Denied Areas: How Elite Operators Conduct Recon in Secret Sectors

Summary

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Spy Craft – "Denied Areas: How Elite Operators Conduct Recon in Secret Sectors"

Podcast: Spy Craft
Host: Circle Of Insight Productions
Guest: Clark Impostato (Former Navy SEAL, Special Forces, Police Officer, Private Military Contractor)
Date: June 1, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, host Circle Of Insight Productions dives deep with Clark Impostato, a U.S. military veteran who’s served as a Navy SEAL, Army Special Forces, private military contractor, and police officer. The conversation explores the reality behind elite operator training, the psychological grit needed for success, the evolution of covert operations in denied areas, and how such experiences shape life after service. Listeners are treated to war stories, honest insights, and behind-the-scenes realities of both headline-making and unsung missions, shedding light on the "shadowy world of espionage."

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Becoming a Navy SEAL: Formative Influences

[02:43-05:16]

• Motivation: Clark’s path was gradual, inspired by his mother’s World War II fascination, 80s action films (Rambo, Commando), and seeing the Gulf War unfold on CNN as a teen.
  • “Watching TV with her, I just really kind of fell in love with World War II and the concept of it...I was just at an early age mesmerized by it...when the Gulf War popped off, I was just like, I have to do this.” — Clark, [03:00]
• Pop Culture Reality Check: Recognizes the fantasy vs. reality of SEAL portrayals in media like the Charlie Sheen “Navy SEALs” movie.
  • “That's what we thought the teams would be like.” — Clark, [05:21]

2. BUD/S Experience and the Psychological Edge

[05:32-12:50]

• Limited Prep: Info was scarce in the 90s, so arriving at BUD/S was “overwhelming” with a sense of adventure and mystery.
• Fleet Navy as Motivation: Having served on a ship first, Clark saw SEAL training as an escape from monotonous fleet life—a motivator to not quit.
• Instructor Philosophy: Focus on “one bite at a time”—the instructors teach survival by breaking the grueling training into manageable steps.
  • “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time...Survive the day.” — Clark, [06:52]
• Mental Over Physical: All candidates will be physically broken; never allow the instructors to defeat you mentally.
  • “The key to this shit is your state of mind, your mental fortitude.” — Clark, [11:56]
• Unique SEAL Challenge: Cold water is the separator—no matter one’s toughness, enduring hours in frigid Pacific water is a mental game, not just physical.
  • “That cold water really has nothing to do with your physical ability; it's your state of mind.” — Clark, [10:44]
• Compartmentalizing Failure: BUD/S teaches you to put past mistakes aside to face the next evolution—skills he applies in life today.
  • “You have to compartmentalize your defeat...You can revisit that failure later. There's a time and a place for that, but it’s not right then and there.” — Clark, [13:58]

3. From Navy SEAL to Elite Operator: Recon Missions in Denied Areas

[24:39-32:56]

• Jungle Mission, Reality vs. Fantasy: Recounts a “failed” mission in the Philippines hunting Abu Sayyaf. Despite “doing everything right,” the geography, environment, and jungle warfare made it nearly impossible.
  • “We never located, you know, our target. No fault to our own; geography is just against you...It was very surreal. I felt very vulnerable being out there in the jungle. It kind of showed me the reality of the battlefield.” — Clark, [25:15]
• Jungle Warfare Challenges: Despite being a “Winter Warfare Team,” his SEAL platoon was sent into Southeast Asian jungles, forcing rapid adaptation in terrain completely unlike their training.
  • “We were a Winter Team, Mountain Warfare Team...So for us to go into the jungle, it was...weird because I’d never been exposed to it before, and now we’re just thrown into it.” — Clark, [25:35]
• The Psychology of Failure and Adaptability: The mission’s outcome devastated the team, but Clark reflects on the necessity of compartmentalizing loss and moving forward.
• The Pre-9/11 “Sneaky Missions”: Special operations in “denied areas” involved surveillance and blending in rather than the direct action focus that became dominant in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  • “You’re sneaking through someone’s backyard and you hope you don’t get snatched up...That was the pre-9/11 vibe—sneaky, peaky ninja shit.” — Clark, [31:28]

4. The Private Military Contractor Experience

[33:35-44:28]

• Wild West Culture: Contracting was unregulated in the early 2000s; as a civilian, almost no legal protections or oversight applied.
  • “Nothing applies to a civilian. Not the Geneva Convention, not the Uniform Code of Military Justice, nothing...So you knew you were a fall guy if something went bad.” — Clark, [34:21]
• Operational Hazards: Gives example of a fellow contractor abandoned by the government after being imprisoned for gun running:
  • “The State Department basically denied his existence...so part of our mission was to check on him in prison.” — Clark, [35:26]
• Recon & Intel Focus: Most contractor work was reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, or diplomatic security, not direct action.
• Training Tomorrow’s Enemies: Clark describes training local forces in Iraq, and how advanced skills given to them soon showed up in attacks against U.S. troops.
  • “Our motto was training tomorrow’s terrorists today. Because who are these guys? They're not vetted...all of our tricks are now out there in their community.” — Clark, [37:10]
• Lack of Oversight: Contractor training in Iraq was far riskier in terms of skills transfer than formal military training, often teaching locals everything from CQB to explosives.

5. Transition to Civilian Policing

[44:28-49:43]

• Academy De-Programming: Clark was challenged to rewire from “solve every scenario with your handgun” to the nuanced, escalating force required by U.S. law enforcement.
  • “In the academy I realized, holy shit, when a cop is faced with threat, they have to use that use of force continuum and they have to be very accurate very quickly with it.” — Clark, [45:16]
• Teaching “SEAL Tricks”: He shared tactical knowledge and CQB training with his squad, enhancing unit capabilities.
• Big City Complexity: Urban policing requires even more restraint, judgment, and adaptability than combat or contracting.

6. Hollywood vs. Reality: The Operator Persona

[50:25-53:54]

