202 - What REALLY Happens At The Pentagon? Our TOP Secret Mission | Unsubscribe Podcast Ep 202

Summary

Unsubscribe Podcast Episode 202: "What REALLY Happens At The Pentagon? Our TOP Secret Mission"

Release Date: March 3, 2025
Hosts: Eli Cuevas, Brandon Herrera, Donut Operator, The Fat Electrician
Guest: Sergeant Major Christopher Mullinax, General George

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1. Recording at the Pentagon

The episode kicks off with the hosts—Eli Cuevas, Brandon Herrera, Donut Operator, and The Fat Electrician—revealing an unprecedented setting: the Pentagon. This unique backdrop sets the tone for an in-depth exploration of military operations and insider perspectives.

[01:29] Eli Cuevas: "Like, we're actually... we are in the Pentagon."

2. The White Claw Challenge

A humorous segment ensues as the hosts discuss being among the first authorized individuals to consume White Claw at the Pentagon. The conversation blends camaraderie with light-hearted competition, underscoring the informal yet respectful environment among military personnel.

[03:09] Brandon Herrera: "First one to finish a White Claw in the Pentagon. Here we go."

3. Interview with Sergeant Major Mullinax

The core of the episode features an extensive interview with Sergeant Major Christopher Mullinax. With over three decades of military service, Mullinax shares his journey, from joining the Army in 1992 to his assignments in Italy and Alaska. He delves into the evolution of military training, the transition from peacetime to wartime operations, and the significance of mentorship from Vietnam veterans.

[06:47] Sergeant Major Mullinax: "First assignment was Vicenza, Italy, and there were a lot of Vietnam veterans that were kind of still, you know..."

Mullinax emphasizes the importance of identity within the Army, advocating for a standards-based approach that prioritizes capability and reliability over identity politics.

[28:21] Sergeant Major Mullinax: "We've got to remember that identity matters. Like, I mean, we're very tribal in the army."

4. Evolution of the Ranger Regiment

A significant portion of the discussion centers on the Ranger Regiment and its assessment programs. Mullinax provides insights into the rigors of the Ranger Assessment Selection Program (RASP), contrasting it with his experiences in the earlier RIP program. He highlights the increased professionalism and stringent criteria that modern RASP employs to cultivate highly capable Rangers.

[40:34] Brandon Herrera: "Give them like get like when they smoke. You say smoke session..."

[41:36] Nick Mullinax: "RASP is still really, really hard. In fact, it's harder than it was then."

5. Technological Advancements and Military Acquisitions

The conversation shifts to military technology and the acquisition process. Mullinax discusses the Army Futures Command's role in modernizing equipment, including the introduction of the M17 pistol and the Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) program. The hosts and Mullinax explore the challenges of integrating new technologies, such as drones and advanced rifles, into active duty.

[82:24] Fat Electrician: "I think we're going to have increases in lethality across the army with the new rifle, the 6.8."

6. Organizational Change and Bottom-Up Feedback

Mullinax elaborates on the bottom-up approach to organizational change within the Army. Instead of top-down directives, the Army Futures Command solicits feedback directly from soldiers to inform procurement and training decisions. This approach aims to ensure that new equipment and strategies are practical and effective on the ground.

[106:... ] Dave Butler: "We're getting all those lessons and taking them back to the Pentagon to make informed decisions based on real-world feedback."

7. Future Plans and the 250th Anniversary

Looking ahead, the hosts discuss plans for the Army's 250th anniversary, emphasizing the importance of showcasing the Army's legacy and ongoing transformations. The conversation touches on potential events, collaborations, and the role of the podcast in promoting military pride and community support.

[114:54] Brandon Herrera: "This is going to be the best army birthday of any country ever."

8. Humorous Interludes and Behind-the-Scenes Moments

Throughout the episode, the hosts intersperse humor and candid moments, such as accidental spills of White Claw cans, playful banter about military ranks, and light-hearted jabs at each other's antics. These segments humanize the hosts and provide a relatable contrast to the serious topics discussed.

[89:00] Eli Cuevas: "We would frame that paperwork."

[95:47] Cody: "We're rapidly approaching the point we all get cat cards that say DOD designated dipshit."

9. Conclusion: Bridging Military and Civilian Worlds

The episode wraps up with reflections on the podcast's mission to bridge the gap between military personnel and civilians. The hosts express their commitment to supporting veterans, promoting mental health, and fostering a sense of community. They acknowledge the challenges of operating within Pentagon protocols while striving to deliver honest and impactful content.

[121:16] Brandon Herrera: "And taking that, I'll apply it the rest of my life because... it's part of the legacy we build."

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Notable Quotes:

• [32:01] Sergeant Major Mullinax: "Look, man, hey, look, if nobody's shooting at you, why are you stressed?"

• [83:06] Eli Cuevas: "So is that like DARPA kind of stuff or what exactly does that entail?"

• [120:43] Cody: "I'm the news now."

This episode offers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the Pentagon, enriched by the experiences and insights of seasoned military leaders. Balancing humor with profound discussions, the Unsubscribe Podcast delivers a comprehensive narrative on military life, organizational change, and the continuous evolution of defense strategies.

Transcript

[Dave Butler]

I think you're on mute.

[Brandon Herrera]

Workday starting to sound the same.

[Eli Cuevas]

I think you're on mute.

[Brandon Herrera]

Find something that sounds better for your career on LinkedIn. With LinkedIn job collections, you can browse curated collections by relevant industries and benefits like Flexpto or hybrid workplaces so you can find the right job for you.

[Cody]

Get [e-mail] jobs finding where you fit. LinkedIn knows how. You ever seen Between Two Ferns?

[Sergeant Major]

No.

[Cody]

No. Well, it's Between Four Idiots.

[Fat Electrician]

You don't actually drown. It's a shallow water blackout.

[Cody]

You don't actually drown. It just feels like it.

[Dave Butler]

We're still governed by all these laws and acquisitions.

[Eli Cuevas]

The Geneva Convention.

[General George]

Sergeant Major, you better sound the off.

[Donut Operator]

You just told a command sergeant Major to sound off.

[Brandon Herrera]

I know, that's pretty cool. Say hi to Eli. He's racially ambiguous. And Brandon, his hair is fucking fabulous.

[Cody]

Donut.

[Brandon Herrera]

A dog joke disposition. And there's a fat electrician. Welcome to unsubscribe.

[Donut Operator]

Hi everyone. Welcome to the Unsubscribe podcast. I'm joined today by Eli, double tap fat electrician, Brandon Herrera, myself, donut operator. And the backdrop is a little different. Why Eli?

[Brandon Herrera]

I don't know. It looks familiar. Like a shape of some kind. Oh, yeah, we're. We're at the Pentagon.

[Eli Cuevas]

Like, we're actually. We're not fucking around. We are in the Pentagon.

[Cody]

The basement of the Pentagon.

[Brandon Herrera]

Finn. Turn around, chef.

[Fat Electrician]

And you may find.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile and wonder, how did I get here?

[Cody]

So are we.

[Donut Operator]

And Nick, what were you saying earlier? Like, we were. Brandon. We were like kind of semi comedians who were just doing shows and then suddenly.

[General George]

Yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

Oh, we were like a couple episodes ago. It's like, oh. Or it feels like a couple episodes ago. We're just doing random like local stand up comedian friends of ours. And now we're in the Pentagon.

[Cody]

Not only are we in the Pentagon, we have. We're one of the only people to get authorization to drink in the Pentagon.

[Brandon Herrera]

There was a whole process. Apparently there was so a lot of.

[Eli Cuevas]

Paperwork to get this case of White Claw here.

[Cody]

And these might be the first White claws ever drank in the Pentagon.

[Eli Cuevas]

I think that's what they told us.

[Cody]

We might be making history.

[Eli Cuevas]

With that being said, yes, let's.

[General George]

Oh my God.

[Eli Cuevas]

What the are we doing, guys?

[Brandon Herrera]

So it's just a normal box.

[Donut Operator]

I know. That's what I said. When they say case, is it 24 or 12?

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. The gr. Do we have grape in there?

[Eli Cuevas]

We don't have grape.

[Dave Butler]

Black.

[General George]

Cherry black.

[Eli Cuevas]

Cherry, black cherry. You're getting bougie with the flavors already.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dude, if we got two apiece.

[Eli Cuevas]

Preference?

[Cody]

No. Three. Three a piece.

[Brandon Herrera]

Three piece. Oh, yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, they're cool, too. Oh, yeah, the army's awesome.

[Brandon Herrera]

You know what that means, guys?

[Cody]

All right, first, white claw in the Pentagon. Here we go.

[Eli Cuevas]

Three, two, one.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, man, it tastes so much better knowing how much paper what going in to get.

[Cody]

First one to finish a white claw on the pen of a.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's always a competition with you, Nick. It's got to be.

[Eli Cuevas]

First competes in ways that we didn't even know.

[Cody]

Now I'm going for second.

[Fat Electrician]

His self.

[Brandon Herrera]

Cold answer immediately.

[Eli Cuevas]

Nick runs out of booze immediately.

[Cody]

I mean, you got to get started the right way.

[Eli Cuevas]

Fair enough.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay. Second person to finish white claw, the Pentagon.

[Cody]

And he didn't even cry. So cold.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, hi. Welcome, everyone. Welcome. Welcome to the Pentagon. All the boys we got in last night, today we're gonna be. I don't. We're having fun. Today we get to interview a couple of privates and specialists.

[Eli Cuevas]

Also, fun game real quick. Every time. Take a shot at home. Every time you hear the word Pentagon, starting now. You're already dead if you tried it before.

[Donut Operator]

Pentagon, Pentagon.

[Eli Cuevas]

Cody tries to kill the audience.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, Brandon, this morning, it's like. Well, I thought we were training for a fight.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yeah, I thought we were going to the Octagon. What have I been training for?

[Cody]

I can't wait for the YouTube title to hit the algorithm. Unsub. Drunk from the Pentagon. What? Oh, they're not kidding, right? It's not. Clickbait.

[Eli Cuevas]

Clickbait. Oh, shit.

[Brandon Herrera]

Hey, guys. Welcome, welcome.

[Cody]

Oh, who do we have first?

[Brandon Herrera]

I want to start. We're going to hang out for a little bit.

[Eli Cuevas]

Bring out our first guest to. Who wants to get demoted?

[Brandon Herrera]

Hell, I heard there was a distinguished.

[Sergeant Major]

Group, a band of brothers here.

[Fat Electrician]

What's up?

[Brandon Herrera]

How you doing?

[Cody]

Walking past and I was like, well, let me just.

[Eli Cuevas]

How's it going?

[Brandon Herrera]

Drop in real quick.

[Sergeant Major]

How you guys doing?

[General George]

Doing good. We're good. You hopping in?

[Eli Cuevas]

This is your hot seat brother.

[Sergeant Major]

The hot. I feel like I'm in a bullpen here.

[Brandon Herrera]

You should be.

[Cody]

You ever seen between two ferns?

[Sergeant Major]

No.

[Cody]

No. Well, this between four idiots. Welcome to the show.

[General George]

Thank you.

[Brandon Herrera]

Thank you.

[Sergeant Major]

Appreciate it.

[Eli Cuevas]

Pleasure having you on. Appreciate you making time.

[Sergeant Major]

Yeah, no, thank you, guys.

[Brandon Herrera]

How so you have what, You're. How long you been in the military?

[Sergeant Major]

32.

[Cody]

32.

[Sergeant Major]

32. That's what, three decades?

[Cody]

How long have you had the nickname Smoke Birth?

[Sergeant Major]

Okay, so can I Tell you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So Smokey Robinson, singer, right?

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sergeant Major]

That's my grandfather's favorite entertainer. So at birth, he's like, hey, you're my Smokey now. My mother was like, okay, he can. He can be your Smokey. That name is not going on the birth certificate, though. So Christopher is my government name. But from birth, my family has known me as smoking and obviously, you know, playing sports. Join the. Join the Army. I want people to be comfortable with me, so it's like, hey, man, dad.

[Cody]

Giving you badass nicknames right out of the gate.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

Big fan of your work with the Bandit.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. You joined in the 90s?

[Sergeant Major]

Yeah, yeah. 92.

[Brandon Herrera]

God damn. I know Brandon wasn't born yet.

[Eli Cuevas]

No, I wasn't.

[Cody]

Neither was I.

[Eli Cuevas]

95.

[Cody]

95, 94.

[General George]

Wow.

[Cody]

Gee.

[General George]

Oh, wow.

[Donut Operator]

I was five, you know, and I.

[Sergeant Major]

Love telling troops nowadays. Let me tell you about the 1900s, right? And in their mind, they're like, oh, my gosh. Like, okay, we're getting ready to get something from this guy. So, yeah, 92. Great year to join.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, that is. And then you got to see the complete change. And then going from, like, civilian time, army or peacetime military to wartime military, then back to peacetime military, which. How was that? Just wild.

[Sergeant Major]

First assignment was Vicenza, Italy, and there were a lot of Vietnam veterans that were kind of still, you know, going. They're on the back leg of their career, so, you know, being able to kind of get mentored and developed by them and what they experienced and then what they went through in the Cold War era, because most of them had spent most of their career there in Europe, you know, after coming out of Vietnam. So it was very interesting. And then, you know, coming back stateside, and then, like you said, now we start going into some other things there in Southwest Asia. So, yeah, it's been interesting over the last 30 years. What I've seen.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's crazy. We have. I mean, everyone came from different walks of life in the military at the table. I joined like. Like, oh, there. Well, Brandon, start civilian side. But if you Google him, I was.

[Eli Cuevas]

Like, it's not even worth it anymore, man.

[Brandon Herrera]

I didn't say. I was just like.

[Eli Cuevas]

I was like, you're just so blase about it now.

[Cody]

We started a running joke that he has. He's a decorated war veteran. And now if you ask ChatGPT about Brandon Herrera, it thinks that he's the most decorated war hero in US History.

[Eli Cuevas]

It all started Marty Murphy, straight up.

[Cody]

That's you. Yeah, yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

It all Started from a Veterans Day episod when Eli tried to pin his Purple Heart on me. And I'm like, get that stolen valor away from me. And so now it's been. The running joke is now it's forced valor.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

How many awards do you have now? You got, like, two medals of honor.

[Eli Cuevas]

So at our live shows, the fans were all in on it, and, like, the great majority of our fan base, I think, either has, you know, has been in the military or has some connection to the military. And so they just started bringing their medals.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

And giving it to me at live shows. So now I'm. I've got an entire stack.

[Brandon Herrera]

Classic.

[Sergeant Major]

Wish I would have known that. Do you. Do you have a set of foreign jump wings? Like, do you have a running tally of foreign jump wings?

[Eli Cuevas]

I don't think so.

[Cody]

Wow.

[Donut Operator]

He has some jump wings, but I don't think he has any foreign jump wings yet.

[Cody]

It's gotten so bad that people. I live in a different state, and I fly to this podcast, and people mail me medals to give to Brandon, and I forgot to bring it, but I actually have a. A Syrian women's driving badge for you.

[Eli Cuevas]

Which is that basically a cab for them.

[Brandon Herrera]

Big sermon major's like, I'm just cut away from me smiling at that one.

[Eli Cuevas]

No comment.

[Sergeant Major]

No comment on that.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

They are getting so nervous.

[Brandon Herrera]

Was this a bad idea?

[Cody]

Why didn't you guys get nervous? Do you want a white claw?

[Sergeant Major]

What are you guys doing later tonight?

[Dave Butler]

There you go.

[Brandon Herrera]

There we go.

[Cody]

Hanging out in D.C. yeah.

[Sergeant Major]

Okay.

[Brandon Herrera]

What's your next, though?

[Cody]

When you.

[Brandon Herrera]

Did you think you were gonna stay in as long as you did?

