WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.200 This episode is sponsored by yet another company 00:00:02.200 --> 00:00:05.440 that I truly stand behind and that is Levels. 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:08.259 And Levels is going to be offering you, the Behind 00:00:08.259 --> 00:00:10.980 the Shield podcast audience, a discount that 00:00:10.980 --> 00:00:13.099 I will tell you about at the end of this introduction. 00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:16.859 Now, before I even dive into what Levels does, 00:00:17.100 --> 00:00:20.600 when I had a conversation with their CEO and 00:00:20.600 --> 00:00:23.920 founder, Josh Clemente, he underlined such an 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:27.320 important topic. So many of us rely on visits 00:00:27.320 --> 00:00:30.460 to our physicians to tell us how we are doing, 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:34.009 and that is so backward. I am an absolute believer 00:00:34.009 --> 00:00:36.990 in putting autonomy back into the hands of the 00:00:36.990 --> 00:00:39.869 individual so they can take care of their own 00:00:39.869 --> 00:00:42.950 health. Now, what Levels does is it gives us 00:00:42.950 --> 00:00:45.850 the metrics so we can see exactly how everything 00:00:45.850 --> 00:00:49.409 is internally. So they help people improve their 00:00:49.409 --> 00:00:51.689 health through continuous glucose monitoring, 00:00:52.009 --> 00:00:55.509 comprehensive lab tests, and metabolic coaching. 00:00:56.159 --> 00:00:58.539 Now through their three levels that they offer, 00:00:58.659 --> 00:01:00.960 they have programs that focus on weight loss, 00:01:01.259 --> 00:01:04.939 heart health, and glucose stability. I've now 00:01:04.939 --> 00:01:07.500 been through this program twice, and I'll kind 00:01:07.500 --> 00:01:10.159 of illustrate what it will look like. So you 00:01:10.159 --> 00:01:12.200 make an initial consultation with your levels 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:15.879 coach. You wear a continuous blood sugar monitor 00:01:15.879 --> 00:01:20.120 for one month. You'll complete a lab panel, and 00:01:20.120 --> 00:01:23.239 I did it through Quest Diagnostics. A clinician 00:01:23.239 --> 00:01:26.340 with levels will then analyze your results and 00:01:26.340 --> 00:01:29.439 give you an action plan. That's when you can 00:01:29.439 --> 00:01:32.519 then start hitting your own health goals and 00:01:32.519 --> 00:01:35.739 in real time track your own progress. And then 00:01:35.739 --> 00:01:38.120 depending on the level you subscribe to, there's 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:40.879 also a second blood work so you can now see how 00:01:40.879 --> 00:01:44.519 you're doing six months later. Now by combining 00:01:44.519 --> 00:01:48.700 AI data, AI powered insights and human coaching 00:01:48.700 --> 00:01:52.870 together, 80 % of Levels members improve their 00:01:52.870 --> 00:01:56.370 biomarkers. Now, as I mentioned, Levels is offering 00:01:56.370 --> 00:01:58.650 you, the audience of the Behind the Shield podcast, 00:01:59.209 --> 00:02:03.129 $100 off your first order if you use the promo 00:02:03.129 --> 00:02:08.250 code SHIELD at levels .com. And if you're interested 00:02:08.250 --> 00:02:11.229 in getting Levels for your department, email 00:02:11.229 --> 00:02:14.830 Josh Clemente, the founder and CEO of Levels, 00:02:14.830 --> 00:02:20.240 at josh at levels .com. And if you want to hear 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:23.060 the origin story and so much more about this 00:02:23.060 --> 00:02:26.020 incredible company, listen to my interview with 00:02:26.020 --> 00:02:30.599 CEO and founder Josh Clemente on episode 1159 00:02:30.599 --> 00:02:34.719 of the Behind the Shield podcast. Welcome to 00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:36.419 the Behind the Shield podcast. As always, my 00:02:36.419 --> 00:02:38.219 name is James Geering, and this week it is my 00:02:38.219 --> 00:02:40.539 absolute honor to welcome back onto the show 00:02:40.539 --> 00:02:43.860 special forces and special operations leader. 00:02:44.479 --> 00:02:47.159 Executive Director of the Bird's Eye View Project 00:02:47.159 --> 00:02:50.919 and the COO of Tip of the Spear Landmine Removal, 00:02:51.039 --> 00:02:54.800 Chris Robichaud. Now, if you missed my first 00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:58.139 conversation with Robi, it was episode 824 of 00:02:58.139 --> 00:03:00.659 the Behind the Shield podcast. In this second 00:03:00.659 --> 00:03:03.419 conversation, we discuss a host of new topics 00:03:03.419 --> 00:03:06.240 from his boots on the ground experience in the 00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:10.180 Ukraine conflict, assisting the locals with landmine 00:03:10.180 --> 00:03:13.719 removal. Our shared experience on the 7X Human 00:03:13.719 --> 00:03:16.860 Performance Project, the book and documentary 00:03:16.860 --> 00:03:20.080 that spawned from that, the exciting fundraising 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:24.379 events Bird's Eye View Project has in 2026, the 00:03:24.379 --> 00:03:26.740 incredible work Sons of the Flag is doing to 00:03:26.740 --> 00:03:29.319 help our burn -injured first responders, and 00:03:29.319 --> 00:03:32.599 so much more. Now, before we get to this incredible 00:03:32.599 --> 00:03:35.300 conversation, as I say every week, please just 00:03:35.300 --> 00:03:38.259 take a moment. Go to whichever app you listen 00:03:38.259 --> 00:03:41.939 to this on, subscribe to the show, Leave feedback 00:03:41.939 --> 00:03:45.860 and leave a rating. Every single five -star rating 00:03:45.860 --> 00:03:48.939 truly does elevate this podcast, therefore making 00:03:48.939 --> 00:03:52.620 it easier for others to find. And this is a free 00:03:52.620 --> 00:03:57.379 library of almost 1 ,200 episodes now. So all 00:03:57.379 --> 00:04:00.639 I ask in return is that you help share these 00:04:00.639 --> 00:04:03.659 incredible men and women's stories so I can get 00:04:03.659 --> 00:04:06.860 them to every single person on planet Earth who 00:04:06.860 --> 00:04:10.039 needs to hear them. So with that being said... 00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:15.139 I welcome back onto the show, Chris Roby Robichaud. 00:04:15.319 --> 00:04:37.209 Enjoy. Well, Roby, I want to start by saying, 00:04:37.250 --> 00:04:40.370 firstly, it was amazing to see you again a couple 00:04:40.370 --> 00:04:42.949 weeks ago in Dallas, and second, to welcome you 00:04:42.949 --> 00:04:45.269 back onto the Behind the Shield podcast today. 00:04:45.949 --> 00:04:48.629 Thank you so much, James. It was such a gift 00:04:48.629 --> 00:04:51.350 to be able to see you and the whole crew from 00:04:51.350 --> 00:04:56.050 that 7X journey and being invited back. I guess 00:04:56.050 --> 00:04:59.029 I didn't screw it up the first time, or you're 00:04:59.029 --> 00:05:00.769 just really hurting for guests, probably the 00:05:00.769 --> 00:05:02.800 latter. I was going to say probably the second 00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:04.519 part. Yeah, I get it. It's hard to pull somebody 00:05:04.519 --> 00:05:06.639 in over the holidays. No, I'm honored, man. Thank 00:05:06.639 --> 00:05:09.660 you, James, for the invitation. So where on planet 00:05:09.660 --> 00:05:12.899 Earth are we finding you today? Yeah, so Northeast 00:05:12.899 --> 00:05:15.420 Ohio. I'm looking out the window right now. All 00:05:15.420 --> 00:05:17.699 the snow has melted, unfortunately. We had a 00:05:17.699 --> 00:05:21.699 beautiful Christmas snowball, you know, one of 00:05:21.699 --> 00:05:23.379 the things you shake up. And it was really nice 00:05:23.379 --> 00:05:26.220 for weeks. And now it's just a muddy mess with 00:05:26.220 --> 00:05:32.090 muddy dogs. And it's just dreary outside. But, 00:05:32.090 --> 00:05:34.990 yeah, northeast Ohio is where we're at. Beautiful. 00:05:35.230 --> 00:05:38.730 Yeah, we're going to have sunshine and warm days 00:05:38.730 --> 00:05:40.350 for the next few days. It's going to get colder, 00:05:40.470 --> 00:05:42.430 I think, in a few days' time. What's colder? 00:05:43.610 --> 00:05:47.370 Like 50s in the days and, you know, like 30s 00:05:47.370 --> 00:05:52.009 at night. Unbearable. Unacceptable. Arctic. All 00:05:52.009 --> 00:05:54.370 right. Well, as an icebreaker, I think, because 00:05:54.370 --> 00:05:56.810 we'll get to 7X and Bird's Eye View and all the 00:05:56.810 --> 00:06:00.480 other things. An area that I'm not very well 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:02.860 versed in, I've talked a lot about, you know, 00:06:02.860 --> 00:06:04.779 I've had guests from, you know, Iraq, Afghanistan, 00:06:05.160 --> 00:06:07.420 Gaza, some of these other conflicts that we see 00:06:07.420 --> 00:06:10.399 towards the Middle East, but the Ukrainian conflict. 00:06:10.639 --> 00:06:12.300 And I can't remember if we even talked about 00:06:12.300 --> 00:06:14.019 it last time, because I want to say it was before 00:06:14.019 --> 00:06:17.339 it kicked off. So if you wouldn't mind, kind 00:06:17.339 --> 00:06:20.899 of give us a backstory politically of how this 00:06:20.899 --> 00:06:22.959 even happened. And then I'd love to kind of hear 00:06:22.959 --> 00:06:25.160 about some of the humanitarian stuff you and 00:06:25.160 --> 00:06:30.040 your colleagues have been doing. Yeah. OK, so 00:06:30.040 --> 00:06:33.019 I am the chief operations officer of Tip of the 00:06:33.019 --> 00:06:36.740 Spear Landmine Removal, the 501C nonprofit. And 00:06:36.740 --> 00:06:40.720 then we also have a sister NGO, non -government 00:06:40.720 --> 00:06:43.480 organization registered in Ukraine, also called 00:06:43.480 --> 00:06:46.519 Tip of the Spear Landmine Removal. So it's two 00:06:46.519 --> 00:06:49.939 organizations, but one being established in Ukraine 00:06:49.939 --> 00:06:53.000 and being recognized as an NGO just kind of opens 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:57.990 up more doors. So, yeah, tip of the spear, landmine 00:06:57.990 --> 00:07:01.110 removal, as the name title implies, founded by 00:07:01.110 --> 00:07:07.810 this amazing, brave Ryan Hendrickson, just superhuman. 00:07:09.269 --> 00:07:11.970 After having been blown up, nearly losing his 00:07:11.970 --> 00:07:14.069 leg in Afghanistan many years ago, well, not 00:07:14.069 --> 00:07:17.850 too many years ago in Afghanistan, his drive 00:07:17.850 --> 00:07:21.470 to. continue to help people uh ukraine came up 00:07:21.470 --> 00:07:24.730 and he found a really really impactful mission 00:07:24.730 --> 00:07:27.689 for himself there removing land mines for the 00:07:27.689 --> 00:07:32.290 villages he was actually there um with a church 00:07:32.290 --> 00:07:35.449 group uh running uh elderly out of the combat 00:07:35.449 --> 00:07:37.910 zone while bringing humanitarian supplies in 00:07:37.910 --> 00:07:42.029 and while he was there he saw some of the contamination 00:07:42.029 --> 00:07:46.639 by elements uh explosive remnants of war. We 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:49.540 call it ERWs. That's the industry term. And so 00:07:49.540 --> 00:07:52.060 while he was there, he just started chucking 00:07:52.060 --> 00:07:54.560 minefields out of our mines out of the way. You 00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:56.620 know, there's probably more calculated than that. 00:07:56.699 --> 00:08:00.019 But with his expertise, he, and then he found 00:08:00.019 --> 00:08:01.980 that there was an incredible need for it. So 00:08:01.980 --> 00:08:04.680 he found a tip to spare landmine removal. And 00:08:04.680 --> 00:08:09.579 from his vision, we've just really focused on 00:08:09.579 --> 00:08:11.759 what we call humanitarian demining. That's not 00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:14.660 a doctrinal term necessarily. Or if it is, it 00:08:14.660 --> 00:08:17.800 doesn't describe what we do because we do without 00:08:17.800 --> 00:08:22.000 money, meaning without charging fees, we focus 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:25.500 on the humanitarian side. So parts of Ukraine 00:08:25.500 --> 00:08:31.519 that have been liberated or under Ukraine control 00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:35.080 or repatriated is a term that's thrown around. 00:08:35.679 --> 00:08:38.980 It's mostly farm fields. And we go out and help 00:08:38.980 --> 00:08:44.500 the farmers get back to their land. to uncontaminate, 00:08:44.500 --> 00:08:47.279 I guess, all the minefields. And I don't say 00:08:47.279 --> 00:08:50.460 all the minefields. We are just scratching the 00:08:50.460 --> 00:08:55.580 surface. But it is a Herculean effort. But it's 00:08:55.580 --> 00:08:59.399 a monster. It's huge by different accounts, the 00:08:59.399 --> 00:09:02.500 minefield situation there. Well, it's the biggest 00:09:02.500 --> 00:09:05.740 minefield in the world. Both sides have been 00:09:05.740 --> 00:09:10.559 employing mine warfare. And both sides... haven't 00:09:10.559 --> 00:09:13.120 really registered or recorded where they put 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:16.340 the mines in the minefields the only commonality 00:09:16.340 --> 00:09:20.720 is they're using the same ones um but uh it's 00:09:20.720 --> 00:09:23.500 it takes a lot of battlefield detective work 00:09:23.500 --> 00:09:28.620 and i think that's why we're relatively not relatively 00:09:28.620 --> 00:09:32.340 we're quite effective because finding the minefields 00:09:32.340 --> 00:09:36.820 is tough without a record right And, you know, 00:09:36.840 --> 00:09:40.299 U .S. doctrine and NATO and the Commonwealth, 00:09:40.500 --> 00:09:42.980 like, you know, we record, we do everything we 00:09:42.980 --> 00:09:47.220 can to mitigate the effects of mine warfare after 00:09:47.220 --> 00:09:50.419 hostilities. A lot of our mines are sophisticated 00:09:50.419 --> 00:09:53.240 and they blow up on their own. They detonate, 00:09:53.240 --> 00:09:56.580 self -detonate. But not these. These are old 00:09:56.580 --> 00:10:01.519 Soviet style mines and both sides use them and 00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:03.559 they're out there. So I'm sorry, back to the 00:10:03.559 --> 00:10:06.519 battlefield detective work. We are special operations 00:10:06.519 --> 00:10:08.940 veterans for the most part and, of course, bomb 00:10:08.940 --> 00:10:11.559 disposal or EOD, explosive ordnance disposal 00:10:11.559 --> 00:10:15.919 professionals. And I think you really have to 00:10:15.919 --> 00:10:18.580 have a military context going into it, not only 00:10:18.580 --> 00:10:21.379 because of mine warfare, but you have to put 00:10:21.379 --> 00:10:24.419 yourself in the mindset or through the view of 00:10:24.419 --> 00:10:27.059 the person that emplaced the mines. In other 00:10:27.059 --> 00:10:30.559 words, what were they trying to achieve? If I 00:10:30.559 --> 00:10:33.620 was operating in this area, whether I'm an aggressor 00:10:33.620 --> 00:10:37.360 or a defender, and I'm going to put in a minefield, 00:10:37.419 --> 00:10:39.980 where am I going to put it? And then you reverse 00:10:39.980 --> 00:10:42.580 engineer that to why am I going to put it? And 00:10:42.580 --> 00:10:43.960 then you kind of go a little bit further back, 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:46.240 like what resources would be available to me 00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:48.240 to put the minefield in, whether it was mechanical 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:51.860 or manual labor. And then how does that tie into 00:10:51.860 --> 00:10:55.179 the grander picture of a layered defense, rather 00:10:55.179 --> 00:10:58.419 on a large scale or even just, you know, a couple 00:10:58.419 --> 00:11:01.379 hundred acres of a... The farmer's field. And 00:11:01.379 --> 00:11:03.519 so you have to do a lot of that. And what we'll 00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:07.659 do, I guess, relatively typical is you interview 00:11:07.659 --> 00:11:10.759 the villagers and the farmers. Now we're going 00:11:10.759 --> 00:11:15.220 back three and a half years now. And so, but 00:11:15.220 --> 00:11:17.000 you have to ask people. So, you know, back when 00:11:17.000 --> 00:11:18.639 the mines were put in here, what do you remember 00:11:18.639 --> 00:11:22.860 seeing? Where do you not go anymore? Where through 00:11:22.860 --> 00:11:25.860 the years have you guys determined that this 00:11:25.860 --> 00:11:28.549 is not a place to go anymore? Sometimes there's 00:11:28.549 --> 00:11:31.389 makeshift minefield signs, warning signs for 00:11:31.389 --> 00:11:33.769 neighbors and all. And then a lot of time for 00:11:33.769 --> 00:11:35.929 farmer's fields, it's just been overgrown, right? 00:11:36.009 --> 00:11:38.629 It's just absolute mess because it's fertile 00:11:38.629 --> 00:11:41.450 ground, direct sunlight. It's in one of the most 00:11:41.450 --> 00:11:47.070 fertile soils in Europe. So weeds will overtake 00:11:47.070 --> 00:11:49.049 the farm field. So that's pretty obvious where 00:11:49.049 --> 00:11:51.610 farmers haven't been going. But that provides 00:11:51.610 --> 00:11:55.950 another challenge is mine detecting in thicket. 00:11:56.750 --> 00:12:00.009 Which is incredibly difficult. So anyways, you 00:12:00.009 --> 00:12:02.730 put yourself in the eye of the person in place. 