• Movies Miss the Mark: The guest points out that SEAL/SpecOps movies get the tactics and gunfights wrong, but more importantly, fail to represent the hilarious, informal, and brotherly culture of real operators.
  • “The personalities of these dudes, the funniest people I've ever met in my life—almost like violent Robin Williams.” — Clark, [51:36]
  • “We're the most non-military military unit out there...It's very casual.” — Clark, [52:06]
• Not Just “Dumb Muscle”: Operators are deeply intelligent, empathetic, and loyal—helping each other through trauma, divorce, and life’s challenges.
  • “They seem to portray us as kind of the Schwarzenegger dumb, muscle-bound, kill-them-all type people. Very capable in the teddy bear world.” — Clark, [52:26]
• Wished-for Portrayals: Hollywood rarely captures the esprit de corps, gallows humor, and “behind the scenes” bonds that define special ops culture.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On SEAL Selection:
  “The key ingredient is you must never be mentally defeated...that cold water really has nothing to do with your physical ability. It's your state of mind.” — Clark, [10:46]
• On Adaptability:
  “Not every mission is successful or happy...It was very surreal. I felt very vulnerable being out there in the jungle.” — Clark, [25:13]
• On Private Contracting:
  “Nothing applies to a civilian. Not the Geneva Convention, not...military justice, nothing...So, technically, you could do things their own people couldn't do.” — Clark, [34:18]
• On Teaching Unintended Adversaries:
  “We basically will train our future enemies...all of our tricks are now out there in their community.” — Clark, [37:17]
• On Hollywood Myths:
  “The movies make it seem too militant...What I learned in Special operations: the personalities of these dudes—the funniest people I’ve ever met...violent Robin Williams.” — Clark, [51:33]
• On Brotherhood:
  “There’s really a huggy bear side...We love each other, we always said: 'I know more about you than your mother does.'” — Clark, [52:40]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:43] – Clark’s path to the SEALs: WW2 inspiration, 80s movies, Gulf War
• [05:32] – BUD/S: lack of info, mental game, using fleet experience as motivation
• [09:45] – Psychological breaking vs. physical breaking; “embrace the suck”
• [13:58] – Compartmentalizing failure, learning from mistakes in real-time
• [24:39] – Mission in the Philippines: jungle realities, unfriendly environment
• [31:28] – Reconnaissance missions pre-9/11; "sneaky ninja" days vs. post-9/11 direct action
• [33:35] – Private military contractor: legal gray zones and operational anecdotes
• [37:10] – Training local forces; problematic skills transfer
• [44:58] – Transition to police force and mental rewiring for law enforcement
• [50:25] – SEAL/SpecOps movies vs. reality: why Hollywood gets it wrong
• [55:21] – On the community’s humor, friendship, and brotherhood

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Tone & Speaker Attributions

• Clark Impostato’s tone is frank, wry, and richly anecdotal. He mixes humor, self-deprecation, and blunt truth to strip away myths about operators’ culture, effectiveness, and resilience.
• Host is curious, respectful, occasionally self-aware about public misconceptions, and eager to explore psychological factors and operational specifics.

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Further Information

• Clark’s current projects: Good Vibes Podcast with Clark and Ryan G (goodvibesdudes.com)
• Clark welcomes DMs on Instagram @clarkimpastado for advice or questions about military careers, family balance, and transition.

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Summary Takeaway

This episode of Spy Craft offers a raw, insightful journey through the real world of elite reconnaissance and covert operations. Clark Impostato dismantles Hollywood stereotypes, reveals the psychological battles behind heroics, and underscores how adaptability, humor, and brotherhood—not just brawn and bravado—define the world’s most elite operators. Veterans and civilians alike will leave with a deeper, more human understanding of those who serve in the shadows.

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Transcript

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[Clark Impostato]

Welcome to Stories of Special Forces Operators Podcast. Listen to some of the bravest and toughest people on the planet share their stories. Sit back and enjoy.

[Podcast Host]

Welcome back folks for another episode. Today we have a great guest, Clark impostato. He served eight years in the United States military. From 1995 to 2001, he served in the U.S. navy on the USSS Shiloh and at SEAL Team 5 Foxtrot Platoon. During that time, he deployed to the Persian Gulf and Southeast Asia. After separating from the Navy, he served with the 19th Group Special Forces from 2002 to 2003. From 2003 to 2007, he continued service as a private military contractor. He deployed multiple times to Israel, Afghanistan and Iraq. Upon returning home to the U.S. though he didn't stop, he continued on. He served with the Phoenix Police Department from 2008 to 2016. He says now after all that he's been rocking and rolling, joking and living, you can find him at Good Vibes podcast with Clark Impostato and Ryan G. By the way, his last name is I M P A S T A T O. Before we get started, make sure to share, subscribe and hit that like button. You know we like it. Let's not waste any more time. Welcome the former Navy CEO Clark Impostato. Welcome Clark.

[Clark Impostato]

Hey, thanks for having me. I'm stoked.

[Podcast Host]

Thank you so much for being here. This is so much. I've learned so much interviewing Special Forces, whether it's Navy SEALs to Green Berets. And I think next week we have SAS coming on.

[Clark Impostato]

Oh nice.

[Podcast Host]

Because people don't really understand who you people are. They have a misrepresentation. But the amazing thing is, how would I put this? How amazing you individuals are. Not just because of what you did militarily, but also psychologically, how much you've endured and how much you've overcome and your lives outside of that world. But before we get to all that, I guess my first question always is, whatever made you want to be a Navy seal?

[Clark Impostato]

I think it was kind of a gradual increase to that decision. I always attribute it to. My mom was a huge fan of World War II. She was a kid during World War II, but as far as, like when I was a kid growing up, she loved to watch World War II movies, you know, the Battle of Midway and all this other stuff. The Black Sheep Squadron, that was a TV show about the fighter pilots. And so I just watching TV with her, I just really kind of fell in love with World War II and, and the concept of it and you know, oh, we're gonna fight this Hitler dude. And then stuff broke down. Pearl harbor and we went out west and fought the Japanese. And so I was just at an early age mesmerized by it. But then that it continued further with of course growing up in the 80s with all the Rambos and the Commandos and the Schwarzeneggers. I mean, who didn't want to be a Green Beret army dude running around saving the world? And so I just. It was always kind of on the back burner until I was in high school in the first Gulf War kicked off. And I was glued to CNN at the time because that was the first news network. And so when the Gulf War popped off, I was just like, I have to do this. This is amazing. Like, I'm watching this almost real time and I just thought when I'm done with high school, like, this is, this is now off the back burner on one of the front burners, like this is going to happen. I didn't have a timeline or anything like that, but when that kicked off, I said, this is something I gotta do. You know, I don't know how long I'll do it for or where I'm gonna end up. But that's when I really caught the bug, was the first golf war.

[Podcast Host]

What's a fascinating story. So your mom was the one that motivated, I can't remember. Was Robert Conrad in that Black Sheep Squadron?

[Clark Impostato]

I can't remember. I was so young, but I just remember watching that show. I really would love to be an old school fighter pilot. That would be like my dream job. If timeline wasn't, I could go back in time. That would be just, you know, the Western Pacific Campaign, flying airplanes and shooting down Zeros. And that just. I was like, that's the bees knees, man. That's. That's cool stuff.

[Podcast Host]

That's so funny you mentioned that because I think it was just last weekend I visited Lions Museum down in Orange county and they have all those war planes from World War II. Nice it was really a trip. And I think some of the guys were there.

[Clark Impostato]

Oh, wow.

[Podcast Host]

They were old enough. I mean, no offense to them, but yeah.

[Clark Impostato]

Yeah. It's getting harder and harder to find them. They're getting, they're getting older and older, those guys.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, that generation is disappearing, unfortunately. And I know later on in the interview, I wanted to ask you a little bit about Hollywood, some of the movies. Maybe we'll get back to Rambo. I'm trying to think of some of the Navy SEAL movies, but just can't remember one off the top of my head.

[Clark Impostato]

It really wasn't, except for the Charlie Sheen one that came out like in the 90s and that was.

[Podcast Host]

Oh, that's right.

[Clark Impostato]

Yeah. That's what we thought the teams would be like.