[Sergeant Major]

Absolutely not. I definitely had a plan when I joined to come in because, you know, things were not going the way I needed them to go in college. The baseball career that I thought I was gonna have was not happening. So. Had a plan to come in for four years. Knew the Olympics was coming around in 96. So my plan was to get to Atlanta as my last assignment, try to get to some tryouts and get back into baseball. So, no, never would I have thought that, you know, I'd be sitting here, honestly, with you guys right here, at least in unison.

[Eli Cuevas]

Same honestly.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

We'd be sitting here with you.

[Cody]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Sergeant Major]

So, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. This is a wild experience for all of us because it was, like, starting out as dumb jokes, and it's like, hey, let's tell some military stories or have fun. And then all these crazy sons of bitches out.

[Cody]

I'm glad we're all Failing upward. This is great.

[Donut Operator]

No, I wanted to ask about your middle son that says he's a professional MMA fighter.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sergeant Major]

Shout Out Tyler. Sugar Free Stevens. Based out of Birmingham. Spartan Fitness.

[General George]

Nice.

[Eli Cuevas]

I see that the family cool ass nicknames has kind of been passed on.

[Sergeant Major]

You saw that, right?

[Cody]

Sugar Free is an awesome nickname. Could you imagine having to fight somebody whose nickname was Sugar? That'd be hilarious.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's what. Yeah. Yo, Sucralose, get over here.

[Eli Cuevas]

Good old Stevia Johnson.

[Brandon Herrera]

Stevia Johnson coming to the.

[Cody]

So you wanna. Your son wants to fight in the octagon. You work at the Pentagon. Any other significant shapes in the family or.

[Sergeant Major]

You know, man, you caught me off guard with that because my youngest son plays college basketball, so, I mean, that's a rectangle.

[Brandon Herrera]

So.

[Cody]

Okay.

[Eli Cuevas]

How about you? You used to play in a diamond, though.

[Sergeant Major]

Ah, very good. Like that.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah.

[Sergeant Major]

Might need to bring you into the army. G1 dad jokes down the table.

[Cody]

General George is already trying to force me and Eli back into the army, so don't.

[Eli Cuevas]

He keeps threatening you with a haircut.

[Brandon Herrera]

This is the first thing.

[General George]

General George.

[Brandon Herrera]

First thing when we come down, he's like, hey, got you guys booked for a barber appointment to get you back in the military.

[Cody]

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

[Brandon Herrera]

They force it. What can we do for Brandon to get him, like an official military position?

[Eli Cuevas]

I think I might have to actually take that haircut.

[Brandon Herrera]

There's an honorary. Is there an honorary?

[Cody]

No, we looked into it and they are.

[Brandon Herrera]

I think it's.

[Cody]

No, that's dress uniform. It's ar. Something. But there's actually a way for a civilian to get a military award.

[Eli Cuevas]

I really don't want that.

[Cody]

Yeah, I really do.

[Eli Cuevas]

You know, but I didn't do anything to earn any of this stuff.

[Brandon Herrera]

You've helped how many vets?

[Eli Cuevas]

Yeah, but I do that by drinking and joking around.

[Nick]

That.

[Eli Cuevas]

That hardly feels like the same thing.

[Sergeant Major]

Hey, still, you bring joy to veterans, right? That. That's important. We need that.

[Eli Cuevas]

And you know what? I don't need a medal for it.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Sergeant Major]

Thank you.

[Eli Cuevas]

It's a privilege to do it.

[Sergeant Major]

Yes, sir.

[Brandon Herrera]

Brandon's trying to get out of this mess.

[Eli Cuevas]

I'm squirming, dude.

[Brandon Herrera]

I'll just, you know, I'll pivot this way and then we'll be gone.

[Eli Cuevas]

It was last Veterans Day. This whole joke fucking started, and I didn't think it would culminate to the Pentagon. Eli.

[Brandon Herrera]

I didn't either.

[Sergeant Major]

So you do know, though, we do have an honorary SMA that every year that is awarded to a civilian, so.

[Eli Cuevas]

You guys are way too fucking excited.

[Sergeant Major]

That might be something we can talk to SMA Weimer about.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, my God.

[Cody]

Honorary Sergeant Major of the Army.

[Brandon Herrera]

I'm gonna text him.

[Cody]

Right?

[Brandon Herrera]

I didn't know that was a possibility. Yeah, yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

I'm gonna go home now. I thought you were the one that was gonna be uncomfortable at this.

[Brandon Herrera]

No, no, no, no.

[Sergeant Major]

Yeah, not at all.

[Eli Cuevas]

My hell, the turntables.

[Brandon Herrera]

Fuck. Brandon's gonna be. This.

[Cody]

Brandon's gonna be the director of the ATF and the Sergeant Major of the Army.

[Sergeant Major]

Well, I don't think that'll work, though. You might have to resign from the atf. Conflict of interest.

[Cody]

He doesn't have it yet. Yeah, it's on the table.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

Alarmingly.

[Cody]

Alarmingly on the table.

[Donut Operator]

That also started out as a joke.

[Eli Cuevas]

What? Not again, not even a joke.

[Brandon Herrera]

I made. Yeah, this is. Have you watched? Have you seen any of what we do? Other than chaos? I have not.

[Sergeant Major]

I'm not gonna lie. When Master and Carter, you know, brought up that, hey, sma, you know, would like for you to take a look at this and do a drive by and just walk in. It piqued my interest because again, it's about helping veterans. It's about ensuring that, you know, people understand the importance of all of your service. Because, again, you're providing the service, you know, even now. Although you didn't wear the uniform just yet.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yet I still have that haircut appointment.

[Sergeant Major]

Yeah, we got you. But no, it's an honor for me to have an opportunity to be here with. With the four of you, so we appreciate that.

[Eli Cuevas]

We really do.

[Brandon Herrera]

Saturday, we're interviewing Grandpa Jake, and it's a World War II. He was at Beeching in Normandy.

[Sergeant Major]

Okay.

[Brandon Herrera]

And he was at a Battle of Bulge. And he's coming on the podcast Saturday. Okay. Stoked for that one.

[Sergeant Major]

Where will you guys be at for that? Were you actually Texas?

[Brandon Herrera]

In San Antonio. Okay, so we filmed in hand, but we're super excited.

[Eli Cuevas]

We normally don't get to film in cool places like this.

[Brandon Herrera]

No.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yeah, well, it's normally just a house.

[Cody]

Our studio.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

A living room.

[General George]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

With booze everywhere, which.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yeah, it's like a frat house, essentially.

[Brandon Herrera]

Hey, Brandon, you ever wake up in your bed feeling like you just fought in a war?

[Eli Cuevas]

Yeah, why do you ask?

[Brandon Herrera]

You ever wake up and feel like you slept in a sauna?

[Eli Cuevas]

Yeah. I believe that's called night sweats.

[Brandon Herrera]

Means you got a trash mattress.

[Eli Cuevas]

Brandon, are we talking, like, Macho Man, Randy Savage?

[Brandon Herrera]

Because today we're talking about her premiere sponsorship, ghostmen.com Ghostbed mattresses built with cooling.

[Eli Cuevas]

Technology so you're not sweating through your sheets like some street bum.

[Brandon Herrera]

You stay cool, comfortable. Most importantly, you sleep through your night.

[Eli Cuevas]

I got you for three minutes, but I got ghostbed all night.

[Brandon Herrera]

You know what's longer than three minutes, Brandon?

[Eli Cuevas]

Any sexual experience I've ever had.

[Brandon Herrera]

Ghost Med's 20 to 25 year warranty.

[Eli Cuevas]

And you've got a 101 one night free trial to test it out.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, yeah, and you know what, brother? They don't just sell mattresses.

[Eli Cuevas]

They have bases, pillows, sheets, the whole empanada.

[Brandon Herrera]

Just pick your mattress and grab a bundle.

[Eli Cuevas]

Right now, goosebit's giving you 50% off everything.

[Brandon Herrera]

Just use unsubscribe at checkout and say fifth deepers. Head over to ghostbed.com unsubscribe.

[Eli Cuevas]

That's ghostbed.com unsubscribe.

[Brandon Herrera]

Use code unsubscribe.

[Eli Cuevas]

I'll show up under your bed and make ghost noises until you do.

[Brandon Herrera]

Go.

[Eli Cuevas]

Now, I just want to reiterate, none of this was in the script.

[Brandon Herrera]

I don't know. We started talking like Randy Savage. Well, Sergeant Major Steven.

[General George]

First off, man, it's a little tough for me to follow this guy, man. Smoke is a legend around here, in case you didn't know.

[Sergeant Major]

But let me tell you. Hold on. Hold on to your seat, because what you're getting ready to get right now with Vern Daly is going to be very interesting. So, hey, gentlemen. Again, I really appreciate you guys.

[Cody]

Absolutely.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

Thank you for coming down.

[Sergeant Major]

Yes, sir.

[Dave Butler]

Thank you.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Sergeant Major]

Love that shirt.

[Cody]

Thank you.

[Sergeant Major]

Yeah.

[Cody]

Oh, it's my tuxedo tank top. Eli. I dressed up for this occasion. Okay.

[Eli Cuevas]

How's it going, sir?

[General George]

I'm fantastic.

[Cody]

Good to meet you, brother. Nice to meet you, man. Hey, how you doing?

[General George]

John Wayne Troel says you better have your eye probe.

[Cody]

That sounds like tro.

[Brandon Herrera]

That sounds like tro. He.

[General George]

Matter of fact, he. He told me I was supposed to tell you if you didn't have it, you got to get a NAS fair and ge.

[Cody]

You know, I can give those.

[Brandon Herrera]

I can give those. Let's go. Well, our unit used to do those, and if you did one, you got to go home early. I hated those. Those are the worst.

[Cody]

You can so much faster, though. Oh, my God.

[Eli Cuevas]

I. I hate that thought.

[Brandon Herrera]

How long have you known Tro for?

[General George]

Let's see, about 10 years or so. Seac. Yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. Would you like a white so first.

[General George]

Off, besides the fact that freaking.

[Eli Cuevas]

I.

[General George]

Fully intend to come in here and give you guys a hard time for the wife.

[Cody]

Let's go.

[General George]

Just to be straight, you know what I'm saying? 100 but. Well, Miller Light or bourbon? Like, I stopped drinking Frou frou beer and all the rest of that stuff when I got a bourbon habit, you know what I'm saying? That's what, that's what it comes down to.

[Cody]

I stopped drinking just bourbon.

[General George]

That's it.

[Eli Cuevas]

Well, I mean, it's like Landman Nick Ultras.

[General George]

Well, the thing you gotta understand is like bourbon is like collecting stamps for SAR majors, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's like if you're a SAR major and you don't collect bourbon, are you really a SAR major type deal? You know, I'm saying waste money on a collection that you won't drink the whole thing. You know what I'm saying? Why not? Something to do. You got to have something that you want to do out there, you gotta dip in.

[Brandon Herrera]

I do enlisted so goddamn much. Come on, man.

[General George]

Like you guys told me you were coming in here. I'm not sitting in with the, with the general officers. The rest of that, you know, take it out when I gotta. Gotta address the certain parties. But I figured you guys were cool, I'd see this in, you know what I'm saying? Like, hey, a little nicotine light. Nothing like that. Okay, brother, I don't need a double dip, you know.

[Brandon Herrera]

How long you been in the army for?

[Nick]

Total?

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[General George]

35.

[Dave Butler]

Jesus.

[General George]

Yeah. So start out in the guard in 89. Spent about five years in the Guard before I came on active duty. I've been on active duty just over 30 years now.

[Eli Cuevas]

That bio is incredible. Actually now that I look at it. Hobbies are cycling, woodwork, fishing and bourbon. And not necessarily in that order.

[Rob Haney]

That's right.

[General George]

100% absolutely. So obviously cycling is a super weird one. So I rode motorcycles for years, you know what I'm saying? That was my big thing. And then I went to Alaska, which is, which is a kind of a long complicated story. Basically like 05. I was at Fort Benning. I was IOBC instructor and. Sorry, you're good. Not a super podcast dude, you know, but anyway.

[Cody]

03.

[General George]

Or I'm sorry, 03 04. I'm at Fort Benning teaching these little snot nosed lieutenants to be infantrymen, you know what I'm saying? Hating my life because everybody's over in Iraq or wherever else and I'm trying desperately to get out of there. And 101st, 82nd were like 107% on sergeant first class at the time, X, Y and Z. And so I couldn't get out. And they were starting this new brigade up in Alaska. 425, no darts, right? And freaking.

[Eli Cuevas]

That sounds like a slur. You like, tell me it does it?

[General George]

And I've got a great, great story on that one, because you're never going to get a better jump than jumping into 4 foot of snow anyway. Bottom line, the only way I could get out of. Out of Fort Benning was to go to Alaska. And I wasn't sure about it. I was like, I don't know about this stuff. And my wife was like, let's go. And I was like, okay. Everything that my wife's. Because I've been married 33 years now. Freaking, everything my wife has told me, let's do that. Has been exactly the right freaking thing to do, man. I cannot tell you. So went to Alaska in 05 and spent six years up there.

[Brandon Herrera]

How cold is, like, for anyone that you were jumping in?

[General George]

Negative 30 was the coldest that I've jumped in. You know what I'm saying? But we've, you know, folks have jumped up there, you know, as low as negative 45 up on the slope and some of the other areas.

[Brandon Herrera]

And then you're up. Every thousand feet is like a 10 degrees or 7 degrees difference.

[General George]

You know the deal. I mean, it's. It's wind velocity, the rest of that, but you're so hyped, you don't really feel it till you get to the ground. And then you're like, I can't move my hands. You know what I'm saying? But you figure it out. It's cool. But the truth is. So remember, in Alaska, two separate places, right? You've got Anchorage, okay, where the airborne Brigade is at 211 currently.

[Cody]

Right.

[General George]

And then up north is 111 Arctic wolves, right, which is a light BCT. All right, that's our true Arctic guys. So it gets negative 45. It was. Negative 52 is probably the coldest that I experienced up there. Those guys just got done, matter of fact, with a couple of weeks of hardcore out in the field for. And. And our mark of a. We got the right conditions was they had to stop training. So when it, you know, when it gets to negative 35, the reality of what you're doing is you're going to go to ground and try to survive.

[Cody]

So Is that negative 35? Is that the straight temperature? Is that temperature and wind chill.

[General George]

No, that's straight temperature.

[Dave Butler]

No, man.

[Cody]

So wind chill, it's like negative 60.

[General George]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

My. My fear was getting stationed at. In Alaska when I was like. It was like, oh, you were. They were gonna send you wherever the army is gonna send you. I was like, oh, please, not Alaska. Like, I don't. My Mexican ass would have died.

[Eli Cuevas]

Did you already like the cold before that?

[General George]

No. Oh.

[Dave Butler]

Oh. So that was.

[General George]

No, no, no, no, no. That's what I tried. So I grew up in the south, so actually I'm a. I've been a of the army since the day I was born. My Dad's a retired W3 helicopter pilot, Vietnam vet. Freaking. I graduated high school at Fort Campbell High School, went to Auburn University, where I failed out miserably pretty quickly. And. But I've always been in the south, you know, rode motorcycles, drank beer, fish, you know, that kind of stuff. And so the idea of going to Alaska was whatever. But I did not want to go to Fort Hood or to Fort Riley at the time. A lot of ego involved there, you know what I'm saying? The reality of being an airborne infantryman is. Is kind of. You get real stuck on. You want to do your thing. And the only place I could go jump out of airplanes at the time was to go to Alaska. But we got up there. I'm an Alaska resident now. I freaking love that place, man. I mean, literally love Alaska.

[Cody]

11Th Airborne Division is like the most underrated airborne division by far. World War II, you guys are the only division to go into the Pacific.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yep.

[Cody]

You had.

[Eli Cuevas]

Now you just suck.

[Cody]

Arguably. No, I'm serious. Like, 11th Airborne Division in World War II had like the most textbook perfect airborne operation ever when they raided Las Banos prison camp. Awesome.

