Thin Blue Ride

Summary

The Antihero Podcast: "Thin Blue Ride" Summary

Podcast Information:

• Title: The Antihero Podcast
• Host/Author: The Antihero Podcast
• Description: Part Delta Force. Part Street Cop. All Truth.
• Episode: Thin Blue Ride
• Release Date: March 24, 2025

---

1. Introduction

Brent Tucker and Tyler, co-hosts of The Antihero Podcast, welcome listeners to the episode titled "Thin Blue Ride." They kick off the conversation with light-hearted banter about military humor before introducing their guest, J.D. Dage—a combat army veteran, seasoned police officer, SWAT sniper, and cancer warrior who founded the Thin Blue Line Ride in 2017.

2. Military Service and Deployment

Joining Post-9/11: J.D. Dage shares his motivation for joining the military following the September 11 attacks. At 18, while working at his father's welding shop, he felt compelled to serve after hearing the events unfold on the radio.

"I was like, okay, time to, you know, time to do something."
— J.D. Dage [00:32]

Reserve vs. National Guard: Initially uncertain between active duty and reserve service, J.D. opted for the reserves, acknowledging limited options and uncertainties associated with reserve duty.

"If I love it, then I'll stick with it. If it sucks, you're kind of screwed."
— J.D. Dage [08:20]

Deployment to Iraq: Rapid mobilization led J.D. and his unit to Fort Drum, New York, during a time when they anticipated deployment to Kuwait and subsequently Iraq. Serving in the transportation unit (88 Mike), his role involved managing massive fuel convoys critical to operational success.

"We were bringing fuel north. We're bringing fuel north."
— Brent Tucker [21:40]

Convoy Operations and Challenges: The discussion delves into the complexities of logistical support in a combat zone. J.D. highlights the persistent threats from "pop shots" and the lack of clear battle lines, emphasizing the perilous nature of their missions.

"We're bringing fuel north. We're bringing fuel north."
— J.D. Dage [21:40]

Adaptation and Improvisation: Facing limited resources, J.D. and his team improvised defensive measures, such as creating makeshift turrets to enhance convoy security.

"It's a) Adapt and overcome, I guess."
— J.D. Dage [16:42]

3. Transition to Law Enforcement

Becoming a Police Officer: After returning from his first deployment, J.D. transitioned into law enforcement, joining the Massachusetts Police Department. He recounts his early roles, including working on the paddy wagon and processing arrests, which he found less fulfilling than active patrol duties.

"I signed up to be a cop, not do this."
— J.D. Dage [62:21]

Patrol Duties and Community Interaction: Shifting to patrol operations, J.D. describes the dynamic nature of law enforcement work, handling everything from domestic disputes to high-speed pursuits, emphasizing the camaraderie and integrity within his unit.

"We're taking care of each other."
— J.D. Dage [65:07]

4. Cancer Diagnosis and Battle

Initial Diagnosis: While preparing for a second deployment, J.D. experienced severe pain that led to the diagnosis of testicular cancer. The revelation was abrupt and life-altering, prompting emergency surgery to remove the affected testicle.

"I have testicular cancer. I'm not gonna be able to have kids."
— J.D. Dage [85:06]

Treatment and Recovery: J.D. underwent extensive treatment, including chemotherapy and lymph node dissection, which had profound effects on his physical health, hormone levels, and overall well-being. He candidly discusses the challenges of recovery and the impact on his career.

"I was hooked up, I was getting paid as if I was working 40 hours a week."
— J.D. Dage [88:05]

Facing Recurrence: Despite initial treatment success, J.D. faced a recurrence of cancer, now identified as chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). His resilience is evident as he continues treatment and remains active in his duties.

"I’m a cancer warrior."
— J.D. Dage [Being the guest description]

5. Founding Thin Blue Line Ride

Establishing the Foundation: Inspired by his personal battle, J.D. founded Thin Blue Line Ride—a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting first responders battling cancer. The foundation raises funds through cycling events, benefiting individuals like fellow officers and veterans.

"We started raising money. Marco was a Worcester COPS kid. He has cancer. We raised money. We handed them over a check."
— J.D. Dage [117:05]

First Successes: The initial events saw significant community support, raising over $26,000 in the first summer. The foundation has since grown, raising upwards of $800,000 to date, assisting numerous first responders across various states.

"We've raised over $800,000."
— J.D. Dage [122:50]

Community and Corporate Support: J.D. emphasizes the importance of grassroots support and the role of corporate sponsors in expanding the foundation's reach. Recent donations include a fully-equipped GMC truck from Marty's GMC, enabling greater participation in events.

"They gave us a truck, they wrapped it for us. They got our logos on it."
— J.D. Dage [146:30]

6. Reflections on Health and Support

Importance of Early Detection: Throughout the conversation, J.D. underscores the critical role of early detection in cancer prognosis. He advocates for regular medical check-ups and cautions against complacency regarding one's health.

"Early detection is the biggest number one factor, especially with cancer."
— J.D. Dage [94:53]

Holistic Approaches and Personal Health: Beyond conventional treatments, J.D. explores holistic methods such as stem cell therapy, meditation, and physical fitness to bolster his recovery and maintain his health.

"I'm on my third type of medication. The side effects, the new meds don't have as bad of side effects."
— J.D. Dage [87:56]

Community Support Systems: Both hosts and J.D. acknowledge the vital role of community support—through foundations like Thin Blue Line Ride and personal networks—in navigating health crises and fostering resilience.

"We're going to help you."
— J.D. Dage [124:22]

7. Closing

In conclusion, J.D. Dage shares his ongoing commitment to supporting first responders through Thin Blue Line Ride, inviting listeners to contribute and participate in future events. The episode wraps up with reflections on resilience, community support, and the enduring spirit of those who serve.

"All you have is your health right now."
— J.D. Dage [143:55]

For more information or to support Thin Blue Line Ride, visit blueride.org.

---

Notable Quotes:

• J.D. Dage [00:32]: "I was like, okay, time to, you know, time to do something."
• J.D. Dage [08:20]: "If I love it, then I'll stick with it. If it sucks, you're kind of screwed."
• Brent Tucker [21:40]: "We're bringing fuel north. We're bringing fuel north."
• J.D. Dage [16:42]: "Adapt and overcome, I guess."
• J.D. Dage [62:21]: "I signed up to be a cop, not do this."
• J.D. Dage [65:07]: "We're taking care of each other."
• J.D. Dage [85:06]: "I have testicular cancer. I'm not gonna be able to have kids."
• J.D. Dage [88:05]: "I was hooked up, I was getting paid as if I was working 40 hours a week."
• J.D. Dage [117:05]: "We started raising money. Marco was a Worcester COPS kid. He has cancer. We raised money. We handed them over a check."
• J.D. Dage [122:50]: "We've raised over $800,000."
• J.D. Dage [94:53]: "Early detection is the biggest number one factor, especially with cancer."
• J.D. Dage [143:55]: "All you have is your health right now."

---

Support Thin Blue Line Ride: Visit blueride.org to donate, volunteer, or learn more about supporting first responders battling cancer.

Additional Resources:

• Refracted Wolf Apparel: Use promo code Antihero for 15% off RefractedWolf.com
• First Responder Coffee & Cigars: Use promo code FRCC15 for 15% off FRCC.com
• Human Performance: Use promo code HERO for 20% off HPTRT.com

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This episode of The Antihero Podcast provides a poignant and inspiring narrative of resilience, highlighting the pivotal role of first responders and the community's support in overcoming personal and professional challenges.

Transcript

[Brent Tucker]

This is a question I have. I'm gonna. I'm gonna ask you. I feel like you might know when it comes to the left nut and right nut, do they somehow do two different jobs, or do you have two? Because it's a backup, like, does. So does having the right one removed, did that do something particular that the left nut happens? Like, it was like, are you like a Twix?

[Tyler]

Like a left Twix and a right Twix, Are they different?

[J.D. Dage]

So essentially, from what I got out of. I guess anything you have two of, you could do one without, right?

[Brent Tucker]

Okay. Yeah. Drop us some nut knowledge.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, hold on.

[Tyler]

We're not recording. Do you want to buy a shirt.

[J.D. Dage]

To support military dance?

[Tyler]

People want to see their sausage get made.

[Brent Tucker]

An appropriate level of inappropriateness. Something happens in my family tonight. The Delta Force isn't coming to rescue my family. My kids. Like, it is. First responders that are. That are going to save my family.

[Tyler]

They want the culture to be down. They want people to not want to be cops. And the people that do want to be cops are now walking into the job scared to do the job.

[Brent Tucker]

I'm gonna try to act like it didn't happen, although we. We all know it did.

[Tyler]

JV team for life. You know, have you ever. Like, when have you ever had those conversations with yourself? Like, if it got to a certain point, I would live life over, like, trying for one more day and living with limitations? Or has it never gotten to that point yet?

[J.D. Dage]

No, because.

[Brent Tucker]

Is that the energy? We're going to start this podcast, this candid conversation out with.

[Tyler]

That's not candid at all, is it?

[Brent Tucker]

No.

[Tyler]

Direct question.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

I feel like there's always a light at the end of the tunnel after all my diagnosis, like, oh, you get testicular cancer. You got swollen lymph nodes that spread through your chest. So, like, it was always like, here's what happened, here's what we're going to do. Whereas, you know, luckily enough I haven't had to, you know, cross that bridge of being like, hey, you're fucked. Like, get your affairs in order.

[Tyler]

All right.

[Brent Tucker]

You good, Drew? I'm good. Okay.

[Tyler]

Welcome back to the Anti Hero Podcast. Part Delta Force, part street cop. All truth. I'm Tyler, owner of Refracted Wolf Apparel. Use promo code Anti hero and get yourself 15% off. The best in outsider culture. Graphic tees, stickers, hats, flags, ranger panties, beanies, zip up hoodies. And we got a couple of new shirts that we just dropped.

[Brent Tucker]

And I'm Brent Tucker, owner of First Responder Coffee Company and First Responder Cigar Company. Use the promo code FRCC15. That's FRCC15. To get 15% off the world's best coffee and cigars.

[Tyler]

And this episode is brought to you by Human Performance. Testosterone, hormones, weight loss and ketamine. HPTRT.com use promo code HERO and get yourself 20% off. I was wrong. When we were doing the ads the first time, it's not 10%, it's 20%.

[Brent Tucker]

Nice.

[Tyler]

So people were putting in hero. So I was telling you on an under, on an understatement. So let's see what we can do with 20% off. But yeah, testosterone is a big part of my life. It's a big part of this podcast. Really, truly believe that this podcast exists because of testosterone.

[Brent Tucker]

I, I, I just signed up. I just got back on it.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

Yep.

[Tyler]

So it seems to resonate with a lot of people and we're really happy to be with Human Performance team. So go to HPTRT.com and use promo code HERO and get 20 off. And if you've had lab works within the last six months, you can upload it and they won't call, they won't charge you for the labs.

[Brent Tucker]

So.

[Tyler]

HPT.com Yep.

[Brent Tucker]

We're not just fans, we're clients. Is that. Well, well, well, we'll tease a, we'll figure out a good tagline.

[Tyler]

Anyway, we're not just fans, we're clients.

[Brent Tucker]

And don't forget our Thursday night lives every Thursday night at 8:00pm Eastern time. And also please, please consider supporting us through our Patreon. We have five dollar and ten tiers and you get more. You get direct questions for us. You get discounts for, through all of, not just our sponsors, but everyone we're associated with. There's tons of discounts out there. We also do two and $300 giveaways each month. It goes, it goes on and on. There's plenty of reasons to sign up for the Patreon, so please consider supporting us through that as well. And on the show Today, we have J.D. dage. He, he is a combat army veteran, also a police officer for almost two decades, eight years that he served as a SWAT sniper. He's also a, I like the term you, you use. When we were talking earlier, I said, you know, I was going to introduce you as a cancer survivor and you're like, I like the term cancer warrior. And I'm a. And we're going to go with that. He's a cancer warrior that founded Thin Blue line ride in 2017. Really looking forward to digging into this story. Welcome to show.

[J.D. Dage]

Thank you for having me.

[Brent Tucker]

Absolutely. First things first, let's talk about your. Let's talk about your army time. When was it? 911 was that.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

How old were you? 9 11. 911 happened 18.

[J.D. Dage]

Working at my dad's welding shop.

[Brent Tucker]

Really?

[J.D. Dage]

I heard it on the radio sitting in front of the sar. I was like, okay, time to, you know, time to do something.

[Brent Tucker]

I'm ask what seems to be an obvious, an obvious answer to this question. So can you weld?

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, I could weld.

[Brent Tucker]

Tig weld Mig weld.

[J.D. Dage]

It's been a while. It's been a while. Yeah. You can do it. I do the easy stuff.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay. You can, you know, you may not be stacking dimes. You can make two pieces of middle. Really? Yeah, I, it's. We're going to tangent real quick.

[Tyler]

I'm already lost.

[Brent Tucker]

We're going to tangent just real quick. But yeah, I just, I just believe in like old school, like man skills. Like you should be able to build things out of wood. You should be able to like work on a car.

[Tyler]

You should be able to build an IKEA desk.

[Brent Tucker]

Absolutely. And at some point, like in my 30s, I was like, you know what? I want to learn how to weld. And so, and then that's what I did. And that's, that's, that's why I kind of know all those things. The same thing. Do not ask me to weld anything pretty. But I can make two pieces of metal, of metal stick together. That's. And I think it's, I think it's a good man.

[Tyler]

Did you just learn it? Like you didn't go get certified? You just.

[Brent Tucker]

No, no, I didn't get certified.

[J.D. Dage]

I didn't get certified.

[Brent Tucker]

But I tell you what, it's, I think that's a great career field. We've talked about that before. Like for people who don't know what they want to do, consider that as an option. Don't go pour in $80,000 in student debt into college. Go learn a skill like welding and then continue to know, stack those, those certs, you know, later on in your career. And there's welders out there that make a pretty good living. The underwater ones, underwater welding. It's also sounds horrifying, but yeah, welders that, that, that work at on job sites like large, like commercial grade buildings like those guys make bank. And then there's welding inspectors. Like at some point you don't even have to weld.

[J.D. Dage]

You inspect X Ray, the welds. And then they'll chalk out what you messed up, and then you get to grind it down and reweld it.

[Brent Tucker]

All right, well, now I know that doesn't sound like you're any better at me at it. I'll. I'll. I'll see if your dad can help me out if it needs to look pretty. The what? Where were you at? You. Were you at your Dad's shop at 911 happened?

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

You remember seeing it on TV or just hearing about it?

[J.D. Dage]

We were here. Yeah. It was my uncle called my aunt who was working as a secretary, family business, and said, you know, it ended up being on the radio anyways because it was before MP3 and all that stuff.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

So I remember going to get lunch and seeing. Seeing it on tv. And then I think it was two days after that, I went to the recruiter and was like, you know, I always wanted to.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

Wasn't sure if I wanted to go active or reserve due to, like, the unknown.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

So I ended up going reserve. I said, if I. If I love it, then I could put into. Go active duty. If it sucks, you're kind of screwed.

[Brent Tucker]

So now all three of us being army veterans here, I feel like we'll get to the bottom of this. And I feel like I should know this more, but I don't think I do for sure can, as there's active duty recruiters, and then separate from that, there's National Guard recruiters, and then separate from that are reserve recruiters or reserve.

[J.D. Dage]

Recruiters fall under, I think, reserve duty under active duty.

[Tyler]

Oh, they are.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay. So you basically went to the same station that could have offered you active duty or reserve, like the same recruiter office.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, because I. I was even unaware of National Guard. Like, I knew, you know, of it, I guess. You don't know what you don't know, right?

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, same here.

[J.D. Dage]

So then I was like, oh, I could have been like, infantry or something, but it was. Already had the paperwork going, and I was like, you know what? If I love it, then I'll stick with it.

[Brent Tucker]

Exactly.

[Tyler]

So because the reserves don't have combat arms.

[J.D. Dage]

Correct.

[Tyler]

The National Guard is. If you want to be part of time, you have to go National Guard.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. I didn't know that.

[Tyler]

You didn't know that.

[Brent Tucker]

Now that you say that, I'm like, yeah, that. That makes sense. For whatever reason, I did not know. The reserves do not have. There are. It makes complete sense.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

I don't know a single reserve infantry unit. They're in the National Guard. Oh, now I got questions. I wonder why that is. And I'm sure there's a. Yeah, somebody.

[Tyler]

Explained it to me that the reserves are used to. As a support for the army. So they said they don't deserve that. I'm probably wrong.

[J.D. Dage]

National Guards by state.

[Tyler]

Yeah. And the reserves typically deploy people to units, not units to. To play as a unit. The reserves are like supplemental. But have you ever come across a reserve unit overseas? I can't remember if I have. It was always National Guard units that were part time. I've never came across like a reserve unit.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, we were all just activated.

[Tyler]

Activated to go with active units?

[J.D. Dage]

No, we're our own unit.

[Tyler]

And you got all reserve guys.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, active duty guys hated us, but whatever.

[Brent Tucker]

Oh, man. So the, so what job did you end up doing?

[J.D. Dage]

88 Mike. Transportation.

[Brent Tucker]

88 Mike. I know what an 88 mic is. The.

[Tyler]

Pretty much infantry.

[Brent Tucker]

How'd that come about? Just needs of the army kind of thing.

[J.D. Dage]

I wanted to drive big cool army trucks. So I was like, I might as well. And then maybe I could use it, you know, going forward.

