AF SpecOps Misadventures & Mischief Part 1
EPISODE 33
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INTRO
Nikki Silva 00:03
You're listening to the ones ready podcast, a team of Air Force Special Operators forged in combat with over 70 years of combined operational experience, as well as a decade of selection instructor experience. If you're tired of settling, and you want to do something you truly believe in, you're in the right place. Now, here's your host, former Prep Course Ops Superintendent and current Special Reconnaissance training guru Trent Seegmiller.
Trent 00:27
Hey, everybody, and welcome back to another One's Ready podcast. I know you've been looking forward to it all week, you went on to the site and you already subscribed and you already hit notifications. And I appreciate it. I appreciate all you out there supporting us so we can get you the information that you need. Big news this week before we get into what we're going to talk about, which is maybe the best thing that we could talk about. We have a new company that we're like, affiliated with that doesn't pay us but we just want to give them a shout out and give you guys a code to get a discount. So, the new company is Out of Regs Pomade. As you know, we talked about hair all the time. It's just it is what it is. So, go to Out of Regs Pomade put in the ONESREADY promo code and you're getting get yourself a 10% discount that's Out of Regs with an s not a z. They're not posers. And just like always, the other companies that we give shout outs to and they offer a discount as well is Hoist. Get yourself hydrated, it works, Strike Force Energy, get yourself uncomfortably energetic, Alpha Brew Coffee Company for all you coffee snobs and you know get yourself regular energetic is great stuff. Aaron could tell you all about it. And then last but not least Eberlestock Get yourself a bag, get yourself some kit, train like the pros. And you're going to love their stuff when just to put it out there. We only talk about these companies because we love them. We use the products and they're fantastic people, they support us. you support us. We appreciate it. Last thing is Yeah, Apple podcasts, Spotify, everything. Make sure you go on there like subscribe, leave us comments. Tell us what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong. So now that that's out of the way this week is story time y'all been asking for it. We're going to deliver we're going to tell the funny stories and then you know Peaches is going to tell us about what it's like trying to get stuff off the top shelf it's going to be a great time.
Aaron 02:14
So, I just wanted I no matter what this episode turns out to be that was the best intro of all time like I hope everybody listen to every well organized and thought out man, it was great. I just for a little behind the curtains for everybody. We decided about three seconds before we started recording "whose hosting" and we were like, hey, Trent, you do it. So, you got what you got. Man, I was I was great for knowing just prior to hitting that record, but it's not a bad shot out of a guy.
Trent 02:41
Appreciate it. So, we'll start with we'll go a youngest to oldest, you know fun stories. Brian, you are the voice of reason here. You brought us all together. Hit us up. Tell us a story. That's exciting or funny. Just that shed some light on all of your awesome experiences as a PJ.
WINTER IS COLD IN NORWAY
Brian 02:59
Well I'm not that much younger, just to put it out there. But I do have the least amount of time in service for sure. All right, so I was thinking about it at the last couple days in which store I wanted to tell. And I'm going to hit the Fabiana Wine Mixer with JMac, which is a really great story. And I think I've posted about it before, and I'm sure Aaron and Peach have heard about it before. So, I want to bring him back on that one. Because, yeah, I definitely want to bring him again. So, we'll come back for that one and for different story time. But I know Aaron, some of the stories that we have are also kind of shared. So, one of the things that I wanted to talk about was, obviously, none of the stuff that we're going to be talking about is going to be classified or any of that kind of stuff. It's just a funny time that we've been in training and or wherever. And we just want to share with you guys because it just sticks out in our minds. So, the one that sticks out in my mind was I don't know It was because I had just kind of gotten in some trouble with a commander or not but he sent me to the Allied Officers Winter Warfare course. And me and Dust Bunny were sent there with Grizz-Bizz. And it was a whole, you know, fun group that was down there. And Allied Officer Winter Warfare Course is a course that they hold up there in Norway, and it's for Allied Officers.
Aaron 04:25
It is a suck fest it is it's so cold you spend so for the people that don't like understand so no kidding the Norwegians were authorized by NATO to be the only people that can say you get to stay out in winter conditions longer than 24 hours. So, as a as a 321st guy or as a Mildenhall, STS guy, we had the opportunity to go over to this course and take it but it's like, there's like a 10 day. Initial movement. Yes. quotes. Yeah, there's like a, there's like a 10-day initial like movement that you did. You came in and you warmed up for a couple days and you went for this big tactical exercise, but it was Like, I mean, was it six weeks long or something?
Peaches 05:02
Yeah, Cold Response.
Aaron 05:05
Yeah. When you went into the separate gear to that one, you didn't have to wear the Norwegian gear to that we're in the same gear as the Norwegian conscripts are wearing out in the wilderness.
Brian 05:17
And it's literally like a mesh like the mesh that you wear to the beach like those people back in the 80s. They were wearing hot pink mesh rings. Yeah, those strings you're wearing at Google
Peaches 05:29
Yeah, they are. Yeah, it works really well. Right, said Fred. The I'm too sexy video. That guy was probably Norwegian because I measured his is exactly what they are.