[General George]

Oh, the bottom line, you know, they were basically what, MacArthur secret weapon, you know, in the end, they did not want to publicize a whole lot about what the division was doing. Some of the crazy airborne stuff they did there, whether it was inserting replacements through frickin L4 stinsons, like, dudes were jumping in. They're like, hey, you show up as a replacement, as a, you know, new lieutenant or something like that to wherever, and they're like, hey, you got to get out to the guys. So get in this airplane. You're going to jump out and join them. You know what I'm saying? And then whether it was combination amphibious. That's the big thing about the Pacific, period, right? Like, in the end, I love Marines to death, right? Because they are some pretty badass dudes but what everybody doesn't know is they've also got the best PO in the services. Right. They will pump themselves up. Right. That's the way it is. It's always been that way in the Pacific too. Right. The reality is the majority of the of the amphibious landings were done by the United States Army. Okay. The biggest ones. Right. Like most of that fighting, I mean, I'm not trying to take away from. But the reality is everybody forgets whenever you talk about the, the Pacific, you're really talking about the Army. Okay. And then particularly for the airborne force, talking about 11th Airborne.

[Cody]

11Th Airborne was designated as. Weren't they the designated guard for the President when he came over on USS Missouri and they signed 100% surrender.

[General George]

Yeah.

[Cody]

And they chose the 11th Airborne. The security on hand.

[General George]

They did. Yeah. We were actually. 11th Airborne was actually in Japan before one of the first elements to get in Japan.

[Donut Operator]

I know Nick would know all this.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, of course.

[Eli Cuevas]

You're tickling his TISM right now.

[General George]

And it's a big deal. Like so it was a big deal to get re designated too. Right. So again, I told you, in 05 I went up to Alaska and joined this new brigade. It was called 425. Okay. And from 05 until 22, that brigade was the 4th Brigade of the 25th. But we had zero connection to the 25th Infantry Division. Like it was just a designation. And then the one up north was 125. Okay. And they had strikers. Like why you would have strikers in Alaska? Like, they won't go anywhere. Yeah, I mean I, I 120, 000.

[Brandon Herrera]

It was like 60 to 120, 000 pounds like they are.

[General George]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

They have eight wheels. But.

[General George]

Well, I mean all that stuff was congressional stuff that. From when then Anyway, you know what I'm saying? I gotta be careful with what I say. But the bottom line is, you know, we had, we had some issues up in Alaska. Right. And luckily senior leadership recognized that, hey, the majority. A lot of what we have problems with in the army have less to do with money and programs and more to do with identity and purpose and grit and resilience and remembering that soldiers are here to be soldiers. Right. Like we're here to train. Like most of the problems, you know this, Right. Like, you probably didn't mind doing company live fires or FTXs or whatever else. What you hated was being in the freaking cough, freaking running a freaking broom or not doing anything. Yeah, right.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh yeah.

[General George]

And so real quick, you know, and then identity matters, right? Like, I mean, we're very tribal in the army. That's, that's the reality. You got the 82nd plane gang, right? You got your frickin tankers or you know, hood and bliss, you know, and, and, and so that 11th Airborne designation makes a difference, you know what I'm saying? You put that patch on and you got a connection to a history that's unique. A history and a legacy you got to live up to.

[Eli Cuevas]

I like that though. The identity matters. The Biden admin, I think was actually really good about that as far as, you know, gender identity matters.

[General George]

Why, why you gonna go there, man?

[Brandon Herrera]

Go there? Like, like, hey, look, soft pitches, man.

[General George]

No, no, I mean like I'm, I'm not here to, you know, the reality of it comes down to we want to be a standards based army. We should be a standards based army. We are, that's the way our leaders are. And see it, you know, it's a standard based army. If you can perform, then I want you around, okay? If you can put the big one that nobody really talks about is availability, right? I'll tell you that one, right? Like, you ever watch NBA or football, right? Like one of the values of a player is how much are they available, how much do they get hurt, how much are they there to play? Like, you can pay this guy, can be the most talented person in wherever, but if they're getting hurt all the time, how much value are they, right? Well, same thing in the army, right? Like, hey, we need guys to be there. We need guys that, that are consistent, you know, soldiers are, oh crap, you got Chris Mullinax, man. That dude's a freaking rock star. So, you know, the reality is I, you know, I'm just a sergeant major. I've been very lucky to serve an army this long, you know, and to get to do what I get to do, you know.

[Eli Cuevas]

This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Upgrade your business with Shopify. Home of the number one checkout on the planet.

[Cody]

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[Sergeant Major]

Meaning fewer carts going abandoned and more.

[Eli Cuevas]

Sales going Cha Ching. So if you're into growing your business, get a commerce platform that's ready to sell wherever your customers are. Visit shopify.com to upgrade your selling today.

[General George]

Once, you know, I told you there's an identity, right? And so I've been an infantryman, I've been a blue corps wearing guys since 1990. That's very much a part of your identity, right? And to get to lead people, right? Like I don't Think people understand the value in their life, right, of what it means to be in these positions and have the opportunities, right? To both serve with, but then lead, right? And to gain people's respect, like, to work that hard and to gain that respect, right. Doesn't have a value on it, you know? And. And I just hope that. That we get away from some identity politics, okay? Right. Because my identity is Army. It's this color, right? And in the end, I value all my soldiers based on what they can do, all right? And what their potential is, right? Because that's what sergeant majors do. What sergeant majors really do is we develop people, right? We develop the next leaders. We develop the next. And we do that by providing them opportunity, by providing a direction, right? By sometimes making them go in a direction they need to go in, by sometimes doing, you know, other things. But in the end, the best thing that I've ever done in the army is develop a bunch of people, right, who are now even ahead of me. You know what I'm saying? So anyway, no, there's a bunch of talk, man.

[Brandon Herrera]

I love it. Leadership is something I will always say I learned from the military. And then taking that, I'll apply it the rest of my life because. And then also, stress levels are very hard to. Civilian stresses.

[General George]

Look, man, hey, look, if nobody's shooting at you, why are you stressed? You know what I'm saying?

[Rob Haney]

I mean, that's.

[Cody]

That's the bottom line.

[General George]

I mean, like, look, that's the reality.

[Eli Cuevas]

I learned that growing up in Fayetteville.

[Brandon Herrera]

Exactly.

[General George]

Well, I'm sure you probably did, you know, like. And he knows what I'm talking, like, like, hey, look, the reality is freaking. Once you've been in the kind of that stressful situation, you're like, well, I'm probably not going to die from this, so life can't be too bad. The way hang up is you still kind of searching for that feeling every now and then. You know that as well as I do. I mean, like, there's a reason why I love to jump out of airplanes, right? Like, in the end, you know when you're standing at the door, right? You're like, hey, I'm gonna put it in God's hands today. Like, there. There is something about that, right? You know, and it was pretty neat to be able to still do that, too, when you're oldest. Crap. You know what I'm saying? I mean, that's the reality. I'm 55 years old, man. Like, freaking.

[Brandon Herrera]

You're still jumping.

[General George]

It's still. Well, Was until November this past year when I left that job. And now I came to this job because now I've got a new job. So I'm the mdw, the Military District of Washington Joint Task Force ncr. So we have the old guard and really a bunch of installations here and a number of other organizations. And so we provide everything from the special security for special events, whether it was presidential inauguration. So all the troops that you saw in the presidential inauguration, the bands, the rest of that stuff, that's all part of. Part of us, you know, and it's a different part of the army than I've ever seen because, like I told you, you know, my identity is infantry. Like, I've tried to be in the dirt kind of guy my entire life. And coming here has been, you know, kind of eye opening, because the reality is we say stuff like soldier for life. Right? Well, what soldier for life means is that these incredible tog soldiers are conducting six funerals a day in Arlington, burying our.

[Brandon Herrera]

Our fallen.

[General George]

Yeah, fallen. There are brothers, there are sisters that, you know, in the end, it comes back to that legacy again.

[Brandon Herrera]

Right?

[General George]

Like, to your point, like, there's. When we did the transition to 11th up north, you know, we invited who we could find. Well, there was, like, two dudes that could actually come who had been 11th Airborne during World War II. They're all past. Right, but they're still our brothers and sisters because we're connected through history to every one of them. And so. But anyway, the. The bottom line is when you hear soldier for life, they're the. They're really the. The physical manifestation of that, right? By really showing that and they do a job that. That. Because I've always sought not to do it, I respect even more, you know what I'm saying? What it takes to be a guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Like, I couldn't do it. You know what I'm saying? Like, hey, like, we. We pay a lot of respect, as we should, to all our special operators and to get into Ranger school and being a jump master and doing those things. But the things that these guys have to do on a daily basis, the discipline and everything they have to show is remarkable. And so getting to be a part of that and see those things is pretty cool.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's true. Discipline right there, Vern. Daily. Thank you.

[General George]

Yeah, I'm sorry.

[Brandon Herrera]

Smoke.

[General George]

Warned you. I'll talk your ears off, man. You know what I'm saying? This is the guy you want. This is the guy you want to talk to.

[Brandon Herrera]

Chris.

[Cody]

I got One request before you get away from Mike. You ever watch like ufc? The announcer?

[General George]

Yeah, Joe Rogan.

[Cody]

Yeah.

[General George]

Oh, you mean Bruce Buffer. Yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yeah.

[Cody]

I want you to call in the next sergeant Major like you're Bruce Buffer announcing him. Make sure to embarrass him the entire time.

[Brandon Herrera]

I like that. Let's see it.

[General George]

All right, let's see.

[Dave Butler]

All right, man.

[General George]

I'm trying to think. I'm trying to get it. And from Sergeant Major.

[Brandon Herrera]

You better sound the fuck off.

[Donut Operator]

Hold on.

[Eli Cuevas]

I'm trying.

[General George]

I'm trying to yell. And coming to the ring from the G357, the previous 1st Infantry Division Command Sergeant Major Ranger. Badass overall and truly the man, Christopher Mullen.

[Eli Cuevas]

That was actually. That was really good.

[Brandon Herrera]

Hey, Brandon.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yes, Eli.

[Brandon Herrera]

When you think of businesses that are just crushing it. Bonker on sub. What's the first thing to enter your mind?

[Eli Cuevas]

That's easy, Eli. A good child labor law attorney, huh? Eli? I said Shopify. What did you hear?

[Brandon Herrera]

Actually, it was the overlooked secret behind the business.

[Eli Cuevas]

Like I said, Shopify.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh. Which brings us to today's ad, Shopify.

[Eli Cuevas]

I mean, we use Shopify on a daily basis.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's right. We use Shopify for bunker branding and unsub those magical shoes we have where they're linked through Shopify to the mythical store bunker branding. And because of Shopify, they communicate.

[Eli Cuevas]

It's like your mom and your dad on their anniversary night, not yours.

[Brandon Herrera]

Nobody does selling better than Shopify.

[Eli Cuevas]

They are home of the number one checkout on the planet with shop pay.

[Brandon Herrera]

Which boost your conversion up to 50%.

[Eli Cuevas]

50%. Just like the age of all of our factory workers are 50% the age they need to be to be legally employed in the United States.

[Brandon Herrera]

Upgrade your business and get the same checkout we get over at Unsubscribe or Bunker.

[Eli Cuevas]

Sign up for your $1 per month trial period over at shopify.com unsubpod head.

[Brandon Herrera]

Over to shopify.com unsubpod to upgrade. Upgrade your cell in today.

[Eli Cuevas]

Shopify.com unsubpod all lowercase.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, there. Clean off with these little oil wipes. How you doing?

[Nick]

So Major, I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.

[Brandon Herrera]

This would be terrifying. Is like rewind when I was a private or any. This would have been absolutely terrifying. Just interviewing Sergeant.

[Donut Operator]

You just told a command sergeant major to sound off.

[Brandon Herrera]

I know.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

How long you been waiting for that?

[Donut Operator]

It's been building up inside you for years.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, I'm so sorry. How long you've been in.

[Nick]

So I'll hit 27 years. June 24th.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, and then you did.

[Nick]

It's gone by fast.

[Brandon Herrera]

You have what first. Your first bat? Combat.

[Nick]

Yeah. So I started off in 1st Ranger Battalion. I've been to all of them. So they sort of kept kicking me down, you know, hey, we'll send them to the next battalion. I guess I wasn't good enough at the, you know, the town I was at. But no, the truth is I had an opportunity to serve all the raider battalions. But I started it 1st Ranger Battalion. Met my wife, been married 18 years, got two daughters.

[Brandon Herrera]

14.

[Eli Cuevas]

Congratulations.

[Nick]

Thank you. Her dad was retired fire chief. Navy. Navy veteran back in the day. It was a fan of fire chief when he retired there. So probably move back there one day. Be closer by my wife's family's. I'm pretty close to them as well. So 1st Raider Battalion is sort of where it all started, is where I became a man, became a father, became a husband. So all the things that happened, good and bad in my life kind of started at that organization. But I had opportunity to be a RIP instructor. 2nd Ranger Battalion as a platoon sergeant. 3rd Ranger Battalion as a first sergeant.

[Brandon Herrera]

When were you in 2nd BAT?

[Nick]

I was in 2nd BAT from 2007. 2007 to 2010. Oh, we stood up. I was there when we stood up.

[Eli Cuevas]

Deco.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You guys, I remember when you got the night. Super nice barracks. Like they were getting the. Yes, extremely nice barracks.

[Nick]

Yeah, it's a nice facility.

[Brandon Herrera]

So when you're in. I. You did RIP when it was called rip.

[Nick]

That's right.

[Brandon Herrera]

Now it's called rasp.

[Nick]

Yes, rasp.

[Brandon Herrera]

Rasp one and then got. Did you know like. Brandon, have you ever read or seen how it like Ranger school or RIP at that time, that was three weeks, right?

[Nick]

It was about three or four weeks. Yeah, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Three or four. Yeah. You had like, man, you had pre RIP and then rip. My buddy got fucked because he was. He did pre rip, which not a fun time. And then he got to actual for. Oh, his Ranger tap. Not the nevermind. He did a pre Ranger. And then when he got there, they had to make him do pre Ranger again. Now at Benning, he was like, well, I already did this literally like two weeks ago. So when you went in, you were doing. How was like RIP compared to Ranger school for you?

[Nick]

RIP back then was pretty much a three week smoke session.

[Brandon Herrera]

Give them a like get like when they smoke. You say smoke session. That could be. Sound like, oh, that you do a hundred push ups and that's it.

[Nick]

No, they go on you wake up and you're basically. They were looking for a reason to smoke us all day long. And really, the purpose was good or bad. It was to figure out who really wanted to be there. So in the course, I have to say that, like, the. You know, especially when it transitioned to ras, the Ranger Assessment Selection Program, it's professionalized, right? So it's. It's still really, really hard. In fact, it's harder than it was then. But they've. They've professionalized it in a way that it's. They made it very difficult, but without all the dumb stuff. So they're still going through a very, very hard program. They're still being assessed, figuring out who really wants it and who doesn't. So all those things are still happening, but they've. They're doing it in a way that. That is much better than it was. Sort of on the fly back in the.

[Eli Cuevas]

In what way would you say it's harder?

[Nick]

Well, I think it's. You know, I haven't been in the ranger regiment since 2014 or 15, so the programs continue to evolve. But I, you know, I think that they're looking very much, you know, harder at their suitability for the organization. So there's psych evals involved. There's all sorts of things. So there's. They're weeding out an echelon of folks that may not have, you know, 20 years ago, may have not passed this modern rip. So you're getting a. You're getting the. You're getting a young Ranger that is more reliable, stronger character, consistent across the formation, more reliable, just as physically fit, if not more, because it's very competitive. As the organization's grown, it's become kind of a place to be and. And more so than it ever has been. And so you're getting a physically fit, really smart young soldiers that are serving in that organization. And, oh, by the way, they. It's longer now. I think it's closer to eight weeks, if not eight weeks. And they're doing a lot of really tough training that second month. I mean, it's exclusively focused on, like, real exceptional training that we just didn't. We didn't learn that back in the back. Even. Even as a young soldier in a Ranger platoon, you weren't learning the skills that they're learning in RASP now.