00:12:02.769 --> 00:12:05.529 You conduct your human intelligence by interviewing 00:12:05.529 --> 00:12:07.309 people around the area. And then that kind of 00:12:07.309 --> 00:12:09.549 adds to your gunkulator, right, as you're making 00:12:09.549 --> 00:12:14.149 an assessment. And then if you do come upon evidence 00:12:14.149 --> 00:12:17.590 of a mine strike, like a vehicle in the middle 00:12:17.590 --> 00:12:19.250 of the field that's been destroyed or abandoned, 00:12:19.590 --> 00:12:26.139 blowing up animals. By now, it's probably grown 00:12:26.139 --> 00:12:27.899 over, but in the early days, that was a relatively 00:12:27.899 --> 00:12:32.360 easier thing to see. Or if you find a defensive 00:12:32.360 --> 00:12:36.399 position or artillery gun positions that have 00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:39.340 long been abandoned, but if this was a defensive 00:12:39.340 --> 00:12:43.299 trench network or a platoon position or a company 00:12:43.299 --> 00:12:46.620 position or tied in through maybe up to a battalion 00:12:46.620 --> 00:12:49.460 position, then you can really start playing, 00:12:49.500 --> 00:12:53.320 okay, so I'm a lieutenant or I'm a captain. and 00:12:53.320 --> 00:12:55.879 i'm told to defend this bridge head this bridge 00:12:55.879 --> 00:12:59.519 area or this part of a river or this road intersection 00:12:59.519 --> 00:13:02.980 or other parts that would have a tactical advantage 00:13:02.980 --> 00:13:05.779 how do i defend it right and so that's where 00:13:05.779 --> 00:13:08.080 you got to rely on your experience of yours in 00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:10.000 the military whatever whoever's on the ground 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:11.840 and then you're like okay well i'd probably put 00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:14.000 anti -personnel mines here i'd put anti -tank 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:17.240 mines out there i'd do a mixed thing here the 00:13:17.240 --> 00:13:19.600 density of the mine field when it might be kind 00:13:19.600 --> 00:13:21.360 of spread out or it might be closer together 00:13:21.360 --> 00:13:25.590 meaning the mine to mine because density plays 00:13:25.590 --> 00:13:27.289 into something called sympathetic detonations 00:13:27.289 --> 00:13:28.789 where one mine goes off and then another one 00:13:28.789 --> 00:13:30.289 goes off. So you don't want that. So they got 00:13:30.289 --> 00:13:33.669 to be, then you got to look at like the manufacturer's 00:13:33.669 --> 00:13:36.850 data, right? So like either even old Soviet or 00:13:36.850 --> 00:13:39.710 more current Russian doctrine. Okay, well, they 00:13:39.710 --> 00:13:41.610 don't, they put the mines in a pattern. It's 00:13:41.610 --> 00:13:44.389 like this, but did they use doctrine? And how 00:13:44.389 --> 00:13:46.809 does that tie into terrain? And how do you reinforce 00:13:46.809 --> 00:13:49.470 existing terrain that's going to canalize? And 00:13:49.470 --> 00:13:51.190 then you would mine that area. So it's a lot 00:13:51.190 --> 00:13:54.009 of battlefield detective work. And then the other 00:13:54.009 --> 00:13:58.250 part is using drones. Now, that's become nearly 00:13:58.250 --> 00:14:01.350 impossible these days in Ukraine because the 00:14:01.350 --> 00:14:05.950 airspace is incredibly controlled, which it should 00:14:05.950 --> 00:14:09.169 be. And it's just even in these past few years, 00:14:09.190 --> 00:14:13.129 electronic warfare in the efforts to jam the 00:14:13.129 --> 00:14:17.889 drones, whether jamming their signals for their 00:14:17.889 --> 00:14:22.750 full mission videos, FMVs. or just piloting them 00:14:22.750 --> 00:14:26.690 is a real challenge. And to Ukraine's credit, 00:14:26.830 --> 00:14:28.950 it takes a lot of deconfliction to get permission 00:14:28.950 --> 00:14:32.169 to fly a drone. And then, you know, they'll tell 00:14:32.169 --> 00:14:33.610 you, yeah, you can throw up a drone and then, 00:14:33.669 --> 00:14:35.889 you know, it's a country, you know, and they 00:14:35.889 --> 00:14:38.389 have laws, not unlike our own FAA. You know, 00:14:38.389 --> 00:14:40.149 you can only go up to a certain altitude and 00:14:40.149 --> 00:14:42.009 you're always at the risk of losing your drone. 00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:45.639 Because it could catch a bandwidth of some electronic 00:14:45.639 --> 00:14:48.539 warfare that's just going to Z it out or otherwise 00:14:48.539 --> 00:14:53.440 just fry it or cancel the operator pilot, remote 00:14:53.440 --> 00:14:56.440 pilot to the aircraft. And it'll just interrupt 00:14:56.440 --> 00:14:59.919 that signal and crush it down. So that part of 00:14:59.919 --> 00:15:03.000 it is more challenging from a humanitarian point 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:06.580 of view. With our donations at Tip the Spear 00:15:06.580 --> 00:15:12.509 Landmine Removal, a typical mission. is we'll 00:15:12.509 --> 00:15:16.370 raise money, raise enough money to buy a bunch 00:15:16.370 --> 00:15:20.370 of these really, really world -class high -end 00:15:20.370 --> 00:15:23.889 metal, excuse me, mine detectors. And then a 00:15:23.889 --> 00:15:27.470 couple of duffel bags worth of them go over with 00:15:27.470 --> 00:15:31.649 us and we distribute them to their emergency 00:15:31.649 --> 00:15:36.190 services, James, not to their military. And that's 00:15:36.190 --> 00:15:40.169 a big distinction because the donor base is... 00:15:40.519 --> 00:15:43.740 in large part stimulated by the idea that it's 00:15:43.740 --> 00:15:46.899 a humanitarian demining. And we stay true to 00:15:46.899 --> 00:15:52.220 that. We're apolitical. We don't want to, you 00:15:52.220 --> 00:15:55.080 just alienate a lot of donors and it impedes 00:15:55.080 --> 00:15:58.960 our mission for humanitarian demining if our 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:01.820 mine detectors were going to the military or 00:16:01.820 --> 00:16:04.440 the training we provide or the advising that 00:16:04.440 --> 00:16:07.379 we give was to the military. Well, you're not 00:16:07.379 --> 00:16:09.720 apolitical anymore, and you're not humanitarian 00:16:09.720 --> 00:16:14.679 anymore. You're in a mobility facet of ground 00:16:14.679 --> 00:16:18.399 warfare, and that's just not our business. So 00:16:18.399 --> 00:16:22.600 working with their emergency services, that's 00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:26.220 our focus. That's our target market population 00:16:26.220 --> 00:16:28.620 is with their emergency services, and they're 00:16:28.620 --> 00:16:31.899 the ones tasked with this just overwhelming. 00:16:32.870 --> 00:16:35.110 overwhelming task and of course it's a it's a 00:16:35.110 --> 00:16:38.870 country at war right so how much if you put yourself 00:16:38.870 --> 00:16:41.590 as a ukrainian decision maker or a parliament 00:16:41.590 --> 00:16:46.590 member or even down to the obelisks or the county 00:16:46.590 --> 00:16:50.750 or the states within um where where do you put 00:16:50.750 --> 00:16:53.309 your assets like where where would you do your 00:16:53.309 --> 00:16:56.710 demining you know are you preparing for an offensive 00:16:56.710 --> 00:17:01.970 operation into a defense a russian defense well 00:17:01.970 --> 00:17:06.960 then You know, you're still at war. And as we 00:17:06.960 --> 00:17:09.559 were talking before we started recording, I'm 00:17:09.559 --> 00:17:13.000 interested to see, well, I'm eager to see peace 00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:16.819 in the area, for sure. But in terms of volunteerism, 00:17:16.839 --> 00:17:20.059 and more specifically to this humanitarian demining 00:17:20.059 --> 00:17:23.880 that I just kind of etched out, I'm curious to 00:17:23.880 --> 00:17:26.079 see how that's going to affect the mine clearing 00:17:26.079 --> 00:17:30.640 strategy. Not strategy in a military context, 00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:34.009 but in a decision making. And organizationally, 00:17:34.029 --> 00:17:37.650 I mean, there's just so much to do in the prioritization 00:17:37.650 --> 00:17:40.730 post hostilities, whatever that may look like. 00:17:41.349 --> 00:17:47.690 How are they going to decide not only where to 00:17:47.690 --> 00:17:51.890 direct or prioritize assets like deminers? By 00:17:51.890 --> 00:17:53.690 the way, they're called sappers. Most of Europe, 00:17:53.789 --> 00:17:56.789 if not the world, refers to deminers as sappers. 00:17:57.390 --> 00:18:00.539 It's an engineering term. But then how do you 00:18:00.539 --> 00:18:02.900 how do they how do they stack and prioritize? 00:18:03.579 --> 00:18:06.319 I guess that would be an allocation. But prioritization 00:18:06.319 --> 00:18:09.839 would be who what parts of land get demined first. 00:18:10.299 --> 00:18:13.000 You know, you got critical infrastructure, you 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:14.740 know, that need to be opened back up again, post 00:18:14.740 --> 00:18:16.720 hostilities with all these talks of peace talks 00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:19.880 and the delays and the false hopes and this emotional 00:18:19.880 --> 00:18:25.799 roller coaster. The global community is on. I'm 00:18:25.799 --> 00:18:27.720 not the only one, not only humanitarian, but 00:18:27.720 --> 00:18:30.240 in reconstruction, the for -profits, the engineering 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:33.819 outfits throughout Europe and the world that 00:18:33.819 --> 00:18:37.000 want to go in and start the rebuilding process. 00:18:38.319 --> 00:18:41.720 I'm really curious, and I spend a lot of time 00:18:41.720 --> 00:18:44.819 trying to anticipate what post -hostilities will 00:18:44.819 --> 00:18:48.559 look like in Ukraine. And more specifically, 00:18:48.680 --> 00:18:51.119 as that narrows down to the demining effort, 00:18:51.339 --> 00:18:56.200 because it's... It's a huge task. It's almost 00:18:56.200 --> 00:18:59.180 impossible to get your head around how much land 00:18:59.180 --> 00:19:01.900 needs cleared. And by the way, clearing, if I 00:19:01.900 --> 00:19:04.259 may, James, I'm on quite a rant here, aren't 00:19:04.259 --> 00:19:05.839 I? You haven't said a word in like - Go for it. 00:19:05.900 --> 00:19:07.599 No, this is the whole point. They didn't listen 00:19:07.599 --> 00:19:10.720 to this to listen to me. Listen to you. I took 00:19:10.720 --> 00:19:13.380 some grapple science for cognitive energy and 00:19:13.380 --> 00:19:18.440 it is rocking. I just rely on meth myself. It 00:19:18.440 --> 00:19:20.640 works really well. Yeah, yeah. I'll do some lines 00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:28.000 after this. Yeah, one statistic was the land 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:33.240 mass of Florida is equivalent to the amount of 00:19:33.240 --> 00:19:36.559 land that is contaminated or suspected to be 00:19:36.559 --> 00:19:41.299 contaminated. So imagine clearing Florida. That's 00:19:41.299 --> 00:19:43.220 insane. That's ridiculous. That's insane. And 00:19:43.220 --> 00:19:44.940 then by the way, whether there's mines there 00:19:44.940 --> 00:19:48.099 or not, that's the trick, right? With mine warfare 00:19:48.099 --> 00:19:51.740 and clearing, more so clearing than the mine 00:19:51.740 --> 00:19:54.059 warfare. You don't know where the actual mines 00:19:54.059 --> 00:19:59.140 are. There's, I would, yeah, there's more suspected 00:19:59.140 --> 00:20:02.059 areas that need cleared than mine areas that 00:20:02.059 --> 00:20:04.559 need cleared. But to the demining community, 00:20:04.839 --> 00:20:06.980 it's the same because it still needs cleared, 00:20:07.119 --> 00:20:10.079 right? So I think that's an important distinction 00:20:10.079 --> 00:20:12.759 as some people that aren't familiar with this. 00:20:12.859 --> 00:20:15.779 It's still going to require people to walk the 00:20:15.779 --> 00:20:19.440 ground and wave a mine detector. Now there's 00:20:19.440 --> 00:20:24.479 mechanical, there's mechanical clearing. But 00:20:24.479 --> 00:20:27.619 according to IMAS, International Mine Action 00:20:27.619 --> 00:20:32.259 Standards, which is kind of like the OSHA for 00:20:32.259 --> 00:20:34.319 mine clearing. It's an international guideline 00:20:34.319 --> 00:20:37.000 and doctrine that everybody operates under, at 00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:40.900 least the professional ones. And in it, you can't 00:20:40.900 --> 00:20:44.440 turn, if you take an assignment or if you take 00:20:44.440 --> 00:20:46.819 responsibility to clear land, you can't turn 00:20:46.819 --> 00:20:51.960 that land over being designated as cleared. unless 00:20:51.960 --> 00:20:54.859 it's hand detected. So even if you have these 00:20:54.859 --> 00:20:57.759 mine rollers or these flail machines or these 00:20:57.759 --> 00:21:02.059 spades that disrupt the earth in an effort to 00:21:02.059 --> 00:21:05.140 detonate mines or move mines away, that's a military, 00:21:05.299 --> 00:21:07.000 frankly, that's a military thing. I mean, you 00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:09.200 can flail and some of the farmers have some really 00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:10.559 ingenious things that they've done with their 00:21:10.559 --> 00:21:13.259 tractors. And you can do all that and you will 00:21:13.259 --> 00:21:15.900 have mines detonate or things that are subsurface 00:21:15.900 --> 00:21:19.740 will surface and that's fine. It's still got 00:21:19.740 --> 00:21:22.759 to be walked. It's still got to be hand -wanded. 00:21:22.759 --> 00:21:25.140 Well, wanded, that's not really a thing. But, 00:21:25.140 --> 00:21:27.099 you know, hand -cleared with mine detectors. 00:21:28.299 --> 00:21:31.099 Those mechanical ones are more of a, again, they're 00:21:31.099 --> 00:21:35.119 really effective in mobility aspect of combat 00:21:35.119 --> 00:21:37.819 engineering, where you have to clear an area 00:21:37.819 --> 00:21:42.180 for follow -on forces or for an attacking force. 00:21:42.279 --> 00:21:44.200 You know, the engineers go out and they just... 00:21:44.430 --> 00:21:47.390 move mines away or they detonate the mines and 00:21:47.390 --> 00:21:50.150 that's cool and you can do that in a humanitarian 00:21:50.150 --> 00:21:54.029 aspect but the the munitions are still there 00:21:54.029 --> 00:21:58.170 it's still still dangerous what about the rats 00:21:58.170 --> 00:22:00.950 that supposedly can help with that have you heard 00:22:00.950 --> 00:22:02.589 of that i think it was in southeast asia where 00:22:02.589 --> 00:22:05.750 i saw that okay yeah southeast asia and africa 00:22:05.750 --> 00:22:08.670 and africa they're doing that yeah that's that's 00:22:08.670 --> 00:22:12.519 cool that's a way uh pretty creative and i want 00:22:12.519 --> 00:22:15.359 to say it's an emerging technology but is it 00:22:15.359 --> 00:22:18.380 really a technology but the idea of training 00:22:18.380 --> 00:22:21.599 of training the rats um and you know letting 00:22:21.599 --> 00:22:24.740 them go out and you know in an assigned lane 00:22:24.740 --> 00:22:27.140 i'm not really sure how that works i've never 00:22:27.140 --> 00:22:30.859 worked with them um personally i'm not a big 00:22:30.859 --> 00:22:35.220 fan of you using canines um just because they're 00:22:36.569 --> 00:22:39.569 They're amazing animals, and I just personally 00:22:39.569 --> 00:22:42.190 can't get behind the use of canines, nor does 00:22:42.190 --> 00:22:45.309 tip of the spear. Ryan's not a big fan of that 00:22:45.309 --> 00:22:49.769 either, so that's one of our non -techniques. 00:22:49.950 --> 00:22:54.089 That's off the list. Yeah, I don't think anyone's 00:22:54.089 --> 00:22:59.829 using rats in Ukraine that I know of. What is 00:22:59.829 --> 00:23:03.150 the backstory of the conflict, and then what 00:23:03.150 --> 00:23:07.980 are you hoping as far as a peace deal? Okay. 00:23:08.039 --> 00:23:12.039 Wow. All right. Now, this is a very political 00:23:12.039 --> 00:23:17.079 question. So I will address it as Roby from my 00:23:17.079 --> 00:23:22.240 perspective. This is a really important preface 00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:25.559 that this does not reflect the views of Tip the 00:23:25.559 --> 00:23:28.779 Spare Landmine Removal Ukraine or Tip the Spare 00:23:28.779 --> 00:23:34.180 Landmine Removal 501c3 out of Florida. So my 00:23:34.180 --> 00:23:39.930 personal views. uh is there needs to be peace 00:23:39.930 --> 00:23:41.970 i think that okay so let's start there everybody 00:23:41.970 --> 00:23:47.109 wants peace for sure now there i i don't know 00:23:47.109 --> 00:23:51.130 much i i volunteered uh see the invasion was 00:23:51.130 --> 00:23:54.470 in early march or was it late february and then 00:23:54.470 --> 00:23:56.509 i was there within 30 days doing humanitarian 00:23:56.509 --> 00:24:00.309 work not demining just um putting in doctors 00:24:00.309 --> 00:24:02.650 and engineers into positions where they could 00:24:02.650 --> 00:24:09.529 help out So I'm not a scholar of the invasion, 00:24:09.670 --> 00:24:13.549 what precipitated it in terms of if Ukraine broke 00:24:13.549 --> 00:24:16.130 a treaty or if Ukraine was going a direction 00:24:16.130 --> 00:24:19.690 that was outside of something that maybe they 00:24:19.690 --> 00:24:21.269 promised. And then Ukraine's like, well, you 00:24:21.269 --> 00:24:23.509 broke this treaty, so we're going to break this 00:24:23.509 --> 00:24:26.930 treaty. And then there's the idea of, you know, 00:24:26.930 --> 00:24:28.789 that the Russians have been in there for over 00:24:28.789 --> 00:24:32.029 a decade, you know, on the far eastern side, 00:24:32.150 --> 00:24:35.670 Donbass. And then they claim that they're protecting 00:24:35.670 --> 00:24:38.609 ethnic Russians, you know, from the pro -Western 00:24:38.609 --> 00:24:43.430 government of Ukraine. So I don't know much about 00:24:43.430 --> 00:24:49.089 the preface. But since the war started, I personally 00:24:49.089 --> 00:24:55.049 look at it as Ukraine already won. If you recall, 00:24:55.250 --> 00:24:58.769 Russia invaded with the intent of dominating 00:24:58.769 --> 00:25:02.589 all of Ukraine, overthrowing the pro -Western 00:25:02.589 --> 00:25:05.279 government. And then just setting Ukraine back 00:25:05.279 --> 00:25:07.759 up like it was back in the Soviet Union days. 00:25:07.880 --> 00:25:10.960 It would be a satellite republic or a satellite 00:25:10.960 --> 00:25:13.680 block country. Remember those terms from the 00:25:13.680 --> 00:25:18.839 80s and early 90s? So I think that's massive 00:25:18.839 --> 00:25:22.220 to appreciate that they won. They defeated the 00:25:22.220 --> 00:25:26.619 giant, giant Russia. This little country with 00:25:26.619 --> 00:25:31.119 an under -sophisticated military, not reflecting 00:25:31.119 --> 00:25:34.240 on the people. But they didn't have super great 00:25:34.240 --> 00:25:37.819 technology. They didn't have masses of armament. 