Brian 05:38
That is exactly what you're wearing. And you're in a Vortex over that. Anyway, so it was me, Dust Bunny. I'm going to code everyone's name, you know use eponyms or whatever for everyone's name, but we actually call these people that just to hide their identity. You guys know him as Dust Bunny. So, we were out there. It was during our 10-day movement, like you said, they have you jumped into a 30 it was negative 35 degrees outside. And the sun's pretty much always in a permanent state of setting or like sort of rising just over the horizon. It's always dark over there. So, it started to get dark again and they we pull up to this lake on our skis after a 30-kilometer little ski adventure. And they tell you that we're going to jump into this this frozen like, or is frozen...
Aaron 06:27
That they actually have a home with like huge chainsaws. It's not even like yeah, it's not even just like okay, we're going to use it like on I saw like, no, they had to bring in like, heavy duty because they're like, yeah, this this lake is essentially almost always frozen. Like in the summer it really doesn't unthaw that well like the deep parts of it are still really cold. So, you're like, Okay, cool,
Brian 06:44
It's absolutely freezing cold. And for me. I'm a guy that grew up in Arizona. So, you know, the coldest stuff, that's not my kind of gear, obviously. I'll go out there and I'll do the job. And I'll have minimal complaining as much as possible there's still going to be some because that's just what happens when you're around a group people when you're miserable you have that shared suck fest.
Trent 07:06
That's what NCOs do.
Peaches 07:08
This one man I'm more of a Fairweather PJ I'm more of like an inside cat sort of guy.
Brian 07:15
I remember just like going to the bathroom you know doing number two out there in the in the woods you got to burn your toilet paper you got to obviously take your gloves off to try and wipe and it's just literally a pain in the butt to try and figure out if your hand or the tissues wiping so because you can't feel your fingers but the thing that I wanted to get to that was also funny was so I was watching you know I saw Jake go in the lake first. And he just had this look on his face. He was like looking up kind of like praying and he was just like hopefully just let this be over soon. Let me feel my fingers again soon. So, I saw him jumping.
Aaron 07:58
Jake looking at you just like help.
Brian 08:01
I have a picture of it actually. Maybe I'll put it up here. It's blurry enough so you can't really see him that well. He's a recruiter. Now if you know him, then go ahead and ask him the story. Anyway. So I saw him jump out, he comes out and he's freezing and he takes all the clothes and everything gets a change your clothes and you have to get next to the fire and warm up and do all your stuff you have like your broth and everything kind of figured out before you jump in. So, you can try and warm up as fast as possible because you're staying in the cold for a couple days after this. It's not like you're going straight back to a hotel or anything. So, I saw him do that. And I was like, Alright, here we go. So you have to, when you jump in, it's a big old like 20 by 20 square that they cut out, you jump in, you have your skis on, you have your rock on, you have all of your gear and your hat and everything. And you jump in and you got to get your skis and you got to climb out, pull yourself out. And then you got to run about 800 meters or so to the fire where the all your stuff is and then you got to change your clothes. So, I did all that. And by the time I got over to where my clothes were, you know dust you had a partner that was helping you like do stuff because you can't feel your fingers at that point. So, I started Dust Bunny was over there helping me take off all my stuff and get my warm stuff on.
Aaron 09:17
Worst person ever to I hope he's listening right now I hope you hear worst partner to have at this point of all the people in my Rolodex of like phone friends. If I had to put myself back in this scenario and you're like, Alright, pick these 100 people 101 was Dust Bunny. I was like, Well, I know which one it isn't. All right. Now what was the other 99?
Brian 09:36
Absolutely. So, I start taking off my jacket. I took off all the stuff on top, you know, my chest and my legs are kind of exposed. I took my pants down. And we're just naked here. I forgot to take off my socks first though. So, like, my pants are stuck in my socks. And I can't pull them off my socks. So, I have Dustin You take my freaking pants off, I can't do it. So, he's like down there at my ankles. Well, obviously, it's just like, dude, take off my bed. So, I was like, Yeah, he's like Fine, whatever. And obviously, it's freezing out there. But I think that's a graphic enough picture for you to imagine the struggle that we're going through at that point, you know, everything is frozen, and we're trying to just get it literally, my shoelace was, by the time I got over to the site, my shoelace was frozen outward, like to the side and like stick a spaghetti or something like that when it's dry. So, it was really cold out there, just to give you that kind of picture. But yeah, that was a really great time. After that, you know, we got a little bit closer, we became really good friends. So, I appreciated him being able to help me but that's kind of friends that you have whenever you go into Special Warfare.
Trent 10:55
Sounds like a lot closer.
Aaron 10:57
Yeah. Yeah, all Dust Buns. You know, the weird thing about that breaking terrestrial with me was it was the same thing was like negative 35. The initial thought I had when I hit that water, I was like, Oh, wait, this is actually a lot warmer than the outside air. Like just for a second. I was like, wait, this is this is a full 40 degrees warmer it is. And it was because I was like, Oh, wait a second that was like, Oh, god, no, get out of the water right now. It was just freezing is terrible. I was like, oh, man, it lasted for the briefest moment.
Brian 11:22
We're pretty coordinated swimmers too. And I felt like at that point with all the stuff on my skis, just like, I don't even know what I'm doing right now. I can't feel myself in the water. I can't. Like I'm just like a dog trying to paddle to the edge. So, it was a good time.