[Eli Cuevas]

Okay, what was your day?

[Brandon Herrera]

What was your, like, one of the hardest days. You look back on at, like, Rip, and we're like, man, I almost. Almost tapped out there. There had to be a couple.

[Nick]

Well, I screwed up.

[Brandon Herrera]

God speed.

[Nick]

So I was, I was, I was.

[Brandon Herrera]

When they say smoke you all day, this is like for eight hours. They have no problem just making you do up downs and you're hungry.

[Nick]

And if you ever heard this before, you talk to anybody that's ever gone through the program, they'll remind you of hit the wood line. So this is when you go out to the field and 100 times a day they tell you to hit the wood line. It's like a 500 meter field that you go out, bring a tree branch back, come back to the formation, you do that over and over and over again. So there's a lot of stuff that just really, I think they might still do that. I hope they do. But there's a lot of stuff that just really didn't make sense. And it wasn't necessarily preparing them for the organization other than to figure out, you know, who really wanted to be there and who didn't. But they weren't really getting trained. So I think that's the biggest, biggest thing.

[Cody]

So around what year did you first go through?

[Nick]

RIP I went through in December of 1998.

[Cody]

So in 1998, the Internet wasn't nearly as prevalent. Like, we didn't have TV shows like Making the Cut. Did you have any idea what you were getting into when you agreed to go there to that?

[Nick]

No, I had no idea, in fact, so I didn't, I didn't, I just didn't know what the Ranger regiment was. My, my dad served in the army as a young soldier and then, you know, worked for the government many years out there. So it's kind of like being a military brat. But I didn't know a lot about army. I knew I wanted to serve. My grandfather was a cook.

[Brandon Herrera]

Can't wait to see Parks.

[Nick]

I actually did three years of Navy junior ROTC in high school. So I thought I was going in the Navy. I was like ready to go be a Navy seal. And then my dad was helping out this young guy who had just gotten out of the army and turns out he came from the Ranger regiment. And he's like. And he, and he found out, hey, I've been talking to a recruiter. I'm getting ready to graduate high school the next year. And he's like, hey, this is what you need to do. Go ask for a RIP contract and whatever and tell them that you want to be a Ford observer or a medic and a couple other. And then he said, whatever you do, do not let them sign you up to be an 11 Bravo. And I'm like, okay, got it. So I go down, I do everything he tells me to do. I come back, he's like, how'd it go? Great. I'm all signed up, ready to go. I'm gonna start base training next year. He's like, what's your mos, 11 Bravo. So here I am, 27 years later.

[Eli Cuevas]

Seems to have worked out for you.

[Nick]

Yeah, it was good.

[Cody]

How far did you make it into RIP before you realize that guy might have fucked you over?

[Nick]

Well, it turns out it doesn't matter what your job is, because it's all gonna be really tough. To be honest, I don't think I'm. I don't know if how many forward observers you know, from the. From the. The soft community or the Ranger regiment, but those guys. I wasn't smart enough to. To do what those guys do. They're. They're wicked smart, wicked smart guys. And I think I was better suited to be an infantryman. So it worked out.

[Brandon Herrera]

11 Bang, bang. Just having fun.

[Cody]

You do the math. Give me the machine gun.

[Nick]

That's right, exactly.

[Brandon Herrera]

What was, like, one of the worst, like, worst training things where you. Like this, where it just sucked like your worst day.

[Nick]

This is different than what you're expecting, but when I say I screwed up. We were sitting in parachute harness. I was introduced to Copenhagen, my buddy. My battle buddy from basic training, by the way. We were allowed to dip back then. We were allowed to dip. But you're not allowed to do it in the harness, right? I don't know that I knew that. Anyways, that wasn't the problem. The problem was, is he was spitting in his canteen. So we were sharing his canteen as a spitter, and the instructor saw us doing that, and he was furious. And now I think about it, yeah, that's pretty freaking disgusting, right? Because we gotta. Those are. Those are canteens.

[General George]

We get issue.

[Nick]

We gotta give them back.

[Brandon Herrera]

So someone just did this.

[Nick]

Terrible, terrible, terrible decision, right? But we were held accountable. So instead of getting that weekend off, we collected up all the. The entire classes canteen. So it's two.

[Dave Butler]

One.

[Nick]

Two, two, two. One quarts. And one of the two quarts. So I think it's like three canteens per guy. 100 folks in the class or whatever it is, have, like, these giant black trash bags of canteens. And we were. And we washed every. That. We spent the entire weekend washing those canteens. So I thought it was about to.

[Donut Operator]

Say they made you drink it.

[Nick]

Well, I was. I was worried that we were going to get Dropped. I was worried that I was going to get kicked out of the course because they could have easily said, you're gone, and then.

[Brandon Herrera]

So.

[Nick]

But they gave us a second chance. And that's why I think that's the. The closest I came to like, being out of the course. And I was thinking, I mean, it resonates to this day with me that.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, you gotta stay in because it is something where they.

[Nick]

Yeah. What a terrible story to have to come back, sit here to you today. And I actually. I didn't serve in the Ranger regiment. I got kicked out. Out because I was spitting in a canteen.

[Cody]

You ever been so badass that the army tried to break you for three weeks straight while strategically starving you? And the worst experience from it was having to do the dishes.

[Nick]

That's right.

[Cody]

That's so true.

[Brandon Herrera]

He's like, man, worst day of my life There I was just cleaning.

[Eli Cuevas]

He has such a way with words.

[Cody]

What was your worst experience? They made me do the dishes one time.

[Nick]

Yeah, it was rough.

[Brandon Herrera]

And you made it. How did you stay in. How high did you get in the Ranger regiment? Were you a sergeant major? First sergeant.

[Nick]

So I left as a first sergeant.

[Brandon Herrera]

Damn. That is a testament to you.

[Eli Cuevas]

That is.

[Nick]

Yeah, I was. I'm super proud of the time that I served there and, you know, and. And staying as a CSM would have been awesome. I went to the academy, went to the 173rd to be a battalion CSM right out of the academy, competed to come back as a csm. But the thing is, the competition is so steep, and there's just better guys for those positions. And so I went on to serve in the army, and I tell you, I'm grateful for that because I left there and what I realized, leaving the Ranger Regiment if you're going to continue to serve for a while after leaving there, I had a lot to learn about the army, and so leaving there when I did was key to, you know, I wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn't left when I. When I did. And the army needs us to, you know, go out and. And share what we've learned in that organization and share with the, you know, with the rest of the institution. It's important that we do that.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's awesome. Did you. Jericho. Actually, you might. Did you ever know a Jericho? I don't know what bat Jericho's in. Was he a second bad boy? Don't remember a lot, but he was in. He made, I want to say sergeant major or first iron at least too.

[Nick]

Yeah, you're talking about Jerk Denman.

[Cody]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Nick]

He was a. Yeah, we were Ranger buddies. We served. I first met him, got to know him well at SEGA Ranger Battalion. Phenomenal guy. Warrior. All, all in on being a warrior. And then he finished up and retired out of first Ranger Battan as a first sergeant.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yep, that's.

[Eli Cuevas]

I got a funny story about Jericho actually. We went, we did that explosive training course. Jericho was there with us.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

And so we're doing like breaching shit. We're doing like C4 charges, like C2, all that. And it's my first time playing. I've blown up a lot of shit, but I was never played with like serious putty before, so that was very cool. And he. We're doing this like breaching charge. It's maybe like, I don't know, four or five pounds of C4. And he has like. Basically he's like, ah, we only have this much line. Yeah, this should be fine. Just be around this corner and like, yeah, I should be good. Should be safe from the overpressure at that distance. Set it off with the shock tube. Felt like I got smacked over the head with a wiffle ball bat. And just like, oh, fuck. He was like, oh, yeah. Now that I see it, that was probably a little close. Ah, eat an avocado, you'd be fine.

[Dave Butler]

Yep.

[Nick]

We're talking about the same Jericho.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was like, all right, you guys probably knew each other.

[General George]

Of course.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. Avocado is definitely.

[Cody]

Get some Omega 3s, you'll be alright.

[Brandon Herrera]

Why?

[Cody]

My brain's squishy, I forgot the second.

[Eli Cuevas]

Grade, but I've got an avocado.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh man. How many deployments did you end up doing with?

[Nick]

I think it was 13. And these are. We got to remember like the Ranger regiment model was about 3 and a half, 105, 120 day model deployment. So, you know, across Afghanistan, Iraq, do about 13 of those. I mean that's nothing compared to a lot of guys. I mean they've done way more than that. They're still doing them, they're still there. I got Granger buddies that are there today that I grew up with that are battalion csm, RSM that are still at it.

[Brandon Herrera]

What's the most deployments? You know, like from a friend.

[Nick]

I'm not sure. It's probably well over 20. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

That is a lot of war. Yeah. That is crazy. Yeah. And it. Sergeant Major Mullinax. That's right.

[Nick]

Yeah, that's right.

[Brandon Herrera]

Thank you so much for. Yeah, thanks for having me man, it's been great. Truly, truly a pleasure, brother. I'm glad. You know, a couple of the same. Same people also, so Godspeed, brother.

[Nick]

Thanks a lot. Well, hey, I've got Sermon Garza here lined up. Phenomenal guy, mentor of mine, as well as Vern Daly. So let's get him in here and get to work.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yeah, beautiful. We appreciate you talking.

[Cody]

Thanks, everybody.

[Nick]

Yeah, absolutely. Great meeting you guys.

[Eli Cuevas]

Thanks so much.

[Nick]

Appreciate it. Take care.

[Rob Haney]

Cody. Donut, right? All right, fantastic.

[Dave Butler]

All right.

[Cody]

So I guess right out of the gate, you know Cody.

[Rob Haney]

Yeah, I know. It must be Donut. I know he missed Donut.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay.

[Donut Operator]

Hi, Sergeant Mate.

[Rob Haney]

Oh, yeah, I think you're the fat electrician.

[Cody]

Yeah, that's me.

[Rob Haney]

It's a history buff.

[Cody]

Yep.

[Rob Haney]

Did a little research on you.

[Cody]

Okay. That's fair.

[Rob Haney]

Historian.

[Cody]

It's fair.

[Rob Haney]

I think right here we got the. I think you ran for Congress.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yes, sir.

[Rob Haney]

Came close.

[Eli Cuevas]

Came very close. That was. My office was almost down the street.

[Rob Haney]

Herrera, right?

[Eli Cuevas]

Yes, sir, that's correct.

[Rob Haney]

Brandon, is it?

[Fat Electrician]

Brandon?

[Eli Cuevas]

Yes, sir.

[Rob Haney]

Okay, fantastic. And then, of course, Eli Cuevas. Super.

[Eli Cuevas]

I'm glad that we now outnumber the whites.

[Brandon Herrera]

I know there's three. Three brown people over here with only two whites this time. How you doing, man?

[Rob Haney]

Hey, doing fantastic. Doing great. It's a great opportunity to come in here and meet with y'all, Cody. I mean, the sma. When the SMA asks you to do something, you never say no.

[Cody]

You got volunteers, you do your research.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. You're like, I need to see. Oh, oh, I'm going in on this. Cody.

[Dave Butler]

What?

[Cody]

Cody, we're minorities.

[Dave Butler]

We are the minorities.

[Eli Cuevas]

That's how it feels.

[Cody]

Oh, God.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like, no, no, no, no, no.

[Eli Cuevas]

It's so much funnier watching the people behind the camera laugh while you guys have to lock in and pretend it's not funny.

[Brandon Herrera]

How was it? Like, oh, these guys are coming on and they're bringing white claws. What was your reaction to that?

[Rob Haney]

It's like, well, one.

[Cody]

He just called me a bitch without saying it. That's fine.

[Rob Haney]

We got a little notification, and then SMA really wanted to do this, and so he said, hey, the best thing to do is to get. Get a couple SAR majors in here and, you know, work it from there.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's. That is as military as it gets, where it's like, hey, you're gonna have to do this. Why? There you go.

[Rob Haney]

Here's what I did. Watch. I watched. I realized there's a lot of individuals that actually watch your podcast and. Which is incredible. One or Two, it reaches an enormous amount of people. And I didn't know that. And so this was the first time that I did get online and watch. And some of it's comical, some of it's great information. Absolutely love what y'all stand for.

[Eli Cuevas]

So I was like, not a big fan of the slurs. Not gonna lie.

[Brandon Herrera]

Those gotta go.

[Cody]

All the ones we call Eli. You gotta go on this podcast in any uniform. Did I do something wrong?

[Eli Cuevas]

What if this is just hazing?

[Brandon Herrera]

Think about that as amazing. Just fucking with you.

[Eli Cuevas]

Do any of you guys want to be here?

[Cody]

I got rid of waterboarding. Bring in the unsubscribed podcast.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's weird coming from any. Sure. A lot of the viewers, if they're veterans or even active. Like. Like the level of all of you. And then just a bunch of degenerates.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. So many words.

[Rob Haney]

Oh, several. Y'all have served. So it's amazing.

[Brandon Herrera]

Exactly. It's still like, that makes it more solidified.

[Cody]

Makes it worse.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, Yeah. I mean, a majority did. They had different walks and then. Yeah, that's just.

[Eli Cuevas]

It's. It's crazy to be here. Like, and to see, like, you were just saying, like, a lot of people that, you know, listen to the podcast and everything. How many people have we come had come up to us while we were on our way here in the Pentagon that were like, we were at your Norfolk show. Yeah. We got a lot of feds in the audience.

[Cody]

Sergeant Major Daily, when he left, was like, I love your videos, by the way. I was like, oh, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

And it's awesome experience. It is also. Yeah, yeah. Wild. Wild experience for any of us. Because none of us have done. We've never been here. It's a daily activity for you.

[Eli Cuevas]

So.

[Rob Haney]

First time in the Pentagon.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Rob Haney]

It's fun.

[Eli Cuevas]

Which we really appreciate the opportunity to even do. This is just incredible. Like, there's just so much history that's been made in this building. It's just. It's wild to have an opportunity to. And for us, this is historic for us. But just to see where all these decisions have. That have impacted the course of American history have taken taking place.

[Cody]

Bro, I'm the new guy. Three years ago, I was putting wire nuts on wires in a hog slaughtering manufacturing facility in Mason City, Iowa. And now I'm doing a podcast in the Pentagon with Sergeant majors.

[Donut Operator]

So don't forget the White claw.

[Cody]

Yeah. Also, I was the first person to ever chug a white claw at the Pentagon.

[Brandon Herrera]

I gotta do this really fast. I gotta win you told no one?

[Cody]

No, I had to win, obviously. I also wore a tuxedo tank top. Probably also a first in the Pentagon.

[Brandon Herrera]

Is this the first perfect attire for any occasion? Where do we get to claim everything? We were talking about the intro we were gonna do. Did you go poop yet?

[Cody]

Not yet. I'm working on it. I need to shit at the Pentagon. It has to happen.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's one thing. Everyone was like, dude, we all.

[Cody]

It's probably not a big deal for you, but I really want to take a shot at the Pentagon.

[Eli Cuevas]

Speaking of beating people in races, I'll be back. I wish. I wish I could. I'll take that, bro.

[Cody]

No, you won't.

[Eli Cuevas]

I literally, just to prove a point.

[Brandon Herrera]

My pants are like, no. We're so sorry. I don't know why he's not behaving.

[Cody]

Oh, no.

[Rob Haney]

So this is actually my second in the building. So the first time I came was in 2018. And if you've seen the movie Gladiator, when they get to the Coliseum and it's like. And so I thought, wow, I'm going into the Pentagon. I'm going to get to learn how the army runs. What you learn is. I mean, there's a. You almost learned how hard it is to get things done in the Pentagon. It's tough to get things done. You need leaders pushing things. Things.