00:25:38.299 --> 00:25:43.579 But through grit and patriotism and the mobilization 00:25:43.579 --> 00:25:48.019 of the entire country under martial law to put 00:25:48.019 --> 00:25:55.319 up a defense against one of our peer adversaries 00:25:55.319 --> 00:25:57.259 at the time. I won't give them that much credit 00:25:57.259 --> 00:25:59.539 now. But at the time, we thought they were peer 00:25:59.539 --> 00:26:03.440 adversaries to us and our allies. um and they 00:26:03.440 --> 00:26:07.759 defeated them they defeated the the the offensive 00:26:07.759 --> 00:26:10.279 nature of trying to take over a country which 00:26:10.279 --> 00:26:13.200 is it's mind -boggling what ukraine pulled off 00:26:13.200 --> 00:26:16.400 and not only did they you know preserve the capital 00:26:16.400 --> 00:26:20.380 preserve the government uh continuity of operate 00:26:20.380 --> 00:26:23.400 the coop continuity of operations they they preserved 00:26:23.400 --> 00:26:26.359 it all they went directly into martial law everything 00:26:26.359 --> 00:26:28.960 fell under the ministry of defense and then not 00:26:28.960 --> 00:26:32.930 only did they defend right every village is given 00:26:32.930 --> 00:26:35.109 armament and given mines, not every village, 00:26:35.150 --> 00:26:37.450 but every village of concern. And everybody was 00:26:37.450 --> 00:26:42.970 just deputized and martialized as soldiers. And 00:26:42.970 --> 00:26:45.470 they pushed them back. And not only did they 00:26:45.470 --> 00:26:48.450 push them back, hence, they've done offensive 00:26:48.450 --> 00:26:53.869 operations, not only through these crazy, creative, 00:26:54.069 --> 00:26:58.450 industrious missions through the airspace of 00:26:58.450 --> 00:27:02.069 Russia with these drone attacks. oh man they're 00:27:02.069 --> 00:27:05.289 just so creative it's amazing but then the counter 00:27:05.289 --> 00:27:07.910 -offensives right as they continue to push the 00:27:07.910 --> 00:27:10.529 russians back into the eastern the far eastern 00:27:10.529 --> 00:27:15.789 parts of ukraine so it's it's an amazing feat 00:27:15.789 --> 00:27:20.029 i again not ukrainian though i am pro -ukrainian 00:27:20.029 --> 00:27:23.849 for sure um i can't help but be enamored by being 00:27:23.849 --> 00:27:27.470 over there and witnessing it firsthand the patriotism 00:27:27.470 --> 00:27:31.920 and the sacrifices and the tragedies But I'm 00:27:31.920 --> 00:27:37.180 always one for the underdog and the defiance 00:27:37.180 --> 00:27:40.400 that's displayed on a global level that I nothing 00:27:40.400 --> 00:27:44.579 but respect and love. Having said that, you got, 00:27:44.680 --> 00:27:46.319 well, you guys, I'm talking to them now, right? 00:27:46.420 --> 00:27:48.259 In case anyone from the Ukrainian parliament 00:27:48.259 --> 00:27:51.180 is watching. You won. You did it. You fought 00:27:51.180 --> 00:27:53.720 them back. You preserved your nation. You're 00:27:53.720 --> 00:27:56.660 still a state. And you've built massive allies 00:27:56.660 --> 00:28:00.549 in the process. So what happens now? What is 00:28:00.549 --> 00:28:03.690 the road to peace? I'm afraid that it's going 00:28:03.690 --> 00:28:06.630 to take some capitulation. And that's what a 00:28:06.630 --> 00:28:09.029 negotiation is, right? Both sides go in with 00:28:09.029 --> 00:28:11.230 what they want. They have their negotiation area. 00:28:11.309 --> 00:28:13.950 And then they both walk out pissed off, but acceptable. 00:28:14.589 --> 00:28:16.630 That's how negotiations work. Just like buying 00:28:16.630 --> 00:28:20.089 a new car. You have this. The dealer has this. 00:28:20.289 --> 00:28:21.950 You're both going to negotiate a little bit. 00:28:22.049 --> 00:28:24.490 And then you both leave unhappy. But it's acceptable. 00:28:25.459 --> 00:28:27.640 So, yeah, I think there's going to be capitulation, 00:28:27.640 --> 00:28:30.059 whether it's in terms of treaties or non -treaties, 00:28:30.059 --> 00:28:33.759 whether it's capitulation of land, which is incredibly 00:28:33.759 --> 00:28:39.779 hard to swallow, or then even trade. There's 00:28:39.779 --> 00:28:43.660 so many layers. So I'm not a diplomat, but in 00:28:43.660 --> 00:28:47.480 my eyes, Ukraine already won. En masse, I don't 00:28:47.480 --> 00:28:50.799 think that most people... buy into most of these 00:28:50.799 --> 00:28:52.880 conflicts that we're sent to like i always say 00:28:52.880 --> 00:28:55.859 world war ii especially when people really found 00:28:55.859 --> 00:28:58.579 out what was going on behind closed doors no 00:28:58.579 --> 00:29:00.839 one questions that conflict to a point now the 00:29:00.839 --> 00:29:02.900 events leading up to it could that have been 00:29:02.900 --> 00:29:05.960 stopped in its tracks yes i believe so but you're 00:29:05.960 --> 00:29:09.220 you know an 18 19 20 year old allied soldier 00:29:09.220 --> 00:29:11.539 going in being told what's happening i think 00:29:11.539 --> 00:29:14.220 it's pretty cut and dry okay there's absolute 00:29:14.220 --> 00:29:16.160 horrific things happening that we need to go 00:29:16.160 --> 00:29:18.960 stop. But so many other conflicts, I mean, a 00:29:18.960 --> 00:29:20.980 lot of the Iraq veterans that have come on here, 00:29:21.079 --> 00:29:24.259 for example, being told one thing years later, 00:29:24.359 --> 00:29:28.000 realizing that wasn't a thing anymore. The same 00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:31.500 as the young Russian recruits. I just don't believe 00:29:31.500 --> 00:29:34.099 that most of these people woke up one day and 00:29:34.099 --> 00:29:36.740 said, I want to go to war against those people. 00:29:37.079 --> 00:29:39.779 But over and over and over again, these wars 00:29:39.779 --> 00:29:43.940 are started by these few politicians, wealthy 00:29:43.940 --> 00:29:47.039 people etc and yet it's not their children that 00:29:47.039 --> 00:29:49.019 fight these wars it's everyone else's children 00:29:49.019 --> 00:29:52.460 history has seen this repeat itself over and 00:29:52.460 --> 00:29:55.240 over and over again how do we break that cycle 00:29:55.240 --> 00:29:58.859 of putting you know farm boy against farm boy 00:29:58.859 --> 00:30:01.920 over invisible barriers that that these two people 00:30:01.920 --> 00:30:03.660 are going to benefit from and the masses are 00:30:03.660 --> 00:30:07.039 actually going to lose from wow that's great 00:30:07.039 --> 00:30:10.680 that's a great great point let's kind of formulate 00:30:10.680 --> 00:30:15.339 my opinion while you're explaining that i think 00:30:15.339 --> 00:30:18.539 what happened in ukraine in terms of both sides 00:30:18.539 --> 00:30:21.400 willingness to continue to prolong the war and 00:30:21.400 --> 00:30:26.059 again hopefully it's going to end soon i think 00:30:26.059 --> 00:30:30.539 the reason that it's it's so hard to negotiate 00:30:30.539 --> 00:30:33.420 is both sides are just rooted in their belief 00:30:33.420 --> 00:30:41.059 in the war it's not a token gesture the the conflict 00:30:42.029 --> 00:30:46.730 In the caucuses. Recently, like those were like 00:30:46.730 --> 00:30:49.190 border insurrection things and people had to 00:30:49.190 --> 00:30:51.410 rattle their sword and, you know, like, OK, that's, 00:30:51.410 --> 00:30:54.390 you know, no one's really spirited about that. 00:30:54.470 --> 00:30:57.630 But what happened in Ukraine, I think, is Ukraine 00:30:57.630 --> 00:31:01.630 is an incredibly young country. Right. It spawned 00:31:01.630 --> 00:31:05.049 out of the fall of the Soviet Union and was at 00:31:05.049 --> 00:31:10.130 89, I think. And and so they're super young and 00:31:10.130 --> 00:31:14.730 having been a. a NATO special operations task 00:31:14.730 --> 00:31:17.349 force commander in Afghanistan. I worked with 00:31:17.349 --> 00:31:19.670 NATO a lot. I was in Germany for six years as 00:31:19.670 --> 00:31:22.869 a Green Beret, and I consider myself pretty well 00:31:22.869 --> 00:31:26.029 -versed in NATO. Now, what's cool about NATO, 00:31:26.170 --> 00:31:29.490 if I may, or more importantly, just the European 00:31:29.490 --> 00:31:33.490 allies beyond NATO, is the Eastern European countries 00:31:33.490 --> 00:31:38.490 are patriotic to the degree of which It's hard 00:31:38.490 --> 00:31:40.390 for Americans to get their head around, except 00:31:40.390 --> 00:31:44.170 post 9 -11. In post 9 -11, everybody rallied. 00:31:44.230 --> 00:31:46.849 Everybody solidified. All these little political 00:31:46.849 --> 00:31:49.470 divisions that we're seeing in our contemporary 00:31:49.470 --> 00:31:52.369 issues, they weren't there. Everybody was just 00:31:52.369 --> 00:31:54.329 all pro -America. American flags were out in 00:31:54.329 --> 00:31:56.470 front of the houses. Soldiers are being carried 00:31:56.470 --> 00:31:59.470 on everyone's shoulders. It was an amazing time 00:31:59.470 --> 00:32:02.549 of patriotism in the years following the attacks. 00:32:03.470 --> 00:32:08.269 Well, that's not unlike. what Ukraine and the 00:32:08.269 --> 00:32:12.089 other Eastern countries in Europe are like. They're 00:32:12.089 --> 00:32:16.910 only 25 years old, 30 years old, and they're 00:32:16.910 --> 00:32:20.130 incredibly patriotic. So they're, you know, with 00:32:20.130 --> 00:32:24.910 patriotism, dense patriotism, comes motivation, 00:32:25.269 --> 00:32:30.430 comes lack of tolerance. So imagine as an American, 00:32:30.509 --> 00:32:32.990 I know this might be hard for you, James, but 00:32:32.990 --> 00:32:36.170 if we gain our independence in 1776 and by the 00:32:36.170 --> 00:32:38.269 end of the war or whatever, so let's say it's 00:32:38.269 --> 00:32:43.269 1800, right? And you're only like 15, 20 years 00:32:43.269 --> 00:32:46.849 old and you're pretty excited about your independence. 00:32:47.029 --> 00:32:49.990 You're pretty excited about this new rule of 00:32:49.990 --> 00:32:53.009 law that you're living under. And it's what people 00:32:53.009 --> 00:32:55.450 were seeking out. And now you have it and you 00:32:55.450 --> 00:32:56.910 don't want to give it up. You're never going 00:32:56.910 --> 00:32:59.140 to give it up again. You're never going to. want 00:32:59.140 --> 00:33:03.720 to go through such a bloody fight but still the 00:33:03.720 --> 00:33:05.819 the principles are ingrained in you and i think 00:33:05.819 --> 00:33:09.720 that's what's going on with these 30 or 40 year 00:33:09.720 --> 00:33:12.779 old country i'm sorry my math is dismal but being 00:33:12.779 --> 00:33:16.960 a new country they're they're all in i every 00:33:16.960 --> 00:33:20.839 in a lot of them whether it was nato and afghanistan 00:33:20.839 --> 00:33:23.799 or just traveling throughout europe for different 00:33:23.799 --> 00:33:28.710 conferences or exercises The patriotism is incredibly 00:33:28.710 --> 00:33:32.930 admirable. It's awe -inspiring. And Ukraine, 00:33:33.289 --> 00:33:37.029 I mean, there's Ukrainian... If I was a business 00:33:37.029 --> 00:33:39.990 person in Ukraine, I would invest in whatever 00:33:39.990 --> 00:33:45.869 colored dye, radiant blue and radiant yellow, 00:33:45.990 --> 00:33:49.329 because you would make a killing in the flag 00:33:49.329 --> 00:33:53.150 industry. You know, just the Ukrainian flags 00:33:53.150 --> 00:33:56.630 are everywhere. And there's these beautiful murals 00:33:56.630 --> 00:34:02.130 and on buildings in the larger towns and the 00:34:02.130 --> 00:34:04.789 political posters and the billboards. And it's 00:34:04.789 --> 00:34:08.190 just it's everywhere. And it's just really it's 00:34:08.190 --> 00:34:11.750 really inspiring. OK, so that's half of it. Right. 00:34:11.949 --> 00:34:14.130 That's that's a country that's like, you know, 00:34:14.170 --> 00:34:15.949 we got a new. Remember, they went through like 00:34:15.949 --> 00:34:18.269 a little revolution of sorts. Right. And then 00:34:18.269 --> 00:34:21.559 they had this. pro -Eastern, the pro -Russian 00:34:21.559 --> 00:34:25.559 government got replaced with pro -Western. And 00:34:25.559 --> 00:34:28.280 then Russia started doing those operations out 00:34:28.280 --> 00:34:34.199 East to liberate the Russian ethnic epicenters 00:34:34.199 --> 00:34:36.780 in Eastern Ukraine, right? So now we're in conflict, 00:34:36.920 --> 00:34:44.019 right? Now, combine that with the Russian extreme 00:34:44.019 --> 00:34:48.690 Jedi mind tricking. that they can do on their 00:34:48.690 --> 00:34:52.789 massive population, where despite the internet, 00:34:53.010 --> 00:34:58.110 they own all the news sources and they have so 00:34:58.110 --> 00:35:02.989 many different mechanisms of influence with internal 00:35:02.989 --> 00:35:10.369 to the Russian Federation that Putin can sell 00:35:10.369 --> 00:35:13.130 anybody anything and they're going to believe 00:35:13.130 --> 00:35:14.730 it. Now, don't get me, there's dissidents in 00:35:14.730 --> 00:35:20.039 Russia and God bless them. And there's always 00:35:20.039 --> 00:35:24.019 going to be that. But by far and large, even 00:35:24.019 --> 00:35:27.739 the widows and the mothers that are losing these 00:35:27.739 --> 00:35:33.119 young Russian soldiers, despite all that, there's 00:35:33.119 --> 00:35:39.039 still an ironclad grasp on the Russian perception 00:35:39.039 --> 00:35:42.860 of what's going on in the war. And in a greater 00:35:42.860 --> 00:35:47.980 context, their perception of the West. So Putin 00:35:47.980 --> 00:35:52.579 has he he's the guy behind the curtain in The 00:35:52.579 --> 00:35:55.619 Wizard of Oz. You know, he can manipulate everybody's 00:35:55.619 --> 00:35:58.179 perception. And I say everybody's meaning the 00:35:58.179 --> 00:36:01.719 vast majority. So there's your perfect storm, 00:36:01.860 --> 00:36:04.679 James. There's your perfect storm. An incredibly 00:36:04.679 --> 00:36:11.300 patriotic country with just who David and Goliath 00:36:11.300 --> 00:36:16.679 type of enthusiasm. And then you have. A massive 00:36:16.679 --> 00:36:18.840 country, one of the most powerful countries in 00:36:18.840 --> 00:36:24.760 the world with a completely brainwashed, not 00:36:24.760 --> 00:36:27.280 completely, but overwhelmingly brainwashed population 00:36:27.280 --> 00:36:31.840 in the Federation to fuel that war. And then, 00:36:31.840 --> 00:36:34.940 of course, then you can cut each one into more 00:36:34.940 --> 00:36:38.460 slices on each side. But Russia can sell it. 00:36:38.480 --> 00:36:42.380 He, Putin, he can sell why they're in Ukraine. 00:36:42.829 --> 00:36:46.269 He can sell why they need a buffer between the 00:36:46.269 --> 00:36:49.309 rest of Western Europe. He can sell that, right? 00:36:49.449 --> 00:36:52.369 And then especially with Belarus, you know, and 00:36:52.369 --> 00:36:55.969 to extend that North -South alliance or the bloc 00:36:55.969 --> 00:36:59.110 countries again. He can sell that. And he does. 00:36:59.269 --> 00:37:02.969 And it's an easy sell. And then you got the incredibly 00:37:02.969 --> 00:37:05.889 hard -headed, and for a good reason, Ukrainians. 00:37:05.969 --> 00:37:11.070 And so I think that's why this is so insane of 00:37:11.070 --> 00:37:16.980 a war. insane in terms of the casualties. The 00:37:16.980 --> 00:37:24.039 Ukrainian soldiers refer to the Russians, at 00:37:24.039 --> 00:37:25.699 least this one unit did, it's a story I heard. 00:37:26.400 --> 00:37:28.900 They refer to the Russian soldiers as condoms. 00:37:29.320 --> 00:37:31.119 I don't know the Ukrainian word or the Russian 00:37:31.119 --> 00:37:33.900 word for condoms, but they call them condoms 00:37:33.900 --> 00:37:37.940 because you can only use them once. They show 00:37:37.940 --> 00:37:40.289 up and they get slaughtered. Russian soldiers 00:37:40.289 --> 00:37:43.889 don't fight two, three battles. They'll fight 00:37:43.889 --> 00:37:46.530 a battle, they'll die, and then more Russian 00:37:46.530 --> 00:37:50.250 troops will come in. They're one -time use soldiers. 00:37:51.030 --> 00:37:56.730 And I heard morale is pretty crap. Well, that 00:37:56.730 --> 00:37:59.110 mirrors World War II, what we heard about Stalin, 00:37:59.170 --> 00:38:01.369 and that was the thing. The body count of the 00:38:01.369 --> 00:38:06.010 Russian fatalities was horrendous. And that's 00:38:06.010 --> 00:38:07.510 part of their military culture, if not their 00:38:07.510 --> 00:38:12.699 societal culture. Yeah, that willingness, that 00:38:12.699 --> 00:38:16.599 sacrificial willingness, it's something that 00:38:16.599 --> 00:38:22.340 we can't get our head around. Well, my whole 00:38:22.340 --> 00:38:23.539 thing is, I was just thinking about this the 00:38:23.539 --> 00:38:28.539 other day. When we're all born, and I've referred 00:38:28.539 --> 00:38:30.420 to toddlers all the time, it's the perfect analogy. 00:38:30.800 --> 00:38:34.079 You put a group of toddlers in a room. They don't 00:38:34.079 --> 00:38:35.980 care if they're, you know, who they pray to, 00:38:36.139 --> 00:38:38.179 you know, who they will sleep with one day, what 00:38:38.179 --> 00:38:40.000 the color of their skin is, you know, what their 00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:42.559 background is as far as geography. They're just 00:38:42.559 --> 00:38:44.739 kids and they will play with a ball and draw 00:38:44.739 --> 00:38:48.519 together and all the things. And the concept 00:38:48.519 --> 00:38:50.739 that one day one of those kids will say, well, 00:38:50.760 --> 00:38:53.079 I'm going to dictate everything that you guys 00:38:53.079 --> 00:38:56.789 do and think 5, 10, 15, 20 years from now. It's 00:38:56.789 --> 00:38:58.869 insane. Like everyone was born with the same 00:38:58.869 --> 00:39:01.570 opportunity. And so when you see this, when you 00:39:01.570 --> 00:39:03.789 see people get to this position of power where 00:39:03.789 --> 00:39:08.309 they dictate a nation and create misery and war 00:39:08.309 --> 00:39:10.530 and all those things, like the fact that we still 00:39:10.530 --> 00:39:13.650 tolerate that even these days is mind blowing. 