[Tyler]

He was probably like, son, if you do this, you could be a stepping stone to your fighter pilot.

[Brent Tucker]

And you were like, yeah, little, little did. You know. And what's crazy, especially since like the beginning of the war, when it's not a traditional war, there are no battle lines like truck drivers. It was a. It was a bad place to be, you know, obviously what. Trying to make sure everyone who, who doesn't know, like what that means is, you know, you have these guys driving trucks and they're not. They don't always have a great security with them. And they're told, hey, you need to go from this base to that base and resupply them. And again, like, what I mean by there's no like real clear battle lines is maybe you're driving through enemy territory, maybe you're not. Like you get. You get hit and you have the kind of. The least amount of training, the least amount of cool guy, you know, gear with you. Security. Yeah. Crappy vehicles. And those guys found themselves in some really bad situations really quick.

[J.D. Dage]

Was that Jessica Lynch?

[Tyler]

I was about to say.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. And that was. I remember we were in Kuwait when that happened. It was March 24th. We landed in country. And I remember hearing that stuff. When they ended up getting her back.

[Tyler]

You'Re like, thank God.

[J.D. Dage]

And we were like, okay, this is real.

[Brent Tucker]

Like, yeah, yeah, absolutely. The. How. How long were. Were you in the reserves before. Before you got activated?

[J.D. Dage]

Less Than a year?

[Brent Tucker]

Less than a year.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

Not much. Not much of a reservist. No.

[J.D. Dage]

No, no, not really.

[Brent Tucker]

It was basic A.I.T. a couple drills.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

Getting mobilized and there you are.

[Tyler]

Oh, yeah, you're mobilized. You're, you're, you're active for what, couple months?

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, they actually. We ended up going to Fort Drum, New York, January to March, which is a great desert location.

[Brent Tucker]

Why wouldn't you.

[J.D. Dage]

It was about two feet of snow. We were, you know, getting ready for. It's cheaper for the army to bus us to Drum than it is to get us to the desert somewhere. Closest active duty base.

[Tyler]

We're sending you to the desert soon.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, so we. I mean, it was so cold, our fuel was. Fuel was gelling up and freezing when we were trying to do. Holy shit. Yeah, it was. It was cold.

[Brent Tucker]

I don't know if I've ever heard a positive Fort Drum story. I mean, there's got to be one. I'm sure they're out there. I just haven't heard it.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. So we were there two and a half months. We were supposed to be there shorter. We were supposed to go to Turkey, but Turkey didn't want soldiers there, so we ended up going to Kuwait, which in turn went to Iraq.

[Tyler]

You went to Kuwait before it was Kuwait, like as I knew it.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. I don't even think we had a green bean yet.

[Brent Tucker]

That's actually a really good. That's a really good point in history. Are you pre green bean? Are you like Taco Bell bean combo combat?

[J.D. Dage]

Better.

[Brent Tucker]

Because those are two wildly different green beans. Yeah, for sure. The. How long they staged in Kuwait?

[J.D. Dage]

It was less than a week. It felt like forever because we kept getting scuttlers. Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, that's not bad. I was, I was afraid it was going to be a lot worse than that.

[J.D. Dage]

No, we. Well, they asked for volunteers to go to Iraq, and of course I raised my hand. And me and my buddy. I don't know how many soldiers there were, but we hopped in the back of a five ton, no cover, throw our packs on, had our J's list on, our chem suits because we kept donning those like a couple times a day with the scut alerts and hopped on a truck, went to the border. Everyone took their J's list off. Then it was through the DMZ to Iraq.

[Brent Tucker]

And then where, where, where'd you go? Was your first base of operations cedar.

[J.D. Dage]

Sorry, Cedar 1, which I think was a logistical. Yeah, it was Cedar 1. Did a bunch of missions out of there.

[Brent Tucker]

What's Cedar one? Is that. It's called.

[J.D. Dage]

So, like the highway of death. You go north.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay. Yep.

[J.D. Dage]

Go up another couple hours. It was on the left, like, just literally off Tampa, middle of nowhere. And then we moved to Cedar 2.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

Which was on the other side of the highway closer to Talil Air Base.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

So southern Iraq.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay. The what. What year is this?

[J.D. Dage]

That was 03.03.

[Brent Tucker]

What was. What was the. What was the living situation in 03 at Cedar 1? As. As a truck driver.

[J.D. Dage]

So we had.

[Brent Tucker]

Tell me about your team house and the wi fi. Like all rogue equipment.

[J.D. Dage]

That was cappuccino machine. We had winter tents with no floors. No. I think our platoon was in one of those. And because we were advanced party. And what we did was we were right seat for another reserve unit that was out of New York.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

And so we were like, learning how to do the job, doing missions every day. We were going to buy at Baghdad Airport. Every day was a mission. And we typically go to smaller fobs, download fuel, come back.

[Tyler]

Was it just fuel that you guys.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, in O3, it was just fuel. So we went. It was kind of cool because we get to see a lot of the country. Beautiful country.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. Ironic enough that that is true. Did. Did the. Did the. The unit you're ripping out like, have any, like, horror stories or that you know of, like, any, like, really bad. Honestly, like, we had was a pretty. Pretty straightforward deployment for those guys.

[J.D. Dage]

Pretty straightforward for those guys. They were there shorter for some reason, I don't know if. Because they were from New York City and it was like. I don't know if they were there. I don't even think. They weren't there a year. I mean, we were there March 24th when we landed in country. Well, in theater, essentially. So then we replaced them. I say we got lucky all the time. Like, we drove 818s, which were like. If you watch Rambo, it's like those style trucks.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

Some of the overpasses would get like, pop shots or we'd hear about that. So I remember taking my knife, cutting a hole in the roof, flipping up the seat standing up as like a turret. I'm like, yeah, I'm not gonna. You know.

[Brent Tucker]

Makeshift turret.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, exactly.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, right.

[J.D. Dage]

Adapt and overcome, I guess. Because it's like, I'm not gonna get, you know, I'm not gonna be a.

[Brent Tucker]

Don't be lazy target.

[Tyler]

You guys, this is so early in the war. You guys had soft skins with no turrets. You guys have any trucks with turrets?

[J.D. Dage]

No we had three Humvees. Okay, we had three Humvees. And when I was doing gun trucks, I would sit on a MRE box and I'd have to swap it up by noontime. We had a ratchet strap with MRE boxes on the top. Then I had my saw on the plywood, and that was our gun truck.

[Tyler]

Three platoons, 360 degree security.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. And then we would get out and the Iraqis would be, you know, there was no bubble, 300 meter bubble with us. It was. Iraqis would be driving in and out of our convoys and we'd be like, imshi, like get away. And we got lucky. There was no IEDs. Then it was, yeah, you know, pop shots and progressed.

[Brent Tucker]

It deteriorated, you know, kind of really quick and. Yeah, it's a weird thing, like, the beginning of that war, like most people think, like, the war is like, really bad during the invasion and it gradually gets better. And the Iraq war was weird in one aspect that it wasn't. The invasion was a lot, a lot easier than we thought it was going to be. Like, it was. They were, I think, like the eighth largest army in the world at the time. Really. Wow. There was something like that. I'm close. And there's a lot of concerns of, you know, what, how bad it could get. We essentially just rolled right to Baghdad, and there was no counter offensive. There was not a whole lot of counterinsurgency. It just progressively got worse. It started in about.03 pop shots here and there to where? And in two years it scaled all the way up to.05 or kind of the beginning of the surge where it got so bad we're like, all right.

[Tyler]

What'S the guy's name?

[Brent Tucker]

Losing it.

[Tyler]

We got Paul, Paul Bremer from the Department of State. When he disbanded the Iraqi army and didn't allow them to make any money and essentially created Al Qaeda In Iraq.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

10 years earlier than what? When it was labeled that.

[Brent Tucker]

So there's. There's so. So at this point in 03, what does. What does the normal convoy look like? Or. Or was there. Was it all kind of all. All. It's always different every time. But what's essentially. What's a. If you can answer it in that way, what's a normal size convoy? How many trucks you have? How many more logistical trucks and how many more security trucks we had.

[J.D. Dage]

Our company had first platoon, second platoon, third platoon, maintenance. I don't even think. We didn't even have any maintenance wreckers. We had a bobtail, which was a tractor Trailer without the trailer with the tow hitch. If one broke down, you'd switch. I think there'd be two of those. For our breakdown units, we would have three soft Humvees like I described. Platoon leader and one of each. And one of those would switch off. Convoy commander and 35,000 gallon fuel tankers, and we'd have 4,700 gallons of fuel.

[Brent Tucker]

30.

[J.D. Dage]

Oh, yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

30 different trucks that could carry 5,000 gallons of fuel each one of them.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

That's a lot. It's a lot, man. That's. And yeah, for. And for all you people, listen just for a second. Of course, this isn't. Everyone knows this. Tyler knows. This. Is served. I know this. Of course you know this because you did the job. Everyone wants to hear cool Green Beret stories and cool Navy SEAL stories and all those cool stories of guys on the ground. We can't do anything without being resupplied. Like you go back to World War II. World War II was one through logistics. Oh, gosh, yes. Because so many tanks, so many airplanes, so much fighting was happening. It was. How fast can you resupply these things? How fast can you get another one to the. To the front line? There's a. There's a very good argument that it was a logistical war just as much as it was at the front lines, which is why the. The Germans sent saboteurs to America. Luckily, we caught them. But their whole job wasn't to assassinate people, attack our bases. Their whole job was to attack the railway system that supplied materials to tank manufacturers and airplane. So they knew it was real logistical war. So. And that's a whole, you know, side story. But. But it's true. Like, like, not to overly hype you guys up, but, like, you guys just don't get enough credit. Like, no one ever questions or realizes or cares. Where'd our fuel come from?

[Tyler]

Take it for granted.

[Brent Tucker]

You take it for granted. How do we get our food here? Like, it just doesn't show up.

[J.D. Dage]

Taking it from the ground until it's not. Everyone's like, hey, you guys. Yeah, everyone's in Iraq for the oil. I'm like, we're bringing it north. We're bringing fuel north.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, yeah. It just doesn't matter to show up. And especially, you know, I just want to make that point, especially again, like, in Iraq. Not. It's not just a hard job. It's a hard and dangerous job. And that story has to be told. Like, there are guys out there like you who did this.

[Tyler]

You got me thinking logistics. Now I'm thinking, who brought the US Army? Who brought y'all the fuel? Was it flown in, was it driven in from like Saudi Arabia?

[J.D. Dage]

I couldn't tell you that. You know, we took it from wherever. You know, the army, we were mid Iraq, like southern Sunni triangle. We'd always go through that.

[Tyler]

So it would be JV team for life. Ghost Bed sleep so good it's scary. Go to ghostbed.comantihero and get 50% off. That's 50% off your order. Or go to check out and use Anti Hero as a promo code. 50% off, 60,000 plus 5 star rating and reviews. All handcrafted here in America and Canada. I think mostly Florida, to be honest with you. So go to ghostbed.com support them. They're huge supporters of us. They're awesome. They treat us really good. So if you need any bedding, if you don't even need a bed, if you just need bedding, cool. They have the patented, they have the patented cooling technology.

[Brent Tucker]

Nailed it. Nailed it. Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

Nailed it.

[Tyler]

Goodsbed.com Andrew or 50% off.

[Brent Tucker]

Tyler how many critical incidents do you think we've covered so far in this podcast, man?

[Tyler]

At least five, six.

[Brent Tucker]

And they're not going to stop, you know, there's, you cannot stop them all. So they're going to happen. And you really have, you know, two charters of that. Obviously one is to stop them from happening, but since you can't stop them all from happening, you owe it to the people that you protect and depend on you to react to those situations in the most effective and efficient manner. And right now, really, whether you're a fire department, ems, law enforcement, you're stuck with essentially radios.

[Tyler]

And Apollo is the best way to manage resources during these events because it's designed by first responders for first responders.

[Brent Tucker]

It gives first responders a common operating picture which allows them to see where everybody is in real time, overlaid onto a map to see where they are. You can drop pinpoints and let them know where they need to go. And without constant talking on the radio, everybody knows where the incident is, where it's happening and where they need to be.

[Tyler]

Nepal is an app based application. This is just download and go.

[Brent Tucker]

It's an app and so it works with androids, it works with iPhones.

[Tyler]

Apollo makes sure on the back end everything works and you can just plug and go. They handle all the licensing, all the encryption compliance, all the security. It's all handled by Apollo. It's crucial to know where everyone is and what they are doing in order to Effectively control chaos in one of these either natural disasters or shootings or anything like that.

[Brent Tucker]

So if you want to learn more about Apollo, scan the QR code and ensure your department is ready to react to any crisis in its most effective and efficient manner possible.

[Tyler]

JV TEAM for life.

[J.D. Dage]

We would fuel up. We would bring to bases and fobs and download, stay the night, go back empty, fill up, do it all. Like every day. It was literally. It was to the. We didn't have an end date, so we literally thought we were never going home. It was like it was the biggest suck ever. It was just sitting on a tanker, looking at the stars, looking at the sound.

[Tyler]

You're like, am I dead?

[J.D. Dage]

Like, is this. Are we ever gonna go home? Like, this sucks. So.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. And bring it back with just, I guess one more point that I just now thought of. Like, I've. I've done some dangerous things. Like, I really have, but no one's asked me with the least amount of security to tow a 5005. Is it how many gallons?

[J.D. Dage]

So it's 5000 gallons.

[Brent Tucker]

5000 gallon bomb behind my truck.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

With Iraqis driving in and out when. You know, at whenever they want.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

And be like, good luck. Just the boys need it.

[J.D. Dage]

I mean, we'd have. It's essentially, it was more dangerous with the vapors. So we'd keep the top hatch open so the air could get in because we'd have. We'd show up to some bases. Not my truck. One of the guys in our convoy had bullet holes in the tank or with some fuel leaking out of it. We're like, oh, somebody missed.

[Brent Tucker]

All different types of fuel.

[J.D. Dage]

It was all JP8. So diesel jet fuel. Like when.

[Brent Tucker]

However, I hope I'm not crazy wrong on this, but G.JP8 was one of the reasons I believe it was picked because it was. So I guess what's the stable? Stable? I was gonna say. I couldn't think of the. The opposite of volatile. It was so stable. I believe. I think I've seen videos of this. Like, you, like, you, like people would smoke cigarettes around it because not even cigarettes would. Would make it. Whoa.

[Tyler]

I didn't know that.

[J.D. Dage]

Well, we would. I mean, we'd have to do burn pit duty and it would be. We'd go around all the porta potties, put everything in the ditch and we would need gas to. To start it because the JPA just wouldn't. Wouldn't get it going.

[Tyler]

Ignite. Okay.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. And. And I thought about that. Because if you're getting it's it's in a. It's in a metal container.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

And you get a bullet through that. Like when that bull metal bullet hits that metal container, it's going to create a spark. And if that was like gasoline, that thing would go up.

[J.D. Dage]

Oh, yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

Like that's.

[Tyler]

That's all it takes with all.

[Brent Tucker]

With all those.

[J.D. Dage]

Which is interesting too, on why, like I remember seeing some dirt bike. Everything in the military is like diesel based and so we could just run off of that.

[Tyler]

Oh, gosh.

[J.D. Dage]

Safer runs, runs cleaner.

[Tyler]

But it's more for brand. We've had a couple guests on here, some like hardcore grunts, some early wartime guys. You know, I've never burned, have you?

[Brent Tucker]

What's that?

[Tyler]

I've never burned.

[Brent Tucker]

I've. No, I haven't. Yeah.

[Tyler]

Yeah, I feel like I skated on that one.

[J.D. Dage]

It was not fun. I had one day where I had to burn and I was so pissed because it was one of the days that our convoy got hit and I was like so mad that I was not the guy.

[Tyler]

Oh, you were stirring.

[J.D. Dage]

Oh, yeah, I was stirring. And I like. Yeah, it was. I was very upset that day.

[Brent Tucker]

I'm trying to think of like the worst.

[Tyler]

They come back telling you their war story for the day and you're just.

[J.D. Dage]

Well, yeah, it was kind of couple like 200 meters away. They were getting pop shots. Nothing, nothing crazy. Again, I say we get lucky. Like the amount of time we had wheels on the road outside of the base. We were lucky like a lot. Whether it was breaking down and then another convoy passing us and getting hit.

[Brent Tucker]

Oh, wow.

[J.D. Dage]

Or like us being first outside of the wire. I mean that was more like the second time, I guess, with the IEDs, but essentially like it's luck again. Also show a force to like if you're standing up and you're in the gun.

[Brent Tucker]

That's right.

[J.D. Dage]

It's going to be less likely to.

[Brent Tucker]

Don't look like these. They're looking for easy targets. You know, there's only a few small things that you really have to do to make them go. This one doesn't look like the rest. You know, I think it's still. There is still a little bit of luck, but yeah, I think you guys made your own luck as well to some degree. How long were you there for? It was it a year deployment?

[J.D. Dage]

So it was 10 months in country. Yeah. Back to the harder lifestyle. It was like two uniforms, one pair of boots, flak jackets from like the soft. Flak jackets.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, yeah. They probably work. They probably work.

[J.D. Dage]

We were down to two bottles of water and one MRE a day, which I'm like, I remember hearing on reports, I'm like, dudes are getting in hand to hand combat in Iraq. I'm like, hey, it could always be worse. Like, we're doing fine.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

And one was for shaving and bathing, the other one was for drinking. And that was it.

