, cool, cool. Cause I was terrified the entire time. All right, so let's go with @dean_pennell has SR apprentice course been moved from Keesler to Pope along with CCT.
Trent (49:37):
The apprentice courses for both of them have always been a Pope. So yes.
Peaches (49:58):
Yeah, it's always been there. Whatever. We skipped one that I think is, is good to hit at least while we're here, @realethanbrady, what are the, what are the best exercises to replace pool work while we are all stuck in quarantine?
Aaron (50:27):
Yeah, so we've gotten this one a couple of times. Cardiovascular endurance, long slow distance running. I mean just try to up the engine and up your VO2 max as much as you possibly can to substitute it. Like if the specificity is swimming, you're not going to improve your stroke. You're not going to improve your technique, you're not going to improve your efficiency in the water, but you can improve that overall basal metabolism at a high rate to increase your VO2 max. So sprints, mix in some long distance running and some straight up and endurance. I think that'd probably be the best one that I can advise, I guess.
Brian (51:02):
Yeah. I've actually been working on a blog post to put on beapj.com because every single day, at least two or three emails that I get are this exact same question. Like the pools are closed. What should I do? Cause you guys are doing the programs and stuff. So, my recommendation, just like Aaron said, you got to keep it up that cardio, that's the most important thing right now. I recommend full body, low impact type exercises. That way you're not running back and back, back to back days and crushing your shins so you can replace it with the Versa Climber, row machine. If you don't have those kinds of things, then you can use like some of the grass and gorilla animal movement type of things for your cardio. So you're getting that high intensity and cardio together. And by those, I mean bear crawls, crab walks, mixture of those mountain climbers, all those kinds of things that you can do on my end by herself, mixing those in. And then it's also a good time to, if you are terrible at pushups, pull-ups, work on those specific events that you're terrible on because you have that extra little bit of time that you're not in the pool, not getting your swim stuff ready. It saves you a little bit of extra time and you're probably at home right now. So, make use of that time and use those low impact things. But the rest of the blog will be up there about using an open body of water. There's safety, safety things that are involved there. And even if it is open or not, but yeah, so those are the things that I recommend in the meantime and that I'm doing myself.
Trent (52:35):
Flutter kicks. No, that's all I got to it. Cause we do things at the pool that are not necessarily in the water. So maybe you work on flutter kicks.
Peaches (52:47):
There's also a breath hold apps that have certain programs and stuff like that that will help you. I've, I haven't personally used any of them, but I've had several people give me really good feedback that they enjoyed them and it helped them. So last question that we got was @patmcallen. If my initials are PJ, I'm basically guaranteed a PJ slot. They're just going to give me a beret correct? I think that's how it works.
If you want the answer to this question you’ll have to listen to the podcast. It’s worth it.
Brian (54:32):
Start from the beginning we went over just some of the different experiences. You can see that it widely varies all of our experiences. Some of us have military experience, some of us didn't have people with military experience and some of us knew what they were getting into. Some of us didn't know at all what we were getting into. Some of us had to try a couple of times to get into it and now things happen. And here we are full circle. We're all here in the team room talking about our experiences in life. And I think the most important thing about what we talked about today is that we all have our own unique experiences to bring to the team. And with those experiences we all become a better team because we have all these people that have different perspectives and life experiences honestly. So whether or not we came in with one intention of the other or had the correct amount of knowledge coming in, I think overall what matters the most is our commitment to the mission. And that's why we signed up in the first place is we want to go out there, we want to be with like-minded people and we want to go execute the mission. So hopefully you guys, we answered your questions. We tried our best to the fullest extent to answer all these questions. If you guys have more, you can always reach out to us like, like always over on the IG. Drop your comments down to YouTube. If you have other questions, we will always go on there and answer you guys. So we appreciate you guys watching, listening and commenting. Again, if you guys have anything for us, you can always reach out and make sure you go check out the YouTube as well as the podcast, like subscribe and leave us a comment if you're enjoying the show. Alright, we appreciate it. We'll see you guys on the next episode.
TLDR: Everyone took very different paths to AFSPECWAR. The one common denominator is the desire to push ourselves and dedication to the mission. Go back and watch the Q&A portion. Some of our best work.
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