[Podcast Host]

You're saying it's not.

[Clark Impostato]

Well, we'll get into that.

[Podcast Host]

Let me ask you this about Bud's training. Everybody's always curious. You see the videos on YouTube and things of that nature. And it's one thing to watch a video, a six minute clip. It's another to endure it. Tell us, kind of walk us through your very first moments of going into Bud's training. Did they shake your hand and say, how you doing, pal?

[Clark Impostato]

Or yeah, they have hors d' oeuvres waiting for you in a concierge service and say, hey, we're stoked to have you. No, it's. It's very overwhelming. And there wasn't a lot of information. I showed up to buds in 97, the summer of 97, so the Internet really wasn't in full swing. There wasn't a lot of info. The Navy recruiter laughed at you and showed you a 10 minute video called Be Someone Special. And it was like an old black and white UDT diver video. It wasn't a lot of info. So what I liked about it is it was kind of a Scooby Doo adventure. You just, each day was this new mystery that was unfolded in front of your eyes. Whereas now there's so much info out there. I think it kind of. Obviously you can't prepare for the real experience, but you have a heads up. I think it takes away a little bit of the mystery, the charm to it. When I showed up, you had no idea. I did have a neighbor when I was in the regular Navy that was a sniper at 5 and so I could ask him questions, but it wasn't enough pieces of the puzzle to really get that kind of bird's eye concept of what I was up against. Whereas now with all the documentaries and Stuff, it just, in my opinion, kind of spoils it. But when I was there, it was just overwhelming. You can't believe I had to fight my way there from the regular Navy. It's been a year and a half in the fleet chipping paint. So I was super pumped to be at SEAL training and will never have to grab a paintbrush again. I was pretty pumped about that and to be honest, kind of did me a favor because a lot of guys go from boot camp to buds and I don't think they realize how special that opportunity is. And they throw it away a lot quicker than the guys that come from the fleet because you know, if you quit that floating prisons waiting for you, you're going right back to the fleet. So for me not to get ahead of myself, anytime I was having a bad day and feeling sorry for myself, I would see a ship just off the coast of San Diego and think, I'm good. I don't want to go back to that. I'll sit in this cold water and be happy. So I turned that negative into a positive and used my fleet experience to motivate me to get through the tough times. But I can't reiterate enough the awesome effect the first day of buds has on you. It's just like, it's just this epic thing that's in front of you. But what I did realize is once you get settled, the instructors really do give you the keys of the castle. They tell you how to succeed, they tell you don't look at this as a six month program because you'll freak yourself out and quit. They taught us how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time. And what they meant by that was survive the day. Maybe you just survived getting to lunch. Or more importantly, what I did is I just focused on the task at hand. Whatever evolution we were doing, that's all I worried about. So if we were doing a four mile timed beach run, I wasn't worried about the evolution after lunch, which might be the obstacle course or you know what I mean? A lot of guys are like, shit, I failed this. And I got this company psyched themselves out. So I took on board early on what they, they taught us to focus on. And really that's the entire mindset of the SEAL community. You don't really realize that at the time because it budget kind of especially first phase, you're kind of in kindergarten, if you will. So any little nugget of wisdom they gave me, I latched onto and I realized these documentaries and YouTube videos it makes it seem almost a little bit Marine Corp. Ish. They kind of ham it up a little bit for the camera and they yell a little bit more. But I thought of BUDS as more of a gentleman's course. In fact, sometimes it's so evil that they're being nice to you. You're kind of like, why is this kind of like whispering at me instead of all this shout energy? Like they just whisper in your ear like, otto, you look cold and wet. I got some hot purple in the van. All you got to do is quit. Like it's creepy. You know what I mean? They really.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, that would be creepy.

[Clark Impostato]

They get inside your head because as a human being you can only do so many push ups and run so far and swim so far they'll physically break you. But they even told you this little key for success. Never let us break you mentally. That's where you have to win. We're gonna break you physically. I don't care who you are. They've had Olympic athletes, pro football players, all walks of life have gone through, bud. Some successful some. But the key ingredient is you must never be mentally defeated. And I think that's something. It's common in special operations. But BUDS is different because of that cold water that will get inside your head. When you're sitting in the drink for hours and hours and hours and the water temp is like 50 degrees and you're shivering, you could be the toughest dude in the world, Mike Tyson, but you don't want to sit in that cold water so you quit. So that's unique and makes us a little different than other special operations selection processes is that cold water really has nothing to do with your physical ability. It's your state of mind. And you have to develop that early on and realize, this is just a new part of my life and I either accept it or I'm gonna go away. And you start to. People go away. Some bigger guys, some very athletic guys can't mentally handle that cold water. And so you realize early on, hey,

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[Clark Impostato]

When I got a new car, I thought my insurance premium would increase and empty my bank account. Like if fatween won the lottery. I've invested most of my winnings in chicken tenders because they're bomb. But bro, I bought a house and it's sick, bro. I'm thinking the floor is going to be all trampoline, bro. With the helipad on the roof, the contractor said it's structurally unsound.

[Geico Announcer]

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[Clark Impostato]

But switching to GEICO saved me hundreds. So my bank account is safe. It feels good to save some hard earned cash. It feels good to geico. The key to this shit is your state of mind, your mental fortitude. And so luckily for me, I latched onto that pretty quickly and that served me well throughout. BUDS is just to remain calm, as they say, embrace the suck, accept that this is your reality for now. And you're going to be wet all day, every day for six months if you're lucky. If you get injured or rolled back, you could be in BUDS for over a year if you don't get through in one shot. So, oh, wow. Kind of an open ended course. Depending on your success, you have to complete certain things along the way. If you get hurt or you get performance dropped, if you're a good dude, they might roll you back, they might not. They might drop you from the program. So it behooves you to do it right the first time. So that's. I did my best to stick to that, to that philosophy.

[Podcast Host]

So that's the fascinating thing, and I do these interviews, I'm sure folks have heard it before, is the psychological mindset of people in Special Forces. I don't want to overgenerize you guys, but everybody has a similar mindset. You already did it early where you reframed the scenario you were in and then you're able to strengthen your mental fortitude as well, which is something I've, I found sometimes when I've interviewed. I think we're a similar age. Are you familiar with Larry Holmes, A boxer? Larry Holmes, okay, Larry Holmes, he fought Mike Tyson and he fought Muhammad Ali.

[Clark Impostato]

Oh, okay.

[Podcast Host]

And same thing with him. And I asked him, what did you think about when you got knocked down? I expected him to say something like, oh my gosh, I got knocked down. Whatever. He didn't. He said, I got to figure out how to get back up and knock him out. And I thought that's a whole different mindset from what a lot of people have they just don't give up. And Olympic athletes told me the same thing every time they failed or they didn't get somewhere. What they always came back to is, how do I get it? I'm going to move aside what just happened and go back to how do I get that goal?