[Tyler]

You think the army would wave the shaving part if it meant you got a little bit to drink, a little bit more water?

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, I mean, it was in that aspect.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. Dry shave? Yeah, just, just, you know, if you don't let it get too long, you can dry shave essentially. Well, I don't shave any, but my neck and everything, I've always, I've almost always dry shaved.

[Tyler]

I'm a big fan of the Norelco thing and like once a week go straight it, but you don't have electric shave. That's what I did in the field. And I recalite. I just would keep it. And then one day when I had a sink or something, I would go and I would shave it.

[Brent Tucker]

You know, there was, there's one aspect of that. There really is an aspect just like all, all of our enemies know, like the bearded guys respect special. And there's one issue if you want to grow a beard because you're out in the middle of nowhere, you know, and, and, and not be special, you, you, you could be bringing something on you that you don't want, you know, I mean.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, it makes sense.

[Tyler]

I never thought about that. Right.

[Brent Tucker]

They want, they want to kill a bearded guy so bad. They want to capture a bearded guy so bad. If they ever get a bearded guy in captivity, they're going to treat him so bad because, because they believe that they've killed more of their brothers than anyone else.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

So it's one of those like double edged sword. Like you know, be, be, be careful what you, what you present yourself as. Like you might, you might get it. That's. And someone kind of explained that to me in Special Forces because every Special Forces guy, you know, wants a beard. But you know, there's, there's a time and a place for it. Like, are you really trying to lower your signature? Well, by lowering your signature. Sometimes the way to lower your signature is shave your beard and, and look. And put on acus and walk around.

[J.D. Dage]

You know, look like a truck driver.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, exactly. And look like a truck driver. And I was like, man, that guy's simple. Of course, no SF guy wanted to hear that because it's not cool. I Was like, he's actually right. Like that's. There's. There's a time and a place for that for sure. So anyways, a little side thing of that, the. You get 10 months. I know everyone. There's other guys. I think Lee, what did Lee. Lee went direct. 12 months, I think. I think it was just my little brother. I think he got extended by two or three months, man. Spent like 15 months in Iraq.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

That's forever.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, that's gotta be.

[J.D. Dage]

That's forever.

[Brent Tucker]

And I feel like it's worse if you know from the get go you're gonna send, you're gonna spend 15 months. But when you're gonna. When you. But when you're only supposed to spend 12 months, at month 11, you're ready to go home, you know. And so at month 12, when you get told 50.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

It's like you get kicked a couple times, you know, in between there. But 10 months is longer than I've. Than I've ever stayed in country. Well, how long did you stay in country?

[Tyler]

10 months.

[Brent Tucker]

10 months?

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. When. When you went home, do you remember like what it was like to come home after? You know, it was weirding like that. It was definitely what you wanted. What you didn't know you missed or you knew what was the thing you had to have when you got home.

[J.D. Dage]

I want to like, it was. I wanted pizza. My mother's like, what do you want me to cook? I'm like, I want Papa Gino's pizza. I just want pizza. Chinese food, you know something it's not.

[Brent Tucker]

It's like we're all guests on this episode of Seven, but. But we don't know. We don't. Vets don't talk about this to each other. You know what I mean? Well, what was yours, Tyler?

[Tyler]

Peanut butter M M's. I don't know why. I don't know why. That's delicious. Everything in Iraq, no matter what they tried to make it, but the. They don't. America uses certain ingredients that are right.

[Brent Tucker]

Wrong or different are bad for you.

[Tyler]

They're bad. And a lot of countries from in Europe and. Or the places that. Even the Diet Coke cans that had the Iraqi writing on them, they tasted super weird. But you got used to it. And then you come home and everything has different ingredients in it.

[Brent Tucker]

I make that joke all the time. What it be? Ketchup? Bare Red Bull, like even like their monsters. Whatever it is, it tastes just like ours. Their Snickers. Whatever it is, it tastes just like ours. But a little Bit different.

[J.D. Dage]

It's just.

[Brent Tucker]

It's like 98%, but it's just enough to be like. It's. It's not America. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what it is.

[Tyler]

Don't. Well, not that you can now, but I would tell everybody, don't try Subway in Iraq. Oh, gosh. Disgusting.

[Brent Tucker]

But you. You were pre Subway. You didn't have to worry about.

[J.D. Dage]

It was pre Subway.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

He's like, I would kill for a fake Subway sandwich right now.

[Brent Tucker]

For me, it was a steak. Like, I couldn't wait to get home and have a good steak. But as soon as I landed. I'll never forget landing in Florida and what I didn't realize, like, feeling the humidity and smelling grass. I smell. Grass has a smell to it just. Or just green like trees, grass and dirt. Sand has a smell to it because it's that fine. Dirt just gets in your nose, and it just. Everything just smells like dirt and rotting garbage and. Smells like American fuel over there.

[Tyler]

Diesel fuel.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

Smells like freedom again sometimes.

[J.D. Dage]

And it'll, like, bring it back, bring me back. I'm like, oh, yeah, I know that smell. I don't like that smell, but I know that smell.

[Brent Tucker]

Smells bring back memories. So much more vivid to me than any, like, sounds or sights that. Or a movie or. Or talking about it. There are just certain smells. And I'll almost just close my eyes as soon I was like, I remember that smell. And it takes me right back to, like, when I smelled that smell. Yeah, it's. It's crazy how close smell is connected to your memory. It's so crazy the. You got back. I know we got other things. I'm just always interested in that. That aspect at the beginning of the war that I wasn't there for. You know, I wasn't there in 03, so I love hearing those stories move along fairly quick. Did you go to airborne school before that or after?

[J.D. Dage]

After I did the.

[Brent Tucker]

How'd you get to go to airborne school? As a reservist, you know, not in the 82nd as a truck driver? How'd you get to go to airborne school?

[J.D. Dage]

So when I got back from the first deployment, I was a E4 specialist. So they were like, hey, do the Soldier of the Year competition. Did that for the unit.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay. That's a big deal.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

I was just like, okay, let's. It's a PT test. It's some CTT stuff, and, you know.

[Brent Tucker]

On a board.

[J.D. Dage]

And a board.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

So I ended up doing that, winning for the 320, like, for new England, I guess. And then I ended up coming down to Georgia for, like, a national competition.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

And then if I won that, I would have gone to, like, the active army side.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

But went down sick as a dog. They don't tell you your scores until the end, but. Sorry, they don't tell you your scores. They just tell you the winner. And because I got that for, like, New England, I was like, can I go to jump school? They were like, yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

They didn't even offer to it.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

We don't have a reason to send you. We have no reason to send you. But I can't think of a reason why not to see you dig it. I actually knew that you went to jump school because I did a little digging before you came in, and I got a hold of some footage of you doing some airborne operations.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

All right.

[Tyler]

Did you know this footage exists?

[J.D. Dage]

No, I did not.

[Brent Tucker]

Oh.

[J.D. Dage]

I didn't have GoPro footage.

[Brent Tucker]

No. No. Yeah. So this is JD that is. That is an airborne. An airborne truck driver. That was you. And you do drive a Jeep.

[J.D. Dage]

I do.

[Tyler]

Here's the crazy thing is, I don't know many people. I mean, I can't speak for Brent. I have a pretty good feeling. Like, I went to airborne school because I had to.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

I didn't want to. Did you want to go?

[Brent Tucker]

No, I didn't want to go.

[Tyler]

And you're volunteering. Did I go jump out of planes?

[Brent Tucker]

Oh, we've talked about airborne school, like, once before, and we had a good time because. And we. We mentioned that same thing.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

For you, airborne school had to be a different experience because this is an opportunity. Like, when you get back to your unit with jump wings on, like, you gotta walk around with. With your chest out, you know?

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. It was great. The funny thing about airborne is I went to airborne school, and it was a. A girl in a company.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

Her. You know, how many from down south? And she's never been on a plane before. So essentially, she went on five planes and never landed.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

I'm like, how do. How do you even.

[Brent Tucker]

1.

[J.D. Dage]

How do you go to the army without being on a plane? Because I remember just flying around, like, all day before getting to Fort Knox. We're into basic, but, like, this is.

[Brent Tucker]

Like the 1930s, or we're getting on a plane, a special. And for the rich folk, like, oh.

[Tyler]

That'S a good point. She's in the military and never been on a plane before. Everyone's cool.

[Brent Tucker]

Right? I mean, how'd you had I guess everything was just close. Like, basic. Like, you didn't fly to basic. Fly somewhere.

[Tyler]

Dallas.

[Brent Tucker]

Or didn't fly in your personal life. And I get it. Not everyone grows up. But you know what? Spirit Airlines hadn't. Hasn't come around yet, so maybe it wasn't as affordable as it is now. That's a Spirit joke. Okay. That's the hot. Did, did, did. Airborne. Like, did you have. It goes back to us a little bit. Like, we had expectations of airborne school. Everyone's talking about it, like, whether you wanted to go or not. Like, we knew about it. I feel like you didn't know necessarily, like, what you were getting into. And you're like, this is. Every day is new to you.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I was a cop at the time, so this was like, three weeks off of work to go to jump school, which was kind of fun. I'm like, hey, I'm getting paid from the army to go to jump school. And then I go back to being a cop when I'm done. Yeah, with some wings.

[Brent Tucker]

Tell us about your first jump. Excited about it?

[J.D. Dage]

I was pissed. I was the first guy in line almost every jump, and they kept bumping me back. For somebody who was like, they want to fight? You scared? Yeah. They put the girl in front of me one time. They put another dude in front of me who was terrified. But I was able to get the first on the night jump. On the last jump.

[Tyler]

You know what my best memory, my favorite memory of airborne school was my first day, and I saw the Creed on the wall, and I'm like. Because in the army, everything's got a creed. You gotta memorize it. Every unit has a creed. And I barely remember the infantryman creed. And then I'm like, are we gonna have to learn this? And so he was like, no. I was like, okay.

[Brent Tucker]

Oh, here's a question I got for you. Did the. What do they call it? Did. Did the parachute tower work?

[J.D. Dage]

Oh, yeah, I did. Tower. You did it? I. I would rather have jump out. So I went.

[Brent Tucker]

The only person actually did the tower.

[J.D. Dage]

I hated it.

[Tyler]

There's Frisbee.

[J.D. Dage]

I'm like, I would rather jump out of a plane than do this stupid tower. But I did. I went skydiving twice before that. So, like, I was already, like, I.

[Brent Tucker]

Wanted to, but you had the experience of jumping out. I mean, a very, very different experience, but it's the same but different.

[J.D. Dage]

It's more like, jump out. Everything's loud and crazy, your feet are over your head. Then all of a Sudden you're like, please open.

[Brent Tucker]

Right.

[J.D. Dage]

And then it happens. It's really quiet.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

Is it. Is free falling loud? I've never free fall.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, it's like. Well, it's fast.

[Tyler]

But I know when the parachute opens, it's like the.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. Static line is just way more like violent. It really is like, it's. It's such a. It's such a bigger plane because of the amount of people that are going out of a static. So there's a lot more wind. It's usually. Almost always side door. So it's throwing you, you know, you know, 90 degrees left or right really quick. It's only a couple seconds. And then, you know, the parachute's getting ripped out of your back. So, like that first 10 seconds of falling of static line jump is violent.

[Tyler]

Yeah. And for the people that don't know.

[Brent Tucker]

And it's not in free fall, it's. Everything's pretty like, it's like quiet and smooth.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

Static line.

[Tyler]

However long you shoot static lines, like, that's. The whole process is dangerous because first off, it's got to pull your shootout because if it doesn't, you're a tow. Jumper. Essentially, when you jump out of the airplane, the airplane takes your parachute out for you and you're. You're. You're separating from everything.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

But if it doesn't separate, you get towed to the side of the airplane and you start smacking. I mean, this is a common. I've never had this happen to me. I don't think I've ever seen it happen.

[Brent Tucker]

I've never seen a tow jumper.

[Tyler]

But.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, but you got stories of people.

[Tyler]

Are they're just towed. They're. They're. The airplane's flying. They're on the side of the plane about 15ft out. There's two options. The jump master can either pull you in manually, or they're going to look at you and go like this and they're going to cut your line because it's the safest thing for you and you got to pull your reserve.

[Brent Tucker]

Did you have a machine now that, that, that. So you don't have to get pulled in manually?

[Tyler]

Oh, really?

[Brent Tucker]

There is a machine that. That helps with that. But you're right. You got one or two options. Either coming back in the plane.

[J.D. Dage]

Or.

[Tyler]

Getting cut away from all for 200 bucks a month.

[Brent Tucker]

But the worst thing is if that guy's smacking on the plane and you believe he's unconscious, like, it's not like, it's not like a free fall where your Reserve automatically opens like that. You have to be conscious to pull your reserve. And if you can't get him back in the plane and you cut him away and you believe him, be conscious. He's not like you. Just. That's his death sentence.

[Tyler]

Yeah, I didn't even think about that.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. And it's just. Yeah. Yeah. The static line is. Is so much more violent. So many more things can go wrong. You're so much lower to the ground, so you got less time to fix problems.

[Tyler]

Do you think airborne. This is a great argument. Do you think it's a. It's something that we need to keep funding for? Just the one.

[Brent Tucker]

Go ahead. I'll let you answer, though. But I got a bigger answer. Yes and no, actually.

[J.D. Dage]

I mean, I think yes, because it's the history of the Army. Like, you know, it's not. We're not jumping into Normandy or like, I.

[Tyler]

Tradition.

[J.D. Dage]

Tradition. Yeah. I think the army keeps it because of tradition. Will they get rid of it? I doubt it. Maybe they just do Halo or all that free fall stuff that the cool guys do with beards.

[Brent Tucker]

If tradition. If that was the answer, then I think we should keep the choirs and the bands, and I think that's stupid. I'd get rid of all of them because everything in the military should. Should be for. For combat and war. I could care less about the 82nd choir coming to sing Christmas carols to me on Christmas, which. Which happened. So, yeah, that was a Thursday night. That was a Thursday night Live, you know, conversation we had. I think it's a great. At the end of the day, there's. There's. There's no other way to insert 5, 000 soldiers into one area and. And 48 hours anywhere in the world. So it's. It's really is rather have it and.

[Tyler]

Not need it than need it.

[Brent Tucker]

Not have it. Exactly. Right. Yeah. But here's where. Here's what frustrates me so. And we'll just talk. The 82nd, you know, for. Why the whole unit has to be airborne, to me is ridiculous. The S1 doesn't need to be airborne. Like, you're not. You're not. You're not jumping in behind them to make sure their pay is good. And so. And it goes back to, you know, being. Being smart, you know, with fiscally as well. So we have all these support elements that are airborne, which means you have to get airplanes for them, you have to get rigs for them, you have to have more riggers. You have to send them to airborne school. We could probably cut our airborne slots or our airborne personnel down by a third easy or more.

[Tyler]

One fifth of them could buy airborne.

[Brent Tucker]

We would save hundreds and hundreds of million by doing that because those airplane rides are, are expensive.

[Tyler]

You don't want to make a airborne truck driver.

[Brent Tucker]

You know, oddly enough, I don't mind them like going to airborne school, like as a, you know, as, as a reward, like things like that are fine, but we didn't send a C130 to him to keep him on airborne status. You know, the airborne school is running. It's okay to, to have those things. That's, that's actually a good question because I'm sure someone in the comment section was going to, you know, roast me.

[Tyler]

Actively being airborne that I'm saying.

[Brent Tucker]

So, So I think we should re. Look at the, at how, at how we do it, maybe even how often we do it and how many units that, that we have that, that are airborne. And just like I said, I think it should be looked into.

[J.D. Dage]

Do you think that Doge should take a look? Yeah.

[Tyler]

Yeah, well, yeah, definitely. Obviously the infantry. And then I think the first thing this next one you need after medics, because I consider them with them, is you need mechanics out there jumping in because they're going to drop the heavy drops of the trucks and you got to have people out there that can fix it.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, absolutely. That's a good question. I don't, I don't. I just think it needs to be. I think it just means we looked at. I think we need to be more efficient than we are with it. When, when you got back to your unit after airborne school, you have a bunch of guys like asking questions about everyone's goal. Were you kind of guys.

[J.D. Dage]

This was towards the end of my, I think this was 2000.

[Brent Tucker]

Did you meet Jim Kennedy 7?

[J.D. Dage]

This is like 07. And my unit got deployed again in 2008.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

And because I had two deployments in a five year period.

[Brent Tucker]

Yes.

[J.D. Dage]

I didn't have to redeploy.

[Brent Tucker]

Is that optional or they tell you couldn't.

[J.D. Dage]

It was optional.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

Because. Sorry. So this was more of the. Yeah, this was after jump school, so it was like, more towards that. Our unit, our reserve unit was gearing up to go again.

[Brent Tucker]

Right.

[J.D. Dage]

And I already went back again in 05 06. And I was like, dude, I'm a cop now. Like, I'm good.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, you can have that deployment. So let's, let's go talk about your, your cop experience. Unless there's anything like that that you want to talk about, like, on your second employment.

[J.D. Dage]

No, just how much. I mean, it was kind of funny.

[Brent Tucker]

How much you changed.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

We knew about the IEDs and everything, so I had my dad, Jack. We. We figured out some measurements, and we brought our own steel to Iraq as armor, because the first deployment, we didn't have armor.

[Brent Tucker]

Yep.