Aaron 11:38
It's like people don't understand how big those packs were to like we're using the regular Norwegian. They're Bergen's, like it's not a normal backpack. It's definitely not like something you'd find at REI. It's like the world's biggest pack just dragging you underneath the freeze and they don't give you any Marmot sleeping bag so it takes up about, I don't know, most of your backpack, at least the longest part of your upper back up to your head goes up faster.
Peaches 12:01
You also have the skis on to Yeah. So, I mean, you got to deal with that whole sticks and everything. Yeah.
Brian 12:10
So that's my Trent. You go ahead and bounce on to the next oldest person.
Trent 12:15
Well let's move on to Aaron.
Aaron 12:19
I think the next oldest person is you.
Trent 12:22
I'm in charge. You're in my world now jackass. This One's Ready team room today.
INTERNATIONAL WATERS
Aaron 12:39
That was very, very forceful I at the end. Well, this one's going to be good because Brian was involved in it, but it's the it's the anchor story. It depends on how you kind of view this one. This was either probably the most successful joint operation that happened our entire deployment or effectiveness International sort of symbol. So, either way you looked at it, it's, it was still a success.
Brian 13:06
It was in open International; nobody owned that section.
Aaron 13:11
Listen, I don't nobody had claimed that anchor and hundreds of years if I'm judging this correctly. So, they're there, Brian and I were, we were deployed together. It was a pretty quiet deployment except for about halfway through. So, we'd been going off to this one specific dive site and we were on Africa time unnamed. There was this dive site that we used to use where you could go and basically just tether up and then go dive, but you could go like 60 feet. So, for the non-divers out there, 60 feet, you can stay there for about an hour less than that you get more time on bottom. That's a ton of time. I had never understood why people liked diving like scuba diving before these events, because it was like you could see just as far as you could see. And it was clear blue and is warmer and like shorts and a T-shirt. Maybe like sometimes you die with like no t-shirt. You just died and it was fine. It was like beautiful, sparkling Water off the coast and the fish would just swim right up to you is crazy. So yeah, so it was near this place. Well, there was also an anchor, that was kind of how you marked it on the GPS to get there as you'd be like, yeah, you go to the anchor, and we used to use it for a bunch of stuff, we would train out there too. And we'd be like, you know, blacked out mask, and you would try to find things and you'd say, hey, put this three o'clock from the anchor or whatever. So, it was a huge reference point, obviously, was a big anchor. So long story short, we're on a on a Navy base, and our spaces, sort of on a deployment get like, show and tell like they'll bring people through the Oh, here's the PR team, and here's their gear in their kit. Sometimes it's cool. And sometimes it's like Washington Redskins cheerleaders, and sometimes it's just Congressmen or people that they want to bring in. Anyway, long story short, this thing happens. And one of the Navy Chiefs that was in the group is like, we mentioned that we had been diving the day before and that we saw an anchor and he goes, Oh, well, you know, it's a Navy tradition that every Navy base is anchored, there's a big anchor this displayed and it's a Navy Good luck thing and there's not one here. So literally, me being the person I am, I was like, Oh, you need an anchor, I'll get you an anchor. And we kind of started joking around about it in the in the middle of the team room and got started laughing Well, the tour leaves and you know as things go, like dudes go and work out we eat dinner late at night, my good friend Isaac kind of looks turns me He's like, think we could really get that anchor. I was like, I don't know, man, we got to start talking about with the boys. So, we get Kyle we get Brian we get the guys together. We're like, Hey, we're thinking about going to go to that anchor. You guys want to you guys want to take a look at that chain because there was a huge shipping chain, like those big links that you see like in museums and stuff that was on there, right and it like, we don't even know how far that chain went. We always joked about following that chain, like dusting it off. And like finding the ship that it was attached to because it was like it just kind of like, got buried, and we never like really dug anything up. Right? So, we're like, step one. Got to get off that chain. So, we're like, Alright, uh, yeah, we're like, hey, when you guys go out on the next, I've just got Look at that chain and see if it could break apart, you know, for reasons. So, they go and they start like they looked at it. They came back. They were like, I don't know it's too thick. We'd have to see if we could break it apart. So, we started having this discussion like EOD. Do you remember the EOD guys offering to blow it apart for us? Huh? Absolutely. You guys were like, yeah, because they were. They were divers too. And they were like, we kind of told them about it. They were like, Oh, no, we got underwater charges that will just blow it apart. We were like, wait for real. This is a real thing. Listen man, international waters. So, the EOD we bring the EOD guys out, they dive on it. While they're looking at it on their dive. They go out like my friend Isaac comes running in after the dive and he's like, Aaron, guess what? I was like what he was I'm not going to imitate Isaac southern Ohio accent and be like, Aaron, guess what? Like what are the big old so he's big all dip in big ol Lipper just a huge one. So, he's like, we're down there. playing around with this chain playing FF game. So, we go to pick it up to see if we can get the jaws around and guess what? It broke. And I was like what he was like it was just rusted basically disintegrated my hands. So, I was like, oh boys. We're a busy. So, we started having these conversations. Yeah, exactly. So, we started having these conversations over the next couple of days. And it's like, Alright, well, it's basic mission planning, like, Okay, well, how are we going to get it to the surface? So, we're like, well, we can have lift bags, we can do this other stuff. Isaac and I late one night around the ping pong table. We're like, what if we took zodiacs down and blew up zodiacs underneath it? Like basically lift back to the surface? Because then the problem is, how do you get it from the surface to wherever? Right so we had some Marine 53's that could sling load it. But we didn't have a way to get it like to be sling load because it's in the water, right? We're like, well, that's way too dangerous is tying it on the thing in the water. So, we got to find a platform for it. So, we're like, Alright, well, the dive team will take zodiacs underneath, filled up with air. Bring it to the surface. Poof Bob's your uncle. Now it's on the top Now you can sling load it.