[Eli Cuevas]

It's very bureaucratic.

[Rob Haney]

Can be. It can be at times. Can be at times.

[Cody]

We. We heard the mountains that had to be moved just to get these white claws in the building. So this episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

[General George]

Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states.

[Eli Cuevas]

I would love to see what that paperwork looked like.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

What was it just paperwork you guys had to submit and do? And can we get a copy of it just to post? No, we would definitely be like, look, it actually is a thing.

[Eli Cuevas]

We would frame that paperwork.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, that would go in the background.

[Cody]

100.

[Brandon Herrera]

That would 100% got in the studio forever.

[Cody]

There's a greater than 0% chance that Elon Musk tweets this line item for expenses for the US government. The fuck is 12.99 for white claws for subscribe podcast.

[Eli Cuevas]

Me and Cody could probably clear that up on Twitter. Excuse me. On X pretty quickly.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's ours. You just have that retweet with a hand up.

[Cody]

That was me who's really important.

[Eli Cuevas]

Actually, probably the. The dollar for dollar, the best 13 bucks the army ever spent.

[Cody]

Oh, no, this.

[Brandon Herrera]

I mean, this is going to go. You get. I mean, a lot of people you're going to see, you're going to be hit up by family members and they'll be like, oh, I saw you on that. For the good or the bad? We'll see. It's the bad.

[Rob Haney]

Well, you know, the thing is you can. This thing can go wide right, wide left. But what an opportunity to get to the young kids, you know, get them into the army.

[Brandon Herrera]

So it's the new. If you're actually figuring stuff out and doing it right, it is like, how do you talk to the new generation? It's not through a bunch of old people being like, this is what the kids want to hear. I don't even know what the kids want to hear. Like, show is a decade younger than me and she knows what, like, way better than any of us. Branded is like in touch on Twitter X. Everyone has their roles, but it's. It's a wild experience. And then you guys are. Yeah, Jody gets his own Twitter.

[Cody]

Sergeant Major. If you look up the most influential people on Twitter, it's like the top 20. And it's like a list celebrity. A list celebrity. Politician, billionaire, billionaire. A list celebrity. He's.

[Rob Haney]

Don't say donut.

[Eli Cuevas]

He's.

[Cody]

He's right in between Taylor Swift and Kanye West. First person to spill a white claw at the Pentagon. First person to party foul.

[Eli Cuevas]

The Pentagon.

[Brandon Herrera]

And I got a drink.

[Eli Cuevas]

Dear God.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was like, man, Yeah, I bumped it over.

[Cody]

It's a first.

[Brandon Herrera]

We're just gonna have the best of times. So when you got in, you got in. What. What year did you.

[Rob Haney]

1996.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dang. Everyone joined before you guys were like, I was two. No big deal. 1996, Brandon was born maybe one.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yeah.

[Cody]

He still looks younger than me. I age like milk.

[Donut Operator]

I was nine.

[Brandon Herrera]

I just like everyone.

[Eli Cuevas]

I don't know if I look younger than you do.

[Brandon Herrera]

What is the fastest. For a lot of the sergeant majors, what is the fastest track you can take for that? Like, what's the. Were you like, dude, that guy made Sergeant Major in 12 years, 14 years.

[Rob Haney]

You know what? I think SMA Daily was the fastest promoting to SMA. I think he was 26. A little over 26 years, maybe 27.

[Brandon Herrera]

No shit.

[Rob Haney]

That was. It was fast. I don't think we've had a sergeant major make it that. That fast in the in the army now you have some 12, 13, 14 years. They don't make sergeant major in the army. Army.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's a coveted position that we have found out. A lot of the guys are like, how long is sma right now weimer been.

[Rob Haney]

He's almost 30, so I think he's. He's either 30, a little bit over 30.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, that's a good meeting him. We were like, blessed meeting that dude. And then he just clicked with us instantly. He dropped his dip can in that big meeting. Yeah, he dropped his dip in. I like, oh, here. He's like, you know what that means? Ah, here we go. There you go. God speed, sir. But yeah, he. He's a homie. I. It's awesome, like experiencing any of this. Was this one of your. The first time going to the Pentagon or getting stationed here? Was that something in your like, wheelhouse? You're like, oh, I want to do that, or is that just like no.

[Rob Haney]

Fallen told and most. And most soldiers they want to spend time with in the formations won't want to come to the building. But you need the experience. You need to come in and kind of figure some things out. You build those relationships so that when you go back out to the force, then you can, you know, work, network and get things done. So easy to get things done when you know a Rob Haney who's coming behind me or you know, a Chris Mullinax, you know, they pull a lever or two and it. The, you know, the bureaucratic process won't exist at that point. So, no, the Pentagon was not a dream job of mine at all.

[Brandon Herrera]

But now it's making it a lot easier.

[Eli Cuevas]

I was just saying it's kind of funny because you liken it to like the, the Coliseum and Gladiator like the first time because like, everybody's just got like a reverence for the building, obviously. But, you know, was it one of those things where like in the beginning you're like, oh, the Pentagon. And now you're like, oh, the Pentagon.

[Rob Haney]

No, no, I think it was, wow, the Pentagon. And then the next question was, what are you going to do in the Pentagon? And then you realize how the Pentagon operates. And then maybe the second time was, oh, I'm going back to the Pentagon. You kind of didn't know you can kind of come and influence things you need to influence for your boss.

[Eli Cuevas]

So, okay, so more like, you know how to play the game now. It's like, okay, it's not so bad.

[Rob Haney]

That's right. Okay, all right, well, you know, that it's all about the people and, and getting to know the people, networking with the people to get the decisions made. The end of the day, we're just trying to get things to the soldiers.

[Donut Operator]

I was curious what comes with being the Army Futures Command Liaison? Like what?

[Rob Haney]

Yeah, yeah. So Army Futures Headquarters. The headquarters actually in Austin, Texas.

[General George]

Okay.

[Rob Haney]

And so I'm in the building when Command Sergeant Major Hester can't make a meeting.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay.

[Rob Haney]

And the SMA needs a Futures representative. I'm that guy.

[Dave Butler]

Gotcha.

[Rob Haney]

For instance, JMRC, we just went out to Germany and watched 310 in the box using a lot of the latest technology. And so I, I go out, talk to soldiers, meet with soldiers, see if that equipment is, is actually working for him. Or we can get feedback from the soldiers and make improvements on the equipment. I bring it back to Hester and the SMA Commander Major Hester and the SMA so that they can get in front and back, brief the chief. At the end of the day, it's about getting equipment, the right equipment to soldiers so that we can fight and win.

[Donut Operator]

So you get to see a bunch of cool new technology.

[General George]

That's awesome.

[Rob Haney]

Absolutely love it. Like if you heard the. The IVAs. No, the Integrated Virtual Augmentation System. HoloLens. You can actually map a room anywhere in the world and then you can execute 25 times entering, clearing that room.

[General George]

No shit.

[Brandon Herrera]

So now you had to build out the. Because I know. Like they would. You just build out the mock units and then the layout and now it's just doing with VR.

[Eli Cuevas]

And I was expecting that football flag to come at any moment.

[Brandon Herrera]

I know they're leaving the hard drives like. No.

[Eli Cuevas]

We joked earlier, if there's anything you don't want out here, just throw a little, a little yellow football flag.

[Dave Butler]

We will just let you know.

[Brandon Herrera]

It was not taxpayer dollars. Okay.

[Eli Cuevas]

So these were not taxpayers. These are doge. Exempt.

[Cody]

Money. Went towards the white clause. Apparently we got it.

[Eli Cuevas]

Zero taxpayers.

[Cody]

Who paid for them. Then you guys want one them?

[Eli Cuevas]

We're going to get him.

[Brandon Herrera]

They're going to slip.

[Cody]

Okay, well, thank you in advance.

[Eli Cuevas]

We owe, we owe him an after work beer.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yep. Done. Done. That's the biggest worry. They're like, no, they can't. We're just like, we'll offer one to every sergeant major that steps up.

[Rob Haney]

Has anyone drank anyone?

[Cody]

No.

[General George]

No.

[Eli Cuevas]

Anybody?

[Cody]

Would you want a trendsetter?

[Brandon Herrera]

No.

[Rob Haney]

No.

[Dave Butler]

Because.

[Rob Haney]

No. I think the next individual will absolutely probably take you up on the offer. I don't know. But Rob Haney you want to.

[Cody]

You want to announce a man?

[Rob Haney]

Yeah, Rob Haney, who's the salts ARM Major. He works for the assistant Secretary of the army for acquisition logistics and technology. He's responsible for procuring everything that army futures puts in the hand or basically writes the requirements. He puts it in the hands of soldiers. So. Yeah, come on in, Rob.

[Brandon Herrera]

And he loves alcohol, apparently.

[Eli Cuevas]

Appreciate you, Donut.

[Rob Haney]

All right, thanks teacher.

[Fat Electrician]

Good. Nick.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yep.

[Fat Electrician]

Brandon.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yes, sir. Pleasure to meet you.

[Fat Electrician]

Cody.

[Donut Operator]

Yes, sir.

[Fat Electrician]

Oh, man, you are Eli. Eli. All right. My name's Rob. How you guys doing today?

[Eli Cuevas]

Doing good. Breaking this military grade chair, Sergeant Major.

[Cody]

Right off the bat, we're gonna put you in the hot seat, my guy. You're smacked.

[Brandon Herrera]

Wait, hold the shit on, wait. Ask him about his drink.

[Cody]

Do you want. Do you want to A, have a drink or B, make your fellow sergeant major a liar?

[Fat Electrician]

I will pass on the drink.

[Dave Butler]

Okay.

[Brandon Herrera]

There's gonna be that technical difficulties. Nick has a black eye.

[Eli Cuevas]

Army of one.

[Brandon Herrera]

You were the black guy.

[Eli Cuevas]

He is army strong.

[Brandon Herrera]

How you doing, brother?

[Fat Electrician]

Pretty good.

[Brandon Herrera]

You are the first one that you are. You had some fun classes?

[Fat Electrician]

I did, I did and spent about 30 years in the army and good number of it. It was in 75th Ranger Regiment and had some unique experiences out there.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, I would say so.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

So you don't have braided you goose?

[Eli Cuevas]

No, I've. I'm lost.

[Brandon Herrera]

Halo. So halo. Scuba diver. Combat diver. Right?

[Eli Cuevas]

Yeah.

[Fat Electrician]

CDQC down in Key west and then HALO down in. I went to school down in Marana.

[Brandon Herrera]

Usually it's one or the other. You got both schools.

[Fat Electrician]

So I was the special troops battalion sergeant major there at Fort Benning, Georgia. We had a reconnaissance company, so that was, you know, our element. It was kind of in charge of greenpace recce. So I went to school with them to be able to participate with them in training. And then I went to CDQC or dive school. When I was a young sergeant, you know, I was up grading lanes on eib, if any of you guys have seen that. So I was grading the NBC station. They walked up there, they're like, hey, who wants to go to preschool? But I'm like, I would much rather do that than sit up here in grade lanes all day. So that was the worst three weeks and three days of my life is going to dive school.

[Brandon Herrera]

So I've heard fantastic stories about dive school. So that like, explain why it was absolutely.

[Fat Electrician]

Well, so first group. So you don't actually drown. It's a shallow water blackout. But first group, there you don't actually drown. You don't actually drown.

[Cody]

It just feels like it.

[Eli Cuevas]

You basically just walk water, get waterboarded.

[Fat Electrician]

That's not true. It's, you know, the buildup of carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide in your blood kind of clicks your brain out. But during pre scuba, you know, you do a lot of underwater work, and, you know, there's very, very controlled, very observed. But sometimes you just, you know that the little tunnel gets tighter and tighter, and then somebody picks you up out of the water.

[Cody]

Think to yourself, maybe the NBC lane wasn't that bad.

[Fat Electrician]

I will tell you that.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's the commercial self reflection.

[Fat Electrician]

So it was.

[Brandon Herrera]

It was.

[Fat Electrician]

It was a very hard school. Very physically fit, physically enduring school. It has a purpose. In the army, you know, the. The special operations forces that use combat diver as a job, which I did not use it solely as a job. They have a very hard mission in the army, and I very much respect what they do.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dude, three weeks would be like, what was the worst experience in that?

[Fat Electrician]

For me, it was open water swims, because you do up to 3,000 meters of open water, you know, spinning on top of the water. I started out, and I was.

[Brandon Herrera]

You get a little closer to the mountain.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah, I felt like I was pretty fast, but I was always in swim team last. So everybody that dropped to the course, you ended up getting paired with somebody new every day. So I always had a new partner every day. Every single day, it seemed like I always had a new partner, and I couldn't get used to, you know, to build that bond. But you dog, that was. That was probably the worst part of it, dude.

[Brandon Herrera]

That is. And you're just swimming in open water. Just.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah, finning in open water. So it was. It was pretty neat.

[Brandon Herrera]

And then there's. You did HALO before tunnels, right?

[Fat Electrician]

No, no, no, no. I'm not that old.

[Dave Butler]

Okay.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was. I was wondering about.

[Fat Electrician]

No, I spent a. I spent a good. I spent a significant amount of time in the tunnel. I was told that I fly like a potato chip or a piece of cardboard, you know?

[Brandon Herrera]

Piece of cardboard, dude. Once you start rocking, there's like. You just go.

[Fat Electrician]

So I will say I spend a significant amount of time in a tunnel, but I learned a lot, and it was kind of one of those things that you learn in school, and you can see how it applies out into the force.

[Eli Cuevas]

Eli's been trying to get us into a tunnel for like a year at least.

[Fat Electrician]

That's the greatest thing in the world.

[Eli Cuevas]

It's easier to get me out of a plane than it is in a tunnel.

[Fat Electrician]

Oh, no. Flying in a tunnel is, like, one of the funnest things to do.

[Eli Cuevas]

I just know that Eli has this thing. He's really good at a lot of shit that none of us have ever tried, and so he likes looking like the expert while we flail around and get beat against the wal.

[Fat Electrician]

Well played. Well played.

[Brandon Herrera]

Just relax.

[Fat Electrician]

Well played. I understand that, dude.

[Brandon Herrera]

We always try to explain it, but originally with the HALO school, you'd have to do the. The boards. So you just. Literally, your training for falling out of a plane was here's a board with wheels, and you just have to roll.

[Fat Electrician]

Around on your belly, and then they.

[Brandon Herrera]

Throw you out of. That is a wild. Like, I could not wrap my head around.

[Fat Electrician]

We've come a lot farther than that now nowadays.

[Brandon Herrera]

Thank God. Just imagine that. Like, okay, you're ready. Like, just go.

[Rob Haney]

Go.

[Brandon Herrera]

What was the highest jump you.

[Fat Electrician]

25.

[Brandon Herrera]

And that is full.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah. Full oxygen. 25. So, yeah, that's the highest I've done.

[Brandon Herrera]

It was.

[Fat Electrician]

It was pretty cool.

[Nick]

Wow.

[Fat Electrician]

You can see the natural curvature of the earth as you kind of. Kind of cut them out that.

[Brandon Herrera]

In that school. How long was that school?

[Fat Electrician]

I think it was. It was three weeks. It was three weeks somewhere around there.

[Brandon Herrera]

Did you go to sniper school, too?

[Fat Electrician]

I did not.

[Cody]

Okay.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was like, what else are you hiding right there?

[Fat Electrician]

I did not.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was like, you're just stacking it up.

[Fat Electrician]

No.

[Brandon Herrera]

What year did you end up joining?