00:39:13.710 --> 00:39:16.170 And it reminds me kind of a really, really profound 00:39:16.170 --> 00:39:18.670 thing. Someone told me they were talking about 00:39:18.670 --> 00:39:21.630 someone else's work, but they said, you've got 00:39:21.630 --> 00:39:25.190 civilians and you've got citizens. And going 00:39:25.190 --> 00:39:28.929 back to your post 9 -11 comment, I would argue 00:39:28.929 --> 00:39:31.750 that we really saw the citizens of America stand 00:39:31.750 --> 00:39:35.250 up, the patriots, not the nationalists. And here 00:39:35.250 --> 00:39:39.849 we are now, barely two decades later, and, you 00:39:39.849 --> 00:39:41.949 know, cleaved apart. And I would say, you know, 00:39:41.989 --> 00:39:44.809 the last nine years or so. So that spans both 00:39:44.809 --> 00:39:48.239 sides of the aisle. But now you've got the same 00:39:48.239 --> 00:39:50.460 people that were side by side that didn't matter 00:39:50.460 --> 00:39:52.539 who everyone prayed to, didn't matter who everyone 00:39:52.539 --> 00:39:54.659 slept with. All of a sudden now, those things 00:39:54.659 --> 00:39:56.619 are the most important thing. And if you don't 00:39:56.619 --> 00:39:59.099 vote this way or if you happen to transition 00:39:59.099 --> 00:40:02.480 that way or whatever it is, now, you know, that's 00:40:02.480 --> 00:40:06.119 the most important thing. How, as someone who 00:40:06.119 --> 00:40:08.480 served in response to what happened to 9 -11, 00:40:08.699 --> 00:40:12.860 how have we strayed from the citizens being the 00:40:12.860 --> 00:40:16.110 most valued person in the states? to the civilian 00:40:16.110 --> 00:40:20.110 or nationalist being the one that's heralded 00:40:20.110 --> 00:40:25.909 and put on a platform? Social media, that's my 00:40:25.909 --> 00:40:28.630 crack at it. That's what I'm thinking as you 00:40:28.630 --> 00:40:31.050 were describing that. So what's different? How 00:40:31.050 --> 00:40:34.969 did this happen? How are people influenced? In 00:40:34.969 --> 00:40:39.070 special forces, we talk a lot, and we're doctrinally 00:40:39.070 --> 00:40:42.059 and in the schoolhouse. the first generation 00:40:42.059 --> 00:40:44.179 institutions of our schoolhouse. You know, we're 00:40:44.179 --> 00:40:47.599 taught influence operations. And in large part, 00:40:47.679 --> 00:40:52.960 in terms of U .S. doctrine on influence operations 00:40:52.960 --> 00:40:56.199 or information operations, which is slightly 00:40:56.199 --> 00:40:58.820 different, or psychological operations, which 00:40:58.820 --> 00:41:05.099 is part of both those umbrellas. So it goes back 00:41:05.099 --> 00:41:07.059 to the military construct of tactical level, 00:41:07.219 --> 00:41:09.139 operational level, and then strategic level. 00:41:09.840 --> 00:41:13.400 And either way you look at it, I think the common 00:41:13.400 --> 00:41:16.780 thread in all that in influencing people and 00:41:16.780 --> 00:41:21.039 whether you are reinforcing a tendency for a 00:41:21.039 --> 00:41:25.179 population or you're trying to change a perception 00:41:25.179 --> 00:41:28.300 or trying to change an attitude towards whatever 00:41:28.300 --> 00:41:32.579 strategic messaging that you're projecting. I 00:41:32.579 --> 00:41:34.619 think it's social media. I think it's social 00:41:34.619 --> 00:41:37.320 media because that's an advent. It's not that 00:41:37.320 --> 00:41:41.239 old. but it's got massive inertia behind it. 00:41:42.280 --> 00:41:46.000 And people are referring to it. And the thing 00:41:46.000 --> 00:41:48.420 about social media is it's so easy to influence. 00:41:48.519 --> 00:41:52.099 It's so easy to manipulate. And freedom of speech, 00:41:52.179 --> 00:41:55.139 it should be. But again, we're a new country. 00:41:55.219 --> 00:41:57.460 By the way, we're young. We're slightly older 00:41:57.460 --> 00:42:00.219 than our Eastern European allies and colleagues, 00:42:00.420 --> 00:42:03.380 but we're still trying to figure stuff out. And 00:42:03.380 --> 00:42:06.280 we, one of our hallmarks. One of the pillars 00:42:06.280 --> 00:42:09.000 of our culture and civilization is freedom of 00:42:09.000 --> 00:42:11.940 speech. So that freedom of speech comes with 00:42:11.940 --> 00:42:16.719 a risk. You are ripe for manipulation. And this 00:42:16.719 --> 00:42:22.079 vehicle of social media is an incredible, powerful 00:42:22.079 --> 00:42:32.059 tool. And it's fast. The power to influence is 00:42:32.059 --> 00:42:35.670 massive with it. So if you think back to maybe, 00:42:35.750 --> 00:42:38.710 geez, now I'm showing my age, even back to the 00:42:38.710 --> 00:42:42.550 70s or 80s or before AOL, if you want to take 00:42:42.550 --> 00:42:46.070 it that late, you got it from the papers and 00:42:46.070 --> 00:42:51.050 you got it from the nightly news. And then CNN 00:42:51.050 --> 00:42:54.989 came along and started doing 24 -hour news, right? 00:42:55.070 --> 00:42:57.969 So the part of the country that was involved 00:42:57.969 --> 00:43:01.289 in wanting to be informed now could access the 00:43:01.289 --> 00:43:04.760 headlines 24 -7. And now then we had full cycle 00:43:04.760 --> 00:43:06.739 news channels, full cycle news channels. Everything 00:43:06.739 --> 00:43:09.920 was always there. And then, you know, the AP 00:43:09.920 --> 00:43:11.980 and people started sharing stories globally, 00:43:12.159 --> 00:43:15.280 real time, not stories that are submitted and 00:43:15.280 --> 00:43:17.599 then put in an opinion piece. I'm just like the 00:43:17.599 --> 00:43:22.260 real time into the news sources. And now suddenly 00:43:22.260 --> 00:43:24.940 everybody's a reporter. Everybody can influence. 00:43:25.679 --> 00:43:28.300 And there's just so much. And if you're popular, 00:43:28.519 --> 00:43:31.260 whatever, whatever drives popularity on social 00:43:31.260 --> 00:43:35.420 media. whether it's aesthetics or shock jocking 00:43:35.420 --> 00:43:40.679 or substance or, you know, great graphics or 00:43:40.679 --> 00:43:43.480 buying a population, you know, through manipulating 00:43:43.480 --> 00:43:45.739 the views and the likes and the subscribers and 00:43:45.739 --> 00:43:47.820 all that. Before you know it, you're a massive 00:43:47.820 --> 00:43:50.920 influencer and anybody can do it regardless of 00:43:50.920 --> 00:43:55.079 how learned they are on the topics. And so not 00:43:55.079 --> 00:43:58.260 only is it just to recap from my own thoughts, 00:43:58.440 --> 00:44:03.099 we are a culture. That is founded in large part 00:44:03.099 --> 00:44:06.760 on the freedom of press and expression. In a 00:44:06.760 --> 00:44:08.639 large part, we're in the midst of a revolution 00:44:08.639 --> 00:44:11.300 with, we're all connected through social media 00:44:11.300 --> 00:44:14.880 and that's not going away. And now with AI, oh 00:44:14.880 --> 00:44:17.219 my gosh, now we don't know what's real, what's 00:44:17.219 --> 00:44:21.239 not, what's original content, what is integrated 00:44:21.239 --> 00:44:25.440 with AI or what's just bots or trolls just doing 00:44:25.440 --> 00:44:27.880 their own thing anyway, probably more articulate 00:44:27.880 --> 00:44:30.090 than we can come up with. excluding yourself 00:44:30.090 --> 00:44:31.510 because you're one of the most articulate people 00:44:31.510 --> 00:44:36.170 i know you don't know so you got technology you've 00:44:36.170 --> 00:44:38.690 got a willingness to express yourself you've 00:44:38.690 --> 00:44:41.389 got people thirsty for more information because 00:44:41.389 --> 00:44:43.550 we're all globally connected and then you've 00:44:43.550 --> 00:44:48.690 got um salacious actors out there that want to 00:44:48.690 --> 00:44:53.050 influence and and sway opinions whether state 00:44:53.050 --> 00:44:56.469 sponsored or otherwise away from the the way 00:44:56.469 --> 00:44:58.409 of the righteous the way of moving forward as 00:44:58.409 --> 00:45:03.090 a society so i i think that i think that's why 00:45:03.090 --> 00:45:07.650 i think that's the difference these days yeah 00:45:07.650 --> 00:45:11.250 i'm probably missing something else but off the 00:45:11.250 --> 00:45:16.269 top our diet no that's probably not it yeah i 00:45:16.269 --> 00:45:18.929 think i think that's why i think that's why uh 00:45:18.929 --> 00:45:22.500 you find these divisions so so deep -rooted Well, 00:45:22.539 --> 00:45:25.099 I've just found purely observationally, I've 00:45:25.099 --> 00:45:28.360 been on Instagram for I forget how many years 00:45:28.360 --> 00:45:29.880 it is now. I think pretty much since I started 00:45:29.880 --> 00:45:32.780 the podcast. So probably nine, 10 years. And 00:45:32.780 --> 00:45:35.440 in the last year, my site got shut down twice, 00:45:35.539 --> 00:45:39.579 my page. I know. And all I ever did was post. 00:45:40.119 --> 00:45:42.320 kindness compassion community and yeah highlight 00:45:42.320 --> 00:45:44.780 some things but always in the middle road always 00:45:44.780 --> 00:45:46.719 bringing guests on but yeah i mean if you were 00:45:46.719 --> 00:45:48.960 terminating first responders for example for 00:45:48.960 --> 00:45:51.980 not taking a vaccine after they've been out unprotected 00:45:51.980 --> 00:45:54.199 for a year yeah that needs to be talked about 00:45:54.199 --> 00:45:59.159 you know you know the the the the back and forth 00:45:59.159 --> 00:46:02.219 in gaza and then now we're talking about collateral 00:46:02.219 --> 00:46:04.179 damage of tens of thousands of children yeah 00:46:04.179 --> 00:46:05.960 that needs to be talked about and if that's putting 00:46:05.960 --> 00:46:08.659 a target on your back then you know So be it. 00:46:08.679 --> 00:46:12.159 But what I realize is even from the popularity 00:46:12.159 --> 00:46:16.280 and what really takes, it isn't that. It isn't 00:46:16.280 --> 00:46:18.079 the conversations bringing people together. It 00:46:18.079 --> 00:46:21.179 isn't the middle of the road reporting. It is 00:46:21.179 --> 00:46:23.500 the extremism. And I'm sure if my site had nothing 00:46:23.500 --> 00:46:25.800 but guns and Bibles and porn on it, it would 00:46:25.800 --> 00:46:29.039 probably have a billion views by now. But you 00:46:29.039 --> 00:46:32.610 talk about bringing everyone in. Whether it's, 00:46:32.610 --> 00:46:35.130 you know, deliberate or just simply supply and 00:46:35.130 --> 00:46:37.630 demand, the algorithm does not like kindness, 00:46:37.650 --> 00:46:40.769 compassion and community. It just doesn't. Tragic. 00:46:41.889 --> 00:46:45.230 Yeah, you know, it goes back to, you know, sex 00:46:45.230 --> 00:46:51.610 sells. And I'm not referring to, you know, actual 00:46:51.610 --> 00:46:54.769 sex or exploitation of good looking people or 00:46:54.769 --> 00:46:58.510 whatever. But if it's to use the second time 00:46:58.510 --> 00:47:02.030 today. If not this month, salaciousness, right? 00:47:02.150 --> 00:47:06.050 Like it's what sells. I don't know. I don't know 00:47:06.050 --> 00:47:10.690 the psychology behind it, but if it's salacious, 00:47:10.789 --> 00:47:13.530 if it's something that captures your attention, 00:47:13.710 --> 00:47:16.889 I mean, marketers and advertisers are the Jedi 00:47:16.889 --> 00:47:20.030 mind trickers, right? For ever since the first 00:47:20.030 --> 00:47:23.389 pinup calendar, you know, like that's going to 00:47:23.389 --> 00:47:27.110 draw you in. And then once you got them, you 00:47:27.110 --> 00:47:30.739 can go any direction. God forbid you're in the 00:47:30.739 --> 00:47:33.480 way of the righteous. You know, God forbid. Like, 00:47:33.539 --> 00:47:35.400 why aren't people that are doing motivational 00:47:35.400 --> 00:47:40.099 things or not unlike yourself addressing suicide 00:47:40.099 --> 00:47:44.539 rates and exploring solutions? How is that not 00:47:44.539 --> 00:47:48.820 at the peak of views, right? But it's not. It's 00:47:48.820 --> 00:47:52.539 an uphill battle. You'll never compete with whatever 00:47:52.539 --> 00:47:55.340 that human nature is. And, you know, that's sociology 00:47:55.340 --> 00:47:58.199 and psychology. And that would be interesting 00:47:58.199 --> 00:48:00.079 if I was a younger person who had time to figure 00:48:00.079 --> 00:48:04.639 that out. But it's too bad. And I don't know 00:48:04.639 --> 00:48:06.760 if that's going to change. That might be human 00:48:06.760 --> 00:48:11.239 nature. I don't know. But it's almost embarrassing, 00:48:11.300 --> 00:48:12.719 isn't it? It kind of shows you our fragileness, 00:48:12.920 --> 00:48:18.599 I guess, or our closed -mindedness en masse that 00:48:18.599 --> 00:48:24.840 we don't seek out. I was in one of the places 00:48:24.840 --> 00:48:27.989 I lived through. the 30 years in the military, 00:48:28.130 --> 00:48:34.210 we had RT, Russian television, and we had Al 00:48:34.210 --> 00:48:37.110 Jazeera, both on our cable subscription list, 00:48:37.230 --> 00:48:40.190 right? It was just one of the things. And I would 00:48:40.190 --> 00:48:44.289 spend a lot of time watching both of those because 00:48:44.289 --> 00:48:49.389 I already knew what our stance, whether it's 00:48:49.389 --> 00:48:51.230 American culture, American politics, or American 00:48:51.230 --> 00:48:53.449 military, like I already know that. I don't need 00:48:53.449 --> 00:48:56.579 more of it. I'm in. You guys got me. I'm a patriot. 00:48:56.760 --> 00:48:59.300 You know what I mean? Like, I'm in. Again, as 00:48:59.300 --> 00:49:01.239 a young country, we're trying to level out to 00:49:01.239 --> 00:49:06.059 homeostasis as a culture and as a country. But 00:49:06.059 --> 00:49:08.500 to see, I was more intrigued about how we're 00:49:08.500 --> 00:49:12.159 perceived or how are we being sold to the rest 00:49:12.159 --> 00:49:14.699 of the world. Again, being relatively NATO -centric, 00:49:14.820 --> 00:49:18.719 European -centric in my assignments. I found 00:49:18.719 --> 00:49:20.480 that interesting. And that's where I would spend 00:49:20.480 --> 00:49:24.869 my viewership was that. That was surprising. 00:49:25.989 --> 00:49:32.110 That was surprising and alarming. But yeah, we're 00:49:32.110 --> 00:49:36.550 just ripe for it, man. I don't think we can change 00:49:36.550 --> 00:49:39.730 human nature. But see, in a lot of ways, I'm 00:49:39.730 --> 00:49:44.230 not convinced that we're bad people. Like I'm 00:49:44.230 --> 00:49:46.730 a humanitarian, right? I went from Green Beret 00:49:46.730 --> 00:49:48.570 to humanitarian. And I'll tell you this, in a 00:49:48.570 --> 00:49:50.969 lot of ways, the Green Beret and at large, the 00:49:50.969 --> 00:49:53.659 special operations community. and at large military, 00:49:53.900 --> 00:49:56.539 at least the ones that play by the rules like 00:49:56.539 --> 00:50:00.639 us and our allies, for the most part, that we 00:50:00.639 --> 00:50:05.320 are humanitarian, right? We have rules and ethics 00:50:05.320 --> 00:50:11.079 and conduct of warfare. And it's not only trained, 00:50:11.159 --> 00:50:15.400 but it's reinforced. Case in point, the re -attack 00:50:15.400 --> 00:50:17.539 on that vessel off of Venezuela that's in the 00:50:17.539 --> 00:50:22.860 headlines is under scrutiny. Now, you can argue 00:50:22.860 --> 00:50:25.300 whether it should be or it shouldn't be, but 00:50:25.300 --> 00:50:28.179 the beauty is that we're arguing about it. That's 00:50:28.179 --> 00:50:32.000 fine. Let's argue about it. Let's explore it. 00:50:32.039 --> 00:50:34.239 And it's not so much about that particular engagement, 00:50:34.300 --> 00:50:38.139 but if that's the centerpiece right now, whether 00:50:38.139 --> 00:50:40.920 because it's on the news cycle or lack of other 00:50:40.920 --> 00:50:43.300 things to talk about, or because this might spark 00:50:43.300 --> 00:50:47.760 a broader conflict. The fact that we're examining 00:50:47.760 --> 00:50:50.599 it and we're broadening it. This wouldn't happen 00:50:50.599 --> 00:50:54.039 in Russia. This debate, whether we're supposed 00:50:54.039 --> 00:50:57.280 to re -attack a vessel or with, you know, non 00:50:57.280 --> 00:51:00.559 -combatants or non -hostiles or whatever, you 00:51:00.559 --> 00:51:03.280 know, treading water. And I don't know. I don't 00:51:03.280 --> 00:51:07.440 know. I know law, land of law conflict relatively 00:51:07.440 --> 00:51:12.389 well. I'm not up to date. Let's talk about it. 00:51:12.409 --> 00:51:14.570 Let's argue it. Bring up your point. That's healthy 00:51:14.570 --> 00:51:18.949 moving forward. That's how we get better. And 00:51:18.949 --> 00:51:21.090 it doesn't matter who's right or who's wrong. 00:51:21.210 --> 00:51:23.409 Well, I mean, it does matter because that will 00:51:23.409 --> 00:51:26.889 affect the future conduct of maritime warfare 00:51:26.889 --> 00:51:29.050 and stuff like that. But the fact that we're 00:51:29.050 --> 00:51:33.710 debating it is healthy for sure. That's how we 00:51:33.710 --> 00:51:35.849 propel. That's how we grow. That's how we mature. 00:51:36.269 --> 00:51:39.769 And that's how we're going to make it. uh civilization 00:51:39.769 --> 00:51:42.190 and a government that lasts for centuries you 00:51:42.190 --> 00:51:46.530 know we're young we're super young yeah what 00:51:46.530 --> 00:51:49.269 surprised me when i thought of al jazeera back 00:51:49.269 --> 00:51:50.909 in the day you were thinking okay this was the 00:51:50.909 --> 00:51:54.449 terrorist television network but right i you 00:51:54.449 --> 00:51:56.969 know actually originally from from social media 00:51:56.969 --> 00:52:01.789 i started seeing them recently at least reporting 00:52:01.789 --> 00:52:05.460 in a very non -political way. Now, of course, 00:52:05.460 --> 00:52:07.360 every station has a leaning. I'm not saying that 00:52:07.360 --> 00:52:09.820 at all. But it reminded me more of the BBC than 00:52:09.820 --> 00:52:13.739 it did any version of Fox or CNN. Has that station 00:52:13.739 --> 00:52:16.159 had an evolution or a change of ownership? Or 00:52:16.159 --> 00:52:20.739 were we misunderstanding the backstory of them 00:52:20.739 --> 00:52:23.480 back when we were obviously at war with that 00:52:23.480 --> 00:52:26.719 part of the world? Well, I'm not up to date on 00:52:26.719 --> 00:52:29.559 Al Jazeera. It's not a part of my cable subscription 00:52:29.559 --> 00:52:32.579 or whatever streaming thing we have going on. 00:52:33.289 --> 00:52:36.570 So I'm not up to date with it. But I remember 00:52:36.570 --> 00:52:39.130 going in incredibly skeptical watching Al Jazeera. 