[J.D. Dage]

So we were like. We came up with a. I want to say it was 16 by 24 with five holes in it. So we could either put a weld or through, bolt it through our turrets or doors. And we were like, we're bringing our own stuff because they're not supplying it. Man.

[Tyler]

That's kind of cool, though.

[J.D. Dage]

So we got there, and then we had up armored Humvees. We were. First Platoon was gun trucks. So that's what I did. And then we actually did. It was some hillbilly armor was on the turrets. So I ended up blowing through with a torch, like oxy, acetylene torch, and adding to it. I'm like, I'd rather have more armor.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

And then some. Master sergeant saw me. I was at E5 at the time. He's okay, Sergeant. I remember hats on backwards. I got the cutting goggles on. I'm like, yes, Master Sergeant. He's like, how'd you know how to do that? I'm like, shit. I'm like, I don't. I just. I grew up in my dad's shop. He's. So they wanted a E5 to run skunk Works out of Balad Air Base.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

And I'm like, I didn't come here to weld.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

So they pulled a couple of guys from my unit to work there full time. And as I was there, that's when Jesse James showed up and built that humvee with a 454 in the back of it.

[Tyler]

What? Oh, we have to find that footage.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. So, like, I missed that because I was like, I didn't not come here to weld. I came here to do missions. So I remember, like, in that shop, that's where the guys were working on that. And then we started doing missions and stuff.

[Tyler]

I could have been a Discovery Channel.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. But the funny part was I was home, like, a year later, and I was, you know, midnight watching tv, and I'm like, oh, crap, that's. Those are the dudes from Skunk Works.

[Brent Tucker]

That's funny. Oh, man.

[Tyler]

Yeah. I respect that so much. I. No, they like. I mean, you, too. Like, you look at the guys, like, in an apocalyptic situation, who are the dudes that are going to be able to take what they have and make the best of it. And I'm like, man, what's my strengths? I'm a good reader.

[Brent Tucker]

And it's, it's the mindset, you know, now that you bring that up. And you're absolutely right. So there's kind of two types of people in combat. There's the people who have what they have and just complain about everything and do nothing about it. And then there's the guys, you can still complain about it and which, you know, which is fine. And then they do something about it or they don't complain about it a lot at all. And like, well, this is what we got. They do something about it. So in the day, there's people who do something about it and there's people who do nothing about it. And you guys decided, we're going to do something about it.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, I mean, we had Walters, plumbers, cops, you know, you have the active duty element, which is great. These guys are training 24, 24 7.

[Brent Tucker]

Right.

[J.D. Dage]

Monday through Friday. Right.

[Tyler]

And these guys are unloading Conexes.

[J.D. Dage]

And so we, yeah, we were, we were attached to 377 field artillery guys. And we walked in and they hated us. They were like, look at these reservists driving trucks.

[Brent Tucker]

Right.

[J.D. Dage]

After a week of doing missions with us. They were like, okay.

[Brent Tucker]

So it is, it is not just something that, you know, a nice thing to say. Like, it's. It, it is true. And I'm not going to say, I'm not going to sit here and tell you, hey, a reserve unit's just as good as any active duty units. Some are actually.

[J.D. Dage]

It depends on the corporate tests.

[Brent Tucker]

It depends on the culture of that unit. Like they absolutely can be really close. But there is something you cannot overlook about a reserve unit. When you bring a couple hundred guys over, you know, from the. Who do this part time on the weekends as a military person. But they're a regular job. You have plumbers, you have electricians, you have welders. Like, you bring those reservists bring way more than just their military background with them. And they apply that where they are like. And holistically there are times they're better suited because of that holistic background or that very diverse. True diversity. Yeah, you know, my skin color, like, true diversity of background that allows them to really just to be able to adapt better than a military unit.

[J.D. Dage]

I get a funny story. So one of the guys I was deployed with the first time. So a lot of guys in my unit from 03 to 0506 were the same guys. So we've already been there, done that. And then there were some new guys who jumped on after just to fill in a supplement to make us, you know, 100%. So Sergeant Ham, one of our guys was. He ended up coming up with this device and he's like, dej, let's go to your shop and let's weld this up. Basically the bumpers on the 818s or whatever, trucks, 931s. I get a C channel, welded a pipe on it that was probably 3 inches in diameter on a 45 degree angle. Put a hole in it so he could run a wire to the cab. Because this is when IEDs and roadblocks were a thing. We made a cannon with a grappling hook and a rope.

[Tyler]

Really?

[J.D. Dage]

It was nuts. So we were doing this like the, you know, not OP4, but like, whatever, training before we get deployed.

[Brent Tucker]

Right.

[J.D. Dage]

You know, like you get. They put a tree in front of the road, and then here comes Sergeant Ham with his device. Get a 9 volt battery, put the wires together, put like a, kind of like a cork style or a piece of wood and some like, black powder. The hook with a rope, with a milk crate. All of a sudden, boom, shoots up. It's tied to the bumper. We just put it in reverse. We get the roadblock out of the way, and our safeties were like, what the hell was that? Yeah.

[Tyler]

Oh, I told you that now. Because I want to know why? Because you'll have dumbass private shooting at each other with it, you know, for sure. Like driving each other like, you can't have this anymore.

[Brent Tucker]

Absolutely. But that, I mean, granted that was.

[J.D. Dage]

A training thing that we never used it, but it was like, here's the problem. Come up with a solution.

[Brent Tucker]

Yep. Problem solving. It's. I say it all the time. It is the number one skill set you want in any unit. But the other issue that is your command has to give you the ability to problem solve. You know how many commanders would come out there and look at that and be like, that wasn't. That wasn't issued to you. Take that off right now. Like, you can't alter government equipment. They just. They think of reasons to say no rather than ever reasons to say yes or allow the guys to get creative. And I hate that. Happens all the time.

[Tyler]

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[Brent Tucker]

Revenge is an act of passion. Vengeance is an act of justice. Injuries are revenged. Crimes are. Are avenged. Almost a century ago, big pharmaceutical companies re engineered medical school curriculum and faculty with one goal. Putting profit before progress. Anyone pushing back against the medical matrix they carefully crafted was threatened, silenced, censored, financially ruined or worse. They are the problem. We are the solution. Alpha, you are clear to engage with weapons. You're clear to engage with weapons.

[Tyler]

JV team for life.

[Brent Tucker]

The so you were. You were a police officer while you were a reservist? Yeah. The where were your police officer at?

[J.D. Dage]

Massachusetts. Yeah. So Central Mass. We're right outside an hour outside of Boston, but in the middle second largest city.

[Brent Tucker]

The Tell me about your like your. Your law. You were not. You joined at 18. So we said essentially yeah. You weren't along. You weren't a cop at 18?

[J.D. Dage]

No.

[Brent Tucker]

So what. What made you become a cop while you're already a reservist? Your dad's welding shop anymore?

[J.D. Dage]

No. I mean that's why I went to Iraq. Working for the family business. No, it was. It was always a drive. I wanted to. To something I always wanted to do was be in the military. Be a police officer. And being a veteran at the time back in like when I wanted to be a cop early 2000s like Mass State Police. I remember 30,000 cops took a test to be state troopers in Mass.

[Tyler]

Up north. Up north. It's a good place to be.

[J.D. Dage]

Wow. So you had to be a veteran. Helps you out or score 100 and I'm not scoring 100 on any test.

[Brent Tucker]

Any test. So here's something I don't think people realize about reservists, which is different than an act duty. An act duty generally you can like every job the military has is. Is open to you, that's a general statement. As a reservist, that is not true. Because you have to drill. Like, there's, There's. It's like you're not going to get stationed at, you know, and in California as a reservist, like, you have to be able to get to your. To your unit. So essentially, like, the only jobs kind of open to you or whatever units are around you. So you have a much smaller library of jobs to choose from. Because I was going to ask you, did you think about being a. Like a MP for the military? That job may not even even been an option, depending on the reserve unit around you.

[J.D. Dage]

I think I kind of thought about that, and then I had some people in my ear, like, if you want to be a cop, don't be an mp. It's two different things.

[Tyler]

Oh, God, yes.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. Do something different. Yeah. Don't leave your one job to do the same. To do the same job.

[J.D. Dage]

I mean, if I could do it all again. I remember we were in Iraq the second time, we're like, dude, let's just do the Air Force and be a load master or, like, fly to drill and wherever.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

Like, do something totally different.

[Brent Tucker]

So how old were you when. When. When you joined law enforcement?

[J.D. Dage]

I turned 22 in the academy.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay. And we talked about that. We think that's a. That's important. I don't think he should have been a cop at 18.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

You agree with that?

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. Even in Mass. I think there was one cop. One of the Daouds with was a cop prior to being 21. Needed to be 21 to have a license to carry a pistol. You could be 16 for a shotgun. But in Mass, it's different. So he needed a waiver to have that.

[Tyler]

Do you think that you would have at 22? Do you think you were mentally capable to do the job? Because something we talk about is, like, young men sometimes are just stupid and they're not mature enough. And I. We. I think we've kind of voted around 26 being like a great age to make decisions like that. But you were squared away at 22.

[J.D. Dage]

I don't know about squared away, but I looked it. Yeah. Well, I mean, the way it worked for us is we had a police academy that was 14. Usually it's like 30 because we put on our own police academy in Worcester. So we have instructors, we have a whole staff and everything, and it's like, go, go, go for six months. Like, it's a good training academy. What happened is we were Able to get a small class. Well, the city was able to get a small class in due to promotions and retirements. So typically there are 30, 35 recruits in the academy. We only had 14, so there was no hiding. So when we graduated, I was towards the end of that 14 as far as grades. And it's all a bid process. Right. Like one of my buddies went to do.

[Tyler]

That's a good way to say you're not good academically.

[J.D. Dage]

I'm not good at tests. Sharpshooter though, but. So when I graduated the academy, I went right to the cell room. So we have our own cell room, which is. We would drive the patty, I drive the paddy wagon, pick up. An arresting officer would have a three by five. And that's our thing, three by fives. The incident number, the name of the arrestee, the officer's numbers, and the reason for arrest. You'd hand that to the wagon guy. We'd hold onto it. We'd go pick up one or ten arrests, put them in the station in a holding cell, and then there'd be three to five other guys in the cell room that would fingerprint, picture, search, process. And then we'd have holding tanks in the back. So that would be our jail. We had juvenile cells, we had female cells with a female matron. So we just did processing and there was no movement. So I did that for three and a half years. So it was like a dude taking a sip of a nip on a public way, open container, arrested. So when I got to be a cop, I was like, I'm not going to make these bullshit arrests. Yeah, I mean, you can, you know.

[Tyler]

You gauge like if you were paddy wagons, typically downtown, right. And it was.

[J.D. Dage]

So it was a whole. We'd pick up the whole city.

[Tyler]

Oh, really?

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. So I mean, we. I remember like, we'd have to do hospital guard, we'd have to do checks. We'd go pick up the crook sandwiches. We'd pick up like, yeah, we do all the stuff. And we'd check like, I don't know if your dispatchers run warrants and stuff. Like, we had a cop do that.

[Tyler]

Oh, really?

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. So we run CGIS before, back, back in the old days, it was a blue screen. So we'd have to run stuff through court with different codes and put in stolen vehicles. So this was all part of services, which I absolutely hated because I'm like, dude, I signed up to be a cop, not do this.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

So then we have Brenda and dispatch do that.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, Brenda.

[J.D. Dage]

So. And then there's also the, the front desk area, which, you know, answers phones, processes paperwork and. Yeah, so that's, that's services. And then we have fight squad, drug guys, gang unit, cs, crime scene unit, detective bureau, SWAT team operations, which is like the regular calls for service. Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

When you talk about, you know, were you old enough, you know, essentially to do the job, but you're. You're not your average 22 year old in this aspect. You have four years of military service under your belt. You have two deployments under your belt. Like, there are. There are things in your life that really caused you to. To mature and grow up.

[Tyler]

Life now are still living with their parents.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

Right. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So what, what was your next job? Or how. How'd you. How did you get out of the paddy wagon? Work.

[J.D. Dage]

So that was all due to, like. Yeah, I mean, pride in that. Yeah, I love being on the paddy wagon because we'd actually go out on the street and like, just leave the. Like being in the cell room is being in the cell room.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

You're not a jail guard.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

You want to be a cop?

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. So after that, I ended up going into operations, which was calls for service. I worked overnights. It was a couple months before there was another movement to go. I feel like everyone wants overnights or 4 to midnight or 3 to 11.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

So I did that for a number of years. And we were in a busy area, me and my buddy, we'd bounce around. So the city was broken up into 20 different routes.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

So like, I would be Route 10 and that would be, you know, between this street and this street.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

And it was super busy. Like, it'd be, you know, anywhere from 0 to 4 arrests or 10 reports. It would be like.

[Brent Tucker]

Per shift.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, per shift. You know, accidents past B and E's. People get home from work, they notice their apartment's broken into.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

Always be an Xbox or a PlayStation and, you know, some jewelry. Typical stuff. Then it would get, you know, busier. There'd be fights, domestics, some other stuff. Like we have gangs in the city, but I feel like they're not organized to be dangerous gangs.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

Like there'd be gang to gang stuff like shooting, stabbings.

[Brent Tucker]

Did you enjoy the work? Yeah, did. Did. How was the culture of your department?

[J.D. Dage]

I think. I think the culture's changed from when I started until now. Definitely. Like, you'd have these old school.

[Brent Tucker]

It's the same story. It's the same story.

[J.D. Dage]

So we'd have these. I'd call them senior patrolmen like, just veteran guys who weren't sergeants who just like, this is my route. Not to, like, this is my route. I'm going to take care of my route. Like you take care of your stuff, right?

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, right.

[J.D. Dage]

And it would be, you know, you'd have that root integrity, which is great because if I'd go for a lunch break or whatever, typically, you know, call out on your 17 for ciao and then something happens, like, you know, a past beanie, they're calling for somebody. And then if you're Route 7, the next route, and I hear you going to take that report call, I'd be like, no, I'll get it. And you'll be like, no, no, I'll get it. Like, you get me after. So it's like, yeah, you're working with your guys who are taking care and take. Taking care of each other.

[Tyler]

Integrity.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

Zone integrity.

[J.D. Dage]

And yeah. And then in the city, it's great because there'd be huge fights, you know, and you're going to calls like, with your boys, like, yeah, you're fighting somebody 30 seconds back, like, backup is coming no matter what.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, it's.

[J.D. Dage]

You know, I give these guys credit. In small towns, we're like on a traffic stop and everybody's like, 10 minutes out. Like, that's a lifetime.

[Tyler]

I just. Time at work, sometimes I just sit there and I'm like, man, like, right. Kind of when I got in. But it was before my time when, like, it was dangerous. But people let cops be cops and cops enjoy the job. Like, let's go out there. And up. Dude, this is fun. Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

Is that, is that in your. Excuse me. Is that in your decision making process when it comes to like going hands on, on what looks to be, you know, an aggressive guy? Or do you ever, like, all right, like, I know backups, 30 seconds, you know, someone will be here in 30 seconds. I can handle myself for 30 seconds. Or is that not even something you can depend on and not even in your decision making process?

[J.D. Dage]

Not really. I think it, you know, anytime I've gone hands on, there's been like, there's typically, I'd say 80% of the time, it's. People want to get away.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

So you're fighting, actually resistant. So, like, somebody's trying to get away. But there's been very few times of somebody who's like, let's do this right. And they square up.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, that's. That's a good point to make. Those are, those are two different hands on, you know, scenarios. I, I'D imagine like someone trying to get away.

[J.D. Dage]

Some people who don't train enough.

[Brent Tucker]

Right. Have, have you ever had a time where someone's trying to get away from you? And. And so flight is. Is. Is the decision they've made and then it turns into fight or is it generally speaking, once they decide flight, it stays flight.

[J.D. Dage]

Typically flight is flight. But there's been a couple times of like sprinting and I'm like, all right, I'm going to sprint. But not 100% because it might be a fight at the end of this sprint at the end of this race.

[Brent Tucker]

Still gotta fight and like some energy management here.

[J.D. Dage]

Just trying to be sprinting and be like, just give me a minute. But time out, time out.

[Brent Tucker]

That's right. Good timeouts. And on street patrol.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, Yeah. I remember one time this dude, it was like, it was a kids football game, pass domestic. Saw the dad at the football field.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

And it's funny now because I like coach football and that was the same field I was on. I'm like, I wonder if it was one of these dads that I. But ended up in a foot pursuit calling it out. And it was like a Sunday morning, like the most random, like nothing's going to happen today. It's a chill day, right. And then, you know, running down busy street, Shoesbury street, and a couple of, you know, cops start rolling in.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

And I catch up to this dude and someone's got him. Not really the cops got him. Not really fighting, but like grabbing the guy.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

And then I just kind of like square up and I wait and he throws this punch and I thought he was going to like throw a punch. He was just like a, like a powder puff. And I just like smirked and I'm like, here we go. But it was just like, okay, you know, my glasses broke. My. Then your equipment start, you know, your.

[Tyler]

Radio mics flying everywhere.

[J.D. Dage]

And that's when you do an equipment check and you're like, all right, let me go to I forget whatever site, buy some more mag pouches where my stuff isn't gonna come.

[Tyler]

Oh, the worst is when I've seen a couple magazines explode.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

Just spring.

[Brent Tucker]

Did you always that you wanted to work at a tactical unit and end up on swat or is that just something that kind of became something as it progressed, as your career progressed?

