The Explosion That Almost Killed Me ft. Braxton McCoy | Unsubscribe Podcast Ep 227

Summary

Unsubscribe Podcast Ep 227

The Explosion That Almost Killed Me ft. Braxton McCoy

Release Date: August 24, 2025
Hosts: Eli Doubletap, Brandon Herrera, Donut Operator, The Fat Electrician
Guest: Braxton McCoy

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Overview

This episode is a wild, insightful, and at times intense conversation with Braxton McCoy—a cowboy, author, Army veteran, and survivor of a devastating suicide bombing in Ramadi, Iraq. The hosts and Braxton blend their signature irreverent banter with genuinely poignant moments as Braxton shares his journey through military service, catastrophic injury, recovery, and his current conservation activism. This summary captures the main themes: war stories, military humor, American conservation, and overcoming trauma—with plenty of laugh-out-loud digressions.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introductions and Early Banter

[02:41]

• The hosts rib each other and introduce Braxton, who’s described as “one of the most cowboy” guests ever.
• Braxton shares his background: raised in southern Utah, now living in Idaho for about 8-10 years.
• Discussion of “cowboy names” and jokes about being the ideal bar fight partner.
• Quick fitness updates from the hosts, setting a joking, relaxed tone.

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2. Braxton’s Path to Podcasting & Conservation Work

[05:10 – 11:59]

• Braxton’s first big podcast was with Jocko Willink, who’s now on the board of Sagebrush, Braxton’s non-profit for wildlife & public lands protection from a right-wing perspective.
• Sagebrush seeks conservation with responsible recreation (hunting, etc.), not the “tree-hugger” model.
• Braxton candidly critiques manipulation in public land debates, emphasizing honesty over left-right data spins:

  “I don’t like…manipulation of data to convince people of things.” —Braxton, [08:14] “The right wing is reactionary now toward any info that comes from the left—and rightly so, they get lied to all the time.” —Braxton, [11:00]

• Discussion of landmark conservation legislation, history, and the problem of selling/privatizing public land.
• The difference between real conservation and politicized “green” initiatives is highlighted through humor and sharp commentary.

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3. History Lesson: Teddy Roosevelt & American Conservation

[12:33 – 28:22]

• Braxton dives into U.S. conservation history: Roosevelt’s ethos, the buffalo hunt that changed him, and the role of Gifford Pinchot (whose father was a timber baron).
• Colorful stories about Roosevelt’s realization and subsequent policy decisions, connecting history to current conservation challenges.
• Entertaining asides about the era’s outlook on natural resources:

  “[Settlers] felt there was such an abundance they’d never exhaust it. I don’t like to look at history and say, 'these were terrible people...' They just didn’t understand.” —Braxton, [22:33]

• Hosts are fully engaged, frequently interrupting for more details and historical trivia.

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4. Braxton’s Military Journey

[29:09 – 54:54]

• Enlisted in the Army National Guard in 2003, motivated by 9/11.
• Classic recruiter shenanigans: promised airborne, ended up as a radio guy (“the gayest MOS ever” per Braxton, [39:47]).
• Eventually found a fit on a Personal Security Detail (PSD) team—protects officers and “does the dangerous errands.”
• Hilarious stories of military mix-ups, drill sergeants, and broken MOS promises; bonding with the hosts over mutual military bureaucracy frustrations.
• Served around 2005-2006, in the heart of Ramadi during the surge (“like South Chicago on a Friday”—Braxton, [45:44]).

Notable Quotes:

• “I didn’t go to war to listen to people talk on the radio. I’m here to shoot people, man.” —Braxton, [40:11]
• “Journalists being dumb—oh my God…” —Hosts, [44:05]

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5. The Explosion That Almost Killed Me: Ramadi, January 2006

[54:54 – 99:42]

• Braxton’s team was helping recruit Iraqi Police at a glass factory adjacent to their base—wanding and checking hundreds of locals daily.
• Despite “three promised peaceful days,” a fourth day was ordered due to command push (“hearts and minds bullshit”—Braxton, [70:12]).
• S2 Intelligence warned of a possible Vehicle-Borne IED that morning.
• Crowds at the gate were far larger and earlier than usual, raising suspicions.
• While troubleshooting crowd issues and chasing down a suspected tripwire, a suicide bomber detonated in the crowd. Braxton was about 15 meters away.

The Aftermath (Graphic) [77:19 – 99:42]

• Immediate chaos, heavy injuries: broken arms, shattered femurs/hips, “about 30 holes” in his legs.
• His own compartment syndrome likely saved him from bleeding out (“acted as internal tourniquet”).
• No morphine for the first stretch due to low blood pressure.
• Multiple medevacs: Ramadi → TQ (too much blood loss), then emergency surgery in Fallujah (where both quads split open to relieve pressure), finally to Balad’s Air Force hospital and eventually to Walter Reed.
• Two of his close comrades (including his colonel) and a beloved dog handler killed; the working dog, Bruno, survived and went on to redeploy.
• Grueling, years-long recovery:

  “It was six or eight years [of rehab]…but you’d never be able to tell.” [100:03]

• Honest, dark humor in recalling:

  “Is my dick good?” —Eli, [82:02]
  “Well yeah, because I didn’t wear underwear, so he could just like see it. As soon as he said that, I was like—I’m good, man!” —Braxton, [82:02]

• Recovery was both physical and psychological—the journey becomes the basis for his book, The Glass Factory.

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6. Book: The Glass Factory

[56:00, 98:34, 126:06]

• Braxton’s memoir, available at braxtonmccoy.com (“I tried to write something relatable…Not just another war book, more about healing after being wounded”—[56:28]).
• The hosts repeatedly encourage listeners to pick it up, especially for veterans or those healing from trauma.
• The book’s reach expanded after Braxton’s Twitter presence grew.
• Braxton is candid about how civilian and veteran feedback has made the difficult writing process worthwhile.

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7. Recovery, Cowboying, and Bent Rods (Literally…)

[100:39 – 107:56]

• Post-injury life: returns to ranching, breaking horses (“cold starter”).
• Recent story of being bucked off a draft-cross filly and bending the metal rod in his leg; doctor discovered the incident only after Braxton had continued with ranch chores.

  “You broke your back, dude.” —Doctor Mike, [104:52]

• Life lessons: brutal honesty about the realities (“I didn’t get any smarter over the years, is the thing.” —[105:52]), but also about grit and humor in the face of pain.

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8. Conservation, Politics, & the Case for Public Lands

[109:56 – 125:13]

• Transition from post-war life to activism: began investigating public land transfer initiatives in Idaho/Utah, and decided privatizing public lands is a formula for disaster.
• Explains why federal stewardship (with strong local, expert oversight) is necessary—otherwise land ends up in the hands of mega-corporations, foreign buyers (China, Blackrock, Saudi Arabia), or is ruined for future generations.

  “The whole intent of transfer is to sell it off. The intent, to me, the most practical argument…practical argument is: [now] those lands are held in trust for 330 million people.” [110:09]

• Ran through the economics (tax bases, maintenance costs, Pilot funds in lieu of taxes, migration corridors for wildlife) and why “just let local ranchers buy it” isn’t realistic.
• Passionate about hiring and mentoring local youth for ecosystem management, rather than credential-obsessed bureaucrats—emphasizing personal investment and annual performance.

  “…You find that kid that’s actually been working it, you pay him…‘how healthy is this ecosystem, how well did you manage it?’” —Braxton, [121:13]

• Consensus: local knowledge + accountability + a large stewardship base = best model.

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9. Classic Unsubscribe Detours: Jokes, Merch, and Trenchant Banter

Various Throughout

• Running gags about bullying journalists (“always bully journalists”—Eli, [44:19]).
• Roasting Zach Bryan with made-up song titles (the “Alexa, play [crazy song] by Zach Bryan” meme—[63:44]).
• Host and guest plug items in irreverent, self-mocking fashion (poncho shirts, “perfect jeans,” Ghostbed, booking.com…).
• Random stories about military incompetence, inside jokes, and product gags (“OnlyCowboys.com”).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On surviving the blast:

  “I saw guts, I thought I was for sure blown in half…rubbed this organ in my fingers to see if it was mine. Didn’t pass anatomy, so didn’t even know if you could feel these things…” —Braxton, [79:02]

• On adapting after trauma:

  “It was six or eight years [of rehab]…but you’d never be able to tell that was the level you went through. And that’s what’s awesome.” —Donut Operator, [100:07]

• On conservation activism:

  “You find that kid actually working there, and you pay him to manage it, with yearly reviews based on ecosystem health. If he f***s it up, you fire him, find someone else.” —Braxton, [121:23]

• On manipulation in politics:

  “I just want everybody to have the right conversation—look at facts as they are. Groups on the left and the right will try to change the conversation to what they want it to be…” —Brandon Herrera, [10:41]

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Key Timestamps

• (05:10 – 11:59): Braxton’s intro to podcasting, conservation non-profit, & anti-data-manipulation stance.
• (12:33 – 28:22): Deep dive: Teddy Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, and U.S. conservation history.
• (29:09 – 54:54): Military journey; recruiter shenanigans; ended up radio operator then PSD.
• (54:54 – 99:42): Ramadi, the bombing, injuries, medevac chain, hospital stay, and lengthy recovery.
• (56:00, 98:34, 126:06): Discussion and plugs for The Glass Factory memoir.
• (109:56 – 125:13): Braxton’s conservation argument: federal stewardship + local knowledge.
• [79:02]: Describes his realization after the explosion.
• [44:19]: "One of the biggest things we say is bully journalists." —Eli

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Closing

The episode ends on heartfelt appreciation and banter. Braxton plugs his website and book (Glass Factory), and the hosts share gratitude for his candidness, heroism, and humor.

“Brother, I gotta say, it’s been a genuine pleasure. Thank you for coming on, man.”
—Brandon Herrera, [125:34]

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Where to Find Braxton McCoy and his Book

• Website/Book: braxtonmccoy.com
• Twitter: Search “Braxton McCoy” (lots of “shit talking” per Braxton)
• Book: The Glass Factory (on his site, with warnings about shipping delays!)

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Final Take

This episode is a signature blend of the Unsubscribe Podcast’s rowdy, uncensored humor and real, hard-earned wisdom. Braxton’s story—equal parts wild, harrowing, and hopeful—anchors the ep, but there’s also plenty for history buffs, gun guys, and anyone who’s ever doubted the credibility of a military recruiter.

If you want an honest look at adversity, grit, and what it takes to keep fighting (on the battlefield and back home), listen to this one—preferably while wearing perfect jeans, sipping a Bush Light, and cleaning your AR-10.

Transcript

[Braxton McCoy]

Buying a car in Carvana was so easy, I was able to finance it through them. I just. Whoa, wait, you mean finance? Yeah, finance.

[Brandon Herrera]

Got pre qualified for a Carvana auto.

[Braxton McCoy]

Loan, entered my terms and shot from thousands of great car options, all within my budget.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's cool. But financing through Carvana was so easy.

[Braxton McCoy]

Financed, done. And I get to pick up my car from their Carvana vending machine tomorrow. Financed, right? That's what they said. You can spend time trying to pronounce financing, or you can actually finance and buy your car. Today on Carvana financing, subject to credit approval. Additional terms and conditions may apply. We get in the truck and I was like, all right, let's go get blown up. Hello, Joe Salters. Do you like my cowboy? His name is Sam.

[Eli Double Tap]

That was your boot camp experience. Don't bring that on him.

[Brandon Herrera]

Anything sounds like a slur when you put you behind it, you know?

[Eli Double Tap]

One of the biggest things we say is bully journalists.

[Braxton McCoy]

I was just waiting to see where that was going.

[Brandon Herrera]

I'm like, oh, you know where it was going.

[Braxton McCoy]

We're gonna have a good time today, my friend.

[Donut Operator]

Say hi to Eli. He's racially ambiguous.

[Braxton McCoy]

Brandon. His hair is fucking f. Fabulous donut. A dark joke disposition. And there's a fat electrician. Welcome to Unsubscribe.

[Donut Operator]

Today's Unsubscribe episode is brought to you by booking.com booking. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

It'S in the read.

[Eli Double Tap]

From vacation rentals to hotels across the U.S. booking.com has the ideal stay for.

[Donut Operator]

Anyone, even those who might seem impossible to please.

[Brandon Herrera]

Whether you're booking for yourself, your partner.

[Donut Operator]

Or you're asleep, Light rise, early mom.

[Eli Double Tap]

Or your high maintenance group chat, you.

[Brandon Herrera]

Can find exactly what you're booking [e-mail].

[Donut Operator]

Gotta bounce and make his face look really pretty. Oh, that's.

[Braxton McCoy]

Fuck. You're gonna need more than a piece of paper.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's why they're drinking at home.

[Donut Operator]

Everyone ready? Are you gonna. You're gonna have to do the pop. So on the count of three, we're gonna pop this next to the microphone. Ready, everyone?

[Brandon Herrera]

Three little proof.

[Donut Operator]

Two, one.

[Braxton McCoy]

Welcome to the Enabler podcast.

[Donut Operator]

That was a cool coin you showed us, though. 10. It's 10 days. Just immediately.

[Brandon Herrera]

The best part is 10, 11 days from now, you get another one.

[Donut Operator]

Jesus Christ.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, that's horrible.

[Braxton McCoy]

The health journey.

[Donut Operator]

Everyone's like, what the hey? We. We've been very healthy. Like, everyone's doing very good. I will pat everyone's back on that one.

[Eli Double Tap]

To be fair, it's. It's Sunday. We're just kind of chilling. This weekend we're having a couple of drinky doodles.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, don't worry.

[Donut Operator]

Eating really good too.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, yeah, hold on.

[Eli Double Tap]

I'll introduce. We'll get in real quick. Hi, everyone. Welcome to the unsubscribe podcast. I'm joined today by Eli double tap, Braxton McCoy, Brandon Herrera, myself, dawn operator. Thank you so much for being here. We've been on the fitness journey for quite a bit now. I've gained 15 pounds. Brandon, you've lost how much?

[Brandon Herrera]

I am half a pound under 20, so working on that.

[Donut Operator]

Good.

[Brandon Herrera]

I try.

[Donut Operator]

Tomorrow we're doing legs. It's gonna sit down.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, we're doing legs tomorrow. No, you're doing legs tomorrow. I'm gonna be sick.

[Donut Operator]

You sent me a picture tonight I'm vomiting. What? Go to the fucking gym. Brand.

[Brandon Herrera]

You're like, I'm friends with you on steam. I see you're playing the Battlef Beta.

[Donut Operator]

Side note. Braxton McCoy is one of the most cowboy. Oh, boy, you got lucky on that one.

[Braxton McCoy]

On the what now? Oh, the name.

[Brandon Herrera]

The name.

[Braxton McCoy]

Like, who names the kid Braxton? Like, I don't know. It's a shitty general. My mom figured, you know, rag.

[Eli Double Tap]

No, you sound cool as.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, dude, that's all. I.

[Eli Double Tap]

If I was in a bar fight, I would want to have Braxton McCoy next to me in a bar fight anymore.

[Braxton McCoy]

I'm getting old, man.

[Brandon Herrera]

So, like, growing up, like on Fort Bragg, my parents were both army brats. That was the. The running joke is that Braxton Bragg was the best general the union ever had.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, it's kind of true. So they named me after him, I guess.

[Donut Operator]

I still think.

[Braxton McCoy]

What happened?

[Donut Operator]

Dope ass name. Yeah, it's a very strong cowboy name. Very strong. Hi. Welcome to the unsub.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, thanks for having me, man.

[Donut Operator]

You're thrown into the mix on this one. Did you get to watch a single episode?

[Braxton McCoy]

He was hard on, like two minutes ago.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, yeah, totally.

[Eli Double Tap]

That was me.

[Donut Operator]

Easily confusable.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was like, man, I don't feel like Tony has enough ammunition. Let's just throw some more out there. Let's just.

[Donut Operator]

Feed into it. Where are you coming from?

[Braxton McCoy]

Idaho? Yep. Eastern Idaho. I grew up in southern Utah, but now I live in eastern Idaho. I've been there about eight or ten years or so. Oh, wow.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay.

[Braxton McCoy]

So, yep.

[Donut Operator]

Pulling on my. Stop watching my show notes.

[Eli Double Tap]

What the are you doing?

[Braxton McCoy]

Eli, get my show notes ready.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay.