00:52:39.710 --> 00:52:41.429 And one of the things that turned me on to it 00:52:41.429 --> 00:52:44.789 was how quick, how timely they were doing reporting 00:52:44.789 --> 00:52:47.670 on things, you know, especially spectacular events. 00:52:47.869 --> 00:52:50.190 And I don't mean spectacular isn't good, just, 00:52:50.250 --> 00:52:54.909 you know, attacks or events or I think that we 00:52:54.909 --> 00:53:01.139 had prisoners overseas and stuff like this. but 00:53:01.139 --> 00:53:03.739 i i agree with you i i thought it was going to 00:53:03.739 --> 00:53:07.000 be more slanted now the al jazeera america at 00:53:07.000 --> 00:53:09.639 the time when it first started broadcasting in 00:53:09.639 --> 00:53:14.300 the united states it had to tiptoe you know it 00:53:14.300 --> 00:53:18.260 had to tiptoe it was full of anglo speakers right 00:53:18.260 --> 00:53:22.280 like it was it was you know and uh talking heads 00:53:22.280 --> 00:53:26.280 and it couldn't just go in straight with the 00:53:26.280 --> 00:53:29.579 same strategy that Al Jazeera Saudi Arabia or 00:53:29.579 --> 00:53:33.260 Al Jazeera Iran or Al Jazeera, like it's a different 00:53:33.260 --> 00:53:35.119 audience and it was a different approach and 00:53:35.119 --> 00:53:36.880 it was a different this, but it still had Al 00:53:36.880 --> 00:53:38.880 Jazeera and it freaked a lot of people out because 00:53:38.880 --> 00:53:42.699 it had that beautiful form of Arabic, you know, 00:53:42.719 --> 00:53:47.500 the really colorful Arabic lettering, you know, 00:53:47.500 --> 00:53:50.639 and the symbol and all that on American TVs post 00:53:50.639 --> 00:53:55.019 9 -11. And you're like, what? So that was already 00:53:55.019 --> 00:53:58.679 going to be ill -received by practically everybody, 00:53:58.840 --> 00:54:03.000 myself included. But, you know, by tiptoeing 00:54:03.000 --> 00:54:07.139 through it and not immediately being, well, okay, 00:54:07.239 --> 00:54:14.719 maybe biased, but not openly harsh biased. I 00:54:14.719 --> 00:54:17.940 was relatively impressed. It wasn't nearly as 00:54:17.940 --> 00:54:21.099 bad as I thought it would be. Yeah, but I'm not 00:54:21.099 --> 00:54:23.679 up to date. I haven't watched Al Jazeera or have 00:54:23.679 --> 00:54:26.400 I read any of their stuff in a long time? Well, 00:54:26.480 --> 00:54:28.400 I mean, on the social media, what I see is just 00:54:28.400 --> 00:54:31.320 simply a station that reports on all things around 00:54:31.320 --> 00:54:33.219 the world, which is the BBC that I grew up. Now, 00:54:33.239 --> 00:54:36.119 I don't know behind the scenes, are they the 00:54:36.119 --> 00:54:38.840 same as the BBC? The BBC is a slip from the standards 00:54:38.840 --> 00:54:41.719 that it used to have, but... You're not seeing 00:54:41.719 --> 00:54:45.039 reports on conflicts in the Middle East the whole 00:54:45.039 --> 00:54:48.400 time. You're just seeing tornadoes and flooding 00:54:48.400 --> 00:54:51.400 all over the world. This is happening. These 00:54:51.400 --> 00:54:53.940 poor people in America, in the UK, in Germany, 00:54:54.000 --> 00:54:58.139 and everywhere. So my perception of what they 00:54:58.139 --> 00:55:01.800 were a long time ago has changed. And I'm looking 00:55:01.800 --> 00:55:03.440 at this going, okay, well, they just report in 00:55:03.440 --> 00:55:05.500 everywhere. Now, again, does that mean that every 00:55:05.500 --> 00:55:08.719 person in that network has good intentions? Who 00:55:08.719 --> 00:55:10.900 knows? Does everyone in Fox or CNN have good 00:55:10.900 --> 00:55:13.639 intentions? We know that's a no. That's our own 00:55:13.639 --> 00:55:17.920 fucking news people. So yeah, it was really interesting 00:55:17.920 --> 00:55:20.199 because I've had people literally scream at me 00:55:20.199 --> 00:55:22.179 on social media for having the audacity to watch 00:55:22.179 --> 00:55:23.800 Al Jazeera. I'm like, well, have you watched 00:55:23.800 --> 00:55:26.239 Al Jazeera or have you seen their social media? 00:55:26.760 --> 00:55:29.519 This is literally this tragic thing that happened 00:55:29.519 --> 00:55:31.260 over here that they're reporting on that. If 00:55:31.260 --> 00:55:33.860 they just had a political... you know stance 00:55:33.860 --> 00:55:36.159 and that was it all you would see was this one 00:55:36.159 --> 00:55:38.699 -sided propaganda but that's not the case and 00:55:38.699 --> 00:55:41.739 so for me it was just you know changing my own 00:55:41.739 --> 00:55:44.099 perception and going huh i thought it was this 00:55:44.099 --> 00:55:46.579 one thing you know i'm cautiously seeing this 00:55:46.579 --> 00:55:50.099 as something else so um you know very interesting 00:55:50.099 --> 00:55:52.179 like you said that knee jerk of well you know 00:55:52.179 --> 00:55:53.619 if it's coming from this part of the world it 00:55:53.619 --> 00:55:57.079 must be talking about this one thing having the 00:55:57.079 --> 00:55:59.019 humility to go well let me look a little deeper 00:55:59.760 --> 00:56:01.840 I realized, well, they just seem to be reporting 00:56:01.840 --> 00:56:05.699 on all things worldwide, a lot of which our own 00:56:05.699 --> 00:56:09.199 media don't even touch, which makes us less educated 00:56:09.199 --> 00:56:12.539 and less compassionate towards places around 00:56:12.539 --> 00:56:15.460 the world. So it was an eye -opening thing for 00:56:15.460 --> 00:56:18.480 me, at least. I couldn't agree with you more. 00:56:18.579 --> 00:56:22.400 And even to this day, I search out other media 00:56:22.400 --> 00:56:29.429 outlets besides our conflicting... you know, 00:56:29.429 --> 00:56:33.030 Fox and CNN in the political divide. Unfortunately, 00:56:33.469 --> 00:56:36.630 um, that's, that's what it's become as opposed 00:56:36.630 --> 00:56:40.110 to news. Yeah. We're not hearing everything that's 00:56:40.110 --> 00:56:42.510 going on in the world. And I, you know, I, I 00:56:42.510 --> 00:56:45.190 flatter myself as a, as a, like I said, a humanitarian 00:56:45.190 --> 00:56:49.849 and a bit of a global humanitarian. And I, I 00:56:49.849 --> 00:56:51.550 want to stay impressed with what's going on. 00:56:52.429 --> 00:56:54.690 I'm definitely, because I know, I know the U 00:56:54.690 --> 00:56:57.510 .S. I know. I've lived all over it. I'm proud. 00:56:57.829 --> 00:57:02.150 I devoted my life, my adult life to it. And I'm 00:57:02.150 --> 00:57:04.789 sold. I got it. I got it. And then, you know, 00:57:04.829 --> 00:57:07.050 I'll watch the political things because I do 00:57:07.050 --> 00:57:09.690 want to know. I have my own beliefs and can't 00:57:09.690 --> 00:57:11.110 agree with everything there, can't agree with 00:57:11.110 --> 00:57:13.409 everything there. And that's all fine. And that's 00:57:13.409 --> 00:57:15.550 great. And that's the beauty of having a healthy, 00:57:15.630 --> 00:57:20.750 I think, a healthy culture and a healthy. political 00:57:20.750 --> 00:57:23.289 environment is that there's so much out there, 00:57:23.369 --> 00:57:29.369 but it's just so amped on their messaging. It's 00:57:29.369 --> 00:57:31.289 hard to find, and they're out there, but it's 00:57:31.289 --> 00:57:33.789 hard to find news sources that are just facts. 00:57:34.510 --> 00:57:39.670 And you can quote politicians for sure, but the 00:57:39.670 --> 00:57:43.510 commentary on the big networks is just so left 00:57:43.510 --> 00:57:47.579 and so right. And unless you make more effort, 00:57:47.659 --> 00:57:49.099 you're not going to be able to peel away all 00:57:49.099 --> 00:57:54.679 of the BS and just get to the points. So I enjoy 00:57:54.679 --> 00:57:57.059 searching now. And, you know, that's great because 00:57:57.059 --> 00:57:59.880 now back to social media, right? We were just 00:57:59.880 --> 00:58:02.320 kind of damning the whole idea or maybe not damning 00:58:02.320 --> 00:58:05.440 it, but recognizing for how powerful it is. All 00:58:05.440 --> 00:58:10.199 the different telegrams and signal chats and. 00:58:13.449 --> 00:58:15.929 Yeah, and a couple of the other ones where you 00:58:15.929 --> 00:58:19.610 can get news from the ground. Everybody's a reporter. 00:58:20.389 --> 00:58:22.590 You know what I mean? Everybody's showing videos 00:58:22.590 --> 00:58:25.449 of stuff. And that's helpful. That's helpful 00:58:25.449 --> 00:58:29.429 because you know relatively the people in that 00:58:29.429 --> 00:58:32.510 community or in that chat. And you get to follow 00:58:32.510 --> 00:58:35.849 along and pick and choose. But it doesn't cover 00:58:35.849 --> 00:58:39.449 everything. Maybe I just need to relax, not care. 00:58:41.480 --> 00:58:43.099 Well, one more question, we'll get off this topic, 00:58:43.119 --> 00:58:46.179 but I think it's such an important conversation 00:58:46.179 --> 00:58:48.420 for people that served, you know, that went over 00:58:48.420 --> 00:58:50.340 there, flag on their shoulder, and either they 00:58:50.340 --> 00:58:52.579 were first responders here, deployed overseas. 00:58:53.599 --> 00:58:57.739 But from my perspective, having been from another 00:58:57.739 --> 00:59:02.199 country, moving here 22 years ago now, 23 years 00:59:02.199 --> 00:59:07.980 ago, it seems to me that if you have a system 00:59:07.980 --> 00:59:12.760 to choose a president, That you have to be incredibly 00:59:12.760 --> 00:59:15.559 wealthy to even play the game and you have to 00:59:15.559 --> 00:59:18.900 receive lobbying money from companies that you're 00:59:18.900 --> 00:59:21.519 going to then help out when you get in. That 00:59:21.519 --> 00:59:24.440 the chances of getting one of the country's best 00:59:24.440 --> 00:59:30.059 leaders is basically zero. How do we change the 00:59:30.059 --> 00:59:33.940 system? Because we keep fighting over the blue 00:59:33.940 --> 00:59:36.239 tie than the red tie. And in my opinion, it's 00:59:36.239 --> 00:59:38.239 the same kind of person usually every four years 00:59:38.239 --> 00:59:41.260 that makes it there. How do we change the system 00:59:41.260 --> 00:59:43.480 so that we actually can get, because you and 00:59:43.480 --> 00:59:45.659 I both know people who are incredible leaders 00:59:45.659 --> 00:59:49.320 of all backgrounds. How can we change the system 00:59:49.320 --> 00:59:53.219 so the real good, good servant leaders of the 00:59:53.219 --> 00:59:56.099 United States of America actually have a chance 00:59:56.099 --> 01:00:00.139 of making it to that position? James, I don't 01:00:00.139 --> 01:00:02.639 know. I think that's going to take a massive 01:00:02.639 --> 01:00:10.670 rewrite. I am learning. That the special interests 01:00:10.670 --> 01:00:19.070 and the lobbyists and the campaign donors have 01:00:19.070 --> 01:00:23.130 more influence in the future of America right 01:00:23.130 --> 01:00:28.710 now than the citizenry. Yeah, I think that captured. 01:00:28.789 --> 01:00:32.190 I think that that's what I want to say. Yeah. 01:00:32.309 --> 01:00:36.989 So how how do we go back to the cream rising 01:00:36.989 --> 01:00:40.039 to the top? How do we get to the best people 01:00:40.039 --> 01:00:45.280 leading us through this insanely paced world 01:00:45.280 --> 01:00:49.940 that we're in right now? And not by money, whether 01:00:49.940 --> 01:00:55.000 it's special interest, campaign donors. Yeah, 01:00:55.039 --> 01:00:57.659 I don't know. You almost think that even just 01:00:57.659 --> 01:00:59.059 kind of pulling back to our own conversation 01:00:59.059 --> 01:01:03.599 just now, that social media can be used as a 01:01:03.599 --> 01:01:09.380 platform for good. And maybe that's the answer, 01:01:09.480 --> 01:01:14.460 because the population gets to speak every day, 01:01:14.559 --> 01:01:20.119 not just during an election cycle. Maybe we're 01:01:20.119 --> 01:01:24.860 in the midst of a change on how our leaders get 01:01:24.860 --> 01:01:28.820 into their positions, aside from money. I mean, 01:01:28.860 --> 01:01:31.699 money, it's all about money, and I'm not naive 01:01:31.699 --> 01:01:37.110 to that. But this isn't the... 80s 90s and even 01:01:37.110 --> 01:01:43.409 2000s where you you only get to see what's going 01:01:43.409 --> 01:01:47.329 on or see or balance your views with other views 01:01:47.329 --> 01:01:50.429 and think we've got 24 -hour news cycles biased 01:01:50.429 --> 01:01:53.409 for sure we've got internet where you can do 01:01:53.409 --> 01:01:55.250 your own research and then we got social media 01:01:55.250 --> 01:01:58.329 which is internet or not and then and then people 01:01:58.329 --> 01:02:00.409 that you respect or people that you're on board 01:02:00.409 --> 01:02:02.889 with bring up things and you finish watching 01:02:02.889 --> 01:02:05.320 an episode or or whatever and you're like yeah 01:02:05.320 --> 01:02:09.199 that's how i feel right or didn't know that i'm 01:02:09.199 --> 01:02:11.900 going to add that to how i feel and then that's 01:02:11.900 --> 01:02:16.340 only expressed during voting whether local state 01:02:16.340 --> 01:02:19.559 you know the different midterms and stuff like 01:02:19.559 --> 01:02:23.780 that because absence of all that then yeah we're 01:02:23.780 --> 01:02:26.340 all just slaves to the the money and the donate 01:02:26.340 --> 01:02:29.840 the donors the major donors and the lobbyists 01:02:29.840 --> 01:02:35.570 so maybe this maybe in I'm sure there's a really 01:02:35.570 --> 01:02:40.230 crafty colloquialism for it, but maybe what we 01:02:40.230 --> 01:02:44.110 perceive as dangerous might be our salvation. 01:02:46.090 --> 01:02:50.110 Yeah. Right? I've always said, Winston Churchill 01:02:50.110 --> 01:02:52.849 said, and I'm paraphrasing, you can measure the 01:02:52.849 --> 01:02:55.670 greatness of a nation by the health of their 01:02:55.670 --> 01:02:58.750 people. And if you look at the health of the 01:02:58.750 --> 01:03:00.829 American people, physical health, mental health, 01:03:01.420 --> 01:03:03.980 That's spanned both aisles for decades. And as 01:03:03.980 --> 01:03:10.900 we sit here now, 40 % obese over 70 % of the 01:03:10.900 --> 01:03:13.780 population is overweight or obese. We have a 01:03:13.780 --> 01:03:15.980 mental health crisis. Our children have to rehearse 01:03:15.980 --> 01:03:19.179 their murders in their schools. That's both sides. 01:03:19.380 --> 01:03:22.139 So it's not, well, it was the Republicans that 01:03:22.139 --> 01:03:23.840 did this wrong or the Democrats. No, no. This 01:03:23.840 --> 01:03:26.820 is the way that we're choosing these people is 01:03:26.820 --> 01:03:29.460 obviously not working. The proof is in the pudding. 01:03:29.599 --> 01:03:32.260 We've got gangs that ravage cities and we've 01:03:32.260 --> 01:03:34.519 got the failure of drug prohibition, all these 01:03:34.519 --> 01:03:37.739 areas that clearly there is a leadership void. 01:03:37.940 --> 01:03:41.780 And if people gain billions, if not trillions, 01:03:41.820 --> 01:03:45.380 when we're at war, when we're fat and sick, when 01:03:45.380 --> 01:03:47.860 we're scared, so we buy more guns, whatever the 01:03:47.860 --> 01:03:50.539 thing is, then where's the checks and balances 01:03:50.539 --> 01:03:52.559 for the American people? And I think that's it. 01:03:52.659 --> 01:03:55.239 We've got to take a step back and go, is this 01:03:55.239 --> 01:03:58.449 system working? And I would argue if the nation 01:03:58.449 --> 01:04:00.730 is cleaved and you're either one side or the 01:04:00.730 --> 01:04:04.570 other, like World War I, then maybe, just maybe, 01:04:04.670 --> 01:04:07.210 it's not working. Because to me, a real leader 01:04:07.210 --> 01:04:10.210 pulls people together and a tyrant divides people. 01:04:10.429 --> 01:04:12.650 And again, I'm talking both sides of the aisle. 01:04:12.809 --> 01:04:15.409 So I think you're right. Hopefully, there'll 01:04:15.409 --> 01:04:17.309 be an awakening where we just go, look, it's 01:04:17.309 --> 01:04:19.829 the same freaking, what do they say, same circus, 01:04:19.929 --> 01:04:21.969 different clowns or whatever the term is. I mean, 01:04:22.050 --> 01:04:24.980 you know, we're all... One of my guests said 01:04:24.980 --> 01:04:29.900 to me, imagine you're in medieval England and 01:04:29.900 --> 01:04:32.380 you've got the peasants at each other's throat 01:04:32.380 --> 01:04:34.420 over something. He's like, where are they not 01:04:34.420 --> 01:04:38.309 looking? The castle. And that's exactly it. We've 01:04:38.309 --> 01:04:39.929 got to realize that we've been pitted against 01:04:39.929 --> 01:04:43.429 each other. I would really say deliberately on 01:04:43.429 --> 01:04:46.030 most areas, people are tired, they're financially 01:04:46.030 --> 01:04:48.650 stressed, they're overworked, they're underslept. 01:04:48.889 --> 01:04:50.849 And you could see the lack of critical thinking 01:04:50.849 --> 01:04:53.010 when the COVID thing happened and people lost 01:04:53.010 --> 01:04:56.869 their fucking minds. So I would love to see everyone 01:04:56.869 --> 01:04:59.010 just take a step back and go, look, it's 2025 01:04:59.010 --> 01:05:01.929 now. You know, the original documents of this 01:05:01.929 --> 01:05:04.329 country were written a long time ago. What can 01:05:04.329 --> 01:05:08.840 we amend? So that we remove lobbyists from influencing 01:05:08.840 --> 01:05:12.119 or buying our politicians and put it back into 01:05:12.119 --> 01:05:13.940 a system that I don't know, maybe some other 01:05:13.940 --> 01:05:16.460 country has already figured out where it allows 01:05:16.460 --> 01:05:19.500 anyone of any background to rise through the 01:05:19.500 --> 01:05:23.840 ranks and be the leader of their nation. Yeah. 01:05:24.539 --> 01:05:28.920 Yeah. Again, maybe this is our salvation. I'm 01:05:28.920 --> 01:05:32.199 optimistic and I'm eager when I meet critics 01:05:32.199 --> 01:05:37.159 of the United States when I travel. Not in a 01:05:37.159 --> 01:05:40.199 hostile sense, but just at the pubs or the bars. 01:05:41.400 --> 01:05:44.320 And people are like, oh, America, you guys really 01:05:44.320 --> 01:05:47.039 need to get your shit together or whatever. I 01:05:47.039 --> 01:05:48.840 have fantasies of throat -punching people and 01:05:48.840 --> 01:05:52.980 stuff, but more on a civil. Hey, we're young. 