[Clark Impostato]

We have to compartmentalize your defeat, and they teach us that. For example, when, when I went through buds, you were allowed to fail something twice. So if I failed a four mile timed run, they would retest me. But if I failed a second four mile timed run, you're gone. So if you fail something, you know, the safety net's now gone. You have one more chance at this. But what they teach you is to, you have to data dump that. It's kind of like in advanced training when you're doing CQB and clearing rooms. If you have a bad run and let's say, you know, you sweep a guy or you shoot a hostage target and, and they make you reset, you have to completely wipe that from your mind that you just screwed up, you have to go back in that house and have a good run. You have to be able to just compartmentalize that. You can revisit that failure later. There's a time and a place for that, but it's not right then and there. So they really are good at like you're saying the athletes can do. There's lessons to be learned from failure, but oftentimes you have to re perform immediately and you can't dwell on that. And so that actually ends up serving you well in life. For example, if you're having problems at home, you have to compartmentalize that. Go to work and be a professional. Or if you're having financial problems, you got to compartmentalize that, Go to work and be a professional. So it really, a lot of my buddies that are civilians, they dwell on things and I'm like, dude, just put that in your back pocket for now. Get through the day. When you're done with work and get home, that's when you can analyze what happened, you know, why this happened or that happened. And so BUDS really taught me that. But if you mess something up, you can't let it eat you up. You have to learn from it when the time is appropriate and then come back stronger. You've got a failure is not a bad thing. Everybody has a bad day, has a bad week, messes something up. We all have talents. You know, for me, I sucked at swimming. I had to swim scared. I had to basically run on that water I'm from Colorado. I'm just a little hillbilly that grew up at 8,000ft. I probably should have been a ranger, green Beret, but I got the SEAL shit in my head. So I honestly had a friend in college that taught me how to swim the sidestroke so I could 500 meter test. Had no idea beyond that. And obviously there's a lot of water evolutions in buds and I was the worst swimmer in my class for a long time, but I didn't let that beat me. We would swim laps at the pool and I was the last guy to get to the edge. These guys had already been resting for 15, 20 seconds. I hit the edge and they say go. So I had no rest. I was just back and forth, just sucking in water, thought I was going to die. But in the true spirit of BUDS and the instructors wanting you to be successful, they said for those of you that suck at swimming, instructor so and so will be here Saturday at noon. I suggest you be here. And every Saturday there would be an instructor there at the pool and they would completely come out of character and be cool and they would teach you how to swim and it behooved you if you were struggling to be there every Saturday and learn how to swim. And eventually I became a middle of the pack swimmer once the technique set in and I, I was fighting myself in the water. You know, it's just like if you try to run sideways, you're not going to run very far, very fast. But if you learn the proper technique for anything, it becomes pretty easy. So unlike a lot of selection processes I've been through, BUDS has the time, because it's six months to really, if you're a good guy, they'll work with you and they'll get you up to speed. And in my case it was the swimming. So they do set you up for success. But you do have to compartmentalize those failures and not let them eat you up. And it does eat a lot of people up because it gets inside your

[Podcast Host]

head, that's fair to say. It really helped a lot in your life.

[Clark Impostato]

Yeah, it does. I mean, I still use that philosophy today. Like I said, if something happens on the way to work, I'm able to just put that in a little box, do what I got to do at work and then go home or something happens at work, I don't have to bring that home and bring that nastiness into the home and I can compartmentalize it and think about it at the appropriate time. So special operations Specifically because it's, and they taught us this too. It's 90% mental, 10% physical. And that's in any special operations unit. It's just such a vast variety of tasks you have to become an expert at. You know, any special operations guys is kind of a Swiss army knife, kind of a jack of all trades. We're not just a screwdriver or just a hammer. You have to learn a bunch of stuff. So there's a level of intellect that's required. But more importantly, it's the psychological part of it. Being able to control your emotions, being able to maintain your professionalism in multiple challenging environments, desert, jungle, snow, all that's a mental game. When you're extremely hot, extremely cold, the mission's impossible. You have to convince yourself you can do it. So that's why they say it's 90% mental, 10% physical. When they first told me that, I'm like, there's no way. Because BUDS is brutal. I mean, you're running with boats on your heads, you got hell week, you're, you know, log PT, you're doing two mile time to open ocean swims and second phase, you do a 5.5 nautical mile swim. Took me four hours and 57 minutes to do four hours, almost five hours, four hours, 57 minutes. And it's just a completion, there's no time requirement. You just have to do it. Of course it was in the wintertime and the water was freezing and you're cramping up and you see the pier down in Imperial beach, you have to swim around and it's this tiny little blip on the horizon not getting closer to you. Of course I'm convinced that there's like 500 great white sharks around me at all times. So there's always this mental battle of you just have to accept it and go for it. And like we've talked about, that really gives you some tools for later in life that you don't realize at the time. So I just very blessed to. BUDS in and of itself is really a very pure selection process. And it is mainly you versus yourself versus nature. There's not a lot to the BUDS compound. There's an obstacle course, there's some pull up bars, dip bars, rope climb. And so when you get there your first day and you're looking around, you're like, there's not a lot to this place. Like, I mean really, how hard can this be? You know, you're trying to psych yourself up, right? The pregame jitters, you're like, oh, yeah, you know, whatever. I could do this. But then you realize it. It's the soft sand, it's cold water, it's the long runs, the boats on the head, it's. They just do this stuff forever, for hours and hours. And that's when it shifts to that mental piece. How long can I tolerate this? They might have you do something and they will say, we're going to do this until somebody quits. It could be just walking down the beach with the boats on your head. There's no time limits. We're gonna do this until somebody quits. And eventually somebody does quit. So it's that somebody break mentally.

[Podcast Host]

How does that affect you? Well, you saw somebody break, does it give you like, oh geez, he broke. I can't believe he broke or something like that?

[Clark Impostato]

No, it motivates you. You know, day one of Buds, they line you up in a height line from tallest to shortest. I remember I've always been kind of a middle of the road guy, you know, I think at that time I was 6 foot, probably 175, 180. So just kind of your average built dude. But there are some bodybuilder Schwarzenegger looking dudes and you're like, oh my God, look at that dude. He's gonna just crush it. He's the first guy to quit because he can't manipulate his body weight on the obstacle course. He can't run, he can't swim, he's just a big power lifter dude. Or. But when you see those bigger guys quit, you're like, it's kind of motivates you. It gives you energy. Like, that guy looked like he would fucking take your lunch money. But he's the first one to quit. Like, holy shit. Pretty soon it's a bunch of little wiry guys that are left. You're like, damn, look at us, man. We're still. So anytime I heard the bell ring, it motivated me in that I'm still here now. It was sad. They also teach you don't make friends with people right away because if your friend quits, you're likely to follow. So there's a little bit of standoffishness at first. Obviously you bond with your boat crew a little bit, but if someone in your boat quits and you're real close with that guy, maybe your roommates, maybe you carpool, maybe you knew each other before. That has a huge effect. If your battle buddy quits, you're like, damn. Because you really relied on them and their energy. And so it's, it's tricky. You gotta, the further along you go, the smaller and closer the class gets. You know, second, third phase, then you're just this little, little band of pirates and there's nothing they can do to you. And you're, you're kind of safe. But first phase is we started with 174, we graduated 39 originals. Just to give you an idea of how many people disappeared, it's about 80% attrition rate, 70 to 80% historically. So a lot of your friends, they're gonna go away. So, and that's, that's fairly common. If you look across the, the spec ops selection, attrition rate, whether it's SAS or Green Beret or Delta, they all have very high attrition rates. And it's mainly due to that, that formula of 90% mental, 10% physical. People just mentally can't wrap their brains around it. So if you just kind of focus on the task at hand that's right in front of you, accomplish it. Then the next one, the next one, you're just going to trudge along and before you know it, you're going to pick your head up and you're week away from graduation. You know, it's like, holy shit, I can't believe that was six months.