Trent 18:01
So, this episode on like the History Channel or discovery, you guys definitely should have recorded all this.
Aaron 18:09
We have video So Brian and I will post videos and stuff and a couple sores or whatever, we have videos of the entire operation. So, we figured that piece out. We figured like it was going to work, but we couldn't like really practice any of this, by the way, like we just sort of like came up with this wacky plan. So, we had our army friends that were the Special Forces dudes down there from Fort Carson. They were the sling load experts; they were helping us at the sling load process. We had Navy and Air Force divers that went down and actually, like secured the lift bags and stuff and got everything ready there. Then I was on board the Marine helicopter that we actually recovered it and then we dropped it off on base to the Navy and their Seabees came and picked it up. So, it was like No kidding. Like all four services were represented this entire thing from all the planning and stuff. So, we get this whole thing plan like we're like here we go. Lift bags onto the zodiacs onto the sling loads onto the 50 threes, not flying over the town with the ancient anchor because that would be terrible on the base, the Seabees will pick it up with their crane and basically flatbed it back to where it's going to go. And then you know it'll get cleaned from there and put in there so we're like okay, so I will never forget leaving getting ready to leave like the air all the teams are together like we've briefed this meticulously a bunch of times like this is not like a cowboy operation. This is an actual brief, like no kidding multiple times. So, we get there the Commander, the deployed Commander, his first name is Blake, he's a CRO/STO, BG. So, BG looks at everybody and goes, Alright guys, well, here's the deal. You plan for it. You're good to prove this if it was a normal mission, either this is going to be the best story of all time. I'm about to get fired. Don't die. See you later.
Brian 19:50
Well, yeah, you forgot that night that we were staying we stayed up until like, I don't know one o'clock in the morning just cutting wood, inflating, making sure that tanks were Like, I remember me and Isaac were just in there in the shed that we had just like measuring stuff and trying to figure out like, Well, I think the anchors progress...
Aaron 20:09
We had to make a platform for the zodiacs to Yeah, yeah.
Brian 20:12
Because the plan was to put it under a platform...
Aaron 20:15
We figured out was like, Yeah, yeah, we're like, so wait a second. So, the Zodiac because of the way that it sat, because we actually, like looked at it. And we're like, because we had the measurements, we knew how big the anchor was, because we'd like googled it the crossbar and stuff. We're like, Yeah, but if it sits in there, like that, it could catch the Zodiac. Like if the anchor starts coming up it somehow catch it. So, we need a platform for it. So, we had to make a plywood platform that we took out that you blew the zodiacs up and then you sat it on top of and then you can see it in the video. Like you can see the platform that we built on the Zodiac. Oh man, but uh, so you know, spoiler alert, it was, it was a success and the guys that have deployed there have sent pictures back and shown us the anchor that sits outside of their Chief's Mess. I will say the one thing that I asked for the only thing I asked for, because I told the Chief I was like, because I was kind of like I'd get you an anchor. He was like, Well, what would you want to return? I was like, I will tell you what I want in return. I want to be an honorary Shellback. Like, if you guys don't know the Navy tradition of being a Shellback, that stuff is fantastic. When you cross the equator, you get to be a Shellback. If you cross the equator, and the light was a line of Meridian, whichever one is north south, if you cross that, that thing on that point, you get to be a Golden Shellback. They have a huge like party. It's just Google it. It's awesome. It's the best thing of all time. guy never came through for me though. Go figure. Really hurt my feelings. The other thing I have, that's actually a two-part story because I want to, I want to tell the story. Hey, are you guys familiar with the concept of a deployment girlfriend?
Trent 21:51
Nope. For the record
Aaron 21:55
So, in this sense, it's a fun game to play. So, the theory of Is the deployment/boyfriend or girlfriend of the deployment spouse, you are never allowed to speak to this person directly, you're never allowed to actually like acknowledge that they exist in somebody that you see in passing, right. But you have to refer to every time you see them at the chow hall, you're like, Oh, this was a chow hall date. Or if you see them at the gym, like the same gym that oh, we had a gym date, and it becomes a funny joke. The funniest part of this joke is part of the game is before you leave, keep in mind, you've never talked to this person before you leave, you have to break up with them in a public place, and make it seem heartfelt. So, this person that you have never talked to before, you have to walk up in front of the entire team and go, I'm sorry, it's not you. It's me. This could have never worked out. Our families don't get along and you have to make up a whole story and you have to break up with that person. So, it just so happens on the anchor mission. My deployment girlfriend, there was a Marine gunner that went by the callsign Gonzo, she was like top 10% CrossFit athlete in shape. And she used to just I mean, she was like, probably the best gunner that they had. And she also just ruled with an iron fist. She had like three or four like privates that worked for her. And she, if you were on her bird like nothing ever went wrong, she was she was the best. So, she was my deployment girlfriend. But shortly after this, I had to break up with her. And I use the anchor story like I thought we were going to be together forever after the anchor store. And she was like, I did all the work on the anchor, you did nothing. I was like, wow, hurtful in front of everybody.