[J.D. Dage]

It was one of those things that I always was driving for of like, hey, I remember in the academy like, hey, recruit Dave, what do you want to do? And I'm like, I want to be a cop. I want to do good stuff, and I want to be on SWAT. And they're like, Give it 10 years, kid. I'm like, okay, thanks. But it literally, it was 10 years. Years. Like, you earn that spot, you know, you don't earn it. You. You put in work and you get chosen. So it's like a selection base for the SWAT team. Like, you can't just be right.

[Brent Tucker]

You earn it. In a sense.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

But. Yeah, and indirectly, so that, you know.

[J.D. Dage]

That was one of those things. Like, yeah, I want to be the most trained. I want to.

[Brent Tucker]

Right.

[Tyler]

What's your take on modern? This is a new. This is a new issue. Kids coming in, graduating the academy and already talking about how they're going to leave patrol and where they want to go. And I was like, when I. When I train kids. When I say kids, I train people. And they'd be like, and I think it's good to have, like, aspirations and goals. But the whole point of being a cop was to be patrol. You should want to do five years on patrol. And they're like, oh, I'm. I mean, kids. I mean, they check certain boxes. So they're moving on after about a year on the road, going to different places.

[J.D. Dage]

And I, you know, and it's happening now, too. Like, we've, you know, I've been separated from the SWAT team for a little bit now, and there's some guys with three years on that are good guys that made it on the team. And I'm like, that's. That's great for them.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

Like, happy for those guys. But the way it was, whether it was lack of movement on the team or those senior patrolmen being like, shut up for your first year on the job. Like, yeah, okay. Like, yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

I think it's. I think it's a good thing. I think 10, like, 10 years before you can try to swat is a lot. And I'll tell you why here in a second. But I'll go back to new guys, you know, already saying, like, what. Openly what their next thing is. I just read the room, like, have some social awareness. You can have those. Which is great. I want you to. But know enough to shut up.

[Tyler]

That's like me saying, like, I can't. I can't wait to get on another podcast, a bigger one. And you're like, right, well, that's.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, it's. Or. Or, like, you know, to put it, like, I guess my history line of work is like a new guy showing up on a. On a. Special Forces seem like, I can't wait to go to the Delta Force.

[Tyler]

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. You're a new. Like, try to be good on this team first. Yeah, yeah. Let's focus here, buddy. So that, so that drives me crazy. Yeah. And. But it's. As long as the SWAT team has the left and right limits to say. And this is where it gets. They're like, well, we can't tell this guy. No, we can't tell this guy. No, you need 10 years. And then pick on. And then allow this guy to come in because he only has five and say, well, like, because they're different people. Like, they set these, these rules sometimes. Like, well, if we say one to this, we got to see them all to the next. Like, like everyone is different. Every scenario is different. I think it's a good thing if it's the right guy for the job. One, he definitely has to have some experience because every time you take the next step, having past experience makes you better at your job.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

But if you're going to make people wait for 10 years, just stay on that for a second.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. That was.

[Brent Tucker]

Your new Guy is now 34, 35, you know, and you want, like, you want him to be here for 10 years, you know, now he's 45. Like, we, we want, we want. That's, that's a little too long in the tooth, you know?

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

I'm not saying you can't.

[J.D. Dage]

Well, that was, that was one of the senior guys who was on SWAT who like made that comment. But on our SWAT team, you got to be on for at least three years to try out. So I tried out with three years on. I was in the cell room.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

And they were like, you're probably not going to make it.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

And I'm like, Because we have a two day tryout.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

You get numbers, no names. It's, you know, how big is your department? Three. I don't even know. We're over three something.

[Tyler]

3,000?

[J.D. Dage]

I don't know. 300.

[Tyler]

I was gonna say. They know who you are.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

That number, they don't work in a small apartment.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, but it's, you know, but it was.

[Brent Tucker]

Hey, J.D.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, exactly. But even some of those guys, like some of those guys that worked overnights, like my former team leader, he, like, I knew of him.

[Brent Tucker]

Right.

[J.D. Dage]

He wasn't like, we do details. Well, our department does road jobs where you get paid money to work. Some guys don't do that. So if they work overnights and you're on first half, you never see these guys or day shift. You never see them, then you don't know them until the tryouts. So I tried out knowing I wasn't going to make it, but I'm like, I want the experience of the trial.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Tyler]

That absolutely huge.

[Brent Tucker]

Yep.

[J.D. Dage]

And it was like, that's when CrossFit was kind of like implemented in the, in the tryouts.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

So some guys were jumping on some of the guys on the teams to go to their. Try to their CrossFit gym to like work out. And I'm like, I'm gonna do my own thing. You know, I want to earn it the right way. Not saying that it would have helped or whatever, but yeah, I just did P90X ended up doing a ton of pull ups, doing sprints, like, you know, and they told you there was no surprise. Like they were like, this is how you climb a rope. And some people were like, okay. But then some people would go to the tryouts not know how to climb that rope, and then they'd say, go home.

[Brent Tucker]

Rope climbing is one of those crazy things. It is so much more technique than it is physical ability. Like in the day, if you want to, if you want to tell us something like no legs. Like at that point, like there's really no technique. It's, it's, it's all physical ability. It is so frustrating. And special operations. There's a rope climb all the time everywhere. And you will go there just to practice. Like, how efficient can I be getting up this rope and use the least amount of energy. And that should be your attitude towards any type of rope climbs. But if you don't have a technique down. Oh my gosh. You will spend.

[Tyler]

Arms are burning.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. You will spend so much more energy on a rope than, than you ever needed to. I've never understood why people make rope climbs so much more difficult.

[Tyler]

I feel like once you learn, you're good. I could climb right now. I haven't climbed one in a couple years.

[Brent Tucker]

That's right. Yeah, I could, I could climb one right now. You're right. But it's, but it's all technique. But some of that is going back to like you went there just for the experience, which is great. Let me get the experience and let me hope of.

[J.D. Dage]

Maybe they'll pick me with like, hey, I'm a better. And they're like, bro, you drive the wagon. You ain't getting.

[Brent Tucker]

Oh, speaking of crowd, this is random. I'm gonna send it because I just talked about the other day. Do you remember that, that old YouTube series, Bro Science?

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

One of My favorite bro science quotes was CrossFit. The what? He says, the only place that I show you the proper way to do an improper pull up. And I actually was a fan of, I use that term loosely of CrossFit because if you ever did one of those workouts, they're legit. I mean, they really are tough workouts. But I never respected CrossFit pull ups. Just never did. I don't. Oh yeah. Just the flailing of the body on, on the bar. Never expected.

[Tyler]

Who wrote that into CrossFit? How'd that slip into there?

[Brent Tucker]

I'll tell you, I feel like as. And as much as I hate it and we'll make fun of it and we'll always make fun of it. I understand it. I think it came from a marketing, a marketing aspect. Women can't do pull ups. Like, women are never going to do 21 proper pull. I say never. 99.9% of sp is. Is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't. Don't give me outliers. So how's the only way, like women are going to get incorporated into this when pull ups is such an important part of this process? Well, let's redefine pull ups. And if you think about it, if they'd have stayed strict on their pull up form, which is crazy because they were super strict, super strict on every other form, all their forms had to be done the right way except pull ups. And that allowed the. I say women, most men can't do.

[Tyler]

Not a man unless you do five poles.

[Brent Tucker]

Right. So it allowed it to be really opened up to the, to the masses and gave your average person a shot at doing this.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

So that's, that's.

[Tyler]

You just broke the Internet, Brent.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, I hated it. I absolutely hate it. And I always thought that that CrossFit should have had essentially two categories. Like I actually, if they'd have said, hey, like this pull up is our beginners like course and opening and then we're going to progress into adult pull ups, then I would have respected CrossFit more. But they never did that. They never.

[Tyler]

Or say, or say this is real crossfit. And then this is, this is like, like this is real football. It hurts. Or we have flag football. It's football.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

And you want to come enjoy football, Play some flag football.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

But it's not real football.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

Two categories and with. I digress. Sorry, J.D. we're back. We're back. How long did it take you between your, your first try out to your, how many. Well, how many trials did you do two. Okay. Between the And. And your second tryout.

[J.D. Dage]

Well, there's where that 2012 kicks in of. I was getting ready for the second tryouts and found out I had a pain in my groin.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

Which I thought was a hernia because I'll backtrack to Iraq in 03. Waking up in the middle of the night in a tent full of dudes.

[Tyler]

And I'm like, where's this door going?

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, exactly.

[J.D. Dage]

And I'm like, oh, I don't have to take a piss. And then all of a sudden, I had this excruciating pain in my groin.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

Turned out I had a hernia where my intestine wall split.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

The pain went away. So I'm like, oh, I'm good. So end of deployment, I was like, I need to get this checked out back home, because I didn't want to have it done in Iraq or Kuwait or by the military. So I like that.

[Brent Tucker]

Equally as bad.

[J.D. Dage]

So I ended up having a hernia surgery. Then I went on the second deployment, then back to 2012, found out, went to the ER like, hey, I'm having pain in my groin, but it, like, really hurts with my gun belt on. I think I have a hernia because I was lifting. Lifting a lot of weights, or so I thought. And Dr. Did a urologist, did a ultrasound, which was kind of weird. On your balls, having an ultrasound.

[Tyler]

Was it a male doctor?

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. And then there was. Then there was a nurse who came in with some nursing students. I'm like, your balls are out. Yeah. I'm like, this is usually not a pregnant chick, but it's on my ball, so this is awesome right now.

[Tyler]

Did they put the gel on?

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, they did. It was freezing for a reason.

[Tyler]

I can't tell if Brent wants to ask a question.

[J.D. Dage]

There's a lot. There's a lot.

[Brent Tucker]

It's only improper comments right now.

[J.D. Dage]

So turned out I go in the doctor's room. This was on a Friday. And they're like, all right, so we get some tests done. You have a growth. I'm like, oh, by growth, wait, growth, you mean tumor? Like, yeah, you have testicular cancer. I'm like, oh, wow. Awesome. That's a good delivery. Thanks.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

Bedside manner.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Oh, no one told you. Suck. So it was. Oh, you have. I'm like, so you're gonna, like, take the tumor out and then, like, I'll keep the testicle. He's like, no, we take the whole testicle.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

Like, oh, that's shot to the nut. I Go, well, if I have surgery, can you put a fake one in? He's like, yeah, like, all right, cool. Come back next week. Day surgery. Had testicular cancer surgery, right? Testicle removed. Went home, healed up, went to. I was working behind the desk now in operations just to, like, there's no light duty, but they were kind of covering me for light duty, so ended up having lymph nodes that were swollen. So they basically cut me open from my waist all the way to the bottom of my sternum. You take all your guts out, put them on your chest. Human canoe. Take the lymph nodes out. And lymph nodes were non cancerous, but they were inflamed. So basically, what I had the option of, I could either let those. I think they were like 3 millimeters or whatever. Whatever size it was, it was on the cusp of, like, I could have it removed or not have it removed, but if I didn't have it removed and it grew, it could grow to be a teratoma, which could be, like, basically a tumor of, like, bones and skin and nails and all this gross stuff, like a. So I'm like, yeah, I don't want that. Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

So I had a lymph node dissection. I was out of work for six months.

[Tyler]

Oh.

[J.D. Dage]

Couldn't eat more than 5 grams of fat a day. Like, my stomach was huge because when those organs hit, the gases in the air, they expand. So that was a painful, slow recovery. Lost a lot of weight.

[Tyler]

What's it. Can I just. What's the feeling like when you wake up after someone had removed all of your organs and put them back in? Is it sore? Like, is that.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. So.

[Tyler]

Feel like somebody hit you with a truck?

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. I looked, like, pregnant, almost. Like. I have a few pictures where it was just super, like, distended stomach. And they glued it so I don't have, like, the zipper, which you see some people with is. That actually heals up pretty good. And they're like, oh, you need to move around to pass gas before you could eat. And I just had a morphine drip. So I kept hitting that thing, like, every five minutes.

[Brent Tucker]

I got another question.

[J.D. Dage]

So I was in there for a week, and before I was able to go home, the.

[Brent Tucker]

Because anytime you go through something, I was like, you end up learning a lot more about that.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. You know, for. For obvious reasons.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

Have a question about your balls. Yeah, do. This is a question I have. I'm gonna. I'm gonna ask you because I feel like. I feel like you Might know, when it comes to the left nut and right nut, do they somehow do two different jobs, or do you have to. Because it's a backup, like, does. So does having the right one removed, did that do something particular? That the left nut happens? Like a Twix?

[Tyler]

Like a left Twix and a right Twix. Are they different?

[J.D. Dage]

So essentially, from what I got out of. I guess anything you have two of, you could do one without, right?

[Brent Tucker]

Okay. Yeah. Drop us some nut knowledge. What do you got?

[J.D. Dage]

So I had the testicular. The right testicle removed. And.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

After the lymph node dissection, it was. It's all urology based. So I went to this, like, urologist who knew his stuff. He did this surgery because at this cutting opening of the body and human canoe thing is, like, super rare, super expensive.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

So I wanted to see this guy who's done it more than a bunch of times.

[Brent Tucker]

YouTubed it.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. So what he did was he actually said there was some lymph nodes or. Sorry, not lymph nodes. You have a part in your bladder where you can make yourself pee. Right. So it's, like, involved. There's voluntary and involuntary nerves.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

In your system. So what happened is he ended up, like, saving some bundles. And this will go back to the nut question where basically doing this surgery put me at risk for, like, not being able to ejaculate.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay, so what?

[Tyler]

It was a risk, like 20.

[J.D. Dage]

The risk is like, well, it ended up being where the nerves were damaged or not, you know, or not damaged.

[Tyler]

Or not damaged or not.

[Brent Tucker]

Damage.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. So he was like.

[Brent Tucker]

So of all the things you said, everyone's listening, right? Deep down, every guy is starting to go, hold on, I want to know a little bit more about this.

[J.D. Dage]

So post surgery and all that, what the thing was, it was like, all right, you could be able to ejaculate, but nothing will come out. So I'm like, okay, so shooting blanks. And then if. If it was to ever, like, if I wanted to have kids, I would end up, like, pissing out the sperm. And then they would have to use, like, some type of strainer to use that because there's an involuntary. Voluntary nerves. Yeah, bundles.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[Tyler]

When you say. When you say you couldn't ejaculate, that means.

[J.D. Dage]

So it's a complete sensation, but totally clean.

[Tyler]

Like it was ghosted.

[Brent Tucker]

Right.

[J.D. Dage]

No release. But it felt like it.

[Brent Tucker]

I mean, okay.

[J.D. Dage]

It's actually. I was like, this is no cleanup. The same thing.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. Not just shooting blank. A complete misfire. Yeah. System. Yeah. There's just no discharge.

[J.D. Dage]

Pop, no bang.

[Brent Tucker]

Pop, no bang.

[J.D. Dage]

Yes.

[Brent Tucker]

There you go. Yeah. So. So, yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

Told the urologist this and he was like, I saved a bundle of nerves. It should be good.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

Then I got my testosterone checked, which is my testosterone was 90.

[Brent Tucker]

Whoa.

[J.D. Dage]

Because they took my right nut, so it wasn't producing the testosterone.

[Tyler]

That was the one that had all your testosterone in it.

[J.D. Dage]

Exactly. Apparently I didn't think about.

[Brent Tucker]

I didn't even think about the testosterone. Yeah. Part. Part of the equation.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. So basically I tried the gel. That didn't work. Numbers didn't go up. Then I started doing injections. I've been doing injection session since 2012.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

Every week it's covered by prescribed, so it's like 10 bucks for a month, which is great.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay. What's your numbers at now?

[J.D. Dage]

Like 880.

[Tyler]

Oh, yeah. That's a good number.

[Brent Tucker]

Nice.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. So, but again, you get that bell curve of like, I do it on Friday and I think the last, you know.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

Blood draw is on a Monday, so it's high, but by Friday it's low again.

[Brent Tucker]

So when you say it's a backup, you know, because I was really just thinking like, reproductive wise.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

So I'm, I'm glad we had this conversation. Like, this is. Yeah. Actually interesting. Interesting topic. So reproduction wise, like the other testicle, it's is, is a backup. So you can still reproduce with just one. But the other thing that it's not necessarily. But it still can't do like the complete job. Because testosterone wise, you need both of them to produce the, the amount of testosterone that a man needs.

[J.D. Dage]

So I think, I think there's some cases where guys don't need testosterone or one would produce enough or. But like, why not get more testosterone? BPC 157. Testosterone siphone at TB 500.

[Tyler]

Like, well, all that stuff if, if you're a nut cancer warrior, you need testosterone. HPTRT.com use promo code HERO.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, absolutely, man. That's. That's a, that's a whole. Another, like, kind of fascinating part of that.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. Learning a lot. And the, the other part of this was I went to St. Vincent's Hospital, which I wasn't a fan of. I went to Dana Farber after the fact. Bless you.

[Brent Tucker]

Thank you.

[J.D. Dage]

So the St. Vincent's Hospital, they don't do IVF.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

So they wouldn't like store sperm or anything. So I had to go to Boston ivf, which was expensive. I wasn't married or wasn't thinking about Kids. So I'm like, okay, yeah, let me freeze some sperm.

[Brent Tucker]

Right.

[J.D. Dage]

Just in case.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

And I went to do that and then it was like, you know, it's like 300 bucks a month. And I'm like, there was no end game of me to. This is just for storage. Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

So I'm like, let me do this just in case because I don't want to not have kids.