01:05:53.380 --> 01:05:56.159 We're trying to figure it out. We're moving forward. 01:05:56.280 --> 01:06:01.619 We are doing well. It's not easy. It's not easy. 01:06:01.780 --> 01:06:04.400 But our culture is changing. Our technology is 01:06:04.400 --> 01:06:09.019 changing. Our economy is up, down, sideways, 01:06:09.119 --> 01:06:15.599 all over the place. I mean, it's all moving forward. 01:06:15.699 --> 01:06:17.960 I don't think we're slipping. We might lose traction, 01:06:18.219 --> 01:06:21.219 but I don't think we're going backward. I still 01:06:21.219 --> 01:06:26.139 think we have a lot more to offer the world as 01:06:26.139 --> 01:06:30.980 a partner and as an ally. Again, whether it's 01:06:30.980 --> 01:06:33.579 diplomatically, once we figure all this out, 01:06:33.639 --> 01:06:36.519 but through information. you know militarily 01:06:36.519 --> 01:06:39.360 which there's still a need for and economically 01:06:39.360 --> 01:06:43.920 i think i i we're moving forward sometimes it's 01:06:43.920 --> 01:06:47.199 fast sometimes we're just spinning our our wheels 01:06:47.199 --> 01:06:51.260 but we're young and we've got we attract the 01:06:51.260 --> 01:06:56.679 greatest minds and our our workforce is talented 01:06:56.679 --> 01:07:02.699 and eager our farmers are amazing our industry 01:07:03.360 --> 01:07:05.840 and the industries are amazing like we we have 01:07:05.840 --> 01:07:07.559 all we have everything we need to keep going 01:07:07.559 --> 01:07:12.000 the politics of which is the hardest part but 01:07:12.000 --> 01:07:13.780 but it's going to be the hardest part this shouldn't 01:07:13.780 --> 01:07:17.900 be a surprise when you have some a mass like 01:07:17.900 --> 01:07:19.679 the citizens of the united states that are just 01:07:19.679 --> 01:07:25.619 so amazing and so culturally thick and strong 01:07:25.619 --> 01:07:29.960 on both sides this is everybody everybody and 01:07:29.960 --> 01:07:32.360 people are still wanting to come here and contribute 01:07:33.360 --> 01:07:36.039 I mean, we've got everything we need. It's how 01:07:36.039 --> 01:07:39.179 do you govern that? How do you move it forward? 01:07:39.659 --> 01:07:42.960 How do you protect what you have? How do you 01:07:42.960 --> 01:07:44.900 build alliances? Like that's all the peripheral 01:07:44.900 --> 01:07:47.539 needful things that are going to happen. But 01:07:47.539 --> 01:07:53.059 at its core, we're talented. And that's a good 01:07:53.059 --> 01:07:55.519 thing. A good thing meaning for progression. 01:07:56.659 --> 01:08:03.639 So I was optimistic when I joined in 1987. veteran 01:08:03.639 --> 01:08:06.840 you know like we're we're doing all right you 01:08:06.840 --> 01:08:09.340 know we're doing all right and we're going to 01:08:09.340 --> 01:08:12.840 have hiccups it's it's not easy it's and every 01:08:12.840 --> 01:08:16.500 four years you know for better or for worse we 01:08:16.500 --> 01:08:20.920 get to see a new agenda and um it's it's still 01:08:20.920 --> 01:08:24.239 progress i think yeah and i believe this is i 01:08:24.239 --> 01:08:25.779 mean i you know came here from other country 01:08:25.779 --> 01:08:28.100 myself i believe in us completely i just think 01:08:28.100 --> 01:08:30.840 that you know it's us that's exactly the word 01:08:30.840 --> 01:08:35.180 it needs to be us not few of them that is the 01:08:35.180 --> 01:08:38.159 most important you know what i mean so well speaking 01:08:38.159 --> 01:08:41.760 of leadership uh you and i got to share a plane 01:08:41.760 --> 01:08:44.840 a couple years ago go around the the planet in 01:08:44.840 --> 01:08:48.859 a week with a crazy group of high level operators 01:08:48.859 --> 01:08:54.979 and athletes and crazy support staff you um and 01:08:54.979 --> 01:08:57.560 ricky were initially doing you know the kind 01:08:57.560 --> 01:09:00.279 of pre -op stuff so let's give an overview of 01:09:00.279 --> 01:09:03.369 what 7x was and then we'll kind of take a a dive 01:09:03.369 --> 01:09:05.590 into the manual and documentary that'll be coming 01:09:05.590 --> 01:09:09.130 out very soon. Wow. Maybe you should explain 01:09:09.130 --> 01:09:13.930 it. You're so much better at it than I am. But 01:09:13.930 --> 01:09:17.510 I guess I'm in a position to give my best shot 01:09:17.510 --> 01:09:20.569 as the executive director of our nonprofit, the 01:09:20.569 --> 01:09:23.449 bird's eye view project. And the bird's eye view 01:09:23.449 --> 01:09:27.329 project is what in the world of charities here 01:09:27.329 --> 01:09:29.670 in the States is considered a pass through organization 01:09:29.670 --> 01:09:33.189 where we raise money. And then we distribute 01:09:33.189 --> 01:09:37.350 the money to a list of affiliates who are on 01:09:37.350 --> 01:09:40.289 the ground working with veterans and first responders 01:09:40.289 --> 01:09:44.850 in different ways to address their mental hygiene 01:09:44.850 --> 01:09:47.930 and how they're getting along. And then ultimately, 01:09:48.109 --> 01:09:52.670 to see if we can make a dent in this suicide 01:09:52.670 --> 01:09:56.029 rate amongst our first responders and veterans. 01:09:56.789 --> 01:10:00.050 So in doing that, our mechanism at the Bird's 01:10:00.050 --> 01:10:03.789 Eye View Project is to do what we call experiential 01:10:03.789 --> 01:10:07.390 donorship. And we put on these really fun events, 01:10:07.529 --> 01:10:11.649 if not extreme events, where the donors will 01:10:11.649 --> 01:10:15.810 join us for an adventure. And we'll talk about 01:10:15.810 --> 01:10:19.029 some of the ones we have lined up in 2026. But 01:10:19.029 --> 01:10:22.710 in particular, to what you and I shared, which 01:10:22.710 --> 01:10:27.029 was the most magical week of my life. a lot of 01:10:27.029 --> 01:10:30.949 magical weeks in my life but this one was absolutely 01:10:30.949 --> 01:10:34.909 amazing so what we endeavored to do was take 01:10:34.909 --> 01:10:38.850 these uh just world when i say world -class athletes 01:10:38.850 --> 01:10:44.430 i mean the top tier endurance athletes and take 01:10:44.430 --> 01:10:47.729 them around the world in seven days to go to 01:10:47.729 --> 01:10:51.310 seven different continents run seven marathons 01:10:51.310 --> 01:10:55.909 we also brought along um again world class it 01:10:55.909 --> 01:10:58.329 seems like i'm diminishing the the term world 01:10:58.329 --> 01:11:01.310 class but it's very true these pioneers in base 01:11:01.310 --> 01:11:05.470 jumping uh and they were gonna skydive and or 01:11:05.470 --> 01:11:09.050 base jump um on the seven continents and that 01:11:09.050 --> 01:11:12.869 included uh you know a quick plunge so that um 01:11:12.869 --> 01:11:15.609 we can kind of round it out and the idea was 01:11:15.609 --> 01:11:19.310 that to put these athletes through the ringer 01:11:19.310 --> 01:11:22.029 of seven marathons and seven days and seven different 01:11:22.029 --> 01:11:24.130 climates seven different altitudes seven different 01:11:24.560 --> 01:11:27.979 Everything with minimal sleep because we lived 01:11:27.979 --> 01:11:32.859 off that airplane. And all the while gathering 01:11:32.859 --> 01:11:39.359 data, medical and physiological and cognitive 01:11:39.359 --> 01:11:43.260 data off of these athletes. So before there was 01:11:43.260 --> 01:11:47.399 testing and data collected pre -event, throughout 01:11:47.399 --> 01:11:50.020 the event, and then post -event. And then this 01:11:50.020 --> 01:11:54.670 data. is contributing towards the greater effort 01:11:54.670 --> 01:12:01.810 to, um, I guess like not re -engineer, but examine 01:12:01.810 --> 01:12:05.770 what, what does the mind and the cognitive and 01:12:05.770 --> 01:12:10.430 the emotional and the physical demands of extreme 01:12:10.430 --> 01:12:14.229 challenges, what, what does, how does that come 01:12:14.229 --> 01:12:17.449 about? And what are the, the chem up to including 01:12:17.449 --> 01:12:20.729 the chemical differences when you're facing extremes? 01:12:20.829 --> 01:12:24.470 And then The idea was our first responders and 01:12:24.470 --> 01:12:29.270 in large part, our veterans go through this all 01:12:29.270 --> 01:12:31.949 the time, right? And so how do we replicate it? 01:12:31.989 --> 01:12:33.930 Well, we're going to take these athletes and 01:12:33.930 --> 01:12:35.630 we're going to run them around the world. And 01:12:35.630 --> 01:12:38.069 let's figure out what's going on so that we can 01:12:38.069 --> 01:12:41.430 take that information to, again, address so many 01:12:41.430 --> 01:12:42.989 things that are challenging these populations. 01:12:44.289 --> 01:12:46.789 So we set off to do it. And the way we did it, 01:12:46.850 --> 01:12:49.409 again, under the experiential donorship model 01:12:49.409 --> 01:12:54.430 is these. Incredibly generous, patriotic, and 01:12:54.430 --> 01:12:57.390 adventurous crew of donors came along with us. 01:12:57.810 --> 01:13:00.550 We referred to them as VIPs during the trip. 01:13:00.949 --> 01:13:04.170 And then each continent that we landed on, they 01:13:04.170 --> 01:13:08.270 had an off adventure to do. And some of them, 01:13:08.350 --> 01:13:11.390 well, all of them were amazing. Some were more 01:13:11.390 --> 01:13:14.850 adventurous. Some were more cultural. But anyway, 01:13:14.970 --> 01:13:18.439 we did seven and seven. Except for the Antarctica 01:13:18.439 --> 01:13:21.279 trip, we had to postpone, but we made up for 01:13:21.279 --> 01:13:24.600 it a year later, literally to the month. 12 months 01:13:24.600 --> 01:13:26.159 later, we went and knocked out the Antarctica. 01:13:26.180 --> 01:13:29.199 The first try at it got scrubbed. Unfortunately, 01:13:29.300 --> 01:13:31.020 that was our first one. You remember that letdown? 01:13:31.159 --> 01:13:33.579 We were in Cape Town. We were going to launch 01:13:33.579 --> 01:13:38.079 from Cape Town. The seven -day clock was going 01:13:38.079 --> 01:13:40.460 to start when we were wheels down in Antarctica 01:13:40.460 --> 01:13:43.859 from Cape Town. It was the night before we were 01:13:43.859 --> 01:13:45.159 supposed to leave for Antarctica, and it got 01:13:45.159 --> 01:13:49.079 scrubbed. Oh, so disappointed, but we persevered. 01:13:49.079 --> 01:13:51.039 And then to the credit of the athletes and the 01:13:51.039 --> 01:13:53.680 base jumpers, they, they still did seven marathons. 01:13:53.680 --> 01:13:56.140 Just one was in Cape town. And then one later 01:13:56.140 --> 01:13:59.920 was in Cairo. So they still got all seven, um, 01:14:00.020 --> 01:14:04.619 uh, marathons and base jumps and swims. They 01:14:04.619 --> 01:14:07.699 got them in and, uh, we, we kept the VIPs busy, 01:14:07.760 --> 01:14:09.939 um, in Cape town while everybody was running 01:14:09.939 --> 01:14:13.100 and jumping off of cliffs. So, uh, yeah, then, 01:14:13.180 --> 01:14:14.960 then we picked up, you know, from there to Perth. 01:14:16.490 --> 01:14:18.689 All the way. That was a long flight to Dubai. 01:14:19.350 --> 01:14:21.949 And then from Dubai, a short jump up to Cairo. 01:14:22.670 --> 01:14:28.590 Cairo, relatively short jump up to London. And 01:14:28.590 --> 01:14:31.390 then London, all the way to Cartagena, Colombia. 01:14:32.010 --> 01:14:35.409 And then a short jump up to Dallas. Yeah. And 01:14:35.409 --> 01:14:38.449 that was it. That was it. But it was such an 01:14:38.449 --> 01:14:43.050 adventure in the medical aspect, in the performance 01:14:43.050 --> 01:14:46.489 aspect. In fact, it was called the 7X Human Performance 01:14:46.489 --> 01:14:49.189 Project. So in the human performance part of 01:14:49.189 --> 01:14:52.689 watching these and studying these athletes, it 01:14:52.689 --> 01:14:56.470 was just, it was a goldmine of information. It 01:14:56.470 --> 01:15:00.810 was a lifetime experience for everybody. And 01:15:00.810 --> 01:15:04.930 it all resulted in just a few weeks ago with 01:15:04.930 --> 01:15:07.989 the documentary that was filmed throughout those 01:15:07.989 --> 01:15:10.390 seven days. And then again, Antarctica a year 01:15:10.390 --> 01:15:13.239 later. into this wonderful documentary. And James, 01:15:13.340 --> 01:15:16.220 thank you, by the way, for emceeing the Q &A. 01:15:17.279 --> 01:15:20.220 You know, this is kind of funny. I haven't seen 01:15:20.220 --> 01:15:23.420 the movie yet. I was busy with the red carpet 01:15:23.420 --> 01:15:27.659 shenanigans and the pomp and circumstance, but 01:15:27.659 --> 01:15:30.239 I did catch the entire Q &A afterward that you 01:15:30.239 --> 01:15:35.000 hosted, and it recharged my batteries. Everybody 01:15:35.000 --> 01:15:40.579 was so involved. and emotionally attached to 01:15:40.579 --> 01:15:42.460 their responses as you went through the different 01:15:42.460 --> 01:15:45.399 panels it just made me fall in love all over 01:15:45.399 --> 01:15:48.199 again it was really i didn't i didn't need to 01:15:48.199 --> 01:15:51.159 see the movie i was there but to to watch the 01:15:51.159 --> 01:15:54.460 athletes that was one panel and then the other 01:15:54.460 --> 01:15:59.239 panel was the medical um and to watch them relive 01:15:59.239 --> 01:16:01.899 the highlights and what they got out of it um 01:16:01.899 --> 01:16:04.699 that was just the world to me you did a great 01:16:04.699 --> 01:16:06.760 job doing that we appreciate that Well, I mean, 01:16:06.779 --> 01:16:08.880 again, throwing it back to you, like the organization, 01:16:09.239 --> 01:16:10.859 the whole thing was phenomenal. And we'll get 01:16:10.859 --> 01:16:12.159 to Ryan because obviously you want to tell the 01:16:12.159 --> 01:16:15.140 origin story too. But yeah, I helped set up that 01:16:15.140 --> 01:16:18.380 photo booth area and then forgot to go stand 01:16:18.380 --> 01:16:25.220 in it when I got to the event. You didn't get 01:16:25.220 --> 01:16:27.060 a picture in front of the step and repeat. No, 01:16:27.060 --> 01:16:29.720 no. But yeah, but if it was. So for people listening, 01:16:29.939 --> 01:16:32.640 the documentary will be coming out soon. The 01:16:32.640 --> 01:16:35.840 manual that Phil White helped create will be 01:16:35.840 --> 01:16:38.619 coming out soon. Let's talk, though, about the 01:16:38.619 --> 01:16:40.960 origin story, because, you know, for so many 01:16:40.960 --> 01:16:43.699 of us, a lot of times these stories are written 01:16:43.699 --> 01:16:46.880 in blood. So talk to me about Ryan, Jamie and 01:16:46.880 --> 01:16:51.560 David. Yep. Yep. So the founder of the Bird's 01:16:51.560 --> 01:16:56.750 Eye Views is. Ryan Birdman Parrot, a Navy SEAL 01:16:56.750 --> 01:17:01.430 veteran. And he lost his dearest friend in the 01:17:01.430 --> 01:17:06.409 SEAL platoon, David Metcalf, to suicide. And 01:17:06.409 --> 01:17:10.050 Ryan was just absolutely devastated by it. And 01:17:10.050 --> 01:17:13.970 he took that grief and he took that devastation. 01:17:14.149 --> 01:17:18.920 God bless him. Another great Ryan that God has 01:17:18.920 --> 01:17:21.500 put in front of me in my journey through this 01:17:21.500 --> 01:17:24.659 life. Another amazing soul. So Ryan took that 01:17:24.659 --> 01:17:28.699 tragedy and he said, I'm going to spend the rest 01:17:28.699 --> 01:17:32.460 of my life trying to figure out or otherwise 01:17:32.460 --> 01:17:35.960 make a dent in the suicide rate among veterans 01:17:35.960 --> 01:17:41.920 and first responders. And this insanely powerful 01:17:41.920 --> 01:17:46.810 woman, the widow of David, Jamie. has been involved 01:17:46.810 --> 01:17:50.770 in it as well and has been nothing but inspirational 01:17:50.770 --> 01:17:54.630 um i finally got to meet her at the at the premiere 01:17:54.630 --> 01:17:57.609 oh no i saw her briefly at the dallas event it 01:17:57.609 --> 01:18:00.130 was very very brief very brief because there 01:18:00.130 --> 01:18:02.470 was a big memorial presentation at the end of 01:18:02.470 --> 01:18:06.569 the the 7x um for dave this beautiful mural was 01:18:06.569 --> 01:18:10.250 presented to jamie and uh anyway i got to spend 01:18:10.250 --> 01:18:15.270 time with her uh and her family um She's one 01:18:15.270 --> 01:18:20.350 of the most powerful, strong -willed, inspirational 01:18:20.350 --> 01:18:23.310 women I've ever met in my life. Right up there 01:18:23.310 --> 01:18:27.890 with my mom and my wife. Unbelievable. I cherish 01:18:27.890 --> 01:18:31.369 every minute with her. She's so fun. And she's 01:18:31.369 --> 01:18:33.350 arguably one of the best huggers I've ever met 01:18:33.350 --> 01:18:36.270 in my life as well. And I've told her as much. 01:18:37.310 --> 01:18:39.310 Yeah, so having her there was incredibly. And 01:18:39.310 --> 01:18:42.609 then her bravery to get up there and kick off 01:18:42.609 --> 01:18:45.649 the documentary with a testimonial about David 01:18:45.649 --> 01:18:50.609 and about her journey and her friendship. Well, 01:18:50.689 --> 01:18:53.510 it's more than friendship with Ryan. Really, 01:18:53.729 --> 01:18:56.310 I thought that was really generous of her to 01:18:56.310 --> 01:18:58.789 put herself out there in front of the entire 01:18:58.789 --> 01:19:02.010 theater and just paint the picture. And then 01:19:02.010 --> 01:19:04.810 to roll right into, I did catch that part, to 01:19:04.810 --> 01:19:08.180 roll right into the. the final release was just 01:19:08.180 --> 01:19:11.020 really set the tone and made it even more magical 01:19:11.020 --> 01:19:17.260 than it was. Yeah, so Bird started the Bird's 01:19:17.260 --> 01:19:20.399 Eye View project. And I got involved in the Bird's 01:19:20.399 --> 01:19:24.000 Eye View project through the 7X. He asked myself 01:19:24.000 --> 01:19:29.000 and one of my guys from the task force in Afghanistan 01:19:29.000 --> 01:19:31.800 if we would go around the world and do what we 01:19:31.800 --> 01:19:35.630 call a PDSS or a pre -deployment. site survey, 01:19:35.750 --> 01:19:37.430 more commonly referred to as a recce, right? 