[Podcast Host]

Fascinating stuff. Again, we're talking to Clark Impostato. I M P A S T A T O. You can find him at Good Vibes with Clark Impostato and Ryan. Gee, listen to that podcast, Clark. Really amazing stuff.

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[Geico Customer]

When I scraped my car in that parking garage, I was worried that it could be a long process to take care of it. Like a landscaper's first day trimming a hedge maze.

[Clark Impostato]

I have definitely already been here. Now, was it left, right or right left? Well, maybe I'll cut a path out and find my way back later.

[Geico Customer]

But it wasn't like that. I filed a claim in under two minutes on the Geico app and they handled it from there. It was taken care of almost as quickly as it happened.

[Clark Impostato]

It feels good to get help quick.

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[Clark Impostato]

To geico.

[Podcast Host]

Can you share with us a story of a. Whatever mission you went out that you were able to benefit from your training at buds? I'm sure there's plenty of them. Any stand out?

[Clark Impostato]

Yeah, no, absolutely. You know, not every mission is successful or happy. We had a situation in the Philippines in 2000s that we were involved in, really, in a support role for Seal Team 1 and some green Berets. There was a hostage situation. The Abu Sayyaf had kidnapped some Western hostages. And we had basically a task force trying to sort it all out. And I tell you, we never found them. And so it was really hard psychologically. I mean, it's almost. It's a needle in a haystack. I don't know if you're familiar with the geography of the Philippines, but there are just tons of islands that are part of this.

[Podcast Host]

Did you go to Mindanao?

[Clark Impostato]

No, we are actually based out of Subic, not Subico. We were based out of a Langapo, out of a hotel there. And so we linked up with our Filipino counterparts, and, you know, we trained up a little bit. What was funny is we were a Winter Warfare Team, Winter Warfare Platoon. And we were poised out of Okinawa, really, to respond to anything that might happen in North Korea, China, or Russia. So we were a Winter Team, Mountain Warfare Team, Team One's jungle dudes. But they were just overwhelmed. And so we were in the area. We were out of Oki, and I think we're actually training in Thailand at the time. And they flew us in. Remember telling my chief, like, what are we doing in the jungle, man? Like, we don't even have the right camouflage. And he was kind of getting snippety with me, and I'm like, one last question, Chief. So we're not gonna need our snowshoes is what you're saying. Like, for us to go into the jungle, it was. It was weird because I'd never been exposed to it before, and now we're just thrown into it. And again, we're with our Filipino counterparts, and they're trying to spin us up on jungle warfare. And it put us through ambush courses, and we died every time. Simulated, of course, you know, and these little booby traps they set. And you realize, oh, my God, Mongol is a crazy place. And at night there are all these crazy noises and shit. And we didn't know, is that the Abu Sayyaf, or is that, like, a tiger about to eat me, or is that monkey that's gonna steal my shit? It stands out because it's it was a failure. You know, we never located, you know, our target. No fault to our own geography is just against you. But it was very surreal. It was very weird. I felt very vulnerable being out there in the jungle. Obviously, the bad guys, it's their backyard and they know it very well. Here we are not even trained up in this type of warfare. And so it kind of showed me the reality of the battlefield.

[Podcast Host]

Did you get more of an appreciation for the Vietnam veterans?

[Clark Impostato]

Well, I thought about that a lot. I. I thought about, this is a very tough environment to fight in, and I'm sure they felt the same way. They had no idea where they were at. It was very difficult to navigate. You couldn't see the stars. You can't use gps. Not that they had gps, but our GPS was ineffective. We had to do map and compass. We had to rotate point men out because you had to keep slashing through the vines and the canopy and all that. So, I mean, you were moving maybe a mile a day and you were just completely. I had a bad rash down my back because of the moisture and the mosquitoes. And you're worried about these snakes. You know, they say, oh, if you're bit by one of these, you'll last about 30 seconds. And all this shit going through your head. I wasn't even worried about the bad guys. I just thought, oh, the spider's gonna kill me, the snake's gonna kill me. They got bears and tigers. I'm like, what.

[Bluff]

What else is.

[Clark Impostato]

I mean, there are predators in these jungles. These, you know the. From the movie Predator? Is it one of them dudes gonna show up?

[Podcast Host]

You know, that's exactly what I was thinking.

[Clark Impostato]

To be honest, I was overwhelmed because that was the first time. Well, not necessarily. I was going to say that's the first time I've been put in a real world environment. In 96, we did some ship takedowns in the Gulf, but that was mainly administrative. We were enforcing UN sanctions against Iraq. So it was different. I felt a lot more comfortable climbing up the ladder of a ship and taking down the crew in the jungle. I felt very scared, very vulnerable, way out of my element. And so for me, it just stands out because that was very pivotal far as maturing as an operator, as a shooter. Because you realize, damn, there's a lot of things that are out of your control. And not every mission is a success, you know, like this one on paper is a failure. Even though we did our best, I mean, we were just pounding away. We'd hit a different island Every day, patrol through it, lay up at night, patrol around the next day, and then usually we would exfil. And yeah, it was. It was. It was a tough one to walk away from. But I'm glad, like we talked about before, you have to kind of compartmentalize your failures. Obviously we had debriefs and again, it really was no fault of our own. There was just too much area to cover. All you can do is pick an island, hit it for a day or two, and then go back and reset. So it was. That was my first. My first real where the rubber meets the road type moment. Obviously, things changed after 9 11, and I ended up bouncing around the Middle east quite a bit. I got nine rotations in and out of the Middle East. And so I saw the evolution of what was going on, the evolution of the battlefield and the different AO and things like that. So I felt very lucky to kind of ride that wave in the years I did some pre 911 stuff and then post 911 stuff. And so I saw dramatically how the mission statement changed, how the tactics changed, change the weapons, change. Our state of mind as a country and as a fighting force is very different during peacetime versus wartime. Not that peacetime really exists in special operations. I mean, you can look at the Black Hawk down incident. That's during, quote, unquote, peacetime. Peacetime is probably the best time to be in special operations because then you're doing the sneaky peeky ninja shit, right? Because you're. Well, you're in places you shouldn't be. There's a lot of eyes on type missions, a lot of reconnaissance type missions. One of our missions we got in that same deployment was to identify a target on this island. So we had a recon team free fall in and then pose as tourists, literally throwing on the Hawaiian shirts, shorts and flip flops and just kind of cruising around this island until they located somebody. And then we passed off that intel to the appropriate individuals. And so stuff like that is kind of how I envision special operations. You know what I mean? When a war kicks off, you kind of become a Navy Ranger. Everybody armors up, everyone hops in an armored vehicle, you go smash down doors and snatch up bad guys. To be honest, everyone kind of has the same mission. You're going after high value targets. During this peacetime era, there was a lot of creativity. There was a lot of indigenous work where you went in and blended in with people. And a lot of you might, you know, recon the beaches of North Korea to see if any of their fortifications have moved or to see, hey, if we have to land, marines, are there a bunch of rocks in the way. You got to do a lot of digital imagery. And I found that stuff. It's not the cool, sexy gun fighting stuff, but that's the stuff that raises the hair on the back of your necks when you're creeping around a place you shouldn't be. And you know, if you get compromised, you're screwed, and they'll even deny that you were there, that type of stuff. So that was kind of the pre 911 vibe, was really, like I said, you're sneaking through someone's backyard and you hope you don't get snatched up. That, to me, how I envision special operations more so than, you know, throwing on your body armor, rolling out in a vehicle and kicking down a door. I mean, that's. Everyone kind of blended into one type of operator overseas as the war went on throughout the mid 2000s. So I saw that shift, and probably because I was brought into the community pre 9 11, I always kind of missed those days. And I don't know if they're back now with the young operators out in the field. I think a lot of it is more of that indigenous type stuff, more the stuff like we were doing in the Philippines trying to look for hostages. Low level stuff that doesn't make the news. Hopefully the community's gotten back to that stuff because I think that's really the bread and butter of what special operations is. Very small, surgical stuff that nobody knows about, as opposed to. You're basically doing the stuff that Marine infantry guys should be doing, Smashing down doors and snatching people up. Let the. Let the infantry guys do that stuff.