[Brent Tucker]

Right.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. Then fast forward to back when I was trying out for swat. The. Officially the second time. Because the first time I. Sorry. The second time was when the second tryouts were going.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

So I wasn't able to try out because I was hooked up to chemo that. That day. So. I know.

[Tyler]

No excuses.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. So that actually I'll go back to that week where I was working out a ton, pushing a sled, lifting weights, running, sprinting, started coughing up blood. And this was like March. So I'm like, all right, it's New England. It's dry. Maybe I had a bloody nose at night. Hack something up. Day goes by, hack up some blood again. Oh, and then by day five, because, you know, guys are dumb. Yeah, yeah, let's wait five days of coughing up blood to go to the doctors.

[Brent Tucker]

I'm real glad you brought that up. And I know you're not even done, but like, this is, this is an important message because. And I won't go into my story. It's not. This is your story, which is guys, like, we have to stop doing this. Like if we're the best at justifying, like if something's wrong with our body.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

I'm not saying run an emergency room as soon as something's wrong, but you know, when it's not right, like at some point you know it's right. Not right. And you continue to justify and say, well, maybe now it's this, maybe now it's that. And you wait until the very last just straw to be like, fine, I'll finally go get. Get some help. We have to find. I don't want you to be the beginning of that, but we have to do a better job of finding a middle ground in that.

[Tyler]

Well, you know what it is? It's like a high performing male can't take the back seat. Like, you got to make money, you got to be at work, you got to be a family man. You gotta, you know, for instance, if you were to go like to any doctor and like, oh, something's wrong, I don't feel good. They're gonna be like, okay, this is all the things you got to cut out just so we can get a baseline and make sure it's not the cigars that are doing it. Not, you know.

[Brent Tucker]

Right.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

Whatever the variable is.

[Tyler]

I don't want to go through all that.

[Brent Tucker]

But, and I absolutely agree with you, like that is the mentality of, of why. And I love that mentality. Like we have to have the mentality but you know, someone has to come in and be and, and balance and write that ship and say I love it. And that's why we're not going to go at the first sniffle.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

But if you really want, if you really think like the work you're doing is good and important, which it is, the only way to have longevity of that is to, you know, make the, the best decision as quickly as possible because you can let that go and let that go and let that go and you will shorten your career by, by being a tough guy. You know, I don't know a better way to say that. But you know, it's.

[J.D. Dage]

Early detection is the biggest number one factor, especially with cancer. Like don't get me on the numbers, but it's like if you catch it early, you have 90 survival rate.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

Whereas if you don't like stuff grows, like we're, you know, especially post 911 vets that.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

Toxic exposure and all that stuff. Like it is bad where if you hold off. I was working with another non profit and I kind of like to use their terminology of like we're all athletes. Like we know when we pull a muscle, we know when we get a boo boo, it's going to start to feel better after a couple days. But you know, if you use like a two week rule or a one week rule where it's like, hey, this isn't getting better.

[Brent Tucker]

Right.

[J.D. Dage]

Something needs to change. So it's like write it down, get a doctor's appointment. Be like, you know what, this has been going on for a while. This has been going on for like I was mildly sick for a month before I was like, yeah, oh wait, that was cancer because you know what I mean? But it wasn't a growth. Like, hey, there's a, there's a tumor. I mean I did have a tumor, but like getting diagnosed, it's you one, you don't want to know something's wrong with you.

[Tyler]

Yeah, that's a good point.

[J.D. Dage]

You know what I mean? Like you want it, you want it to be like, oh, it's just acid reflux, like we have to go drive on.

[Tyler]

We have one of our Supporters. That was actually at the live event. And he spoke up. He's a big advocate of going to the VA and get scanned regularly.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

And he's like, you know, because he got. He had. I think he had some kind of brain cancer. And he. He got it scanned early enough, and they got it. But like. Yeah, just knowing, like, I had a kid growing up when I was in junior high school, one of my friends, every day in study, I'll just cough. And I'm like, bro, you need to go. Like, you got this cold is never ending. Yeah, never ending cold. Then he went to doctors like, oh, he's got pneumonia. Like, oh, well, that makes sense. He's got pneumonia. Got. No, he finally got scanned, and he had tumor, and he died because I didn't catch it. He went like, six, nine months, something like that, without diagnosing it.

[J.D. Dage]

Scary.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

Anyways.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. So, I mean, back to the early detection of, like. Yeah, you don't want to run to the doctors when you get the sniffles, but at the same time, you're coughing up blood. Like, when I. I felt my testicle, and I thought it was. I thought it was anything but cancer. I thought I was reading stuff like, it could be that the nut could have twisted, and then it could be dead. And I'm like, oh, that sucks. Or it could be, you know, a hernia. Could be a number of things. So, like, WebMD is, like, the worst thing to do.

[Brent Tucker]

I know.

[Tyler]

Get in the casket.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. But both for. For making something worse than it really is or for finding reasons to justify why it's not as bad as it is.

[J.D. Dage]

Exactly.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

But just gives you a regular doctor.

[J.D. Dage]

So I'll go back to the coughing up blood. So I did that for a week. Went to St. Vincent's Hospital in Worcester. They said, we're gonna start chemo in two weeks. You have six tumors in your chest and lungs.

[Brent Tucker]

No way.

[J.D. Dage]

So it was all the mixture and mixed. Germ cell, non seminoma tumor. So it was a testicular cancer that laid dormant and then spread to my chest and lungs. I had one pushing on my jugular, another one on my stomach, a couple on my lungs.

[Tyler]

They didn't see it when they cut you open the first time?

[J.D. Dage]

No, that was ten months after.

[Tyler]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

And basically, I had. I mean, finding cancers relatively easy, depending on which type of cancer. Like, I had a mixed germ cell, non Seminole tumor. It's a mouthful, but every time something was wrong with me, they found it in a blood draw. My alpha feta proteins were Elevated. So I did a blood draw and they said, these are elevated. Okay, so something's up. Let's do scans. So then it would kind of take off from there. So then I went, sorry. I went to Saint Bees. They said, come back in two weeks. We'll start chemo a couple days later. I went to Dana Farber in Boston, which is world renowned for their cancer research and great doctors. I met Dr. Sweeney, my oncologist. He looked at me and said, well, you technically would have stage four cancer, but we don't call it that if it's a reoccurrence. But we're going to start chemo tomorrow and you're not leaving here.

[Tyler]

Oh, I was gonna say you're. You're an active cop. Yeah, you gotta go tell the weird things. Like, hey, Sarge, can you cover for me, whatever this is? I have cancer. I'm not gonna be coming back to work for a while. Like, how does that work?

[J.D. Dage]

So with us, it's actually, we have a good program. It's called the sick bank. So everybody in the city, I don't know, I think, I don't know if it's every city employee or every cop, but we have the sick bank. So every cop would donate two days a year if they qualify for it. Like, if you call in all your sick time, you're not gonna get sick bank.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

But majority of guys use sick bank. So I was out of work, I was getting paid as if I was working 40 hours a week because of that bank of days that the city had of donated days.

[Tyler]

So guys want to donate to this thing.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, you do it every year. Because typically guys are injured on duty, which is tax free, and they get paid anyways. Or like me, I'm like the thing that city hall is like, oh, this guy again. Because typically guys aren't cops that have a long term illness. They either have a heart attack, retire, go do something else, or it's injured on duty. Like, it's very. My case was kind of rare, I guess.

[Tyler]

This guy with his cancer.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we got to deal with this guy now.

[J.D. Dage]

So I get the diagnosis of.

[Brent Tucker]

But. But they'll find millions of dollars to pay out a lawsuit. A lawsuit. A frivolous lawsuit that, that the court system will like the. What's, what's the, the criminal and then the civil. Yeah, and the criminal will find them not guilty, but the civil will find him guilty. You'll find $5 million for that. Yeah, but then, but they. 55 million for that. For sure. They. They can't find money to. To fund a cop with cancer.

[J.D. Dage]

I'll get on that towards the end of this.

[Brent Tucker]

All right.

[J.D. Dage]

But please do so. Yeah, So I. I got diagnosed. I. And I did have. And I recommend this to anybody. I had an out of network visit. So I had Blue Cross, Blue Shield. Sorry. I had Fallon at the time. And because I wanted to go to Dana Farber Boston, it was out of network. So what you do is you go to primary care and you say, I want an out of network visit. And typically they'll allow one out of network visit.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

So I was able to go to Boston for free, covered by my insurance.

[Brent Tucker]

Once.

[J.D. Dage]

Once.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

So what happened was my oncologist said, you're not going home, because if you go home and come back tomorrow, that's the second visit. So he was smart and he goes, you're staying.

[Brent Tucker]

Good for him. Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. So. But not only that, like, I had some bad cancer. I was hooked up to chemo eight hours a day, five days a week.

[Tyler]

What's being on chemo?

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, Yeah, I got questions.

[J.D. Dage]

So. Thought it was gonna be like, this painful thing. I mean, chemo, I don't want to scare anybody, but my chemo, everyone's cancer is a little. It's like being a veteran.

[Tyler]

My experience was different.

[J.D. Dage]

My experience, I had three very invasive case of chemos. I had cisplatin, I had gliomycin, I had another one. And one of those Lance Armstrong chose not to take because it had long term lung deterioration and effects with the lungs. I didn't really have a choice, and I wasn't a pro athlete, so I'm like, yeah, whatever. Do what you need to do. So I'd be hooked up, I'd have two IVs in my arm, and I expected it to, like, feel like acid in my veins.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

So the first week, I'm like, my arm kind of hurts. It literally, the chemo, like, wasn't in my vein. So I had this, like, black spot.

[Brent Tucker]

Over or under. Punctured your vein and you missed it.

[J.D. Dage]

And I was like, well, I thought it was supposed to hurt. They're like, no. As they come in with these space suits in this bag of hazardous material, and they're like, we're gonna put this in your veins.

[Brent Tucker]

Spacesuits. Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

And so I was hooked up eight hours a day, five days a week. Couldn't leave. Family and friends came. Then I'd go home on Sunday night, I'd go home for two weeks.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

But Monday, like, if you drink alcohol Picture your worst hangover. That's what it felt like.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

Oh really?

[J.D. Dage]

Tuesday would feel like your second worst hangover. Like a bad hangover because it's just all this gross toxic stuff in your veins and your body's just dealing with it. Like I had chemo brain. Like I tell people the same story over and over again. Laying in my bed at night being like, I need to change all my light bulbs to energy efficient light bulbs. And I'd go to Home depot and spend 200. Like it sucked at this metallic taste in my mouth.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

Lost all my hair, which I don't have any, but I was down to like seven. Are you still on chemo at one point?

[Brent Tucker]

Actually I, I feel like. And, and, and, and let me know if this is true, maybe. And like I said, they're all different. But you went in there, I'm assuming, in pretty good shape.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

And it's one thing to go in there, like, how do I, I guess say this or. Yeah, I think you know where I'm getting at. Like it's one thing to take a guy from a really good shape, you know, and, and knock him down a couple steps. I mean it's not great, you know, but if you take this, you know, old fat diabetic person who's already, you know, a couple steps away from death's door and then you put him on chemo, it's going to feel like he doesn't have a lot far down to go and it's going to feel like the worst thing he's ever experienced. Do you think that has, has something to do with it and plays a part in it?

[J.D. Dage]

I think so. I mean I would show up, it was one of those black bugout bags. I'd show up with my bag and they're like, like, where's the patient? I'm like right here. And I mean I felt like crap. Like I was £230 because I was, it was so much water weight from all the iv. Like I had potassium, I had IV fluids, I had anti nausea, I had steroids.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

On top of the three drugs. So that eight hours was like just pumping in my veins.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

And I felt like crap. I look like crap. But you know, in essence, by Wednesday of the post chemo, I was working out, I was wakeboarding, I was playing hockey.

[Tyler]

Really.

[J.D. Dage]

I built one of the CrossFit gyms that I had. Like. Yeah, mine's across fit gym.

[Tyler]

It's all mine.

[Brent Tucker]

And yeah. Not. This is, this is like a shameful like, you know, hp. Trt. Plug.

[Tyler]

I already did one. It can't get worse than what I did.

[Brent Tucker]

But it's. It's why, if something's kind of already wrong with you, like, let's. Like testosterone, which is. Which is so common in men. And it's a reason, another of many, to always be in the best shape of your life that you're capable of being, because you don't know what life's gonna throw at you. And being in the best shape physically is just fortify your house. Yeah. Fortify your house is the best way to survive whatever's next in your future.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. All you have is your health right now.

[Brent Tucker]

You married at this time with kids? No, not married.

[J.D. Dage]

No.

[Brent Tucker]

Do you have kids now?

[J.D. Dage]

No. Well, I have step kids.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

I was. When I did that whole IVF thing, it came back when the surgery, when the cancer came back again. I went to the IVF at Dana Farber, and my oncologist said I had no viable sperm. I was like, so what was I spending all that money on at Boston IVF down the road? So he either said it was always like that, or it was due to the surgery. You know, it's either could. It could have been a thing or it could not have been a thing.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

And in my eyes, I like to reason, get over things quickly. Maybe that's how I have the positive mindset of, like, if you can't change things, like, change the things you can and.

[Brent Tucker]

Right.

[J.D. Dage]

Don't worry about the things you can't change.

[Brent Tucker]

Exactly.

[J.D. Dage]

So I'm like, all right, well, I'm not meant to have kids, so I'm gonna keep traveling and doing the thing and, you know, build off of that. Yeah, it sucks because, like. Yeah. Always wanted to have kids, but at the same time, like, if I can, I can't. I'm not gonna.

[Brent Tucker]

Right. You know, nothing to do about it being. Being upset about it and depressed about it changes nothing.

[Tyler]

It's like. It's like. I mean, you can't have hair.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

Like I said, I have a huge. Okay. I'm not gonna compare having a ball spot to not being able to have kids. I'm sorry, but just, like, watching something that's just. That you can't have.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

That sucks.

[J.D. Dage]

So, you know, accepted that and then went on with, like, eight hours a day, five days a week. I did that for five months.

[Brent Tucker]

Gosh.

[J.D. Dage]

I was like, so there's no working?

[Brent Tucker]

Like, you. You can't.

[J.D. Dage]

No, I was not working.

[Brent Tucker]

Meanwhile, you're on.

[Tyler]

On the lake, wakeboarding Yeah, I can't give it a word.

[J.D. Dage]

And that's the thing too is like, I remember that's a difference. Some friends being like, don't be too social about things because, like, I have a large friend and family group and I was using social media as like a, I wasn't doing as like, in your face. I'm like, this is a informational based thing. Like, and I, I wasn't like, doing all this crazy stuff people do now on social media.

[Brent Tucker]

It was like, it wasn't this big. Look at me.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. Like, my thing is more, it was more of an informational, like, hey, here's the status. That way I'm not texting everybody or like, yeah, it's just. I don't know. For me, it could have been wrong, but. But some people could have looked at that as like, he's out of work, he's doing all this stuff, he's fine. My thing is, like, all you have is your health and your mental health. Do what makes you happy.

[Brent Tucker]

I say this all the time. Another person can do what you did and it be more of a look at me thing. It's always about intent. And you can always, even though the two people kind of do the same thing, depending on your intent will be how that information is presented. And people can always look through the, the, the look of me. Like, bs.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

You know, and I'm, I'm, I'm certain, you know, the, because of your intent, the way you presented it. It's. I feel like it was more, it was appropriate.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, it was more like. I think it was just Facebook then.

[Tyler]

Yeah, it was a double edged sword too, because, like, you're like, I mean, look at the guy that never, never call out of work ever.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

And you're at work and you're like, people are like, well, you didn't do this and that. And you're like, you know, I'm sick, right? Like, I should have just stayed home. The guys that stay home, they don't get it, you know? So like when you're like, you could have just laid in bed for five months, been like. And everybody like that poor dude. But you try and push the boundaries and you try and then they're like, well, come to work then. Like, no, I have cancer.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. I mean, work was good. Like, my bosses were good buddies were good. My friends had a benefit for me, actually. Like, one of my buddies, they had a CrossFit gym. They had their own workout for me, raised some money, made some T shirts.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

My number's 22. So we did 22 pull ups, push ups, push press, all that stuff. It's a crazy workout. It makes you feel like you just did a couple rounds of chemo.

[Brent Tucker]

So we should have called it.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. So after the five months, I had tumor residue in my lungs, so I had to have. Your right lung is made up of three lobes, top, middle and bottom lobe. I had the top and bottom lobe removed and I told my surgeon, this guy's a Harvard surgeon. I'm like, look, what's my two mile run gonna be if you take out my lung? He's like, look, in the waiting room, everyone's like 60, 70, 80 years old with COPD. He's like, I have no idea.

[Brent Tucker]

And I'm just like outside my wheelhouse.

[Tyler]

We're learning together.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. And I'm like, look, I'm like, I'm an asshole athlete. I'm like, I'm not a paid athlete, but like, my. You're.

[Brent Tucker]

You're a tactical athlete. Yeah, that's an appropriate term. You're a tactical athlete.