[Donut Operator]

Just interrupt him texting people. Go on. Cool story, bro. Yeah, dude. Huh.

[Eli Double Tap]

That's neat. Once again, Braxton Okay.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, babe. I mean, yeah, Braxton.

[Brandon Herrera]

Sorry. Force of habit. Wow. And how does that make you feel? She's such a.

[Donut Operator]

Dude. You have. We were talking on a little before the podcast. But you've been on a lot of big podcasts. Which. How was that and when was the first. What was the very first big podcast you were on?

[Braxton McCoy]

The first big one was probably jocko. I did 10 pool for that, I think. Think. It's hard to remember, but Jocko was probably the biggest for sure. And he's a stud, man. I love that guy. He's on our board of advisers now at Sagebrush too.

[Brandon Herrera]

Nice.

[Eli Double Tap]

He's a stud board of advisors for what?

[Braxton McCoy]

We started up a Not for profit to defend. Protect public land and wildlife and stuff from the right wing perspective because all the rest of them are a little bit gay.

[Eli Double Tap]

I like this guy.

[Donut Operator]

Right?

[Brandon Herrera]

I think we made a friend.

[Braxton McCoy]

Quick friend.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's not the like. Oh, like the tree hugging. Oh, you have to protect all the wildlife. Don't hunt. Don't harm a woodland creature. It's like, no, no, like you can. You can hunt and like do outdoorsy man shit on it. But like, we want to protect it for future generations.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, for sure. And it's like protect the cool trees with AR10s. You know what I mean? Chain yourself to them. Yeah, it's like, put a fucking APC over there.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, you're like. You're like. We'll chain you to them.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. I mean, we believe in like consumptive use and all that for sure. Yeah. You know, it's TR's principle. It's multiple use. I. I didn't mean to drag us into this with just. You said Jocko.

[Donut Operator]

No, go for it.

[Braxton McCoy]

Or. I said Jocko.

[Brandon Herrera]

You made me say Jocko like it's invoking his name. You made me say Jocko.

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, he like haunts Philip's dreams over there. He's like that watch. Shows up in my nightmares.

[Brandon Herrera]

What happened?

[Braxton McCoy]

He just feels like a.

[Eli Double Tap]

You better get up at 4aM and do CrossFit, buddy.

[Brandon Herrera]

Anyway, sorry.

[Braxton McCoy]

No, you're good, man. So, yeah, we. A multiple use mandate, right? That's how it was set up. That's how it should be. You've got extraction, grazing, hunting, fishing, recreating, and also just for looking at. And we believe in that kind of stuff. And I don't want to see a bunch of goddamn solar panels and all other bullshit. I want to look at my trees as trees. Not like solar panel trees made by some gay South African, bro. You're not gonna. I don't know if I should. He's got a harem of 14 test tube chicks. What are we talking about here? Not speaking. This is not speaking for the. The campaign. I'm on my own over here.

[Donut Operator]

I was like, endorse Brandon.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's like this. This feels a little pointed.

[Donut Operator]

No, it was a lot of people rewind. I didn't know what to level. Brandon, this morning you were talking about the different ways they show it or get it across to try to manipulate. Hey, look what they're doing. They're just giving it all away. Versus. Oh, actually, it is actually researched before. Hey, this plot of land we actually can get rid of versus this one, not so much.

[Braxton McCoy]

Right.

[Brandon Herrera]

And so before I say what I'm about to say, let me make it abundantly clear. Like, I was against Mike Lee's amendment to the big, beautiful bill that would sell off public land. That was. I was not in favor of that, but there were a lot of people that were manipulating it. And I just. I don't like whether it's left, right, agree, disagree. I don't like the manipulation of data to try to convince people of things. And, like, there were a lot of maps that were being shared around, like, this is the public land that, like, could be sold off in the new bill and it would look like a third of all public land in the country. But in reality, it was like, that was just the stuff that was available. In reality, I. I think it was like 1% total. It was. It was something along those lines, like 1.3. I don't remember the exact number, but there were. I was just. I was annoyed by the amount of maps that I was seeing on social media that made it look like, oh, my God, we're selling all of Utah.

[Braxton McCoy]

You know, because they were.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, how much were they selling?

[Braxton McCoy]

What he had done is set a floor, no ceiling. So it was like, these must be sold off, and then the rest to be evaluated. And there's already a process in place for this called Flipma, the federal land. And the beer is getting to me already. Federal Land Management and Policy Act 72. And what it. It does is you can evaluate a piece of property and say, hey, we've got to expand our city here, or maybe we need a landfill or. Or whatever. And then it goes through this process, and then it can be divested to that incorporation, incorporated, city or whatever. So that process exists. And they were just pretending like it didn't exist because they were trying to bypass that procedure. So that Elon could pave the west with solar panels and E Girls.

[Brandon Herrera]

E girls that you can now apparently marry on.

[Braxton McCoy]

On. On X. Yeah, kind of. I mean, I'm not saying you're wrong. I understand. I actually think you're coming from the right place. But he was manipulating the whole conversation intentionally.

[Donut Operator]

See, that's my perspective. Well, I like just. Those are the conversations, especially with your side, because that is that. How was that conversation? I think that's a really difficult one because you'd figured a lot of people would be looking at that. On the right or left? On the right side. You're like, oh, they'll understand this. And then was there actually a wave of pushback? And you're like, yo, what the fuck? Yeah, well, because data manipulation, maybe, as you were saying, it's like, oh, well, they're manipulating the data or how they were saying it.

[Brandon Herrera]

I mean, I just want everybody to have the right conversation. You know, like, let's look at the facts as they are instead of. Because you'll have groups on the left, groups on the right that'll just try to make the conversation change the Overton window to what they want the conversation to be. I'm like, no, let's. Let's talk about the real thing being proposed. But I was on your side through the whole thing. Like, I thought it was very well, very well structured, the way you did it.

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, I appreciate that. And you're not. You're right. The. The left is particularly bad at this, though. They'll take a piece of data and then spin it in a direction that just makes it virtually useless. Like, almost not true. It is mostly not true. And that's made the. The right wing just kind of reaction. Like, they're reactionary now towards any information that comes from the left, and rightly so, because they get lied to all the time. So it's. It makes it difficult to have the conversation. Like, actually, hey, man, this is what it. This is what they're aiming at. And plus, you got to be a goddamn nerd to even know all this stuff. There's so many acts involved. They go back to 1872, 1890, 1860. Like, you got to get way in the weeds, and no one wants to do that unless you're a nerd.

[Brandon Herrera]

Even the people in power don't do it.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh, my gosh. They're.

[Brandon Herrera]

They're some of the most clueless people you'll ever talk to.

[Braxton McCoy]

Like, there's like four state politicians in my state that have ever read our Constitution. Like, I'M talking about state constitution. It's like, dude, homework, man.

[Eli Double Tap]

Also, I loved you in 1923.

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, if it keeps going, we're gonna be like, there will be blood levels. Oh, I'm gonna be like the bill. The butcher or some. I'm just kidding. Feds. Jesus. Crime.

[Brandon Herrera]

No, he's not.

[Braxton McCoy]

You can't even joke anymore. One of us, one of Mikely hit squads that show up in Idaho, black helicopters in Round pen, you're like, I.

[Brandon Herrera]

Can'T even joke about the things I really believe anymore.

[Braxton McCoy]

Then speaking of the boar.

[Donut Operator]

Now it's just. Who was the president that did the most for it? Like conservation would have been Roosevelt, right?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, the most was TR for sure.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, yeah.

[Donut Operator]

And he really fought for that. He actually introduced a lot of the. Okay, I forget what was happening at that time. We were like, hey, just ripping up forest, ripping up woods. And he was the one that put a stop, wasn't it? Yellowstone was like the starting point for everything. Correct.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, yeah, Yellowstone. Well, yes, in a broad spectrum, I would say yes. The cool. The other cool guy that never gets credit is Pinchot, his dad. So you're talking about the robber baron era and some right wings.

[Donut Operator]

Yes, go on, act like we're retards because we are. Explain it to all of us, audience included.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like, I understand the robber baron era, but I've never heard of. You said Pinchot.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

I've no clue who this is.

[Braxton McCoy]

So his dad was a timber baron. And you know, they had stripped his company, had stripped the shit out of force all across America. And instead of saying, you know what? You go continue this legacy and get rich and move this company forward and all that, he said, you know what? You're going to fix what I screwed up. So he sent him to Germany and France to get an education in forestry. And before you get all uppity fucking Europeans, they went over there because they'd already there. Can I use that word?

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, yeah, sure, go for it.

[Braxton McCoy]

They'd already. They'd already their forest. And so it was like, hey, we're doing reconstruction on our force over here. Maybe you should protect the stuff you have.

[Donut Operator]

What was the forest wearing?

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh my God, it was drunk. The tree brought it on itself, I think. Jogging after midnight in a mini skirt.

[Donut Operator]

Sad's giving me the eyeball.

[Braxton McCoy]

Right? Like, wasn't wearing enough conifer leaves.

[Brandon Herrera]

The tree was blowing that whistle pretty hard.

[Donut Operator]

Okay, now go on to ruin your story.

[Braxton McCoy]

No, no, you didn't. So he goes over and gets educated and then comes back and he's. He's part of the Boone and Crockett Club with T.R. and. And these guys that had kind of, like, already decided they had this ethos that they were going to conserve this stuff. And actually one step back before I get back to Pinchot TR he was, you know, he's born, like, this very wealthy guy in New York and, you know, Harvard, Yale, all this kind of stuff. Then he goes out west to Nebraska. The line moves. Nebraska. I don't know. You guys keep trying to claim west, but you're like, Midwest now. But it was west then. So he comes out and he goes on this buffalo hunt, and he kills this buffalo. It's like this big, long, arduous thing. I'll spare you. But he finally kills this buffalo.

[Donut Operator]

Go into. It's one thing the podcast loves is fucking history lessons. And right now you're telling him very well. So I am fully involved into this.

[Braxton McCoy]

So he finally waxes buffalo after he's, like, sleeping outside in the rain. And the guides were all really impressed because they thought he was, like, this blind, you know, nerd from. Rich nerd from New York. And he kind of was blind and rich, but he wasn't this nerd. He was tough, and he wanted to, like, get this stuff done. Anything he put his mind to, he wanted to accomplish.

[Brandon Herrera]

Because wasn't the. The visual impairment? Was that based on boxing?

[Braxton McCoy]

He was kind of blind anyway, but he was asthmatic as a kid. And then he always said when he started boxing at Harvard, that that cured, you know, his asthma. I don't know if I'm a doctor, so I think that's true.

[Donut Operator]

And then he did take one really hard hit in the military.

[Braxton McCoy]

It made it worse for sure.

[Donut Operator]

Yep. And that's when he's like, ah, that. That's the one that me up. And that's when he got into judo, if I do remember right.

[Brandon Herrera]

Really?

[Braxton McCoy]

Huh. I think that's correct. I can't remember for sure, but I'm just gonna go with it. I'm vibing. I'm concluding over here. I think that's right. So he's. He's out there, and he was kind of famously a bad shot because he couldn't see where they're. And he finally whacks a buffalo. And then he comes back and he's talking to the guides, and they're impressed that he was just tough enough to sleep outside and all that kind of thing. And then the guide is explaining to him, like, there's almost no buffalo left, man. You know, and he has this moment where he realizes like, holy shit, I might have killed the last buffalo. You know, because he only saw one damn buffalo the whole time. So I, for me, I think that's the start of his realization. Like his conservation ethos begins there and then he ends up going back to New York and you know, going on with life. And then his wife and mother die on the same day. So he goes back out west, buys this cattle ranch and starts like learning how to be a cowboy. And there's a whole bunch of crap in there, like gunfights and all sorts of shit, but we'd be here for five hours if I did that.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, that wall of buffalo schools wild because to your story they wiped out the 98 of all. But it was.

[Brandon Herrera]

If the editor could put that up on the screen too. Like that's an incredible visual representation of.

[Braxton McCoy]

And it wasn't just buffalo, it was elk, antelope, mule deer. They were, they were killing it. Bighorns, mountain goats, they were just whacking everything. But buffalo are the most famous.

[Donut Operator]

Brandon, what kind of shirt is that?

[Brandon Herrera]

I'm glad you asked, Eli. This is a poncho.

[Eli Double Tap]

Brandon and I actually wear poncho so much, we constantly end up wearing the same nice poncho shirt.

[Brandon Herrera]

Good thing nobody's ever pointed that out before.

[Eli Double Tap]

Now, if you guys have ever seen one of our live shows or this podcast in general, you'll see Brandon and I wearing these incredibly comfortable, great looking shirts all the time.

[Donut Operator]

Finn, pull it up with pictures. They're literally always wearing the same shirt.

[Brandon Herrera]

I got turned on a poncho like a year ago. Been wearing them ever since. Personally prefer this is the Western because it's got the pearl snaps because it's hot in Texas. And I like something breathable.

[Donut Operator]

Here's the thing I find really cool. Brandon, do the glasses trick.

[Brandon Herrera]

So ponchos have this neat little thing in the pocket where you just take your glasses.

[Donut Operator]

No, the other one.

[Braxton McCoy]

Be more specific.

[Donut Operator]

Who gives a shit about that? Alright, watch everyone.

[Brandon Herrera]

So if you got fat fingers and you smudge your glasses all the time, the bottom of the shirt actually acts, it has like a microfiber so you can clean your glasses.

[Donut Operator]

I make him clean my phones.

[Brandon Herrera]

He does.

[Eli Double Tap]

I like the hidden little pocket on the breast.

[Braxton McCoy]

Wait, what? Right over here.

[Brandon Herrera]

Got a little zipper pocket.

[Donut Operator]

I didn't even know about that one. Is that where you hold Cody's heart and his drugs? Things you might need to know. Poncho has put a lot of thought and detail into each one of their shirts. Oh, holy.

[Brandon Herrera]

They're soft. They're really soft.

[Donut Operator]

Yo.

[Braxton McCoy]

What?

[Brandon Herrera]

That's my one like thing is fabric sensitivity. I don't wear uncomfortable shirts.

[Eli Double Tap]

This is comfy as. That's why we wear them all the time.

[Donut Operator]

So Poncho's got a bunch of great styles. The original western denim and ultralight.

[Eli Double Tap]

If you're looking for the perfect shirt, something breathable and stands out in a good way, give Poncho a try.

[Donut Operator]

Go to ponchooutdoors.com unsub and get $10 off your first order.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's P O N C H ooutdoors.com.

[Eli Double Tap]

Unsubscribe while we're talking about elk, do you know what this carried up a mountain to. To hunt a elk?

[Braxton McCoy]

If it's too heavy. What if it's too heavy of a rifle? Don't say that.

[Eli Double Tap]

Brandon, what did you take up a mountain to hunt an elk with?

[Brandon Herrera]

Look, I didn't want to go, like, they had like all these super lightweight and they're like, oh, do you want to borrow my, like 4 pound six five Creedmoor? I'm like, like, no, I'll just. I'll carry something I actually want to use like, as. So I had a scar 20s that's like, cool.

[Braxton McCoy]

The.

[Brandon Herrera]

The heavier DMR version of the scar in 65 that I was just like, man, you know what?

[Braxton McCoy]

I.

[Brandon Herrera]

This is an actual rifle that I will use for other stuff. And I'm like, I just want to. If I'm going to take something with it or if I want. If I want to take like an elk or something, like, I want to take it with something that I actually will use, like one of the five guns I use for real world.

[Braxton McCoy]

Sure.

[Brandon Herrera]

And I started regretting that about eight hours into the first day.

[Eli Double Tap]

We're going over mountains for days and you're like, this is heavy.

[Braxton McCoy]

Like, Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

I know in a place. In a place that we're like, we're used to, like sea level elevations.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

And we're up in Deseret.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Deseret, Utah.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. I think that's about like the. I think you started about five right there. And then you're just climbing from there.

[Donut Operator]

Just dying. Just dying. I was like, why the did you.

[Eli Double Tap]

Bring that home with a scar?

[Brandon Herrera]

What's funny is that, like, I. Because I was expecting to have to take it like 2, 3, 400 yard shot eventually. And the shot that ended up taking him because I brought two guns, I brought the. The scar twenties, and then I brought my lever 4570 if it was within, you know, closer range. And ended up the, the day that we actually that I took mine, I was. The shot was within 50 yards, so I absolutely did not need 6.