[Podcast Host]

That's fascinating. Fascinating take on it. And you're right, it's one of the things people don't get to hear. Those stories about the seals with the berets and all the stuff that they're doing or extractions or anything of that nature. They just don't hear it. They see a movie or two, then that. We'll talk about that in a little bit. That changes perspective. I guess my other question would be, you also worked as a military contractor, so I'm sure you can't say much about that. But was it different because you're not operating necessarily under the military per se. Now you're a private military contractor. Who knows who your boss is? We won't get into that either. But how different is that for you?

[Clark Impostato]

Yeah, it was very different. And it was a very strange. I got into that in 2003. So that was really sort of the infancy of it. There were a couple guys already on the ground that set it up, but we were really the first wave of sled dogs to come in. And it was, it was very weird. When I heard about it, I was very suspicious of it. It sounded like some soldier of fortune type shit. Like what, what, what are we doing? And how much are they paying? Like that's weird. They're gonna pay that much. It must be dangerous if they're gonna pay you more than you were making as an E5. So I was very suspicious of it. But I had some buddies that were in it and assured me that as long as you got with the right group of guys, you were good to go. But it was very weird, it was very mysterious because the book hadn't been written, the rules haven't been written yet. A lot of these government agencies figured out that their own full time employees have rules. But as a contract employee, you are technically a civilian. You don't have to abide by any of those rules. Nothing applies to a civilian. Not the Geneva Convention, not the Uniform Code of Military justice, nothing applies to a civilian. So technically as a civilian, you could do things that their own full time people couldn't do. So basically what would happen is you would have one full time guy, it was kind of your boss, and then you contractors would do his bidding. And it was very much known to you that if you ever got snatched up, they would just straight up deny you. Like, we don't know who this guy is, he's a civilian, we don't. He has no affiliation with the US government. So you knew, there was a weird. You knew you were a fall guy if something went bad. In fact, when I was in Afghanistan, there was a Green Beret dude who was a contractor who got snatched up supplying weapons to one of our friendlies. But the State Department hung him out to dry. Part of our mission was to check on him in prison. I think he got like a seven year prison term out of it for gun run in Afghanistan and he had to serve it in a local prison. The State Department basically denied his existence. So part of our mission was once a month we would go with USAID and make sure he wasn't being tortured or abused or starved and things like that. And he was happy as a pig in mud. He said, when I get out of here, I'm writing a book, I'm going to be a millionaire, so I'll just sit here for seven. He had a good attitude about it. You know, and he was always happy to see us, to see a brother and a really cool dude. But it showed me as a contractor, if, if the wrong people catch you doing something, the government will just leave you out to dry real quick. So in the military, you know, you're a valuable asset. Whether you're a seal, Green Beret, whoever. They have spent millions of dollars to train you, you're very valuable to them. Whereas a contractor, they didn't spend shit to train you. They might have put you through an evaluation course, two, three week selection to make sure you can still shoot pt. You're not an old has been, but that's it. They don't have to spend the millions of dollars and years and years to train you. They're just going to get you in the field and have you do their, their bidding. Oftentimes things they can't do. Hey everybody. Lady luck here.

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[Geico Customer]

When I scraped my car in that parking garage, I was worried that it could be a long process to take care of it. Like a landscaper's first day trimming a hedge maze.

[Clark Impostato]

I have definitely already been here. Now was it left, right or right left? Well, maybe I'll cut a path out and find my way back later.

[Geico Customer]

But it wasn't like that. I filed a claim in under two minutes on the Geico app and they handled it from there. It was taken care of almost as quickly as it happened.

[Clark Impostato]