[Fat Electrician]

So I came in the army in 1984. So I've been in about. Right over. Right. About 30 years. Yep. Pretty exciting time. Was that year you were born? Yeah, it sure was. Yeah. So came in the army in 94, spent two years up at the 10th Mountain Division in the cold. Cold. Two or three years up there as a private. I actually think back very fondly on those times. I think Vern was in here a little bit earlier, coming out of Alaska. Fort Drum, New York, is a little bit different. It's really, really cold, but it's a lot of snow. And I learned a lot of things as a young private that I still keep with me today. You know, keeping a dry pair of socks, always having something else to change into, and, you know, taking care of your feet. We didn't have a bunch of stuff like helicopters or airplanes or trucks to get distracted by. Did a lot of walking as a private, and then for some reason, we either went to the Joint Readiness Training center in the winter or we went down to Panama. So I had been on a couple Trips down to Panama and experience the jungle down there.

[Eli Cuevas]

So it sounds a lot better than the thick Snow.

[Fat Electrician]

It is 100 a lot better than the thick snow. But, I mean, you learn a lot.

[Cody]

Being in the snow, noticing a pattern. So did you intend on being in for 30 years when you joined?

[Fat Electrician]

So I did not, actually. So here's. Yeah, so I had like a kind of a awkward story. I was. Grew up in a small town called out there in Nevada and only had about 3,000 people. And we had to go, like to Reno, Nevada to go to the recruiters. And I had always said I was gonna go join the Marines. Went up to go join the Marines and like, shook on the door and shook on the door and it was closed. And I was like, what the heck? So I kind of like went next door to the army guy. He goes, hey, come on in here. I got something for you. And I'm like, no, I'm waiting on the Marine. He goes, nah, just come in and have a seat and we'll sit down to talk. And about three weeks later, I was in the army down there at Fort Benning, Georgia.

[Donut Operator]

We sniped you from the Marine Corps.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

The army crew recruited. Putting chains around the Marines, clothesline on the.

[Fat Electrician]

I was wholeheartedly going in the Marines, but, yeah, well, here I am 30 years later, still in the Army.

[Cody]

Sergeant Major at the Pentagon.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

And now what. What are you doing with the military?

[Fat Electrician]

You're giving. So I do. I work in asalt, Army Acquisitions and Logistics and technology. So we buy and modernize major programs in the army for the Department of Defense to a. Be ready for, you know, the next fight and to deter our nation's enemies in preparation for war.

[Eli Cuevas]

So is that like DARPA kind of stuff or what exactly does that entail?

[Fat Electrician]

It's not. It's, you know, it is really, you know, buying. Buying tanks, buying the next generation tanks, looking at helicopters and, you know, the next generation of helicopters, buying the next generation of rifles, you know, buying the next generation of goggles.

[Eli Cuevas]

So it's not really development, more just acquisition.

[Fat Electrician]

So it is more of acquisition. We do a part of development of current and existing programs. So the M1 tank, we do incremental improvements on the M1 tank, that is, you know, advancements in technology. But Jay Garza, the Sarmetto is right before me. They do kind of the research and looking at future requirements, and we do the buying of those requirements. My boss being the army acquisition authority for the. For us.

[Eli Cuevas]

So the real question is, who did you piss off here. That made, that landed you here at this table.

[Fat Electrician]

I didn't piss off anybody that you know of. I don't think I pissed off anybody.

[Eli Cuevas]

I think we've decided to unsubscribe as a punishment here.

[Brandon Herrera]

So what's the story?

[Cody]

This is the new hazy.

[Fat Electrician]

Hold on, hold on. I'm a people pushing person. People like me.

[Eli Cuevas]

Okay, we're good. We're happy to have you.

[Fat Electrician]

Actually, that's kind of a joke because I'm usually like pretty introverted, so I'm not sure, I'm not sure how I gotta go last and how I, how I ended up down here today.

[Brandon Herrera]

So, I mean, Haney's the introverted guy. Yeah, I've never heard him talk before. Send him on the podcast.

[Fat Electrician]

That is exactly it. So they're like, hey, he can't do much harm. He's going last.

[Brandon Herrera]

What is like with actually using weapons? You have your, your M4s, everything like that. I actually want from your perspective with shotguns getting implemented more with drone war warfare, because that is, that is the one thing I looked at. I was like, man, this is going to be. You're going to start training soldiers in a completely new area.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah, I think, I think you have to look at it in drone warfare as an evolving technology. And, you know, it's a layered approach. You know, I think we have things that are going to hit them farly pretty far out. We have, you know, some capabilities that are ew. That are pretty far out. And then as they get closer, it becomes a little more kinetic to be able to shoot them. And then if you think about your last line of defense being a shotgun, you know, that's something where either that's pretty imminent or, you know, or that you, that you can see it right there.

[Eli Cuevas]

There's nothing new under the sun where you've got all this new technology where, you know, I'm sure you have, you know, jammers and all sorts of stuff. But we go right back to World War I where you have some farm boys from Arkansas just says, Parry this 12 games.

[Fat Electrician]

100. 100. Like, I mean, we've had shotguns and what better, you know, reach door, shoot down small UAs that's sitting there bothering me and I can't get to it. So I do think it's a, it's the gambit of counter UAs that we're actually taking a look at. And, you know, I think soldier innovation plays a lot into it. You know, you give some kid from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania a Shotgun. And he's like, well, hell, there's a dang. You could probably shoot it down.

[Eli Cuevas]

I've accidentally been training for this since I was 11.

[Fat Electrician]

So I do think, you know, and especially in my realm now, soldier innovation plays a lot into it to solve problems throughout the army because it's not always the engineer that's out there that's going to fix those problems. So a lot of soldier touch points, a lot of feedback from the force, a lot of feedback from industry and, and, you know, that's how, that's how we're developing the, the force of the future.

[Brandon Herrera]

Nice.

[Donut Operator]

You know, they're developing the Amazon delivery drone thing in San Antonio. I'm going to be shooting those down because.

[Fat Electrician]

You'Re the, you're the. You're the new porch pirate.

[General George]

Is that what you're doing?

[Cody]

They're just aerial pinatas.

[Eli Cuevas]

He's training for World War iii.

[General George]

Okay.

[Donut Operator]

They drop loot.

[Brandon Herrera]

What am I gonna do?

[Donut Operator]

They're above my house.

[Brandon Herrera]

The loot plates here.

[Rob Haney]

I think.

[Fat Electrician]

I think somebody's got a place for.

[Cody]

You farming for XP over there.

[Eli Cuevas]

Cody's the one who gets the haircut today.

[Brandon Herrera]

What was one of your favorite pieces of military equipment? You got to use some fun stuff.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah. So I, I think some of the, some of the. Well, some of the best equipment that I've ever used has probably been just, just rifles in general. I like shooting. I like going out to the range. I like being able to get out. I like the new pistol that we've brought around, you know.

[Cody]

Yeah, that was a hundred percent. I can't talk about all the cool new gun.

[Fat Electrician]

I like the new M17 pistol. I did take a trip up to the manufacturing factory a couple weeks ago and it's amazing how well they're being put together. The next generation rifle, the 6.8.

[Eli Cuevas]

Is just going to ask what you thought about that.

[Fat Electrician]

I think it's. I think it's a big leap forward in actual ballistics.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yeah.

[Fat Electrician]

And again, now we're probably going to get blasted by like 30 other people. But I think it's a big leap forward in ballistics and the kinetic transfer of energy. And I think really, as we bring that new weapon into the Army, I think we're going to have increases in lethality across the army and increases in the family of weapon sites that are attached to that are going to be a big move forward.

[Eli Cuevas]

The whole NGSW program was very, very interesting to watch from the outside. I agree with you on the ballistics. The gun. I'm more Concerned about. But I don't know how much you probably can't delve into that at all. But I know I, I, some of the other platforms that were introduced as part of that program were just so weird. Like some of the General Dynamics prototypes.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

Were crazy.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah.

[Cody]

Were they the ones with the plastic.

[Fat Electrician]

Cases that was Textron? I think.

[Cody]

Okay.

[Brandon Herrera]

But I don't.

[Eli Cuevas]

They got like bull pups with like potato looking suppressors and all sorts of just really weird. It was, I mean, it's new stuff.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

Interesting. At least to me.

[Fat Electrician]

But I really like the, I really like the new rifle and I think we're, we are taking that kind of the 10x jump forward and I think a lot of that is what we have to do now. We're in a time where we can develop, where we can make advancements and start building and trying new equipment. I do appreciate the chief and the SMA's, you know, movement forward with transformation in contact where we're experimenting and we're getting new equipment into soldiers hands and letting them kind of tell us what's going on in the army and you know, what, what's working and what's not working. And then here in a couple, here in a while we'll slap the table and move forward to the continuous transformation and you know, pick some things and start moving out on them for further development.

[Eli Cuevas]

Have you guys actually adopted the, the M250 yet? The light machine gun?

[Fat Electrician]

Have not.

[Eli Cuevas]

Okay. I wasn't sure about that or the progress on that. Those were, those were all interesting because they were pretty much the same. Largely at least from what it looked like to me. A lot of the, the upgrades were very similar. Everybody was on a similar track.

[Rob Haney]

Right.

[Eli Cuevas]

It looks neat. Very light.

[Brandon Herrera]

What was around for that is that the 338.

[Eli Cuevas]

There was a couple different prototypes. One of them was actually quite a few of them were.338 normal mag, I believe.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

And then some of them were in that like 6 inches 8 cartridge.

[Fat Electrician]

Okay.

[Eli Cuevas]

I think I could be talking out my ass. He's the expert.

[Fat Electrician]

I, I am, I know I have knowledge of it, but I think it's, it's currently a program that's being looked at.

[Brandon Herrera]

Have you looked at the, did you get to shoot the 86?

[Fat Electrician]

I did not.

[Brandon Herrera]

That one.

[Eli Cuevas]

Oh, eight, six blackout.

[Donut Operator]

We know.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, don't we, we know the guy that. Yeah, it's like the 300 blackout A6.

[Cody]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Because y'all work with him for that. Those guns and everything.

[General George]

Duff.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yes, stuff or stuff.

[Brandon Herrera]

But when we first shot that rifle in that round. We were like, yo, what?

[Fat Electrician]

It's a subsonic super flat do super fly.

[Brandon Herrera]

Subsonic too. And it is a big boy round. But you we could mag dump it.

[Cody]

And I'll keep on targeting like an MP5. Yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

We had a 300 grain projectile.

[Donut Operator]

We had a range day and they brought. Someone brought on a machine gun. 86.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

And that thing was so flat. Just a laser.

[Fat Electrician]

I have not.

[Brandon Herrera]

These are NA hits. It's subsonic crown. But it is still. They're hunting like water buffalo. Yeah. And it's subsonic, dropping them with no problem. So it. But it's using.

[Eli Cuevas]

It's one to three twist rate.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yes.

[Fat Electrician]

Okay.

[Brandon Herrera]

So it's a crazy centrifugal.

[Fat Electrician]

Where the heck. Where you guys at? Were you hunting the water buffalo?

[Eli Cuevas]

Oh, no, this is a friend of our. He goes up to South Africa.

[Fat Electrician]

Gentlemen owners, not trying to get you in trouble with anything.

[Brandon Herrera]

We get to do that later this year though. We're excited to go do that.

[Eli Cuevas]

The people hunting data that gets you in trouble.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's a blast, dude.

[Cody]

How big is your property? Slightly smaller than Rhode Island.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah.

[Cody]

Oh, okay.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, he has a large property. Like a large, large property. Like dang.

[Fat Electrician]

Well, I mean, you guys got any other questions? I. I do have to get off.

[Brandon Herrera]

We talked about it. We're interrupting your guys.

[Fat Electrician]

I actually have to go. Go back up and Jay Garza, the guy was before me. We got a. We had a meeting to go to to talk about what we just experienced over there at JMRC over there in Hohnsfeld, Germany. And we're getting ready to brief some couple other senior leaders in the army. But I really appreciate you guys time today and appreciate all you're doing. You know, I think you know venues like this and keep the message out there and to keep kind of what's going on across the army is. Is a great venue for. For us as senior leaders to get that out there. So thanks for all you do.

[Cody]

Thank you.

[Eli Cuevas]

Thank you for allowing us to do this.

[Cody]

Thank you.

[Brandon Herrera]

All right. Absolutely.

[Eli Cuevas]

Appreciate your time, sir.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah, thank you very much.

[Donut Operator]

Thank you so much.

[Fat Electrician]

Thank you, bud.

[Rob Haney]

Are you coming on?

[Brandon Herrera]

You are, dude, get over here. Get over here.

[General George]

No white cloth.

[Cody]

We're drinking no white cloth.

[Eli Cuevas]

You sure?

[Cody]

Yeah, I drank them all already. You're good.

[Fat Electrician]

What's up, brother?

[Dave Butler]

What's up? How's everybody doing, man?

[Eli Cuevas]

It's good to see you again.

[Brandon Herrera]

The proper gentleman's in the house now.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yeah.

[Cody]

First officer on the podcast. No pressure.

[Dave Butler]

And last.

[Eli Cuevas]

Is that A reference to the black bags over there.

[Dave Butler]

Or come back as a civilian, I guess. After this, we'll see what happens.

[General George]

Good.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah. Yeah. Hey. You look good.

[Cody]

Thanks.

[Fat Electrician]

You too.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah, thanks.

[Nick]

Dude, I dressed up.

[Cody]

I know I did. Yeah. I wore my nicest tank top.

[Eli Cuevas]

I see you there.

[Dave Butler]

It smells like White Claw. Like, as you come down to the basement, you can smell it. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Good.

[Dave Butler]

That's like sweet. White Claw. Taste that, you know? Smells like victory.

[Brandon Herrera]

It was.

[Eli Cuevas]

I want Cersei to know it was me.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was so thankful you guys actually got us white clothes. Like, seriously.

[Eli Cuevas]

We appreciate that.

[Dave Butler]

I owe him $20 for that, actually. And. And we, you know, we had to get an etp. Guess this is Pentagon language. Exception to policy. It's. It's a memo. We like drive through the Pentagon and get it all signed.

[Eli Cuevas]

We were joking. We said if there's any way we can get a copy of that, we'll frame it in our studio forever.

[Dave Butler]

Let's do that. We got a copy. Actually, Scott probably has it.

[Eli Cuevas]

Is that. Is that approval? We can get a copy of that?

[Dave Butler]

There it is.

[Brandon Herrera]

Can we get four? Can we.

[Donut Operator]

Can we read it?

[Dave Butler]

Yeah.

[Cody]

I was an electrician three years ago and now the Pentagon's making exceptions for me to come be an idiot.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah, that's right. But I mean, the scent.

[Brandon Herrera]

Just going that through. Sir, can you sign this? It's like, huh.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Why?

[Dave Butler]

It took a little explanation. I think we're hosting an event. Is that what this is? Yeah. So we're hosting an event that serves alcohol. So we did it.

[Donut Operator]

Approximately 12 White Claws.

[Dave Butler]

I think it says 8 on the memo. So.

[Eli Cuevas]

Okay.

[Cody]

The infamous White Claw 8 pack. Available at every gas station. Don't ask questions.

[Dave Butler]

Why did I put eight?

[Brandon Herrera]

I don't know. Anyway, now a White Claw.

[Dave Butler]

Give it to. It's approximation, guys.

[Eli Cuevas]

Approx. Well, yeah. You got within 50%.

[Dave Butler]

That's right.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dude. Thank you.

[Cody]

Do I got to turn these cans into CIF when I leave? I don't got to go through that, do I?

[Dave Butler]

It's expendable.

[Cody]

Oh yeah.

[Dave Butler]

You have to clean the account for.

[Cody]

They got to be clean accounted for. What's the line?

[Eli Cuevas]

What's the line?

[Cody]

Item description. Alcohol tube type, something stupid.

[Dave Butler]

And when you leave, you have to say. No brass, no ammo.

[Brandon Herrera]

Just living the dream.