[Braxton McCoy]

5.

[Donut Operator]

Thank God you had that 20 pound gun though.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

And loved it. Yeah, the gun plus the optic plus the ammo, it was fun. That was a good time. That was a great time.

[Braxton McCoy]

10 round mag.

[Brandon Herrera]

So yeah, I think I had a 10.

[Donut Operator]

I'll just trip that down. I wanted to brought like this is heavy. Get rid of it all together.

[Brandon Herrera]

I, I clearly it was not a weight saving loadout.

[Donut Operator]

No. So you had so no FDR or. Yeah, he went. Not FDR but Roosevelt went on.

[Brandon Herrera]

FDR was not doing much hiking.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Rolling down. He's like, guys, watch it. It's fun.

[Braxton McCoy]

On the way down.

[Donut Operator]

Sucks on the way.

[Brandon Herrera]

Editor, can we get some sort of chad GBT grok image of FDR in the wilderness doing hiking.

[Eli Double Tap]

The mobility wheelchair with the, the tracks on the side of it.

[Donut Operator]

Tank treads still handheld. It's manual at that time. Oh, fuck. But so he had this come to Jesus moment with, oh, I have maybe killed the last buffalo. Now I want to actually get into conservation.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, I think that's what started out. So it kind of came years later where he really started pushing on it. But I think that's where it began. At least the thinking about it in the correct way started there. There was this, you know, the Americans came over here from Britain and, and other places in Europe and they had, they had like stripped everything like we talked about earlier. They had stripped that entire continent over generations and generations. And then they got here and there was just trees everywhere and animals and game and all that just. And they felt like there was such an. I feel like they thought there was such an abundance that they would never exhaust it. So I don't, I don't like to look back at history and be like, these were terrible people that were right didn't call us and too cavalier about what they had. They just didn't understand. And at the time the continent looked so vast. You know, I don't think they thought they could destroy it, but they were getting damn close to it. And Pinchot gets back tr, you know, president now and Pinchot is teaching it. I think it was Yale. He was running like a forestry class.

[Brandon Herrera]

If you don't mind me derailing. Who is Pinchot?

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. So Pinchot is the guy whose dad was a timber baron and then got sent back to Germany and France to learn to like, not do it. So he was like, a rich, rich guy, and his dad was like, you're gonna. No, you're gonna be the Lorax. Like, that's what you're gonna be. So.

[Donut Operator]

God, that. That. Hey, I know I up. So you're unfucking it for me. Good job, champ.

[Braxton McCoy]

Exactly. Yeah. And he was. He was a stud, too. Like, so he's teaching these classes at either Yale or Harvard. I can't remember which one right now. And he would be, like, looking at his students and say, okay, let's figure out what. Because now TR is president. Let's figure out what forest we can preserve. And the reason they knew they needed to do it. One reason they knew they needed to do it was there was also, like, grass barrens going on. So they. 400 million sheep or something like that. And they were just overgrazing and then stripping everything out, like, in terms of trees. So these big banks on mountains were not holding up and mudslides were destroying towns and all this. And kind of ironically, some of the first push for like, hey, help us. Came out of mountain towns in Utah. They were like, dude, something's up. You guys gotta help us. Like, we've had, like, 35 people die in mudslides, you know, help us out. So they start breaking up these barons. And that's sort of how Pinchot enters the picture with tr. And he's teaching at Yale or Harvard again, I can't remember which. And he would go to his students and say, figure out which force they were kind of trying to prioritize. Look at this map. Which force are most important. And they would, like, pick two or three. And then you bring them up to TR and TR, like, put them on TR's desk. And TR look at him and be like, let's go downstairs and box. So they would go downstairs and they box for a while, and they come back up.

[Donut Operator]

Such a dope.

[Braxton McCoy]

He was. They're awesome.

[Eli Double Tap]

Real quick, too. What was causing the mudslides that was killing all those people?

[Braxton McCoy]

In ecological terms, like the. The roots are. Help. Hold. The roots of the trees are helping hold. Hold the dirt onto the mountain. And then the roots of the grass are helping as well. So when you kill both, it just becomes like a mudslide. Hell, there's nothing to keep the bank from eroding or the slide or the mountainside from eroding.

[Brandon Herrera]

There's no structure to it.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, exactly. All this stuff kind of works together. So they. Wow. They started preserving, I think they. Between those two, while T.R. was in office. I think it was over a hundred national force. They put protections on just like 190 million acres. I think he did. Or no, Maybe he did 100, 120 million acres while he was in. And now we're at about like 193.

[Eli Double Tap]

I think that story TR was beating the out of people in the basement.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. Him and Pincho.

[Brandon Herrera]

Imagine boxing the president.

[Braxton McCoy]

He was doing that all the time.

[Brandon Herrera]

Just you like, oh, yeah. Teddy Roosevelt wants to see you. Ah, come on, let's spar a little bit.

[Braxton McCoy]

Totally.

[Donut Operator]

Especially when you're just a Yale or Harvard kid and you're like, I got these papers for you. Can't say no to the president. So she's getting punched in the face. Still really smart on their side with going like, hey, I'll just bring this up to my students, have them break down and then deduce what the problem is and actually come find out the problem. Because at that time, no one's going to think about, oh, hey, the roots and the grass are holding all this together. And once you start removing this, then you have landslides or mud, mudslides as repercussions because of it all.

[Eli Double Tap]

I love using just like college students. It's like free labor. Figure this shit out.

[Donut Operator]

Figure out why people are dying. Thank you. Okay.

[Eli Double Tap]

Also, I'm gonna punch you in the face when you come back.

[Brandon Herrera]

That would be funny. You could tell which staffers Teddy probably liked and didn't like by whether get in the ring.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Whether it was light sparring or I just come back with me with another bad idea.

[Donut Operator]

One. One black guy, two black guys. Oh, he really don't like you, Doc.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

We need to present another. Another quarterly financial report to T.R. i don't wanna.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, that would have been crazy. I know. When they discovered Yellowstone, that was like, oh, this is a bunch. This can't run out. Look at all this beautiful land, waterfall. They had everything there. And they're like, this is dope. Use, use, use, use, use. And then it was like, pause.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. They had to station the army to guard Yellowstone. When they made it a park. There was like a company out there shooting poachers and shit.

[Donut Operator]

No.

[Braxton McCoy]

100%. Yep.

[Donut Operator]

Try to get in. Yeah. Like, boy, bro, imagine if 19.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh, I can't remember exact year. I don't sound retarded.

[Donut Operator]

Unsub community. Real quick, if they were like, hey, you have to guard this, like, property. And you and the government or whoever's like, yeah, you guys just shoot anyone that's trying to cut down Trees. You have a lot of people volunteering for that job for a very reduced trade. Yeah, it's true. Wait, you get paid?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. You're getting paid.

[Eli Double Tap]

There's a lot of GWA veterans looking for jobs right now.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, yeah, this is great. Just shoot anyone that. With the land.

[Brandon Herrera]

I. I am the Lorax and I aim for the thorax.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah. So you were in the military. What year did you join? When did that whole journey begin? Before we get to the. The fun part of your military career.

[Braxton McCoy]

It was. I enlisted, I think in 2003.

[Eli Double Tap]

He was in the military?

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, God.

[Donut Operator]

Fucking veterans. I know. They're the worst. We hate them. Apparently Brandon's one of the biggest veterans we know.

[Braxton McCoy]

It's like, Charlie. Okay.

[Eli Double Tap]

I was talking about earlier. I walked up to him, I was like, heard you had a surgery or something. Sorry. What happened?

[Donut Operator]

So, 2003, you joined?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. Army. Yeah. Well, army guard, Utah guard.

[Donut Operator]

Okay.

[Braxton McCoy]

I didn't, I didn't understand what I was doing at the time, but I kind of growing up, I was like, you know, a little sort of a horse ranch kid, riding bulls and, and chasing girls and doing what? Too much Copenhagen, that kind of thing. And bush lights and. And so I kind of did. I didn't really. I thought I would just keep riding bulls and colts forever. I didn't understand. I kind of wanted to be in the military, but I. If there was no war, I didn't understand the purpose of it. And then 911 happened. I was junior in high school and I was like sloughing school like I always did. Sitting at my cousins and they're like, hey, school's canceled. I'm like, fucking sweet. I'm not gonna get an absent for this one. Then we turn on the TV and it's like, oh, maybe not so sweet. And from that moment I was like, all right, I'm going now. So I like did the. It wasn't fully delayed entry. It was like early enlistment or something. So like while I was still in or in school, I just enlisted. And then I left right after high school, went and got trained up and I went to Benning and then came back infantry. No, I wasn't. But I went to bed. Oh, you have no idea. My recruiter, this guy.

[Donut Operator]

Dude, when you have to go to Binning and you're not infantry, you got.

[Eli Double Tap]

All right, wait, like every, every single military person we brought on here has been by the recruiter.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, I just love. Even, even after 20 plus years, you're like this guy.

[Braxton McCoy]

It's like 20 years in a divorce. And I'm like, that didn't even get.

[Eli Double Tap]

A dodge Challenger, dude.

[Braxton McCoy]

He shows me like this high speed recruiting video, you know. Oh, yeah, like haloing and.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, the rangers just.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

SF everything.

[Braxton McCoy]

I'm like, bro, this looks badass, you know? He's like, you think you're pretty tough, you know? I was like, yeah, all right. He's like, you think you'd carry an extra like £10? Like, yeah, man, who can? What are these guys or something? He's like, all right. If you can carry a radio, you can get this enlistment bonus. It was like 6,000 bucks or something. Yeah, it was not great. Oh, he went as far this wins.

[Donut Operator]

For bonus dude to retirement war. You could have done infantry and got like 12 to 20 for a three year conscious.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. I was so mad freaking like he went as well. I went to MEPs. He made me do like. Or he had me get an airborne physical. I was like, oh, sweet, man. You know, like I'm be able to jump out of planes and. And then at Benning, like two weeks before you graduate, they're like, hey, if you're airborne, you got to come and, you know, you go talk to the drill sergeant. I get in there, he's like, are you doing in here? I mean, I'm going airborne. He's like, the. You are. He's like, you ain't got no airborne in your man. Get the out of here. So.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, wow, you're a recruiter. Just.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh, yeah. He got an award though.

[Donut Operator]

I bet.

[Braxton McCoy]

It'S like got this plaque enlisted the most guys, you know. I'm still mad at you, Matt.

[Brandon Herrera]

On a first name basis with this mother.

[Donut Operator]

You don't know like Binning is if you're infantry like 99 of the time. That's the only time you go to bidding A lot of times if you're any other MOs, you'll go to Jackson or sill a whole bunch of different areas. You can go instead of bidding. Binning, especially early 2000s era before was that's infantry training. That is not the fun drill sergeants. The not fun basic training. And then when it's like, hey, bud, you're gonna radio?

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, it gets even worse. I. You're waking up every morning screaming infantry running around. And I thought I was going, did.

[Donut Operator]

You do infantryman's creed too?

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh, yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Like, man, I'm not.

[Braxton McCoy]

That's what I wanted. I thought I was gonna be infantry. And then I get get done and graduate and they're like, hey, you gotta go to Fort Gordon.

[Donut Operator]

I don't even know what that is.

[Braxton McCoy]

It's, like, calm.

[Donut Operator]

Where is that?

[Braxton McCoy]

At Augusta?

[Donut Operator]

No. And they were like. Were your drill sergeants really confused, too?

[Braxton McCoy]

No, they just thought I was like, bro, you didn't read this? Like, hell, no, I didn't read this, man. Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, I love this story so far. This is like, your nightmare scenario of everything going wrong and it just happened to you. Thankfully, your military career went really stellar.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, it got a lot better.

[Eli Double Tap]

You had to go to, like, Double Maps. They had to finger your butthole twice as hard. What the fuck, man? Yeah, not even infantry.

[Braxton McCoy]

What's more, that's what pissed me off.

[Donut Operator]

So you did your.

[Brandon Herrera]

You're not even a doctor.

[Donut Operator]

Today's unsubscribe episode is brought to you by booking.combooking.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Cody, how much do we have to travel?

[Donut Operator]

We travel a lot, actually, with the live tours. We use booking.com to set up everything as we go on this next journey of life.

[Brandon Herrera]

Because God knows it's a lot of travel, and anything to make it easier is much appreciated, Brandon.

[Donut Operator]

So when you have to book for your partner, but they only want 800 thread count sheets, well, that's easy.

[Braxton McCoy]

Eli.

[Brandon Herrera]

Get a new partner.

[Donut Operator]

No, Go to booking dot com.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, before we had any sort of relationship with booking dot com. I have used the service before, genuinely. Sometimes they have really good deals.

[Donut Operator]

One of the great things about booking.com is it provides really accurate reviews. Like, really detailed reviews. It saved me once. Cody, did you use booking.com when we stayed at that sweet vacation home?

[Eli Double Tap]

Heck, yeah. What else would I use other than booking.com?

[Donut Operator]

Find exactly what you're booking for booking.combooking.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Book today on the site or the app.

[Braxton McCoy]

Dude, there's one time at Maps or not at Maps. You got me on Maps. Now at Gordon, we're, like, soldering shit together. You know, I grew up welding and all this stuff. Like, I don't need to teach me how to solder. So I'm, like, sitting in the back of this stupid classroom with goddamn computers everywhere and shit. And I took a bunch of wire and I soldered up this little cowboy guy that was, like, drinking a beer with a hat on while they're, like, teaching class.

[Eli Double Tap]

And crafts.

[Donut Operator]

I just imagine your military drill sergeant's like, the. Is this retard doing?

[Brandon Herrera]

No, he just sees that. He's like, this guy's gonna be somebody one day.

[Braxton McCoy]

Like, I'm starting an Etsy shop. Hello, drill sergeant. Do you like my cowboy. His name is Sam.

[Brandon Herrera]

Why is he Asian now?

[Eli Double Tap]

What the. That was your boot camp experience. Don't bring that on him, you minority.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh my God.

[Donut Operator]

Why does that sound worse? When you call somebody a minority like that?

[Eli Double Tap]

I'm probably gonna white guy on the podcast.

[Braxton McCoy]

Come on, man.

[Brandon Herrera]

Anything sounds worse. Anything sounds like a slur when you put you fucking behind it. A dirty plop. That's the. That's my favorite one we invented. I didn't even. I wasn't even a part of it. That's all the kind of consensual guys, right?

[Donut Operator]

Apparently I forgot.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, upper backs too.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, they're just like. Well, let's invent a slur that like has literally no racial connotation of any kind. And then just now it's banned by YouTube, so we might actually have to censor that.

[Eli Double Tap]

Plops.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, Plop. Yeah, it means nothing. It literally means nothing.

[Donut Operator]

To limit the usage. Actually we're just gonna have to figure out what if this gets demonetized from that word?

[Brandon Herrera]

We'll have to. We'll have to figure out like ask our YouTube rep. Like did we accidentally just make a new word that YouTube doesn't allow?

[Braxton McCoy]

What's a pepperback? Is that an Italian?

[Brandon Herrera]

Should be a Mexican probably.

[Donut Operator]

That's a pepper belly Pepperback. I don't know. That is our pepper box. Shout out to pepper box. Go get your 2 week subscription free. Right now we do a pretty much an ad free app or streaming service. And it's so we can do non censored content. There's no censorship. So everyone can do, have fun, say what you want. But also you have like Cody shooting videos. Completely different.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, it's YouTube, but it's not gay.

[Braxton McCoy]

Okay.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, pretty much no censorship.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

We just started our own streaming service.

[Braxton McCoy]

Nice.

[Eli Double Tap]

And so the people, it's called Pepperbox. So we say, hey, pepperbacks.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

So the people on.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh, I see.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, pepperbacks.

[Eli Double Tap]

Dirty little pepperbacks. But I can show people getting shot. So it's awesome. Yeah, literally because on YouTube when I break down police videos, like they don't like when you see someone get murdered. Crazy. But on Pepperbox you can see someone get shot in the face.

[Donut Operator]

It is strikingly different. Like you are looking at pixelation. Cody can't even have the gun sound, so he just makes quacks.

[Braxton McCoy]

No, I've seen some of those videos. I thought you were just like goofing around and.

[Brandon Herrera]

The quacks of justice.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yep.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, the quacks of justice.

[Donut Operator]

Now that is the only way you can stay monetized to make any money is to do all of that and then you still get hit sometimes, right?