Trent 23:20
That is fantastic.
Aaron 23:22
And that's and that's the entire story of my anchor.
Brian 23:25
So, the other thing that we didn't really get on in the hopefully we have some of it in the video, but I remember one of the boys were sitting off after we had done all the work and all the anchor was on the boat and everything on the platform. We're sitting off about 800 meters away from where the helicopter was. And if you don't know the 53's make a bad freaking rotor wash. So, these guys and the cable that was going to lift up the anchor is only like 15 feet. And that includes the part that goes into the helicopter. So, they're hovering like 10 feet above where the dudes are trying to go. So, I just remember like them trying to come in and hit the anchor without blowing it over. I think it was Dom that was on the other, the other end his Turp and Dom there just getting crushed by a 53.
Peaches 24:15
What year was this?
Aaron 24:19
Year 2012 I think it's 2013, 2012 what it was winter.
Trent 24:25
This is the real reason like why when your Commander gets NSTR like three days in a row, they start panicking and losing sleep. And that's nothing significant to report on like your daily update to your Commander, because they know that when you know, most of us around things, things happen.
Aaron 24:45
Here's your plug for story time two, but on the same deployment we had a real-life mermaid on the front of an entirely usable pirate ship that we used to lure people in with candy and hit with waterborne BGD. That's a story for another time.
Trent 24:59
I have to be like a whole other podcast. This is like Air Force story time on deployment we have just so you guys are aware this is obviously a low tempo deployment and on deployment to have extra wood for us to build like our team room for us to build whatever we want to build, that's just always hanging around because we have to build things and we actually have to use stuff for like T-Ducks or for platforms to send out zodiacs on C-130s and stuff like that. So, we actually have to use a wood but this one obviously low ops tempo, we had a bunch of wood that had been lying around for a long time so we got creative and you know, the rest of the story will tell him at a different time.
Peaches 25:36
I think that's better than building a random bar or something like that personally.
Aaron 25:43
Yeah, I like the multifunctional stuff, they had a three-level deck that you get I mean climbing tower on one side and all the decks were usable all the way up like those dudes just you get. You get enough time and space and enough dudes that all they want to do is go crush off you'll get some projects done quick.
AFGHANISTAN WOES
Trent 25:58
I think the best part about this as you out Navy’s, the Navy so I think that's, that's pretty impressive. So, I'm always a big fan of that. So, my story is more like a, it was my second rotation was pretty low tempo as well. And I just remember we went to this place there's like if you look at a map of Afghanistan, there's like a finger that pokes out into China. So somewhere in that region, my team went and it was just like one of those things where like, in a week's time like the weirdest stuff happened right so you guys remember watching Rambo III when you're younger, and people playing that game with the horse and that the sheepskin? I just wanted to bring out some crazy stuff. So, they play a game where they have like it's like a lamb carcass, and there's a bunch of dudes on horses and there's two circles separated like 100 meters apart. And they try to get the lamb carcass and drop it and the goal on the other side and these guys like beat the crap out of each other. So, I've been to Afghanistan before and I'm like okay, Rambo III was nonsense. And then we go to this place where they told us we're like the first Westerners to be there since like Alexander the Great, it was the middle of nowhere. We had to go for huge passes to get there. It was it was pretty exciting. But like, that's just like the first thing that happened. That was like, just weird. So, we show up we land in a river, which was like my first exfil into a river ever. It was awesome. And then the horse game happened on that trip all within less than a week we made a toilet first we blew up a plastic chair trying to make a toilet you know, the Charlie's like, I can cut a hole in this plastic chair. You know, like those super like, weak plastic chairs.
Peaches 27:55
know you get a bit big lots or at Sam’s? Yeah, exactly. They've got like the corners are slightly raised which makes them highly uncomfortable to sit in in any configuration
Trent 28:04
I can use det cord to perfectly make a hole in the bottom of this chair you know we had like a four-hour conversation but I blew the chair to pieces we ended up having to use a saw to cut out the bottom of the thing. I wish I could have just seen it just get obliterated it see your face, it just blows the entire thing apart. I blew up my right ear drum again because there was a the DISHKA that we had ad right next to my head. So, if I'm deaf and I look at your mouth law, I'm sorry, but that was the second time that that happened. There was a one eyed lady in this village Afghan lady with only one I saw lots of conversation surrounding that one of the terps almost died or one of our partner force guys almost died because they sealed their room and then they've lit a coal burning stove in there so like in the middle of night, like we all come running out our rooms were dragging this like Afghan out of his room and the Delta had to resuscitate them. And yeah, well and then the rock grenade we're sitting around the we're in this abandoned girl school. So, obviously the girl school was no longer in business. And we're sitting around a fire and some kids threw a rock over the wall. We didn't know it was rock, it hit me like in the collarbone of like the size of a grenade and it falls into the shadows of the fire. So, like we all dive out of the way, and we freaked out. horrifying. So, we run out there and find out find out it's kids and those kids are okay. Don't worry about it.
Aaron 29:25
I feel like you didn't need to say it if they were okay, but sort of like the implication.