[J.D. Dage]

And I'm like, am I going to be a cop again? Am I going to be able to run up three flights of stairs. Yeah. These triple deckers. Or like, what's up? So he knew that going into this three hour surgery, he reconstructed. My blood vessel was on. He was like FaceTiming with another surgeon. Took. Turned it into a six hour surgery.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

And I woke up because I was on my side. They had to deflate the lung. They broke a rib. I have a picture of it too. Took the top and bottom lobe out, reconstructed the blood vessel, put me back together, wheeled me up. And then this guy came in. He was so pumped, he's like, so I saved your lung because the easy thing would have been deflate the lung, take the right lung out. Just do that. And if I went anywhere else, that's probably what would have happened. But this guy was like, this guy wants this long. See what I could do.

[Tyler]

Exceptional dude.

[J.D. Dage]

So he came in, he was super happy and was like, I saved your lung. He's like, how do you feel? I'm like, my left side is killing me because I was on my left side for six hours.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

But, you know, I'm all drugged up. I'm like, thanks.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, thanks.

[J.D. Dage]

I think, like, I have no idea what went on because I was passed out the whole time.

[Brent Tucker]

I'll jump forward on this question a little bit, like, like to keep things chronological, but what did that end up doing to you? Like, you know, performance wise? And how does how does it affect you, you know, having not a full set of lungs?

[J.D. Dage]

So right around then, actually, when I was doing the chemo, I had a stationary bike brought up to the room.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

So I could. I'm like, I'm not sitting here for five days doing nothing.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

So, like, I had my legs going and then I started getting into cycling. So I wasn't running then because it was still like that broken rib. And they stitched it. They didn't put it back together. They lapped it together and whatever. So it's kind of resting on the other rib. So that was a slow, painful recovery. So I wasn't running. I was on the bike. And then I fell in love with cycling. And I'm like, let me heal so I could get back to work. Actually, did I asked to go back to work from the city doctor because you have to get cleared. The city doctor was like, I'm like, can I go back to work? He's like, do you want to go back to work? I'm like, yeah. He's like, okay. That's it. Like, that easy.

[Brent Tucker]

Quite the scientific process they have going on.

[J.D. Dage]

Well, he's like, you're the one without. He's like, he's never seen that before. A guy had parts of his lung removed. He's like, are you good to go back to work? I'm like, yeah, I guess.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. So again, I guess we'll learn together.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. High five. See you later.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

So went back to work and then I needed some more. So actually, sorry, let me back up. After the lung resection, two weeks later, I go back and malfea proteins were elevated. They did some more scans, and then they said they called me at like 5:00 at night, which is super rare. They were like, yeah, we did some blood work. Looks like you have a brain tumor. So back to Dana Farber on the phone.

[Brent Tucker]

They told you that?

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. So I went back for more scans.

[Brent Tucker]

Who taught these people how to talk to people?

[Tyler]

Yeah, right.

[J.D. Dage]

Dana Farber was good, but I think that was more of a. I went for a post lung surgery follow up, and they were like, yeah, you should come back tomorrow and we'll do scans. So this was a lot better than the other. Dana Farber is way better than any other hospital around. So I went back and this guy was great. Met with a brain surgeon. He did brain surgery. I had brain radiation like five times.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

Super easy now.

[Brent Tucker]

They thought you had. They said it looks like you might have cancer. You know, a brain tumor. Yeah, but did you end up having one.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

And then this is how little I know about it. This is why I really, really like this, like, this topic. Like, I think we should all know a little more about it.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

And there's two types of tumors, correct. There's a cancerous tumor and a non cancerous tumor. Was it a cancerous tumor?

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. So it was the mixed germ cell. Those alpha feta proteins I was talking about, those numbers were elevated and those.

[Brent Tucker]

And those numbers being elevated is kind of indicative of a, of a cancer.

[J.D. Dage]

Growth or those cells.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

All the cells growing, so. Which is weird because in some cases I'll say that everybody has cancer inside of them because those like every, like, if you did a blood draw, your alpha proteins would be like under 12 probably.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

That's like the number. Mine was at like 500 when I had all those tumors in my lungs. So it's like, it's. It's a regulated number with like, oh, this is an indicator of this. And I don't know about the other 180 different types of cancers. I know about one other cancer, but. So I had the brain surgeries, brain radiation. Then I had 10% of my left lung removed from tumor residue. And that was a scope surgery. So they just kind of went in, did the camera. It was like, not as invasive as the big one because they had to break the rib, because they had to take those sections of the lung out, which were large mass wise, so they had to get access. Get access to it. Yeah. So this one was scoped. So less of a scar.

[Tyler]

10% of your lung.

[J.D. Dage]

They took third of my right lung, 10% of my left lung.

[Tyler]

Sorry.

[J.D. Dage]

And then I had chemo again. Outpatient surgery, just to be safe. But chemo doesn't break the blood brain barrier. So oddly enough, I had a second brain tumor in a different spot.

[Tyler]

At any point, are you just like.

[J.D. Dage]

It was close to that where someone was like, dude, like, one of my cop buddies was like, like he was more upset than I was because I told him that I had another brain tumor. He's like. And then he was getting me down. I'm like, man, I'm like, yeah, he's right.

[Brent Tucker]

God is trying to call you home. Let him get you home.

[J.D. Dage]

Just. So I had chemo again, had a brain surgery, brain radiation. And then I was cancer free, back to work, got on the SWAT team, and then I was cycling a ton. So I went for one of my post visits and I met with my oncologist and he was little Australian dude, he's like, oh, you doing the Pan Mass Challenge? I'm like what's that? So the Pan Mass challenge is that hospital, Dana Farber. They have five to six thousand cyclists you ride from. I live in Central Mass. So Sturbridge is like probably a half hour drive away.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

So it's almost western mass, I guess. 110 mile bike ride to the beginning of Cape Cod where the bridges are and then you finish the rest of the day. So it's just under a 200 mile ride in two days and every rider has a team and you raise money for cancer research. So he was like, yeah, I'm doing the Pan Master Go. I'm going to do the Pan Mass. And at that point I wasn't cycling a ton. But then I was like, like I'm gonna do this race. Well, not a race, it's a ride. Funko's a ride.

[Brent Tucker]

And I race to you though, isn't it?

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. And I'm like, yeah. I'm like, I want to do this for me. So I came up with the name Thin Blue Ride. And I'm like, I usually don't come up with cool names. I think that's a pretty cool name.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. Yeah. And then I especially the story behind it and everything now as soon as you said that for the first time with that story, I was like, oh, I like that name.

[J.D. Dage]

So that was our team name. And then I had one of these guys, Mike, who I worked with Ange, another female cop. I work with my buddy Eric who's a marine Corvette. We were Thin Blue Ride and we're like, let's raise some money for cancer.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

That was your group, that was your racing team.

[J.D. Dage]

And we ended up, my story kind of got some local clout and like local news. We ended up raising $26,000 our first summer.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

And this is first year rider and like we weren't cyclists. Like we were like bad news. Trying to clip in, falling over. How do we do this? But I made it a point. It was kind of funny. Somebody took a picture of us, of our team and like photocopied it where we get our cruiser keys. Because in Worcester we have these crappy old cruisers. It's there at the time, just old Crown Vicks.

[Brent Tucker]

Right.

[J.D. Dage]

Nobody has a crew. It's like this one cruiser runs 24 7.

[Tyler]

Yeah. They don't have take home cars.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

Morning shift picks it up after night shift drives off. You make sure there's no dope left in it.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, exactly. So I'd get a Cruiser key and somebody printed it, and it was on paper underneath. So every day I would write my miles I did on my bike.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

And this was from, like May to mid. Towards the end of July, because the pan mass was August 1st.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

I did over a thousand miles. And I just kept writing it down, writing it down. I go, never do less than 20. And I didn't want to do over 50.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

Because they go, I want this to be a challenge. I don't want it to. If I'm doing 110 miles on day one, I don't want to go out and do 110 miles once a week. Like, where's the fight in that?

[Brent Tucker]

Okay. Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

So I did my MO. The longest ride I did, I think, was 50 or 55 miles, and then the rest is 20 miles, 30 miles a couple times a week. And we got to be good riders. And August 1st, that weekend was my one year cancer free for the race.

[Brent Tucker]

Wow.

[J.D. Dage]

And they actually took. If you type in Jonathan Dage on YouTube, they have that story that WBZ Boston News did where they had. My story is like one of the opening ceremonies. So I'm like, dude, this is awesome. Like, my first race, I'm like. On the big screen is thousands of people. It's live on the news. They're raising money for cancer research.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

All the money we raised were going to Dr. Sweeney's cancer research for testicular cancer. Like. Like, this is. This is it. Like, all the.

[Tyler]

All the other riders are like, the new guys.

[J.D. Dage]

Yes.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

And we had these sweet kits made, like, our spandex. Like, we had the thin blue. Thin blue line flag. Thin blue ride flag and stuff. We had everything all custom, and there's only four of us and 5,000 riders. And, like, people were like, recognizing us being like, oh, it's a thin blue ride, guys. And like, we're not cyclists. We're just doing this. Like, we're trying to get by.

[Brent Tucker]

Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but it just. It feels like like one of those, I think, things you. You assume as you get older and you. And you feel like you understand the culture and the different parts of the country. But the Northeast has always seemed like it's been very first responder friendly. Yeah, they're very pro cop. Like, you know, they're very pro firefighter. I don't feel like we always get that kind of here in the South. Like, we get pockets of it. But the. Which I believe, you know, for you and your foundation and what's happened to you As a law enforcement is a plus. Being there with a lot of support. People who want to support something like that.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

Is that generally a true statement?

[J.D. Dage]

I mean, I haven't lived anywhere else, but I think yeah, that's true. You know what I mean? Like the support we get. It is like I go back to like it. It was during my second part of my outpatient chemo. My friends had a benefit for me. Mechanics hall in Worcester. They have like graduations and plays. My police graduation was there. There was over a thousand people showed up for my benefit.

[Brent Tucker]

Wow.

[J.D. Dage]

I had. And I want to get back to this too, but I had good insurance. I had $26,000 in co pays with good insurance. The reason being is I had two brain surgeries, two lung surgeries, two rounds of chemo, two rounds of radiation, and two other invasive surgeries in a three year time period.

[Brent Tucker]

Do you know what the total bills were like if you didn't. If I knew, I knew.

[J.D. Dage]

I think one of the Doctors mentioned the five days I was in the hospital was like 30 to 35 grand. And I did that for five months. The lymph node dissection was over 100 grand.

[Brent Tucker]

Wow.

[J.D. Dage]

You know, and the. All the other stuff, like I don't know what it was numbers wise.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. So even though 26,000 likes sounds like no one's. No one. No one in our income brackets writing a check for that out of our checking account.

[J.D. Dage]

And that's. And that's why, like, but it's a.

[Brent Tucker]

But it's a small percentage of the bills that. That came through.

[J.D. Dage]

Well, you know, you're not working, you're not doing the overtime, you're not getting called in for overtime, you're not doing road jobs. You have a family. Well, I didn't have a family, but I'm just saying in general, people with cancer. And that's what I try to sell to all these alphas who have cancer. But I'm like, dude, like Timblue ride. We're not, we don't want to help you. We're going to help you.

[Brent Tucker]

I love it.

[Tyler]

Just let it happen, baby.

[Brent Tucker]

Happened.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So what I did going forward was we wanted to start a foundation. So this was 2015 was our ride. 2017 thin blue ride became a 501C3.

[Tyler]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

Non profit.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

So. And at first we were like, let's pay the bills for people. I'm like, yeah, but bills are bills plus hospital bills. If you don't know, don't go against your credit. If you owe 20 grand to the hospital, pay them 10 bucks a month, as long as it doesn't go to collections. So what we wanted to do is what people did for me go, let's raise money for cops, veterans, first responders that have cancer and their direct family members. Let's raise money and let's give it to them. So we started raising money. Marco was a Worcester COPS kid. He has cancer. We raised money. We handed them over a check. We've been doing that since 2017. We've raised 800. Over $800,000.

[Brent Tucker]

Wow. Almost a million dollars.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

That's crazy.

[J.D. Dage]

And again, not all that is directly to the person because we have the caught. You know, we make T shirts, we make all this other stuff. We have the Internet, but like, we give away more than what we take in. For example, we recently had Lisa Carlson, army vet, Worcester police officer, battling breast cancer. We raised 2,500 for her through online efforts. We added 2,500 to it. We said, here's a check for five grand. So like we've given away $500 up to $50,000 to individuals.

[Tyler]

And I can't remember if we had spoken before I realized this, but when I went to research, you know, the foundation, I saw an Orange county deputy on there, and I won't talk about his name because he, he's considering coming on. But I was like, oh my God. And then I tell you. Yeah. And then I. So I met him in the locker room the other day.

[Brent Tucker]

Really?

[Tyler]

And I asked. And he's like, yeah, man, he raised money for me. He's like, I'm so. He was like, he didn't have to do that. Like, he didn't have to do that. No one, no one has to do anything for you. And he was, he was so appreciative of it. I was like, damn, that's awesome. So small world.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. And that's the thing too is like, I've had everybody, right? Like I've had families for kids. It's easier. And I say people want to help. They don't know how. Let them throw five bucks at it. Let them throw 50 bucks out.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

Money isn't the cure all, but it helps.

[Brent Tucker]

It's not all about money.

[J.D. Dage]

It's exactly.

[Brent Tucker]

But it's all about money.

[J.D. Dage]

Exactly.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. And both are true. And it goes back to intent, you know, like the intent of people who just are so money driven, they just want the money for. For the wrong reasons. And they'll do just enough to make it look like a non profit, which Happens more than people probably realize in non profits.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

But the good nonprofits is that that odd saying is so true. Like it's not about money. You have good intentions, you know, you want to do good things, but you can't do good things without money.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

So it's not about money, but it's all about money. And I mean, it's a weird thing. It's so true.

[J.D. Dage]

I mean, go to, go to any major cancer center in any city around you. It's a business. There's a line out the door from 6am to 6 at night.

[Brent Tucker]

So here's, here's a. We've, we've been doing this cancer thing for, for a long time when I, you know the cure for cancer, raising money for cancer. And I think obviously what you said about early detection, we can cure cancer of sorts. Are we ever going to cure cancer? It's a tough question to throw at you, but you know more than anyone about it because in our circles, because.

[Tyler]

Of what you went through, will people's pockets get lighter?

[J.D. Dage]

I think there's a lot of information out there that people need to start looking at and a lot of it is environmental based. Like there's stuff in your DNA that might say, hey, we're going to get some cancer from. It's hereditary or whatever. There's also that other aspect of stuff that we put in our body, whether it's breathing in toxins from Iraq or standing next to an IED jammer that's in the back of the Humvee that you're not supposed to touch open or look at. Like there's, you're sleeping on it. There's those dangers that we could get away from to mitigate some risk. I think there's a lot of stuff more on the holistic side that I've tried to research as far as. I mean I've, I've gotten stem cell therapy.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

And what's crazy is I reached out friend Ron Pastino, friend of a friend, Warrior Wellness. This guy Elijah and his wife do this stuff through boot campaign, help with PT stuff and gut healing. And your gut is 80% of your immune health. So if your gut is clean, that's going to help with all the other factors. Ron pastino was a SWAT commander on the rubble for like 13 months. Had to retire. You know, fit SWAT dude, army dude, had to retire because of the non 911 disease that doesn't exist. So he looked into stem cell treatment, had some stuff done in Mexico, then found a place in California. Dr. Joy Kong who's amazing. She does mesenchymal takes the mother daughter stem cell from placenta and umbilical cord which actively regenerates. I mean I'm no scientist, but this is just sound like you know what you're talking about. So basically it just helps regenerate blood cells or DNA, whatever it is, helps repair scar tissue in the lungs which I have plenty of. Ron had plenty of. So I told my story to Dr. Courtney who works with Dr. Joy Kong. A story get to somebody else out in California. Then me, my kids, my wife, Ron, a bunch of people are on a zoom call that I was like, yeah, I'm going to pay for this. This is super expensive. I don't know, we'll figure it out, right. All of a sudden this stranger, Laura was like, I'm going to pay for your stem cell treatment.

[Brent Tucker]

Wow. This, this is what I think is just, I guess we'll call the. The scary thing about cancer is that it's, it's not predictable. And what I mean by that, like the things like we all just talked about, like there's been plenty of guys exposed to jammers and there's.

[J.D. Dage]

Yes.

[Brent Tucker]

Like there are some people who've gotten cancer from that. There's plenty of people who, who did. Were in the same situations and didn't get cancer.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

I'll do one better.

[Brent Tucker]

George. What's that? The old actor like George Burns. Yeah. The guy smoked 12 cigars a day.

[Tyler]

Or the old lady ripping cigs outside on her porch. That's 90 years old.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. And the guy lives over a hundred. Like doesn't, doesn't die of, of lung cancer. Never even gets it. Like, like how cancer decides to creep up and, and become something to some people, not to others is just, it's hard to wrap your mind around.

[J.D. Dage]

It is. And it's nerve wracking to, you know, be cancer free for so long and then be 7 years cancer free and then waiting in line to open the gate at the sniper range, getting a phone call from the oncologist saying hey, you got leukemia.

[Tyler]

So I was wait, so this is. You got. When was this?

[J.D. Dage]

Three years ago.

[Brent Tucker]

And, and, and define leukemia for me.

[J.D. Dage]

So there's different forms of leukemia. I have cml, chronic myeloid leukemia, which is super rare, super treatable. I'm like, of course. Let me get that. Because that's the rarest of the rare.

[Brent Tucker]

But it's treatable.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

So I take just good news there.

[J.D. Dage]

Daily meds for that.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

And I'm on my third type of medication the other medications were causing severe, like, bone pain in my legs.