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, I still get hit on that, man.

[Braxton McCoy]

So yeah, Pepper box.

[Donut Operator]

Now you just watch none of that and you're like, oh, this is a different kind of video now.

[Brandon Herrera]

Haha. It really does hit different.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Takes away the humor kind of.

[Brandon Herrera]

The uncensored video. I'm like, oh, I just watched a guy die.

[Donut Operator]

Like, all right, comment below, but thumbs up. So you had your. How many times did you have to end up deploying with your unit or no shit?

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh, yeah, well, I kind of left out, right? 0506. Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Okay.

[Braxton McCoy]

15. No, it was supposed to be 14, I think.

[Eli Double Tap]

So you. You thought you were like, you were with the infantry guys and then you got deployed as, like, what was your job going out there when you got deployed?

[Braxton McCoy]

PSD stuff. Personal security detail stuff.

[Eli Double Tap]

Okay.

[Braxton McCoy]

It kind of worked out because I got back to my unit and I absolutely hated. My MOS is the absolute gayest ever, dude. It's like all these nerds talking about numbers and putting fucking antennas up.

[Eli Double Tap]

Numbers.

[Donut Operator]

Especially coming from me, like, I'm like, cowboy shit riding bulls. And then you thinking, this is what I'm going to do. This is why I went to war. And then they just rob that. They're like, you're a radio guy now.

[Braxton McCoy]

Dude, I didn't go to war to like, listen to people talking on radio. Like, I'm here to shoot people, man. So it kind of worked out. They're gonna be like a sociopath, whatever. Well, so I get back to my unit and it was gay, but I had a cool. Like, my section chief was cool. And this deployment with this other unit was coming up and they needed like a PSD team. So he's like, you got decent PT scores and all this stuff you shoot. All right, see if you can get on that. So I went and put a packet in or whatever for. And they. They put me on the PSD team. I was like, so I got to at least do something you're attached to.

[Donut Operator]

So psd, if you're in the military, every battalion is going to have that. Usually it's for sergeant major, major, colonel, lieutenant colonel. You will have a team with you. Just a squad that roles with you. So if you're doing dismounted patrols, whatever, they're your.

[Eli Double Tap]

What's PSD stand for?

[Brandon Herrera]

Private Security detail.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, okay, cool.

[Brandon Herrera]

Is there anybody that you were on that team for that, like, your. Your job was to protect. That was actually like, just like Neat. Like any. Anybody. Anybody of note that stands out, it's.

[Donut Operator]

Going to be a random Sarn major.

[Braxton McCoy]

We worked with McChrystal's team once, but we were just like augmented. Yep. And he's kind of a douche, but all of his guys had Pearl handled 1911s.

[Eli Double Tap]

That's cool.

[Donut Operator]

As really. He bought soldiers.

[Braxton McCoy]

Did he bought them for him, I think.

[Eli Double Tap]

I assume that's neat.

[Donut Operator]

That'd been weird to run into that over there. I'd be like.

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, he was like. He would only get on the ground for like four minutes at a time.

[Donut Operator]

You know, I just want that metal.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

There's a friend that we have that did some of that interact that I'm not sure we can talk about, but was private security for Mitt Romney?

[Braxton McCoy]

No.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Braxton McCoy]

Wow.

[Eli Double Tap]

You ended up punching him.

[Brandon Herrera]

Punching him in the face.

[Braxton McCoy]

Punch Romney.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh, cool.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, yeah. You're like, yeah, yeah, I remember that.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. I don't.

[Eli Double Tap]

They were going through hard part of territory and Romney tried to get out of a Hummer and they just.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's like, your job. My job is to make sure you stay in this vehicle. So you're gonna stay in this vehicle like that? Sort of. Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

And he got popped in the mouth.

[Braxton McCoy]

I'm gonna need a mailing address. Send this guy some beer and whiskey or something, depending on. For what you did. Thank you for your service, I swear.

[Donut Operator]

Did he tell that on the podcast?

[Brandon Herrera]

He's never been on the podcast.

[Donut Operator]

Why did he. But no, he was. Wait, how do I know that story so well? Because we'll tell you all together. No, I've heard that we were.

[Brandon Herrera]

We were all together.

[Donut Operator]

Okay.

[Brandon Herrera]

Depending on how much time you got, tomorrow we'll introduce you to the guy.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh, yeah, I'm in.

[Brandon Herrera]

Give your, you know, cvs flowers.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, Dude, I'm like, get Philip to, like, buy him something nice.

[Donut Operator]

Thank you, sir.

[Braxton McCoy]

You're an American hero.

[Brandon Herrera]

Cool story. You don't want to give too many details, you know, on this.

[Braxton McCoy]

The other.

[Brandon Herrera]

But like, yeah, it's very, very funny story.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, it was. It was a, you know, like a highfalutin congressman type person.

[Brandon Herrera]

Senator.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, Senator. Sorry. He wanted to get out the. The Humvee during an incident. They're like, no, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it.

[Brandon Herrera]

Our boy made sure that that didn't happen.

[Donut Operator]

Which.

[Brandon Herrera]

Imagine like receiving contact and thinking like, oh, I want to jump out of the bulletproof vehicle, bro.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Weird.

[Donut Operator]

I've never done that.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Dismount. Left action. Right.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, imagine you have no gun and your only job is don't get killed.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, that is the one. I'm a. Stay inside this. Tink, tink, tink.

[Braxton McCoy]

Now.

[Donut Operator]

We're not going out there. These soldiers got it. Let them do their job.

[Braxton McCoy]

The work. The dumbest ones are journalists. Every time in keeping with tradition.

[Brandon Herrera]

Journalists being dumb. Oh, my God.

[Braxton McCoy]

You got, like, one tagging along, and then something happens, and they're, like, trying to get out, take a picture or something. You're like, are you fucking retarded? Like, yes. Their vest is, like, open, and their helmet's not even on. You're like, yeah, man.

[Eli Double Tap]

You know, one of the biggest things we say is bully journalists.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh, yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Like always bully journalists. I actually have that tattoo, people.

[Donut Operator]

You have that tattooed.

[Braxton McCoy]

No, I don't. Oh.

[Donut Operator]

I was like, that's dope. As he is one of us.

[Braxton McCoy]

I do hate on.

[Brandon Herrera]

There's. There's, like. There's a couple journalists that are, like, actually shockingly, refreshingly good at their field.

[Braxton McCoy]

Right.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like, the real guys that want to tell the real story and actually have morals and guidelines. I would guess less than 10%.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh, for sure. I'm talking, like, 1%. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

90 plus percent are just some of the worst people you'll ever spend time around.

[Eli Double Tap]

I just keep thinking of Civil War, the 24 movie that came out last year. Or the journalists are, like, trying to.

[Brandon Herrera]

They're like, let's do this.

[Eli Double Tap]

Let's do this. And the Delta, like, slash. So guys are like, no, no, no, no. Just reeling them back.

[Brandon Herrera]

The thing I took away from that movie is that not even Hollywood can write a likable journalist.

[Eli Double Tap]

We all hate them, bully them.

[Brandon Herrera]

So he even tried to make him the hero, and it didn't fucking work.

[Donut Operator]

So you did your. You got attached as a PSD unit, and then. Were you just for your battalion? Sorry.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, yeah, Battalion, Yeah. Well, it was. So we got over. It was supposed to be for the colonel, the ltc.

[Donut Operator]

Yep.

[Braxton McCoy]

And then we got there, and Ramadi was pretty hot.

[Donut Operator]

Yep.

[Braxton McCoy]

At the time. That's a surge.

[Donut Operator]

It was a warm period of Iraq.

[Braxton McCoy]

So they. We kind of. They stopped going out higher up. Stopped going out very often, not even calling them names. It's just, you know, it's like, do you want to go drive through South Chicago right now? Because that's basically what it is on a Friday. And so they took our PSD team and they kind of broke it up and just made us into whatever came down the pike sort of deal. It was just, like, the retards. Like, we're like the mules. Like, hey, go get those idiots and see if they'll go do this, you know?

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, they're up for it.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, exactly. It was really.

[Brandon Herrera]

I mean, great.

[Braxton McCoy]

We just did anything. Like, sometimes it'd be like a log pack, sometimes patrols and just whatever. One time it was supposedly gonna hit Zarqawi, like, they found a cell phone or whatever. Turned out to be just some poor guy's fucking chicken farm. So, like, landing helicopters and kicking chicken coop doors in.

[Donut Operator]

And I bet there was so hype leading up to that mission. You had everyone on base, and then it's like, hey, it's going down tonight. We got the. We hear on the map, dude.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, it was retarded. We get there and then everyone's like. Like the. You know, people want to be a hero, so the sevens and above are, like, really trying to take it serious. And everyone else is like, bro, this is a chicken farm. Like. Like, Zargo is not chilling at this chicken farm, dude. That was. That was a dumb one. So a few, like, air assaults here and there and stuff like that. And actually, one, we were supposed to be going to this island in the river. There's, like, weapons caches, you know, and they'd found. And we're like, hey, we're gonna go hit this. And they were hitting the. Already hit it for like, 24 hours before we went. We tried to talk them out of it. We're like, why are you doing this? This is insane. We're now just going to go land on a pile of uxo. Like, this sounds like a terrible idea, but we. So on route. We're in. So in Ramadi, they wouldn't let us, like, use good helicopters, so we had CH46s. You know, it's like, Blackhawks are expensive. They were literally making. Yeah, we had 46s for, like, this.

[Donut Operator]

National Guard baby dude.

[Braxton McCoy]

And it was Marine pilots. So we were working for two more div. Yeah, it was. It was.

[Donut Operator]

You know, this is so Marines. It was crazy going over there. And we had. This is M4S and not M16A4S. And when we got there, seeing the Marines at the same. This was Liberty, and they had M16A4s and M16A2s. And then they didn't even have optic. Like, some had iron sights.

[Brandon Herrera]

I had a boy who deployed with 16 A2s. With irons.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's just what he used his entire deployment.

[Donut Operator]

Wild to see when you're the good, like. And army is still not Air Force. It's not Navy. You still have the equipment. But also for like reserves, National Guard. You guys would get a lot of the time too. No training or training like once a year for range.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh, yeah, that they would. I don't know. I didn't make it a year. But it is. I think it is that once a year.

[Donut Operator]

This is during war and you still had to deploy.

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, I wanted.

[Donut Operator]

I know.

[Braxton McCoy]

Get me over there. Dude.

[Donut Operator]

Like, what the.

[Braxton McCoy]

Am I on the field?

[Donut Operator]

You want to borrow my ghost bed pillow?

[Eli Double Tap]

Does it smell like you? Yes.

[Donut Operator]

Do you feel that? Cooling technology.

[Eli Double Tap]

It's definitely not a hot pillow.

[Brandon Herrera]

I gotta get out of here.

[Braxton McCoy]

Give me my pillow.

[Donut Operator]

I'm the one that has to sleep here.

[Braxton McCoy]

You guys have your own houses and your own pillows. Quit touching it.

[Brandon Herrera]

All right, real question. Can the gang do a pillow fight?

[Braxton McCoy]

Not with these. They're slow motion.

[Brandon Herrera]

Pillow fight.

[Donut Operator]

No, they're heavy. It'll hurt.

[Brandon Herrera]

Are they really?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yes, they're premium.

[Donut Operator]

Dude, that would actually suck.

[Braxton McCoy]

Actually.

[Brandon Herrera]

I don't think I'd want to get smacked with that.

[Braxton McCoy]

I'm swinging it hard.

[Donut Operator]

Okay.

[Braxton McCoy]

Your son.

[Donut Operator]

You walk up and just pee off on your kid.

[Braxton McCoy]

If I smack you with this, you're gonna be a ghost.

[Donut Operator]

And get this.

[Braxton McCoy]

They're built to last with a 20 year warranty. And they have a three month free trial period.

[Brandon Herrera]

What do they do with all the used mattresses that get returned?

[Braxton McCoy]

Not black lights.

[Eli Double Tap]

They have a complete sleep setup for spooky sex.

[Braxton McCoy]

Boo.

[Eli Double Tap]

Ghostbed has it all. Adjustable bases, sheets, pillows, and full bundles to upgrade your whole bed.

[Donut Operator]

With over 20 years of sleep expertise.

[Brandon Herrera]

Which is really amateur hour. I've been sleeping for at least 30 years.

[Donut Operator]

Family owned and handcrafted in the USA. In Canada.

[Braxton McCoy]

Ew. Ew Canada.

[Donut Operator]

Entrusted by thousands of happy sleepers like Cody, Brandon and Nick.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yep.

[Brandon Herrera]

And they have over 60,000 five star reviews. And you get an extra 10% off when you use code unsubscribe at checkout.

[Donut Operator]

Head over to ghostbed.com unsubscribe to get started.

[Braxton McCoy]

That's ghostbed.com unsubscribe.

[Eli Double Tap]

Use the code unsubscribe to sleep better and stay cooler.

[Braxton McCoy]

We actually had a pretty good spin up at Camp Shelby and then ntc and at that time like Rangers were doing almost all. All of the actual like EP in other places. So they ran. They were our OCs. So the lanes were pretty good. Oh, okay. But we were still and ill equipped. But we had. Take that Marines.

[Donut Operator]

So you. What was the big running all These missions. How many months were you out there before the big accident happened incident?

[Braxton McCoy]

So June. It was either May or June to January, the very beginning of January. January 5th. So pretty early on I barely made it into 06.

[Donut Operator]

No.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yes.

[Brandon Herrera]

I actually, I know nothing of the, the any sort of incident. Like I know it's been alluded to like when we've been talking here, like off camera and whatnot, but I, I actually know nothing about this. If you don't mind getting into that just a little bit.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. Some Iraqi decided to strap plastic explosive to himself and some ball bearings and blew it like turned himself into a human claymore. And I happened to be in like the wrong place. So we were actually just a brief rundown on it because I've talked about it, but we were recruiting for IPs and at this time we were. Our team was living in a little compound at the south western edge of the base.

[Donut Operator]

Iraqi police.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, I'm sorry. Yep.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was just about to ask. So thank you for that.

[Donut Operator]

So I A is Iraqi army IP, Iraqi police during the surge. And then 04208 we would be getting IA IPS. And I forget the other one we did, it was like militia essentially because we started bringing them in just to cover down on your story. If anyone has any like, oh, what are they talking about? Talking about. Go on with yours.

[Braxton McCoy]

No, I appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah. So we were like living with these Iraqi police guys in this little compound, talking to them every day. And one of the things the army was doing or actually was like. Paul Bremer. Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

No, do you live down a Cobb with them?

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, it wasn't actually a. It wasn't actually a true COB or cop, either one. It was, it was like basically on the base, but it was just down on the edge of the base. We were like covering that sector. I think they just didn't want us around. They were like, go live with those Iraqis. We fucking hate you.

[Brandon Herrera]

I cast Brown.

[Braxton McCoy]

All these stupid farm kids.

[Donut Operator]

Why the is there shit on the porta shitters? Why are they squatting on the porta shitters?

[Brandon Herrera]

I haven't seen a proper jumping jack in weeks.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh, I got videos of that too. That shit is amazing. The first time I was like, they gotta be doing this on purpose. Like this has got. They're trolling us. They're not the biggest troll us ever. And the push ups are worse almost. Oh yeah. It's like a damn accordion painter is hitting the ground.

[Donut Operator]

The dirt.

[Braxton McCoy]

It was terrible. When we first got in There the. Their like lieutenant was. He was. He was like, hey, I was told I got to keep my pistol when we go. When we go to bed because we take their guns from him, you know? Yep. And we're like, I don't give a. Who told you you're keeping pistol. You're not keeping a pistol, dude. And he's like, I can't keep control of my guys without it. We're like, take it up with somebody else. Give me your gun. You know, we don't trust your ass. So that was kind of. There was one IP that I really loved, but the rest of them I didn't trust at all.

[Donut Operator]

Nice.

[Braxton McCoy]

So the idea that the of the mission was we were recruiting new IPS, Iraqi police, and we had like 330 slots or something to go to a different Middle Eastern country. Not the one you guys are thinking, a different one. And they would get trained up there and then come back. So, you know, Paul Bremmer was doing all kind of dumb and we had like Shia police and Sunni. And Sunni police and it was just bad. So we were recruiting people from Ramadi. Hey, come clean up your own town. You know, this is. This feel good story. Well, it was supposed to be a three day mission and I, I think it was the end of the first day. We had already filled every slot for, you know, to go get trained. And they're like, no, you got to keep doing the mission because. Hearts and minds or some.