Trent 29:30
They're fine. The guy that almost killed himself with the coal burning stove. I think he's probably gone. No, that's my guess. So yeah, the last thing is on exfil, the 47's come in. And these people like their way up north and it's cold and let the 13,000-foot peaks. And this on top of this house was like a whole bunch of hay. Right? And you know that they've been storing this stuff for ever. And this 47 comes in and flares right over hard. So, like, we're all getting out of there, we're driving the Hiluxs back up into the 47th. And we're leaving. This dude comes running out of his house like his year supply of hay for his horses is gone. It's all over the field. And, you know, one of our team guys ran out there and handed him a pile of cash. We hopped on the helicopters and left. So, it was just one of those weird things we're like in a week, like all the weirdest stuff that you could possibly imagine happen, at least for me. And yeah, it'll not to mention one of your guys. Do you guys know from England, Mole? I didn't have any like cold weather gear. Really. It was fun because so SOWT back in the day Weren't we didn't have the best funding or the best equipment. The best ideas or the best forecast. I'm sorry, I just missed you guys so much. It mostly saved my life because he had cold weather kit. And by the time we got back to Naray, which was like 80 degrees down there. I had a trash bag though sitting outside my room, and it was all my Gucci Arcteryx cold weather gear that I needed. A week ago, that would have been really nice but almost frozen. Death. It was exciting.
Aaron 31:07
I always love that I was loved when you like we ordered a bunch of this cold weather gear. This is in Vegas. We ordered a bunch of cold weather gear because we're like, Listen, we're going on a cold weather deployment. It gets cold while we're gone. Can we get this cold weather gear so we stomp on people's desks, JMac for months and months and months and we don't get it? They're like, Yeah, I just barely didn't come in. We get on a VTC with our sister troop, who at the time was in like Aviano and they were going somewhere else. And that the dude hops on the VTC. And he has like one of the jackets and I was like, y'all didn't order those yet. Where'd you get that jacket? He's like, he was like, exactly. All of them got on and they all had pieces and parts of the stuff that we ordered. We're like, what are you doing? And Guess whose team that was? It was Brian's team!
Brian 31:49
That's what happens to every single piece of kit. You see a dude that walks into the team room...
Aaron 31:54
We were so mad at you guys. Like you guys popped on those VTC's the only thing that ever made us madder was got on one-time Carrie was especially ornery because he was up for like 76 straight hours this one time. So, Carrie was all poopy face and are like bleep that out and post CO basically hops on the VTC and he's eating Italian pizza and he's got on one of our jackets because it was like slightly chilly like 55, BC lost his mind lost his mind. It was hilarious.
Brian 32:30
Those are the good old days.
Trent 32:32
One likes our Gucci gear the way the future is. I just hope that someday I can find someone that looks at me the way the PJ is look at Arcteryx.
Brian 32:38
It's the something for you guys. We used to be at 321st and a dude would walk into the team room with some new piece of Arcteryx gear or whatever you're like, dude, where'd you get that? I'd buy like a Mountain Hardware jacket or something sometimes walking with you and they're like, dude, I give those out right now like Yep, go down to supply and then sometimes
Aaron 33:00
People wouldn't even say anything. They would just get up and walk out. You just have to supply your dog.
Trent 33:35
Awesome. Well, I'm not going to bring up age again. But last and certainly not least as Peaches. And I'm sorry about all the jokes.
Peaches 33:45
Okay, so do you guys. I mean, I've got a couple that I'm mulling around in my head and we are we going deployment or do you want a kind of jackassery or a heartfelt story about one of our, our kick ass brothers.
Aaron 34:07
I was going to say I almost want to go number three, just because we've already covered the jackassery. And then that way we can we can lure him into Episode Two with your upcoming jackassery story.
TRAGIC CRASH
Peaches 34:16
All right, so this one. This one happened in 2003 September 26th. Happened over in the UK. If you're familiar with the area around Mildenhall. Then you'll know about the deadliest road in Britain, which is the A-1101 and what the A-1101 to one is an old forming road where the speed limit is 60ish, suggested miles an hour. And on each side of the road, there's no barrier, but on each side of the road, there's about 15-foot ditches and I mean they're big enough to fit cars. Generally, they have water in them as well. So, I had been I've only been over in country in country in the UK for about 20 days at that point, and became really good friends and I'm just going to call them RZ I think we know who I'm talking about. So, PJ hero among, among men, you know, so me and him kicked it off and became really good friends. And it was a night that was raining, really crappy rain. And I get a friend and I'm on I'm about to go out party and I get a frantic phone call from his girlfriend. For whatever reason. She said, hey, we've been in an accident. Come and help us. Tell me where you're at. And she told me and I mean, I'm right there. I'm hauling that shouldn't shoot. I don't know how fast but I was hauling. And when I get there, I see the wreck. I see RZ's car up against an Electricity pole, the electricity pole is on top of it. And it's starting to spark and you know, fire RZ is doing CPR on a five-year-old. And then I show up. And as I'm showing up, he hands off the five-year-old to me, and then goes back into that 15-foot ditch filled of water where the car was flipped upside down. And he was getting another child. So that happened. Or I'm sorry, not that happen. There's a three-year-old baby. He brings that baby out hands him to me. And then a nurse from Lakenheath showed up and she started helping me as well. RZ goes back into the car.