[Cody]

I gotta dump them out.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. By the way, thank you so much for being so helpful. Like with a lot of things, like even the video you. The doc you did on. What is it? Habitually fat.

[Eli Cuevas]

So Fortune.

[General George]

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Cody]

That was Hilarious. Can we tell that story now? Is that allowed?

[Brandon Herrera]

I don't. You asked.

[Dave Butler]

But I mean, look, it's not like us helping. It's. You guys are the ones creating the content. You guys are the ones getting after. So I am disappointed that we have to help him sometimes.

[Cody]

But no. There I was, me and Fenn, right over there. I was eating breakfast at Waffle House. I remember because they put chili on my hash browns, which was delicious. I'd never had it before.

[Dave Butler]

Kid Rock. Was he there?

[Cody]

No, he wasn't. Unfortunately.

[Dave Butler]

Every time I go to. Every time I go to Waffle House, I'm like, there's got to be kid rocks somewhere there.

[Cody]

I think me and Finn were like the only ones there. The waitress like, do you want chili on your hash browns? And I was like, yes. And it was delicious. And she brings the food out. And then I get a call from Fort Sill and they're like, we're not going to let you on post. We need to think about it for like 90 days.

[Eli Cuevas]

Because you guys were approved for, right?

[Cody]

Oh yeah, I was approved. And I like flew to Oklahoma, coordinated with Finn. Finn flew to Oklahoma. We were at Waffle House. Then we were leaving to go to Fort Sill, an hour away. And. And they're like, can't do it. And I'm like, well, I flew here. This is a huge waste of time and money, unfortunately. So I call Eli. I tell him I was like, I'm gonna try to find a different museum or something. Try to not waste the trip. And Eli's like, I got a guy. I'll call him. Eli calls me back. Five minutes later, my guy's gonna make a call. And before I was able to finish breakfast, this guy was like, oh, no, he's allowed to film at 4th cent. They rolled out the red carpet.

[Fat Electrician]

Yeah.

[Cody]

And we. We made habitually fat. The first episode happen anyways.

[Brandon Herrera]

And it's a mo. Like.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah, it's a kick ass episode.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, dude. It's like all the love that massive episode.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah, everybody loves for the army too, right?

[Cody]

Yeah, yeah, it was all positive. Super impressed.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah.

[Cody]

Corey, the. The director of the. It's technically not a museum because everything's not demilled. Everything is still technically an active weapon system.

[Eli Cuevas]

In that case, I don't own a museum.

[Cody]

So. Cory was super cool. That guy knew everything I was throwing as the hardball questions as I could come up with and the knew every answer to everything immediately.

[Eli Cuevas]

I mean, it just sucks to see that like the army has so much cool shit like that. That they have for the purpose of posterity and, you know, keeping it for future generations so people can see this stuff, but, you know, not a lot of people can. And so, like, it's. I think it's cool to have opportunities like that, to be able to show people, like, hey, this is. You know, this is where we came from.

[Brandon Herrera]

From.

[Eli Cuevas]

This is what we did.

[Cody]

Look at all the cool we stole from the Germans and the Japanese in World War II. That was half the museum.

[Eli Cuevas]

I was looking at that in the hallways.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah.

[General George]

Oh, yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

Quite a few wardrobes.

[Cody]

Everything we came up to in that museum, Corey, was like, so there's only three of these on the planet. I have two of them. They're right here. It's like Germany has to send their students over here to look at this because they don't have any. We stole theirs. Oh, multiple things. They're like, yeah, they don't even have. Have these anymore. We destroyed all theirs, and then we stole these two. They're the only ones left.

[Brandon Herrera]

And they, like, when they stole them, they, like, flew in a helicopter. Like, one of those stories you were telling is, like, flew in a. Oh.

[Cody]

That was when we stole an MI25 Hind from the Soviet Union. We got this new badass Apache helicopter equivalent. That's way better. And we're like, cool. We're gonna fly in, you know, the Night Stalkers. They're gonna land a plane, pull their helicopters out, fly in. Yoink your. And then we're gonna realize it sucks. Then we're gonna put it in a museum in Alabama. Pretty much exactly happened.

[Dave Butler]

That fat electrician right here. That's it. That was it.

[Nick]

That was the episode.

[Eli Cuevas]

By the way, there's only eight on the form, so if you'd like one.

[Dave Butler]

I can't. On the form, it says, we will not be drinking government civilians or. Or those in uniform.

[Cody]

What if we blur out your uniform.

[Eli Cuevas]

Every time? It just blurs the name tape.

[Dave Butler]

We don't know what's in your coffee cup.

[Eli Cuevas]

So I do.

[Brandon Herrera]

Just try and find ways.

[Dave Butler]

No, but that's good. I mean, what you guys are doing just, you know, it's obviously not like traditional public affairs or PR or whatever, but you guys are connecting with audiences. And, you know, General George is. He's a big fan of yours, and. And, like, let's get out there and tell the story. And we say that stuff all the time. We just have to do closer to you.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yeah, it's awesome to see the. The army too, like, adapting to the next generation of communications because really like there was a time when trying to adapt.

[Dave Butler]

Can we. Well, yeah, that's probably why we're getting there. We're getting there.

[Eli Cuevas]

But because there was a time when radio and television were non standard for, you know, communications and stuff like that for. For the army, you know, they all had to be adapted to eventually.

[Cody]

We're rapidly approaching the point we all get cat cards that say DOD designated dipshit. We're approved to be idiots on the Internet. On behalf of the dod.

[Dave Butler]

You're approved.

[Brandon Herrera]

We just got reunited. Oh, also, we were told there is an sma. What is it?

[Eli Cuevas]

Shut up.

[Brandon Herrera]

No, we're making this happen. Oh.

[Dave Butler]

You picked up the microphone for that?

[Cody]

We were informed by a previous sergeant major, I believe it was Sergeant Major Stevens informed us that there is a designated honorary sergeant Major of the army given out every year.

[Dave Butler]

That's right.

[Cody]

And Brandon Herrera, at least according to Chad, GPT is the most decorated war veteran in American history. Hey, and I think it'd be pretty cool if he.

[Eli Cuevas]

I hate you both.

[Dave Butler]

I love it.

[Brandon Herrera]

I had no part in that sentence.

[Dave Butler]

Well, you had.

[Eli Cuevas]

You had part in what led up to it. Are you aware of the joke?

[Dave Butler]

Not the joke.

[Eli Cuevas]

Okay.

[Dave Butler]

I mean, this sounds this.

[Eli Cuevas]

So I. I never served in any. Any regard. I came from, you know, military family and everything.

[Brandon Herrera]

So humble.

[Dave Butler]

Born at Fort Bragg.

[Eli Cuevas]

But also you. You read my file.

[Dave Butler]

We have a little card on you. Yeah, like this.

[Eli Cuevas]

But the one episode, it was like last Veterans Day, Eli tried to pin his purple heart on me. I might get that stolen valor away from me. And it became a running joke within the audience. So they just kept making up more and more stuff. Every time we do live shows, they bring medals. Like, because, you know, we have a huge military audience audience. They bring metals out to live shows and everything. And so now if you ask Chat, GPT or Grok or any of those.

[Brandon Herrera]

It'S the meta one.

[Dave Butler]

Oh, wow, the meta ones.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's like they're celebrating the Medal of Honor recipient, Bren. It's like, hey, I have no idea.

[Dave Butler]

So we honored to be in your presence.

[Donut Operator]

That's awesome.

[Eli Cuevas]

Congratulations. God damn. The joke is that this is the first time in American history, you know, everybody's seen stolen valor, but nobody's seen forced valor before.

[Dave Butler]

Okay.

[Eli Cuevas]

And it's. Hey, maybe with a joke, maybe.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah, maybe you deserve it. I don't know.

[Brandon Herrera]

He has class A's. They've made him class A's. He has diamonds, virtual no ferrera. And then he has. He has a like CID.

[Cody]

He is like, yeah, scab 17 army achievement medals. He's got a Medal of Honor.

[Donut Operator]

He's got six names.

[Dave Butler]

But are you a public affairs officer? Have you been to the Defense Information School? Can we. Can we. Can we.

[Cody]

Let's do it.

[Dave Butler]

I mean, give them the money. Looking at the audience, can you add that?

[Brandon Herrera]

Let's go.

[Dave Butler]

Let's get them Public Affairs. There's no Public affairs badge, is there? No, there's not.

[Cody]

There might be now.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yeah.

[Dave Butler]

Like a PAO on the shoulder.

[Cody]

According to the Internet, he served in all four branches from World War II to current.

[Dave Butler]

And the hair just stayed the same.

[Eli Cuevas]

Years before my birth.

[Nick]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

What is. What is the sar. Major of the Army? What is that award or whatever that fake. What is it?

[Cody]

Oh, the honorary million. The honorary.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah. So probably asking the wrong guy. Ish. But so people that really lean forward and help the army in whatever way, you know, in the personal capacity, they'll be recognized as honorees. Our Major of the Army.

[Cody]

Is there only one a year? Is there multiple one a year, guys?

[Dave Butler]

Dan says one a year.

[Brandon Herrera]

He's already raised $100,000 for veterans. Last year, two months ago.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah. And look what you guys doing here? I mean, I know we're all joking and stuff. This is.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's true. And I can't fight it.

[Eli Cuevas]

I'm sweating. Dude.

[Brandon Herrera]

He's raised like hundreds of.

[Eli Cuevas]

I'm.

[Brandon Herrera]

I'm.

[Eli Cuevas]

This is like one of the only things that makes me uncomfortable.

[Brandon Herrera]

I know, but, dude, I would. I will stand at parade rest for you if you get.

[Eli Cuevas]

I'd rather you drop the hard R.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dude, I will lock up so fast for you, like, who's our major? And we can call like with that. Are they called tar Major Dan?

[Fat Electrician]

I don't believe so.

[Cody]

I mean, you probably do it.

[Dave Butler]

You call them whatever you want.

[Cody]

Civilian major.

[Dave Butler]

We're also. This is. This is actually. This is first announced on unsubscribe.

[Nick]

We're.

[Dave Butler]

We're going to have the Army Green Jacket award every year. And same, same kind of concept, you know, those who. Who. Those who help the army civilian side will bestow them with the honorary green jacket.

[Eli Cuevas]

That's kind of cool.

[Dave Butler]

Become a club, you know, Think about it. In 10, 15 years, like, can have a gathering of green jackets, people getting together.

[Eli Cuevas]

So that's a new thing rolling out.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah. So maybe we'll get to it by army250. Did you guys talk about the army birthday?

[Brandon Herrera]

Not yet.

[Dave Butler]

Oh, man. Just saving it for the end, huh?

[Brandon Herrera]

We got the 250 coming up.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah, the 250th. Anniversary of your United States Army, June 14th. Right.

[Eli Cuevas]

Unless you're in Canada, in which case it will be your army.

[Dave Butler]

Moving along between.

[Cody]

He's like fast forward between the US army and Kendrick Lamar, they don't stand a chance. I mean, let's be realistic.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay, so we got the two.

[Cody]

The E4s in the back. Got it.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dude, being an E4, they're just not.

[Eli Cuevas]

Like us, I guess.

[Brandon Herrera]

How is being an E4 like, wow.

[Dave Butler]

Is there an E4 here? I'd like to meet the person.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dang it. Even being a Saran, is it terrifying when you first were in this building?

[Dave Butler]

Yeah, she's a pro. She's so serious.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, okay.

[Cody]

Yeah, well, that's the thing because like in the army they give you that little sheet where they're like, list off your top three preferred bases and we'll try to send you to where they want. Nobody lists Pentagon.

[Dave Butler]

Then again.

[Brandon Herrera]

No, I never thought about that.

[Cody]

Not a soul has ever. I didn't know that was an option, to be honest with you.

[Donut Operator]

Well, yeah, One of the E4s we were talking to earlier, we had an E4.

[Cody]

This is first assignment. Like he's fresh out of AIT.

[Dave Butler]

Wow, you get new. We shouldn't do that.

[Eli Cuevas]

You're like, what was his name again?

[Dave Butler]

Yeah, I'm sure he wants to be in the line. Just like we all want to be on the line. I'm sure he does.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's what. I did not know that.

[Dave Butler]

Was he medic or something? Oh, yeah. Okay.

[Cody]

He was.

[Brandon Herrera]

You're writing a new memo in your head right now like that was a.

[Dave Butler]

Mistake accepting the policy. 12 white claws and send this guy to the line.

[Eli Cuevas]

Whoever that guy's mom is. Sorry.

[Brandon Herrera]

I got a job at the Pentagon.

[Cody]

Imagine what a wild ride that would be as a parent. You send your 18 year old child off to army army basic training and nine months later hit you up. Mom, I'm stationed at the Pentagon.

[Eli Cuevas]

Never mind. The retard showed up with microphones and now I'm not.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, we would get to play, I bet.

[Dave Butler]

I imagine he wants to go to the line, right? Don't you guys think? What have you got? Orders to the Pentagon.

[Brandon Herrera]

Very confused.

[Cody]

Laugh hysterically the entire time.

[Dave Butler]

Not that it's a bad place. We do a lot of good things here. Okay. Holy moly. All right.

[Brandon Herrera]

You'Re doing a good job.

[Cody]

If I ever get a time machine, I would go back in time to like in Congress or whoever decided the Pentagon and be like, just listen to that drunk conversation between World leaders, hear me out. Instead of four walls, what if it had five walls? Build it huge.

[Dave Butler]

That's a, that's actually good fat electrician story. It's. Was it 14 months it took to build the Pentagon?

[Brandon Herrera]

Did it really?

[Cody]

It's a big ass building.

[Dave Butler]

14 months or 15 months? It was super short time. I mean, to compare that to like building a government building.

[Eli Cuevas]

It's so far from Mexico, you don't have good workers.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's what I was going to say. I was like, my people built this. At that time.

[Dave Butler]

I'm always like. So I'm sitting here just saying. And every time time Brandon speaks, I'm like, don't respond.

[Eli Cuevas]

That's been my favorite part. My favorite part of the podcast is watching everybody behind the cameras laugh and whoever's sitting right here, just lock in, Just ignore.

[Dave Butler]

Just move on.

[Cody]

What's the saying? There's pyramids in Mexico too. Nobody questions who.

[Brandon Herrera]

Aliens. It's aliens in Egypt, Mexico. Like, okay.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yes. You've invented the complex geometric structure a pile.

[Dave Butler]

Pentagon. So did, did you guys, did they hear about transformation and contact?

[Cody]

No.

[Dave Butler]

All right, all right, come on, let's talk about that. How.

[Brandon Herrera]

Wait, what?

[Dave Butler]

Are we on time?

[Cody]

No, we're good.

[Eli Cuevas]

All right.

[Dave Butler]

Okay, okay.

[Eli Cuevas]

We're on your time.

[Brandon Herrera]

We weren't expecting you.

[Dave Butler]

That's what I was like, ah, the spokesman is here. So great.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay, you probably shouldn't do this spokesman. We're doing a great job.

[Donut Operator]

The White Claw man is here.

[Eli Cuevas]

Air quotes.

[Dave Butler]

Okay. No transformation, contact. Here's. So General George knows what we do at the Pentagon, right? And so we decided instead of driving change from the Pentagon, right, Instead of us coming up doing it again, us coming up with PowerPoint slots and telling the force, telling the rest of the army, here's how it's going to be. Here's the equipment you're going to use, here's how you're going to use it. So General George being a line guy and you know what this future E4 will be doing, sent. We said, let's transform. Well, the stuff is out there and get bottom up. Lessons learned, right? So we're getting all the new equipment, kind of some of the stuff you talked about, all new equipment and a brigade at a time, we're sending it down. This last brigade from Germany had 200, I think, drones. They had the new vehicles, they had the new guns. And you send it out down there and we're like, here's some kind of loose parameters. And then tell us how it works. Tell us, you know, how you're going to use it. How would you integrate into your formation? How does it work tactically and maneuver space? And then we take those lessons. So bottom up. Some of these drones don't work in the cold. Some of these drones are really good for this, but they're not good for that. Some of these robots are good for this, but not for that. We take all those lessons. Then we put in the Pentagon gonculator and then we start to. To make buying decisions and organization decisions based on bottom up. Lessons learned. It seems like a normal thing to do, but it's not normal in army or Pentagon way.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yeah. Listening to the people who use the equipment, it's weird, right? Eli, how much did that happen when you were in.