01:19:37.529 --> 01:19:39.829 That we would go to all these cities around the 01:19:39.829 --> 01:19:43.789 world and kind of set up things that in six months 01:19:43.789 --> 01:19:46.170 would be the journey. And that included everything 01:19:46.170 --> 01:19:49.409 as identifying the marathon route to getting 01:19:49.409 --> 01:19:52.189 permissions and authorities and concurrences 01:19:52.189 --> 01:19:56.250 and from the different parts of government or 01:19:56.250 --> 01:19:59.289 the press or the different venues for the different 01:19:59.289 --> 01:20:03.880 things that we're trying to pull off. And most 01:20:03.880 --> 01:20:07.060 of it worked out. Most of it worked out. It was 01:20:07.060 --> 01:20:10.380 interesting that even, so we did six weeks traveling 01:20:10.380 --> 01:20:13.000 around the world, kind of solidifying the plan. 01:20:13.220 --> 01:20:15.560 And then between the time we got back and the 01:20:15.560 --> 01:20:19.920 time of kickoff, how much can change? How much 01:20:19.920 --> 01:20:24.039 changed from our final report to, you know, the 01:20:24.039 --> 01:20:28.060 director of the journey, which was also one of 01:20:28.060 --> 01:20:29.680 the guys from the task force in Afghanistan, 01:20:29.979 --> 01:20:34.479 Bryce Hansen. Just an incredible, to call him 01:20:34.479 --> 01:20:36.560 a project manager, it really doesn't do him justice. 01:20:36.720 --> 01:20:40.159 He was a Green Beret commander. And he put it 01:20:40.159 --> 01:20:44.520 all together with Ryan. And I don't know if you 01:20:44.520 --> 01:20:47.960 knew this origin story, James, that I met. I 01:20:47.960 --> 01:20:50.100 didn't met. We served together in Afghanistan. 01:20:50.579 --> 01:20:56.119 But he helped me in Ukraine. And we had just 01:20:56.119 --> 01:21:01.800 interdicted a sex trafficking criminal syndicate. 01:21:02.329 --> 01:21:05.329 that was on its way to pick up a young lady who 01:21:05.329 --> 01:21:09.850 had just turned 18 and pull her into the nefarious 01:21:09.850 --> 01:21:15.449 sex trafficking, I guess, industry in Eastern 01:21:15.449 --> 01:21:18.289 Europe. And we interdicted it. We got to her 01:21:18.289 --> 01:21:22.550 before the goons, and we had a long road trip 01:21:22.550 --> 01:21:24.590 back to Poland where her Canadian family, adopted 01:21:24.590 --> 01:21:28.010 family, was waiting on her. And so we had a lot 01:21:28.010 --> 01:21:30.529 of time to talk on that road trip. And I said, 01:21:30.550 --> 01:21:32.430 so Bryce, what are you up to? You know, whatever. 01:21:32.989 --> 01:21:35.369 And he's like, you wouldn't believe I'm planning 01:21:35.369 --> 01:21:38.090 this trip around the world with these crazy athletes 01:21:38.090 --> 01:21:39.869 and these base jumpers. We're going to do seven 01:21:39.869 --> 01:21:43.829 continents in seven days. And I was like, if 01:21:43.829 --> 01:21:47.010 you need help, I'm there. And he's like, careful 01:21:47.010 --> 01:21:48.449 what you ask for. And there was only a few weeks 01:21:48.449 --> 01:21:49.869 after we got back. He's like, hey, you remember 01:21:49.869 --> 01:21:52.909 Ricky? I'm like, yeah, Ricky, he's great. Ricky 01:21:52.909 --> 01:21:54.989 and I had an experience on a target one time. 01:21:55.069 --> 01:21:57.670 It was kind of comical. And I go, yeah, Ricky's 01:21:57.670 --> 01:22:00.090 great. And he said, well, how about you and Ricky 01:22:00.090 --> 01:22:03.829 go do a PDSS for this massive project I'm taking 01:22:03.829 --> 01:22:07.829 on? And so that was how I got involved. It's 01:22:07.829 --> 01:22:10.670 amazing. Like sitting on that plane, I think 01:22:10.670 --> 01:22:13.750 that people, when I start rattling cages, trying 01:22:13.750 --> 01:22:17.930 to bring change, especially when it's in response 01:22:17.930 --> 01:22:19.970 to losing lives in the first responder profession, 01:22:20.270 --> 01:22:24.739 I don't think they understand. Like the people 01:22:24.739 --> 01:22:26.939 in these circles that we surround ourselves with 01:22:26.939 --> 01:22:30.340 that have served for, you know, decades in uniform 01:22:30.340 --> 01:22:32.279 come out and then just roll up their sleeves 01:22:32.279 --> 01:22:34.399 and go, right, what am I going to do next? How 01:22:34.399 --> 01:22:37.119 can I help more? These are the incredible humans 01:22:37.119 --> 01:22:39.699 that we find ourselves side by side. And, you 01:22:39.699 --> 01:22:42.510 know, that is what drives me is I get. you know 01:22:42.510 --> 01:22:45.050 fired up from all the people that were on the 01:22:45.050 --> 01:22:47.289 plane all the people shay and all these other 01:22:47.289 --> 01:22:49.510 incredible human beings you know they've been 01:22:49.510 --> 01:22:52.069 through so much and just want to keep doing more 01:22:52.069 --> 01:22:54.689 because they refuse to sit back shrug their shoulders 01:22:54.689 --> 01:22:57.069 and go oh well you know they signed up for it 01:22:57.069 --> 01:23:00.149 it's part of the job or whatever dismissive cowardly 01:23:00.149 --> 01:23:02.630 rhetoric people want to spit but it's no it's 01:23:02.630 --> 01:23:04.829 like hold my beer oh really we're losing people 01:23:04.829 --> 01:23:07.960 well fuck that You know, we're going to put a 01:23:07.960 --> 01:23:09.579 stop to that the same way as you did with the 01:23:09.579 --> 01:23:11.859 mines. You know, people are innocent civilians 01:23:11.859 --> 01:23:14.340 are dying in Ukraine because of these minefields. 01:23:14.340 --> 01:23:17.199 Then let's go do something about it. So that's 01:23:17.199 --> 01:23:19.300 what I loved about this whole mission is it wasn't 01:23:19.300 --> 01:23:21.520 just like we do in the fire service. You know, 01:23:21.539 --> 01:23:24.699 we're great at burying our own. And, you know, 01:23:24.720 --> 01:23:26.840 all the pomp and circumstance and the bagpipes 01:23:26.840 --> 01:23:29.340 and the last calls and the class A uniforms and 01:23:29.340 --> 01:23:34.260 the tearful chief speeches. That's empty if you're 01:23:34.260 --> 01:23:36.949 not. prepared to actually say, we need to do 01:23:36.949 --> 01:23:39.010 everything we can to stop this happening again. 01:23:39.229 --> 01:23:41.310 And these are the men and women that we surround 01:23:41.310 --> 01:23:43.649 ourselves with that have the courage to actually 01:23:43.649 --> 01:23:47.710 step up and say, I refuse to, to let, you know, 01:23:47.729 --> 01:23:50.229 my brother or my sister die and do nothing about 01:23:50.229 --> 01:23:56.810 it in their memory. Yeah, that was in my, the 01:23:56.810 --> 01:24:00.670 credit for that goes to Birdman. He has many 01:24:00.670 --> 01:24:05.060 talents. not the least of which is his ability 01:24:05.060 --> 01:24:09.060 to corral some of the most amazing people I've 01:24:09.060 --> 01:24:15.140 ever met. And that's why I am so proudly involved 01:24:15.140 --> 01:24:18.619 with the Bird's Eye View project. I was enamored 01:24:18.619 --> 01:24:20.659 by the trip, you know, even though I had a relatively 01:24:20.659 --> 01:24:27.880 small role in it. But it inspired me to kind 01:24:27.880 --> 01:24:32.460 of come out of retirement. And contribute more 01:24:32.460 --> 01:24:36.319 to it. It's all I want to do is help. This is 01:24:36.319 --> 01:24:39.140 my retirement life is I just want to help. I 01:24:39.140 --> 01:24:44.699 have more to offer. And the Bird's Eye View project 01:24:44.699 --> 01:24:51.500 not only surrounds me with people like lockstep 01:24:51.500 --> 01:24:54.039 going in the same direction towards the betterment 01:24:54.039 --> 01:24:57.859 of the first responder and the veteran community. 01:24:58.569 --> 01:25:02.510 But along the way, it's therapeutic for me. I'm 01:25:02.510 --> 01:25:05.109 in, you know, I didn't start using the word tribe 01:25:05.109 --> 01:25:07.810 until that trip, James. And I've used that term 01:25:07.810 --> 01:25:12.130 with you since then. And I absolutely stand by 01:25:12.130 --> 01:25:14.050 that word. You know, I used to, you know, the 01:25:14.050 --> 01:25:16.550 community or the unit or the task force or the 01:25:16.550 --> 01:25:19.090 team or the company, you know, all the military 01:25:19.090 --> 01:25:22.369 things. But now that it's a little bit more altruistic 01:25:22.369 --> 01:25:25.529 because I'm not in the unit. And my unit, I'm 01:25:25.529 --> 01:25:27.369 not saying JSOC, I'm not overselling myself. 01:25:27.550 --> 01:25:32.430 You know, I'm just saying my unit. It absolutely 01:25:32.430 --> 01:25:36.909 is now my tribe. It is my tribe. And I wake up 01:25:36.909 --> 01:25:41.010 every day eager to open my emails. And I, well, 01:25:41.090 --> 01:25:43.170 some projects I love more than others, but, you 01:25:43.170 --> 01:25:45.550 know, dealing with everything as an executive 01:25:45.550 --> 01:25:49.289 director at the Bird's Eye View project, I eagerly 01:25:49.289 --> 01:25:53.449 pick up the phone from Ryan and he'll write. 01:25:53.800 --> 01:25:57.180 it's just it's just a ball of goodness and health 01:25:57.180 --> 01:26:06.260 emotional health and uh spiritual health yeah 01:26:06.260 --> 01:26:11.600 it's it's exactly what i need and in turn i'd 01:26:11.600 --> 01:26:15.619 like to think i'm contributing to the betterment 01:26:15.619 --> 01:26:20.319 what little i i do in fact i just just reminded 01:26:20.319 --> 01:26:25.409 me i was i received a text over the weekend a 01:26:25.409 --> 01:26:29.789 widow of one of my guys that killed himself i 01:26:29.789 --> 01:26:35.029 haven't heard from her in forever and uh you 01:26:35.029 --> 01:26:36.649 know it's the holidays so it's incredibly hard 01:26:36.649 --> 01:26:41.229 on families of any walk of life um that has gone 01:26:41.229 --> 01:26:43.670 through tragedy let alone a suicide in their 01:26:43.670 --> 01:26:47.710 family let alone their spouse so i couldn't imagine 01:26:47.710 --> 01:26:51.010 what dear robin is going through right now But 01:26:51.010 --> 01:26:55.189 she reached out to me and she said, hey, I'm 01:26:55.189 --> 01:26:58.609 collecting pictures of Russ. Do you have any? 01:26:58.789 --> 01:27:00.569 And at first I was just thrilled to get a text 01:27:00.569 --> 01:27:03.649 from her. And then I realized, oh, it's the holidays. 01:27:03.770 --> 01:27:06.029 I'll bet she's really, really struggling right 01:27:06.029 --> 01:27:08.590 now. And then that made me in turn reflect on 01:27:08.590 --> 01:27:12.109 the Bird's Eye View Project. This is why. This 01:27:12.109 --> 01:27:16.369 is it. This is another reminder of however far 01:27:16.369 --> 01:27:19.789 or however little we roll that ball forward, 01:27:20.830 --> 01:27:24.029 whether it's in prevention or treatment or awareness 01:27:24.029 --> 01:27:27.869 this is this is it this is another this is another 01:27:27.869 --> 01:27:34.890 reminder this is another widow so um there's 01:27:34.890 --> 01:27:37.789 plenty of motivation out there there's plenty 01:27:37.789 --> 01:27:40.210 of motivation absolutely yeah and i'm fortunate 01:27:40.210 --> 01:27:42.829 for it yeah no and that's just it now you see 01:27:42.829 --> 01:27:44.869 that even with with healthy transitions you know 01:27:44.869 --> 01:27:46.329 a lot of people that left the military or first 01:27:46.329 --> 01:27:49.539 responders if they can find something else to 01:27:49.539 --> 01:27:51.439 be a part of that still makes the world better 01:27:51.439 --> 01:27:53.800 you know a lot of the jarring transitions i've 01:27:53.800 --> 01:27:55.899 heard is when someone went into wall street and 01:27:55.899 --> 01:27:59.420 they were like dude i just I miss good people. 01:27:59.640 --> 01:28:01.779 These people are focused on money and I'm tarring 01:28:01.779 --> 01:28:04.699 everyone with the same brush. But when you have 01:28:04.699 --> 01:28:07.180 that mission to continue serving, whether you 01:28:07.180 --> 01:28:09.060 wear a uniform or not anymore, it doesn't matter. 01:28:09.159 --> 01:28:10.739 That was still your mission to make the world 01:28:10.739 --> 01:28:12.840 better. And I think this, as you said, there's 01:28:12.840 --> 01:28:15.720 so much to do, whether it's helping remove mines 01:28:15.720 --> 01:28:19.140 from Ukraine or simply moving the needle on mental 01:28:19.140 --> 01:28:21.359 health in the uniform professions. I mean, this 01:28:21.359 --> 01:28:23.439 is what... whether you're still in or whether 01:28:23.439 --> 01:28:26.060 you transitioned out this is how we can move 01:28:26.060 --> 01:28:28.659 that needle forward and who better than the people 01:28:28.659 --> 01:28:31.479 that arguably should care the most you know it's 01:28:31.479 --> 01:28:33.399 our brothers and sisters that we're losing so 01:28:33.399 --> 01:28:37.039 you know i think it's it's honorable to see someone 01:28:37.039 --> 01:28:40.180 that that wore the uniform and then as they hang 01:28:40.180 --> 01:28:42.680 it up they're like i want to do more i think 01:28:42.680 --> 01:28:45.720 this is the ultimate calling yeah i didn't see 01:28:45.720 --> 01:28:50.619 this coming i i uh you know when i retired um 01:28:51.069 --> 01:28:54.289 Well, not sadly, but I fell right into cancer 01:28:54.289 --> 01:28:57.470 treatment and coming out of that very successfully. 01:28:57.569 --> 01:29:03.989 Thank God. Yeah, I didn't see this coming. And 01:29:03.989 --> 01:29:06.649 I can't wait to see what the next. Everything 01:29:06.649 --> 01:29:10.449 keeps falling into something I just really want 01:29:10.449 --> 01:29:13.850 to dig into, it seems. And whether it's providence 01:29:13.850 --> 01:29:19.329 or just luck or blessings, I can't wait to see. 01:29:19.710 --> 01:29:22.329 what every other, the next month brings. It's, 01:29:22.329 --> 01:29:25.510 it's a, it's been a nonstop adventure, even cancer 01:29:25.510 --> 01:29:27.329 treatment, an adventure, not a good one, but 01:29:27.329 --> 01:29:30.409 it was an adventure, um, for five years and it's 01:29:30.409 --> 01:29:33.609 not letting up. Um, I think it's, my son's going 01:29:33.609 --> 01:29:36.310 to be turning 16 in February. So I think a lot 01:29:36.310 --> 01:29:38.609 of it's going to be the remaining years that 01:29:38.609 --> 01:29:41.170 he's under this roof, the adventures of being 01:29:41.170 --> 01:29:47.470 a teen dad of an incredible young man. Um, yeah, 01:29:47.590 --> 01:29:50.460 I think. I mean, I keep thinking I know what's 01:29:50.460 --> 01:29:52.859 going to be coming around the corner, but I don't. 01:29:53.720 --> 01:29:59.000 It's great. I'm, again, blessed and lucky for 01:29:59.000 --> 01:30:02.020 sure. Yeah. In fact, maybe that's a good way 01:30:02.020 --> 01:30:04.260 to lead into some of the things that we're doing 01:30:04.260 --> 01:30:06.739 next year with Bird's Eye View Project. I was 01:30:06.739 --> 01:30:08.500 going to literally say that's a good segue. So 01:30:08.500 --> 01:30:10.880 you already beat me to it. No, it's perfect. 01:30:11.039 --> 01:30:17.170 That was not pre -scripted. Okay, so what's become 01:30:17.170 --> 01:30:20.289 a bit of a hallmark since the 7X? I don't know 01:30:20.289 --> 01:30:22.189 if we'll ever be able to top that one, the 7Con, 01:30:22.250 --> 01:30:24.550 the Human Performance Project. But what's become 01:30:24.550 --> 01:30:29.289 a hallmark for us is these commando fantasy weekends 01:30:29.289 --> 01:30:33.590 that we've been doing that are so much fun. And 01:30:33.590 --> 01:30:37.989 there's so many layers to it. But just to break 01:30:37.989 --> 01:30:42.930 it down, the donors. come to Dallas, and then 01:30:42.930 --> 01:30:46.069 we take them through a three -day commando fantasy 01:30:46.069 --> 01:30:50.010 camp. And it's not a screamo. It's not an attitude 01:30:50.010 --> 01:30:54.829 adjustment. It's more of a comedy show. The last 01:30:54.829 --> 01:30:57.989 one we had 80 participants, and then we had 40 01:30:57.989 --> 01:31:00.270 special operations veterans volunteering to be 01:31:00.270 --> 01:31:02.250 the cadre and instructors and role players and 01:31:02.250 --> 01:31:04.470 stuff like that. So basically it was like you 01:31:04.470 --> 01:31:06.869 had 40 comedians. So it's a two -to -one ratio. 01:31:08.460 --> 01:31:11.619 You know what I mean? Of two clients and then 01:31:11.619 --> 01:31:15.500 one comedian, if you break it down by that metric. 01:31:15.600 --> 01:31:17.680 And it's just so much fun. But what it is, it's 01:31:17.680 --> 01:31:19.539 a couple days of training, and then it culminates 01:31:19.539 --> 01:31:22.779 on a Saturday night with a full mission profile, 01:31:22.939 --> 01:31:27.039 including a helicopter infiltration and exfiltration 01:31:27.039 --> 01:31:31.020 onto a force -on -force target scenario through 01:31:31.020 --> 01:31:34.939 a bunch of structures. And then a massive, what 01:31:34.939 --> 01:31:38.430 are they calling it, MCE? Mass casualty event 01:31:38.430 --> 01:31:41.550 that they have to fight through as a team and 01:31:41.550 --> 01:31:44.489 just rip through some aid bags and just do what 01:31:44.489 --> 01:31:46.369 they can before we whisk them off in a helicopter. 