It feels good to get help quick. It feels good to Geico. So a lot of it's reconnaissance work. A lot of it's intel driven. A lot of it is diplomatic security, protecting important people in dangerous places. Later on in Iraq, I got into the training side of things with the Department of Defense. So we were probably accidentally created isis. Looking back on it, a lot of our students, our motto was training tomorrow's terrorists today. Because who are these guys? They're not vetted. And so a lot of these Iraqis we were teaching, you know, it was tough and I think the US has a history of that. We basically will train our Future enemies. For example, Osama bin Laden was CIA trained and funded to fight the Russians in the 80s and he ended up becoming a thorn. Yeah, that became Al Qaeda. And so a similar thing happened in Iraq. Here we're teaching these guys, sniper initiated assault, cqb, explosive preaching. All of our tricks are now out there in their community. For example, when we taught them how to long gun, we taught them sniper stuff. Sniper attacks on US troops skyrocketed throughout Baghdad almost immediately after we put on that long range course. So what do you think these students are doing? They're going back to their villages and they're teaching this skill set to know the people out there, the insurgents or the locals that are fighting against us. So I just, I've seen that repeat throughout history why we continue to do that. I eventually ended up leaving that mission after a couple rotations out there because I just, I didn't agree with it. I just thought, damn, we're teaching these guys pretty much our entire playbook. I mean, I can't think of anything that we haven't put them through in a course. So it's just. Yeah, so that, that's a slippery slope with contracting is you find yourself. For example, when I was active duty and we were training the Thai seals, I was allowed to teach them shotgun breaching, but I wasn't allowed to teach them anything. Through the doorway, no cqb, not how to take a room, none of that. And I'm like, these are Thai guys. Like, no one's mad at Thai dudes. Fast forward. As a contractor, I'm teaching Iraqis how to blow up shit. Cqb, all of it. Motorcade operations, Attack on motorcade attack on principle. Defensive measures, defensive driving, basically our whole playbook. But we weren't even allowed to teach the SEALs more than shotgun breaching. So active duty, there's a lot of rules and regulations in place. As a contractor, quite honestly, it's the Wild West. You could do anti piracy shit off the Horn of Africa. A lot of intel driven stuff. So it's, it always reminds me of you open a door, you walk in a room, and across the room there's three more doors. So you pick a door, you walk through it, there's another room with three more doors. It's just like. Yeah, you just, it's a Twilight Zone. It depends how deep you want to go with it. So for me that was a turn off. I missed sort of the nobility of the active duty days. You know, you're, you are held to a standard, you are monitored you are held to an ethos or a code. If you go haywire, you can be charged with war crimes and stuff. Whereas a contractor, in the early days, if you did something squirrely, they would just send you to another country. They would just get rid of you. And I thought, that's bizarre. Like, there's no repercussions for. There were stories. I never witnessed it with my own eyes, but there were stories of a triple canopy guy in Iraq that was going to the airport to fly out, and he said, oh, I haven't got a kill yet. Pull over. And he just shot up a car driving by and then went to the airport and flew out. So stuff like that, you're like, what is that, dude? That's chicken shit. You know, that's. Yeah, it's contracting is this big gray area. When I came in, you had to either be sealed Delta or sf. That was it. But unfortunately, they tapped that resource, and so then they opened it up to this and opened it up to that. And then Blackwater flooded Iraq with thousands of dudes. So now anybody who is a security guard for half a day is running around Iraq with an army doing weird shit. So contracting got watered down very, very quickly and in my opinion, became a big problem. Now, being a special operations guys, you always knew where your guys were at, so you knew which detail to avoid. Or, hey, these guys have this going on over here. It's diplomatic security, or it's a training gig, or it's intel. So we. We always clicked up and had. I was always on good teams. Nothing squirrely happened. It was all SAS dudes, Delta dudes, SEAL dudes. But you could get wrapped up on a detail that just had these shit bags doing really bizarre stuff. Like, you know, basically, as a contractor, you supposed to be a defensive mechanism. You're not supposed to be offensive. You know, that's the active duty guys. What we're doing in theory is freeing up all their shit so they can go do big boy stuff so that they don't have to train locals, they don't have to provide security for diplomats or generals or admirals. We're doing all of that stuff. We're not out there looking for a fight. Oftentimes we got ambushed and we would. We call it the Death Blossom. We would give them the hornet's nest and get off the X. We're not there to fight. That's the difference. Now, sometimes if your vehicle is disabled, you might have to dismount, take down a building, wait for big army to roll in and save Your butt. But the mission statements very different. And some contractors didn't get that. Like, bro, you're not on offense. It's not your job to light this car up for no reason or, you know, it just there's some gray area with contracting. And so eventually, that's why I left. In addition, I realized I had been away from home for 11 years, and my toddlers were now teenagers. That was an epiphany moment because you. You get tunnel vision. And like they taught us at buds, you're so focused on the task at hand, you can oftentimes forget about things back home because you're halfway around the world. This is before video chats and all that stuff. So it was letters. Eventually, I think there was a couple. Skype was coming online, and what's another one I used to use. But anyway, communication was very limited. So your family wasn't necessarily on your mind all the time. It was very easy to get wrapped up in the culture of the men, the mission, all that type of crap. So for me, I saw contracting slipping, and I realized, holy shit, my kids are teenagers. You know, I. This. This mess is now someone else's problem. I got to get back home. My conundrum was, what am I gonna do when I get back to the States? You know, I've been running and gunning for. You know, my first deployment was 96. Here I am 07 in Iraq, not knowing any other way of life. And it's a very tough transition for people.

[Podcast Host]

Amazing. I mean, you gave me so much insight into all the different worlds, and I'm sure everybody out there has learned so much. I know we got about 10 minutes left. Got to bring it back, Clark. Got to bring it back. We learned so much from you. I'm trying to see which questions I want to start wrapping up this interview with. I guess one would be the Phoenix Police Department. I've talked to Special Forces who've worked in police as a police officer, and thank you again for both services as well, military and law enforcement.

[Clark Impostato]

Thank you.

[Podcast Host]

Definitely indebted to you for that. How different is it all of a sudden? Games change. You can't do things like you can. You can't just draw your weapon and fire at certain individuals anymore, even though it may be a threat to you. How different was that?

[Clark Impostato]

It was an eye opener. I had some buddies that were contracting that were cops, some SWAT dudes, one of them from Chicago. And so he recommended, hey, if you're going to be a cop, go to a big city, because it's Busy. And they want kind of crazier dudes, not some small town in Nebraska. They don't need an ex SEAL there, they need you. And you know, Chicago, Detroit, Phoenix, my brother was living there. I applied for them. To answer your question, the academy to me was amazing because I realized how smart cops have to be in a life and death situation. You're a spec ops guy overseas, you perceive a threat, you neutralize it. No questions asked, no one gives a shit. For example, in Iraq, if we got in a gunfight, we would type up what we call a foxtrot report. It was basically three sentences. We emailed it to our team leader just in case State department or the prime Minister wanted to inquire what happened. Otherwise, that was it. Now as a cop, if you shoot somebody, it's way more than a three sentence email to your boss, which I did get in an officer involved shooting. We can talk about that some other time. But in the academy I realized, holy shit, when a cop is faced with threat, they have to use that use of force continuum and they have to be very accurate very quickly with it. Am I using verbal skills to de escalate? Do I got to go hands on? Do I have to go to the tool belt? And ultimately do I have to use my firearm? And if I present my firearm, I better be prepared to use it. So our academy, it was a multi jurisdictional academy called alia. And they were very good at their scenarios. And the main firearms and tactic guy, really, he liked me, he knew my background and he liked to see how I reacted to these scenarios. And one thing he said early on was, Clark, you can't solve every scenario with your handgun, dude. There was some rewiring for sure, but they did a great job at doing that and I think it was interesting for them to watch. I think I was the first person of a special operations background that had been through the academy while that staff was in charge. I'm sure there's been other guys that had gone through but while that cadre was in charge. So they were very interested to see how I would react to these tactical scenarios. And I really had to learn to dial it back and rewire it. So they did a good job. By the time I got to the street, I felt very comfortable with what's my mission statement as a cop. Obviously it's not as an operator or even a protection specialist. Contracting, which you're still allowed to be very violent, very fast. If someone's trying to attack the first lady, yes, you're allowed to fuck them up very violently.

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[Clark Impostato]

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[Clark Impostato]

Did this parking lot have a waterfall?

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I think you've wandered too far, mate.