[Donut Operator]

Yep.

[Braxton McCoy]

And so we get to the third day and there's so many Iraqis coming through. And this is a glass factory. I should probably tell that part. So it makes sense. We. There was a glass factory that's almost attached to. We ended up annexing it later on, but it was almost attached to the FOB that we lived on, but it had been a functional glass factory.

[Eli Double Tap]

So maybe your book, right?

[Braxton McCoy]

It is. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for the plug, sir. Braxtonacre.com and Amazon. No, I hate that Amazon. Anyone who has a private rocket company is not my friend right now.

[Brandon Herrera]

It almost seems like you've had some resentment.

[Eli Double Tap]

I actually looked you up.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Well, yeah, I know. The name of your book is Glass Factory, correct?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Okay.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yep.

[Brandon Herrera]

For real though, where can we find that?

[Braxton McCoy]

On my website, braxtoncore.com. thank you. Please buy it. Boom. It go into a lot more. And it's. It's not a war book. I would say since we're talking about this, it's more about healing after getting wounded. And I think it's related I tried to write something that was relatable to people and was reflective of what I was actually seeing happen to my friends when they got home. Because I didn't feel like that book was out there. Everything was just, this is how I won this medal. And. And you know, and no one's talking about, Yeah, I got 14 DUIs. And, you know, like, I didn't get 14. My worst. Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Only 13?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. Just one.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah. What happened in the last factory, buddy?

[Brandon Herrera]

Have a DUI bad or DUI medal with a oak cluster.

[Braxton McCoy]

Four oaks.

[Donut Operator]

We should make that actually goddamn American hero right there.

[Braxton McCoy]

Just.

[Eli Double Tap]

That was a. That was a thing in the Navy where like, you, in order to be chief, you had to have your DUI badge.

[Braxton McCoy]

And a divorce. Right.

[Eli Double Tap]

Divorce.

[Braxton McCoy]

You're not a real GWA veteran.

[Donut Operator]

So glass factory.

[Braxton McCoy]

Okay, so this glass factory, think of like an American factory. It's basically like that, just less safety regulations. Yeah. Hodge looking and without osha. Yeah, yeah, no osha. But it had like a wall around it. And we were using that wall. That wall had like a man gate, like a man sized gate and then a vehicle gate. And so we blocked the vehicle gate and then use the man gate to let people in. And then we'd wand them and you know, tsam and. And then send them to the Marine element. I think it was P3 that was doing the actual recruitment and all that stuff. So we were just the idiot security dude.

[Donut Operator]

I again, hats off to you because that is one thing. It was like my biggest fear when seeing that idea of like checkpoints for vehicles or wanding or any of that. I was like, I hope I don't have to do a single minute of that. I just kick down doors, do patrols. I want to be out there. I don't want to be a target where. Well, I hope you're not going to clack off today. And then you have to just want. Because, dude, they're just walking up and then you have to want them. Okay, you're good. Okay. So you are a soft heart. Like, they don't have to worry about anything because they can get right up to you. And then. So that's why I was always terrified of that. Same for vehicle checkpoints. Vehicle rolls up and you're just hoping it's not a V bed so they can clack off. And they started making. Where the IA's, IPs would have to do them instead of soldiers. Because.

[Braxton McCoy]

Right.

[Donut Operator]

Running into issues of, hey, these guys are just gonna pull up to an American soldier checkpoint, clack off and then good to go, which they did that.

[Brandon Herrera]

Really well in Warfare.

[Braxton McCoy]

The movie.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah. Oh, dude, Warfare. They crushed that movie showing, like, they.

[Brandon Herrera]

Send the Iraqis out.

[Donut Operator]

Yep. Yeah, exactly. If you haven't seen Warfare.

[Braxton McCoy]

No.

[Donut Operator]

You'll have so much PTSD from.

[Eli Double Tap]

It's like, Brandon, who. Who was telling us they were sitting there and, like, people you could tell, they walked out from it because they were G white veterans.

[Brandon Herrera]

Ethan and Techie.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, Ethan and Techie were sitting there watching the Warfare movie, and they saw, like, other people walk out during the hardcore parts of the movie because it kind of nails home.

[Donut Operator]

Do they?

[Eli Double Tap]

How gnarly it is?

[Donut Operator]

Fucking, like, nailed it. Nailed it to a tee. It was mind blowing on how well they did it. A 24 next level. But how they captured every part of that, especially that GWA era. And war, actually. Combat. I tip my hat still. I was like, holy, this is wild, dude.

[Braxton McCoy]

I don't know if I want to watch it now. Like, I'm doing good over there.

[Donut Operator]

I'm in a happy spot, dude.

[Eli Double Tap]

I still want to figure out if it was Jocko on that one part, though.

[Donut Operator]

I know he was part of that mission. I don't know if he was. If that was him in it, but I do think that was his unit at the the time. Like, I 100% want to say that was his unit.

[Eli Double Tap]

Brandon, the one SEAL that comes up, he's like, we're. We're frogman. We're frog men. We got to go. We got to go. You don't feel pain, frogman?

[Donut Operator]

Come on.

[Braxton McCoy]

Come on.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, I wouldn't think so, but I. I honestly, I have no clue.

[Donut Operator]

So good, though. So good. Okay, so you.

[Braxton McCoy]

Was he, like, shoving his wash in their face? Yeah. You see the time right now?

[Eli Double Tap]

You see this?

[Donut Operator]

I was up at 4:30.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Bleeding out.

[Donut Operator]

Move.

[Braxton McCoy]

So it's leg day, dude.

[Donut Operator]

Leg day's really funny.

[Brandon Herrera]

If you better.

[Braxton McCoy]

See you at 3am Your legs on that rooftop. Good.

[Eli Double Tap]

My favorite. Before I, like, started hitting Twitter, hardcore, I think my favorite tweet was to Jocko, like, this is like seven, eight years ago. I texted him. Like, I showed a picture of my watch. It was two in the afternoon, and I just. I like, poured some water, like, on my gym, and I was like, I'm up doing the thing. And he just. He just replied on my tweet with, no.

[Donut Operator]

If we actually asked our audience to go just like, one week, we just everyone tag Jocko with times late in the day, you know, everyone would start doing it immediately. He's Like a watch. Tens of thousands of people doing this.

[Brandon Herrera]

Watch photo at 3 in the afternoon with, like, pee on the floor.

[Eli Double Tap]

Like, that's exactly what I did. He said, no.

[Donut Operator]

Crushed my workout. Pee on the floor.

[Brandon Herrera]

Do the hard thing.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, doing the hard thing. That's all you say, Doing the hard thing. Because it's open for everything.

[Eli Double Tap]

Come on the floor. Oh, God.

[Donut Operator]

Jaco's like, what the did I do?

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, it's just like, Zach Brian. Like, we're. You don't have to do anything. Sometimes we'll just accidentally bully. And we. We, like.

[Donut Operator]

We all like Zack Bryan.

[Eli Double Tap]

We haven't told Braxton about the Zach Brian thing.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, God. I'll let you lead this.

[Donut Operator]

All right.

[Eli Double Tap]

We. We did a live show up in Austin, Texas. We, you know, we sat around. We did this. We just did our live show. We're coming back. Jake, our. What would you call him? Our manager. Our lawyer. Lawyer. He's like, hey, play Leaving. Leaving Austin by Zach Brian. Is that what the song's called, Leaving Austin? It's something like.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, I think one of us put that on, and he was trying to play, like, Dolly Parton and like that.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

So he's. We put on, like, Leaving Austin by Zach Bryan. Great song.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah. And then we tried to. I think we tried to turn off Zach Brian.

[Brandon Herrera]

No, no, we. We put it on and he was like, oh, Zach Brian's gay. Never listen to Zach Brian.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, yeah, he says, Zach Brian's gay. So we're like, all right, play like, I don't know, five Dudes Coming in My Mouth by Zach Brian. Jake.

[Brandon Herrera]

Alexa, play.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Alexa, play like, Six Bodybuilders Pissing on My Foreskin by Zach Bryant. Could you just play that, Jake? And he got so mad. He got so mad.

[Donut Operator]

This is an entire hour. And in our defense, we were absolutely wrecked on the show. This is after a live show.

[Brandon Herrera]

We're, like, on a party bus on.

[Donut Operator]

The way home, and he is getting really mad about this.

[Braxton McCoy]

Zach was.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, sorry.

[Braxton McCoy]

I accidentally triggered.

[Brandon Herrera]

I triggered the Alexa.

[Braxton McCoy]

I just realized that.

[Donut Operator]

Playing 10 black dudes pissing On Me by Zach Brian.

[Braxton McCoy]

That's why we got Philip around, man. He's, like, on it.

[Eli Double Tap]

We. We started talking about it on Twitter one day. We started throwing out the Zach Brian quotes like that, you know, just like, come in My Mouth by Zach Brian. Oh, my gosh.

[Brandon Herrera]

I played docking. Like, interstellar.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Did you dock right in my. Like, Zach Brian? And this.

[Braxton McCoy]

He.

[Eli Double Tap]

Dude, he got off Twitter.

[Brandon Herrera]

He deleted his Twitter.

[Donut Operator]

He did. So we talked about we made. We talked about it. It was also in a bts. And then on Twitter, that man made a post about a song, and then his replies were just like, hey, Alexa, play this. And it's hundreds, hundreds of comments of that. Just those really bad.

[Brandon Herrera]

And we just did it again.

[Donut Operator]

Oh.

[Brandon Herrera]

Thanks, Philli.

[Braxton McCoy]

Thanks, Twitter. Mike Le is a really big Zach Bryan fan.

[Donut Operator]

So, yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Zen in your foreskin by Zach Brian.

[Donut Operator]

Seen the replies and he probably had no idea at first of why.

[Brandon Herrera]

Why do these people hate me?

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, he's like, what the did I do? I don't. He's generally any of these songs.

[Brandon Herrera]

Probably one of my favorite country artists. Like, there's no malice there, but sorry, shit's just funny.

[Braxton McCoy]

It is funny.

[Donut Operator]

Ah, there we go.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh, my God. It's the perfect jeans, right?

[Brandon Herrera]

I can leave.

[Braxton McCoy]

Brandon, get on his shoulders up here, big boy. Try the perfect jeans out his earmuffs.

[Donut Operator]

Brandon, how perfect are they?

[Brandon Herrera]

Feels like the perfect jeans.

[Donut Operator]

They're so flexible.

[Braxton McCoy]

I'm fat. I can actually do squats on them.

[Donut Operator]

Usually that's an issue. I'm not kidding.

[Brandon Herrera]

I'm picturing you do doing squats in the gym with these jeans.

[Braxton McCoy]

I could.

[Donut Operator]

Dude, they are like.

[Brandon Herrera]

Eli's just mogging on the audience right now.

[Donut Operator]

Finn, make my dick talk. Now you're watching the ad and pant season is almost here.

[Braxton McCoy]

It's always pants season if you're a adult.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's August in Texas. We're all wearing jeans.

[Braxton McCoy]

The perfect jeans.

[Donut Operator]

That's right. Today we're talking about the perfect gene. Brandon, how my jeans feel on your neck.

[Brandon Herrera]

Feels like I need to talk to hr.

[Donut Operator]

But they were comfortable, right?

[Brandon Herrera]

Absolutely.

[Donut Operator]

This brand, the perfect Gene. It's actually perfect. It's real denim, but not the heavy stuff.

[Braxton McCoy]

I just like how they finally say that. We can say your khakis, which works great pretty much everywhere. Except for Boston, I'm sure.

[Brandon Herrera]

Just means the valet is quitting. For a limited time, our listeners get 15% off their first order plus free shipping at The Perfect Gene NYC or.

[Donut Operator]

Google the Perfect Gene and use code UNSUB15 to get 15 off. It's finally time to stop crushing your.

[Braxton McCoy]

Balls and wear comfortable jeans. By going to the perfect gene NYC.

[Donut Operator]

Our listeners get 15 off their first order plus free shipping.

[Braxton McCoy]

It's lighter, softer, stretchier, and it's not a sex toy.

[Brandon Herrera]

Not with that attitude.

[Donut Operator]

Use that one.

[Brandon Herrera]

And again, that's free returns. Free exchanges. When you use code unsub15 at checkout.

[Donut Operator]

That'S 15 off at checkout for the perfect Jeans.

[Braxton McCoy]

Connor loves perfect jeans.

[Donut Operator]

He does. They fit him really nice.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, pants.

[Braxton McCoy]

Like, talk to my priest now. Like, so many friends. I think I see him just by, like, being there.

[Brandon Herrera]

But anyway, we've derailed way too much from the last factory. I'm so sorry.

[Donut Operator]

So wanding people.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh, yeah. So that was kind of like the three day. There was some other in there, but. And then on the third day. This is a weird segue, right? Hey, black dude's pissing on somebody. Oh, yeah. So this time at the World Healing.

[Donut Operator]

This is how I dealt with my ptsd.

[Braxton McCoy]

It's called the healing.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's a great shirt too.

[Braxton McCoy]

It's called.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, yeah.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yep. Yeah, I buy that one. We're making it. You got it in like a brush popper.

[Donut Operator]

Whatever you want. Poncho.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, Poncho. Let's. Let's get together on this.

[Braxton McCoy]

Okay.

[Donut Operator]

Wanding. Okay.

[Braxton McCoy]

Wanting. All right. So day three, like I say, some other has happened, but nothing, like, no big deal. Everything you kind of. And we had been promised three peaceful days by the. The shakes, you know, always. And they kind of gave it to us. There was some, but nothing big.

[Brandon Herrera]

So by the shakes.

[Braxton McCoy]

So I'm gonna have in the morning.

[Donut Operator]

So the sheep sheiks. So it's the cheeks, okay. Yeah.

[Braxton McCoy]

They're like, oh, yeah, yeah.

[Donut Operator]

It's the people you'll meet up with, the different Sunnis or Shias. And they're like, oh, hey. Like, it'll be good. Like, nothing bad's gonna happen, right?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, yeah. It's like clergy, right?

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Dark magic.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. Please tell me how you get your woman to cut your grass for you since we're here.

[Brandon Herrera]

Live in a desert.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. They got like ladies out there with a sigh. I'm not kidding. In a little burrow. And they're like piling grass on. He's in there smoking hookah and drinking tea.

[Donut Operator]

They do all the manual labor. That's why they hit a wall at like 20 Asian women are like 60 over there. It's like, man, that's an attractive. And then it's like 20 to 21. It's like, because they are doing every bit of manual labor. They are carrying the heaviest shit you will ever see. And you're like, God damn. And all the kids on top of.

[Brandon Herrera]

It, and they're like, they hit a wall at what?

[Donut Operator]

Which.

[Brandon Herrera]

What age?

[Donut Operator]

20 to 21.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, that's what? Nevermind, keep going.

[Braxton McCoy]

So end of day three, we're like.

[Donut Operator]

This story's never getting finished. Your story.

[Braxton McCoy]

I was just waiting to See where that was going?

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, you know where it was going. Oh boy, you done synced it. You know where that was going.

[Braxton McCoy]

So end of day three, it's like midnight and there's still a bunch of people out there. And my first line leader, John. So at this point I've been, I was now a bravo team leader. And he, you know, obviously still you have a boss. And my first line leader is alpha team leader John. And John, we radioing up and we're like, hey, man, it is fucking midnight. Like, we need to call it. We gotta go to bed. We can't be wanting people in the dark. This is retarded. And command was like, no, no, get a few more through. So he just took it upon himself. I don't know if I've ever told this publicly before, but he just took it upon himself and he goes out there, he's like, you guys get the out of here, dude, we're done. You know, and sent him off. And then we left and then told them what we had done. Like, yeah, we told these guys, go home. So then they say, hey, well you've got to do another day, you know, because these people, they feel like they didn't get their opportunity. Like, bro, they don't have an opportunity. Opportunity's already gone. Well, they don't know that, you know, know we didn't tell them who got picked, blah, blah, blah. So hearts and minds. Bullshit. So they go, we got to do one more day. So fourth day now of what was supposed to be a three, three day mission. And we don't even promise three peaceful days. So we go to S2 in the morning, the intel guys in the morning for a brief. And the intel guys say, hey, be on the lookout for a V bed. We've got intel you're going to get hit with a V bed, you know, and we're just like, what the are we doing?