Aaron 36:55
Right so what time of day is this? Is it light out like what was it like evening so?
Peaches 36:58
It was it was gray hour. He was dusk going into you know where the transition gray hour. By the time we left it was pitch black but so RZ goes in for a third time grabs a I think 22 month old son might not bring her out and he starts working on her and we are swapping pay I mean just because we're getting we're smoked he's got a broken arm as he's doing CPR. So, what ended up happening or why it happened and I'm a shitty storyteller so...
Brian 37:44
Just why did he How did he have to get into the car because it was upside down in the ditch or and he had to open the door and like dive under or was it like every time I went in there.
Peaches 37:53
So, what happened is his car and in the lady's car, she Was overtaking passing somebody and didn't judge the distance well enough. And they smacked her car flipped over. She wasn't wearing her seatbelt she was ejected. The car landed on top of her. And the seven so Ivan went into the car originally because he, you know, as he's approaching it, he can't see that there's kids in the back. He just knows that there's a lady. So, he goes into the car upside down, you know, Windows or I guess they were I guess they were busted. They must have been busted because I don't know how he would have gotten in there. But he felt around the driver's seat, didn't feel anything, right. So, he comes out of the water. And he's like, Well, you know, I don't know where she's at. And someone told them, hey, go back in there, check the back seat, checks the back seat. Feels kids, you know, just starts pulling them out. So, yeah, that dude and we're going to have him on he you know he's already said he's going to come on and anything he'll talk about. I highly doubt he'll talk about this. But that dude is an absolute beast. I mean he is a machine, Broken arm just got in a car wreck his cars on fire, his girlfriend's hysterical. He's going in two cars, can't see doesn't know the status of the vehicle in terms of like, okay, is it going to blow up? Is it going to shift fall on top of me and I can't get out just to go get those kids and then works on him? It was it was incredible.
Aaron 40:02
Yeah, and then trying to get them back up. Like it doesn't even matter like you just walking. It's almost as it's like a scramble it's a hands and knees scramble up the side of those fens half the time.
Peaches 40:11
Yeah, I mean, they're sharp.
Aaron 40:13
Yeah, they really are. And we talk those uh, those roads like we're saying road but it's a true English road. So, if you've ever pulled into a parking space, it's entirely too small where you get to turn sideways. Imagine that in the parking space next to you and that's the road that you're traveling 60 miles on in opposite directions in the middle of the East Anglian like open farmland. It's just It's wild like that. That road is super dangerous.
Peaches 40:36
Yeah, it's pretty wild road to drive. For sure. So, I know I could probably bring down the humor level in the room.
Trent 40:46
Yeah, really killed the vibe there. I wish. I wish we had talked about it beforehand. I wasn't prepared. Okay.
Peaches 40:51
I'm going to put I'm going to put you on pause. Listen, if this ever happens to any of you out there anybody if ever, ever, especially in 18B if they ever lay Hey, man, you want to see some funny? Say? Yes. Say yes immediately. Don't think about it. Just get your stuff if he's like, Hey, you got to come with me just grab your bag. Leave your bag. I don't care. I'll pull it up and this is 2009. This is Iraq. And we are in an urban shanty complex. I mean, so you think, think Black Hawk Down in the movie, you know, it's just it's a rat maze of just you have nowhere idea where you're going. So, I have an AC-130 overhead. I have them sparkle, the front of our patrol because we're going to go hit a house instead of me being next to the Commander and trying to tell the point, man, hey, okay, turn left now or continue straight because we would have pass it already. So, I get up front, I started leading, and I'm just following the IR sparkle to our target. And so, kudos to the AC-130 guys, as always, they're always top notch. The SF dudes and I'm with the ODA guys, they go Hey, man, you want to see some funny stuff? I bet you will never ever...
Trent 42:10
Just go with him. Okay, it's going to be the time Hey, like hit record on everyone's recording.
Aaron 42:14
Make sure know what Yeah, and you're on your memory. Yeah, not on your phone. No, no record ever.
Peaches 42:21
Well, this one's This one's fairly benign, but it but it was funny because I mean no kidding, you will never see this again. So, as we approach there is a kind of, you know, white picket fence if you will, for lack of better terms. And on the other side of it, the AC-130 told me Hey, I've got a, you know, MAM, military age male here, here, right. And one was right over the fence. And so, the guys are creeping over the fence to hold to lock those guys down. And one of the one of the SF guys is locked down, the guy woke up and he just kind of oh my God, you know, right. And that's when the SF guy was like, hey dude, watch this. And he takes his blanket and starts tucking them in, tuck him into bed. And he's, you know, making sure it's all nice and tidy. You know? And then he took his forehead anyway. Or just gave a forehead kiss. It was just like, Okay. We, you know, did our call out and went into the house.
Trent 43:34
Man, that is just the most absolute favorite. Can you put yourself just for a second just for a second? So, there you are. You're in the middle of your courtyard, you're just catching the nap by fence. Some six-foot-tall presumably jacked dude with full sleeve tattoos. Starts tucking you in and full tactical here. I just be like, take me home Santa Claus. Here we go.
Brian 43:56
Like and see is green and you can smell Copenhagen come out of his breath.
Aaron 44:13
Don't say anything. What are you doing?
Trent 44:25
When money fails, that's what it goes to. Yeah. That's how you make friends on any team.