01:31:46.670 --> 01:31:50.289 And then they go to their debriefing. It's gained 01:31:50.289 --> 01:31:54.050 a ton of popularity, the complexity of it and 01:31:54.050 --> 01:31:57.390 the variety of things. So it's, I'd say it's 01:31:57.390 --> 01:32:02.109 like, I don't know, 80 % training and then 20 01:32:02.109 --> 01:32:06.619 % of the exercise. and and with it so these are 01:32:06.619 --> 01:32:10.039 the layers so one is the clients are going to 01:32:10.039 --> 01:32:12.380 have an amazing the donors right they're going 01:32:12.380 --> 01:32:14.340 to have an amazing time and not only do they 01:32:14.340 --> 01:32:16.420 get to hang out with a bunch of special operations 01:32:16.420 --> 01:32:20.640 veterans which they long for um i don't get it 01:32:20.640 --> 01:32:23.600 but they they enjoy it i think they're just a 01:32:23.600 --> 01:32:25.600 bunch of clowns uh but they're really they're 01:32:25.600 --> 01:32:28.119 really really really good at what they do and 01:32:28.119 --> 01:32:30.899 uh so they they get to you know kind of mix and 01:32:30.899 --> 01:32:33.779 mingle and we have a social and They get to hang 01:32:33.779 --> 01:32:36.960 out with the special operations veterans. And 01:32:36.960 --> 01:32:41.619 coincidentally, or not coincidentally, but commensurately, 01:32:41.680 --> 01:32:44.560 the veterans get to hang out with these amazing 01:32:44.560 --> 01:32:49.399 patriotic and benevolent Americans that donate 01:32:49.399 --> 01:32:54.699 a sizable donation. And they're successful business 01:32:54.699 --> 01:32:58.479 people. And the veterans really, really get a 01:32:58.479 --> 01:33:01.300 lot out of. hanging out with a population of 01:33:01.300 --> 01:33:04.739 America that they may not necessarily rub elbows 01:33:04.739 --> 01:33:11.960 with every day. And the last event on a Sunday 01:33:11.960 --> 01:33:16.380 after the rappelling was something that Birdman 01:33:16.380 --> 01:33:21.199 calls the war room. I call it speed dating. But 01:33:21.199 --> 01:33:24.340 of the 40 volunteers, if they have a nonprofit 01:33:24.340 --> 01:33:28.039 of their own, or if they're an artisan like a 01:33:28.039 --> 01:33:32.359 knife maker or a suppressor gun suppressor company 01:33:32.359 --> 01:33:35.739 or they offer their own training or if they wrote 01:33:35.739 --> 01:33:38.819 a book or if they're they do artwork we set up 01:33:38.819 --> 01:33:41.779 like a small convention hall and everybody set 01:33:41.779 --> 01:33:43.560 up a table while everybody was out rappelling 01:33:43.560 --> 01:33:47.579 60 feet off of this uh this building and then 01:33:47.579 --> 01:33:49.260 when they came in they just kind of socialize 01:33:49.260 --> 01:33:50.840 and check out everybody because everybody knows 01:33:50.840 --> 01:33:53.659 each other like you've already done drills and 01:33:53.659 --> 01:33:55.800 you're already shooting at each other with you 01:33:55.800 --> 01:33:57.640 know paint balls and sim rounds and you already 01:33:57.640 --> 01:34:00.300 did the social and so now everybody is really 01:34:00.300 --> 01:34:04.720 intimate and we only only gave it an hour and 01:34:04.720 --> 01:34:06.300 we ended up letting it go for like two and a 01:34:06.300 --> 01:34:10.159 half hours you know like people were on the verge 01:34:10.159 --> 01:34:12.300 of missing their flights because they i we didn't 01:34:12.300 --> 01:34:16.220 want to stop that that kumbaya um cohesion that 01:34:16.220 --> 01:34:18.079 was going on in that room you know i kept looking 01:34:18.079 --> 01:34:20.779 at bird i'm like hey man we gotta we gotta wrap 01:34:20.779 --> 01:34:23.659 this up and we're both you know talking about 01:34:23.659 --> 01:34:26.079 we're like we can't interrupt this energy this 01:34:26.079 --> 01:34:29.460 lovely uh atmosphere that was going on in this 01:34:29.460 --> 01:34:32.939 this big room so that's one of us kind of the 01:34:32.939 --> 01:34:36.000 networking back and forth the donors get to network 01:34:36.000 --> 01:34:37.920 with each other i'd say about half of them are 01:34:37.920 --> 01:34:40.579 from dallas half of them flew in from as far 01:34:40.579 --> 01:34:45.859 as canada and florida and uh yeah and then the 01:34:45.859 --> 01:34:48.180 donors learned some pretty rad skills you know 01:34:48.180 --> 01:34:52.140 like home defense cqb and some really high -end 01:34:52.140 --> 01:34:56.979 immediate trauma medicine. A lot of hemorrhage 01:34:56.979 --> 01:35:03.199 control, shock, a little bit of airway. And then, 01:35:03.239 --> 01:35:06.060 by the way, the donors leave with a pretty sizable 01:35:06.060 --> 01:35:09.140 medical pack. They're trained on everything in 01:35:09.140 --> 01:35:12.859 it, which is cool. And then at the end of the 01:35:12.859 --> 01:35:19.060 day, it's a fun generator for the charity. And 01:35:19.060 --> 01:35:23.720 it's fun. Now, I would argue for me personally, 01:35:23.880 --> 01:35:26.479 what I get out of it is I'm back in the team 01:35:26.479 --> 01:35:31.199 room. I'm back with the boys. It's like just 01:35:31.199 --> 01:35:36.760 total team room antic jackassery. But just like 01:35:36.760 --> 01:35:40.279 in the teams, you're going to deliver an incredibly 01:35:40.279 --> 01:35:44.619 professional product. But you're literally crying, 01:35:44.819 --> 01:35:48.510 laughing along the way. And it's sophomoric and 01:35:48.510 --> 01:35:52.229 it's toilet humor, but it's, we're all, and again, 01:35:52.350 --> 01:35:56.409 I'd say it's one third. We're police, firefighters, 01:35:56.789 --> 01:36:00.170 EMT. The rest of us were all special operations 01:36:00.170 --> 01:36:03.890 veterans. And there were some trauma nurses in 01:36:03.890 --> 01:36:10.869 there, but it's just, it's like. I told the clients 01:36:10.869 --> 01:36:13.069 as I briefed them for the full mission profile, 01:36:13.350 --> 01:36:15.289 I said, if you ever want to be in an action movie 01:36:15.289 --> 01:36:17.029 or wonder what it's like to be in an action scene 01:36:17.029 --> 01:36:20.670 in a movie, as soon as you get on that helicopter 01:36:20.670 --> 01:36:24.489 for the next 35 minutes, you're going to be in 01:36:24.489 --> 01:36:27.409 an action film. And you're going to apply all 01:36:27.409 --> 01:36:29.949 the skills you learned in the last two days to 01:36:29.949 --> 01:36:34.149 it. But shock one, get over there. You got to 01:36:34.149 --> 01:36:36.369 get in PC posture because. The birds are waiting 01:36:36.369 --> 01:36:39.989 on you. And it's just like this massive, just 01:36:39.989 --> 01:36:43.869 a ball of excitement and high fiving and selfies 01:36:43.869 --> 01:36:47.149 and just a magical experience. So that was a 01:36:47.149 --> 01:36:50.970 long preface. We're going into our, to use a 01:36:50.970 --> 01:36:55.050 NSW term, our next evolution. Seals say that, 01:36:55.090 --> 01:36:56.829 green berets don't say that, but I guess I do 01:36:56.829 --> 01:36:58.949 now. So our next evolution is we're going to 01:36:58.949 --> 01:37:01.390 do it again in 2026 in the fall. I believe we're 01:37:01.390 --> 01:37:05.460 templating it in September. and registration 01:37:05.460 --> 01:37:08.479 is open for that. And due to its popularity and 01:37:08.479 --> 01:37:10.460 feedback from a lot of people, we're also going 01:37:10.460 --> 01:37:13.579 to run a Black Ops just for women. And that's 01:37:13.579 --> 01:37:15.800 going to be Black Ops Valkyrie. This is the first 01:37:15.800 --> 01:37:18.000 year we're going to do that. We don't have many 01:37:18.000 --> 01:37:20.140 female participants in the Black Ops. We do have 01:37:20.140 --> 01:37:23.960 some, and we wish we had more. But we thought, 01:37:24.060 --> 01:37:25.979 well, let's try one, and we'll tailor it just 01:37:25.979 --> 01:37:29.340 for women. And in addition to all the CQB skills 01:37:29.340 --> 01:37:31.960 and the breaching skills and the combatives and 01:37:31.960 --> 01:37:35.300 all the medical classes, There'll also be some 01:37:35.300 --> 01:37:39.159 stuff that we think the clients would be interested 01:37:39.159 --> 01:37:43.420 in specific to accomplished and professional 01:37:43.420 --> 01:37:47.619 women that they might enjoy as well. So I'm pretty 01:37:47.619 --> 01:37:49.439 hopeful that's going to become a program of record 01:37:49.439 --> 01:37:54.420 for us as well. And then the other line of effort 01:37:54.420 --> 01:38:00.000 that we're working on is extreme athlete program. 01:38:00.140 --> 01:38:04.939 And this is where Through a series of vetting 01:38:04.939 --> 01:38:08.140 and interviews, we'll pick an extreme athlete 01:38:08.140 --> 01:38:12.380 and we will help them raise money. And in turn, 01:38:12.520 --> 01:38:15.659 it'll be a fund generator for us as well. As 01:38:15.659 --> 01:38:18.979 they prepare for, we will help market whatever 01:38:18.979 --> 01:38:22.279 stunt they want to do, an extreme sports stunt 01:38:22.279 --> 01:38:25.739 of some kind. And we'll partner with them and 01:38:25.739 --> 01:38:29.979 produce the event. And then in turn, the proceeds 01:38:29.979 --> 01:38:32.699 from said event. In addition to raising awareness 01:38:32.699 --> 01:38:35.579 and all the public appearances, you know, leading 01:38:35.579 --> 01:38:38.199 up to the event and post event, but that will 01:38:38.199 --> 01:38:40.420 also be a fund generator for our affiliate list 01:38:40.420 --> 01:38:42.899 of beneficiaries from the funds that come in 01:38:42.899 --> 01:38:47.100 for that as well. So those are all kinds of internal 01:38:47.100 --> 01:38:51.079 things, but that's what I'm here for. So that's 01:38:51.079 --> 01:38:54.380 what 2026 is looking like. I know that means 01:38:54.380 --> 01:38:56.880 you and I are going to cross paths again, James, 01:38:56.899 --> 01:38:59.600 and I treasure every minute of that to come. 01:39:00.170 --> 01:39:03.109 for sure yeah likewise i mean again i'm just 01:39:03.109 --> 01:39:06.250 thinking back to to 7x like in cartagena with 01:39:06.250 --> 01:39:09.649 some of your your brothers from your team that 01:39:09.649 --> 01:39:11.489 was a good one that was that was so much for 01:39:11.489 --> 01:39:13.770 an englishman to be out there shooting all kinds 01:39:13.770 --> 01:39:15.909 of weapons that was uh that was an englishman's 01:39:15.909 --> 01:39:19.270 wet dream and then uh skydiving over the pyramids 01:39:19.270 --> 01:39:21.630 and running you know i've just interviewed ash 01:39:21.630 --> 01:39:23.510 who's one of the guys that met us in hyde park 01:39:23.510 --> 01:39:26.449 when when the lads were running there so yeah 01:39:26.449 --> 01:39:29.039 it's uh It's hard to top as far as, like you 01:39:29.039 --> 01:39:31.300 said, the actual trip itself. But every single 01:39:31.300 --> 01:39:33.800 time we come together, it's like no one left. 01:39:33.920 --> 01:39:37.180 It was amazing. I want to go to where people 01:39:37.180 --> 01:39:39.119 can find all these things and if we have any 01:39:39.119 --> 01:39:41.020 dates on the manual and the documentary. But 01:39:41.020 --> 01:39:43.960 just before we do, tell people listening about 01:39:43.960 --> 01:39:45.819 Sons of the Flag, because obviously that's quite 01:39:45.819 --> 01:39:49.239 pertinent to the fire service. Yeah, so Sons 01:39:49.239 --> 01:39:54.880 of the Flag is another amazing nonprofit. Again, 01:39:55.039 --> 01:39:58.439 same population, though. I believe it's, you 01:39:58.439 --> 01:40:00.819 know, mostly firefighters, but it includes veterans 01:40:00.819 --> 01:40:04.340 and other people, victims of fire. And it helps 01:40:04.340 --> 01:40:08.439 pay for the research and the treatment of people 01:40:08.439 --> 01:40:12.000 that fall into their portfolio. That was an incredibly 01:40:12.000 --> 01:40:14.039 impersonal term. I'm sure they don't use that 01:40:14.039 --> 01:40:18.739 term portfolio, but, you know, list of some of 01:40:18.739 --> 01:40:21.180 the heroes that need financial assistance with 01:40:21.180 --> 01:40:25.069 their burn treatments. So sons of the flag. Again, 01:40:25.250 --> 01:40:28.770 Birdman, it's just right on par with him devoting 01:40:28.770 --> 01:40:33.510 his life in a benevolent sense to help people 01:40:33.510 --> 01:40:38.069 from the tribe. So where can people find Bird's 01:40:38.069 --> 01:40:40.470 Eye View Project and all the other nonprofits 01:40:40.470 --> 01:40:43.729 that we talked about today? Yep. So just like 01:40:43.729 --> 01:40:46.310 most nonprofits, it's mostly website -based. 01:40:46.930 --> 01:40:51.590 So tipofthespearlandmineremoval .org. It's a 01:40:51.590 --> 01:40:56.810 long... But tip of the spear, landmine removal, 01:40:57.050 --> 01:41:01.430 no spaces, of course, .org is the website there. 01:41:01.590 --> 01:41:07.229 And there's donation links. And Ryan goes on 01:41:07.229 --> 01:41:11.649 every mission. And he does a really good job 01:41:11.649 --> 01:41:15.149 documenting the training and the landmine removal. 01:41:15.710 --> 01:41:22.050 And also will capture the sister organization. 01:41:22.779 --> 01:41:24.180 You know, where we're training the emergency 01:41:24.180 --> 01:41:27.180 services, the landmine, to the spirit of landmine 01:41:27.180 --> 01:41:31.340 removal, Ukraine. Again, a Ukraine -registered 01:41:31.340 --> 01:41:34.199 NGO, non -government organization. So that's 01:41:34.199 --> 01:41:36.819 a pretty active website. But Ryan does a really 01:41:36.819 --> 01:41:38.920 good job. If you want to subscribe to some of 01:41:38.920 --> 01:41:42.699 his content, it's really exciting because it's 01:41:42.699 --> 01:41:46.000 him in the minefield doing stuff. And it just 01:41:46.000 --> 01:41:51.729 blows your mind the size of a... The stones it 01:41:51.729 --> 01:41:53.810 takes to go out in a minefield. I am not a bomb 01:41:53.810 --> 01:41:57.050 technician. I don't recover mines. I'm just the 01:41:57.050 --> 01:42:00.489 operations guy. But Ryan and the team go out 01:42:00.489 --> 01:42:04.310 there. It's just absolutely inspirational. I'm 01:42:04.310 --> 01:42:07.949 so fortunate to have met Ryan Hendrickson and 01:42:07.949 --> 01:42:10.930 to be invited to the team. Just great. And then 01:42:10.930 --> 01:42:13.670 most what we're talking about just now was the 01:42:13.670 --> 01:42:17.449 bird's eye view project. So that's bird's eye 01:42:17.449 --> 01:42:22.640 view project. No apostrophes. With yes, so birdseyeviewproject 01:42:22.640 --> 01:42:25.899 .org. That is the website that we're just talking 01:42:25.899 --> 01:42:28.220 about with 7X and the Black Ops. And the Black 01:42:28.220 --> 01:42:31.140 Ops registration is open right now for Valkyrie 01:42:31.140 --> 01:42:33.880 and for the Black Ops proper. By the way, the 01:42:33.880 --> 01:42:36.020 Black Ops Valkyrie is templated to take place 01:42:36.020 --> 01:42:39.579 in April. So that's going to be amazing. Yeah, 01:42:39.600 --> 01:42:42.800 and then we also have a pretty good active social 01:42:42.800 --> 01:42:45.199 media accounts on Instagram and Facebook as well. 01:42:45.899 --> 01:42:48.100 And if people want to find you personally, where 01:42:48.100 --> 01:42:53.470 are the best places? Well, my LLC is incredibly 01:42:53.470 --> 01:42:57.470 inactive because I've partnered up with the Ryans, 01:42:57.470 --> 01:43:01.890 as I refer to them in my family. Yeah, I guess 01:43:01.890 --> 01:43:07.670 through either organization, I am considered 01:43:07.670 --> 01:43:14.710 Roby at Bird's Eye View Project and Chris at 01:43:14.710 --> 01:43:21.119 Tip the Spear Landmine Removal. Yeah. But just 01:43:21.119 --> 01:43:24.100 visiting those two websites are primarily, I'm 01:43:24.100 --> 01:43:30.000 also on LinkedIn, Chris Robichaud. And then only 01:43:30.000 --> 01:43:33.640 fans account, but that's probably not appropriate 01:43:33.640 --> 01:43:40.880 for your audience. That's it. Yeah. Brilliant. 01:43:41.340 --> 01:43:43.300 Well, mate, I want to say thank you so much. 01:43:43.319 --> 01:43:45.180 It's been such an amazing conversation. Obviously 01:43:45.180 --> 01:43:47.819 went some different routes this time and rightly 01:43:47.819 --> 01:43:50.180 so, especially obviously with the Ukraine thing 01:43:50.180 --> 01:43:51.979 because your boots on the ground. This is the 01:43:51.979 --> 01:43:53.680 kind of conversations I want to have, not with 01:43:53.680 --> 01:43:55.319 someone that saw it on the news, but someone 01:43:55.319 --> 01:43:57.720 who was actually there and whatever we're talking 01:43:57.720 --> 01:44:00.859 about. But it was so amazing to see you a couple 01:44:00.859 --> 01:44:03.659 of weeks ago. I'm excited to see what 2026 brings. 01:44:04.060 --> 01:44:07.319 And I want to thank you again for being so generous 01:44:07.319 --> 01:44:09.159 with your time and coming on the Behind the Shield 01:44:09.159 --> 01:44:12.760 podcast. James, I will never pass up an opportunity 01:44:12.760 --> 01:44:17.840 to see you, whether digitally. And again, this 01:44:17.840 --> 01:44:20.300 is one of the beauties of the Bird's Eye View 01:44:20.300 --> 01:44:22.859 project is I know I'm going to see you in person 01:44:22.859 --> 01:44:25.380 again. I'll be able to hug you. I'll be wearing 01:44:25.380 --> 01:44:27.920 your t -shirt with my little dog bites in the 01:44:27.920 --> 01:44:32.699 side of it. And I absolutely treasure our friendship. 01:44:32.880 --> 01:44:35.199 And anytime I get to see you, it's just so... 01:44:35.199 --> 01:44:37.720 In fact, you're the first person I saw in Dallas 01:44:37.720 --> 01:44:39.340 when I came up to the hotel. You just got in. 01:44:39.819 --> 01:44:43.520 You've just gotten in. I treasure every minute 01:44:43.520 --> 01:44:45.479 of it with you, brother. So good to see you. 01:44:45.479 --> 01:44:49.159 And thank you, James, for using your platform 01:44:49.159 --> 01:44:57.460 generously to address the concerns of what so 01:44:57.460 --> 01:44:59.720 many of our heroes are going through. And you're 01:44:59.720 --> 01:45:03.000 doing amazing. You are saving lives with your 01:45:03.000 --> 01:45:05.460 mission to change the work culture in the fire 01:45:05.460 --> 01:45:09.069 services. I love your updates. I love like, oh, 01:45:09.149 --> 01:45:12.409 another, you know, another district or another 01:45:12.409 --> 01:45:15.729 chief or another city has changed their their 01:45:15.729 --> 01:45:19.789 work rest policy, their shift rotations. You're 01:45:19.789 --> 01:45:21.850 on to something good, brother. You have momentum 01:45:21.850 --> 01:45:24.989 and the community is better for your involvement. 01:45:25.109 --> 01:45:28.170 So I I hope you take stock from once in every 01:45:28.170 --> 01:45:30.909 once in a while. You're incredibly humble. But, 01:45:30.989 --> 01:45:34.279 you know, when you're alone. I hope you take 01:45:34.279 --> 01:45:36.359 stock. You're making an impact. And for that, 01:45:36.420 --> 01:45:36.899 I'm grateful.