[Donut Operator]

It's a white pickup truck. Which one make?

[Brandon Herrera]

Toyota.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh yeah, dude, they do say that kind of.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah. And what's crazy driver profile?

[Brandon Herrera]

Brown dope.

[Braxton McCoy]

Dude, he's got a pointy chin.

[Donut Operator]

I can't believe still, like they were wanding until after. At night. They're making you wand at night is wild.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was wondering like, because there was a certain part in that story where.

[Donut Operator]

You'Re just like, dude, yeah, like anything after night, I don't know, like they were on lockdown. It's like, oh, it's getting night time. They would just go in. That's why I'm like, what the.

[Braxton McCoy]

We Also had that, but they were. I think the theory was these people were already there. They've been under overwatch for a while, I guess. Anyway, so fourth day, we. We get told we're going to get hit with a V bed. And we're like, all right, we get in the truck, dude. I was like, all right, let's go get blown up, because we know how this is going to go. And we ride the truck through the base or whatever and get there, and we get to the man gate, and there's like, a thousand Iraqis lined up already at the gate. And these are not punctual people. So we know, like. We know already, like, something is. Something's wrong, you know? So we radio up and we're like, hey, this is bad. These people, they shouldn't be here like this, whatever. And they're like, roger, continue mission. That's not a verbatim quote, but that's essentially what we got told. And so John and I go up to the gate, and we're, like, looking. We already set up our security positions and blocking positions stuff. And then we go up to the gate and we're looking. And I was like, dude, I don't want to put my guys out there. This is insane. This is just a terrible idea. And he feels exactly the same, and he's the boss, obviously. And he says, all right, we'll go out there. I said, all right, works for me. And so we get our interpreter, who we called Carlos because he looked like he was from Juarez, even though he was from, like, southern Iraq.

[Donut Operator]

Mexican looking mother.

[Braxton McCoy]

I got. I'll find a picture and show you. I don't want to. Wanted to be on the Internet in case he's still alive, you know?

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Braxton McCoy]

We're like, okay, Carlos, we're going out here and we're going to start asking questions and see what's up. So we go out, start asking questions, you know, try to keep this fast. And, you know, it's like, why are you here right now? You know? And the answers are, oh, either my cleric told me to be here, or I just wanted the best chance of the job, basically. And, I mean, neither one of these are actually good answers, you know, I don't believe you. And then this dude comes up and he starts tapping on my shoulder. He's, like, pretty frantic. And I don't know what he's saying. Like, I knew some words, but they were not friendly words. So I have no idea what he's hollering at me in Arabic, you know, And I'm like, carlos, translate this. Like, tell me what's up? And he's like. He says he sees a grenade with wires. And I'm like, ah, so we got a tripwire out here somewhere. I mean, that's where my brain went. And so we had. At that time, we had, like, the prick radios for, you know, comms. And then our team had an internal system so you could, like, push the button here and just talk only to your team. So you could, like, play those games that you're not supposed to play. Like. Like when you're. And you're like, Hillary Clinton. You know what I mean? And that's not a fed thing. It's a different. We want to know if you would marry Hillary Clinton. Does that game. So, like, internal comms, we were. We're like, hey, don't come out here. We don't know what's. We think there's tripwire, so on. And then this semi truck crashes through our concertina wire on the eastern perimeter. We'd set up. And of course, everyone's thinking, holy, that's a big R. Sweet. But, like, this is gonna be bad.

[Donut Operator]

Massive V bed to get lit up.

[Braxton McCoy]

Instant. Oh, yeah. So everyone, including in Abrams, but not with a main gun. Okay, yeah, yeah. Which would have been badass, but it didn't dope. We're like, send it, dude. So everyone's, you know, now we've got that situation to deal with, and Iraqis are running around all over the place. And John's like, do you want to take the truck or the crowd? And I was like, I'll take the crowd. You go get the truck. And then we got some help from Colonel Mack, and his PSD team came out trying to, like, round these Iraqis back up. And then a couple of dog handlers, Sergeant can and Jesse was his first name, I think he came out and we had their dogs, you know, trying to get this crowd under control. And we. We were putting them in lines, and we needed to have, like, do you have a government issued id? Do you not have a government issued id? Do you have a government issued ID and you are former Baathist? Because if you are, then we can't. We'll just fake it, you know? So we were doing that. And then I hear. I'm like, my medic was a former 82nd guy on the infantry side. And he's, you know, sitting in the gun. He's like, let me out there. You know, he's getting pissed. So I'm talking to him, and I'm like, no, stay in there, we're good. And then I hear, like, looking over the brim of my capot, I see this dog growling, and it's got this dude's arm in his mouth, and all of a sudden it's just like two white flashes. And I. I thought we got hit with IDF with, like, rockets or mortars or missiles or something.

[Brandon Herrera]

So indirect fire.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yep. Yeah. Not that country that everyone likes to talk about. Well, just making jokes.

[Donut Operator]

Also, the K pop is differently. You're getting on equipment, too. You're like, I had a K pop. Like, no Mitches, even. Yeah, they just really screwed you over. All equipment.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, we were. What was that?

[Brandon Herrera]

Mitch was like, that's the thing you wanted at the time.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, yeah. Like, he had to have a K. Pot sucked. And then did you have, like, the M82 old jungle?

[Braxton McCoy]

We were the first brigade to field the fucking pajamas. The ACUs.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, no.

[Braxton McCoy]

And it was dog. Everyone hated them. But we did have. So we had dcu, like, pouches and all that. But then our.

[Donut Operator]

What was that? IFAC.

[Braxton McCoy]

IFAC? Or IFAC was. Or not IFAC.

[Donut Operator]

No, what is it called? The IBA. IBAs, yeah. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Right?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. I mean, we had, like, plates or whatever, but. Yes.

[Donut Operator]

Sappy plates and all that.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yep. And so it goes off. And I thought we got hit with rockets or mortars or something, because there was like, two. At least in my head, two distinct explosions. And I woke up on the ground up, and I thought it was dead, man. I could just see. So my, like, all the bones and my right hand were broken, and my right radius and ulnar broken, but my right humerus wasn't. And then my left humerus was broken. And then this hand's, like, functional. So I got myself propped up on my elbow, and I was looking down, and I could just see, like, guts. And I thought I was for sure. I was like, you're blown in half. You're. Dude. Like, you're dead. And I was, like, rubbing this organ in my fingers, trying to figure out if it was mine, you know, I'd like. I didn't pass anatomy, so I didn't even know if you could, like, feel these things. Yeah. You know.

[Donut Operator]

I love your brain. It's like, is this mine? I don't feel it. Should I feel this? I don't know exactly. How far was the guy?

[Braxton McCoy]

15 meters or something. Jesus. Yeah, it was pretty close. And at that time, I can hear John yelling like every MC kid, right? You go by Mac. Everyone calls you Mac. It's not even optional. It's just, like, tradition or something. So I can hear him yelling, Mac. Mac. Mac. And I'm like, I have no idea what's going on. One thing movies get right is it's almost. It does almost sound like you're drowning. You know that underwater distortion. Yep. And so I was, like, trying to get oriented, and then I start feeling, like, some weight go off my body a little bit. And then pretty soon those guts got, like, pulled away. And then I could see, like, my hips and shit. And then they rolled me over. So now I'm thinking, like, at least I'm not blown in half. And then they rolled me over, and then I could see my legs. And my legs are just absolutely, like. I've got bilateral femur fractures on and bilateral hip fractures. And I had, like, something like 30 holes in my. Between my knees and hips on each side.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dear God.

[Braxton McCoy]

Like, my tibia was up. Yeah. When they rolled me over, it was like a bag of wrenches, you know?

[Brandon Herrera]

No.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. It was bad.

[Donut Operator]

And then. Holy damn.

[Brandon Herrera]

I'm just. I'm blown away just because, like, the fact that you're clearly mobile and, like, you look great. Like, just walking around like, you. I would never have expected something that bad.

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, I appreciate that. Thank you.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah. That's wild. Because he was like, yeah. As Brandon is saying, you would never tell just by your mobility motion standing, like, but 30 holes. And then how many your arteries did it miss? Everything.

[Braxton McCoy]

Okay. I'm like, I. When your femurs break, your glutes and your quads are so strong, they contract.

[Brandon Herrera]

Shunting.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yep.

[Donut Operator]

And then it's terrifying part. Go on.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yep. So then the compartment syndrome started right then, and it kind of worked out because it acted like an internal tourniquet. So when they started cutting my uniform off, and my medic was out there at this point, and he was cutting my uniform off, and he gets, like, to my thighs now I can start to see, like, holes. And then I was thinking, ah, you're still probably, you know, because, like, that's bad. And then he gets up, like, a little higher, and he's like, you're not wearing underwear. I'm like, you, dude, it's cold out here.

[Donut Operator]

I love the mindset. Still, the joke.

[Eli Double Tap]

Is that one of the things you thought was, like, it's my dick good.

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, yeah, because I didn't wear underwear, so he could just, like, see it. And as soon as he said that, I was like, I'm good, man. I just got out of the pool. Yeah. Yeah. I was in the pool. So I'll speed it up here.

[Donut Operator]

No, I like, by all means. Like this is. Unless you. You're not comfortable talking about, but I think that is a lot of people just don't understand that kind of trauma or that how fast everything happens, but then how slow everything happens at the same time.

[Braxton McCoy]

Mm. Yeah. It feels like an eternity. And when I could see all the holes, like some of them, not every one of them, every time my heart would be. You could see just blood, like run out. But it. Because of that compartment syndrome. It wasn't like squirting or anything. It was all pretty deep. I always say it looks like if you took like a water bottle and took the lid off and just like squoves it rhythmically, that's what it looked like. And so then they're trying to figure out what the to do. Tourniquets were not exactly a great option because there were so many problems. So they just bandaged it and they're like, we got to get you the out of here, man. And they put me on a five ton to medevac, which they. I don't even know. Do they even have suspension on those things? Because it didn't feel like it.

[Donut Operator]

No. Yeah, A horse and carriage is pretty much what they put you on.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, exactly. Go get my old man's wagon.

[Donut Operator]

Dude showed up. You're just like.

[Eli Double Tap]

Just like wooden wheels on the rocks.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's like the. The. The prank videos they do where they try to like get the thieves in the back of a box truck, and then as soon as they get it, they roll the door down and then just drive them around, get them flopping to one side or the other.

[Braxton McCoy]

Pretty much how it was, except for strapped to a litter.

[Donut Operator]

Well, thank God they have at least nice roads out there.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh, my gosh.

[Eli Double Tap]

Very nice.

[Donut Operator]

Really soft.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, rack roads, dude. They're known world over.

[Braxton McCoy]

The Navajo res, actually. If anyone's drove through like four corners, it's basically like that. This is how the Iraq roads are. No fault of the Navajos, I guess. That's what I'm told. No offense, Navajos. My grandfather had a feather from the Navajo tribe, so I feel like I get a.

[Brandon Herrera]

Is that like you're like, I have a black friend.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got a feather? Yeah. No, I really do love Indians. I grew up with them. I'm joking. Well, not the ones I had purchased very much, but. But I don't know if beers was a good idea.

[Brandon Herrera]

By all means.

[Donut Operator]

Question. So you.

[Braxton McCoy]

Man, Philip's gonna have a heart attack over there.

[Donut Operator]

I know. He's like oh he Thumbs up. Thumbs up the compartment. Dude saved your life too.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh totally did. Oh and it gets better. The roads we get to Ogden Gate which is like the rear gate of the FOB fobber Marty at the time. And the troop medical clinic is like right down that. The hospital for the base was right down that road. Some sergeant major had put speed bumps down there because people were speeding or whatever. Yeah. So there's like speed bump. Boom boom. Like this is.

[Donut Operator]

You can't get to the fucking. Oh my God. That's such a sart major thing to do too bro.

[Braxton McCoy]

And you. You know I'm not going to. You know it's like some logistics guy that was just bored or some too. He's like the only soldier I lost. Rolled his truck.

[Donut Operator]

We got slow down in here unless there is emergency. And now I can't get to the exactly med bas fast.

[Brandon Herrera]

I got a commendation because I put in too.

[Braxton McCoy]

He like ran some risk assessment. Was like hey you know gets his nerd quant glasses out.

[Eli Double Tap]

Have you seen these? Your generation kill.

[Braxton McCoy]

Love it.

[Eli Double Tap]

Back in the day it was like you gotta police that moose dash.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Braxton McCoy]

That's.

[Eli Double Tap]

That's who makes me think about put the speed bumps there. Police that mustache.

[Donut Operator]

Didn't even think about the downsides to hey. Why you might need to get around quickly on the base especially.

[Braxton McCoy]

Especially to the medical clinic. Yeah. Kind of important.

[Donut Operator]

Kind of important.

[Brandon Herrera]

Why would you ever need to get people there fast?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. Yeah. What makes a great pair of glasses at Warby Parker?

[Brandon Herrera]

It's all the invisible extras without the extra cost.

[Braxton McCoy]

Their designer quality frames start at $95 including prescription lenses plus scratch resistant, smudge resistant and anti reflective coatings and UV protection and free adjustments for life. To find your next pair of glasses, sunglasses or contact lenses or to find the Warby Parker store nearest you head over to warbyparker.com that's warbyparker.com especially with a black fly zone. So getting a aerial medevac is almost impossible anyway. Holy shit. Yeah, it was bad.

[Donut Operator]

So you got speed bumps. You're just.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Bouncing your way.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Morphine yet?

[Braxton McCoy]

Do they know?

[Donut Operator]

Jesus.

[Braxton McCoy]

Well yeah, probably lucky on that one.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Braxton McCoy]

We get to the medical clinic and then you know you start doing the blood pressure and all that which we didn't have that capability in our aid bags at that time. I'm sure they do now but get to the the aid station and you know they start working on you or whatever and they kind of immediately Realize you got to get somewhere. Like a trauma hospital. This is not good. So they put lines in, start pumping blood into my body, but they wouldn't give me any morphine because my blood pressure was so low. It would just kill you. So they do that. And then they put me on a bird. And the idea was go to blood. The Air Force base. And that's where you want to go. That's where like, the smart people are with, like, they have TVs and two movie theaters.

[Donut Operator]

Well, they have a swimming pool, outdoor and indoor pool. Trust me. That's where if you were good, you got to go to bullocks. I know.

[Braxton McCoy]

Bal.

[Eli Double Tap]

I grew up in the public. Public education system of Alabama. Where's Balada?

[Donut Operator]

Bilada is a. It's an Air Force base in Iraq. It was near Is more Mokdia.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. It wasn't closer to Erbil.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah. It's like in between. You had Baghdad and then Mokdadiya. And I think it's like the good doctors were there. Yes. Yeah.

[Braxton McCoy]

The Air Force, the people that Air Force. Okay.

[Donut Operator]

I understand that Air Force lived there. His dopey shot.

[Braxton McCoy]

Dude. Yeah. So we get up in the air and there's a couple of us on there, including the dog. His name is Bruno, and he was on there. He lived. The dog did. Sergeant can unfortunately passed away and Colonel Mack died as well, which sucked.

[Donut Operator]

Was he a full bird or just a lieutenant?

[Braxton McCoy]

Lieutenant colonel.

[Donut Operator]

That's wild to lose a lieutenant colonel.

[Braxton McCoy]

The balls that guy had.

[Donut Operator]

He had to be out there too, dude.

[Braxton McCoy]

He's out there with a bunch of five sixes. Fours. I think the next highest ranking guy was a six that was actually out there.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, so same blast. Got them as well.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. Colonel Mack, it sucked, man. Like, I liked. We all liked him because he was just like that, you know, he's like a true leader. He just came up to me, right. Right before I got wounded, and he's like, I know you got some Copenhagen. Like, yeah, I do. So you can, like, give him a dip, you know? And he's like, this shit's. I'm like, I know, sir. He was awesome, man. So he. And he was a great guy, dude. I don't want to get depressed about it, but. So he passed away. And then dog handler Sergeant can, also a great guy. He. Sergeant can. Had been at FOB hit on the Syrian border way over there. And he was bored as he's like, you. You guys got to get me to Ramoni. That's where everyone's doing. So he had Volunteered to get over to Ramadi, too. So it's just a bunch of the best dudes in the world, you know? Great guy. He passed away. Bruno made it, and then actually deployed again to Afghanistan.