[Brent Tucker]

What is leukemia?

[J.D. Dage]

I'm gonna say it's a blood cancer.

[Brent Tucker]

That's what I thought, but I just want to make sure it's. What does that mean? Like. Like, what is. Now I'm asking questions that, like, we always. We hear these terms, hear it all the time, but, like, no one. Like, I don't go to Google after. Like, I. I hear about it. I don't know enough about it. Like. Like I should. Like, what does it mean to have a blood cancer?

[J.D. Dage]

So from what I understand is, see, it's. It could be from previous exposure.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

Whether that's from getting too many CT scans and x rays and MRIs and all that stuff, because I've had a ton of those. So you're at risk when you expose yourself to radiation.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

Because that cancer could, you know, you're being preventative, but at the same time, your body's taking in radiation, which is not a good thing.

[Brent Tucker]

Right.

[J.D. Dage]

So I'm kind of done with the scans. I go. You can see stuff in my blood work because I don't need scans right now for anything. Right now. It's my bcr abl, it's called the Philadelphia gene, which is elevated for me, and that's what is the CML marker. So right now, after all my meds, I think I started at like 50 something and it should be under like 0.0. So as I've taken these meds over the past couple years, it's gone down from 50 to 15 to 7 to 8 to 3. A few months ago, it was at 0.1.

[Brent Tucker]

Will you always be on these meds controlling it, or are you going?

[J.D. Dage]

Of course, because it's $5,000 a month. So that's the thing is, that's a.

[Brent Tucker]

Question I almost didn't want to get into. We talked about curing cancer.

[J.D. Dage]

There's a 25% chance I could come off meds.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

But typically, I may have to continue to take these meds for the rest of my life.

[Brent Tucker]

Wow.

[J.D. Dage]

Which I want to not be on meds because I got stem cell treatment. It works with. I forget the name, whatever cellular function. And that's also what the CML does.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

So it. I don't know if it countered it. I mean, I did feel better after my. I had three stem cell treatments in California. I take that, like, these vitamins that help stem cells, help with your methyl. And blue is a good one that I take every day. It's good for brain function and all this stuff is, like, stuff you could get over the counter, too. Well, not really over the counter, but online or at some longevity stores.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

But, yeah. So, I mean, I'm at the point I'd love to come off these meds because the side effects, the. The new meds don't have as bad of side effects, but, I mean, it's one of those things I'm dealing with.

[Brent Tucker]

Right. There's always side effects.

[J.D. Dage]

And not only that, the chemo meds I've been taking, my alt, which is a liver enzyme.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

My LT function was, like, super elevated. So I'm like. You know, I was occasionally drinking, and I'm like, let me stop drinking and see if that affects it. Didn't affect it.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

And then I got stem cell treatment, and the ALT numbers went from elevated, almost dangerous, to normal. So on a cellular level, the stem cells helped. But it. You know, I still wheeze when I cough with this. With the CML, I was actually out of work two years ago because of low, low O2 levels. And basically every time I'd work out, I'd get on the soft lead app. I'd run a half mile, I'd start hitting weights, and then that half mile felt like a ridiculous task.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

So I ended up going to the. On call. Sorry. To the pulmonologist, did a bunch of tests, and then I went to the cardiologist to see if it was my heart. So I had, like, a year and a half of, like, nothing but tests.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[Tyler]

And these doctors are probably like, dude, do you have to do softly, like, one of the hardest programs?

[J.D. Dage]

But not only let me. I'll go back too. Because back in 2019, I was going through a cycling magazine, and I saw top 10 hardest bike climbs in the world. One of them being Mount Washington in New Hampshire. So I'm like, oh, I want to do that. So I signed up for it, drove through Arrows up to New Hampshire, and did one of the hardest bike climbs in the world, according to Cycling magazine.

[Brent Tucker]

Well, you know, they got, like, electric bikes now. Be a lot easier.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, I could. If anyone wants to donate one, that'd be great. So I ended up up doing that because I wanted to see if I could do it.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

I had a heart rate monitor on.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

182 for two hours.

[Brent Tucker]

Just sit in zone five the whole time.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, 182 for an hour and 52 minutes.

[Brent Tucker]

The. One of the questions I have for you is, is this. I'm not. I am not. I'm not a Anti scientist. I'm not an anti doctor. I'm really not. But if. To bring this full circle, if Covid has taught us one thing, it's that the people who are supposed to be the smartest people in the room have really shown their true colors. And again, I'm not throwing the baby out the bathwater, but with all the research you've done and the medicine that's proven that you've taken, do you feel like talking about stem cell? Was stem cell something you researched? Were there things that you did on your own that you had to research that they were never going to tell you about, never going to promote it, to get into a little bit conspiracy? Part of it. You're welcome, Tyler. Is that because there's no money in it for them or there's no research, there's no reason for them to push it, that your own motivation and research allowed you to be a little bit better off than you were, besides just relying on them.

[J.D. Dage]

Definitely.

[Brent Tucker]

I mean, really.

[J.D. Dage]

I saw a holistic doctor. This, and this was outside of my oncologist. I saw a holistic doctor after my lymph node dissection. So this is more toward the latter end of my procedures. He said, no gluten, no alcohol, no dairy. I was like, okay, why? He goes, what happens when you throw alcohol in a fire? I'm like, it explodes. He goes, exactly. He goes, the lower body fat you have, the less acidity in your body. Cancer cells thrive off of high acid body fat and all that. So I'm like, okay, that makes sense. So, you know, I'd follow that. Not as regimented now because I'm, you know, still want to have a pepperoni pizza every now and then. But, you know, it's. I told that to my oncologist. I go, yeah. I'm going, gluten free, dairy free, alcohol free. He goes, why? And I was like, I really like my oncologist, but. But all they teach is to cut it out, to medicate or to give you something like, my chemo pills are in my bag that say, hazardous material that I take two pills every morning that I put into my system. Whereas now I'll jump in my sauna, I'll stand outside barefoot to do some earthing, which reduces inflammation, get in front of a red light, do cold, like, contrast therapy, workout. Like, there's so many things that you could do that are not harmful that, you know, I sleep on a grounding bed sheet. If that doesn't work, I wasted 80 bucks. If it does work.

[Brent Tucker]

Exactly.

[J.D. Dage]

It reduces Inflammation and you know what I mean? Like, right.

[Brent Tucker]

There's, there's so many of those that, and it's always funny, the grounding thing, like you can, there's so many things out there. It says it's, it doesn't work. There's no, there's no science to it. Like, they can show you the surveys and the stats that prove that it's not real. And then on the other side of that, there's plenty of things that, you know, on people's testimonies that say it is. And I agree with you. Try it.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

What'd you lose, five minutes standing there?

[Brent Tucker]

Right?

[J.D. Dage]

Try. Exactly.

[Brent Tucker]

Move on. And there's another thing, and I'm not saying that this is happening in this scenario, but in those. I was just talking to one of my buddies the other day who is a doctor. Placebo studies, like when they throw a placebo, you know, and do the studies, there are times where the placebo, a sugar pill, has effects, you know, and has even reduced tumors because the person thought they were taking something to reduce it. And the body decided, all right, we're going to do something about it. I'm not saying that's, you know, again, everything's, you know, everything's taken with a grain of salt. But there's a, there's a lot to be said sometimes that you do something, maybe it works. Maybe just because your body thinks you're doing something good, your body's deciding, well, then we're going to do something good.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

I don't know. Try it.

[Tyler]

Do you ever, do you, do you treat your body way? Do you appreciate health more? This is a dumb question because I'm sure it's yes. But I've always thought about like, you know, anytime I'm like indulging in vices or being lazy or on the flip side, grinding myself, no sleep, not eating. Right. And then I look at someone like you who probably really appreciates a healthy body.

[J.D. Dage]

I do. I mean, it's still, it's easy to fall off, like, and especially food, right? Like, it's so easy to grab something quick that isn't the healthiest thing, which I still do. I could, you know, there's some people that have helped out with a non profit who are like, like all healthy. And I'm just like, it's very hard to do.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah. 100 healthy, 100 of the time. Yeah. Yeah. And those people are out there, God bless them.

[J.D. Dage]

And that's just. I wish it could be me. But you know, kids, like, it's just it's, it's, it's tough. But, you know, people do do it. I'm not one of those persons that are 100. I try to, but I do appreciate, like, you know, you got one body, you get to treat it right. Like, I'm gonna do what I can. Like, I went to like this veteran healing retreat, like, energy healing. I showed up there with a book called killing school, which is about military snipers. And I left with a book called change your aura, change your life. So now I'm like meditating daily and I'm like very different book.

[Brent Tucker]

Books.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

Same author.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, exactly.

[J.D. Dage]

But I'm like that. I think that's all part of it is being open minded and being like, dude, I, I sometimes I'll wake up and go to yoga, meditate, get on the peloton or go hit some weights, put on some hate music, you know, throw on heavy weights. And it's like, you got to be well rounded and like treat your body like that's all you have is your body. Right. Your health. So figure it out. Go outside the box.

[Tyler]

Deep, deep episode.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah, it is. And we covered a lot. And which, which I thought we would.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

You know, and I'm glad. I can't thank you enough for coming out here, like, you know, telling us your story, everything that, that, that you went through, it's a, it's, it's a lot. I mean, you went, as you know, you went through a lot. It's. It's crazy. And, and who knows? And who knows what the future is?

[Tyler]

Who knows what your next cancer will be?

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, exactly.

[Brent Tucker]

Before we get to the last thing, what's next for you? Tell us just a little bit more and let them know where they can find you if they want to support the thin blue Ride. Just give that pitch because it's important. I want you to put it out there.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, I put a lot of stuff on Facebook and Instagram on the Thin Blue Ride. Right now we have a fundraiser for a couple people. Again, it's hard for me. It's not hard for me to do it. It's hard for me to convince people, like, hey, let's help you out. Because people want to help and they don't know how. So Thin Blue Ride on Instagram, the money that gets raised goes, Thin Blue Ride gets a check. We get it deposited at the bank, we add to those funds and then send a bank check to that person. And, you know, we try to help as many people as we can. We've helped people in California, Florida, Texas, a lot. A lot of local stuff. So if you want to. Don't. Like, we've done gun raffles. We do a golf tournament. We sell T shirts. We're getting our stuff online. We've sold shirts since 2015. But we're finally, like, getting our store going. Because especially, like, I want people to know what we do. I want to share our network. Because, like. Like, we know the same guy now who we helped out. Right. Like, that's huge.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

And then if he knows somebody and we're trying to raise money for somebody, then a couple people throwing a couple bucks. Like, we're not taking any of the money. This is all volunteer basis. Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

And they can donate, right? On the website.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, they can donate through the website. It goes through PayPal. We could do. Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

And you have a PayPal in blueride.org.

[J.D. Dage]

Then blueride.org and in the process of finishing up a book where it's basically everything I said, I'm like, you know what? Everyone's like, you should write a book. I'm like, no, that's stupid. I don't like writing.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

But then when I got.

[Brent Tucker]

I agree with that.

[J.D. Dage]

When I was out of work, you.

[Brent Tucker]

Should write a book.

[J.D. Dage]

It's a picture.

[Brent Tucker]

You should.

[J.D. Dage]

But no, when I was out of work for this. For more recently, like, when I thought it was my heart.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

You know, three years ago, I got married. I have two step kids who are young, 10 and 13. And I'm like, if I'm gone, they need to know my story.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

So that was the purpose of the book. But what's in the book is kind of what you've seen today is, like, more of the resiliency mindset that I have, which.

[Brent Tucker]

Love it.

[J.D. Dage]

I'm not spelling it out, but you're having a hard time. Just say, what would JD Do? Like, my number's on the website. Send me an email. Send me a text message. Like, yeah, I've helped a lot of people, you know what I mean, through. Or at least guide through some hard times as far as, like, hey, my dad has cancer, my cousin, my kid, or whatever. Like, yeah, I've had a lot of cancers and a lot of surgeries. So I, you know, I mean, you.

[Tyler]

Got a lot of knowledge.

[Brent Tucker]

Me and Tyler have been very adamant about this. We, you know, as this podcast, and our platform has grown, like, we want to, you know, we want it to be a force for good. And on the low side, just on YouTube, like, 10,000 people on the low side will watch this. And if 10,000 people went to thinbluride.org and donated $10. That's $100,000 that this podcast could raise and should. But now I'm gonna shame our listeners, which probably isn't very good protocol. But they won't. And yeah, some will, some will, but. But they won't. And that, that, that, that boggles my mind. And I'm gonna put my money where, where my mouth is. And, and I'm go right after this and I'm gonna donate. You know, I'm gonna do exactly what I just asked people to do. But it, it really, we don't need necessarily big donors. We just need every normal person to spend exactly what they'd spend at Starbucks.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah.

[Brent Tucker]

And just donate to a good cause. Like, we could do so much more like a grassroots movement than waiting on a billionaire to, to, you know, figure.

[Tyler]

Out when the time is right for taxi.

[Brent Tucker]

Right. To find you. Yeah, exactly.

[J.D. Dage]

Again, if there's any businesses we, we do, we actually just got offered for a corporate sponsor, which turned into, hey, can we give you guys a truck? And we're like, yeah, we could do that.

[Tyler]

Sure.

[J.D. Dage]

So they gave us a truck, they wrapped it for us. They got our logos on it. And I'm like, now we can pull our trailer because I have a Jeep wrangler. I'm pulling a 16 foot trailer that's overweight and like, I'd rather pull tankers in Iraq than pull this thing. So, like, we got a truck dating donated to us. And I'm like, man, good goes to good.

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

Right.

[Tyler]

Who is the company?

[J.D. Dage]

It's Marty's GMC in Kingston, Mass. They were like, hey, what can we do? So, yeah, they literally, we get a 2020 Denali.

[Brent Tucker]

Very cool.

[J.D. Dage]

It got a couple thousand miles ago. Yeah, it's got a new motor. You want this? I'm like, yeah, that's cool. Yeah, super generous. And I'm like, like, now we could go to events. People could scan our code. Like we have a driving billboard.

[Brent Tucker]

Exactly.

[J.D. Dage]

So now we can go to events. Like with gilded. Those guys, like, we went down to Arkansas to do like a hike. So, you know, now we're talking with Guild Solutions.

[Brent Tucker]

The hat you have on backwards, you don't want to give Shane any sort of representation.

[J.D. Dage]

It's a free, free hat. We have to go to Arkansas to get it. But they, they donated some money for us.

[Brent Tucker]

I'm not surprised at all. Shane Foster, Guild Solution. Those dudes are great dudes. The last thing our standard question, and I feel like the type of person you are the type of people we are. There's always in your worst moments, there's always something funny that happens when you're looking for it. Leave us with a funny story, but doesn't have to be about that. It could be about anything.

[J.D. Dage]

So it was a good one. Like, you know when you run with your gas masks on in training and you're like, this is. When are we ever gonna get, like, running with our masks on? So this really happened. We were, you know, the. The whole riot thing that went on a couple years ago. There was some rioters outside of Clark College on Main street in Worcester. Very busy. Typically, people want to riot for their beliefs. Some people want to riot just because they want some destruction. So we had our.

[Brent Tucker]

They just want to see things part.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah, exactly. And this was the right part of town in the city to have that. So there was some onlookers, and there were some people shooting fireworks, throwing rocks at the cops.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

SWAT team gets called. Me and my partner AC are driving Kevlar full kit, Kevlar's. And like, I guess the line got moved back. So we kind of turned like in the middle of like the rock throwing and stuff. As I'm driving, dude throws a brick at my window. It hit just like by the B pillar.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

I'm like, that could have been dangerous. So we park and our SWAT team is super. We got a bunch of like, high tech equipment. We have a plumber van.

[Brent Tucker]

Okay.

[J.D. Dage]

And we have a. Another sprinter van that I had to weld some benches in because they just bought an empty van. And they're like, yeah, JD could weld some benches or we'll put some milk crates in it. So then we're back, they're throwing rocks. And then lieutenant's like, all right, we need to get that instigator. We need to get old. That. We need to do a good old snatch and grab, right?

[Brent Tucker]

Yeah.

[J.D. Dage]

We're like, I need some volunteers. I'm like, yep. I'm like, wait a minute. When have we ever practiced this good old snatch and grab, right? So there was like, do it.

[Tyler]

Don't violate policy.

[J.D. Dage]

Seven of us in this, like 1990s gray Ford van, masks, Kevlar kits, everything. Drive into the crowd to try to get this one kid who was like, shooting fireworks get out of the van. It's on YouTube somewhere where we get out. We like almost driving to the crowd, get out. Dude takes off down the street. All of a sudden, seven SWAT guys running full kit with masks on. And I'm like, what the hell are we doing? Chasing down a side street off of Main street in the city and this girl's walking up towards Maine and she sees all of us and she goes, what the fuck? And I'm like, what are we. I'm like, what are we doing here? So the guy goes behind the house. All of a sudden I see him and I'm like, we don't practice comms, we don't do anything. And I'm like. He leaves. We're like, all right. We didn't get him, but it's subsided a little bit. So I'm like, I never expected a full on foot pursuit in full kit with a mask on now on at the time.

[Brent Tucker]

We got 60% lungs at the same time.

[J.D. Dage]

Yeah. So I'm like, wait a minute. And then after that.

[Brent Tucker]

So it's kind of like wearing two gas masks for you.

[J.D. Dage]

Exactly.