Peaches 44:31
You got them, orange Rip Its, all those little orange ones. And those are those heaters getting to me.
Trent 44:37
I said, Yeah, we'll save that for another time. All right. Thanks for bringing us back up Peaches. And there's not a lot to wrap up. But I feel like it would be wrong to not send it over to Brian at the very end, to bring this all together and to make a point about this that relates to training somehow and makes this worthwhile to watch. No pressure takes it away. Trent started this out so strong. There's no way you could screw this yet.
Brian 45:04
Again, this episode is mostly adlib, he didn't tell me that I was going to wrap it up. But I will go through a synopsis of every single person's story just to make sure that you guys got it clear. The big thing and the big takeaway is, you know, you're going to beat the best friends of your life, whether you're going through INDOC or throughout the teams and stuff, we all have these stories that we share together, you know, just like I got close enough with Dust Bunny to, you know, warrant a couple lifetimes there. And we still text each other to this day. And then you know, Aaron, with the anchor, all these things that problem solving, you know, you leave you guys with time and resources to try and figure out things and Commander that maybe want something you know, and obviously, Aaron that wants something that but didn't, didn't get it the Shellback thing but we'll figure it out upset about that. And I really one of our biggest things is problem solving right there. So, I'm going to link that back to problem solving specifically, because that was one of the coolest things that we did and integrating our sister services into this big task, it ended up being a really big thing, honestly. And when you see the pictures of this 2000 pound anchor flying through the air, that was a really awesome moment for like all the people that were involved in that, including the EOD guys, even though they're kind of butthurt that we ended up picking up the anchor and not them. So, between that and then all the things that happened on trans deployment when you go out with the any of the Army guys or with Mole, I mean, he's the kind of gets into stuff sometimes. He's an interesting dude, too. But when you go out and do stuff with those guys, especially in an unexplored territory, our proclivity is to go out there and explore and see what kind of things we get ourselves into. Exactly what Trent ended up happening in that dark week of his life. Or like we've got to know however you want to look at it. So, a lot of times
Trent 46:53
We'll just watch Rambo III, it'll make sense.
Brian 47:02
I've seen it at one point in my life. I don't know, it was probably a marathon on deployment was really bad. Yeah. All right. So you find these guys that are at the same mindset as you and I think adventure and just ambition to go out there and see what we can do and explore with the resources we have is something that we all share in common in Special Ops community as a whole. And then Jared, you know, that awesome story that he brought up with RZ. And like he said, we're going to, we're going to talk to him and bring him on, he's probably not going to share that thing because it some of those things are obviously difficult to talk about, if you can remember them that vividly. Jared obviously has a lot of practice talking about the things that have happened and being able to kind of control himself when he was talking about it. But you can imagine that it was a real difficult time for a long time dealing with people that are that age in those circumstances. It could be difficult. So, between that and then change it over to the darker side or the lighter side of things. And I guess darker side with those guys that are too late both right in the pocket darker side talking about those dudes tucking in the guys who were raiding the house. So yeah, all together, the biggest thing that is in common here is we're going to share these stories. You know, for the rest of our lives, we all have these in common and we can just pick this up from out of nowhere. We didn't talk about it in the stories that we were going to tell or any of that kind of stuff we didn't like, hint towards what we're going to talk about but we all have a shared experiences, you know, we can all throw in like, Oh yeah, that's what it was like, or this is what it was like or you know, any of that kind of stuff. So, it's good to be able to have those friends that you can talk to you for the rest of your life and talk about the old days. And you won't find that group outside of Special Warfare. If you go back to you know, people that are working in Best Buy or somewhere else. Maybe they have stories, but it's not going to be probably as fun as the things that we were talking about. So, again, appreciate you guys listening to the podcast, we're going to bring out more people for story time for sure, people that we've been deployed with people that we know from past duty assignments. If you know anybody, or you can think of anybody that you really want to bring on, we already brought JMac, I want to talk to him and I'm going to bring them on again for another story time. But another guy that you guys want us to bring on, just go ahead and shout out and we'll try and get him on see if they have time. But again, make sure you guys go check out our partners, our newest partner, which is the Out of Regs Pomade it's all natural. I use it even on my son while he's going out so and he's two years old. So, if you're, you know,
Aaron 49:45
Flyest is two-year-old on the block? Yeah, exactly.
Brian 49:48
It's looking so good as collared shirt on just a little, little two-year old’s checking them out. But if you want to a natural hairstyling product, go ahead and check out Out of Regs promo code ONESREADY. Is the promo code for all of the people that we're kind of partnered with. Again, we don't make any money, we just want to get you guys discounts on people that are trying to better themselves better their family and help you guys by creating a good product. So, go ahead and check those guys out. Additionally, make sure you guys leave us a review five stars on Apple podcasts, and then check out the shirts. We're going to be getting flags in real soon, so make sure you're on the lookout for that it's going to be the open water flags again. So, check out the website. If there's anything else that we can help you guys with, or anything. We're here for you guys, as always, hit us up anytime, and we appreciate you listening. Alright. Appreciate you guys and take care.
TLDR: THE EXPERIENCES WE’VE HAD ARE ALL OVER THE PLACE. GET ON TEAM AND CREATE YOUR OWN RADICAL STORIES.
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