[Donut Operator]

No.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

The hard ass dog, right?

[Braxton McCoy]

Hard ass dog, man, that dog was badass. And right before he got wounded, one of the things I had said to can over the radio, I was like, he. Or. No, actually, it was face to face. He's like, you want us to come out and help? I was like, yeah, I'm glad you got that dog off my truck, because he was out there sleeping, you know, on my hood. Just joking, because we loved it. Yeah. Yeah, he's a stud. So we get to the aid station, get in the bird, and I get, like, barely coherent at this point, and we take off and we're trying to get to blood. And when they ended up stopping in to quantum TQ because I was losing too much blood. And so they start, like, more blood, more saline or whatever it is in those IV bags.

[Donut Operator]

How much blood have they put in at this point?

[Braxton McCoy]

It had to be, man. Oh, yeah. It was definitely a lot. And then we tried it. Do we take off from there? But I still just had them in my arms, like, the. The lines, I think it's hard to remember exactly. And then I don't think were you fault. Yeah, yeah.

[Donut Operator]

What the. Give me the details, bro. You only had a.

[Braxton McCoy]

30 holes in you kind of a lot going on. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like, were you. Were you conscious for all of this?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay.

[Donut Operator]

That's.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. I mean, you start to go in and out from pain a little bit, but. And then we take off from TQ and we end up stopping in Fallujah for emergency surgery. They're like, this guy Fallujah had a better trauma hospital than Ramadi. They're like, this guy's not gonna make it. So stopped in Fallujah, and they put a pick line in my jugular, and I think that one either had two or four bags going in, and they put me in traction splints, and they do. They split my quads from, like, knee to hip on both sides to try to relieve the compartment syndrome.

[Brandon Herrera]

And what is compartment syndrome?

[Braxton McCoy]

It's like your body starts swelling from the inside out, essentially. So, like, all of your fluids are like, I don't know, I'm not a doctor, but your fluids start pressing both directions. I guess it's just creating pressure inside.

[Donut Operator]

It essentially saved you. And also very bad at the same time.

[Braxton McCoy]

Exactly.

[Donut Operator]

Because you, like. Because how many minutes is this is like Minutes in, you're femoral, especially if both were cut, if you're from. Or if you're hitting the femoral. And compartment syndrome didn't happen. You have two to four minutes live. Max. Yeah, Max.

[Brandon Herrera]

You're just leaking blood everywhere.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah. Like, and it's not leaking. It is squirting across the goddamn room. Like, where he was saying, oh, it's this little pump that every time your heart beats for arteries, it shoots across the goddamn room.

[Braxton McCoy]

So that's the high pressure side.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Braxton McCoy]

If you're into trucks or whatever.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah. But yours is like, oh, hey, compartment. That. That syndrome is just crushing everything. Wild. Fucking wild. Especially with that many holes, too.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh, dude, it sucked. Yeah. And I would say, to add to his point, if you're like a truck guy, it'd be like putting a channel or not a channel lock, a vice grip on a line or something, you know, to like, slow it down. So we get to Fallujah. They get me in traction splints, and then they split that knee to hip on each side. And that really sucked because, you know, you're like, virtually no pain. No pain medication at all at this point. And you know, you're like, your brain's barely there, but you could. You can hear it when the scalpel goes. You can, like, hear it in your ears. It's weird. I always say it sounds like a muddy zipper.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Braxton McCoy]

So that sucked. And then once they got me stabilized, Ish there. Then they hit me with morphine, or maybe it was at Balad that they did that, but they finally got me to blood, and then it was morphine hell and all that, until they got. Finally got me to land stool and then from landstool to Walter Reed. And so that was.

[Donut Operator]

Damn. So how many minutes was from explosion to actual morphine then? Did they say if they ever.

[Braxton McCoy]

I don't. I don't know for sure. It was a while, though. It wasn't. Well, I don't know. I guess I don't really know for sure. When I wrote the book, I went back to my medical records and then talked to my friends because obviously I'm not gonna have a clear memory of stuff. So I remember things one way. And then I would talk to my buddies and be like, does that sound right? You know, so I try to get as right as possible. So whatever I've got in there is probably going to be closer. But I don't think you could. Like, they don't write it down. What. What they do, though, is the minute you're off the Field, they scan your ID card, your CAT card, and you stop getting combat pay.

[Donut Operator]

They made sure that real quick.

[Brandon Herrera]

That is the most government shit I've ever heard.

[Braxton McCoy]

They're like, bro, where's his ID card?

[Donut Operator]

We need that. We got to stop it. Okay. And he's taxed again. Holy shit, that was heavy.

[Eli Double Tap]

What's your favorite Zach Bryan song?

[Braxton McCoy]

I'm like a spiritual boomer, man. I listen to old cowboy mostly, and then I really like Bach, so I listen to, like, a lot of Bach, but.

[Eli Double Tap]

All right, okay. Lighter note. That's what you're listening to these days.

[Braxton McCoy]

My daughter likes to listen to Zach Brian, so if I make her drive, I'm tortured with new music, and his is not torturous. I will say that.

[Brandon Herrera]

Have you heard speaking like. Speaking of, like, old country, have you heard that new. New thing that's going around? It's Johnny Cash's grandson. Did Folsom Prison Blues. He sounds just like his grandfather. It is, like, spitting image. Yeah. You know, he's got an older guy. Like, obviously Johnny Cash was, you know, not a spring chick chicken or anything like that, but, like, he sounds just funny like his grandfather. It's weird.

[Braxton McCoy]

I did hear about that.

[Donut Operator]

I don't know music. So I am.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, I don't. I feel bad. I'm not trying to be offensive. I don't listen to a lot of music is what I'm driving at.

[Brandon Herrera]

Don't worry. You don't have to worry about being offensive to Zach Bryan on this podcast. We've got some lore, apparently.

[Braxton McCoy]

Put the backstory.

[Donut Operator]

I'm like, dude, so how was the. The response from your book, though, or the individual seeing how far you've came from that? Because that is.

[Braxton McCoy]

Dude.

[Donut Operator]

No. Morphine's wild for at minimum 30 minutes. There's no. Nothing at minimum 30 minutes, I'm guessing. And then it happens, probably. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, they're thankfully military. Was pretty good. Like, they tried to speed it up, but then speed bumps and.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, once you went a bird, it's like.

[Brandon Herrera]

But you went to multiple places apparently, before there was morphine, right?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. Yeah, three, I think. Or. Yeah, three. Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Thankfully, Iraq, when you're in a helicopter is pretty. It's not that big of a place.

[Braxton McCoy]

No.

[Donut Operator]

You're looking at an hour drive a lot of times. So helicopter.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Then you're back down. They're cooking, too.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, they hold us.

[Donut Operator]

But you had that response, though, from that had to been, like, super motivating or inspirational to a lot of veterans and helping them, too, because they're like, holy. Okay. Homeboy went through way worse, and this is his story on how to overcome that. Okay, I want to read this book. Or this is how this helped me. You had to have some messages about that, right?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, the best parts were I. It's really cool and helpful when civilians reach out to him. Like, hey, this helped me. And so I don't want to, you know, poo poo, any of that, because I really enjoy getting those messages as well. But, you know, when you've got bros that were there and they're like, dude, I read that. That helped me with. With some I was going through in my life, you know, that's. Yeah, that's the best part. The. When I. I wrote it, I had, like, no social media presence. I was like, riding colts and guiding hunts. And so I didn't, like, have a profit motive, which I think helped. I knew it wasn't gonna sell very many copies, so I just tried to be as clear and honest and upfront about shit as I could. So, like, for the first five years, the book was out, sold like 500 or something. And then I get on and start talking like, aoc. And then all of a sudden people are like, I gotta read this guy's book. You know, so it's been really just like the last three or four years, and it's been great. When did you write it? I think I started it in 2015. I think it published in 2017. I think was the. The year that it came out.

[Eli Double Tap]

Where. Where can we buy it now?

[Braxton McCoy]

Brax mccoy.com.

[Donut Operator]

Right. Where to get it. You're gonna have a lot of people, especially these out there. Yeah, you got a lot you shitters out there. Very supportive.

[Brandon Herrera]

Now, the second time we've mentioned where you can buy your book, and I promise you we will have comments that ask where to buy it.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, bro, well, I'll tell you some stuff off air about that because I don't want to be mean to anybody, but yes, be me. You can, like, write something out and bold letters like, hey, man, it's gonna take this long for it to ship. And they're like, hey, two days later, where the is my book?

[Donut Operator]

It's like, dude, I told you. Oh.

[Brandon Herrera]

I mean, honestly, I find that, like, incredibly. I don't know what the word is. Inspirational, I guess, because I knew nothing about, you know, the. The incident that happened or any of your recovery or anything on that. And what you just described is incredible that, like, you just walked in here like a normal ass guy, like the Fact that you're walking in itself is a miracle. But being as mobile as you are and everything is, that's got to be awesome, man. That's. I'm really happy for you.

[Braxton McCoy]

Thank you. It's great, man. It's blessings. Like, I just got lucky and blessed, man.

[Donut Operator]

So me and you didn't use that as an excuse, I guarantee. How much therapy did you do for, like, your physical therapy was not an easy journey and you're like, no, I'm doing it right.

[Braxton McCoy]

There were days where I didn't want to. For sure.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Braxton McCoy]

It was like six or eight years or something like that. Jesus Christ. But.

[Donut Operator]

But you would never, like, again, we cannot stress. You would never be able to tell that was the level.

[Brandon Herrera]

No, you went through.

[Donut Operator]

And that's what's awesome. At the end of. It fucking sucks. But it's like, holy. Look. Hey, you just nutted up and then did the hard work.

[Eli Double Tap]

He improvised, adapted and came.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, he came all over. And now you're like, here I am. You do. Do you do any athleticism too, like running?

[Braxton McCoy]

I. Once I finally got to where I could run, I did some for a while. I've been a cold starter for my whole life, minus that brief period, really. Almost my whole life, I guess. So that kind of keeps me pretty busy. But this last year and a half, it's been. Or maybe, yeah, about a year and a half. It's been a lot of talking and writing and less horse training than normal. In fact, it was roughly 18 months ago or something like that. I busted my hip and my back again. What are you doing, man? I got bucked off this half draft colt and I thought she stepped on me. It hurt. I was like, that was a good one. But luckily I have.

[Eli Double Tap]

Hold on. You're like, oh, I got blown up. Better than step on a horse again and get up.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, man, I love him. I can't get it. I just can't get it out. It's like in my soul. I can't. I just can't stop. But this, this horse, it was kind. It was totally my fault. Well, she's a too, but we. It was like, I was ready to.

[Brandon Herrera]

It was like friends of mine talking about their last marriage.

[Braxton McCoy]

Exactly. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's totally my fault.

[Donut Operator]

Well.

[Braxton McCoy]

Sweet. I was an terminology wise. Inside horse is like a horse you own and the outside horse is a client horse that's been brought there for you to ride for him. This is an outside mare, Philly, and she was half draft. She was half Percheron, half Quarter horse. And I liked her fine. Everything had been going good, and this was. I was about to go move cattle for the guy that owned her and show her. Show him. Like, hey, here. She's doing good. Take her. You know, she's yours. So I'm warming her up in the round pen, and she was just fighting me on the bit a bunch, and I was like, no, you're gonna fucking listen to me. You know? And she decided, no, I'm actually not gonna listen to you. And she just blew up. And I was in a slick fork saddle and, like, not a colt saddle, and she tossed me pretty good. And I hit, like. She sent me, like, straight up, and I hit my hip on the saddle on the way down and kind of did, like, a cartwheel into the ground. And I was like, wow, that hurt. So I got up, walked around for a minute. I have rods in my. In my legs and my left hip, which is the one that broke. So it's luckily, like, it can't move. Like, I'm not Superman or something. I have, like, help.

[Donut Operator]

Help. Yeah. Mobility issues do happen from 30 holes.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. But, you know, if the rod hadn't been there, I wouldn't have been able to walk. It's because it was there.

[Brandon Herrera]

Extra structure.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. It bent the rod, which is not great. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Did you have to have that replaced or.

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, no.

[Donut Operator]

You didn't go to the doctor, did you?

[Braxton McCoy]

There's no way.

[Brandon Herrera]

Whale's not an answer.

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, once you bend the rod, then it's like, it's a big deal to get it out because, like, think of, like, a bent wood screw trying to pull out. It's in your bone, you know? So it's. I just. So I get up. I'm like, walking around. I'm like, oof, that's pretty sore. And I walk around for a minute, and then, like, well, we gotta move these cows. So I loaded her up and drove over.

[Donut Operator]

The Braxton. Just Braxton McCoy. I gotta move this cattle now. I just bent a fucking rod in my body.

[Braxton McCoy]

Well, I didn't know that. I thought I was just bruised, you know, I thought I was just being. So we go move cast for a few hours, and I told him. I was like, hey, she bucked me off right before this. Let me keep her for a couple extra weeks. I'm not gonna charge any money. Just let me make sure she doesn't do that again. I get home, and I, like, It's late, and I take my straps off my pant. My wife, like, throws a fit. If I walk out of the laundry room with, like, horseshit, you know? I mean, I can't imagine why. So I'm, like, taking them off in there, and my leg is, like, black and blue. She's like, what happened? And I off. I'm like, no big deal. Then finish the season out. And then it's winter, and I sat on the couch for, like, two days. Like, pretty much didn't get off the couch. Like, just resting, like, watching tv. And. And then Monday came around. I'm like, all right, I gotta be productive. And I tried to stand up, and I, like, could not move my leg. I'm like, oh, something's wrong. And she's like, you're going to hospital. I got a doctor I like, and his name's Mike, and my God, I'm good. She's like, you're going. So I go. And he's. I go there, and he's like, what's going on? I tell him my hips kind of screwed up, not moving very good. He takes X rays, and he goes, have you seen your back? I was like, well, how am I going to see my back, Mike? He's like, come look at this. And he's like, you fucking idiot. You broke your back, dude. So, like, the. The transverse process, like the little wings off your vertebrae just snapped the one off on. Yeah, I think it was my left side. Might be the right. I can't remember. Yeah, I just broke it off, so it's just, like, floating there. I was like, can we fix that? And he's like, no, you retard. He's like, it's all healed now, you idiot. So, yeah, I didn't get any smarter over the years, is the thing.

[Donut Operator]

Damn, dude.

[Brandon Herrera]

How do you fix that if you bend the rod in your leg. I'm still stuck on that. Like, do they just.

[Donut Operator]

You can't. I mean, you'd have to remove the whole rod, right?

[Brandon Herrera]

Which apparently you can't because, like. Like, you said, like, the bent wood screw analogy like that. That was actually very, very good as far as explaining that.

[Braxton McCoy]

But I think they'd have to do a total hip replacement. For what? The reason that you're hitting on. I think they'd have to cut the. The ball off of the head of the hip and then pull it out, and that rod goes. So that one was. I can't remember, not retrograde. It was like, gamma or something. So it went through the top of the hip, down, and then screws into the end of your femur, like your. The ball of your femur Right. And then the hip rod. There's like, an eyelet in there, and the hip rod goes through that. So they would have to be able to get that out in order to get the femur rod out to start over. It would just be a huge process. That sounds cumbersome and annoying.

[Donut Operator]

And they. I mean, if you have never watched a hip replacement video. Oh, man, it is the most. They use a goddamn sludgehammer to knock it out and knock it back in place. It is not a delicate process. Not at all. And that's essentially what they would.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh, yeah, yeah. And when they put those rods in, I didn't know this until later, like, watching Instagram or whatever, there's, like, an impact, and they're, like, getting that going. They're, like, screwing it in.

[Brandon Herrera]

I'm, like, looking at those videos, watching those videos. I feel like that's how, like, our grandparents are gonna. Or, excuse me, our grandchildren are gonna come back and watch that. Like, God, these guys are basically bloodletting.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Braxton McCoy]

Like, it's like the leeches. Yeah, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

We gotta get that bad blood out.

[Braxton McCoy]

God, put some silver fish in there with us.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, he got ghosts in his blood. Do cocaine.

[Donut Operator]

Give the baby heroin.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, your baby's too much. Give them heroin.

[Donut Operator]

The laxatives.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's like, this was like, four generations ago. Like, we shouldn't be laughing.

[Eli Double Tap]

It's.

[Brandon Herrera]

Modern medicine's pretty rad, all things considered, but we're not there yet.