[Clark Impostato]

It feels good to find what you're looking for. It feels good to Geico. As a cop, you see two people fist fighting in a parking lot and even if they come at you throwing punches, that doesn't mean you can shoot him. You have to really adjust your response. And so I credit that to really good training at the academy. I think it was about four months long and so they did a real good job. But I also liked that I still had little bag of SEAL tricks in my back pocket that if shit did get violent, I could break glass in time of war. And my squad mates appreciated that. And I also shared a lot of knowledge with my squad mates. If we had a double squad day, I would tell my sergeant, hey, there's an abandoned house. Let's do some CQB runs. Let's do some room clearing. And so our squad was able to do additional training and get more comfortable with each other and movement and stuff. And so. So I think my background benefited my situation with Phoenix for sure.

[Podcast Host]

Absolutely amazing stuff on that one. Again, folks, goodvibes.com is where you can find more information. Goodvibesdudes.com goodvibesdudes.com you can find more information about Clark. I guess in our last few minutes I didn't want to miss this part either. There's been, I guess, more recently, I think maybe in the last decade, and I have to actually even look because I'm not a huge movie guy anymore. But there's been some Navy SEAL movies out there, I think. I think they're classifying those Navy SEAL movies, whether or not they are, I don't know. But Zero Dark Thirty. Yeah, I think 13 hours kind of look more for the older ones. I can't even remember long.

[Clark Impostato]

Survivor, Active Valor was one Under Siege. Under Siege, yeah, yeah, yeah. Steven Seagal, Casey Rybeck.

[Podcast Host]

That's about as realistic as you're gonna get, right?

[Clark Impostato]

Yeah, that's what I was hoping.

[Podcast Host]

What's your take on those type of movies? Do you think it hurts or helps or it's just so far fetched it doesn't even matter?

[Clark Impostato]

Yeah, I don't think it does. I mean, I remember seeing the Charlie Sheen movie Navy Seals and, and even as a kid I'm like, I just enjoyed it for the entertainment value. The thing that I wish they would capture. And I will admit I've never seen the TV series SEAL Team, which my mom watches it. A lot of people love it and I think they try to hit it on more of a personal note and I think it's a good way to finish our conversation. Is any SEAL movie that I've seen, they make the SEAL seem too militant, too Marine Corps. Ish, if you will. What I learned in Special operations across the board and even in Naval special warfare, the personalities of these dudes, the funniest people I've ever met in my life, like just almost like violent Robin Williams. I mean these people are hilarious. The personalities, even the way we talk with each other, there's really no difference between a SEAL officer and a SEAL enlisted guy. If we're doing our thing, it's first name basis, like it's very. We're the most non military military unit out there. It's very casual.

[Podcast Host]

You don't talk like this all the time.

[Clark Impostato]

Yeah, yeah, no, it's like, hey, dude, what's up bro? Yeah, dude, you know, it's just, it's. They don't capture that in the movies. They make it seem too militant to yes, sir, no sir. Hey, go over there and do this and bark, bark, bark, bark. That's not how the community is. It's. It's a very laid back community. And other special operations are very similar. Maybe not quite as laid back as they called my team Seal Team 5. They called it Surf Team 5 because we were so laid back and we would surf for pt. I wish the movies would capture that camaraderie, that bonding. They've tried a couple times. But we are very, very human. A lot of Seals specifically and Special Operations in general, very intelligent. They seem to portray us as kind of the Schwarzenegger dumb Muscle bound, kill them all type people. Very capable in the teddy bear world. A lot of my buddies, for example, when I was going through my first divorce, would kick in my door with bags of groceries and say, hey, I know you're hurting, so I picked up some groceries for you. There's really a hoggie bear side to the community. We love each other. We always said I know more about you than your mother does because you spend so much time training together. You help each other through divorces, you help each other through all kinds of scenarios on and off the battlefield. It's really this bond that I wish they would capture. I don't know if you. It's like capturing lightning in a bottle. I don't know if you can do it, but I have not seen that in a movie. All the tactics and the gunfights and that's just the surface. It's really the behind the scenes, how we take care of each other through the ups and downs, the sense of humor, the pranks, the hazings. I've caught little snippets of it in these different movies, but it's just. I just felt like I was at a stand up comedy show the whole time. These guys are amazing, intelligent, funny people and so I wish Hollywood would get that right.

[Podcast Host]

I think the only thing I've even seen close to that would be maybe Apocalypse now had a little bit, but that was kind of carried off a little too far too. But yeah, yeah, I think Jarhead did okay with some of that.

[Clark Impostato]

I saw the first one, I think they did pretty good. Yeah, and I did like Black Hawk Down. The one thing they got well was they got the fog of battle. Remember when the dudes were lost? Hey, are the Humvees coming to us? Are we supposed to go to the Humvees and they're kind of running around lost in a little village looking for the motorcade and how loud the gun was and the dude couldn't hear. Like all that stuff in the 80s movies, everything had like little silencers and suppressors and everything. It's like picture perfect coming out of the rappel from the ceiling and kill everybody, you know. And then, you know, for real, you're just running around lost, tripping on shit. You lost this and that. And you know, so I. Sometimes they get certain aspects of it correctly. But again, if they could capture the personality of special operations guys, I think they would have a hit movie on themselves because I think people want to know who. Who are we really? You know, they. There's these myths and urban legends about who we are. But I think if they saw that we're just kind of goofy, normal people. Like, it's. We're just.

[Podcast Host]

That's our goal here, is hopefully they'll get a different side of your personalities.

[Clark Impostato]

I'm one of the goofier seals, so I'm a good ambassador for the goofiness of the team. So hopefully that comes through in the interview. Listeners.

[Podcast Host]

I guess it's a little bit of a throwback to MASH and Hogan's Heroes, right?

[Geico Announcer]

Yeah.

[Clark Impostato]

There you go. Yeah. Or maybe a little Pauly Shore in the army now, if you ever saw that one.

[Podcast Host]

Oh, man, that's intense. Thank you so much again, Clark, for doing this. We so appreciate it very much.

[Clark Impostato]

Yeah, no, absolutely. I had a blast. Thank you very much.

[Podcast Host]

So much fun. Clark Impostato. I don't know what they got that came out. I am P a S T a T O. You can find [e-mail]. he really does have good vibes, I have to admit. Good vibes. Podcast with Clark Impostado and Ryan G. Do you want to send anybody anywhere else? Clarkers? Is that good?

[Clark Impostato]

Yeah, that's good. I mean, if you guys want to DM me, my personal Instagram account is clarkimpestado. A lot of younger guys will hit me up with questions about, you know, how to prepare for this or that or, hey, I'm married with a wife and kids. Should I be a seal or Green Beret? How does it affect family and all that stuff? And so if you want to send me a personal message, my personal Instagram account, I reply to every DM I get and I'm happy to try to pay it forward if I can answer your questions. If not, I can steer you in the right direction. So feel free to hit me up anytime. Cool.

[Podcast Host]

Against clarkimpastado. And I M P a S T a T O thank you so much again, Clark. Thank you everyone for joining us. Make sure to share, subscribe, hit that like button and leave a comment if you can. Thanks a lot, everybody.

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[Geico Announcer]

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[Clark Impostato]

It feels good to have support. It feels good to Geico.