[Dave Butler]

These guys.

[Brandon Herrera]

Do that, do that.

[Eli Cuevas]

So we got listened to quite a lot.

[Dave Butler]

So. So we're trying to do that. Actually, we are doing it to your testament.

[Brandon Herrera]

It was him being able to film a video that fast with that turn. And that was the first time. And that was saying, dude. And it was like, holy shit. That is good change. That is the change everyone would be happy to hear. Yeah, it is. Look, this got done quick. That is wild. And now even what you're saying is like, hey, we're listening to the line.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

And it's actually going to be listened to really quickly at the top. And you guys are like rolling out changes.

[Dave Butler]

We're trying wild. Yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

I will say that when we had that. That dinner over in Austin that one night, like, with. With General George, I didn't really know what to expect going in and just how the conversation was gonna go. But, you know, organizations like this, especially anything with government in it, you expect it to have like a good bit of bureaucracy and whatnot. But I was really. I found it a very pleasant surprise that he reminded me more of someone who spoke like a business person than a bureaucrat. And I was like, oh, I thank God.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah, yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

And I was. He's. He's been an awesome contact and I'm really enjoying seeing what he's doing.

[Dave Butler]

Thanks. Yeah. There's still the bureaucracy, to be fair.

[General George]

Sure.

[Dave Butler]

We're still governed by all these laws and acquisitions policy. And we're just.

[Cody]

I'm gonna send you it's a never a war crime the first time shirt. Just give me your address.

[Dave Butler]

Don't respond, don't respond.

[Cody]

Looks like I already have one.

[Dave Butler]

We take the Geneva Convention very seriously. I leaned into that. No, but the acquisition stuff. And so we're working with Congress, we're working with OSD and the Bosses to try to change acquisitions process to make it faster and faster and faster. But the bottom line is General George, because he's honestly a soldier at heart, and I know. I'm a spokesman, I know how this sounds. I believe it, and people do. Anyway, he thinks about these guys down on line and these guys down the line and getting stuff to them. Them quickly and stuff that they can use, not the big fielding of stuff that we find out quickly. It doesn't work. And unfortunately, we're locked into buying it for the next seven years. We're buying stuff in short increments and just faster and faster.

[Eli Cuevas]

So that was awesome. Yeah. And hearing him, some of the stuff he was talking about with how they're changing acquisitions in general.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

It's like, why are we buying something for 15 years? I don't know how much I can talk about, but why are we buying things now that are designed now that will be implemented in 15 years when in 15 years they'll be obsolete?

[Dave Butler]

That's. That's the Pentagon acquisitions process governed by Congress. That's. That's how it is. So we're trying to break that whole thing, and so far, we're making some progress.

[Eli Cuevas]

Because you have so much within. In Congress, like, not to get on that soapbox, but you have so many people that are basically making decisions for America's war fighters based on, Well, I need 200 jobs in Idaho. When it's like, okay, I thought we just need to build the best equipment we possibly fucking can so our people can get really good at killing people. That's what I thought we were doing. But a lot of those, A lot of congressmen are like, Well, I promised 30 steel jobs here and this, this, that. And, like, so they're making decisions that aren't in the best interest of the army.

[Dave Butler]

Not responding. Yeah. So we. So General George is. Is pressing to make decisions that are best from the Army. And the only thing missing from that dinner, frankly, and missing from. From today is our Sergeant Major in the Army, Mike Weimer, you know, very good friend of mine for decades.

[Brandon Herrera]

Amazing.

[Dave Butler]

Just amazing, dude. And. And he's right there with General George. And, you know, everything's from the soldier's perspective with these guys. It's. It's. It's great to be a part of. It's why I stayed in the army, because I know these guys are trying to make this change. It is.

[Brandon Herrera]

And when you say, like, General George is a soldier first and he cares, that is. This is Clint Romache, Medal of Honor recipient from he's like, hey, it's George, that long distance running machine. I'll always remember how he put his career on the line to take care of my guys. That's a medal of honor recipient praising the leadership that's in charge of everything, which is awesome. Yeah, awesome. And then what we've seen seen on our end is again, it's like that super fast. It's for the first time ever, I was like, holy, this is wild.

[Cody]

When we have lunch and he's like, I love cutting through red tape.

[Brandon Herrera]

On that. You're like, we need to talk about like the.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah, yeah.

[Eli Cuevas]

I hear him say stuff like that and I think the same thing, like I hear during the Doge stuff. I'm just like, like the giddy Ron Swanson. Like, oh, yeah, let's just tear it all down.

[Brandon Herrera]

Let's make a difference in the right way. And now you got the arm like the 250th coming up, which you're putting on a huge, big time, huge event for that one.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah, we're trying to, we're trying to take over all of DC, get it broadcasted over all the venues, including YouTube and, and, and, and just let all of America see what the army's all about and really build some pride, not only just in the, an army, but like use it to talk about America and the type of people that we freaking are. Right? I mean, you know, this is a good freaking country with good people.

[Brandon Herrera]

God.

[Cody]

Unsub's gonna commentate the 250th anniversary.

[Eli Cuevas]

Can we? Yeah. Oh, my God.

[Cody]

Ringside commentators.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yeah, everybody except me, apparently. We're not giving this guy a life.

[Cody]

Yeah, you're cma, homie. Civilian, Major of the army.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Eddie.

[Eli Cuevas]

Oh, God.

[Dave Butler]

Please wear your uniform and your hat and like all this stuff. Yeah, that's great.

[Eli Cuevas]

Can we go home?

[Brandon Herrera]

Dude, that'd be wild. I mean, we would be down to do. I, I'll volunteer myself.

[Cody]

I'm gonna be like Joe Rogan sitting cage side and be pumped.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. We had 100% code.

[Eli Cuevas]

And here comes J.D. vance with a steel chair.

[Cody]

Chaos for it.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dude, that'd be amazing. And what do you think? Do you guys have any more plan for it as it leads up or is it still in the works?

[Dave Butler]

It's in the works. It's in the works. So we're, we're meeting with the White House on it. So they, they seem to be on board because, you know, to take over D.C. and that way we're going to need support from the White House. And we're talking to people. Let me see how to say this. People are talking to the production people about like how to give money to get this done, sponsorships and all that stuff. So it's coming along. I'm anxious though to actually see the plan and know we're going to execute. We're not in a place where we know we're going to execute yet. We're almost there.

[Eli Cuevas]

The 250th anniversary of the army brought to you by Raytheon, Lockheed Martin.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, those sponsors.

[Dave Butler]

Probably what it's gonna be.

[Eli Cuevas]

It's kind of. It's a joke because it's really not a joke.

[Cody]

I think we're $20 trillion in debt to be second.

[General George]

Nah, nah.

[Dave Butler]

This is gonna be the best army birthday of any country ever.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, I'm looking forward to. Especially if we can get involved.

[Dave Butler]

Involved already. Yeah. Sergeant Major Herrera. Yeah, absolutely.

[Cody]

Do you have a Colonel Carnage.

[Brandon Herrera]

Sergeant Major Herrera.

[Cody]

Clip it.

[Eli Cuevas]

This is the next.

[Dave Butler]

Why did I agree to this man, Vice Admiral. Whatever.

[Eli Cuevas]

I don't know. We're going to need the, the second exception form for that commentation.

[Brandon Herrera]

What was it like, first meeting? What you met Brandon and I at the one event and then you. We stayed in contact a little bit, but then. Then you started watching. Or is it your son that was.

[Dave Butler]

Super into that electrician. Yeah, yeah. I mean admittedly like I was super pumped on it. And then the, the Iranian Navy episode. Good stuff. And now so of course I'm like, hey, you gotta check this out. So son. And anyway, so I'm not a Super fan. My 15 year old son is 16 year old son.

[Cody]

If you were a pirate, would you keep your camera on this shoulder?

[Dave Butler]

That's it.

[Cody]

Oh God, I like it on this one.

[Dave Butler]

Hairy armpits.

[Eli Cuevas]

Is that what you did to the people next to you on the plane?

[Dave Butler]

Maybe you came in dressed up though. You.

[Cody]

I know. This is my nicest tank top.

[Dave Butler]

No, but like you when we first saw you had like a shirt on.

[Cody]

He made me do it. We talked. Eli made me.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah, you come in through security with White Claw, put a shirt on, something like that.

[Cody]

I mean, I err on the other side where it's just like. If you be so ridiculous, there's a certain like threshold where you're like, there's no way this guy's not telling the truth. Nobody has the balls to try to lie like this.

[Dave Butler]

That's kind of my mantra as well.

[Eli Cuevas]

Just kidding. The PR guy.

[Dave Butler]

No, but she asked a question. So we had dinner in Austin. That was Cool.

[Brandon Herrera]

And then it was just. What was that next step for you? Like, I'll actually listen to these guys maybe on some of the. Or get involved because that was mind blowing to all of us.

[Dave Butler]

Well, so. So I think there is a movement in the army, and I should probably say across the dod to like recognize that you guys are talking to a lot of people. And a lot of people, not just the Americans that we care about, but a lot of people that we care about for recruiting and for support. And there's. There's a need or it's dumb not to outreach. Right. And you know, watch a couple episodes unsubscribe and. And fat electrician and super excited to meet donut operator, by the way. No, I didn't do that.

[Brandon Herrera]

He just looked at you lovingly.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah, I mean, kind of a big deal. Anyway, so I loved he.

[Eli Cuevas]

I loved. He named everybody at the stable except for the Admiral. Like, super excited for all you guys. And then there's the liability.

[Cody]

We can edit it out. You know, spokesperson for the army. Super excited to meet the guy that's notorious for breaking down shooting videos of.

[Donut Operator]

That's pretty cool.

[Dave Butler]

So where were we? So. So anyway, we should do. We should do more of this. It's interesting and I'm going to say this in a polite way because I think a lot of the guy, a lawyer. This was actually yesterday that was helping us get this exception policy signed for the white clause. The eight white clause said, hey, it's a podcast, so I need to do a legal review. And we got into, not an argument, a professional discussion. I was like, I don't do legal reviews for media things like that's on, you know, that's up to our expertise. He's like, well, it's a podcast, so got to do a legal review. I was like, no, you don't.

[Eli Cuevas]

So negotiations test or that one.

[Dave Butler]

Well, it demonstrates an institutional thing, right? So this guy who's got all good intentions and, you know, he's. He's trying to protect the boss in the Army. He's thinking that because it's a podcast. It's a podcast. I'll stop doing that, please.

[Cody]

I love it.

[Fat Electrician]

He.

[Dave Butler]

He felt like there was some extra measure of legal review that we had to do and. And there's just simply not.

[Eli Cuevas]

What was the justification?

[Dave Butler]

Well, there wasn't. So he was just. Because it was just a podcast and I think he was thinking of it more in like an event type thing because, like, if any of us are going to go attend an event for a Non federal entity there. There should be a legal review. Right. So we're spending taxpayer dollars to go. I'm speaking in uniform. And. And there's got to be an ethics review that, like, these people aren't charging $200 for to see me speak. Nobody would do that, but to see General George speak or whatever. So there's got to be an ethics review for those types of things. And that's kind of how he was thinking of it, just because it wasn't, you know, the New York Times or traditional media. And that was a discussion we had. I said, you should judge this the same as you would judge NBC or whatever this is. This is a media outlet, and we need to consider it that way. And so it's a new way of thinking. Not really, but we just got to drive it through the institution.

[Brandon Herrera]

You're doing an amazing job. That's what's wild.

[Cody]

I'm the news now.

[Eli Cuevas]

Which is kind of funny. You joke around, but at the same time, like, we have this facade of, you know, we're just, you know, four idiots, which, don't get me wrong, we are. But, like, we still, like, we put such a heavy emphasis on, you know, mental health. You know, individuals who. Who are in the military have been out of the military, giving them support, raising money for the autism charities, the veteran groups, and stuff like that. Don't get me wrong, we're all just palling around, having a good time, but we really do have a heavy focus on real stuff. I think that kind of is what sets that apart.

[Brandon Herrera]

This is the purpose of the community that was built. I would drink. I'm out also. But it was, hey, let's actually give back, Help others for everything that they've given us, and then. Then also just have fun and then let them be part of that. But for first, it is the mission of, like, hey, let's help others. First and foremost, help whoever we can, whether it's veterans, whether it's autism, special needs. It's like, hey, let's just do that. That costs us time. That's it. But it makes a really big difference. And then it's all them also being able to help with that, which is awesome. Awesome. And now we get to talk to individuals like yourself, which is in places like this, which is wild. And then lots of word for that.

[Dave Butler]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, thanks for coming. I mean, it's really cool that you guys came and this will be. I. I want to see the reaction across, you know, my community, like, the folks that do this for. For a profession and then across the institution. Like, we're proving something here, you know, something that could be done. Just like you went to Fort Sill, and I told my guys, like, let's get these guys across the army and across America, all of our installations. You're welcome there. You know, I can speak for General George and say, you're welcome to come out and just hang out or tape a podcast or, you know, whatever.

[Brandon Herrera]

We're gonna do combat diving school. We're gonna do the. What he called it blacking out.

[Eli Cuevas]

He.

[Cody]

He said, and I quote, I didn't really drown. My brain just had too much carbon monoxide in it or carbon dioxide.

[Eli Cuevas]

And it was like, sometimes the tunnel just gets closer and closer and closer, and then somebody picks you up out of the water.

[Dave Butler]

I did. Early in my time, I did a Discovery Channel, Surviving the Cut. Is that what it was called? I did an episode out and in Key West. I was. I was.

[Eli Cuevas]

What a terrible assignment.

[Dave Butler]

It was terrible. I was a public affairs officer for the Special Forest School. And then I went down to Key west and. And helped, you know, facilitate that. I'm not a diver, but that was a cool experience. Great cadre of dudes down there, and they're literally on an island, but figuratively as well. Just like, by themselves out there. Super professional. And, yeah, it wasn't a bad time to spend a couple weeks out there.

[Brandon Herrera]

Either, living the dream life.

[Dave Butler]

I wasn't diving, so just standing back.

[Cody]

Behind the camera crew, that looks like it sucks.

[Eli Cuevas]

Yeah, we ran the gamut on that. You got Fort Drum and Key West. Not too hard of a choice.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, man. Cody, you want to close us out?

[Donut Operator]

Bye, everyone. Thank you for coming to the unsubscribed podcast. I was joined today by Eli Double Tap, fat electrician. How should I introduce you?

[Dave Butler]

Dave Butler.

[Donut Operator]

Dave Butler. Brandon Herrera, myself, donut operator. We are at the Pentagon, and we love you all.

[Brandon Herrera]

Thank you. Oh, yeah, where do we find U.S. social Army? U.S. army, man.

[Dave Butler]

Well, if you're thinking about joining the army, it's goarmy.com and our regular social is S. Army. Thank you, dan.

[Eli Cuevas]

And in 25 years, you could be right here.

[Brandon Herrera]

Being interviewed by us.

[Cody]

Or if you start making videos on the Internet, you could be here in three years.

[Dave Butler]

Just saying, wait, it's better to join the Army. That's where you gotta start.

[Cody]

Yeah, No, I wouldn't be here if I didn't join the army first. But you know what he said? Do that. And then three years of stupid Internet videos, and then you get to sit next to this guy. Bye.

[Brandon Herrera]

Love you guys.

[Nick]

Sa.