[Donut Operator]

Holy God damn, bro. You just going through the ringer and you're like, no, I want to do this more.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Braxton McCoy]

No, this is awesome, man. This is fun to sell.

[Brandon Herrera]

Glad you're having a good time, man. We're having a blast.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, this is great. What was it like? Did you watch anything or did any research before this? Or were you like, no, let's go in cold.

[Braxton McCoy]

I've seen, like, some of your guys stuff on YouTube and then Philip and I watched. So, like, I see your individual gun content and your breakdown stuff, and. And then we watched a little bit while we were driving, like good Americans down the freeway. I was like, I didn't know if I wanted to be overly prepped and nervous about it. And I watched a little bit. I'm like, oh, this is gonna be fun.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, plus, you sat down with three bush lights in the beginning before we even started out. We're like, yeah, all right. This is gonna be a time.

[Donut Operator]

We're going to have a good time today, my friend.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah. The one thing we want to do on this podcast, like, you Know, every white dude with a beard has a podcast now. But we just want to hang out and drink a couple of beers.

[Braxton McCoy]

That's awesome. Beer cast.

[Donut Operator]

Have fun, listen to stories. Like, that's why even the history segments you did at the beginning leading into, like, hey, this is my thought process on that community. But they eat that shit up.

[Brandon Herrera]

Every time he says the word community, we have to drink.

[Braxton McCoy]

Oh, okay.

[Brandon Herrera]

But that's. That's one thing I wanted to kind of bring back around. So you had, obviously, all of those experiences that were, you know, clearly very formative, very impactful. Where did that transition over to now? Like, one of your big, I guess, missions in life is protecting public lands. Where did that. Where was the bridge there.

[Braxton McCoy]

About 10 years ago? Something like that? Rob Bishop and some other politicians from Utah had put together this public lands initiative. And it sounded really good to a guy like me. It was like, hey, more local control. The movement was, the idea was to transfer ownership of the land from the federal government to the state government. And I was like, man, local ownership sounds way better. You know, so. Sounded good. And then a buddy of mine started talking to me about, hey, there's some hiccups here. Might not be as clean cut as you think it would be. And I started researching it, and I joined, like, this organization with a friend of mine. Well, it was an established organization. I just joined it and start learning more. And it doesn't take very long once you start to get in the weeds, to go, hey, this is bullshit. Like, the whole intent of transfer is to sell it off. The entire intent. To me, the most practical argument here is right now those lands are being held in trust for the American citizen, and they're resting on a tax base of 330 million people. Well, if you transfer them to, say, Idaho, where I live, that's a 1.8 million person tax base. How do you move that on to them without causing, like, huge problems? You either have to increase property taxes to, you know, you're gonna have to tax the out of them in order for them to take care of it, or you're gonna have to sell it.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, you shouldn't. The maintenance burden of that.

[Braxton McCoy]

Maintenance burden. There's actually a program called Pilot Payment in lieu of taxes that is designed to take care of rural communities like the one that I live in. So there's a ton of public land where I'm at a shitload, and the property taxes are not being collected on that. Well, property taxes help pay for schools, roads, you know, firefighters, sheriff's apartments. So on. Well, they can't collect tax on the public land. So the federal government says, well we'll put together this program and we will pay you money to your rural communities in order to take care of this. So if you transfer it to the state, well, now that rural community doesn't get that money. So how are they going to pay for all this? They have to sell it. The state will have to sell it. There's no way around it. And that's without even getting into road, bridge, fire, all this, these other like fire mitigation, all these other costs. They just can't afford it. There's no way.

[Brandon Herrera]

They get sold off to either China or Blackrock or whoever comes in and, and buys up all this land.

[Braxton McCoy]

The Saudis. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

People that notoriously, you know, by and large the, the people that are buying this land, not big fans of us or our culture or anything that we, we cultivate this land for.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. And coming from a ranch community, ranching community, a lot of small ranches, like the people that I care about, they're running a lot of times 90, 10 percentage wise deeded to undead acres. So they own like 10% of what they're running their cattle on. The other 90% is public land, like BLM stuff. BLM for service.

[Brandon Herrera]

Kind of like the, the Bundy Bundy ranch kind of stuff.

[Braxton McCoy]

Or.

[Brandon Herrera]

I know that's its own separate issue.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. That would be its own podcast. But yes.

[Eli Double Tap]

Who else buys it? Brandon?

[Braxton McCoy]

Those guys, they already hate me and I'm like actually on their side with a lot of it. But. Yeah. So if you, if you were to do that, their ranch is just absolutely cooked. There's no way they can buy. So you, one, one common argument you'll get is we'll just let the rancher buy that land. There's other reasons not to, to want this, but. Well, he can't. I'm telling you right now, he absolutely can't. There's no, there's no way in hell. If you've got a stocking rate of 35 acres to a pair, so you make maybe 500 bucks a year per 35 acres, something like that, after inputs are done, how are you going to use that to buy something that's going to sell at probably a minimum right now? Because the land prices are where they're at, 3,500 an acre. How's he gonna take five generations? No one's gonna, first of all, no one's gonna loan to him on that. But even if they would, there's no way he can't do it. And then there's another reason not to. There's many reasons not to. But another important reason not to is out west a lot of our species are migratory because of the mountains. So they'll summer up on the mountain and they'll winter down in the flats. When you start fencing all of that stuff off, you're just going to destroy the mule deer population which is already struggling in virtually every state but Wyoming. So you just kill off keystone species for no reason and not just is.

[Brandon Herrera]

The reason why it doesn't. They're not particularly affected in Wyoming is because it's more flat or.

[Braxton McCoy]

No. What happened in Wyoming? They finally reached stasis. They lost a bunch too. They used to be at about a million. Their herd used to be about a million animals. I think they're at 400,000 right now. But they were able to hit stasis because Eastman's and some, the biologists there. And then I think some money came in from another group. I wish I could credit them, but can't remember. They identified this one ridgeline that was private and it wasn't a big chunk, that was a corridor. And they were able to purchase it and remove the fences so then those deer could migrate again from summer range to winter range without being interrupted. And then the, the herd reached stasis and some of the migration is like. It can be 150 miles. Sure. It's not like 12 acres or something? Right. Like White.

[Brandon Herrera]

That was the choke point.

[Braxton McCoy]

It was a choke point exactly like Whitel. From what I understand out here, they'll a lot of times they'll establish like a five mile radius or something. They're not, they don't migrate in the same way.

[Eli Double Tap]

But listen, if you had total control over everything, what would you do to solve all this?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, if I like getting total control.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like, okay, well he might get a little scary on that part.

[Eli Double Tap]

That's what I want to hear. He's so passionate.

[Braxton McCoy]

Do I have the nuclear codes?

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, like you're so passionate, passionate about this. Let's, let's say you had all the control in your hand right now. Like, what would you do if.

[Braxton McCoy]

I don't think this is. I think it's possible, but I don't think it's probable, at least in the short term. The answer is federal ownership. So it's still held in public trust and you have that money, you know, the, the large tax base to take care of it. And then more localized input with o oversight from, you know, scientists that are actually And I don't mean like gay scientists that try to like stick in your arm. I mean like. Like people that are out there trying to save trout and stuff.

[Donut Operator]

You mean professionals and knowledgeable of what they do?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Crazy that that's not a normal.

[Eli Double Tap]

A normal hold on. People that know what they're doing.

[Donut Operator]

Why would you ever do that? I hate that.

[Braxton McCoy]

We don't do that here.

[Brandon Herrera]

I mean like that's. I don't think that's super off the table by any means because we already have federal ownership.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, I think it's doable. They just won't.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, this is like give. Relinquish. I'm. I'm always a big fan of like relinquishing when it makes sense. You know, Relinquishing federal control to like local.

[Braxton McCoy]

I understand the.

[Brandon Herrera]

The best form of government like as it. I don't know. So box back over here.

[Eli Double Tap]

Keep going, Brandon.

[Braxton McCoy]

No, no, you're right. The.

[Brandon Herrera]

The best form of government is always the most. Most local. So for things that can't be controlled, like obviously like you. You for a federal government there are certain duties that make sense and then for whatever you can distill down to the state, for whatever you can from there distill down to the county, to the city, to whatever. And ideally the most perfect form of government is the self, the person, the individual.

[Eli Double Tap]

It's almost like you're a good politician, Brandon.

[Brandon Herrera]

No, no, no, no Politicians. A fucking slur. Don't ever call me that again.

[Braxton McCoy]

That hurt.

[Brandon Herrera]

I just took poison damage by you calling me politicians.

[Eli Double Tap]

Minus 1.

[Donut Operator]

Minus 1.

[Eli Double Tap]

Minus one.

[Donut Operator]

Finn, bleep out what Cody said to make it racist.

[Brandon Herrera]

I know where you live. Don't do that either.

[Braxton McCoy]

But.

[Brandon Herrera]

But no, like I feel like, you know, nobody knows what the local communities need more than the local communities.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, I agree with some of that.

[Donut Operator]

I don't trust humans. That's my problem with them.

[Braxton McCoy]

I'm like eh, eh.

[Donut Operator]

You put a lot of trust in. In people at the local level.

[Braxton McCoy]

Then you're like.

[Donut Operator]

They'll be like, I got an idea.

[Braxton McCoy]

Can be cheaper to buy too. But. But I understand theoretically the. But one thing to add to that that I think is true. Like if you're. You find some kid that is passionate about it, that lives in the area and you just. He's maybe not credentialed. He. He doesn't have his masters in Crest Wheat or whatever, but he knows how to.

[Eli Double Tap]

I'm talking about a kid that like grew up there.

[Brandon Herrera]

Still better. Better than gender studies?

[Donut Operator]

Yes.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, that's it's another podcast. Have opinions.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, I bet we can get some.

[Braxton McCoy]

They tried to do that to our fish out there. They're like, queer in the streams of the west. That's a real science paper. I'm like, you know what, give me that.

[Donut Operator]

I just want that merch. That's a great. Queer in the fish.

[Braxton McCoy]

We're in the streams.

[Brandon Herrera]

We're in the streams. That's a real.

[Braxton McCoy]

That was a real scientific paper. A real one. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Alex Jones. Alex Jones is tweaking like they didn't stop at the frogs.

[Eli Double Tap]

Wait, there's queers in the streams.

[Braxton McCoy]

How close to California are you?

[Eli Double Tap]

I don't know.

[Donut Operator]

Okay, hey, here's what we're trying for. As Cody said, you're like, just see.

[Eli Double Tap]

Some kid in the holler.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. You find that kid that's actually been working in it and he's still doing it, and you pay him some money to say, hey, what would you do to improve this? And then you give him the opportunity to kind of manage all of this shit around him. And then you have some oversight on there because maybe he, you know, maybe he goes a little too hard, but he probably won't. Some things people we did used to over graze and all that, and you will still see occasionally some overgrade something, usually lease property. It's not his, like private lease. You'll see some of that. But most people have kind of figured out, hey, maybe I could put a couple extra pounds on my beef this year, but I'm not going to have as much forage next year. So it doesn't make sense. Like we need some kind of have balance here. You find a kid like that and you say, okay, you're in charge of this range. It's a job. If you it up, we're firing you and finding someone else. And you just have it on a yearly like annualized. Show me your performance review. And I don't mean like how many trees were you able to rip out of here? It's like, how healthy is this ecosystem? How well did you manage it? You know, what projects did you. That kind of stuff.

[Donut Operator]

Genius.

[Brandon Herrera]

It needs to be a little bit more for sure nuanced because you always have any. Like, for example, a company that goes public now, now you're, you're not. You're no longer running your company for the future for like, for example, like with a founder, like a founder's idea of where the company needs to go 5, 10, 15 years in the future, like Steve Jobs or somebody like that. Now you're going for performance review for the quarter and that's how you end up with things like Social Security, things that we knew that would never work. But everybody involved that was getting the pats on the back when it, you know, did well in the beginning, things that they will all be long dead by the time it fell apart. Like I'll never see a dime of Social Security doing it.

[Donut Operator]

Doing it like that and hiring an individual, a kid and then a team based around performance is literally how we hire anyone for unsold pepper box. It is based off of, hey, let's see what you can do with I don't give a about your piece of paper, your college education. This is you unprompted doing this and learning this by yourself. When you present a good deck or a good reel, you're like, holy, you edited this. So you're all self taught. It's like, yeah, you love this. This is why you do this for the love of the game. That's the same thing. It's like that kid would be for the love of the game is why he's learning that ecosystem and how to develop the best wave.

[Eli Double Tap]

That's right.

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

I love what he's saying, dude.

[Donut Operator]

That's. It's like that's how it should be across everything.

[Eli Double Tap]

Braxton's like, hey kid, you grow up here, all right? Figure it out. If you up, sorry, you're gone.

[Donut Operator]

And that's the incentive too. It's like, oh shit, I have to do the best for I. I don't. It's not about the paper or any like it is. I have to do the best job I can right now and lead this team and then if I do really good, I get to do this next year.

[Braxton McCoy]

Exactly. Yeah. Unless you have a self leaders and then you're just out.

[Brandon Herrera]

But then there's the Eli. The Eli problem that you brought up earlier, which is, you know, humans typically tend to suck.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, that's right.

[Brandon Herrera]

So how do you, how do you hedge against that?

[Donut Operator]

I think that is where if you're self motivated and you are self taught.

[Eli Double Tap]

You.

[Donut Operator]

A lot of the times you're doing it not because it's like, oh, look at my money, like aha, I'm getting paid to do this. I like they're doing it because they want to do the best they can in that field. Editors even for me, at the end of the day, I do not care about the. I love the idea of business or the marketing campaigns or the podcast and getting those analytics up. Paychecks are nice but at the end of the day, do not give a shit about that. It is. How do we structure this for the most success? Okay, this works really good. Let's implement that. Oh, that's fucking dope. Okay, that worked really, really, really good. Okay, let's continue to do that and then train up the team to follow suit. And that's hopefully then hopefully the team also is good people at the end of the day.

[Eli Double Tap]

We've shot so many editors.

[Donut Operator]

But editor leave that in Finn, show your face scared. But I think it is like you.

[Braxton McCoy]

Mean.

[Donut Operator]

Is being and people do suck a lot of the times. That is. It's what sucks. People suck. And like I'll get lazy, I'll get complacent. But if you can replace them every year and it's not. Here's a four year cycle. You get this for four years. That's as dope. Shoot, dude, he's like, kill this. You suck. You know what?

[Braxton McCoy]

You're going to alligator Alcatra.

[Donut Operator]

I'll kill you. I don't think many people are such a bad job. Wait, if I this up, I die Los Angeles. In Los Angeles.

[Brandon Herrera]

But I think, oh, you know.

[Braxton McCoy]

Iing love that.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, and I think on that note.

[Eli Double Tap]

In real life, sorry.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, you're good.

[Brandon Herrera]

That had nothing to do with anything. We're just like, oh.

[Donut Operator]

You want to move to the After Show? 20 minutes, 10 minutes on the after show.

[Brandon Herrera]

Brother, I gotta say it's been a genuine pleasure. This has been awesome. Seriously. Thank you for coming on, man.

[Braxton McCoy]

Thank you for having me, man.

[Donut Operator]

These are amazing, dude.

[Eli Double Tap]

Guys, thank you for joining Unsubscribe today. We were here with Eli, double tap, Braxton McCoy, Brandon Herrera, myself, donut operator. Please join us on the after show.

[Donut Operator]

On Patreon and and Braxton, where can we find you on the social medias?

[Braxton McCoy]

Braxtoncoy.com that's probably the easiest. I'm not hard to find on Twitter. I talk a lot of shit on there.

[Eli Double Tap]

Glass sector.

[Brandon Herrera]

Is that also where we can find your book braxtonmcboy.com?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for the book.com. yeah, that's my link tree. Go to my website, I guess.

[Brandon Herrera]

Is that where we can find your naughty links?

[Braxton McCoy]

Yeah, that's where I take my clothes.

[Donut Operator]

Off riding them colts.

[Braxton McCoy]

It's my only friends.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, I get like buzzkilly cowboys.

[Donut Operator]

Only cowboys dot com.

[Braxton McCoy]

They're gonna clip that.

[Donut Operator]

Stop it.

[Braxton McCoy]

No.

[Donut Operator]

See you guys on the after show. Love you.

[Braxton McCoy]

Love you guys. You.